NaNoWriMo “Write-ins” at the Fabulous Central Library, LAPL– In-Person Event
November is National Novel Writing Month. Celebrate National Novel Writing Month with weekly “Write-In” sessions in the Literature & Fiction department’s large study room. This cozy conference-style room features wi-fi, outlets, comfy chairs, and whiteboards. Light refreshments will be served along with literary inspo. What more could an aspiring novelist ask? Come Write In!
RSVP: Space is limited, so email fiction@lapl.org to register today.
NOTE: See site for details. Submit RSVP at site link.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Literature & Fiction Study Rooms
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 6 am – 8 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/nanowrimo-write-ins-fabulous-central-library-0
Shelley Herman & My Peacock Tale: Secrets of an NBC Page at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Shelley Herman will present and discuss her book, My Peacock Tale: Secrets of an NBC Page.
This book is a memoir filled with real-life, never-before-told stories, set against the backdrop of NBC Burbank in the mid-70s.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/shelley-herman
Book Launch: Group Reading of Act Like You Know Me with Pippa Garner, Hayden Dunham, Cyrus Dunham, and Fiona Duncan at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Stories presents the launch of Act Like You Know Me and a group reading with: Pippa Garner, Hayden Dunham, Cyrus Dunham, and Fiona Duncan.
This book surveys fifty years of her radical and trans-disciplinary art practice of Pippa Garner, from the late 1960’s to the early 2010’s, through 400 photographs, illustrations, ephemera, and original writings.
At this reading and signing, Pippa Garner will be joined by multidisciplinary artist Hayden Dunham, writer and activist Cyrus Dunham (A Year Without A Name: A Memoir), and writer and co-editor of Act Like You Know Me, Fiona Duncan.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Vroman’s Local Author Day: Genevieve Huffman, Scott Lord, and Roger Parham-Brown at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Genevieve Huffman will present her book Time and Soul.
Journey to a mythical world of dragons and magic and discover a love story that transcends gender and embodies an authentic representation of queer relationships.
Scott Lord will present his book, Come November.
November 1947: Jeanne and John, two newspaper journalists, fall in young love as they travel from Chicago to New York to witness the momentous vote of the United Nations to partition Palestine and create the State of Israel. When they discover an assassination plot meant to swing the outcome, they must put their personal lives on hold and race the clock to stop it, uncovering elaborate details of international politics along the way. Fifty years later, having gone their separate ways, the two reconnect in Italy, set against a stunning pastoral backdrop.
Roger Parham-Brown will present his book, The Song of Sylvia.
This novel is about beauty, the search for identity and the integration of the self. Most profoundly, this novel is about what it means to be of mixed race in America. The novel is set against the vast tapestry of sea and sky that dominates the Los Angeles area.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday the 27th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA., 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Vromans-Local-Author-Day-November-27-2023
Monday Night Fiction Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Online Zoom 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 27th
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-764033594047
Jewel Parker Rhodes & Treasure Island – Runaway Gold via Children’s Book World – Online Kids Event
Children’s Book World invites your school to participate in a virtual school event for Jewel Parker Rhodes and her new children’s book, Treasure Island – Runaway Gold.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Children’s Book World
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 9 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Venice Branch Library Book Club: Sea of Tranquility via Venice Branch Library, LAPL– Online Event
Vence Library Book Club participants will discuss Sea of Tranquility, by author Emily St. John Mandel.
This book of fiction is a virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful. Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.
Copies are available at the circulation desk.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Venice Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/venice-book-club-1
Virtual Author Panel: Kit Rocha, Jennifer L. Armentrout, & Katee Robert, with Sarah Wendell via The Ripped Bodice – Online Event
Join authors Jennifer L. Armentrout, Katee Robert, and Kit Rocha as they spill the secrets of their latest releases, delve into the world of sexy monsters, sensual magic, and immortal warriors, and try to figure it all out.
Moderated by Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Sharing True Stories via Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Westwood Branch Library invites you to share something that happened to you. You can read a piece that you wrote or speak off-the-cuff. You are also welcome to just listen. The stories can be funny, sad, or simply slice-of-life. This is your opportunity to express yourself!
RSVP:
To receive a Zoom invitation, please contact wwood@lapl.org.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/life-stories-open-mic
Phi-Sci Book Club: This Is Your Brain on Music at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Phy-Sci Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by author Daniel J. Levitin.
In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music—its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it—and the human brain.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/book/9780452288522
The Mystery Book Club: The Arrangement at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL– In-Person Event
The Mystery Book Club participants will discuss The Arrangement, by author Robyn Harding.
This novel delves into the sordid, all-too-real world of shadowy relationships between wealthy, powerful men and the young women who are caught in their web.
New members are always welcome.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-22
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 at Google Classroom (app or web). Registration code: kdcmthg.
For more information: DSTLArts.org/conchasycafezine.
Where: DSTL Arts
Date: Tuesday the 28th (through 12/19/23)
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw0cb1GLt-6/
Short Story Event with Tim O’Leary at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Award-winning author Tim O’Leary will discuss and sign his new collection of short stories, Men Behaving Badly.
