Book Launch: Melissa Broder & Death Valley at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Melissa Broder will read and discuss her latest novel, Death Valley.
This book is a darkly funny novel about grief that becomes a desert survival story.
In Melissa Broder’s new novel, a woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow—for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike…
Melissa Broder is the author of the novels Milk Fed and The Pisces, the essay collection So Sad Today, and five poetry collections, including Superdoom. She has written for The New York Times, Elle, and New York magazine’s The Cut. She lives in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter @SoSadToday and @MelissaBroder and Instagram @RealMelissaBroder.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/death-valley-by-melissa-broder-tickets-710685137377?aff=oddtdtcreator
Philosophical Horror Book Club: Brother at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Philosophical Horror Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, Brother by author Ania Ahiborn.
Brother is a novel that follows a teenager determined to break from his family’s unconventional—and deeply disturbing—traditions.
Ania Ahlborn is the bestselling author of the horror thrillers Brother, Within These Walls, The Bird Eater, The Shuddering, The Neighbors, and Seed, and the novellas The Pretty Ones and I Call Upon Thee. Born in Poland, she lives in South Carolina with her husband and their dog. Visit AniaAhlborn.com or follow the author on Facebook and Twitter @AniaAhlbornAuthor.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event
Made in L.A. Local Authors Reading at Octavia’s Bookshelf – In-Person Event
Contributors to Made in L.A. Vol. 5: Vantage Points will discuss how they draw inspiration from their surroundings and craft memorable fiction.
In Los Angeles, the only constant is change. Our lives go through cycles and rotations. We incorporate new ideas, people, workplaces, and patterns as we create the futures we have dreamed of since childhood. And so, the stories we tell are malleable and shifting, too. In this anthology, the fifth Made in L.A. short fiction collection, stories are told through lenses that focus on the aptitude of Angelenos to reinvent and reimagine, to take action for ourselves and for others.
Sixteen stories set in L.A., written by authors who live in and are influenced by their city.
A range of genres and lengths, including contemporary fiction, historical fiction, and stories that show L.A. from multiple vantage points.
ABOUT MADE IN L.A. WRITERS – Made in L.A. Writers came into being because local readers expressed their desire, en masse, for stories about Los Angeles. As a collaborative of L.A.-based writers who are dedicated to nurturing and promoting indie fiction, our work is both influenced and illuminated by our hometown and underpinned by the extraordinary, multifaceted, and often surreal culture and life in L.A.
Editor Sarah Chisolm is hosting. Authors participating in the reading include: Ryane Nicole Granados, Tiara Ito, and Jovon C. Johnson.
Ryane Nicole Granados is a Los Angeles native whose writing finds its roots in her love of community and her belief that Black motherhood is an act of social justice. She is inspired to write stories of survival that magnify the marginalized while also unearthing the splendor of second chances. Recently named the 2021 Established Writer and Individual Arts Fellow by the California Arts Council, her work has been featured in various publications, including Pangyrus, The Manifest-Station, High Country News, The Atticus Review, and LA Parent Magazine. Her storytelling has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and showcased in KPCC’s live series Unheard LA.
When Tiara Ito is not writing, she’s off somewhere thinking about it. Tiara lives, works, and writes from her home in Los Angeles, wrapped in her coziest blanket. With a background in Art and Design, she sees writing as a way to use words to paint on the page. She enjoys writing gripping tales about complex family relationships and the complicated emotions that remind us daily how human we are. She writes short stories and is experimenting with serial fiction while she completes her Creative Writing Certificate at UCLA Extension. Her story in this anthology is her first in the Made in L.A. series.
Jovon C. Johnson was born and raised in Compton, California. Educated at San Diego State University, Oregon State University, and Antioch University Los Angeles, where he received an MFA in Creative Writing. He is a Kimbilio Fellow and the author of a poetry collection, Keep Striving. He assisted in the creation of the Kuumba Journal at San Diego State University. His work has appeared in SoMa Literary Review, Caesura Journal and Elsewhere Lit. He is an avid outdoorsman who spends most of his time getting lost in nature.
Where: Octavia’s Bookshelf
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 1365 North Hill Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104
Website: https://www.octaviasbookshelf.com/events/made-in-la-local-author-reading
Henry Winkler, Dan Santat & Lin Oliver & Detective Duck at pages: a bookstore off-site at Manhattan Beach Library – In-Person Event
Henry Winkler, Dan Santat & Lin Oliver will launch Detective Duck: The Case of the Strange Splash at the Manhattan Beach Library.
This is a free event, but we appreciate collecting RSVPs and pre-orders if you are interested in owning the book and supporting this and future such events.
Where: pages: a bookstore at Manhattan Beach Library
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 1320 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/henry-winkler-dan-santat-lin-oliver-launch-detective-duck-manhattan-beach-library
Elyssa Maxx Goodman, with Gabe Dunn, & Glitter and Concrete at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Elyssa Maxx Goodman, in conversation with Gabe Dunn, will present and discuss her book, Glitter and Concrete.
Glitter and Concrete explores history of drag in New York City exploring its dynamic role, from the Jazz Age to Drag Race, in queer liberation and urban life. Journalist and drag historian Elyssa Maxx Goodman unearths the dramatic, provocative untold story of drag in New York City in all its glistening glory.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/elyssa-maxx-goodman
Jen Soriano, with Anthony Ocampo, & Nervous at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Jern Soriano, in conversation with Anthony Ocampo, will present and discuss her book of stories, Nervous: Essays on Heritage and Healing.
Activist Jen Soriano bringsnto light the lingering impacts of transgenerational trauma and uses science, history, and family stories to flow toward transformation in a powerful collection that weaves together lyrical storytelling, cultural exploration, and thoughtful analysis of the social origins of chronic illness.
The power of quiet can haunt us over generations, crystallizing in pain that Jen Soriano views as a form of embodied history. Through her searing personal essays, Soriano, the daughter of a neurosurgeon, journeys to understand the root causes of her chronic pain and mental health struggles.
Jen Soriano (she/they) is a Filipinx-American writer, performer, scholar, and movement builder originally from the Chicago area. She is the author of Making the Tongue Dry and co-editor of Closer to Liberation: A Pin[a/x]y Activism Anthology. Jen has won the Fugue Prose Prize and the Penelope Niven Prize for Creative Nonfiction, as well as fellowships from Artist Trust, Vermont Studio Center, Hugo House, and Jack Jones Literary Arts. She received a BA in History and Science from Harvard and an MFA in nonfiction and fiction from the Rainier Writing Workshop and has served as poet-in-residence for the Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. Jen lives in Seattle with her family and a growing community of dreamers, between Lake Washington and the Salish Sea. http://www.jensoriano.net
Anthony Christian Ocampo is Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race and co-editor of Contemporary Asian America, 3rd edition. A Tin House and VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts fellow, he has published essays in GQ, Catapult, Colorlines, Gravy, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, among others. His work has also been featured on NPR, NBC News, BuzzFeed, and in the Los Angeles Times. Raised in Northeast Los Angeles, he earned his BA and MA from Stanford University and his MA and PhD in sociology from UCLA. Say hi to him on Twitter: @anthonyocampo.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 6040 N, Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lmf5o481
Main Library Book Group: Homage to Catalonia via Santa Monica Public Library – Online Event
Santa Monica’s Main Library Book Group participants will discuss Homage to Catalonia by author George Orwell.
Where: Santa Monica Public Library
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: https://smpl.org/uploadedFiles/Calendar%20of%20Events%20-%20October%202023.pdf
At Skylight: Isle McElroy, with Jean Kyong Frazier, & People Collide at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Isle McElroy, in conversation with Jena Kyong Frazier, will discuss her new novel, People Collide, which explores marriage, identity, and sex, and raises profound questions about the nature of true partnership.
Isle McElroy (they/them) is a non-binary author based in New York. Their writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, New York Times Magazine, The Cut, GQ, The Guardian, Vogue, Bon Appétit, and other publications. They have received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Tin House Summer Workshop, the Sewanee Writers Conference, and they were named one of The Strand’s 30 Writers to Watch. In May 2021, Isle founded Debuts & Redos, a reading series for authors who published books during the pandemic. Their first novel, The Atmospherians, was named an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times and a book of the year by Esquire, Electric Literature, Debutiful, and many other outlets.
Jean Kyoung Frazier lives in Los Angeles. Pizza Girl is her debut novel. She also writes for television.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Cassandra Clare, with Kiersten White, & Sword Catcher at Vroman’s off-site at All Sants Church – In-Person Event
Cassandra Clare, in conversation with Kiersten White, will present and discuss her book, Sword Catcher.
Two outcasts find themselves caught in a web of forbidden love, dangerous magic, and dark secrets that could change the world forever in the start of a epic fantasy series.
Kiersten White is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award–winning, and critically acclaimed author of many books, including The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein, the And I Darken trilogy, the Slayer series, the Camelot Rising trilogy, and her adult debut, Hide. White lives with her family in San Diego, where they obsessively care for their deeply ambivalent tortoise, Kimberly.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s at All Saints Church
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 132 N, Euclid AVE., Pasadena, CA., 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Vromans-presents-Cassandra-Clare-discussing-Sword-Catcher
Monday Night Fiction Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Zoom Online Event
This free Monday Night Community Writing Workshop led by Raquel Baker is a 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 16th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-735423590757
At Dynasty Typewriter: Bob and Erin Odenkirk & ZILOT at Skylight Books off-site at Dynasty Typewriter – In-Person Family Event
Bob & Erin Odenkirk will discuss their new book, ZILOT & Other Important Rhymes, which explores the poetry that sprung from the books they once read and enjoyed as a family which was rediscovered during their time spent together in quarantine.
Featuring over seventy poems, Zilot & Other Important Rhymes will delight readers young and old.
Bob Odenkirk is known for acting (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and feature films like Greta Gerwig’s Little Women) and for writing lots of comedy sketches for TV shows (Saturday Night Live and Mr. Show with Bob and David). In fact, he’s been writing silly stuff his whole life because he sees the world as a mostly funny, pretty ridiculous place. Bob’s other books include A Load of Hooey, a collection of comedic essays, and Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama, his instant New York Times bestselling memoir, but Zilot & Other Important Rhymes is the thing he’s most proud of in this world. His greatest wish is that you laugh today and he’d very much like to help make that happen.
Erin Odenkirk has been creating art as long as she can remember, having first found inspiration in drawing real and made-up animals. Now a graduate of Pratt Institute, she lives in Brooklyn, New York with a lot of pencils and one bunny. Erin hopes Zilot & Other Important Rhymes makes you chuckle, maybe even chortle, but mostly she hopes it inspires you to go make something “important.”
