Writer’s Group: Meetings at Robertson Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Writing a book? Need deadlines and feedback? Then this is the group for you.
Please bring 5 – 10 double-spaced typed pages. Everyone will have a chance to read and receive constructive feedback.
The meeting room is on the first floor of the Robertson Branch Library, towards the rear of the lobby.
RSVP: First come, first served. No registration required.
Where: Robertson Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 11 am
Address: 1719 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/writers-group
Indie Author Night: Carolina Rivera Escamilla, Eric J. Guignard, Willa C. Richards & Cody Sisco at Altadena Main Library – In-Person Event
Meet local authors and hear readings of their best and newest works. Book sales will take place on-site.
Carolina Rivera Escamilla is an educator, bilingual writer, theater actor, and documentarian who lives in Los Angeles. A Fellow of Pen America Emerging Voices, her first book of short stories, entitled “…after…” was published in 2015 (World Stage Press). Born in El Salvador, Rivera Escamilla is currently writing a novel. Her recently released first book of poetry entitled, In a Corner of Your Country, was published by Bellucci, Palms & Carmichael Publishing, LLC. in March 2023. http://www.carolinariveraescamilla.com • IG @carolinariveraes
Eric J. Guignard is a writer and anthologist of dark and speculative fiction, operating from the shadowy outskirts of Los Angeles. He’s twice won the Bram Stoker Award, won the Shirley Jackson Award, and been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award and International Thriller Writers Award. His latest books are his novella Last Case at a Baggage Auction (Harper Day), novel Doorways to the Deadeye (JournalStone), and short story collection That Which Grows Wild (Cemetery Dance). http://www.ericjguignard.com • Twitter: @ericjguignard IG @eric_j._guignard
Willa C. Richards is the author of the novel The Comfort of Monsters. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop where she was a Truman Capote Fellow. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of a 2019 PEN/Robert J. Dau Prize for Emerging Writers.
http://www.willacrichards.com • IG @willacatherr
Cody Sisco is an author, editor, publisher, and literary community organizer. His science fiction series includes two novels, Broken Mirror and Tortured Echoes. In 2017, he co-founded Made in L.A. Writers, an indie author co-op dedicated to the support of independent authors. His startup, BookSwell, is a literary events and media production company dedicated to lifting up marginalized voices. He serves as a Co-Executive on the Board of Governors for the Editorial Freelancers Association. http://www.codysisco.com • IG @codybriansisco Twitter @codysisco.
Where: Altadena Main Library, Community Room
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 600 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.altadenalibrary.org/programs/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D166945702
Quest Book Club & Swan Dive at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
The Quest Book Club enjoys journeys for the spirit through reading fiction and nonfiction, and the July selection for discussion by participants is Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina, by author Georgina Pazcoguin.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/CucTwVwsQi4/
Kate Myers, with Sheila Yasmin Marikar, & Excavations: A Novel at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Kate Myers, in conversation with Sheila Yasmin Marikar, will discuss her novel, Excavations.
Over a summer in sun-drenched Greece, four incompatible women digging into the past may just find the answers to their futures.
On a remote archeological site in Greece, the mythic home of the first Olympics, four women discover an unusual artifact. It’s a piece of history that should not exist. And for the head archaeologist in charge, a relic himself, it means something’s gone horribly wrong.
To figure out what they’re really digging for, and to topple the man who wants to hide their history, these dirt-crusted colleagues must become what they’ve avoided for years: friends. If they put their own messes aside for one summer, they might just make the discovery of a lifetime.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 24th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/kate-myers
Age of Zainabu: Virtual Open Mic & Poetry Reading by Jaha Zainabuvia Mama’s Kitchen Press – Online Zoom Event
Age of Zainabu featuring Jaha Zainabu, is an Open Mic and poetry reading by Jaaha Zainabu celebrating the one-year anniversary of the launch of her book of poetry, I’m Writing to Tell You.
Zoom Details:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84782430310
Meeting ID: 847 8243 0310
Passcode: 724
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Mama’s Kitchen Press
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/801876258234274 or https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=742710081193387&set=a.517641523700245
Poetry Night Monday Open Mic & Featured Guests at The Platform, DTLA – In-Person Event
Join the Poetry Night Open Mic (Before the Comedy Open Mic) with Featured Guests, offered every Monday of the month at The Platform in DTLA.
Must RSVP on Instagram @ thekaliclub213.
Hosted by Lida Parent.
Featured poets TBA.
NOTE: RSVP required.
Where: The Platform, DTLA
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1056 Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90015
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10159766485254891&set=a.263642949890
At Skylight: Alejandra Oliva & Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and MIgration at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Alejandra Olivia will discuss her book, Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration.
In this powerful and deeply felt memoir, Alejandra Oliva, a Mexican American translator and immigrant justice activist, offers a powerful chronical of her experience interpreting at the US-Mexico border.
Having worked with asylum seekers since 2016, she knows all too well the gravity of taking someone’s trauma and delivering it to the warped demands of the U.S. immigration system. As Oliva’s stunning prose recounts the stories of the people she’s met through her work, she also traces her family’s long and fluid relationship to the border—each generation born on opposite sides of the Rio Grande.
In Rivermouth, Oliva focuses on the physical spaces that make up different phases of immigration, looking at how language and opportunity move through each of them: from the river as the waterway that separates the U.S. and Mexico, to the table as the place over which Oliva prepares asylum seekers for their Credible Fear Interviews, and finally, to the wall as the behemoth imposition that runs along America’s southernmost border.
Alejandra Oliva is an essayist, translator, immigrant justice advocate, and embroiderer. She is a recipient of the 2022 Creative Nonfiction Whiting Grant. Her writing has been included in Best American Travel Writing 2020, was nominated for a Pushcart prize, and was honored with an Aspen Summer Words Emerging Writers Fellowship. She was the Frankie Fellow at the Yale Whitney Humanities Center in 2022. Read more at olivalejandra.com.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-simon-hanselmann-presents-werewolf-jones-sons
Monday Night Fiction Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Zoom Online Event
This free Monday Night Fiction Workshop led by Raquel Baker is a community writing workshop in which participants are asked to bring copies of 2-3 pages of fiction to read, and to use for critique and discussion. Registration is required.
Raquel Baker earned a PhD in English Literary Studies from the University of Iowa and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Postcolonial and Transnational Literatures at California State University Channel Islands, teaching courses on creative writing and contemporary African literatures. Raquel has published poetry in Africology and The Arrow; fiction in Enculturation, The Daily Palette, The Womanist, and Crux; and non-fiction in Little Village; and has done readings with the Ventura County Poetry project. Raquel lives for talking about all things about the craft and social meanings of literature!
Where: Beyond Baroque – Online event
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-680172573477
Rise and Shine: A Morning Generative Writing Workshop with Nancy Lynee Woo and Shelley Holder – Online Event
Join this series of Tuesday morning sessions of writing poetry and sharing in a supportive setting. Seasoned writers and beginners are all welcome.
Sessions are offered by donation, to increase access to the arts. Please pay what you are able. Suggested: $5-25 per session.
These workshops meet every Tuesday for 8 weeks. You are welcome to come to one or to all of them. Facilitators are Nancy Woo and Shelly Holder. They will switch off teaching each week, so you may benefit from two different workshop leaders! (You will need to sign up for each session individually.)
Six dates remain:
July 25 – Shelly
August 1 – Nancy
August 8 – Shelly
August 15 – Nancy
August 22 – Shelly
August 29 – Nancy
About the Facilitators:
Nancy Lynée Woo is a poet, writer, organizer, and climate activist who harbors a wild love for the natural world. Her debut poetry collection is I’d Rather Be Lightening (GASHER Press, March 2023). Nancy has received fellowships from Artists at Work, PEN America, Arts Council for Long Beach, and Idyllwild Writers Week. Her work has been published in The Shore, Tupelo Quarterly, Stirring, Radar Poetry, and other journals and anthologies. Nancy has an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University and a BA in sociology from UC Santa Cruz. Find her cavorting around Long Beach (Tongva land) in California, and online at nancylyneewoo.com or @fancifulnance on social.
Shelly Holder is a poet, book club and workshop facilitator who is working on founding a library of literary magazines. She is a Women Who Submit chapter lead for the San Gabriel Valley. Her poetry can be found (in various formats) at Iron Horse Literary Review, One Art, and Gyroscope Review, among others, as well as on YouTube. You can follow up by visiting http://www.shellyholder.com or her Facebook profile /shellyholderpoet. Shelly lives in what she calls an “outer-outer-outer” suburb of Los Angeles, where she struggles to get an orange tree to fruit.
Where: Rise and Shine Workshops
Date: Tuesday the 25th (through August 29th)
Time: 8 am – 9:30 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://allevents.in/online/rise-and-shine-a-morning-generative-poetry-class/10000651332241267
CalArts Creates @ the Library: Creative Writing at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen Event
Sign up for a free 8-session, 4-week course. Participants will conceptualize and produce individual creative writing projects that will include fiction writing, poetry, zine-making, spoken word performance, and more!
Eligible participants should reside in Los Angeles County and be current high school students. All class meetings will take place at Teen’Scape. All materials will be provided. Class dates are 7/11/23 – 8/3/23.
RSVP at site link.
Check to see if space is still available.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Teen Scape
Date: Tuesday the 25th (and Thursday the 27th): Week 3 of 4-week class
Time: 10 am – 12 pm
Address: 630 W, 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/calarts-creates-library-creative-writing-0
El Puente Reading & Conversation Event: Beat Poets via El Martillo Press – Online FB Event
Join El Martillo Press’s inaugural event El Puente, hosted by Matt Sedillo, and featuring international Beat poets Rich Ferguson and Gabor G. Gyukics reading and in conversation about their work.
Rich Ferguson has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Wanda Coleman, Moby and other esteemed poets and musicians. He has been selected by the National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc. to serve as Poet Laureate of the State of California Beat Poet Laureates for 2020-2022.
Gabor G. Gyukics is a Budapest-born poet, translator, and Hungarian Beat Poet Laureate. He is the author of eleven books of poetry in five languages, one book of prose, and sixteen books of translation, selected poetry and anthologies.
Where: El Martillo Press FB Page
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 12 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: N/A
Creative Writing with Author Michal Babaky at Encino-Tarzana Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Michal Babay will tell you about different types of creative writing, including novels, songs, journals/diaries, biography, and writing about books you have already read.