O’Leary’s new collection dives into the psyches of the most destructive men–a stalker, a Klansman, public shooters—and creates narratives that neither rationalize, nor over-empathize. Employing fiercer social commentary and broader imagination, these new stories are concerned with justice, redemption, mockery of a decaying and violent culture and the often-greedy men behind it.
Tim O’Leary is the author of Warriors, Workers, Whiners, & Weasels, Dick Cheney Shot Me in the Face, Men Behaving Badly, and, forthcoming, The Corona Verses, to be released in 2024. He graduated from the University of Montana and received his MFA from Pacific University.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/31896
Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, with Catherine Hardwick, & Alice Sadie Celine at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, in conversation with Cathrine Hardwick,will present and discuss her book, Alice Sadie Celine.
Set over the course of decades—from Alice and Sadie’s early friendship days and Celine’s decision to leave her husband to the radical movements of 1990s Berkeley and navigating contemporary Hollywood—Alice and Celine’s affair will test the limits of their love for Sadie and their own beliefs of power, agency, and feminism. This debut adult novel is a mesmerizing portrait of the inner lives of three very different women.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/sarah-blakely-cartwright
Writing Away Trauma Workshopvia Los Angeles Poet Society – Online Event
Writing Away Trauma workshop will be led by poet and trauma survivor, Noi Lelek! Seek a safe community in us as we journey through our tender memories and traumas and write through it.
Writing is healing, it helps us to release things that are hard to face, process, cope with, or just express.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Los Angeles Poet Society
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=744183337752964&set=pb.100064839122535.-2207520000
Peter Coviello, with Anahid Nersessian, & Is There God After Prince? at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Peter Coviello, in conversation with Anahid Nersessian,will present and discuss his book, Is There God After Prince?: Dispatches from an Age of Last Things.
This is a book of essays considering what it means to love art, culture, and people in an age of accelerating disaster. This is a book about loving things—books, songs, people—as an attachment to life itself.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lntdal3n
Non-Fiction Book Club: Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Non-Fiction Book Club participants will discuss Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by authorZeke Faux. Facilitated by Mark Polak.
In 2021 cryptocurrency went mainstream. As he observed this frenzy, investigative reporter Zeke Faux had a nagging question: Was it all just a confidence game of epic proportions? What started as curiosity—with a dash of FOMO—would morph into a two-year, globe-spanning quest to understand the wizards behind the world’s new financial machinery. Faux’s investigation would lead him to a schlubby, frizzy-haired twenty-nine-year-old named Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF for short) and a host of other crypto scammers, utopians, and overnight billionaires. This book is an essential chronicle, by turns harrowing and uproarious, of a $3 trillion financial delusion.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/non-fiction-book-club-14
Reading & Conversation with Natasha Stagg & Jackie Wang at Poetic Research Bureau – In-Person Event
Semiotext(e) and the Poetic Research Bureau present a night of readings and conversation at 2220 Arts+Archives with writers Natasha Stagg and Jackie Wang.
Both writers have new collections published by Semiotext(e) this fall: Jackie Wang’s intellectual biography Alien Daughter Walk into the Sun and Natasha Stagg’s Artless: Stories 2019-2023.
Natasha Stagg is a writer, brand consultant, and editor. She has published three books with Semiotext(e): Surveys (2016), Sleeveless (2019), and Artless (2023). She lives and works in New York City.
Jackie Wang is a poet, scholar, multimedia artist, and assistant professor of American studies & ethnicity at the University of Southern California, where she researches race, surveillance technology, and the political economy of prisons and police. She is the author of Carceral Capitalism (Semiotext(e), 2018) and the poetry collection The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us from the Void (Nightboat Books, 2021, National Book Award Finalist). Her current book project, The Carceral Laboratory: The Rise of High-Tech Prisons and Police, is forthcoming with Princeton University Press.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.poeticresearch.com/events/natasha-stagg-and-jackie-wang
Book Launch: Travis Jeppesen, with Bradford Nordeen & Settlers Landing at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Stories presents the launch of Settlers Landing, with author Travis Jeppersen, in conversation with Bradford Nordeen.
This book is a pyrotechnic satire by Travis Jeppersen, art critic and author of ten books.
Bradford Nordeen is a writer, curator, and the founder of Dirty Looks Inc.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
David Kipen & Dear California at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
David Kipen will discuss his book, Dear California: The Golden State in Diaries and Letters, his follow-up to Dear Los Angeles, which reflects on the state’s shifting landscapes and the notion of place. Entries talk across the centuries, from indigenous stories told before the Spanish arrived on the Pacific coast through to present-day tweets, blogs, and other ephemera. The collected voices show how far we’ve wandered—and how far we still have to go in chasing the elusive California dream.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA., 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/David-Kipen-discusses-Dear-California
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Lana Hechtman Ayers – Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Lana Hechtman Ayers.
Lana Hechtman Ayers, originally from New York, resides in Kingston, WA. She runs Night Rain Poetry, which offers poetry editing, a manuscript organization service, and writing and publishing workshops. She publishes the Concrete Wolf and MoonPath Press Poetry Chapbook Series and is an Editor-at-Large for Crab Creek Review. She is a founding member of the World Enough Writers Co-Operative Press.
Her first full-length book, Dance from Inside My Bones, won the 2006 Violet Reed Haas Award and was published by Snake Nation Press. Her second full-length collection, Chicken Farmer I Still Love You, won D-N Publishing’s national manuscript contest.