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Dynasty Typewriter
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 2511 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/dynasty-typewriter-bob-and-erin-odenkirk-present-zilot
Under the Mic Influence & Open Mic featuring Jaha Zainabu at LB Unified – In-Person Event
Join host Kuahmel Alyeeus KuahAllah and @djkevjam for poetry, Open Mic, rare grooves, cocktails, tasty bites.
In the tradition of Funkmosphere, Monday Night Delight, Melodic Mondays, Project Blowed, Griot Cafe, and Lady Basco’s Speakeasy, we come to light things right back up and take the poet & the MC to new heights. Every 1st and 3rd Monday, you will be Under Mic Influence. Come level up with carefree, high-caliber spitters, and leave ready to get the bars up & come back for more!
Our feature act for this edition is the amazing Zaha Zainabu: poet, painter, and mother. She is the author of I’m Writing to Tell You (Mama’s Kitchen Press).
Soul Brother No. 7 Kuahmel and DJ Kev Jam captain this cruise with the necessary boom-bap & rare grooves. Only $5. Everyone from Santa Barbara to San Diego and beyond welcome!
Special invite to Blowedians, Good Lifers, the CLIque, and LBC poetry vets.
DM now to get at the #openmic!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, and details.
Where: LB Unified Bar & Lounge
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 7:30 pm; Mic at 8 pm
Address: 2222 E. Anaheim, Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mic-influence or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/under-mic-influence-tickets-595248964677?aff=erelpanelorg
Classic Detectives Book Club: The House Opposite at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Classic Detectives Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, The House Opposite, by author J. Jefferson Farjeon.
The return of Ben, the prince of tramps with his rich Cockney humor and naive philosophies—and in trouble as usual.
Strange things are happening in the untenanted houses of Jowle Street. There are unaccountable creakings and weird knockings on the door of No.29, where the homeless ex-sailor Ben has taken up residence. But even stranger things are happening in the House Opposite, from where a beautiful woman in an evening gown brings Ben a mysterious message—and an errand that puts him in more danger than he bargained for.
J. Jefferson Farjeon (1883-1955) was the author of more than 60 crime and thriller novels. His work was highly acclaimed in his day. He is now best known as the author of the bestselling “Mystery in White”, and “No.17”, a play that was brought to the big screen by Alfred Hitchcock and led to the series of popular ‘Ben’ detective novels.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/classic-detectives-book-club-house-opposite
Book Talk & Signing: Lisa Belkin, with Susa Orlean, & Genealogy of Murder at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Lisa Belkin, in conversation with Susan Orlean, will present and discuss her latest novel, Genealogy of a Murder.
Independence Day weekend, 1960: a young cop is murdered, shocking his close-knit community in Stamford, Connecticut. The killer remains at large, his identity still unknown. But on a beach not far away, a young Army doctor, on vacation from his post at a research lab in a maximum-security prison, faces a chilling realization. He knows who the shooter is. In fact, the man—a prisoner out on parole—had called him only days before. By helping his former charge and trainee, the doctor, a believer in second chances, may have inadvertently helped set the murder into motion. And with that one phone call, may have sealed a policeman’s fate.
Lisa Belkin is an award-winning journalist and the author of narrative nonfiction books. Her career at the New York Times includes stints as a national correspondent, medical reporter, and contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. She lives in Westchester, New York.
Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992. She is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including The Library Book, Rin Tin Tin, Saturday Night, and The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award–winning film Adaptation. She lives with her family and her animals in Los Angeles and may be reached at SusanOrlean.com and on Twitter @SusanOrlean.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
3rd Tuesday Book Club at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Playa Vista Branch Library invites 3rd Tuesday Book Club participants to discuss Lucy by the Sea: A Novel, by author Elizabeth Strout.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/3rd-tuesday-book-club-2
Jessica Elephante, with Amanda Monteil, & Raising Hell, Living Well at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Jessica Elephante, in conversation with Amanda Monteil, will discuss her book, Raising Hell, Living Well: Freedom from Influence in a World Where Everyone Wants Something from You (Including Me).
Part cultural criticism, part rueful confessional, a reformed brand strategist brings to light the impact of influence on us and our society and offers an escape in this ironically persuasive case for not being so easily influenced anymore.
Jessica Elefante is a writer and the author of Raising Hell, Living Well: Freedom From Influence in a World Where Everyone Wants Something From You (including me) (2023). She has spent the last few decades examining what it means to be human in our modern world and her writing works to shine a light on the untenability of our times. She’s also the creator of acclaimed Folk Rebellion, and as a critic of today’s culture, Elefante’s award-winning talks, films, and work have been featured by Vogue, the Los Angeles Times, The Observer, Paper magazine, Wired, and elsewhere and her essays have appeared in The Guardian, the Huffington Post and more. In her previous life as a brand strategist, she was recognized as one of Brand Innovators’ 40 Under 40 and has been a guest lecturer at Columbia Business School and New York University. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.
Amanda Montell is a writer, linguist, and podcast host living in Los Angeles. She is the critically acclaimed author of three nonfiction books, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism (2021), Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language (2019), and The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality (forthcoming April 9, 2024). She is also the creator and host of the hit podcast, Sounds Like A Cult. Amanda’s books have earned praise from The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Kirkus Reviews, and more. Cultish was named a best book of 2021 by NPR, was shortlisted for several prizes.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Jessica-Elefante-Amanda-Montell-Author-signing
Conchas y Café Zine Workshop: Fall Semester Theme: “Out of Place” at DSTL Arts – Online Event
This is a virtual only writing workshop. Register now atGoogle Classroom (app or web). Registration code: kdcmthg.
For more information: DSTLArts.org/conchasycafezine.
Where: DSTL Arts
Date: Tuesday the 17th (through 12/19/23)
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw0cb1GLt-6/
Rewind the Wild: Generative Eco-Poetry Workshops with Nancy Lynée Woo via Gasher Press – Online Zoom Event.
Join a 4-week generative eco-poetry workshop on Zoom led by Nancy Lynée Woo, author of I’d Rather Be Lightning. Writers of all experience levels are welcome. In this workshop, we will explore our human relationship to nature, messy and complicated and beautiful as it may be during a time of rampant environmental destruction and rapid climate change. During each session, we will read an example poem for inspiration and then spend time writing together to a prompt inspired by the poem. Afterwards, participants will be invited to share their work with the group if they wish to.
Costs are sliding scale, $40-$100.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Gasher Press
Date: Tuesday the 17th (through the 24th)
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.gasherpress.com/events
Village Well Book Club & A Philosophy of Walking at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Book Club Participants will discuss the French bestseller A Philosophy of Walking, by author, thinker and philosopher Frédéric Gros, who charts the many different ways we get from A to B—the pilgrimage, the promenade, the protest march, the nature ramble—and reveals what they say about us.
Gros draws attention to other thinkers who also saw walking as something central to their practice. On his travels he ponders Thoreau’s eager seclusion in Walden Woods; the reason Rimbaud walked in a fury, while Nerval rambled to cure his melancholy. He shows us how Rousseau walked in order to think, while Nietzsche wandered the mountainside to write. In contrast, Kant marched through his hometown every day, exactly at the same hour, to escape the compulsion of thought. Brilliant and erudite, A Philosophy of Walking is an entertaining and insightful manifesto for putting one foot in front of the other.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/30936
Sarah Royal, with Jim Colucci, & A.K.A. Lucy: The Dynamic and Determined Life of Lucille Ball at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Sarah Royal, in conversation with Jim Colucci, will present and discuss her book, A.K.A. Lucy: The Dynamic and Determined Life of Lucille Ball.
Full of fresh perspective, gorgeously designed, and richly informative, this is a book on Lucille Ball like none other. With profiles spotlighting the many different facets of the woman, AKA Lucy details how Ball changed the face of comedy and the entertainment industry. It sheds new light on the star’s history, from her childhood through hard-scrabble days trying to make it in show business, falling head over heels in love and embarking on one of the great romances of the twentieth century, to becoming the biggest star in the world, a pioneer in television, and an icon for the ages. Filled with photos and highlighted by bright illustration and design, this is a volume almost as vivid and entertaining as the woman herself.
AKA Lucy is officially authorized by the estate of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 W, Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/sarah-royal
North Fig Book Club & Manhunt at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
North Fig Book Club participants will discuss Manhunt, by author Gretchen Felker-Martin.
Manhunt is a post-apocalyptic novel that follows trans women and trans men on a grotesque journey of survival.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lmi8rujj
At Skylight: Lila Ash, with Olivia de Recat, & Codependence at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Lila Ash, in conversation with Olivia de Recat,will present and discuss her funny graphic memoir, Codependence.
New Yorker cartoonist Lila Ash shares the all-too-well-known moments that she’s experienced navigating the world of family, love, and sex through the lens of codependency.
Lila Ash is a Los Angeles–based freelance cartoonist, illustrator, and regular contributor to the New Yorker. She has been featured in Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letter, Wired, MAD, The Washington Post, The American Bystander, and The Weekly Humorist. She created a brilliant set of online comics based on real women’s harrowing #MeToo stories as well as other works honoring social justice causes. Ash is featured in Send Help! A Collection of Marooned Cartoons by Jon Adams and Ellis Rosen, a compilation of New Yorker cartoonists.
Olivia de Recat is a writer and illustrator based in Los Angeles. She’s been contributing cartoons and humor pieces to The New Yorker since 2017, and has also worked with InStyle Magazine, Bon Appétit, CNBC, Food52, & more. Her first book Drawn Together, Illustrated True Love Stories, was published by Little, Brown in 2022
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-lila-ash-presents-decodependence-w-olivia-de-recat
Book Launch: John Robb & The Art Of Darkness – A History Of Goth at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Stories presents the book launch of The Art Of Darkness – A History Of Goth, by musician and best-selling pop cultureauthor John Robb.
John Robb is an English musician and journalist best known as the bassist and singer for the mid-1980s post-punk band The Membranes. He writes for and runs the Louder Than War website and a monthly music magazine of the same name.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 622 N. Hoover St., Silver Lake, CA
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Vroman’s Presents :Lidia Bastianich & LIDIA’S FROM OUR FAMILY TABLE TO YOURS: MORE THAN 100 RECIPES MADE WITH LOVE FOR ALL OCCASIONS: A COOKBOOK at Vroman’s off-site at Pasadena Presbyterian Church – In-Person Event
Lidia Bastianich will present and discuss her new cookbook, LIDIA’S FROM OUR FAMILY TABLE TO YOURS: MORE THAN 100 RECIPES MADE WITH LOVE FOR ALL OCCASIONS: A COOKBOOK.
