World Literature Book Club via West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us for a spirited and engaging discussion of the world’s best short stories! All selections are from The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction (HarperCollins, 2008), eds. Joyce Carol Oates and Christopher R. Beha.
February 5 – 1-900 by Richard Bausch
February 12 – Poor Devil by Charles Baxter
February 19 – LIBRARY CLOSED, President’s Day
February 26 – Lavande by Ann Beattie
We meet every Monday morning (excluding holidays).
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 5th
Time: 10 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-literature-book-club-26
Robertson Writers Group at Robertson Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Calling all writers! The Robertson Writers Group meets every Monday. Get those creative juices flowing and join the group as everyone shares their work and gives feedback.
This group mostly meets in person, but email rbrtsn@lapl.org if you’d prefer to join via Zoom.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Robertson Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 5th
Time: 11 am
Address: 1719 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/robertson-writers-group
Mystery Book Club: The Ravon Thief via Woodland Hills Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Mystery Book Club participants will discuss The Ravon Thief, by author Gigi Pandian.
RSVP:
Please call the branch at 818-226-0017 or email woodln@lapl.org with any questions or for the Zoom link to the meeting.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Woodland Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 5th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-38
February Zine Club with Alice Wynne via Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Zine Club participants will meet online with guest Alice Wynne, who started selling zines at age 14 for 50 cents at Skylight Books. Since then, she has not stopped writing and illustrating perzines, photo zines, comix, poetry zines, and more.
In 2020, Alice established the Altadena Zine Library, which is housed in the Altadena Library District. She has tabled at the L.A. Zine Fest and the Albuquerque Zine Fest and, in 2023, collaborated with other zinesters for the American Library Association’s Zine Pavilion in Chicago. Alice’s favorite zines to work on are parodies of lifestyle magazines. Her latest zine, Paper Dolls #2, another attempt at humor and pop culture commentary, is out in January 2024. Find Alice at subconsciouspoetry.wordpress.com or on IG @saltychipspress.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 5th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/january-zine-club-alice-wynne
February Open Mic Night at Altadena Main Library – In-Person Event
Come share your work and listen to your neighbors’ work.
All ages, all genres.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Altadena Main Library
Date: Monday the 5th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 600 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.altadenalibrary.org/programs/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D171252926
Meet Bestselling YA Authors Marie Lu & Maurene Goo: Loving the Process at Flintridge Preparatory School – In-Person YA Event
Bestselling authors Marie Lu and Maurene Goo will be discussing writing and publishing as part of Flintridge Preparatory School’s visiting Speaker Series. RSVP to the event is requested. Books can be purchased to be signed at the event. Best for teens ages 12+ and adults.
Marie Lu is the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of the Legend series, The Young Elites, Warcross, Skyhunter, Batman: Nightwalker, and The Kingdom of Back. Stars And Smoke is her latest novel. She graduated from the University of Southern California and jumped into the video game industry, where she worked as an artist. A full-time writer, she spends her spare hours reading, drawing, playing games, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles with her illustrator/author husband, Primo Gallanosa, and their son.
Maurene Goo is the author of several acclaimed books for young adults, including I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Somewhere Only We Know. She’s also written for Marvel’s Silk series. She lives and writes in Los Angeles with her husband, son, and cats.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details of this FREE event.
Where: Flintridge Preparatory School
Date: Monday the 5th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 4543 Crown Ave., La Canada Flintridge, CA 91011
Celebrating Black Operated Presses with L.A. Poet Society at 33RD HILL – In-Person YA Event
Celebrating Black Operated Presses with Los Angeles Poet Society will feature:
From Mama’s Kitchen Press @mamaskitchen.press:
Sakile Odimo N/A
Tekira Briscoe is the author of the poetry collection Sown in Light: Poetry for the Forgotten Soul (Mama’s Kitchen Press, 2023).
Alexander James is the author of the poetry collection Just Be Honest: a poetic invitation to liberation (Mama’s Kitchen Press, 2024).