Her newest chapbook, What Big Teeth, was published by Kissena Park Press, and her most recent full-length collection, A New Red, came out in 2010 from Pecan Grove Press. Both tell the true-life story of Red Riding Hood.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 28th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar
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 28th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 3301 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups or https://www.facebook.com/events/213407634459999/?active_tab=discussion
Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic 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) they hold open mic nights.
NOTE: See sign-ups, 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 28th
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
Good Trouble Reading Group: Stories from Grand Union by Zadie Smith at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Good Trouble Reading Group participants will discuss stories from Grand Union, by author Zadie Smith.
Join Dr. Andrea Liss for our next Good Trouble Reading Group. We will read and discuss a selection of stories from Zadie Smith’s 2019 collection Grand Union. The first short story collection from this acclaimed British-Jamaican novelist is a showcase for her bewitching intelligence, wry humor, and genius for compressing intense emotion into brief. These angular narratives illuminate the complexities of modern life. Grand Union is available from the Los Angeles Public Library as a print book, e-book, and e-audiobook.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/good-trouble-reading-group-stories-grand-union-zadie-smith
Sci-Fi Book Club: Dune by Frank Herbert at Van Nuys Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Sci-Fi Book Club participants will discuss Dune by author Frank Herbert, moderated by John Tommmasino.
Copies of this novel are available at the library front desk.
“Thousands of years in the future, the Universe is dependent on the mysterious spice which is harvested on one planet only, the barren desert wasteland of Arrakis, also known as Dune.”
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Ven Nuys Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 6250 Sylmar Ave., Van Nuys, CA 91401
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/sci-fi-book-club-dune-frank-herbert
Mystery Book Discussion: Corpse Flower at Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Mystery Book Discussion participants will discuss Corpse Flower – A Kaldan and Scháfer Mystery, 1 (2021) by Anne Mette Hancock.
Danish journalist Heloise Kaldan is in the middle of a nightmare. One of her sources has been caught lying, and she could lose her job over it. Then she receives the first in a series of cryptic and unsettling letters from a woman named Anna Kiel.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-discussion
Reading in Bed with Jessica via Los Angeles Poet Society – Online Event
Reading in Bed with Jessica is offered every Wednesday from 6 pm – 8 pm at 101.5FM, where host Jessica Wilson Cardenas hosts literary and performance artist guests in conversation.
Guests TBA
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Online Event
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: www.radioollin.org
Website: https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events
Mystery & Thriller Book Club: The Golden Spoon at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Mystery & Thriller Book Club participants will discuss The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell.
This novel is a darkly beguiling locked-room mystery where someone turns up dead on the set of TV’s hottest baking competition.
RSVP:
Please email studio@lapl.org for details.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-thriller-book-club
Lucas Hilderbrand & The Bars Are Ours at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Lucas Hilderbrand will present and discuss his book, The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America, 1960 and After.
In The Bars Are Ours Lucas Hilderbrand offers a panoramic history of gay bars, showing how they served as the medium for queer communities, politics, and cultures. He explores roles that bars have played in queer public life across the country.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/lucas-hilderbrand
Write to Read Presents: Sesshu Foster Reading at Chapman Crafted in Orange – In-Person Event
American Book Award winner Sesshu Foster, author of City of the Future and Eladatl: a History of the East Los Angeles Dirigible Air Transport Lines, will read and discuss his work, with openers, including: Gustavo Hernandez, author of Flower, Grand, First.
Foster is winner of an American Book Award and an Asian American Literary Award for Poetry.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Chapman Crafted, Orange
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 123 N. Cypress St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/linda.ravenswood
The Los Angeles Press Presents Anthology Launch: V9 The Gold Issue at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Los Angeles Press launches its anthology, V 9: The Gold Issue with Jennifer Lewis, Brian Sonia-Wallace, Phillip T. Nails, Ivan Salinas & Others.
NOTE: See FB for guidelines and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website:
Book Launch: A.J. Brown, with guests, & The Apple House at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Stories presents the launch of The Apple House, with author A.J. Brown, and with readings from Erin Satterthwaite, Riley Quinn Scott, Brittany Menjivar, and S.M. Van De Kamp.
Hosted by S.M. Van De Kamp.
“Aiden Brown illuminates a fraught, grief-seeped life in The Apple House which navigates the boundaries and limitations of girlhood and the hauntings one experiences whilst being disturbingly alive.”
– Lux Alexander
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Vroman’s Fiction Reading Group & Crossroads at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
The Vroman’s Fiction Reading Group participants will discuss the novel, Crossroads, by author Jonathan Franzen.
In Crossroads, Franzen ventures back into the past and explores the history of two generations. With characteristic humor and complexity, he interweaves perspectives and sustained suspense, and conjures a world that resonates powerfully with our own. Its action largely unfolds on a single winter day and is the story of a Midwestern family at a pivotal moment of moral crisis.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Vroman’s Meeting Room – in the Atrium
Date: Wednesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 709 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA., 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Vroman-s-Fiction-Reading-Group-November-2023
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;
- 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 the29th
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 29th
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-765225208197
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg & Guest Feature Eric Moraga at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Nights offers a Reading & Open Mic, with featured guest Eric Moraga.