Where: Encino-Tarzana Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 24th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 18231 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana, CA 91356
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/creative-writing-author-michal-babaky
Venice Library Book Club: The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek at Venice Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Participants meet on the last Tuesday of the month for a lively discussion of fiction and non-fiction which will alternate each month. Copies of each month’s selection will be available behind the Circulation Desk. New members are always welcome.
July’s selection is The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, by author Kim MIchelle Richardson, a fictionalized version of real events which took place in Kentucky to get books transported to citizens in rural areas by librarian outreach.
RSVP:
Email venice@lapl.org for Zoom link.
Where: Venice Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/venice-book-club-1
Vroman’s ED: Summer Journaling Workshop at Vroman’s in the Atrium – In-Person Event
Isla Martinez offers an evening of journaling, reflection, and connection. Journaling and creative writing allows us to awaken and transform our inner artist, gifts and creativity.
You don’t have to be a writer to attend this workshop; this workshop welcomes anyone in search of creativity and connection.
With the purchase of your ticket, you’ll receive a complimentary journal and a few sweet surprises!
Isla Martinez is the Creator of Soul Sesiones and Podcast Host of Renew Your Soul. Her love for journaling and writing inspired her to start writing her very own book, to be published later this year. She loves spending time in nature, learning new mindfulness practices, and being of service. Isla considers herself a student of life, always eager to learn, grow, and connect with beautiful souls.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s Meeting Room – in the Atrium
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 709 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Summer-Journaling-Workshop-for-Connection-and-Renewal
Writer’s Workshop: Letter Heads with Caribbean Fragoza at Buena Vista Branch Library, Burbank Public Library – In-Person Event (SOLD OUT)
Led by professional writers, our monthly, 90-minute workshops provide unique opportunities for you to develop your craft and make connections with other local creatives. Everyone is welcome—no experience necessary.
This month, 2023 Whiting Award Winner in Fiction, Carribean Fragoza, will introduce us to “Chancla Cartography,” a pedestrian approach to writing that finds subject material in daily environments and interactions. Through a series of exercises, we’ll draw upon personal and collective narratives embedded in familiar landscapes, such as our neighborhoods and homes, and have opportunities to share and discuss what we’ve created. Come write with us!
Registration is required. Join the Wait List for this event available at site.
About Carribean Fragoza:
Carribean Fragoza is a writer and artist from South El Monte. Her collection of stories Eat the Mouth That Feeds You was published in 2021 by City Lights and was a finalist for a 2022 PEN Award. Her co-edited compilation of essays, East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte was published by Rutgers University Press and her collection of essays Writing Home: New Terrains of California is forthcoming with Angel City Press. She has published in Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Times, Zyzzyva, Alta, BOMB, the Los Angeles Review of Books, ArtNews, and Aperture Magazine. She is the Prose Editor at Huizache Magazine, the Creative Nonfiction and Poetry Editor at Boom California, and the founder and co-director of South El Monte Arts Posse, an interdisciplinary arts collective. Fragoza won a Whiting Award for Fiction in March.
Where: Buena Vista Branch Library, Burbank Public Library
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 300 N. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91505
Website: https://burbank.libnet.info/event/8537245
Mystery Book Club: The Scholar at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants meet on the 4th Tuesday of the month for a lively discussion of a mystery selection. New members are always welcome.
July’s selection is The Scholar: a Novel, by author Daria McTiernan, a mystery set in the fiercely competitive, cutthroat world of research and academia, where the brightest minds will stop at nothing to succeed.
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-18
Miles Taylor & Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Miles Taylor, in conversation with Doug Atchison, will discuss his book, Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump.
Taylor uses untold stories to shed light on the ex-President’s unfulfilled plans, the dark forces haunting our civic lives, and how we can thwart the rise of extremism in the United States. Blowback is also a surprisingly emotional and self-critical portrait of a dissenter, whose own unmasking provides a vivid warning about what happens when we hide the truth from others and, most importantly, ourselves.
Miles Taylor is a national security expert who works in Washington, DC. Taylor previously served as chief of staff at the US Department of Homeland Security, where he published an “Anonymous” essay in The New York Times, blowing the whistle on presidential misconduct. He’s worked as an advisor in the George W. Bush administration, on Capitol Hill, as a CNN contributor, and is the cofounder of a DC-based charter school and multiple democracy-reform groups. Miles is the cofounder of the Renew America Movement, a bipartisan group committed to restoring a common-sense coalition in American politics. Taylor received his MPhil in international relations from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar and BA from Indiana University as a Harry S. Truman scholar.
Doug Atchison is an award-winning filmmaker who wrote and directed the critically and commercially successful motion-picture, Akeelah and the Bee, for which he was awarded the NAACP Image Award for Best Screenplay as well as a Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Doug won the Humanitas Prize for writing the screenplay for Brian Banks, a feature film about a wrongly incarcerated American football player. Doug is currently attached to direct his own adaptation of the best-selling young adult novel, Ghost Boys, for Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., #33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Miles-Taylor-Author-Doug-Atchison-signing
Book Soup Live: Jeffrey Marsh & Take Your Own Advice: Learn to Trust Your Inner Voice and Start Helping Yourself via Crowdcast & Book Soup – Online Event
LGBTQ+ activist and advocate Jeffrey Marsh,will discuss their new book, Take Your Own Advice: Learn to Trust Your Inner Voice and Start Helping Yourself.
Growing up genderfluid in an unaccepting family, Marsh did everything they could to meet the needs of others and not have needs of their own. And ultimately, this meant Marsh put themself in the backseat of their own life. In this heartfelt and sincere book, Marsh shares their story and the lessons they learned on the path back to themselves. Whether you’re a survivor of abuse and trauma like Marsh or you’ve passively accepted that your worth ought to be defined by your usefulness to others, Take Your Own Advice will give you the confidence to lead your life on your terms, and to prioritize what’s important: you. It’s time that you learn to put yourself first, to take care of yourself, and to ask others to listen to you for a change. You do give the best advice, after all! (Tarcherperigee)
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/jeffrey-marsh
Sonali Kolhatkar, with Dylan Rodriguez, & Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Sonali Kolhatkar, in conversation with Dylan Rodriguez, will discuss her book, Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice.
Rising Up offers a timely exploration of how truthful narratives by and about people of color can be used to advance social justice in the United States.
While people of color are fast becoming the majority population in the United States, the perspectives of white America still dominate the vast majority of the media created and consumed every day. Media makers of color, long shut out of the decision-making process, are rising up to advance a set of different narratives, offering stories and perspectives to counter the racism and disinformation that have long dominated America’s political and cultural landscape.
In Rising Up, award-winning journalist Sonali Kolhatkar delivers a guide to racial justice narrative-setting. With a focus on shifting perspectives in news media, entertainment, and individual discourse, she highlights the writers, creators, educators, and influencers who are successfully building a culture of affirmation and inclusion.
Sonali Kolhatkar is the host and producer of Rising Up with Sonali, a weekly television and radio program that airs on Free Speech TV and on Pacifica Radio station affiliates around the United States. Winner of numerous awards, including Best TV Anchor and Best National Political Commentary from the LA Press Club, she is currently the Racial Justice editor at Yes! Magazine and a Writing Fellow with the Independent Media Institute. Co-author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence with Jim Ingalls, Kolhatkar is Co-Director of the Afghan Women’s Mission. She resides with her husband and two sons in Pasadena, California.
Dylan Rodríguez is a teacher, scholar, organizer and collaborator who has maintained a day job as a Professor at the University of California-Riverside since 2001. He is a faculty member in the recently created Department of Black Study as well as the Department of Media and Cultural Studies. He was elected to serve as President of the American Studies Association in 2020-2021, and in 2020 was named to the inaugural class of Freedom Scholars. Since 2021, he has served as Co-Director of the Center for Ideas and Society. Since the late-1990s, Dylan has participated as a founding member of organizations like Critical Resistance, Abolition Collective, Critical Ethnic Studies Association, Cops Off Campus, Scholars for Social Justice, and the UCR Department of Black Study, among others. He is the author of three books, most recently White Reconstruction: Domestic Warfare and the Logic of Racial Genocide (Fordham University Press, 2021), which won the 2022 Frantz Fanon Book Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Highland Park, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/events/725-sonali-kolhatkar-author-of-rising-up-with-dylan-rodriguez/
Mystery Book Group Discussion: The Maid via Santa Monica Public Library – Online Event
Mystery Book Group participants will discuss this month’s selection, The Maid, by author Nita Prose.
Email library@santamonica.gov for Zoom info.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, Zoom link, and details.
Where: Santa Monica Public Library
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://smpl.org/uploadedFiles/Calendar%20of%20Events%20-%20July%202023.pdf
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Catherine Daly – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Catherine Daly.
Catherine Daly is a newly-minted Member of Brooklyn Community Board 11. In Los Angeles, she organized readings for UCLA Hammer Museum, PEN West Fellows, as well as for local and national literary conferences. Author of eight books and myriad chapbooks published online and off, including at https://www.youtube.com/@cabdaly
Tune in with Zoom here: https://zoom.us/j/887913287
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html or https://www.facebook.com/events/820857619397721/
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show – In-Person Event
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show is offered every week at the Unurban Coffee House. Hosted by DeForest Wright, all are invited to attend.
NOTE: Details at event link.
Where: Unurban Coffee House
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 3301 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website:https://www.facebook.com/groups or https://www.facebook.com/events/213407634459999/?active_tab=discussion
Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic Night at Greenway Court – In-Person Event
The nation’s largest weekly Open Mic event is 25 years strong. They hold open mic nights. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in their audience.
Every Tuesday (except for 3rd Tuesdays which is Slam Night) we hold open mic nights. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in our audience.
TIME LIMIT: Each artist has 3 minutes at the mic, and if you go over, our DJ will scratch you. Please be respectful of the time limit as we try to accommodate as many people as possible.
$10 donation. Do NOT line up prior to 7:30 p.m. Free parking adjacent to theatre.
See sites for details.
Masks are encouraged. All ages are welcome.