From Writing Journey 101 Press @writingjourney101press:
Andrea Lee is a poet, chef, and author known for her works such as The Power to Change the Way to Love Yourself and the upcoming Connections Between Us & Expressions of Love, Feelings of Love, Courage & Betrayal.
Sha’quan Lewis was born and raised in Los Ángeles. Her journey as a writer began as a means to cope with the profound loss of her beloved grandfather. She is the author of the poetry collection A Journey Through Love.
Plus, Open Mic 4 the People, hosted by Juan Cardenas @juan_c4rdenas
Join us at 6:30 for a JAM SESSION with the 33rd Hill house band, led by Juan Flautista @thejuanflautista
Come on through to join the party, in the heart of DOWNTOWN LA!
No cover! Donations are welcome.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details of this FREE event.
Where: 33RD HILL
Date: Monday the 5th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3226 S Hill St., Los Angeles, CA 90007
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C22_Xqiujmv/
At Skylight: Manjula Martin, with Edan Lepucki, & Last Fire Season at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Manjula Martin, in conversation with Edan Lepucki, will discuss her bookLast Fire Season, a combination of memoir, natural history, and literary inquiry that chronicles one woman’s experience of life in Northern California during the worst fire season on record.
When Manjula Martin moved from the city to the woods of Northern California, she wanted to be closer to the wilderness that she had loved as a child. She was also seeking refuge from a health crisis that left her with chronic pain, and found a sense of healing through tending her garden beneath the redwoods of Sonoma County. But the landscape that Martin treasured was an ecosystem already in crisis. Wildfires fueled by climate change were growing bigger and more frequent: each autumn, her garden filled with smoke and ash.
Both a love letter to the forests of the West and an interrogation of the colonialist practices that led to their current dilemma, The Last Fire Season, follows the author from the oaky hills of Sonoma County to the redwood forests of coastal Santa Cruz, to the pines and peaks of the Sierra Nevada, as she seeks shelter, bears witness to the devastation, and tries to better understand fire’s role in the ecology of the West.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Monday the 5th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-manjula-martin-presents-last-fire-season-w-edan-lepucki
Gene Luen Yang & Leuyen Pham & Lunar New Year Love Story at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Gene Luen Yang and Leuyen Pham, will discuss their graphic novel rom-com Lunar New Year Love story, a graphic novel about fate, family, and falling in love.
Val is ready to give up on love. It’s led to nothing but secrets and heartbreak, and she’s pretty sure she’s cursed—no one in her family, for generations, has ever had any luck with love.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday the 5th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Gene-Luen-Yang-LeUyen-Pham-discuss-Lunar-New-Year-Love-Story
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 5th
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-815356652697
Under Mic Influence: Featured Readings & Open Mic at LB Unified – In-Person Event
If you need an open mic, beautiful people, tasty eats, dope inspiration, good libations, and good vibrations, we have you covered!
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!
Featured guest TBA.
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: LB Unified
Date: Monday the 5th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm (Doors at 7:30 pm)
Address: 2222 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mic-influence-tickets-388452220047
Fiction Book Club: Go Tell It on the Mountain at Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Brentwood Branch Book Club participants will discuss this month’s selection Go Tell It on the Mountain, by author James Baldwin.
This book c meets on the first Tuesday of each month to discuss a work of fiction. Books selected for discussion can be new or old and come from a wide array of genres, styles, and authors.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 6th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/fiction-book-club-0
Feminist Book Club: How to Be Eaten at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Feminist Book Club participants will discuss How to Be Eaten: A Novel, by author Marla Adelmann.
This funny novel reimagines classic fairy tale characters as modern women in a support group for trauma. Dark, edgy, and wickedly funny, this debut takes our coziest, most beloved childhood stories, exposes them as anti-feminist nightmares, and transforms them into a new kind of myth for grown-up women.