Eric Moraga is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet who believes performance carries as much importance on the page as it does off. He is the author of What We Ache For and Feasting on Sky. Currently Eric teaches writing workshops and is editor-in-chief and publisher of Moon Tide Press and Spillway Magazine. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from California State University, Long Beach, and lives in Los Angeles, CA.
$4 cover fee, cash only.
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday the 29th
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/3259007351071320/?ref=newsfeed
We Love L.A. Book Club: House Made of Dawn at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
We Love L.A. Book Club celebrates Native American Heritage Month by reading and discussing the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday. It is a narrative of a young Native American named Abel who is caught between two worlds-his native heritage on the reservation and the industrialized world of contemporary America in Los Angeles.
The library will have copies to check out or check our e-media page for electronic access on Libby and hoopla.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 5027 Caspar Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90041
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/we-love-la-book-club-4
NaNoWriMo Write-in Sessions at Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
November is National Novel Writing Month! NaNoWriMo’s challenge is to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days.
Join fellow writers from the community as we write our novels. This is all about writing, so no reading or editing during the month. These Write-In events are all about giving you the time and space to write!
Writers of all ages are welcome. We’ll be meeting in the library’s community room upstairs. We’ll have writing sprints (short, focused time to write) and plenty of encouragement for you.
Where: Donald Bruce Kaufman-Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/nanowrimo-write-sessions
Persian Poetry Forum at Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
This program series offers a forum for people of all backgrounds to come together and learn about Persian poetry. We look forward to building bridges, engendering dialogue, and creating a sense of community among Angelenos and those who join our programs from other places.
November RSVP:
Registering for this event is highly encouraged: persian@lapl.org.
Where: Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 12006 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-forum-los-angeles-persian
LGBTQ Book Club: The Bell in the Fog at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
LGBTQ Book Club participants will discuss the book The Bell in the Fog (Evander Mills #2), by author Lev AC Rosen.
The Bell in the Fog, a historical mystery by Lev AC Rosen, asks—once you have finally found a family, how far would you go to prove yourself to them?
San Francisco, 1952. Detective Evander “Andy” Mills has started a new life for himself as a private detective—but his business hasn’t exactly taken off. It turns out that word spreads fast when you have a bad reputation, and no one in the queer community trusts him enough to ask an ex-cop for help.
Lev AC Rosen writes books for people of all ages, including the Anthony and Lambda Literary Award nominated Lavender House. His YA novel Camp was a best book of the year from Forbes, Elle, and The Today Show, among others, and is a Lambda finalist and ALA Rainbow List Top Ten. He lives in NYC with his husband and a very small cat. You can find him online at LevACRosen.com and @LevACRosen.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/black-lit-book-club-scratch
Kliph Nesteroff, with Laraine Newman (SNL), & Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Kliph Nesteroff, in conversation with Laraine Newman (SNL), will discuss his book,Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars.
In Outrageous, celebrated cultural historian Kliph Nesteroff demonstrates that Americans have been objecting to entertainment for nearly two hundred years, sometimes rationally, often irrationally. Likewise, powerful political interests have sought to circumvent the arts using censorship, legal harassment, and outright propaganda.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA., 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/kliph-nesteroff
Kaz Rowe & LIBERATED at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Kaz Rowe will present and discuss her book, LIBERATED.
Kaz’s work focuses thematically on liminal identity and using fantasy as a vehicle to explore intersections between community and purpose. Additionally, Kaz is a historical researcher and creates mini-comics dedicated to LGBT historical figures and runs a YouTube channel with lecture-style historical topics.
At the turn of the twentieth century in Nantes, France, Lucy Schwob met Suzanne Malherbe, and lightning struck. The two became partners both artistically and romantically and transformed themselves into the creative personas Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. Together, the couple embarked on a radical journey of Surrealist collaboration that would take them from conservative provincial France to the vibrancy of 1920s Paris to the oppression of Nazi-occupied Jersey during World War II, where they used art to undermine the Nazi regime.
Cahun and Moore challenged gender roles and championed freedom at a time when strict societal norms meant that the truth of their relationship had to remain secret.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-ln3koehd
Rev. Liên Shutt, with Lon Kurashige, & Home Is Here at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Rev. Liên Shutt, in conversation with Lon Kurashige will discuss her book, Home Is Here.
While written mainly for Asian American Buddhists and other BIPOC practitioners, Home is Here moves us all from knowing and contemplation to a place of action and wholeness. It connects foundational practices to urgent causes—and invites readers on a path home to wholeness.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA., 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Lien-Shutt-with-Lon-Kurashige-discusses-Home-is-Here
Patricia Cornwell, with Jamie Lee Curtis, & Unnatural Death: A Scarpetta Novel at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Patricia Cornwell, in conversation with Jamie Lee Curtis, will discuss her book,Unnatural Death: A Scarpetta Novel.