Where: Greenway Court Theatre and YouTube Live Stream
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm
Address: 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChLUBSRPCFb/ or
https://www.dapoetrylounge.com/events/open-mic-night
Neverspeak Tuesdays Open Mic at DiPiazza’s – In-Person Event
The Neverspeak Tuesdays Open Mic at DiPiazza’s with Shy But Flyy, will feature guest poet TBA + an open mic.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: DiPiazza’s Pizza
Date: Tuesday the 25th
Time: 9 pm
Address: 5205 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-mic-w-shy-but-flyy-music-poetry-tickets-533965133087
Coffee Time Book Club: Covenant of Water at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Coffee Time Book Club reads new release fiction and meets the 3rd Wednesday of the month. Participants will discuss this month’s selection, Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese, and facilitated by Linda McLoughlin Figel.
Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Verghese, author of the bestseller Cutting for Stone, and is a saga spanning 1900 to 1977 in Kerala. This story reveals some of the contradictions of living in a colonized, segregated society. When a doctor and lonely son of an alcoholic mother flees Scotland for India, he discovers that after being oppressed in Glasgow, he is now the oppressor in India.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 10 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/coffee-time-book-club-19
Classics Book Club: The Sea-Wolf at Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Classics Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, The Sea-Wolf, by author Jack London.
The Sea-Wolf is a 1904 psychological adventure novel by American writer Jack London. The book’s protagonist, Humphrey van Weyden, is a literary critic who is a survivor of an ocean collision and who comes under the dominance of Wolf Larsen, the powerful and amoral sea captain who rescues him.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 1:30 pm – 3 pm
Address: 106 40 Petit St., Granada Hills, CA 91344
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/classics-book-club-sea-wolf
Tween Writing Workshopat Santa Monica Main Library – In-Person Kids Event
The Tween Writing Workshop is held in the Writopia Laband led by playwrights and published authors. Attendees participate in exercises designed to develop creative writing skills and receive feedback on their work from their peers and instructors. For ages 10-15.
Topic for July 26: Memoir
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Santa Monica Main Library, Children’s Activity Room
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 2:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://smpl.org/uploadedFiles/Calendar%20of%20Events%20-%20July%202023.pdf
Write Your Novel Event at Platt Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Platt Branch Library invites you to write your novel at their library.
Is writing one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2023? Is completing a book on your bucket list? Whether you shouted an emphatic yes or mumbled a hushed maybe to either of those questions, our new novel writing support group is for you. This new group will be a place to learn, practice, and receive support from other writers. We will use LinkedIn Learning courses available on lapl.org to guide us through the novel writing process one step at a time. With weekly goals and the encouragement of your peers, you can spend the year working your way toward a completed novel.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Platt Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 23600 Victory Blvd., Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/write-your-novel
Good Trouble Reading Group: Vietnamese Poetry Redux at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Participants in the Good Trouble Reading Group, led by Dr. Andrea Liss online, will read and discuss a Selection of Vietnamese Poetry form anthologies available at LAPL.
Special guest speaker William Short, who is a combat veteran, educator, and photographer, will discuss the GI resistance movement against the Vietnam War and his book A Matter of Conscience.
RSVP:
Email us at eden@lapl.org for the Zoom link to attend, and a link to read the poetry selection online.
The Good Trouble Reading Group shares books that engage themes of social justice with love and family at their core. Dr. Andrea Liss, an Echo Park resident, is Professor Emerita of Visual Culture and Cultural Theory at California State University San Marcos. Her teaching and research focus on feminist visual culture and writing, visual art and photography related to historical events and representations of social justice particularly through the work of African American women.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 14345 Roscoe Blvd., Panorama City, CA 91402
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/good-trouble-reading-group-vietnamese-poetry-redux
Your Author Series: Sarah Kuhn & Girl Taking Over at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen Event
Middle Grade Book Club participants will discuss Girl Taking Over: A Lois Lane Story, by Sarah Kuhn.
Girl Taking Over is about how ambitious small-town girl Lois Lane tackles a summer in the big city with gusto, but a cavalcade of setbacks—including an annoying frenemy roommate, a beyond tedious internship at a suddenly corporatized website, and a boss who demotes her to coffee-fetching minion—threatens to derail her extremely detailed life plan. And, you know, her entire future.
Sarah Kuhn is the author of the popular Heroine Complex novels—a series starring Asian American superheroines. Her YA debut, the beloved Japan-set romantic comedy I Love You So Mochi, is a Junior Library Guild selection and a nominee for YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults.
Those attending the program will have an opportunity to win a free copy of the book.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-sarah-kuhn
Mystery Book Discussion & The Verifiers via Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – Online Zoom Event
Join participants online to discuss this month’s book club selection, The Verifiers, by Jane Pek.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-discussion
Quest Book Club: Swan Dive at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
Quest Book Club reads literary fiction & Nonfiction that offers journeys for the spirit and meets the last Wednesday of the month. Participants will discuss this month’s selection, Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina, by Georgina Pazcoguin.
Award-winning New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin, aka the Rogue Ballerina, gives readers a backstage tour of the real world of elite ballet―the gritty, hilarious, sometimes shocking truth you don’t see from the orchestra circle.
Where: The Book Jewel, Westchester
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/CucTwVwsQi4/
Mystery Book Discussion & Murder by the Book via Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join Mystery Book Club participants on every last Wednesday of the month, and this month participants will discuss the July selection, Murder by the Book, by Lauren Elliott.
This book is the first in a series about a sleuthing librarian who plays detective in Boston.
RSVP:
Please email studio@lapl.org for details.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-thriller-book-club
Doug McIntyre & Frank’s Shadow at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Journalist, writer, and producer Doug McIntyre will present and discuss his first novel, Frank’s Shadow.
We leave shadows, not footprints.
Newlywed Danny McKenna’s honeymoon ends abruptly when he learns his father has died, uncannily, on the same day as his hero, Frank Sinatra. Returning home to his knotty Irish American family, Danny is confronted with a painful truth—while he knows everything about the famous singer, his own father is a mystery. Tasked with giving a eulogy for a man he hardly knows, Danny sets out to uncover his dad’s past—an immigrant’s tale of mid-twentieth-century America and the harsh realities of WWII lived in stark contrast to Frank Sinatra’s famously extravagant life.
Fame, family, and forgiveness are among the many themes in Doug McIntyre’s debut novel, a story full of vibrant scenery, gripping characters, humor, and profound moments of self-realization. Frank’s Shadow is a deeply (sometimes darkly) human story wrapped in the trappings of a delightfully gritty love letter to New York City’s less glamorous neighborhoods.
Douglas John McIntyre is the former host of McIntyre In The Morning on KABC 790 Los Angeles. He retired after 22 years in broadcasting on December 14, 2018. McIntyre is a long-time columnist for the Southern California News Group which includes the Los Angeles Daily News.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Susan Hayden, with Cassandra Lane, & Now You Are a Missing Person at Barnes & Nobel, The Grove – In-Person Event
Susan Hayden, in conversation with Cassandra Lane, will discuss her debut memoir, Now You Are a Missing Person: A Memoir in Poems, Stories, & Fragments.
Susan Hayden is the curator and host of the reading series, Library Girl at the Ruskin Theatre in Santa Monica. This book is her debut memoir, from Moon Tide Press, and it tackles issues of grief, family history, and resilience.
Cassandra Lane is the editor of LA Parent Magazine and the author of the memoir We Are Bridges.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Barnes & Noble, The Grove
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 189 The Grove Dr., Suite K-30, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062158301-0
Mystery Book Group & Under Lock & Skeleton Key at Once Upon a Time – In-Person Event
Mystery Book Group participants will discuss Under Lock & Skeleton Key: A Secret Staircase Mystery #1 by author Gigi Pandian.
Under Lock & Skeleton Key layers stunning architecture with mouthwatering food in an ode to classic locked-room mysteries.
This Mystery Book Group is held at America’s Oldest Children’s Bookstore!
Participants will be meeting to discuss the book outside of the shop in the circle in front of Star Cafe. You may still email your thoughts to share with the club if you are unable to attend in-person.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/mystery-book-group-under-lock-skeleton-key-gigi-pandian
At Skylight: Adrienne Brodeur, with Meghan Daum, & Little Monsters at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Adrienne Brodeur, in conversation with Meghan Daum, will present and discuss her new novel, Little Monsters.
Set in the fraught summer of 2016, and drawing on the biblical tale of Cain and Abel, Little Monsters is an absorbing, sharply observed family story by a writer who knows Cape Cod inside and out—its Edenic lushness and its snakes.
Adrienne Brodeur is the author of the memoir Wild Game, which was selected as a Best Book of the Year by NPR and The Washington Post and is in development as a Netflix film. She founded the literary magazine Zoetrope: All-Story with Francis Ford Coppola, and currently serves as executive director of Aspen Words, a literary nonprofit and program of the Aspen Institute. She splits her time between Cambridge and Cape Cod, where she lives with her husband and children.
Meghan Daum is the author of six books, including The Problem With Everything and The Unspeakable. She has been a Los Angeles Times columnist and has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times magazine, among other publications. She is now a podcaster, teacher, and the founder of The Unspeakeasy, an intellectual community devoted to open dialogue and freedom of thought.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-adrienne-brodeur-presents-little-monsters-w-meghan-daum
Anansi Virtual Writers Workshop at The World Stage – In-Person Event
The Anansi Writers Workshop was founded in 1990 by Kamau Daáood, Akilah Oliver, Nafis Nabawi and Anthony Lyons. In 1993, Michael Datcher initiated the development of a three-part format for the workshop. Our tradition of a community workshop began in the late 1960s at the Watts Writers’ Workshop, where World Stage co-founder Kamau Daáood started his writing career. For general information and booking, contact V. Kali, the Anansi Writers Workshop Coordinator, at vkaliflowers@gmail.com.
- 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm — Formal workshop;
- 8:30 pm – 9:00 pm — Reading: William Hawkins;
- 9:05 pm – 10:00 pm — Open mic.
Suggested: $5.00 Donation via PayPal: The World Stage Gallery.
NOTE: See site for further details, and any change in the schedule. Contact kaliflowers@gmail.com or call (323) 293-2451
Where: The World Stage
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.instagram.com/anansiwritersworkshop/
Jack Skelley & The Complete Fear of Kathy Acker at Poetic Research Bureau – In-Person Event
The Complete Fear of Kathy Acker with Jack Skelley is A Semiotext(e) book launch w readers, visuals and music.
Jack Skelley performing from The Complete Fear of Kathy Acker with videoz by Lydia Sviatoslavsky & soundz by Stephen Spera.
Special guest readingz by Amy Gerstler, John Tottenham, Benjamin Weissman & Jackie Wang.