Maria Adelmann is the author of the short story collection Girls of a Certain Age, which explores the many impossible choices of modern girl and womanhood. Her work has been published by Tin House, n+1, Electric Literature, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Threepenny Review, the Indiana Review, Epoch, AQR, MQR, and many others, and has been selected by The Best American Short Stories as a distinguished story. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram @ink176. How to Be Eaten is her first novel.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 6th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/feminist-book-club-how-be-eaten
Radical Reparations: Healing the Soul of a Nation Book Launch: Reparations Club at UCLA Career Center – In-Person Event
Join us for an exciting book talk on Tuesday, February 6th! Get ready to dive into the thought-provoking world of RADICAL REPARATIONS: Healing the Soul of A Nation written by UCLA Professor, Dr. Marcus Anthony Hunter. In conversation with Willie “Prophet” Stiggers, he will discuss the powerful ideas and perspectives presented in the book. Students, Faculty and Staff of UCLA are all welcome to attend and engage in fresh insights on this important topic!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details of this FREE event.
Where: UCLA Career Center, Room #200
Date: Tuesday the 6th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 501 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA, 90095
Manjula Martin, with Antoine Wilson, & The Last Fire Season at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Manjula Martin, in conversation with Antoine Wilson, presents her novel, The Last Fire Season.
This novel is a deeply incisive inquiry into what it really means—now—to live in relationship to the elements of the natural world. When Manjula Martin moved from the city to the woods of Northern California, she wanted to be closer to the wilderness that she had loved as a child. She was also seeking refuge from a health crisis that left her with chronic pain and found a sense of healing through tending her garden beneath the redwoods of Sonoma County. But the landscape that Martin treasured was an ecosystem already in crisis As Martin seeks a way to navigate the daily experience of living in a damaged body on a damaged planet, she comes to question her own assumptions about nature and the complicated connections between people and the land on which we live..
Manjula Martin is coauthor, with her father, Orin Martin, of Fruit Trees for Every Garden, which won the 2020 American Horticultural Society Book Award. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Cut, Pacific Standard, Modern Farmer, and Hazlitt. She edited the anthology Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living; was managing editor of Francis Ford Coppola’s literary magazine, Zoetrope: All-Story; and has worked in varied editorial capacities in the nonprofit and publishing sectors. She lives in West Sonoma County, California.
Antoine Wilson is the author of the novels Mouth to Mouth, Panorama City, and The Interloper. His work has appeared in The Paris Review, StoryQuarterly, and Best New American Voices, among other publications, and he is a contributing editor of A Public Space. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and recipient of a Carol Houck Smith Fiction Fellowship from the University of Wisconsin, he lives in Los Angeles.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 6th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Manjula-Martin-February-6-Author-signing
Conchas y Café Zine Writing Workshop via DSTL Arts – In-Person Event Conchas y Café
Conchas y Café is a DSTL Arts bilingual community writing workshop series for adults that produces a biannual zine by the same name, featuring artwork and creative writing produced by our community and program participants.
The goal of Conchas y Café is to bring together our community under the arts, building skills and arts-literacy, so that more adults may appreciate the cultural and economic value the arts bring to our lives. The content taught through this workshop series is primarily for new and emerging poets and writers, or people returning to creative writing after a long-term absence from the craft.
The Conchas y Café workshop series spans 15 weeks, and is an ongoing program offered every trimester. Our program participants write on a new theme for their zine every trimester and celebrate its release with a public reading.
Enrollment via Google Classroom required for workshop participation and full access to session handouts.
For any questions regarding Conchas y Café, feel free to contact us directly by email at Info@DSTLArts.org.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: DSTL Arts
Date: Tuesday the 6th (through April the 30th)
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.dstlarts.org/conchasycafezine
Aube Rey Lescure, with Natalie Beach, & River East River West at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Author Aube Rey Lescure, in conversation with Natalie Beach, will discuss her novelRiver East River West.
In a stunning reversal of the east-to-west immigrant narrative and set against China’s political history and economic rise, River East, River West is an intimate family drama and a sharp social novel. Alternating between Alva (in 2007) and Lu Fang’s (in 1985) points of view, this is a profoundly moving exploration of race and class, cultural identity and belonging, and the often-false promise of the American Dream.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 6th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/aube-rey-lescure
At Skylight: Linnea Axelsson, with Saskia Vogel, & Ædnan at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Linnea Axelsson, in conversation with Saskia Vogel, will discuss her book Ædnan, a debut which is an epic, multigenerational novel-in-verse about two Sámi families and their quest to stay together across a century of migration, violence, and colonial trauma.