In Unnatural Death chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds herself in a Northern Virginia wilderness examining the remains of two campers wanted by federal law enforcement. The victims have been savaged beyond recognition, and other evidence is terrifying and baffling, including a larger-than-life footprint. Scarpetta must discover who would commit murders this savage, and why.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA., 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/book-soup-presents-patricia-cornwell-jamie-lee-curtis
LA Book Launch: Abigail Hing Wen, with Ashley Liao, Nicola Yoon and David Yoon & Loveboat Forever at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Celebrate a book launch for Loveboat Forever, with author Abigial Hing Wen, in conversation with Ashley Liao, Nicola Yoon and David Yoon.
Set six years after the events of Loveboat Taipei, this book brings the whole gang back to campus for another reunion.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Serpentine Monthly Poetry Showcase + Open Readingat North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Ingrid Calderon-Collins hostsand curatesSerpentine, a monthly open mic poetry reading with featured poets.
Bring us your works-in-progress, your experiments, your magnum opuses – all are welcome!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Book Launch: Hannah Studnick, with guests, & Bad on Purpose at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Stories presents the launch of Bad on Purpose with author Hannah Studnick, and with readings from Rachel Nagelberg, Tori Gesualdo, Caitlin Forst, and Magda.
Written with sincerity and humor, Hannah Studnick offers a living, breathing tribute to her late twin sister with this debut poetry collection from the LA-based Sunflower Station Press. This release event will feature readings from the author as well as Magda, Rachel Nagelberg, Caitlin Forst, and Tori Gesualdo.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
L.A. Book Launch: Jason McBride & Eat Your Mind: The Radical Life and Work of Kathy Acker at Poetic Research Bureau – In-Person Event
Poetic Research Bureau present author Jason McBride, who will discuss his book Eat Your Mind: The Radical Life and Work of Kathy Acker.
This event will feature a reading from the new paperback release of the book, a conversation with Anahid Nersessian, and a presentation of Kathy Acker’s desk by Matias Viegener, the executor of her estate, upon its donation to The Poetic Research Bureau.
Acker was not just a singular writer, she was also a titanic cultural force who tied together disparate movements in literature, art, music, theatre, and film. A feat of literary biography, Eat Your Mind draws on exclusive interviews with hundreds of Acker’s intimates as well as her private journals, correspondence, and early drafts of her work, offering a thrilling account and a long-overdue reassessment of a misunderstood genius and revolutionary artist.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm (Doors at 7 pm)
Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.poeticresearch.com/events/jason-mcbride-on-kathy-acker
L.A. Book Launch: Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo & Incantations: Love Poems for Battle Sites at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Celebrate Incantations: Love Poems for Battle Sites by Xochiotl-Julisa Bermejo, and featuring readings by Josh Evans, féi hernandez, Jenise Miller and Jasmine Williams. Art is by Rafael Cardenas.
Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites is a Chicana’s witness to the American ethos in a time marked by controversy, division, and transformation. Bermejo delves into the heart of the matter, contemplating the significance of US monuments as both symbols of history and battlegrounds for ideological strife, and imparts a compassionate ear to the marginalized, memorializing the lives of Black and brown individuals whose lives were cut short by state-sanctioned violence.
Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and author of Posada: Offerings of Witness and Refuge (Sundress Publications) and Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites (Mouthfeel Press). A former Steinbeck Fellow and Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange winner, she’s received residencies from Hedgebrook, Ragdale, Yefe Nof, and National Parks Arts Foundation in partnership with Gettysburg National Military Park and Poetry Foundation. Her poem “Battlegrounds” was featured at Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, On Being’s Poetry Unbound, and Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World (W.W. Norton). She teaches with Antioch University, MFA and UCLA Extension and is the director of Women Who Submit.
Josh Evans is pioneering the next wave of accessible mixed media storytelling across genres. He is a published poet, educator, writer, director, and producer based in Southern California with a passion for pushing storytelling out into the wild. He believes stories are at their best when allowed to breathe, to be honest, and to surprise you. Respect of the craft, a daring to experiment, and detailed attention to high quality can all co-exist.
féi hernandez (b. 1993, Chihuahua, Mexico) is a trans, Inglewood-raised, formerly undocumented immigrant. féi is the author of the full-length poetry collection Hood Criatura (Sundress Publications 2020). They are a 2023 LAMBDA LITERARY fellow and 2022 Tin House Scholar. féi has been published in Poetry Foundation, Poets.Org, Autostraddle, PANK Magazine, Somewhere We are Human, TransLash Media & Narrative, and more. féi is the founder of The House of Etéreo and within it, Spirit School for the Divinely Gifted, a spiritual learning space for trans and queer BIPOC spiritual practitioners.
Jasmine Williams is from South Central Los Angeles and is the Executive Director/Producer of Da Poetry Lounge Co. She holds 15 years of residencies that provide equitable creative education to imprisoned and at-risk young adults with non-profit organizations. She has created work featured on FOX, HBO, PBS, & Facebook just to name a few. Jasmine creates to amplify the voices of those brave enough to be heard. She loves mint chocolate chip ice cream, and on her time off she is a UNO champion, a VIP member of Twilight #TeamEdward, before falling asleep to episodes of Hey Arnold or The Office.