MC Lily Lady
Amy Gerstler has published 13 books of poems, a children’s book and several collaborative artists books with visual artists. Index of Women, her most recent book of poems, was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
Lily Lady is an artist and criminal from New York City. Lily’s full length collection quickie was published in 2022 and their chapbook BREAD, in 2023.
John Tottenham, a purveyor of magnanimous misanthropy and magical cynicism, is the author of one novel, numerous essays, and three volumes of verse: The Inertia Variations, Antiepithalamia & Other Poems of Regret and Resentment, The Hate Poems. A new collection, Fresh Failure, will be published by Hat & Beard Press this autumn.
Jackie Wang is a poet and Assistant Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. She is the author of Carceral Capitalism (Semiotext(e), 2018), the poetry collection The Sunflower Cast A Spell To Save Us From The Void (Nightboat Books, 2021, National Book Award Finalist), and the forthcoming experimental essay collection Alien Daughters Walk Into the Sun (Semiotext(e), 2023).
Benjamin Weissman is the author of two books of short fiction, most recently Headless. His writing on books, art, and skiing have appeared in McSweeney’s, The Believer and Powder. A recent exhibition of paintings and sculptures occurred at The Pit. He’s working on a new book of stories and a novel. He teaches at UCLA & Otis College of Art.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.poeticresearch.com/events/the-complete-fear-of-kathy-acker
Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Online Zoom Event
Join Beyond Baroque’s longest-running free poetry workshop via Zoom online as we welcome new and seasoned poets to share their work and provide feedback. Please be prepared to share one poem. This workshop will be hosted via the Zoom video-conferencing platform. Please sign up for each workshop session at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting, and you will be contacted with instructions on how to join the meeting.
The workshop facilitator is James Cushing, who retired in 2020 after thirty-five years teaching literature and creative writing in San Luis Obispo, CA, where he served as the community’s poet laureate in 2008-2010. Cushing’s poems have appeared widely and his collections include The Length of an Afternoon, Undercurrent Blues, Pinocchio’s Revolution, The Magicians’ Union, Solace, and Tangled Hologram, all from Cahuenga Press in Los Ángeles.
Please spend some time before the workshop learning how to share documents via Zoom. It will keep the session moving if you’re able to make your poem viewable quickly and easily. Here’s an instructive video that might help.
The workshop can sometimes reach high levels of attendance, which means not everyone will get a chance to read every session.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday-night-poetry-workshop-tickets-681685017237
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg & Feature TBA at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event (CHECK TO VERIFY)
Join host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Night for our Reading & Open Mic, with featured guest TBA.
The format is to welcome a featured artist for an individual reading, as well as an Open Mic reading.
$4 cover fee, cash only.
NOTE: See site for further details and to verify.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday the 26th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/people/Two-Idiots-Peddling-Poetry/
CalArts Creates @ the Library: Creative Writing at Central Library, LAPL– In-Person Teen Event
Sign up for a free 8-session, 4-week course. Participants will conceptualize and produce individual creative writing projects that will include fiction writing, poetry, zine-making, spoken word performance, and more!
Eligible participants should reside in Los Angeles County and be current high school students. All class meetings will take place at Teen’Scape. All materials will be provided. Class dates are 7/11/23 – 8/3/23.
Register at https://tinyurl.com/LAPLSummer2023
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 10 am – 12 pm
Address: 630 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/calarts-creates-library-creative-writing
Author Luncheon Event: Tess Gunty & The Rabbit Hutch with pages: a bookstore at Tin Roof Bistro – In-Person Event
Tess Gunty will discuss her newly released novel in paperback, The Rabbit Hutch, at a luncheon event at Tin Roof Bistro.
The Rabbit Hutch is a stunning debut novel about four teenagers—recently aged out of the state foster-care system—living together in an apartment building in the post-industrial Midwest, exploring the quest for transcendence and the desire for love.
Ticket includes a delicious three-course lunch, a signed copy of The Rabbit Hutch and an afternoon of stimulating and lively discussion.
Where: pages: a bookstore at Tin Roof Bistro
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 11:30 am
Address: 3500 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/luncheon-rabbit-hutch-author-tess-gunty
CalArts Creates @ the Library: Zines at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen Event
The Los Angeles Public Library is proud to present a free four-week zine making course for teens. Some of the topics that will be covered in this workshop are image creation, creative writing, comics, world-building, narrative structure, printing and copying techniques, zine binding techniques, and more.
Eligible participants should reside in Los Angeles County and be current high school students. All class meetings will take place at Teen’Scape. All materials will be provided. Class dates are 7/11/23 – 8/3/23.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Teen Scape
Date: Thursday the 27th (week 3 of 4)
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Where: 630 W. 5ht St, Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/calarts-creates-library-zines
Your Author Series: Ashlyn Anstee & Shelby & Watts at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
L.A.-based author and illustrator Ashlyn Anstee will discuss her graphic novel for young readers, Shelley & Watts: Tidepool Troubles.
Shelby loves a good mystery. And her best friend, Watts, is never without his encyclopedia. When Shelby gets a letter from Fred the hermit crab claiming that all the shells are missing from the beach, she and Watts are just the duo to help him. With Shelby’s deductive skills and Watts’s scientific knowledge, there’s no case the two of them can’t solve–one environmental mystery at a time!
Those attending the program will have an opportunity to win a free book.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 3 pm
Where: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-ashlyn-anstee-0
Your Author Series: Noor Sofi & Brown Is Beatiful at Exposition Park Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Local illustrator Noor Sofi will discuss her children’s book Brown Is Beautiful, an empowering picture book written by Supriya Kelkar and illustrated by Noor.
The story follows a young Indian American girl on a hike with her grandparents, where she notices all the natural things that are also brown. The girl collects these beautiful brown items as souvenirs for a scrapbook she plans to give to her new baby brother. Noor Sofi served as the visual developer and illustrator for the book. She has worked with a variety of professional clients in both the animation and publishing industries.
Those attending the program will have an opportunity to win a free book.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Exposition Park Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 3 pm
Where: 3900 Western Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90062
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-noor-sofi
We Love L.A. Book Club: Mildred Pierce at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
This summer book club will examine some of the many talented Los Angeles-based authors who have incorporated the diversity and unique history of our city into their work.
The selection for July is Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain, a psychological drama set in the 1930s. Mildred Pierce had gorgeous legs, a way with a skillet, and a bone-deep core of toughness. She used those attributes to survive a divorce and poverty and to claw her way out of the lower middle class. But Mildred also had two weaknesses: a yen for men and an unreasoning devotion to a monstrous daughter. Out of these elements James M. Cain created a novel of acute social observation and devastating emotional violence, with a heroine whose ambitions and suffering are never less than recognizable.
Physical and electronic copies of Mildred Pierce are available to check out with your library card.
Please bring book or author suggestions for future meetings.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 3 pm
Where: 5027 Caspar Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90041
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/we-love-la-book-club-0
Author Talk: Charles Fleming & Secret Stairs at Eagle Rock Branch Library, SMPL – In-Person Event
Veteran journalist and author Charles Fleming tells stories from his books Secret Stairs and Secret Walks, walking guides to the historic staircases and hidden trails of Los Angeles, and helps the Santa Monica Library launch its new “Walking in L.A.” RED (Read Engage Discover) Kit. A book sale and signing follows the program.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Santa Monica Main Library, SMPL, Multipurpose Room
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Where: 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Website: https://smpl.org/uploadedFiles/Calendar%20of%20Events%20-%20July%202023.pdf
Persian Poetry Forum of Los Angeles: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow at Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Persian Poetry Forum of Los Angeles for adults and teens meets online every last Thursday of the month, except holidays.
RSVP:
Registering for this event is highly encouraged: persian@lapl.org.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Mar Vista Branch Library
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-forum-los-angeles-persian
Cover to Cover Book Club: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow at Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Cover to Cover Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, Hamnet, by author Maggie O’Farrell.
Copies of each month’s selection will be available for check out at the Reference Desk. New members are always welcome!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Mid-Valley Regional Branch Library
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 16244 Nordhoff St., North Hills, CA 91343
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/cover-cover-book-club-0
Sally Stevens & I Sang That at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Sally Stevens will present and discus her new book, I Sang That, a personal journey behind the scenes into the world of music-makers who created the film scores, television music, sound recordings, commercials, and concert evenings over the last sixty years.
It’s about a long singing career that began in 1960 with concert tours – Ray Conniff, Nat King Cole, and later, solo work in concert with Burt Bacharach – to thirty years of vocals and main titles for The Simpsons, vocals for Family Guy, vocals on hundreds of film & television scores & sound recordings, plus twenty-two years as Choral Director for the Oscars. It’s also the personal story of growing up in a “his, hers and theirs” family in the forties and fifties, and how a shy little girl became a second-generation singer in the ever-evolving music business of Hollywood.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/sally-stevens
Group Poetry Reading: KD Harryman, with Vandana Khanna and Elizabeth Metzger, & Girls Book of Knots at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
KD Harryman, in conversation with Vandana Khanna and Elizabeth Metzger, will read and discuss her book of poetry,Girls’ Book of Knots.
Girls’ Book of Knots, is an instruction manual on how to survive the tightly knotted world of girlhood. Drawing from wisdom and warning, these poems thread together stories of childhood and motherhood with all of its charms, hurts, and triumphs. Set against the backdrop of rural Kentucky, where “hibiscus blooms, big as dinner plates” collide with pickup trucks and marshes thick with secrets, the girls who thrive are the ones who learn how to “make something,” of their worries, of their shame. The ones who know how to tie the truths of their lives together, so they can ultimately make a “foothold for climbing up, for climbing out,” of the quiet devastation of their past.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Highland Park, CA 90042
At Skylight: Shideh Etaat, with Holly Laine Fairall, & Rana Joon and the One and Only Now at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Shideh Etaat, in conversation with Holly Liane Fairall, will present and discuss her new book Rana Joon and the One and Only Now, a lyrical coming-of-age novel set in 1996 California, which follows a teen who wants to honor her deceased friend’s legacy by entering a rap contest.
Perfect Iranian girls are straight A students, always polite, and grow up to marry respectable Iranian boys. But it’s the San Fernando Valley in 1996, and Rana Joon is far from perfect—she smokes weed and loves Tupac, and she has a secret: she likes girls.