Nothing brings a family together like food. And no one knows food like Lidia Bastianich. In this inviting, deeply personal new cookbook, she shares the dishes she cooks for those she loves the most. In many ways, this book can be seen as a tribute to her late mother. ..
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s at Pasadena Presbyterian Church
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E, Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA., 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Lidia-Bastianich-discussing-Lidias-from-Our-Family-Table-to-Yours
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with Jasmine Elizabeth Smith – Virtual Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Jasmine Elizabeth Smith.
Jasmine Elizabeth Smith (she/her) is a Black poet from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She received her MFA in Poetry from the University of California in Riverside. She is a Cave Canem Fellow and a recipient of the Glucks Art Fellowship.
Jasmine Elizabeth’s poetic work is invested in the Diaspora of Black Americans in various historical contexts and eras. Her work has been featured in Black Renaissance Noir, POETRY, and LA Review of Book, and Kweli among others. Her debut collection South Flight was named a finalist for the 2020 National Poetry Series and is the winner of the Georgia Poetry Prize. South Flight is forthcoming with the University of Georgia Press in February of 2022.
Smith currently works as an associate guest editor for the Black Earth Institute’s About Place Journal and currently serves on the 25th Anniversary Cave Canem Fellows and Faculty Committee while teaching a variety of English courses in her recent home of South Seattle. In rest, you will find Jasmine trekking about by boot or snowshoe in nature.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 17th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
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 17th
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
Live Talks LA Presents: Bob and Erin Odenkirk, with Rhea Seehorn, & Zilot & Other Important Rhymes at Robert Frost Auditorium – In-Person & Virtual Hybrid Event
Author Bob Odenkirk and illustrator Erin Odenkirk will present and discuss their new book, Zilot & Other Important Rhymes.
Emmy Award-winning and New York Times bestselling writer, comedian, and actor Bob Odenkirk and his daughter, illustrator Erin Odenkirk, present poetic nonsense for all ages perfect for fans of Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky!
Bob Odenkirk began writing these poems with his children when they were little, compiling the poetry into a homemade book entitled Olde Time Rhymes. He wanted Nate and Erin to understand that actual people had written the books the family loved to read and to instill in them the feeling that they could be writers and illustrators themselves. Almost twenty years later, when the Odenkirks found themselves quarantined under the same roof, they revisited these mostly silly, sometimes poignant works. It wasn’t until Erin began to create illustrations to accompany the words, though,that the book grew to be something much bigger than an Odenkirk family treasure.
Bob Odenkirk’s TV credits include Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and feature films like Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and for writing lots of comedy sketches for TV shows (Saturday Night Live and Mr. Show with Bob and David). He’s been writing silly stuff his whole life because he sees the world as a mostly funny, pretty ridiculous place. Bob’s other books include A Load of Hooey, a collection of comedic essays, and Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama, his New York Times bestselling memoir, for which he appeared at Live Talks Los Angeles in 2021.
Erin Odenkirk has been creating art as long as she can remember, having first found inspiration in drawing real and made-up animals. Now a graduate of Pratt Institute, she lives in Brooklyn, New York with a lot of pencils and one bunny.
Rhea Seehorn is an Emmy nominated actress and is widely known for her leading role as ‘Kim Wexler’ in AMC’s hit series Better Call Saul. Seehorn can also be seen in AMC’s mini-series Cooper’s Bar for which she both acts and produces. Next up, she will be seen in the untitled Vince Gilligan Apple TV series and will be joining the Bad Boys franchise for their fourth installment.
NOTE: Tickets and details at event link.
Where: Robert Frost Auditorium
Date: Tuesday the 17th (virtual event only, Oct 22 at 3 pm)
Time: 8 pm
Address: 4401 Elenda St, Culver City, CA 90230
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/odenkirk/
Da Poetry Lounge: SLAM 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 and special events) we hold open mic nights. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in our audience.
See details and guidelines at website link.
$10 donation. Do NOT line up prior to 7:30 p.m. Free parking adjacent to theatre.
Masks are encouraged. All ages are welcome.
Where: Greenway Court Theatre and YouTube Live Stream
Date: Tuesday the 17th
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
Coffee Time Book Club: Tom Lake at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Coffee Time Book Club participants, facilitated by Linda McLoughlin Figel, will discuss the novel, Tom Lake, by author Ann Patchett.
Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.
RSVP at website link.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 10 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/coffee-time-book-club-21
Mystery Book Club: Shadow Game at West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Mystery Book Club participants will discuss Final Cut, by author Marjorie McCown. All are welcome!
RSVP: Please email wvally@lapl.org with “Mystery Book Club” in the subject line for information on the title to be discussed and the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 10:30 am – 12 pm
Address: 19036 Vanowen St., Reseda, CA 91335
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-15
Book Club: Crying in H Mart at Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Book Club participants will discuss Crying in H Mart, by author Michelle Zauner.
If you are unable to attend in person, please email grnhls@lapl.org for Zoom access to the discussion.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 1:30 am – 3 pm
Address: 10640 Petit Ave., Granada Hills, CA 91344
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-crying-h-mart
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 or 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 18th
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
Graphic Novel Book Club: Misfit Mansion at Once upon a Time – In-Person Kids Event
Graphic Novel Book Club meets every 3rd Wednesday of the month and participants ages 9-13 will read and discuss this month’s selection, Misfit Mansion by author Kay Davault.
RSVP required. No drop-ins.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/graphic-novel-club-misfit-mansion-kay-davault
Vickie Vertiz at Otis Visiting Writers Series Event via Otis College of Art and Design – Zoom Event
The Otis Visiting Writers Series features author Vickie Vertiz to present and discuss her work via Zoom.
Vickie Vértiz is an award-winning Mexican American poet, writer, and professor whose work has appeared in the New York Times magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, Huizache, Nepantla, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She is the author of the poetry collection Auto/Body, winner of the Sandeen Prize, and the collection Palm Frond with Its Throat Cut, winner of the PEN America Literary Prize in Poetry. She has been a resident or fellow at Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference, Macondo, CantoMundo, VONA, Vermont College of Fine Arts, and the Community of Writers. Vértiz earned her MFA from the University of California, Riverside, holds a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from UT-Austin, and teaches in the Writing Program at UC Santa Barbara.
Register for this event.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Otis College of Art and Design
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Onllne Event (see site)
Website: https://www.otis.edu/calendar/vickie-vertiz-visiting-writer-series
Middle Grade Book Club: The (Super Secret) Octagon Valley Society at pages: a bookstore – In-Person MG Event
Middle Grade Book Club participants will discuss the book, The (Super Secret) Octagon Valley Society, by author Melissa de la Cruz.
This new series by author Melissa de la Cruz is The Mysterious Benedict Society for reluctant readers, chockful of humor, adventure and mischief, and set at an exclusive, secluded, high-tech institute everyone wants to get into.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/middle-grade%C2%A0book-club-3
Feedback Circle Workshop with Danielle Mitchell via The Poetry Lab – Online Event
The Feedback Circle is a 6-week series and is set up as both a large group and a small group breakout workshop led by Diane Mitchell where participants will take turns giving and receiving feedback on one poem. Then the whole group works together in a “traditional” workshop setting. Each class time, 2-3 people will have a chance to receive feedback on one poem from the entire group, including the workshop facilitator. Every participant will have the opportunity to schedule a 1:1 editorial session with the Feedback Circle facilitator, Danielle Mitchell.
Danielle Mitchell (she/her) is an intersectional feminist, poet, and teaching artist. She is the Founding Director of The Poetry Lab and author of Makes the Daughter-in-Law Cry, winner of the Clockwise Chapbook Prize (Tebot Bach, 2017). Danielle is a survivor of sexual assault, chronic illness, and generalized anxiety disorder. As such, both her writing and her work as a mentor are informed by empathy, equity, and radical self-compassion.
Her poems have appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Vinyl, Four Way Review, Transom, New Orleans Review, Nailed Magazine, and many other journals and anthologies. She holds a dual B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies and Creative Writing from the University of Redlands and is an alumna of the Community of Writers. She is currently working on a manuscript of poems about misogyny and the Internet.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, costs, and details.
Where: The Poetry Lab
Date: Wednesday the 18th (October 25th and November 1st, 8th, & 15th)
Time: 5 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Event (via Zoom)
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/feedback
2023 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award Winner: Roger Reeves Poetry Reading at Claremont Helen Renwick Library – In-Person Event
2023 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award Winner Roger Reeves will read and discuss his work upon receiving this year’s award.
Roger Reeves, author of Best Barbarian (Norton, 2023), is the winner of Claremont Graduate University’s 2023 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. His previous books include King Me (poems), and the essay collection Dark Days: Fugitive Essays. Reeves is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, among other honors. He is an associate professor of poetry in the English Department at the University of Texas-Austin.
As always, this event is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Claremont Helen Renwick Library
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 208 N. Harvard Ave., Claremont, CA 91711
Website: https://www.claremontlibrary.org/monthly-poetry-readings.html
Rainbow Reads Book Club: The Lesbian Guide’s to Catholic School at Once Upon a Time – In-Person YA and LGBTQIA+ Event
Rainbow Reads: Teen LGBTQIA+ Book Club meets every 3rd Wednesday of the month and participants ages 13+ will read and discuss this month’s selection, The Lesbian’s Guide to Catholic School by author Sonora Reyes.
This is a safe space welcome to teens of all identities and allies! Join Iz and Apollo for our proud book club. This is a discussion-based club. Participants should come prepared to share their thoughts about that meeting’s book choice.
RSVP required. No drop-ins.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Book Club for Adults: Trust at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Book Club for Adults participants will discuss them 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner in Fiction, Trust, by author Hernan Diaz.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-adults
Mandy Schaniel & Faith Over Fear at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Mandy Schaniel will discuss and sign Faith Over Fear.: How to Adopt a Success Mindset.
Fear: that pesky, four-letter word drives so much of our life. But what if we told our minds and our hearts to exchange “fear” for an even more powerful five-letter word? Faith.
Retired before age forty after climbing the ladder of many business-industry titans like ZipRecruiter and GoHire, Mandy Schaniel knows that success comes from within. It is a mindset, and half the battle of building a success mindset stems from faith-not just in a spiritual sense (though the two go hand-in-hand) but faith in your calling, your skills, and-above all else-yourself. From identifying your purpose to understanding your leadership style, Mandy explains the keys needed to strengthen our whole selves for success.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore (in the Courtyard)
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Mandy-Schaniel-October-18-Author-signing
Heather Hach Hearne & The Trouble With Drowning at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Heather Hach Hearne will present and discuss her book, The Trouble With Drowning.