Jenise Miller is an Afro-Panamanian poet, writer, and urban planner from Compton, California. She is a California Arts Council Artist Fellow, recent PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, and Tin House and VONA workshop alumna. She created and edits the KCET Artbound article series, “Compton: Arts and Archives,” and coordinates the History of Compton Arts Interview Project. A Pushcart-nominated poet, her writing is featured in her poetry chapbook, The Blvd, the Acentos Review, Boom California, Los Angeles Review of Books, Los Angeles Times, and the forthcoming essay anthology, Writing the Golden State: The New Literary Terrain of California.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Friday the 1st
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Western Edge Writers at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Writers and aspiring writers, join us for a group that supports writing endeavors of all genres: fiction, poetry, nonfiction and memoir.
Please email eaglrk@lapl.org for the writing prompt.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 10 am
Address: 5027 Caspar Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90041
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/western-edge-writers
Storytime with Janie Eamus & Latkes for Santa Claus at Flintridge Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Janie Eamus presents her children’s book, Latkes for Santa Claus, which was a finalist for the 2022 International Book Awards.
Anna is excited that Santa will be visiting her house for the first time, and she wants to leave Santa a treat that blends the holidays her new family celebrates: Christmas and Hanukkah.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Flintridge Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 10:30 am
Address: 858 Foothill Blvd., La Canada Flintridge, CA 91011
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 2nd
Time: 11 am
Address: 630 W, 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-0
Poetry Workshop: Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo & Learning the Rules to Break the Rules in Poetry at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Poet, educator, and author Xochiotl-Julisa Bermejo will lead a poetry workshop titled Learning the Rules to Break the Rules in Poetry.
Before modern times, plays, stories, ballads, epics, parables, etc. began as oral tradition and were shared using the rhymes, rhythms, and patterns we now recognize as poetry. And though formal poetry can feel intimidating or restricting, at one point, it was every day. In this workshop, writers of all levels will be reacquainted with the sounds of poetry and learn the rules of fixed forms—sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, and pantoum—not to master them, but to break them. From the pieces we may just find the best words, sounds, and shapes for containing some big emotions.
Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and author of Posada: Offerings of Witness and Refuge (Sundress Publications) and Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites (Mouthfeel Press). A former Steinbeck Fellow and Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange winner, she’s received residencies from Hedgebrook, Ragdale, Yefe Nof, and National Parks Arts Foundation in partnership with Gettysburg National Military Park and Poetry Foundation. She teaches poetry and creative writing with Antioch University, MFA and UCLA Extension. Bermejo is the director of Women Who Submit.
Bermejo’s Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites is a Chicana’s witness to the American ethos in a time marked by controversy, division, and transformation. Bermejo delves into the heart of the matter, contemplating the significance of US monuments as both symbols of history and battlegrounds for ideological strife, and imparts a compassionate ear to the marginalized, memorializing the lives of Black and brown individuals whose lives were cut short by state-sanctioned violence.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Author Event: Daniel Sweren-Becker & Kill Show: A True Crime Novel at West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL– In-Person Event
Daniel Sweren-Becker will present and discuss Kill Show: A True Crime Novel.
This novel a16-year-old girl vanishes without a trace. A decade later, to commemorate (celebrate?) her disappearance, those involved have agreed to participate in a series of oral histories documenting what happened. Each person will describe events from their own unique perspectives, providing, for the first time, the entire story of what happened, which has never been available until now.
In Kill Show, Daniel Sweren-Becker takes a critical look at the often-microscopic line that separates crime and entertainment. Kill Show is a fiction novel but is presented in the format of a series of interviews with 26 individuals involved and conducted ten years after the young woman disappeared.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm
Address: 19036 Vanowen St., Reseda, CA 91335
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/daniel-sweren-becker-kill-show
Author Event: Jeff Gottesfeld & Food Is Hope and Christmas Mitzvah at Central Library, LAPL– In-Person Event
Jeff Gottesfeld will present and discuss The Christmas Mitzvah (2021) and Food for Hope: How John van Hengel Invented Food Banks for the Hungry (2023).
The author will share what inspired him to write these true stories of kindness, goodwill, and philanthropy. Intended for ages five and up.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Children’s Literature
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/author-jeff-gottesfeld
Public Works Improv: “Bundle Up” Readings hosted by Eric Vollmer at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
“Bundle Up” is a Voice in the Well literary production for the holidays with an exciting and theatrical night of reading and performances at Beyond Baroque. Tonight, we welcome in the Season with Satire & Santa!
Host Eric Vollmer introduces the Show.
Jeffrey Van Der Byl declares “Yes, Virginia, There Is A Christmas!”
Lee Boek (as Santa) presents “Twas The Night Before Christmas”
Brian Knudson does a dramatic reading from the film NETWORK
Marie Bergenholtz tells the story of St. Lucia & Winter Solstice Time in Sweden
Silvia Spross relates a Kurt Vonnegut Jr story about a Tralfamadorian Robot
Guitar Wizard Vinnie Caggiano brings on the Holiday Cheer!
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 2 pm – 5 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bundle-up-a-voice-in-the-well-literary-production-tickets-764262017267
GLP Practice at Get Lit – Words Ignite – In-Person Teen Event
Get Lit Players Practice sessions every Saturday afternoon.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Get Lit – Words Ignite
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: info@getlit.org or 213-388-8639
Website: https://www.getlit.org/events
Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series and Open Mic at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL– In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join Expressions L.A. Poetry & Open MIc in-person or via Zoom for Expressions L.A. Poetry Reading Series, featuring poetry readings and open poetry mic, offered every 1st & 3rd Saturday of the month.