As if that weren’t enough, her best friend, Louie—the one who knew her secret and encouraged her to live in the moment—died almost a year ago, and she’s still having trouble processing her grief. To honor him, Rana enters the rap battle he dreamed of competing in, even though she’s terrified of public speaking.
Shideh Etaat is an Iranian American writer living in Los Angeles. She received her MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University. Her work has been published in Tremors: New Fiction by Iranian American Writers, Day One, Foglifter, Nowruz Journal, and My Shadow Is My Skin: Voices from the Iranian Diaspora. Shideh is also the author of Rana Joon and the One and Only Now. When she isn’t busy writing, you can find her helping her four-year-old son navigate life.
Holly Laine Fairall is the co-creator of the podcast Hearts & Daggers, where she and her co-host take genre fiction seriously and chat about the books that make their hearts race. Originally from Queens, New York, Holly is a lifelong reader with a Bachelor’s degree in English and American Literature from New York University. You can find her book reviews on Instagram and Goodreads @birdbrainbooks. When she’s not reading, Holly can be found working in brand marketing for an environmental nonprofit focused on bird conservation.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Series CollapsedReading: Gabi Abrão, Agnes Borinsky, Harry Dodge, and Ruth Madievsky at Stories Books & Café off-site at Night Gallery – In-Person Event
Presented by Night Gallery and the Los Angeles Review of Books present “BUT, BUT…BUTT,” a summer reading inspired by Series Collapsed, an exhibition of new work by artist MPA.
The event will feature readings by Gabi Abrão, Agnes Borinsky, Harry Dodge, and Ruth Madievsky. Books will be for sale through Stories Books.
Gabi Abrão is an artist, writer, and digital creator born and raised in West Los Angeles. She is also known under her internet username, sighswoon. Her life’s work is devoted to developing a language with the invisible.
Agnes Borinsky is a writer and artist who has collaborated on all sorts of projects in basements, backyards, gardens, circus tents, classrooms, bars, and theaters.Her play, Brief Chronicle, Books 6-8, is published by 3 Hole Press. Her first young adult novel, Sasha Masha, is a queer coming-of-age story, and came out this fall.
Harry Dodge is an American visual artist and writer whose interdisciplinary practice is characterized by its explorations of relation, materiality, and ecstatic contamination, was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2017. His first book, a work of literary non-fiction entitled My Meteorite, or Without the Random There Can Be No New Thing is forthcoming on Penguin Press (2020). Dodge’s sculpture, drawing and video work has been exhibited at many venues nationally and internationally, including solo shows: User, at Callicoon Fine Arts (NY, 2019); Works of Love at JOAN (LA, 2018), a show which also traveled to Tufts University Art Gallery (2019); Mysterious Fires at Grand Army Collective (Brookyn, 2017); The Inner Reality of Ultra-Intelligent Life, at Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena (2016); The Cybernetic Fold at Wallspace (NY, 2015); Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (CT, 2013).
Ruth Madievsky is the author of a novel, All-Night Pharmacy (Catapult, July 2023). An Indie Next Pick, All-Night Pharmacy has been named a Best/Most Anticipated 2023 Book by over 40 venues, including NPR, The Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Vulture, and Buzzfeed. Her debut poetry collection, Emergency Brake (Tavern Books, 2016), was the winner of the Wrolstad Contemporary Poetry Series.
Organized by Alina Cohen (Night Gallery) and Emily VanKoughnett (Los Angeles Review of Books).
Pizza and wine provided by Night Gallery.
NOTE: RSVP by Friday, July 21: rsvp@nightgallery.ca
Where: Stories Books & Café at Night Gallery
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 2276 E. 16th St., Los Angeles, CA 90021
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Vroman’s Fiction Reading Group: TransAtlantic: A Novel at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Vroman’s Fiction Reading Group participants will discuss July’s pick, TransAtlantic, by author Colum McCann.
TransAtlantic is set in three eras and locations:
Newfoundland, 1919. Two aviators—Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown—set course for Ireland as they attempt the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, placing their trust in a modified bomber to heal the wounds of the Great War.
Dublin, 1845 and ’46. On an international lecture tour in support of his subversive autobiography, Frederick Douglass finds the Irish people sympathetic to the abolitionist cause—despite the fact that, as famine ravages the countryside, the poor suffer from hardships that are astonishing even to an American slave.
New York, 1998. Leaving behind a young wife and newborn child, Senator George Mitchell departs for Belfast, where it has fallen to him, the son of an Irish-American father and a Lebanese mother, to shepherd Northern Ireland’s notoriously bitter and volatile peace talks to an uncertain conclusion.
These three iconic crossings are connected by a series of remarkable women whose personal stories are caught up in the swells of history.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s Meeting Room in the Atrium, next door, Suite 120.
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 709 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Bruce-Borgos-The-Bitter-Past
At Dynasty Typewriter: Lidia Kiesling, with Tommy Vietor, & Mobility with Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Lidia Kiesling in conversation with Tommy Vietor, will present and discuss her new book, Mobility, a propulsive novel about class, power, politics, and desire by the celebrated author of The Golden State.
The year is 1998, the End of History. The Soviet Union is dissolved, the Cold War is over, and Bunny Glenn is an American teenager in Azerbaijan with her Foreign Service family. Through Bunny’s eyes we watch global interests flock to the former Soviet Union during the rush for Caspian oil and pipeline access, hear rumbles of the expansion of the American security state and the buildup to the War on Terror. We follow Bunny from adolescence to middle age—from Azerbaijan to America—as the entwined idols of capitalism and ambition lead her to a career in the oil industry, and eventually back to the scene of her youth, where familiar figures reappear in an era of political and climate breakdown.
Lydia Kiesling is the author of The Golden State, a 2018 National Book Foundation “5 under 35” honoree, and a finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. Her second novel, Mobility, will be published by Crooked Media Reads in August 2023. Her essays and nonfiction have been published in outlets including The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker online, and The Cut.
Tommy Vietor is a cofounder of Crooked Media, cohost of Pod Save America, and the host of the foreign-policy focused Pod Save the World. In a past life, he worked for President Obama for nine years, including a stint as White House National Security Spokesman. Originally from outside Boston, Vietor now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Hanna and their dog Lucca. He tweets too much.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books at Dynasty Typewriter
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 2511 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
L.A. Book Launch: Kenneth Reveiz & MOPES at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person Event
Beyond Baroque presents a book launch for author Kenneth Reveiz’s MOPES: A Book of Poems in Three Acts.
Breaking new ground in queer and Latinx writing and decolonial design, Kenneth Reveiz’s debut poetry collection MOPES: A Book of Poems in Three Acts celebrates its national release.
Winner of the Fence Modern Poets Series Prize, MOPES is a provocative, political, and paradigm-shifting coming-of-age story about revolutionary disappointment. Following their performance, Reveiz will be joined in a cute, brief conversation with screenwriter Rubén Mendive, host of LA Lista, a Latinx Writers Podcast.
Light reception to follow; books will be available.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Thursday the 27th
Time: 8 pm – 11 pm
Address: 681 Venice Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-book-launch-mopes-by-kenneth-reveiz-tickets-671601206287
Spectacular Storytime at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Spectacular Storytime is a weekly time to have fun with books with enthusiastic troubadour, Maddi!
Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shonceuponatime.com/event/spectacular-story-time-42
NoHo Online Book Club: Interior Chinatown at North Hollywood Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
NoHo Online Book Club participants will read and discuss the Big Read novel Interior Chinatown, by author Charles Yu.
Interior Chinatown is a deeply personal story about race pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.
RSVP:
Email nohlwd@lapl.org to receive the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Hollywood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 10 am
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/noho-online-book-club
Grand Performances: Poetry Night – LA Stories Hosted by Mike the Poet at Grand Plaza DTLA – In-Person Event
Join Mike the Poet Sonksen for a special Grand Performances Friday night showcase of poetry & spoken word. Hear honest, humorous & raw takes on LA life and our mosaic of unique neighborhoods and subcultures.
Hosted by Mike The Poet with special guests:
Allan Aquino,
XochitL-Julisa Bermejo
Lee Boek
F. Douglas Brown
Rocio Carlos
Chiwan Choi chiwan
Cory Cofer
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez
Dez Hope
Traci Kato-Kiriyama
Dante Mitchell
Luivette Resto
Esther Tseng
Vickie Vertiz
Pam Ward
Nancy Lynee Woo
Schedule:
6:00pm – DJ
6:30pm – Welcome Announcements
7:00pm – LA Stories, hosted by Mike the Poet
9:00pm – Closing Remarks
Please RSVP at Eventbrite.
For Location, Parking & FAQ, check site.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Grand Plaza Performances
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 6 pm – 9 pm
Address: 350 South Grand Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://www.grandperformances.org/events/poetry-night-la-stories
Open Mic Event at Bookman Bookstore in Orange – In-Person Event
Bookman Book Store hosts an Open Mic event every 4th Friday of the month in Orange, CA.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Bookman Book Store
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 320 E. Katella, Suite M, Orange, CA 92867
Website: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057313695880
LGBTQ Open MicNightat Café con Libros, Pomona – In-Person Event
Liam and Charlie host a fun LGBTQ+ Open Mic every 4th Friday of the month at Café con Libros Press, Pomona.
Share a poem (serious, fun, or saucy) or enjoy a fun round of Best Story Wins!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Café con LIbros Press
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 280 W. 2nd St., Pomona, CA91766
Website: https://cafeconlibrospress.org/event-calendar/
Nervous Ghost Open MIcat Brewjeria Co. Pico Rivera – In-Person Event
Nervous Ghost Open Mic is held every 4th Friday of the month at Brewjeria Co.
Community Guest Emcee: D. Zanabria
Sign up today at ghosts@nervousghostspress,com
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Nervous Ghost Press
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 4937 Durfee Ave., Pico Rivera, CA
Website: https://www.instagram.com/nervousghostpress/?hl=en
Alison Fairbrother & The Catch: A Novel at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Alison Fairbrother will present and discuss her new book The Catch: A Novel.
Two years out of college, Ellie Adler has a job in journalism, an older lover, and a circle of smart friends. Her beloved father, James, who has children from three marriages, unites the family with his gentle humor and charisma, but Ellie has always believed she is her father’s favorite. When he suddenly dies, she finds herself devastated by the unexpected loss. Then, at the reading of his will, she learns that instead of leaving her his prized possession—a baseball that holds emotional resonance for them both—he has left her a seemingly ridiculous, even insulting gift. Worse, he’s given the baseball to someone no one in the family has ever heard of.