When author Eden Hart floats into Tucson’s Antigone Books in all her dazzling perfection to give a reading, Kat, a struggling writer, can’t help but compare herself. Professionally, physically, socially—Eden is Kat’s aspiration. Thankfully, Kat’s life starts to take on its own Eden-like glow when her literary future takes shape and she falls madly in love with Jacob, the effortlessly charismatic son of her literary hero. Kat’s life is finally her fantasy realized: a burgeoning career, mentoring from her idol, and a wildly fulfilling relationship. But how long can she keep this up? And when will disappointment tap Kat on the shoulder yet again?
As demons from her past begin to surface, Kat’s mental health craters, and this halcyon dream slips through her fingers. Obsessed with reclaiming her idealized life, Kat develops an insidious plan to not only bring Jacob back into her world, but also punish anyone who dares to replace her.
Heather Hach Hearne is a screenwriter (Freaky Friday and What to Expect When You’re Expecting) and a Tony-nominated and Olivier-winning librettist for Legally Blonde: The Musical. She just adapted Allison Winn Scotch’s novel Time of my Life for Sony. She is also the author of the YA novel Freaky Monday with Mary Rodgers.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/heather-hach-hearne-discusses-trouble-drowning
Creating Hope in Times of Trouble: Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers via WeHo Reads – Online Event
Science fiction and fantasy authors share insights about creating hope in fiction and in reality.
Host Kate Maruyama will lead a free online roundtable discussion with award-winning authors who’ve written utopian and dystopian stories, including Cecil Castellucci, Matthew Kressel, PJ Manney, Nisi Shawl, and Sherri L. Smith.
Kate Maruyama is the author of HARROWGATE (47North), HALLOWEEN BEYOND: THE GENTLEMAN’S SUIT (Crystal Lake Publishing), and BLEAK HOUSES (Raw Dog Screaming Press). Her novella FAMILY SOLSTICE (Omnium Gatherum) was named Best Fiction Book of 2021 by RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE. Her short work has appeared in Asimov’s and Analog among journals, in numerous anthologies and won the Uncharted Magazine Short Story Prize. She is a member of the SFWA and the HWA and she serves on the board of Women Who Submit an organization that works toward gender parity in publishing. She writes, teaches, cooks, and eats in Los Angeles.
Sherri L. Smith writes fiction and nonfiction for young people. Her novel The Blossom and the Firefly was awarded the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite; her novel Flygirl is a California Book Awards Gold Medalist. She also writes comics, including Bart Simpson Comics, James Cameron’s Avatar, and Wonder Woman. Sherri holds certificates in Enchantivism, the Art of Archetypal Fairy Tale Analysis, and Applied Mythology. She teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in Children’s Writing program and is the founder of Story Forest, where writers follow the old tales to find their own paths. Learn more at www.sherrilsmith.com.
Nisi Shawl is the multiple award-winning author, co-author, and editor of over a dozen books of speculative fiction and related nonfiction, including the standard text on diverse representation, Writing the Other: A Practical Approach. Shawl’s best-known fiction is the Nebula Award finalist novel Everfair. Recent books include a story collection, Our Fruiting Bodies; and the Middle Grade historical fantasy novel Speculation. Editing credits include the 2023 anthology New Suns 2, sequel to the acclaimed New Suns 1. They’ve spoken at Duke University, Spelman College, Sarah Lawrence College, and many other institutions.
PJ Manney wrote the bestselling and P.K. Dick Award Phoenix Horizon trilogy: (R)EVOLUTION, (ID)ENTITY, and (CON)SCIENCE. Manney consults and lectures for organizations about the future of technology and humanity, and leads work on the New Mythos, empathy, and ethics. She was a teleplay writer (Hercules–The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, numerous TV pilot scripts) and film executive. Manney lives with her husband in Southern California and is a Yankiwi (US/NZ). Visit http://www.pjmanney.com
Matthew Kressel is a coder, author, and artist. He is three-time Nebula Award Finalist, a World Fantasy Award Finalist, and a Eugie Award Finalist. He is the author of the novels KING OF SHARDS, QUEEN OF STATIC, and many short stories. His work has been translated into eight languages and has appeared in various YEAR’S BEST anthologies. He is the creator of the Moksha submissions system, and he is the co-host of Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading series in Manhattan. He lives in Ridgewood, New York with his wife and too many houseplants.
Cecil Castellucci is the award winning and New York Times Bestselling author of books and graphic novels for young adults including Shade, The Changing Girl, Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, Soupy Leaves Home, The Year of the Beasts, Tin Star, Female Furies and Odd Duck. Their newest graphic novel is Shifting Earth. Her short stories and short comics have been published in Strange Horizons, Tor.com, and many other anthologies. In a former life, she was known as Cecil Seaskull in the ‘90s indie band Nerdy Girl and has written three opera librettos. They are a two-time MacDowell Fellow. They live in Los Angeles and spends time Montreal.
WeHo Reads is a literary series presented by the City of West Hollywood. For more information, to RSVP and watch visit http://www.weho.org/wehoreads
Where: WeHo Reads
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.weho.org/ or https://www.bookswell.club/events/weho-reads-creating-hope/
ALOUD Reading Series: Rosa Lowinger, with Carolina MIranda, & Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art, Exile, and Repair at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Art conservator Rosa Lowinger, in conversation with L.A. Times art and design columnist Carolina A Miranda, will discuss her book, Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art, Exile, and Repair.
Dwell Time is the journey of Lowinger’s difficult childhood in Miami growing up among people whose losses in the Cuban revolution, and earlier by the decimation of family in the Holocaust, clouded all family life. Through Lowinger’s relentless clear-eyed efforts to be the best practitioner possible while squarely facing her fraught personal and work relationships, she comes to terms with her identity as Cuban and Jewish, American and Latinx.
Rosa Lowinger is a Cuban-born American writer and art conservator. The award-winning author of Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub (Harcourt, 2005) and Promising Paradise: Cuban Allure American Seduction (Wolfsonian Museum, 2016), she is the founder and current Vice-President of RLA Conservation, LLC, one of the U.S.’s largest woman-owned art and architectural conservation firms. A Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation, the Association for Preservation Technology, and the American Academy in Rome, Rosa writes regularly for popular and academic media about conservation, historic preservation, the visual arts, and Cuba.
Carolina A. Miranda is a Los Angeles Times columnist focused on art and design, who also makes regular forays into other areas of culture, including performance, books, and digital life. In her years at The Times, she has covered the ways in which communities are rethinking the nature of monuments, how architecture is shifting to accommodate a denser Los Angeles, the significance of political graphics in the post-Roe world and how narco-culture has permeated TV and the internet. She was a winner of the 2017 Rabkin Prize in Visual Arts Journalism and the 2021 Sigma Delta Chi Award presented by the Society of Professional Journalists.
Co-presented with Skylight Books
Where: Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lfla.org/event/dwell-time-a-memoir-of-art-exile-and-repair/
Ben Fountain, with Steph Cha, & Devil Makes Three at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Ben Fountain, in conversation with Steph Caha will present and discuss his book, Devi Makes Three.
This book is set inHaiti, 1991. When a violent coup d’état leads to the fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, American expat Matt Amaker is forced to abandon his idyllic, beachfront scuba business. With the rise of a brutal military dictatorship and an I nternational embargo threatening to destroy even the country’s most powerful players, some are looking to gain an advantage in the chaos-and others are just looking to make it through another day.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/ben-fountain
Open Mic at Micky’s with Brian Sonia-Wallace and Nate Lovell at Micky’s West Hollywood – In-Person Event
The Mic at Micky’s is a safe space for LGBTQ talents to come and share their gifts with the world. Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity to perform and show off your unique skills. Sign up in advance on the provided link to secure your spot and reserve the best view in the house!
You can also enjoy Micky’s $5 happy hour specials on wells, wines, beer & shot of the day, and an unforgettable evening of Queer talent, fun, and great deals!
Hosted by Brian Sonia-Wallace and Nate Lovell.
Featuring special guests, performances & YOU! Sign up at site.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Micky’s West Hollywood
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm
Address: 8857 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.mickys.com/tc-events/the-mic-at-mickys-oct-18th/
At Skylight: Vincent Bevins & If We Burn at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Vincent Bevins will discuss his book, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution.
From 2010 to 2020, more people participated in protests than at any other point in human history. Yet we are not living in more just and democratic societies as a result. If We Burn is a work of history built around a single, vital question: How did so many mass protests lead to the opposite of what they asked for?
Vincent Bevins is an award-winning journalist. He reported for the Financial Times in London, then served as the Brazil correspondent for the Los Angeles Times before covering Southeast Asia for the Washington Post.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-vincent-bevins-presents-if-we-burn
Los Angeles Review of Books Launches Quarterly no. 39: Air: Readings by Dan O’Brien, F. Douglas Brown, Katie Kadue, Kate McInerny, and Jacobo Pereira-Pac at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Los Angeles Review of Books presents Quarterly no. 39: Air, with readings from contributing writers Dan O’Brien, F. Douglas Brown, Katie Kadue, Kate McInerny, and Jacobo Pereira-Pac.
In the 39th issue of the LARB Quarterly writers took note of what was in the sky—the invisible pollutants and the all-too-visible police helicopters that patrol Los Angeles—and on the ways air, or breath, sustains or stifles us, the way it can bridge or divide one person from another.
Dan O’Brien ranks among the West’s most celebrated writers. He divides his time between working as an endangered-species biologist, running a cattle ranch, and writing. He is the author of four novels, a short story collection, and three works of nonfiction, including Buffalo Bill for the Broken Heart: Restoring a Piece of the American West. He lives in South Dakota.
F. Douglas Brown is a Black and Filipino poet and the author of ICON (Writ Large Press, 2018); and Zero to Three (University of Georgia Press, 2014), winner of the 2013 Cave Canem Poetry Prize.
Katie Kadue is a scholar of early modern French and English literature, with a focus on gender, labor, and the poetics of preservation and decay. She is the author of Domestic Georgic: Labors of Preservation from Rabelais to Milton.