In Northern Sámi, the word Ædnan means the land, the earth, and my mother. These are all crucial forces within the lives of the Indigenous families that animate this groundbreaking book: an astonishing verse novel that chronicles a hundred years of change: a book that will one day stand alongside Halldór Laxness’s Independent People and Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter as an essential Scandinavian epic.
Weaving together the voices of half a dozen characters, from elders to young people unsure of their heritage, Axelsson has created a moving family saga around the consequences of colonial settlement. Ædnan is a powerful reminder of how durable language can be, even when it is borrowed, especially when it has to hold what no longer remains.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Tuesday the 6th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-linnea-axelsson-presents-aednan-w-saskia-vogel
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic + Featured Reader Garland Thompson – Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Garland Thompson.
Garland Thompsson has been a working Poet since 1990 when he rediscovered the poetry inside of him. He is a spoken word poet, actor, playwright, and producer from Los Angeles
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 6th
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. Check to Verify.
Where: Unurban Co6ee House
Date: Tuesday the 6th
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 SLAM 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
Date: Tuesday the 6th
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
An Evening with Chris Anderson: Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading at Live Talks LA – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Chris Anderson has led TED since 2001, overseeing its transformation from an annual conference to a nonprofit with global reach, sharing TED Talks, podcasts, and TED-Ed videos freely to all.
Today’s culture seems to be trending ever meaner and more divisive: INFECTIOUS GENEROSITY offers an antidote. Chris Anderson argues that by rethinking generosity in this connected era, we can shape it into a force that can spread across the world. Generosity? Really?! It seems too small a force arrayed against today’s problems. But the pandemic taught us that even a tiny virus can have global impact by virtue of being infectious. So what does it take to make generosity infectious? There are dozens of inspiring people out there, toiling away from the limelight, who have demonstrated how this is possible. The book is filled with their stories, which collectively offer a playbook we can all make use of. The result? A fundamentally more hopeful view of human possibility in the 21st century.
NOTE: See site for costs and details.
Where: New Roads School, Ann & Jerry Moss Theatre
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 3131 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/chris-anderson/
Chatsworth Book Club: Big Little Lies at Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Book Club participants will discuss the novel Big Little Lies, by author Liane Moriarity.
What could be worse than a riot at Pirriwee Public School’s annual Trivia Night? A parent is dead, and the suspicion is that it may have been murder. Join our convivial group for fun and thoughtful conversationRSVP:
Please email sstamm@lapl.org for the Zoom Link.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: 21052 Devonshire St., Chatsworth, CA 91311
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/chatsworth-library-book-club-4
Social Justice Book Club: Going Places at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Social Justice Book Club participants will discuss Going Places: Victor Hugo Green and His Glorious Book, by author Tonya Bolden.
Check out the book of the month at your local library and bring your thoughts and feelings to the conversation.
RSVP:
Please register at http://tinyurl.com/3be34rer.
For more information, email cquinn@lapl.org.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/social-justice-book-club
Children’s Author Visit: Oliver Chin at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Children’s author Oliver Chin (Tales from the Chinese Zodiac, Awesome Asian Americans) will join us for a special presentation about his books as well as the Chinese New Year.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 2411 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/oliver-chin-author-visit
Be the Change: Social justice Writing Workshop with James Coats – Online Event
Be the Change, a Social Justice Writing Workshop, is held every 1st Wednesday of the month and led by poet and author James Coats.
Workshop is free: name your own price.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Online Event
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event Zoom ID: 826 5843 0669 Password: justice
Website: N/A
History Book Club: King: A Life at Last at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
History Book Club participants will discuss King: A Life, by author Jonathan Eig.
Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig’s King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.—and the first to include recently declassified FBI files. In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. He casts fresh light on the King family’s origins as well as MLK’s complex relationships with his wife, father, and fellow activists. King reveals a minister wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. As he follows MLK from the classroom to the pulpit to the streets of Birmingham, Selma, and Memphis, Eig dramatically re-creates the journey of a man who recast American race relations and became our only modern-day founding father—as well as the nation’s most mourned martyr.
Jonathan Eig is a former senior writer for The Wall Street Journal. He is the New York Times bestselling author of several books, including Ali: A Life, Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, and Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson’s First Season. Ken Burns calls him “a master storyteller,” and Eig’s books have been listed among the best of the year by The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Sports Illustrated, and Slate. He lives in Chicago with his wife and children.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/history-book-club-king-life
WeHo Reads: Inspirations and Intersections with Rachel Howzell Hall, Tamika Thompson, Lisa Teasley & Jervey Tervalon – Online Event
Inspirations and Intersections is a reading to explore authors’ creative inspirations and intersections during Black History Month.
How do breakthrough writers pave the way for a more inclusive publishing landscape? How do contemporary writers want their work to be received? Where do literary legacies and ambitions intersect? The series opener for WeHo Reads 2024 will feature authors celebrating their inspirations and examining how their work intersects with literary luminaries during Black History Month.
Rachel Howzell Hall is the bestselling author of multiple crime novels, including What Never Happened (Thomas and Mercer, 2023).
Lisa Teasley is the author of Fluid: Stories (Cune Press, 2023) and librettist of The Passion of Nell, commissioned by the Long Beach Opera.
Jervey Tervalon is an award-winning poet, screenwriter, lecturer, and dramatist, who is the author of Monster’s Chef (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2014) and All the Trouble You Need (Atria Books/Washington Square Books, 2002).
Tamika Thompson is a writer, producer, and journalist, who is the author of the speculative fiction collection Unshod, Cackling, and Naked (Unnerving, 2023).
Workshop is free: name your own price.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: WeHo Reads
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online at weho.org/wehoreads
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weho-reads-inspirations-and-intersections-tickets-776516841777
Chicanas at Play: Book Reading & Signing at Casita Bookstore – In-Person Event
Chicanas at play is an anthology of 10-minute plays edited by Yvonne Garcia Zaher & Beatriz Jamaica.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Casita Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 1440 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.instagram.com/casitabookstore/
Gina Moffa, with Susan Zinn, & Moving Doesn’t Mean Letting Go at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Gian Moffa, in conversation with Susan Zinn, presents her book, Moving Doesn’t Mean Letting Go: A Modern Guide to Navigating Loss.
This book offers a heartfelt, hopeful map through the dark terrain of grief. As a licensed grief and trauma therapist, with two decades of experience, Gina has seen a lot of grief in her professional life, but she’s no stranger to grief in herself. In the span of one catastrophic week, she lost her mother, apartment, her job, and her health—reminding us that grief comes in many forms.
Gina Moffa is a licensed grief and trauma psychotherapist and mental health educator in New York City. In practice for two decades, Gina has helped thousands of people seeking treatment for trauma, grief, as well as challenging life experiences and transitions. She received her master’s degree in social work with a specialty in trauma from New York University. One of Gina’s clinical passions is helping people to navigate different types of losses in a way that helps them find their sense of meaning, and thus, move forward more courageously to invite life in again after loss.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Gina-Moffa-author-signing
Jon Lindstrom & Hollywood Hustle at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Jon Lindstrom will discuss his book, Hollywood Hustle.
Winston Greene, a has-been film star, wakes one morning to find his six-year-old granddaughter at his bedside—traumatized, unattended, and gripping onto a thumb drive. She comes bearing video proof that her mother, Win’s troubled adult daughter, has been kidnapped by a murderous gang demanding all his “movie money” for her safe return. But what they don’t know is…his movie money is long gone.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/jon-lindstrom
Los Angeles Political Economy Reading Group: Malibu Burning & City of Segregation at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Reading Group participants will discuss the case for Malibu Burning by Mike Davis and City of Segregation by Andrea Gibbons.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
RECESS Open Mic Is Backat SIPA HQ, Palms Up Academy – In-Person Event
RECESS Open Mic Is Backat SIPA HQ on Wednesdays.