RSVP:
Please email studio@lapl.org for instructions on how to join the program.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-0
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Poetry Writing Workshop with Jackie Chou – Online Zoom Event
Poetry Writing Workshop led by Jackie Chou (Submit up to 3 pantoums totaling no more than 60 lines on any subject for Four Feathers Press online edition: Pantoum Festival by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59pm, December 15th)
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Los Angeles Poet Society Press: Celebrating Press Publications at Tia Chucha’s – In-Person Event
LAPS presents a party to celebrate L.A. Poet Society’s Press lineage, a publishing house committed to social justice and amplifying QTBIPOC voices, including:
Anatomy of a Flame by Mauricio Moreno
Acid Verse Literary Journal
Los Angeles Poets for Justice: A Document for the People
Love Letters to 2020
Reflesh: Dreaming the Future
Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://www.facebook.com
Writers for Palestine: Fundraiser for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Writers for Palestine is a reading event and fundraiser for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
Readings by:
Sherna Berger Gluck is an American activist and oral historian, and Director Emerita of the Oral History Program at California State University, Long Beach. Her first book, From Parlor to Prison (1976), is an oral history of the women’s suffrage movement. An advocate for the Palestinian people, she is a co-host of the Radio Intifada show on KPFK; her most recent book is An American Feminist In Palestine. Her historical work led to the recognition of women’s oral history as a distinct discipline.
Sofia Fey is a Queer and Trans writer living in LA. Currently, they are the poetry editor at Hooligan Magazine, and co creative director at Rock Pocket Productions. Their debut poetry collection, decompose, is forthcoming with Not a Cult Media.
Paasha Motamedi is an Iranian-Indonesian-American artist born on Coronado Island and currently based in New York City. With a diverse background and a multidisciplinary approach, his artistic journey has been shaped by his experiences in poetry, cooking, music, and visual arts.
Tersa Mei Chuc was born in Saigon, Vietnam. Shortly after the Vietnam War, Chuc, her mother, and her brother were granted political asylum and settled in Pasadena, California. Her father remained in a Vietnamese “reeducation camp” for nine years. Chuc earned a BA in philosophy and credentials in primary and secondary education as well as an MFA in creative writing from Goddard College.
Taz Ahmed is a political strategist, storyteller, and artist based in Los Angeles. She’s spent the majority of her life dancing at the intersection of activism and art as a South Asian Muslim 2nd-generation immigrant American woman. In Spring 2019 she was UCLA’s Activist-in-Residence at the Institute on Inequality and Democracy and in 2016 received an award from President Obama’s White House as a Champion of Change in Art and Storytelling.
Leslie Ortega is a Chicanx poet and mycologist from Southern California.
Sehba Sarwar is a transnational writer, workshop leader, artist and community activist tackling gender, displacement and border issues.
Chekwube Danladi is the author of Semiotics (Georgia, 2020), winner of the 2019 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and a 2022 Independent Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council. She has received fellowships and support from Callaloo, Kimbilio, Hedgebrook, Jack Jones Literary Arts, the Lambda Literary Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Her chapbook, Take Me Back, was included in the New Generation African Poets: Nne boxset.
Sonia Guinansaca is an international award winning queer migrant poet, cultural organizer and social justice activist. They emerged as a national leader in the migrant artistic and political communities where they coordinated and participated in groundbreaking civil disobedience actions. Guiñansaca helped build some of the largest undocumented organizations in the US, including co-founding some of the first artistic projects by and for undocumented writers and artists.
Rhys Langston, through the freedom and whimsy afforded by multiple disciplines, scrutinizes the demands of his identity and others’ while calling attention to that very seeking itself. If mediums of art are translations to communicate ideas, theories like Kwame Anthony Appiah’s “rooted cosmopolitanism of shared humanity” remind me of my aspirations toward “a form of universalism that is sensitive to the ways in which historical context shapes a practice.”
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Arminé Iknadossian’s family fled to California when she was four years old to escape the civil war. After graduating from UCLA, Iknadossian earned an MFA in Creative Writing at Antioch University. The author of All That Wasted Fruit (Main Street Rag), Iknadossian’s work is included in XLA Anthology, Whale Road Review, Southern Florida Poetry Journal, MacQueen’s Quarterly and The American Journal of Poetry. She has received fellowships from Idyllwild Arts, The Los Angeles Writing Project and Otis College of Art and Design. She lives in Long Beach, California where she offers writing workshops and private manuscript consultations. Discover more at https://www.armineiknadossian.com and https://www.surprisetheline.com/team
Fariha Roisin is a multidisciplinary artist, born in Ontario, Canada. She was raised in Sydney, Australia, and is based in Los Angeles, California. As a Muslim queer Bangladeshi, she is interested in the margins, liminality, otherness, and the mercurial nature of being. Her work has pioneered a refreshing and renewed conversation about wellness, contemporary Islam, and queer identities and has appeared in The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Vice, Village Voice,and others.
TK Le is an editor, writer, and educator based in Long Beach, CA. She has over a decade of experience writing and editing multi-genre pieces on race, intergenerational trauma, and intergenerational healing. She also has over a decade of experience in education, developing curriculum for and teaching subjects such as Asian American Studies, Ethnic Studies, memoir writing, creative writing, and English as a Second Language.