In her grief, Ellie wonders who could have possibly meant more to her father than she did. Setting out to track this person down, she learns startling information about who her father really was and who she herself is becoming.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 28th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/alison-fairbrother
Sounds of Summer Workshops: A DSTL Arts x LAPL Collaboration – Online Event
This new, 8-week series of writing workshops for novice writers and English Language Learners explore the origins of Language across multiple cultures and a variety of poetic tools for creative expression.
This date is the 3rd of eight workshops.
Attend one workshop or attend all eight; this series is free and will help you think of Summer in a whole new way.
*Note: this workshop series is offered via Zoom only, and occurs weekly from Saturday, July 8–Saturday, August 26th, at 10:30 AM–12 PM. Handouts will only be provided to workshop attendees.
DSTL Arts invites you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81185877271?pwd=dFRibWhicW1mYVlITFpTZkcyeDBwUT09
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: DSTL Arts & LAPL
Date: Saturday the 29th (until August 26th)
Time: 10:30 am – 12 pm
Address: 2011 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://www.dstlarts.org/calendar or https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81185877271?pwd=dFRibWhicW1mYVlITFpTZkcyeDBwUT09
Book Club for Middle Grade Readers: Borders at Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – Online MG Event
Book Club for Middle Grade Readers participants will discuss this month’s selection, Borders, by author Thomas King & Natasha Donovan.
Borders is a graphic novel about a family caught between nations.
Borders is a masterfully told story of a boy and his mother whose road trip is thwarted at the border when they identify their citizenship as Blackfoot. Refusing to identify as either American or Canadian first bars their entry into the US, and then their return into Canada. In the limbo between countries, they find power in their connection to their identity and to each other.
Borders explores nationhood from an Indigenous perspective and resonates deeply with themes of identity, justice, and belonging.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-middle-grade-readers-10
Poetry Workshop for Adults at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
This event is an inclusive, in-person poetry workshop for adults, where poets of all levels can come together, share their work, and foster a vibrant poetry community. Participants are invited to bring a poem, no longer than one page, to read and receive valuable feedback from fellow poets. Engage in thoughtful discussions and provide your own insights on the work of others. Whether you’re a seasoned poet or just starting out, this workshop offers a supportive environment to refine your craft, connect with like-minded individuals, and celebrate the power of words.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Literature & Fiction Study Rooms
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-0
Indie Bookstore Field Trips #15 (LA): Malik Books & Reparations Club via Bel Canto Books – In-Person Event
This event is an Indie Book Store Field Trip series, this date venturing to Malik Books and to Reparations Club on LA locations.
11am -3650 W Martin Luther King Jr Malik Books, Baldwin Hills (3650 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd Ste 245, Los Angeles, CA 90008)
12pm – Reparations Club (3054 S Victoria Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90016)
The Plan:
1) We’ll meet at 11am and browse for a bit, gathering at 11:45am for introductions and a group photo.
2) Then we’ll head to Reparations Club for more bookstore browsing and a group photo at 12:45pm.
3) For those interested, we’ll convene afterwards at a nearby coffee shop or restaurant for a quick lunch or snack (meal on own).
Your Field Trip Leader:
Jhoanna Belfer is a lifelong book nerd, travel addict, and owner/founder of Bel Canto Books in Long Beach, California, which was featured in Bibliophile: Diverse Spines. Her favorite genres to read are literary fiction, sci-fi/fantasy, and graphic memoir. Two bookstores on her travel bucket list are Loyalty Bookstore in Washington, DC and Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Malik Books (2 locations):
650 W Martin Luther King Jr Bl. & Malik Books, Baldwin Hills, 3650 W Martin Luther King Jr Blvd Ste 245, Los Angeles, CA 90008; Reparations Club: 3054 S Victoria Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90016
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Addresses: See above
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/indie-bookstore-field-trips-15-la-tickets-667224144377
Briana Lynne & Dahlia Dusk and the Land of the Little Folk at Octavia’s Bookshelf – In-Person Kids Event
This children’s event features author Briana Lynne presenting her book, Dahlia Dusk and the Land of the Little Folk.
Books will be available for purchase and snacks and beverages will be provided!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Octavia’s Bookshelf
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 1361 North Hill Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104
Jon Klassen & The Skull at Children’s Book World – In-Person Kids Event
Jon Klassen will present his new children’s book The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale.
Caldecott Medalist and #1 New York Times best-selling author-illustrator Jon Klassen delivers a deliciously macabre treat for folktale fans. Jon Klassen’s signature wry humor takes a turn for the ghostly in this thrilling retelling of a traditional Tyrolean folktale. In a big, abandoned house, on a barren hill, lives a skull. A brave girl named Otilla has escaped from terrible danger and run away, and when she finds herself lost in the dark forest, the lonely house beckons. Her host, the skull, is afraid of something too, something that comes every night. Can brave Otilla save them both? Steeped in shadows and threaded with subtle with rich, monochromatic artwork and an illuminating author’s note. The Skull is as empowering as it is mysterious and foreboding.
Jon Klassen is the creator of the #1 New York Times best-selling I Want My Hat Back, which won a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor, and its companions: This Is Not My Hat, which won a Caldecott Medal and a Kate Greenaway Medal, and We Found a Hat, named a Publishers Weekly Best Children’s Book of the Year. He is also the author-illustrator of The Rock from the Sky and the illustrator of Extra Yarn, Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, Triangle, Square, and Circle, all by Mac Barnett; House Held Up by Trees by Ted Kooser; the Skunk and Badger series by Amy Timberlake; and the middle-grade Pax series by Sara Pennypacker. Originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Jon Klassen now lives in Los Angeles.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Children’s Book World
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 10580 ½ W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Your Author Series: Jon Klassen at Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Children’s author and illustrator Jon Klassen will present his new book, The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale.
In a big, abandoned house, on a barren hill, lives a skull. A brave girl named Otilla has escaped from terrible danger and run away, and when she finds herself lost in the dark forest, the lonely house beckons. Her host, the skull, is afraid of something too, something that comes every night. Can brave Otilla save them both? Steeped in shadows and threaded with subtle wit—with rich, monochromatic artwork and an illuminating author’s note—The Skull is as empowering as it is mysterious and foreboding.
Jon Klassen is a Canadian-born author/illustrator whose books have won a Caldecott medal and two Caldecott honors and other international awards.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Donald Bruce Kauffman – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-jon-klassen
Aquí estamos!: Women Writing LA, In Partnership with HINCHAS Press at Buena Vista Library, Burbank – In-Person Event
Burbank Public Library presents “Women Writing LA,” a panel discussion with Arminé Iknadossian, Linda Ravenswood, Lynne Thompson, Teresa Mei Chuc, Viva Padilla, and Luivette Resto.
Join us for an afternoon of readings and conversation with contributors to the HINCHAS Press anthology, X LA Poets.
Arminé Iknadossian, Linda Ravenswood, Teresa Mei Chuc, Viva Padilla, Luivette Resto, and Los Angeles Poet Laureate Lynne Thompson will discuss the writing life, the questions that run through it, and how LA’s varied landscapes and diverse communities have shaped their work.
Ravenswood, editor of the anthology, and Yago Cura, publisher of HINCHAS Press, will also answer questions about independent publishing, lack of BIPOC in the industry, and how to put together your own books.
NOTE: See site for detailed bios and more.
Where: Buena Vista Branch Library, Burbank PL
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 300 N. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91505
Website: https://burbank.libnet.info/event/8617474
The Secrets of an Effective Personal Storyat Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Have you always wanted to write your story but did not know where or how to start?
This workshop will give you the springboard you have been looking for. Connie Sommer, our neighbor and the author of works that have appeared in the New York Times, Vogue, and AARP, will share the secrets of effective personal storytelling and writing impactful personal essays. Just bring your stories! We have gathered everything you need to get started.
Reservations are warmly appreciated at mrvsta@lapl.org or at the reference desk, but not required.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 12006 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/secrets-effective-personal-story
Author Event: Margo Candela, with Toni Kirkpatrick, & The Neopolitan Sisters at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Fiction author Margo Candela, in conversation with Toni Kirkpatrick, will discuss her fifth novel, The Neopolitan Sisters, which is a Poderistas Poder Circle Book Club featured summer read.
Margo Candela was born and raised in Los Angeles and began her writing career when she joined Glendale Community College’s student newspaper. She transferred to San Francisco State University as a journalism major, and upon graduation began writing for websites and magazines before writing her first two novels, Underneath It All and Life Over Easy. She returned to Los Angeles to raise her son and wrote More Than This and Good-bye to All That. The Neapolitan Sisters is her fifth novel and her first after a decade-long hiatus from writing. She now lives in San Francisco.
Toni Kirkpatrick was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley. She is a Senior Acquisitions Editor at Crooked Lane Books/Alcove Press, where she acquires crime and book club fiction, and she serves on the board of Latinx in Publishing. Toni lives in the Hudson Valley of New York.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/27876
El Martillo Press Author Readings at Saturday Afternoon Poetry Off-site in Thelma’s Backyard – In-Person Event
A Poetry Reading by El Martillo Press poets + poets published in Spectrum 36: Poetic Tricks print edition.
Ceasar K Avelar is the second poet laureate of Pomona, CA. As a poet, Ceasar is dedicated to the working class. His poems speak the truth, not only to people in a position of power, but also to the everyday person that views the working class as a stigmatized identity. He is the author of God of the Air Hose and Other Blue-Collar Poems.
Margaret Alysia Garcia is the author of Graft, a collection of short stories published by Tolsun Books (2022), the poetry collection the daughterland published by El Martillo Press (2023), and the poetry memoir chapbook Burn Scars. Together with Dani Burlison, she’s the co-editor of the forthcoming anthology Red Flag Warning: Northern Californians Living with Fire to be published by HeyDay Books in 2024.
Donato Martinez teaches English Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Santa Ana College. He writes about his community, his culture, and family. He is the author of the poetry collection Touch the Sky.
David Romero is a Mexican American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA, and is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press). He is co-founder with Matt Sedillo of El Martillo Press. Romero has received honorariums from nearly a hundred colleges and universities in thirty-four different states in the USA and has performed live in Mexico, Italy, and France. Hiss work has been published in literary magazines in the United States, Mexico, England, Scotland, and Canada.