Kate McInerny N/A
Jacobo Pereira-Pac N/A
Join the Los Angeles Review of Books (@lareviewofbooks) for the launch party of their new issue Air.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
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 — Readings: World Stage Press;
- 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 18th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.instagram.com/anansiwritersworkshop/
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 this quarter is James Fujinami Moore, whose debut poetry collection is indecent hours (Four Way Books, 2022), winner of the GLCA New Writers Award in Poetry and finalist for the Golden Poppy’s Martin Cruz Smith Award & the Lambda Literary Award in Bisexual Poetry. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Barrow Street’s 4×2, The Brooklyn Rail, Guesthouse, Jet Fuel Review, The Margins, the Pacifica Literary Review, and Prelude. He has received fellowships from Poets House, Bread Loaf, and the Frost Place, and received his MFA from Hunter College in 2016. He lives 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 18th
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-737162732577
Live Talks LA: Hilarie Burton Morgan, with Sofia Bush, & Grimoire Girl: A Memoir of Magic and Mischief at New Roads School – In-Person Event
Actress and author of The Rural Diaries, Hilarie Burton Morgan, in conversation with actress Sofia Bush, will present and discuss her memoir essays and magical practices, as Grimoire Girl connects us to the enchantment that exists inside us all.
Since childhood, Hilarie Burton Morgan has felt the call to record, keep, and catalogue life in all its strange wonder. It was a whimsical habit, with no clear goal. And then, when she became a mother, the importance of all that collecting snapped into focus. In an effort to patchwork together an anthology of traditions, curiosity, and magical thinking that she could pass down, Burton Morgan realized she was crafting a grimoire…
Hilary Burton Morgan is an actor, producer, farmer, candy dealer, kid chauffeur, and New York Times bestselling author. Known for her roles as Peyton on One Tree Hill, Sara Ellis on White Collar, her work as an MTV VJ, and her leading roles in popular Lifetime movies, she lives with her husband, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, in New York’s picturesque Hudson Valley with their son Gus, daughter George, and a whole menagerie of animals.
Sophia Bush is an actress, producer, activist, and entrepreneur. Some of her television and film projects include False Positive, Good Sam, Hard Luck Love Song, John Tucker Must Die, Incredibles 2, One Tree Hill, Dick Chicago PD, This Is Us and Love, Victor. She made her West End debut in2023 in 2:22 a Ghost Story the Olivier-nominated thriller play written by Danny Robbins. She hosts a podcast, Work in Progress, as well as co-hosts the iHeartRadio podcast Drama Queens alongside Hilarie Burton Morgan and Bethany Joy Lenz, during which they relive and reclaim nine seasons of CW drama, One Tree Hill. Sophia devotes her free time to bettering girl’s education and the environment. She also General Partner at Union Heritage Ventures, a majority African American and women-owned venture capital firm.
NOTE: Details at event link.
Where: Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre at New Roads School, Herb Alpert Educational Village
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 3131 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/hilarie-burton-morgan/
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg & Featured Guest Jess June Kato at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Join host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Night for our Reading & Open Mic, with featured guest Jess June Kato.
Jess June Kato (she/they) is a writer, poet, and Lead Astrologer at The Poetry Lab, a community learning space for creative writers. Her work has been published by Nightingale & Sparrow, Sampaguita Press and Chicanx Writers and Artists Association, with forthcoming publications in anthologies from Decolonize Your Mind and Querencia Press. Her debut poetry chapbook, Through The Red Door’s Open Maw, is available now from Beyond The Veil Press. Her favorite things include making memes, writing workshops, Nintendo switch, and her two small poodles. You can find her on socials talking about Astrology For Poets, her series of articles, videos, podcast episodes and upcoming workshop on astrology, poetry, and the ways they intertwine @jessjunewrites.
$4 cover fee, cash only
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.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday the 18th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/people/Two-Idiots-Peddling-Poetry/ or https://www.facebook.com/events
Author Talk:Vickie Vertiz, with Jessica Ceballos y Campbell via substack.com – Online Zoom Event
Vickie Vertiz, in conversation with Jessica Ceballos y Campbell, will discuss her latest book, AUTO/BODY online via Zoom.
All are welcome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: RSVP: wendyortiz@substack.com
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 2 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: N/A (Facebook)
Poetry to Reflect and Rejoice: Readings by Jessica Wilson, Wendy Silva, Alma Rosa Rivera & Brenda Vaca at Santa Ana College – In-Person Event
Poetry to Reflect and Rejoice is an event co-sponsored by the Santa Ana College Foundation and Professor Donato Martinez, and will feature readings by four SoCal Latina Poets:
Jessica Wilson is a poet and educator and the founder of the Los Angeles Poetry Society. She is the author of Serious Longing.
Wendy Silva is a queer Chicana poet from California who did her undergraduate work at UC Riverside and her MFA in poetry at the University of Idaho. In 2010.
Alma Rosa Rivera is a poet and workshop facilitator, and the founder of Barrio Fuerza in San Bernardino and a DIY Chicana run zine press.
Brenda Vaca is a poet and writer, founder of Riot of Roses Press, and the author of the book Riot of Roses. She hosts two monthly reading series in SoCal among her many other endeavors.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Santa Ana College, D101
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 1530 W. 17th St., Santa Ana, CA 92706
Website: N/A (Facebook)
Mystery Book Club: The Long Fall at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Mystery Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, The Long Fall: The First Leonid McGill Mystery #1, by author Walter Mosley.
The Long Fall is about Leonid McGill, an ex-boxer and a hard drinker looking to clean up his act. He’s an old-school P.I. working a New York City that’s gotten a little too fancy all around him. But it’s still full of dirty secrets, and as McGill unearths them, his commitment to the straight and narrow is going to be tested to the limit…
Walter Mosley is one of America’s most celebrated, beloved, and bestselling writers. His books have been translated into at least twenty-one languages and have won numerous awards. Born in Los Angeles, Mosley lives in New York City. This book begins Mosley’s first new series since his acclaimed Easy Rawlins novels.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-long-fall
Author Event: Brian Merchant & Taylor Lorenz in Conversation at Exposition Park-Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Authors Brian Merchant and Taylor Lorenz will be in conversation and present and discuss their books: Blood in the Machine and Extremely Online, respectively.
From a 19th-century worker rebellion against automation to the unlikely origins of social media, join us for a far-reaching discussion into technology, people, and power with authors Brian Merchant and Taylor Lorenz in a celebration of their newly published books!
Brian Merchant is the technology columnist at the Los Angeles Times and the author of The One Device: the Secret History of the iPhone. We’ll be celebrating his new book, Blood in the Machine: the Origins of the Rebellion against Big Tech, which intertwines an examination of our current technological age with the story of the Luddites.
Taylor Lorenz is an acclaimed Washington Post reporter and in Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet presents a groundbreaking social history of the internet—revealing how online influence and the creators who amass it have reshaped our world, online and off.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Exposition Park Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 3900 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90062
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/author-event-brian-merchant-taylor-lorenz-conversation
Book Talk & Signing: Alex Squadron, with Mirin Fader, & Life in the G at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Alex Squadron, in conversation with Mirin Fader, will present and discuss his book Life in the G.
Welcome to the G League—the official minor league of the National Basketball Association. Life in the G is about the arduous quest to achieve an improbable goal: making it to the NBA. Zeroing in on the Birmingham Squadron and four of its players—Jared Harper, Joe Young, Zylan Cheatham, and Malcolm Hill—Alex Squadron details the pursuit of a dream in what turned out to be the most remarkable season in the history of minor league sports…
Alex Squadron is a writer from New York. He attended Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied writing and American culture. While in college, he held editorial internships at Sports Illustrated, SLAM and the NBA, developing his skills as a journalist. Upon graduating, Alex was hired as a sports reporter for the New York Post. He covered all the major New York sports teams and eventually initiated his own weekly NBA column (“Court Awareness”). For three years, he then served as an associate editor for SLAM. During his time with SLAM, he also reported on numerous marquee events, including the NBA Finals, NBA All-Star Weekend, and the FIBA World Cup in China.
Mirin Fader is a senior staff writer for The Ringer and the author of GIANNIS: THE IMPROBABLE RISE OF AN NBA CHAMPION. She wrote for Bleacher Report from 2017 to 2020. Her work has been honored by the Pro Writers Basketball Association, the Associated Press Sports Editors, the U.S. Writers Basketball Association, the Football Writers Association of America, and the Los Angeles Press Club. She was named a Top Women in Media in the “Up and Comer” category in 2019, and her work has been featured in the “Best American Sports Writing” series.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Book Launch: Take The Lane! A TWIG Zine Releaseat LibroMobile – In-Person Event
Come meet TWIG and celebrate their new zine release!
Meet the authors, wiggle and indulge in a drink or two, and get your hands on this zine.
RSVP
Where: LibroMobile Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1150 S Bristol St A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/take-the-lane-a-twig-zine-release
Montana Branch Book Group: A Thousand Steps at Montana Branch Library, SMPL – In-Person Event
Montana Branch Book Group participants will discuss A Thousand Steps by author T. Jefferson Parker.
This thriller is an incisive coming-of-age story, and a vivid portrait of a turbulent time and place by three-time Edgar Award winner and New York Times bestselling author T. Jefferson Parker.
Amazon describes the plot as follows:
Laguna Beach, California, 1968. The Age of Aquarius is in full swing. Timothy Leary is a rock star. LSD is God. Folks from all over are flocking to Laguna, seeking peace, love, and enlightenment.
Matt Anthony is just trying get by…
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Montana Branch Library, SMPL
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 1704 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://smpl.org
Author Talk: Brooke Harris Wolff & Rick Carter & The Best of All Possible Worlds at Flintridge Bookstore – In-Person Event
Brooke Harris Wolff and Rick Carter will discuss her book,The Best of All Possible Worlds, a graphic novel illustrated by Talia Spencer, based on Voltaire’s satirical classic Candide.
This book tells the story of Frank, a man who clings to magical thinking as a way of freeing himself from a world created by power-hungry bullies, even though his journey is filled with the suffering their tyranny has caused.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Flintridge Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 858 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada Flintridge, CA, 91011
Author Signing: James Sturz & UNDERJUNGLE at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
James Sturz will launch and sign his book, UNDERJUNGLE.
Deep below the surface, our world is cold, dark, and content. Colors are fickle. Red disappears first as you descend, followed by the yellow of the sun. The hundred shades of blue last the longest, but eventually there is only black–and the candied ooze of the ocean floor…
James Sturz grew up in New York City, snorkeling in his bathtub and pretending the living room shag carpet was finger coral. Now based in Hawaii, he has covered the underwater world for The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine, Outside and Men’s Journal, among many publications. His fiction and journalism have been published in 18 countries and translated into nine languages. He graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell University and is a PADI Divemaster, free diver, and Explorers Club Fellow. His first novel, Sasso, was set in the caves of Basilicata, Italy, very far from the water.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 7 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lmi8zsbh
At Skylight: Andrew Berardini & COLORS at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Andrew Berardini will present and discuss his new book of short stories, Colors.
Color beams at us from the everyday, but within each of the ten million shades are hidden our best and worst stories.