And more!
NOTE: See site/flyer for further details.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.facebook.com/BBLitArts
Get Lit’s 13th Annual Gala at The Skirball Cultural Center – In-Person Event
Get Lit ignites confidence and literacy through free programming and Spoken Word-powered curricula as we work to repair pandemic learning loss and daunting reports of teenage sadness. Get Lit provides community and employment opportunities for thousands of youth poets, podcasters, filmmakers, and musicians in Los Angeles and beyond. At the heart of our work is the hope that all young people, in times of crisis and joy, reach for an outlet to share their light with the world.
This year’s Gala features dinner, drinks, and sparkling inspiration with honoree Anderson Paak, National Youth Poet Laureate Salome Agbaroji, youth artist performances, a silent auction, and special surprises. Tickets are selling fast—we look forward to seeing you there!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Get Lit Gala at The Skirball Cultural Center
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 6:30 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://www.getlit.org/events?loxi_pathname=%2Fget-lit-gala-891 or https://www.getlit.org/gala
The Upcycled Self: An Evening with Black Thought from The Roots at USC’s Visions and Voices Series – In-Person Event
Tariq Trotter—better known as Black Thought—is the platinum-selling, Grammy-winning co-founder of The Roots, and one of the most exhilaratingly skillful and profound rappers the culture has ever produced. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop and Trotter’s brand-new book, The Upcycled Self: A Memoir on the Art of Becoming Who We Are (November 2023), Trotter will discuss his life and work in an intimate conversation with Jason King, Dean of the USC Thornton School of Music.
Trotter’s story begins with a tragedy: as a child, he burned down his family’s home. The years that followed are the story of a life snatched from the flames, forged in fire.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where: USC, Bovard Auditorium
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3551 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089
Website: https://calendar.usc.edu/event or https://visionsandvoices.usc.edu/eventdetails/?event_id=44315179151511
Storytime Reading & Hanukkah Party: Alan Silberberg’s Meet the Latkes at Vroman’s and PJ Library – In-Person Event
To celebrate The Holiday of Lights, we will be reading Alan Silberberg’s hilarious book Meet the Latkes. There will be craft projects to help bring the festival home and lively music to mark the season with song. This program is suitable for adults and children of all ages. The first night of Hanukkah this year is Thursday, December 7.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 3rd
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://dola.com/events/2023/12/3/vroman-s-and-pj-library-present-a-happening-hanukkah-party-tickets
L.A. Made Series Presents: Self Help Graphics at 50 – A Cornerstone of Latinx Art and Collaborative Artmaking at Central Library, LAPL– In-Person Event
Join artists and scholars as they explore the 50-year history of Los Angeles’ oldest Chicano/Latino non-profit art incubator, Self Help Graphics and Art. Known for its numerous fine art print ateliers and for initiating Los Angeles’ version of Day of the Dead, this conversation focuses on Self Help’s community-based aesthetic philosophies and how artists have adapted and implemented those ethics in practice.
Focused on the last fifty years and the next fifty years, Dr. J.V. Decemvirale and Dr. Claudia Zapata will hold conversation with Yreina Cervantez, Miyo Stevens-Gandara and Natalie Godinez, all socially engaged artists who worked and trained at Self Help Graphics. This panel accompanies the publication of the most recent anthology of this important Los Angeles art history: Self Help Graphics at Fifty: A Cornerstone of Latinx Art and Collaborative Artmaking (eds. Tatiana Reinoza and Karen Mary Davalos UC Press, 2023).
Reservations are not required but highly encouraged. To reserve your seat, please go to this link. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Mark Taper Auditorium
Date: Sunday the 3rd
Time: 2 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Next Line: A Teens Only Open Mic at Avenue 50 Studio, Highland Park – In-Person Teen Event
Next Line is a teens-only open mic in Highland Park founded by The 309 Collective and Writ Large Projects to create a vibrant community of young artists and musicians. It’s hosted by member Bella Giammalvo.
This event is held every 1st Sunday of the month.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Avenue 50 Studio
Date: Sunday the 3rd
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 131 N. Avenue 50, Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://www.instagram.com/the309collective/
Fat Babes in Romance Panel at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
To celebrate plus-size romances, The Ripped Bodice is hosting a Fat Babes in Romance Panel, featuring: moderator Emily Rose with Jillian Graves and Kayla Grosse chatting about their recent novella releases.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 3rd
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Happily Everyone After Book Club: The Christmas Orphans Club at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
December’s Happily Everyone After Book Club participants will discuss The Christmas Orphans Club, by author Becca Freeman.
This novel is about four friends in NYC who hold onto their unconventional Christmas tradition even when their paths diverge—but the changes they fear might be exactly what they need…
Becca Freeman is the co-host of the popular books and lifestyle podcast Bad on Paper and the co-creator of RomComPods. She is a graduate of Boston College. Becca currently lives in Brooklyn, where she enthusiastically celebrates Christmas every year.
Book seller Binta leads this romance book club!
This event meets at the store on a designated Sunday of the month at 7:15 pm.
No membership is necessary, feel free to show up!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 3rd
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 