Matt Sedillo, born in El Sereno, California, writes from the vantage point of a second generation Chicano born in an era of diminishing opportunities and a crumbling economy. His writing is both a fearless, challenging and at times even confrontational blend of humor, history and political theory, as well as a reflection of those realities. He is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass and City on the Second Floor (FlowerSong Press) and is co-founder with David Romero of El Martillo Press.
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry in Thelma’s Backyard
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1438 Atchison St., Pasadena, CA
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Book Launch: Samara Breger, with Gabrielle Korn, & A Long Time Dead at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice presents Samara Breger, in conversation with Gabrielle Korn, to discuss her new book, A Long Time Dead.
There will be a book signing to follow. This event is free to attend and tickets are not required; RSVPs honored first until capacity. Any additional customers will be accommodated for the signing line following the conversation.
Can’t attend the event? Signed books are available for in-store pick-up and shipping.
About A Long Time Dead:
Samara Breger’s A Long Time Dead is a lush, Victorian romance, drenched in blood and drama, about the lengths two women will go to secure a love that cannot die.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 5 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Author Conversation: Samara Bay, with Rae McDaniel, & Permission to Speak at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Even
Samara Bay, in conversation with Rae McDaniel, will discuss her book, Permission to Speak, which is a revolution in how to think about your voice and everyone else’s (out now, and available in 15+ countries).
Samara Bay works behind the scenes with celebrities, entrepreneurs, politicians, and creatives, helping them show up in the moments that matter – with an emphasis on women and marginalized voices.
Rae McDaniel is a non-binary Therapist, Certified Sex Therapist, Coach, and Transgender Diversity and Inclusion educator. They are founder and CEO of Practical Audacity, a Gender & Sex Therapy practice in Chicago and an international speaker on gender freedom. Their debut book, GENDER MAGIC, is out now.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/27724
LAPS Presents: Mic Night Open Mic with Chance & Midnight at Midnight Bookstore – In-Person Event
Mic at Midnight presents a dynamic duo from across the country, spoken word and SLAM poets Chance & Midnight.
Share your own work with us. We welcome all genres at our mic! 5 mins a person. Plus, mini-Write Now! Creative Community workshop with Jessica M. Wilson.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Midnight Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 7201 Greenleaf Ave., Whittier, CA 90602
Website: https://www.instagram.com/losangelespoetsociety/ or https://www.facebook.com
Space Stories Variety-ish Show, hosted by Midge Lemaat The Pop Hop – In-Person Event
A new hybrid event that is both variety show and talk show, Space Stories at The Pop-Hop is hosted by writer and performer Midge Lema. It’s a fun and laid-back night where artists can share things they’ve been working on in a supportive space, and audience members can check out incredible new work in its early stages. (The work will not necessarily have anything to do with space, but space is cool so we’re calling it that.) The evening will include several special guest artists, who will delight us all with things like music, stand up, short stories, script readings, and who knows what else! The event will conclude with a Q&A with the artists. Artists must submit proposals for their work ahead of time. Not all performers who submit will be confirmed to perform, due to time and space limits. Audience members should RSVP as there is limited space. Come join and mingle with current space pals and new space pals alike!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: The Pop Hop
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 5002 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://www.thepophop.com/calendar/2023/7/29/space-stories-variety-ish-show-hosted-by-michelle-lema
Book Release: Kimiko White & Fever Memory at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Celebrate with author Kimiko White the release of her debut collection of poetry, Fever Memory.
Fever Memory is the embodiment of starting over. It represents internalized feelings of uncertainty, yet a new-found hope the size of a mustard seed. This debut collection of poetry captures the essence of becoming and undoing over and over again. It emphasizes the beauty of nature, tribulation, and change.
Kimiko White was born and raised in Long Beach, California. Kimiko’s existence tells the test of time. Living a very unconventional lifestyle, she takes pride in embracing the challenges that come with life and turns them into opportunities for success. Kimiko is deeply inspired by nature, traveling, family, love and studying. At 21, she had already been published in Writer’s Pocket Anthologies Silhouettes at Dusk and Fire and Ice. While being a full-time student at Tuskegee University, Kimiko wrote and pieced together the poetry collection Fever Memory.
Featuring:
Tommy Domino is a spoken blues poet from Northwest Pasadena now residing in Long Beach area. He started preforming at open mics starting with the Griot Café out of Long Beach in 2003. In 2012, he joined the Still Waters Writers Collective at Vibrations in Inglewood. There his work was first published in 2013 in the poetry anthology Sounds From the Waters. In 2015, his work was published in the anthology Poets and Allies for Resistance. The same year he performed at the 50th Anniversary of the Watts Writers Workshop “Passing the Magic”. In 2016, he was accepted to the Community Literature Initiative (4th module) Program at USC. In 2018, he performed at the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) Spoken Word Festival. In February 2018, he released his first collection of spoken blues: Switches, Hot Wheel Tracks & Extension Cords on World Stage Press. Later that year he a Panelist/Performer at the Pasadena LitFest. He became a member of the Never Speak Poets from Long Beach, who host monthly shows in the Arts District. In 2019, he became a member of the PAFF Spoken Word planning committee member. He is an author, play writ and photographer.
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Kuahmel is the author of the poetry collection Peace In The Pocket (World Stage Press, 2017) and the host of Under the Mic Influence open mic in Long Beach.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, costs, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://events.humanitix.com/fevermemory
L.A. Book Launch: Mahtem Shiferraw, with Andres Sanchez, Jessica Abughattas, and Atina Hartunian, & Nomenclatures of Invisibility at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Through a personal, historical, and political lens, Mahtem Shiferraw calls us to carve out space for the multitudes of selves we carry when we migrate across boundaries of body, language, and land. With momentum, giving name to everything in her path from the longing that comes with migration to her beloved eucalyptus tree, she blurs physical and temporal borders, paying homage to ancestors past, present, and future. Shiferraw writes unapologetically against erasure, against invisibility, instead creating a space that holds grief lovingly, that can tend to the wounds held and held in the endlessly-traveling body. Brilliant with abundance and texture, her poems dismantle the empire’s sterile use of language, both historical and present.
In Nomenclatures of Invisibility, Shiferraw builds a home within her poems, attentively naming those who exist within them out of invisibility and into the radiant light: “We walk/in unison too: our backs bending at once,/our arms breaking, our abdomens/kicked into silence, thighs bleeding. Through/this I ask; am I still lit? And they, again/…what else would you be—”
Join us in celebration for the launch of this riveting collection of poems! Shiferraw will be reading from her new book, joined by poet Jessica Abughattas and Anaphora fellows Andres Sanchez and Atina Hartunian. Book signing will follow the readings.
Enjoy a reception with light refreshments before and after the readings.
About the authors:
Mahtem Shiferraw is a writer and visual artist from Ethiopia and Eritrea. Her work has been published in various literary magazines, including Callaloo, Prairie Schooner, Poets.org, The 2River View, Luna Luna Magazine, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Numero Cinq, and more. Her short story “The River” received an Honorable Mention at Glimmer Train’s Open Fiction Contest. She is the author of three full-length poetry collections; FUCHSIA (University of Nebraska Press, 2016), which won the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets; Your Body Is War (University of Nebraska Press, 2019), and Nomenclatures of Invisibility (BOA Editions Ltd.). She is also the author of the chapbook collection Behind Walls & Glass (Finishing Line Press, 2015).
Jessica Abughattas grew up in Southern California. She is the author of Strip (University of Arkansas Press, 2020), which was selected by Fady Joudah and Hayan Charara for the 2020 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. A graduate of Antioch University’s MFA program in Los Angeles, she has been awarded a Kundiman fellowship. Her short poetry film “Dinner Party” premiered at Mizna Twin Cities Film Festival in 2021, was a finalist for Palette Poetry’s Brush and Lyre Prize and appeared at RAWI Fest. From 2020 to 2022, she was th e Poet Laureate of Altadena, California, and editor of Altadena Poetry Review. She has taught poetry workshops for Kundiman, Sevilla Writers House, and Northeastern University’s Writing Center. She has read her work at various venues and festivals virtually and throughout Los Angeles. She was previously editor-in-chief at Lunch Ticket, poetry editor at Lunch Ticket, associate editor at Palette Poetry, and a reader at Frontier. She has been an intern, reader, and manuscript editor at Write Bloody Publishing at various times since 2010. She’s writing a second poetry collection in LA.
NOTE: See site for further details, RSVP free tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm (Doors at 6:30 pm)
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Griot Café Open Mic with Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain & Featured Guest at Shades of Africa, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain host the Griot Café Open Mic & Poetry event every Saturday evening at Shades of Africa in Long Beach. See site to subscribe for reminders, etc.
Where: Griot Café at Shades of Africa
Date: Saturday the 29th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 1001 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://shadesofafrika.com/griot-cafe-open-mic-poetry/
Author Conversation: Caroline Carter & Every Body Is a Rainbow at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Kids Event
Author/Psychologist Caroline Carter will read from her picture book, Every Body Is a Rainbow.
This event will provide tools for parents to discuss gender diversity and body inclusivity with young children. The reading is meant for parents of cisgender and TGNB kids alike.
Caroline Carter, PsyD (pronouns: she/her) is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in Southern California. Her passion and expertise are in working with transgender and gender nonbinary (TGNB) children, teens, and their families. What motivated her to write Every Body Is a Rainbow is her belief in the power of all kids seeing their lived and embodied experiences mirrored back to them. Caroline is the co-creator of Gender Camps, a summer program for TGNB children ages 6-12 in Pasadena, CA.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/26854
Burning Issues Book Club: The Protest Psychosis at Bel Canto Booksat KUBO Long Beach – In-Person Event
Burning Issues Book Club (BIBC) is an online and local book club that gathers to read and discuss non-fiction works related to climate change, environmental degradation, environmental and social justice, and implementation of social change movements.
Participants will discuss this month’s selection, The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease by Jonathan Metz.
NOTE: RSVP at event link.
Where: Bel Canto Books
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 12 pm – 1 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Book Talk: Unsilencing Narratives: Amplifying Queer Archives: Lydia R. Otero & L.A. Interchanges at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Lydia R. Otero will present and discuss her book, L.A. Interchanges: A Brown & Queer Archival Memoir.