Colors is a collection of short stories about the many different shades that make up our lives. Berardini guides us through a spectrum of vignettes, weaving inspiration from Calvino’s Invisible Cities and Bowie’s Sound and Vision, arriving at color’s fundamental intersection with who we are and how we live.
Andrew Berardini is a writer, editor, and curator from California. He has curated exhibitions at venues including MOCA-Los Angeles, Palais de Tokyo, Castello di Rivoli, and the Pavilion of Estonia at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Since 2008, he has been faculty at the artist-run free school the Mountain School of Arts and has occasionally run a residency for art writers at the Banff Centre in Canada. A contributing editor at Momus and Mousse, he is the author of the book Danh Vo: Relics (Mousse, 2016) Best known for his poetic and corporeal writing, Berardini has been a longtime contributor to Artforum. Berardini lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Where: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-andrew-berardini-presents-colors
Live Talks LA: Adam Nagourney, with Lisa Napoli, & The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism at Willaim Turner Gallery – In-Person & Virtual Hybrid Event
In The Times, Adam Nagourney, who’s worked at The New York Times since 1996, examines four decades of the newspaper’s history, from the final years of Arthur “Punch” Sulzberger’s reign as publisher to the election of Donald Trump in November 2016. Nagourney recounts the paper’s triumphs—the coverage of September 11, the explosion of the U.S. Challenger, the scandal of a New York governor snared in a prostitution case—as well as failures that threatened the paper’s standing and reputation, including the discredited coverage of the war in Iraq, the resignation of Judith Miller, the plagiarism scandal of Jayson Blair, and the high-profile ouster of two of its executive editors.
Immersive, meticulously researched, and filled with powerful stories of the rise and fall of the men and women who ran the most important newspaper in the nation, The Times is a definitive account of the most pivotal years in New York Times history.
Adam Nagourney covers national politics for The New York Times. Since joining the newspaper in 1996, he has served as Los Angeles bureau chief, West Coast cultural affairs reporter, chief national political correspondent, and chief New York political reporter. He is the co-author of Out for Good, a history of the modern gay rights movement.
Lisa Napoli has had a long career in journalism, including staff reporting jobs at public radio’s Marketplace, the pioneering New York Times CyberTimes, and as a columnist/correspondent at MSNBC. She is the author, most recently, of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR. Her previous books include Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News; a biography of the McDonald’s heiress, Joan Kroc, Ray & Joan, and a memoir about media’s impact on the tiny kingdom of Bhutan, Radio Shangri-La. She is also the co-creator of the Bio Podcast.
NOTE: Tickets and details at event link.
Where: William Turner Gallery at Bergamot Station
Date: Thursday the 19th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 2525 Michigan Ave E-1, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/adam-nagourney/
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 20th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event
Bookish Author Discussion: Amy Ferris and Chuck Palahniuk presented by Southern California News Group via Once Upon a Time Bookstore – Online Event
Southern California News Group and Once Upon a Time Bookstore invite you to attend the Bookish Author Event, featuring authors Amy Ferris and Chuck Palahniuk, in conversation with Sandra Tsing Loh, to present their new books.
Amy Ferris will present and discuss Mighty Gorgeous: A Little Book About Messy Love.
Why are we so determined to be loved rather than to love ourselves? Why is it so hard to forgive our imperfections and remember that we’re extraordinary? Why are we so willing to listen to others’ voices when our own voice is right here, screaming to be heard? Amy Ferris explores these questions in her book.
Chuck Palahniuk will present and discuss Not Forever But For Now.
This is a horror satire about a family of professional killers responsible for the most atrocious events in history and the young brothers that are destined to take over.
Sandra Tsing Loh is the host of BOOKISH, produced by the Southern California News Group. She is the author of several books including The Madwoman and the Roomba, the follow-up to her The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones, which was selected as one of the New York Times’ 100 Most Notable Books. A well-known voice on NPR, she is the producer of the Loh Down on Science and a contributing editor at The Atlantic. Her previous book, Mother on Fire, was inspired by her hit solo show about Los Angeles public education. Her other solo shows include Aliens in America and Bad Sex with Budd Kemp.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday the 20th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/bookish-october-2023
Book Talk & Signing: Keith Ellison & Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, in conversation with Professor Sean Kennedy, will discuss and sign his book, Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence.
With this trial diary, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison asks the key question: How do we break the wheel of police violence and finally make it stop?
Keith Ellison was sworn in as Minnesota’s 30th attorney general on January 7, 2019. From 2007 to 2019, he represented Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he championed consumer, worker, environmental, and civil and human rights protections for Minnesotans. He is the proud father of four adult children: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elijah, and Amirah. He is the first African American and the first Muslim American to be elected to statewide office in Minnesota.
Sean Kennedy joined Loyola Law School as the Kaplan and Feldman Executive Director of its Center for Juvenile Law and Policy (CJLP) in 2014. Prior to this appointment, Kennedy was the Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California from 2006 to 2014 and has also served as Chief of the Federal Public Defender Capital Habeas Unit. In 2013, Kennedy was named Criminal Defense Attorney of the Year by the Los Angeles County Bar Association and received the Fidler Institute Award for Defense Lawyer of the Year from Loyola.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Friday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
QT Open Mic Night at Café con Libros, Pomona – In-Person Event
The LGBTQ+ Open Mic Night is hosted by Liam and Charlie every 4th Friday of the month at Café con Libros Press.
Share in 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, Pomona
Date: Friday the 20th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 280 W. 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: https://cafeconlibrospress.org/event-calendar/
John Robb & The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth at Book Soup – In-Person Event
John Robb will present and discuss his book, The Art of Darkness: The History of Goth.
This book is the first comprehensive history of goth music and culture. Across more than 500 pages, John Robb explores the origins and legacy of this enduring scene, drawing on his own experience and interviews with a host of bands, from Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure to Throbbing Gristle and Lydia Lunch.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/john-robb
At Skylight: Daniel Clowes & MONICA! at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Skylight presents the new graphic novel Monica from Daniel Clowes (Ghost World and Patience).
This is a ticketed, SIGNING-ONLY event! In order to join the signing line you must purchase a copy of Monica from Skylight Books. You can purchase a copy by clicking Add to Cart for Monica at site. When you order this way your order will be assigned a signing line ticket, which will be available when you pick up your book.
Due to time constraints, we are limiting the signing to 5 items, including Monica, at this signing.
Monica is a series of interconnected narratives that collectively tell the life story—actually, stories—of its title character.
Daniel Clowes is a Harvey, Eisner, Ignatz, and PEN America Literary Award Winner whose comics and graphic novels have been translated into over 20 languages worldwide. He is also an Academy Award nominated screenwriter (for Ghost World), and retrospectives of his work have appeared at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Oakland Museum, and the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife and son.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Friday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-daniel-clowes-signs-monica
Vroman’s Presents: Roxane Gay & Opinions at Vroman’s off-site at Pasadena Presbyterian Church – In-Person Event
Roxane Gay will present and discuss her new book of essays, Opinions, an exhilarating collection on culture, politics, and everything in between.
Since the publication of the groundbreaking Bad Feminist and Hunger, Roxane Gay has continued to tackle big issues embroiling society—state-sponsored violence and mass shootings, women’s rights post-Dobbs, online disinformation, and the limits of empathy—alongside more individually personalized matters: can I tell my co-worker her perfume makes me sneeze? Is it acceptable to schedule a daily 8 am meeting? In her role as a New York Times opinion section contributor and the publication’s “Work Friend” columnist, she reaches millions of readers with her wise voice and sharp insights.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, options, and details.
Where: Pasadena Presbyterian Church
Date: Friday the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 585 E, Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA., 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Vromans-presents-Roxane-Gay-discussing-Opinions
The Post Up: Readings & Open Mic hosted by Brenda Vaca at Casa Verde LA – In-Person Event & IG Live
Brenda Vaca hosts The Post Up Readings & Open Mic Event on every 3rd Friday of the month at Uptown Plants at Casa Verde LA. This month’s feature is Jesenia Chavez.
Jesenia Chavez is a proud Chicana, public school teacher, writer, poet, and storyteller and author of This Poem Might Save You (Me) (Alegría Publishing, 2022). She is a border-crossing, Spanglish-speaking, bachata-dancing, ukulele-playing human trying to make you laugh, cry and giggle at the absurdities and beauty in the world. Her writing is inspired by her parents’ immigration from Chihuahua, Mexico, to Los Angeles, California, and the trips back and forth. Jesenia attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, and majored in Chicano studies and sociology with a minor in history.
Come for: Storytelling x Friends and Vendors x Vibes.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Casa Verde LA
Date: Friday the 20th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm
Address: 12909 Philadelphia St., Whittier, CA
Website: https://www.instagram.com/iambrendavaca/?hl=en
SWAAM Spoken Word Art & Music Event & Open Mic by Lorenzo Frank at Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center – In-Person Event
Join us to hear a featured poet, plus an Open Mic, hosted by Lorenzo Frank on the first and third Friday of the month.
Featured artist: TBA
Lorenzo Frank is the author of ‘Nzinga Teaches/Learns a Lesson’ book series.
NOTE: See site for costs, guidelines, and details.
Where: Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center
Date: Friday the 20th
Time: 8 pm – 11 pm
Address: 4305 Degnan Blvd., Leimert Park, Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.facebook.com/swaampoetry
Third Fridays Rapp Saloon Reading Series, with host Elena Secota, via Rapp Saloon – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Third Fridays at Rapp Saloon Open Mic & Featured Readers is an event offered every 3rd Friday of the month, curated by host Elena Secota.
RSVP at site.
Featured guest poets and artists this month: Tom Laiches, Lynda V. E. Crawford, Arthur Kayzakian, plus Surprise Guests.
Share your voice at the Open Mic, where there is a time limit of 4 minutes max. Sign-ups are: 8 pm – 8:30 pm.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA
Date: Friday the 20th
Time: 8:30 pm – 11 pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90401 (Zoom link in bio)
Website: The Rapp Saloon
Saturday Class: Persona Writing and Living in the Po’ment & GLP Practice Event at Get Lit, Words Ignite Office – In-Person Teen Event
Get Lit, Words Ignite is a complete program of working with and sustaining poetic communities inside Los Angeles Schools and their neighborhoods.
Get Lit’s Saturday Class Workshop events are offered every Saturday for teens to expand their poetic and spoken word skills and are followed by GLP Practice sessions.
Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Get Lit Office
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 10 am – 2 pm & 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 672 S. La Fayette Park Place #10, Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.getlit.org/events
Liwanag Lit Fest, Long Beach Event at Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library – In-Person Event
Liwanag Lit Fest, illuminating Filipinx storytelling, returns to the Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library on Saturday 10/21/23!
By Bel Canto Books – Long Beach, CA
Join us at Liwanag Lit Fest 2023, a free literary festival shining a light on the vibrant diversity of Filipinx storytelling, organized by the Long Beach Public Library, Bel Canto Books, and our amazing volunteer team of book lovers!
LIWANAG LIT FEST SCHEDULE:
FEATURED AUTHORS
Children’s Book Authors:
Alexandra Adlawan, BACKYARD JUNGLE: THE ADVENTURES OF MADDIE AND ALBERT
Jocelyn Francisco, DAMDAMAN
Sophia N. Lee, LOLO’S SARI-SARI STORE
Bobbie Peyton, DANCING THE TINIKLING
Michelle Sterling, MARIBEL’S YEAR
Young Adult Authors:
Tracy Badua, THIS IS NOT A PERSONAL STATEMENT
Alex Brown, DAMNED IF YOU DO
Vanessa Lanang, FIREHEART
Adult Authors:
Mia Alvar, IN THE COUNTRY
Maria Bolaños, SANA: POEMS
Genevieve Clutario, BEAUTY REGIMES: A HISTORY OF POWER AND EMPIRE IN THE PHILIPPINES, 1898-1941
Rachelle Cruz, GOD’S WILL FOR MONSTERS
Jasmin Iolani Hakes, HULA
Dominic Lim, ALL THE RIGHT NOTES
Ricco Villanueva Siasoco, THE FOLEY ARTIST: STORIES
Jen Soriano, NERVOUS: ESSAYS ON HERITAGE AND HEALING
Workshops:
Teen Art Workshop with Joey Stupor
Popup Vendors:
Bel Canto Books
Gemmae Bake Shop
Native Sol
KUBO LB
and more!
Plus, BOOK SIGNINGS, PERFORMANCES, AUTHOR PANELS, KIDS’ KRAFT KORNER, and MORE!
RSVP requested – free to attend; free parking behind the Obama Library.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 10 am – 4 pm
Address: 5870 Atlantic Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90805
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/liwanag-lit-fest-2023-tickets-722955247607
Poetry Workshop: at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join this inclusive, in-person poetry workshop 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 RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-0
Notable Fiction Book Group: 10 MInutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World via Santa Monica Main Library, SMPL – Online Zoom Event
Notable Fiction Book Group participants will discuss 10 MInutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by author Elif Shalak.
In the pulsating moments after she has been murdered and left in a dumpster outside Istanbul, Tequila Leila enters a state of heightened awareness. Her heart has stopped beating, but her brain is still active – for 10 minutes 38 seconds. While the Turkish sun rises and her friends sleep soundly nearby, she remembers her life – and the lives of others, outcasts like her.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Santa Monica Main Library, SMPL
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 11 am
Address: Online Event
Website: https://smpl.org
Vroman’s Presents Doggo Day: Catia Chen & THE LONGEST LETSGOBOY – In-Person Family Event
TWO events! One bookstore! Plenty o’ pets!
Artist Catia Chien’s THE LONGEST LETSGOBOY is about the special relationship between kids and dogs, the importance of language, and finding the meaning of life even in its final days.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, options, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E, Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA., 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Doggo-Day-at-Vromans-Bookstore
So You Want to Be a Writer: Workshop with James Coats at Riverside Main Library – In-Person Teen Event
Author and writer James Coats will lead a free writing workshop for teens ages 13-19 on Saturdays from September 9 through November 11, 2023.
This fall, Inlandia brings college-level creative writing workshops to teen-aged creatives thanks to a unique partnership with the City of Riverside Library. Led by James Coats, working writers drawn from the area community will lead teens through a ten-week progressive series. The program will be held at the Riverside Main Library on Saturdays beginning September 9, from 12:00 – 2:00 PM.
Workshop leader James Coats, himself an author, poet, and educator, will welcome a new guest writer each week, offering teens the opportunity to learn from professional working writers in a library environment. Topics will include: poetry, and the different modes of poetic expression; memoir and memory; fiction writing including micro fiction, flash, short stories, and long-form fiction; journalism and the newspaper industry; writing for magazines and periodicals; reading and performing your work for an audience; strategies for revising work toward publication; what it’s like to be an editor; and getting published. The final session will be a public reading and discussion.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Riverside Main Library
Date: Saturday the 21st (through November 11th)
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Address: 3900 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, CA 92501
Creaky Halloween Storytime at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Spooks and spectres and goblins and ghosts! Werewolves and witches and mummies and masks! We’re going to be hosting a recurring storytime on the third Saturday of each month, and what better way to start it off than with a Halloween-themed storytime?? We’ll be reading picture booOOOoooOOooOOoks (which are so much better than picture books) out loud to anyone who would like to join us!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 1 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com
Aida Rodriguez & Legitimate Kid: A Memoir at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Aida Rodriguez will present and discuss her book, Legitimate Kid: A Memoir.
This book is a poignant and moving memoir-in-essays from stand-up comedian Aida Rodriguez on the power of overcoming hardship and transforming pain into laughter.
Aida Rodriguez has, to put it mildly, lived a whirlwind life. Her rags to-riches story is mind-blowing: She was kidnapped as a child by her mother in the Dominican Republic and brought to the US. She was later kidnapped again by her grandmother and uncle and moved from New York to Florida. As an adult, she ended a difficult marriage and endured homelessness with her children in Los Angeles. But through it all she never lost her sense of humor…
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 3 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/aida-rodriguez
Expressions Reading Series & Open Mic at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us in-person or via Zoom for Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series, featuring poetry readings and open poetry mic.
RSVP:
Please email studio@lapl.org for participation details.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City,CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/expressions-la-poetry-reading-series-and-open-mic-1
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Readings from Four Feathers Press Authors – Online Zoom Event
Hosted by DKC & JRT, featured: GIOVAN ALONZI, YISEL BORGES & RYAN NAKANO + Poets published in Four Feathers Press online edition: Spirits and Specters
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Solidarity & Stanzas: Writing as Healing Workshop and Open Mic at Sims Library of Poetry – in-Person Event
Ravina welcomes Solidarity & Stanzas: A Writing as Healing Workshop & Mic featuring Dr, V a& Wynter.
SOLIDARITY AND STANZAS honors the stories that exist within us, in the spaces beyond trauma, beyond a built narrative, and beyond survival. This month we are honoring Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Inspired by the themes explored in WOMXN (author: DR. V) as well as AFTERGLOW (author: Wynter Eddins) SOLIDARITY AND STANZAS will leave you feeling empowered, uplifted and guaranteed to leave with a new piece of writing uncovered from the essence of your inner being.
Featuring DR. V & THE COLDEST WYNTER, hosted by RAVINA- we bring you an immersive creative writing experience followed by an open mic.
Through a guided set of inspiring & thought-provoking writing prompts, blooming in a garden of community, participants will walk away with a new or renewed piece, and words from award winning creative writers.
SOLIDARITY & STANZAS! is facilitated by RAVINA, spoken word poet, mental health therapist, educator and award-winning published author of YELLOW.
RSVP: Admission ticket includes: refreshments, a journal, and a whole lot of friends and love.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 2702 West Florence Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90043
Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Club: Lost Places at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Club participants will discuss Lost Places: Stories by author Sarah Pinsker.
A new collection from the author of Nebula Award winning A Song for a New Day and Philip K Dick Award winning Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea.
Sarah Pinsker’s second collection brings together a seemingly eclectic group of stories that unite behind certain themes: her touchstones of music and memory are joined by stories about secret subversions and hidden messages in art.
Sarah Pinsker’s first novel, A Song For A New Day, won the Nebula Award, and her first short fiction collection, Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea won the Philip K Dick Award. She is also a singer/songwriter who toured nationally behind four albums on various independent labels. She has wrangled horses, managed grants, taught writing to college students, and tended bar badly. She lives with her wife and two rescued terriers in Baltimore, Maryland. Find her online at sarahpinsker.com and on Twitter @sarahpinsker
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 5 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/sci-fi-fantasy-book-club-lost-places
Tarah DeWitt, with Kate Goldbeck, & Funny Feelings at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
The Ripped Bodice presents Tarah DeWitt, in conversation with Kate Goldbeck, to discuss her new book, Funny Feelings.
Funny Feelings is about when falling in love is the punchline…
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Jillian & Mariko Tamaki present ROAMING at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Jillian and Mariko Tamaki will present their graphic novel ROAMING, a triumphant return to the graphic novel and a deft foray into new adult fiction for Caldecott Medal authors Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki.
Over the course of a much-anticipated trip to New York, an unexpected fling blossoms between casual acquaintances and throws a long-term friendship off-balance…
Jillian Tamaki is an illustrator and comics artist. She is the co-creator of Skim and This One Summer, and the author of SuperMutant Magic Academy and Boundless (2017). She has taught comics and illustration in New York City at SVA and The New School. She lives in Toronto.
Mariko Tamaki is a New York Times bestselling Canadian writer of comics and prose. She is the co-creator of This One Summer, with Jillian Tamaki, and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, with Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, both of which received Eisner Awards and Printz Honors. She also writes superhero stories Marvel and DC Comics. Mariko lives in Oakland.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-jillian-mariko-tamaki-present-roaming
Beyond Baroque Gala: Celebrate 55 Years of Beyond Baroque at Playa Studios – In-Person & YouTube Live Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque hosts the 55th anniversary of Beyond Baroque and its literary legacy.
This event will honor some of the people whose talent and generosity have helped build Beyond Baroque and the wider poetry community over decades. Guests will enjoy cocktails, dinner, entertainment, a silent auction, and more.
MC’d by Vanessa Estelle Williams, the program features the 2023 honorees, as well as performances by Theo Saunders Trio, bridgette bianca, and Tom Freund and Victoria Williams. More details to be announced.
See site for tickets, options, and more information!
Where: Beyond Baroque at Playa Studios
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 5:30 pm
Address: 11260 Playa Ct., Culver City, CA 90230
Website: https://event.gives/beyondgala
8th Annual Katipunan Poetry Slam at Tropico De Nopal Gallery Art-Space – In-Person Event
The 8th Annual Katipunan Poetry Slam is an invitational slam about the Filipino American experience. Cash prizes. Suggested donation at the door. All are welcome!