Lydia R. Otero is a writer, historian, and activist who will be discussing the process of writing their third book, L.A. Interchanges: A Brown & Queer Archival Memoir. In this book talk, Dr. Otero will share how they combined the intimacy of a personal memoir with the rigor of documentary history, using photographs, archival documents, and compelling storytelling to craft a passionate narrative of personal growth amid the political and cultural currents of 1980s Los Angeles.
Lydia R. Otero was active in the Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos in Los Angeles from the early 1980s through 1991 and served as President of GLLU for two years. Dr. Otero was one of the founding members of Lesbianas Unidas in 1983, remaining active with the organization until 1991. Lydia was a tenured professor in the Department of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona (2003 – 2020).
NOTE: RSVP at event link and for details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Mark Taper Auditorium
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Latina Writers Conference 2023: Read Our Rebellion: Riot of Roses Author Readings & LitCrawl– In-Person Event
This event is part of the week-long Latina Writers Conference 2023.
Latinx/Chicanx authors will share their work at two different brown-owned businesses in Sejatnga, Unceded Tongva Territory otherwise known as the City of Whittier, CA. These authors will read from their collections and explore the liberating practice of storytelling.
Featuring: Riot of Roses Publishing House Founder & Publisher Brenda Vaca, Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl, Anastasia Fenald, Paola Gutierrez, and Annalicia Aguilar.
Annalicia Aguilar is a Mexican American/mixed-race indigenous poet, screenwriter, playwright, and producer from South Texas who relocated to Los Angeles. She will publish her full-length collection of poetry, Broken, But Holding with Riot of Roses Publishing House in 2023. Find & Follow Annalicia at:
https://linkpop.com/annalicia-com
Instagram: @annalicia_a
https://www.facebook.com/annalicia.aguilar
Anastasia Helena Fenald is a second-generation Ukrainian Hispanic American poet from Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert. Her collections include Help Me, I’m Here: Poems to Myself (World Stage Press, 2022) and The Art of Job Hunting (Riot of Roses Publishing House, 2023). Find & Follow Anastasia at:
https://linktr.ee/anastasiafenald
Instagram: @anastasiafenald
https://www.facebook.com/afenald
Paola Gutierrez is the author of the self-published Children’s book, No me gusta el brócoli/I Don’t Like Broccoli and I Cry/Yo Lloro. She is the creative genius behind El Libro Feliz y Yo & La Piedrita Feliz. She is currently finalizing the manuscript for her first full length poetry collection.
https://linktr.ee/ellibrofelizyyo
Instagram: @ellibrofelizyyo
Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl is a multilingual and multidimensional, 3x slam/spoken word champion and international poetiza and workshop presenter. She is the author of A Church of My Own (2021), Hechizera: Sus Sultry Spells (Editorial Raices, 2022), and West of the Santa Ana and Other Sacred Places (Riot of Roses Publishing House, 2023).
Instagram: @diosa_xochiquetzalcoatl
https://www.facebook.com/diosa.xochiquetzalcoatl
Brenda Vaca is a Xicana author, and independent publisher from South Whittier, CA. Riot of Roses is her debut collection of poetry. Riot of Roses Publishing House is the independent press she founded in 2021. She is the host of the weekly Instagram Live Series Friday Fire and the host of the monthly open mic The Post Up at Casa Verde LA. She is currently working on a children’s book, Buttonz Finds His Mojo.
Instagram: @iambrendavaca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brenda.vaca
To learn more about Riot of Roses Publishing House, visit our website at:
www.riotofrosespublishinghouse.com
The event starts at 2 PM at Midnight Books LA, and culminates at Uptown Plants at Casa Verde LA. This is a FREE event!
Participants will gather at Midnight Books LA at 2 PM and head over to Casa Verde LA by 3 PM (about a 4-5 mins walk). The event will end at 4 PM.
Midnight Books LA is a revolutionary bookstore/community space whose work aims to assist, provide education, and community. Inspired by comrades at All Power Books and the legacy of Midnight Hour Books and located in Uptown Whittier, CA. First established in 2022.
Uptown Plants at Casa Verde LA is a local plant shop and community collective that hosts over 100 artists and artisans in its space first established in 2021.
The Latina Writers Conference 2023 is organized by Latino Arts Network, Women Who Submit, and Alternative Field and supported in part by the California Arts Council.
There will be special surprises for those that attend in person!
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Midnight Books & Uptown Plants, Whittier
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Where: Midnight Books: 7201 W. Greenleaf Blvd., Suite D, Whittier, CA 90602 &
Uptown Plants Casa Verde LA: 12909 Philadelphia St., Whittier, CA 90601
Celebrating Hula: Jasmine Iolani Hakes, with Diane Marie Brown at Bel Canto Booksat KUBO Long Beach – In-Person Event
Celebrate the novel Hula and enjoy a conversation with debut novelists Jasmine Iolani Hakes and Diane Marie Brown, the authors of Hula and of Black Candle Women, respectively.
Set in Hilo, Hawai’i, HULA is a sweeping saga of tradition, culture, family, history, and connection that unfolds through the lives of three generations of women—a brilliant blend of There, There and Sharks in the Time of Saviors that is a tale of mothers and daughters, dance and destiny, told in part in the collective voice of a community fighting for its survival.
Jasmin Iolani Hakes was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii. Her essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and the Sacramento Bee. She is the recipient of a 2018 Hedgebrook residency. Hula out now with HarperVia, is her debut novel. She lives in Southern California.
Diane Marie Brown is a professor at Orange Coast College and a public health professional for the Long Beach Health Department. She has a BA and MPH from UCLA and a degree in fiction from USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program. She grew up in Stockton and now lives in Long Beach, California, with her husband, their four daughters, and their dog, Brownie. Black Candle Women is her debut novel.
NOTE: RSVP at event link.
Where: Bel Canto Books
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 3976 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, CA 90807
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-hula-by-jasmin-iolani-hakes-tickets-667099972977
This Is My Poetry! A Metacognitive Kick Back for New Poets with Tasha Thomas via Sims Library of Poetry – Online Event
In this writing workshop participants will begin to define and describe your unique artistic processes, to get “metacognitive” about your writing.
Workshop is facilitated by Tasha Thomas.
Tasha Thomas is an L.A. native and Community Literature Initiative writer. She attended UCLA in the olden days and got away with a Bachelor’s Degree in Ancient Near Eastern Languages & Cultures. In more recent history, she attended USC in a bid to gain a Master’s in Teaching degree from Rossier School of Education—gods willing, she will soon complete her final semester after a long hiatus. Her vision for and service to community is currently JOKOCollective, which is a grassroots self-education program purposed to support and generate working class intellectuals who are inspired to spread a gospel of critical thinking, historical and political awareness of special concern to Black Peoples.
NOTE: RSVP. See site for details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 4 pm – 7 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Latina Writers in Animation: Natasha Kline, Norma P. Sepulveda, Jeannette Lara & Angela M. Sanchez at Latina Writers Conference at Avenue 50 Studio – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
As an official and FREE session for the Latina Writers Conference, this panel will feature three Latina animation writers and showcase the different career stages of writing for animation from staff writer (Jeannette Lara) to story editor (Norma P. Sepulveda) to showrunner (Natasha Kline). The discussion will also dig into how each writer navigates and draws inspiration from their respective identities and histories.
Moderator:
Angela M. Sánchez: Staff Writer on PRIMOS at Disney Television Animation
Panelists:
Natasha Kline: Creator, Showrunner, and Executive Producer on PRIMOS at Disney Television Animation Emmy-Nominated Natasha Kline is the Creator, Showrunner, and Executive Producer of Disney Channel’s PRIMOS. A storyboard artist, director, designer, and writer, Kline’s credits on both the big and small screen include Big City Greens, South Park, BoJack Horseman, The Lego Ninjago Movie, Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie, and Home: Adventures With Tip & Oh.
Norma P. Sepulveda: Story Editor on DISNEY JUNIOR’S ARIEL at Wild Canary
Norma P. Sepulveda is a Story Editor on Disney Junior’s Ariel. Norma has written on Disney Junior’s Firebuds, Micky Mouse Funhouse, and Elena of Avalor, and Netflix’s Spirit Rangers. In 2020, she sold and developed an original series at Netflix and is currently in development with a new project at Disney Junior.
Jeannette Lara: Freelance Writer
Jeannette credits her love for storytelling to comics, anime, and playing with Barbie dolls and action figures. A finalist for ScreenCraft’s 2019 Animation Competition and Quarter Finalist for the 2016 Nicholls Fellowship in Screenwriting, she has written on Alma’s Way, Rainbow High, Santiago of the Seas, and other upcoming projects.
Join In-Person: Sunday, July 30th, 5pm at Ave 50 Studio
Sign Up to get a reminder to watch on Facebook Live!
NOTE: RSVP. See site for details.
Where: Avenue 50 Studios
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 131 Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: http://avenue50studio.org/literary-arts/2023-latina-writers-conference
Drifter Zine: DISRUPTING THE MIC! Poetry & Mutual Aid in L.A. at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Drifter Zine is an independent publication based in the San Fernando Valley.
Come and hear revolutionary poetry from contributors to Drfiter’s sixth issue, Disrupt; featuring Ghada Morad, Jennifer Baptiste, Leslie Ortega, and Sacred Mami.
Ghada Morad is a writer and educator with a focus on postcolonial Francophone North African literature and Arabic literature from the Middle East, and more particularly the way postcolonial fiction articulates modernity, decoloniality, and political dissent through dissenting gender expressions and formal and generic experimentation. Translations and translation reviews have appeared in Asymptote, Transference, Metamorphoses, Reading in Translation, Aljadid, Banipal, Pen English, The Denver Quarterly, A Gathering of the Tribes, Jadaliyya, The Common, among others.
Jennifer Baptiste is the author of Reflections of Agape: Experiencing the love of God in the face of challenges.
Leslie Ortega is a Southern California poeta y micòloga from Orange County.
Sacred Mami N/A
Mutual Aid LA and Aetna Street Solidarity will be tabling with community resources and zines!
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
July Continuing the Story Book Club: A Court of Wings and Ruin at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice presents the July Continuing the Story Book Club every 5th Sunday of the month, and today’s selection is A Court of Wings and Ruin, by author Sarah J. Maas, the 3rd novel of the ACOTAR series.
This story follows the fate of Feyre’s world is at stake as armies grapple for power over the one thing that could destroy it.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 30th
Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Los Angeles Literature 