Competitors: Ashley C. Lanuza, Jaime Estepa, Jade Phoenix Martinez, Janelle Paule, Kirby Marquez, Lourdes Marie Gan, Marc Josef Cid, Ren Cahigas, Soul Stuf, TJ Simba-Medel
Sound Selection: DJ Ladybug (they/them)
Food and Drinks: HiFi Kitchen
Co-Hosts: Eddy M. Gana Jr. (they/them) and Arianna Basco (she/her)
Sponsors: Get Lit, Sampaguita Press, and Palms Up Academy
For Filipinos, the modern-day poetry slam is an echo of the balagtasan (a poetic, political debate). Continuing the work of those who have paved the way before us, from Jose Rizal to Jessica Hagedorn, the slam provides a platform for us to showcase the variety of voices and points of view among Filipinos and Filipino-Americans today.
The lineup includes published authors and seasoned slam champions who are recognized both locally and nationally. There’s no limit to what we do with our words, now let us get the community to hear our stories!
1st place wins $500. 2nd place is awarded $250 and 3rd place is awarded $100 with miscellaneous prizes.
Where: Tropico De Nopal Gallery Art-Space
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 5:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1665 Beverly Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/8th-annual-katipunan-poetry-slam-tickets-725913555987
Griot Café Open Mic with Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain & Featured Guest Kuahmel 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.
Featured guest: Kuahmel, Soul Brother #7, poet, music maker, social commentator, and humorist. He is Admissions Director with the Community Literature Initiative and plays host to numerous open mic series, including Project Blowed and Under Mic Influence. He has released two albums, Call It an Album! and On the Fly, and is the author of three books, Knowledge of Self, Sounds from the Waters, and Peace in the Pocket (World Stage Press, 2017).
Where: Griot Café at Shades of Africa
Date: Saturday the 21st
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 1001 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://shadesofafrika.com/griot-cafe-open-mic-poetry/
Children’s Storytime: Olga Herrera & The Unwelcome Surprise at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Olga Herrera will present and sign her children’s book, The Unwelcome Surprise.
The Unwelcome Surprise is a new baby story from debut author-illustrator Olga Herrera that explores the fears and joys that come with change.
Every morning, Bongo walks downstairs to get his food, passing his dried-up potted plant, his old, stained chair, and his stinky stained carpet. Until one morning…something is different! Something monstrous is in his way! Bongo is beside himself with worry; will it take his walks? What if it eats his food? Or even worse…what if it takes his family?!
Olga Herrera was born in Miami, Florida, to a Cuban mother and an Ecuadorian father. She grew up in Ecuador and returned to the United States as a teenager. From a young age, she displayed an artistic ability and a love for cartoons that would shape her future career path. She earned her bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the Ringling College of Art and Design, in Sarasota, Florida, with a major in Illustration, graduating with honors in 2003. She began her career as an illustrator, using traditional media, and sculpture. As her career progressed, she fell in love with digital illustration and concentrated more in storytelling and narrative illustration. The next natural step was to write her own stories to illustrate, inspired by quirky characters and situations in her life. The Unwelcome Surprise is her debut picture book.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time:11 am – 1 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lmi99jl1
Poetry Reading & Open Mic: INCANTATION LODGE at HI-DEF Brewing – In-Person Event
Hannah Pachman hosts the INCANTAION LODGE Poetry Reading & Open Mic with feature Dharma Lemon.
$10 suggested donation.
Where: HIDEF Brewing
Date: Sunday the 21st
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Address: 1203 S. Olive St., Los Angeles, CA 90015
Website: N/A
Book Launch: Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo & Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites at Blossom Market Hall, San Gabriel – In-Person Event
Celebrate the release of Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo’s second poetry collection, INCANTATION: LOVE POEMS FOR BATTLE SITES (Mouthfeel Press), with a hometown party at Blossom Market Hall (264 South Mission Drive, San Gabriel, CA 91776) in San Gabriel’s Mission District on Sunday, Oct 22, 2023 from 2pm-4pm.
Enjoy performances from Xochitl-Julisa and a line-up of SGV poets and writers. Alex Espinoza, Carribean Fragoza, Lupita Limón Corrales, and San Gabriel youth will share poems and stories exploring fear, comfort, and the land. Music will be provided by DJ Rick Takeo. Stay for a book signing with the author and a piece of book cake from San Gabriel panadería, El Pavo! Afterward, patron the 13 local food vendors Blossom Market Hall has to offer and enjoy local treats!
For those who purchase “Admission with Copy of INCANTATION,” you can pick up your copy at the author signing table directly from Xochitl-Julisa.
Don’t miss out on this SGV celebration! Join us for an afternoon of poetry, stories, music, and love. Can’t wait to see you there!
NOTE: RSVP and tickets at Eventbrite link.
Where: Blossom Market Hall
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 264 S. Mission Dr., San Gabirel, CA 91776
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com
LA Made Presents: Keith Corbin & California Soul at Central Library – In-Person Event
Chef Keith Corbin is the two-time James Beard Award nominated executive chef and co-owner of Alta Adams. He will be speaking in person to discuss his bestselling memoir, California Soul, a sharply crafted and unflinchingly honest book about gangs, drugs, cooking, and living life on the line—both in the kitchen and on the streets—from one of the most exciting stars in food today. Moderating the conversation will be writer Jervey Tervalon.
Chef Keith Corbin is the two-time James Beard Award nominated executive chef and co-owner of Alta Adams. During his youth growing up in the Jordan Downs housing projects in Watts, Corbin was involved with gangs and drug dealing, which eventually lead to his incarceration. It was in prison when he first started cooking and working in kitchens, which eventually led to a job with the LocoL restaurant group run by celebrity chefs Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson. From there, Corbin partnered with Patterson on Alta Adams, a “California Soul” food restaurant utilizing local produce and healthier ingredients to put Corbin’s own spin on the food he grew up cooking and eating with his grandmother. Alta has been named one of the best restaurants in the country by Esquire, Thrillist, and the Los Angeles Times, and called “Black Hollywood’s top restaurant” by The Hollywood Reporter.
Where: Central Library, Mark Taper Auditorium
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time: 2 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/la-made-presents-keith-corbin-california-soul-book
La Palabra Poetry Series & Open MIc at Avenue 50 Studios – In-Person & FB Hybrid Event
La Palabra Poetry Series returns on every 4th Sunday of the month and is hosted by Chloe Diaz.
Featured poets include:
Jesenia Chavez, a proud Chicana, public school teacher, writer, poet, and storyteller and author of This Poem Might Save You (Me) (Alegría Publishing, 2022). She is a border-crossing, Spanglish-speaking, bachata-dancing, ukulele-playing human trying to make you laugh, cry and giggle at the absurdities and beauty in the world. Her writing is inspired by her parents’ immigration from Chihuahua, Mexico, to Los Angeles, California, and the trips back and forth. Jesenia attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, and majored in Chicano studies and sociology with a minor in history.
Felip 3. Garcia N/A
Broadcasted on FB Live.
Where: Avenue 50 Studios
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 131 N Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events
Author Event: J. Vanessa Lyon, with Roxane Gay & Lush Lives at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Author J. Vanessa Lyon, in conversation with author Roxane Gay, will discuss her book Lush Lives (Roxane Gay Books).
Lush Lives is a deliciously queer and sexy novel about bold, brilliant women unafraid to take risks and fight for what they love
A love story set in the evocative and high-stakes world of art and auction in New York City, Roxane Gay Books’ second title is in the vein of Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date and Helen Wan’s The Partner Track.
For Glory Hopkins, inheriting her Aunt Lucille’s Harlem brownstone feels more like a curse than a blessing. As a restless artist struggling to find gallery representation, Glory doesn’t have the money, time, or patience to look after the aging house of an aunt she barely knew. But when she stumbles into Parkie de Groot, a savvy, ambitious auction house appraiser on the verge of a coveted promotion, her unexpected inheritance begins to look more promising. Glory and Parkie form an unlikely alliance and work to unearth the origins of a rare manuscript hidden in the brownstone’s attic. In doing so, they uncover not only the well-kept secrets of Lucille’s life but also the complex relationships between Harlem and its distinguished residents…
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time: 4 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Author Conversation: Rebecca Clarren, with Rabbi Susan Goldberg, & The Cost of Free Land at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Rebecca Clarren, in conversation with Rabbi Susan Goldberg, will present and sign her book, The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance.
An award-winning author investigates the entangled history of her Jewish ancestors’ land in South Dakota and the Lakota, who were forced off that land by the United States government.
With deep empathy and clarity of purpose, Clarren grapples with the personal and national consequences of this legacy of violence and dispossession. What does it mean to survive oppression only to perpetuate and benefit from the oppression of others? By shining a light on the people and families tangled up in this country’s difficult history, The Cost of Free Land invites readers to consider their own culpability and what, now, can be done.
Rebecca Clarren has been writing about the American West for more than twenty years. She is the winner of the 2021 Whiting Nonfiction Grant for her work on The Cost of Free Land. Her journalism, for which she has won the Hillman Prize, an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, and ten grants from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, has appeared in such publications as Mother Jones, High Country News, The Nation, and Indian Country Today. Her debut novel, Kickdown, was shortlisted for the PEN/Bellwether Prize.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lmi9edez
Graphic Novel Launch: Emily Bowen Cohen & Two Tribes at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Using original artwork, Emily Bowen Cohen shares how her personal story inspired the graphic novel, Two Tribes. She traces the history of her Muscogee and Jewish family to highlight similarities and differences. This thirty-minute talk is an uplifting story about diving deeply into family.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/30877
Live Talks LA: Rachel Maddow, with Jacob Soboroff, & Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism at Robert Frost Auditorium – In-Person & Virtual Hybrid Event
NOTE: In-Person Event is SOLD OUT; Tickets available for Virtual Event
Rachel Maddow traces the fight to preserve American democracy back to World War II, when a handful of committed public servants and brave private citizens thwarted far-right plotters trying to steer our nation toward an alliance with the Nazis. .
Rachel Maddow is host of the Emmy Award–winning The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Drift and Blowout, and the New York Times bestselling co-author of Bag Man. She has also written, produced, and hosted three original podcasts for MSNBC—Rachel Maddow Presents: Bag Man, Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra, and most recently the six-episode series Rachel Maddow Presents: Deja News. Maddow received a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Stanford University and earned her doctorate in political science at Oxford University.
In her new book, Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism, based on research for her podcast, Ultra, Maddow traces the rise of a radical strain of authoritarianism that has been alive and well in America for the better part of a century.
NOTE: Tickets and details at event link.
Where: Robet Frost Auditorium
Date: Sunday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 4401 Elenda St., Culver City, CA 90230
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/rachel-maddow/
Historical Romance Book Club: The Companion at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
October’s Historical Romance Book Club will discuss The Companion, by author E.E. Ottoman.
Orders Manger Katie S. leads this book club that focuses on all historical romance titles, all eras, both new and old. Ballrooms, carriages, and corsets oh my!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 22nd
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 