This dynamic open mic is the most accessible public program in our curriculum and manifests our mission statement in a physical (and digital) space.
Join us at the intersection of Historic Filipinotown & The World: Search to Involve Pilipino Americans.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and details.
Where: SIPA
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm (Doors at 6:30)
Address: 3200 W. Temple St., Ste. 100, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://www.palmsupacademy.com or https://docs.google.com/forms
Book Launch: Rena Martine, with guests, & The Sex You Want at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Rena Martine, in conversation with Nadge Collet and Arielle Zadok, will discuss her novel, The Sex You Want.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Tlotlo Tsamaase & Womb City at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Tlotlo Tsamaase will present and discuss her book, Womb City.
In this genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel, the author offers an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body.
Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah’s perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-tlotlo-tsamaase-presents-womb-city
Kemper Donovan, with Deborah Netburn, & Busy Body at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Kemper Donovan, in conversation with Deborah Netburn, will discuss her new book, Busy Body: A Witty Literary Mystery with a Stunning Twist.
It’s a dream assignment. Former Senator Dorothy Gibson, aka that woman, is the most talked-about person in the country right now, though largely for the wrong reasons. As an independent candidate for President of the United States, Dorothy split the vote and is being blamed for the shocking result. After her very public defeat, she’s retreated to her home in rural Maine, inviting her ghostwriter to join her.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 7th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/kemper-donovan-discusses-busy-body
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 — Featured Guest: TBA;
- 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 7th
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
Beyond Baroque’s longest-running free poetry workshop is offered on Zoom and welcomes 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 L.A. Johnson, the author of the chapbook Little Climates (Bull City Press, 2017). She holds an MFA from Columbia University and a PhD from the University of Southern California, where she is currently a Mellon Humanities and University of the Future postdoctoral fellow. The winner of the 2022 Mississippi Review Poetry Prize, the 2022 Greensboro Review Poetry Prize, the 2021 Arts & Letters Rumi Poetry Prize, her poems appear in The Atlantic, Poetry Magazine, and The Slowdown. She’s received support for her writing from Vermont Studio Center, Community of Writers, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and elsewhere. Find more about her at http://www.la-johnson.com
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. There’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 7th
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-818401068627
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg & Guest Features Scott Ferry & Daniel McGinn 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 guests Scott Ferry & Daniel McGinn.
Scott Ferry helps Veterans heal as a RN in the Seattle area. His collaboration with Daniel McGinn titled Fill Me With Birds is now available from Meat For Tea Press. His book of prose poetry, Sapphires on the Graves, is upcoming from Glass Lyre Press in Summer 2024.
Daniel McGinn’s work has appeared in The MacGuffin, Nerve Cowboy, SurVision, Spillway, and numerous other magazines and anthologies. His recent chapbook, Drowning the Boy, won The James Tate Poetry Prize for 2021 (SurVision Books). He is also the author of 1000 Black Umbrellas (Write Bloody), The Moon, My Lover, My Mother & the Dog (Moon Tide Press), and Co-author-with Scott Ferry, of Meat For Tea’s new release, Fill Me With Birds.
$4 cover fee, cash only.
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday the 7th
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/426181136399521/?ref=newsfeed
Not So Secret Society Book Club: Wilder Girls at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Not So Secret Society Book Club participants will discuss Wilder Girls, by author Rory Power.
New York Times Bestseller. A feminist Lord of the Flies about three best friends living in quarantine at their island boarding school, and the lengths they go to uncover the truth of their confinement when one disappears.
Rory Power grew up in Boston, received her undergraduate degree at Middlebury College, and went on to earn an MA in prose fiction from the University of East Anglia. She lives in Massachusetts. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Wilder Girls and Burn Our Bodies Down. To learn more about Rory, go to itsrorypower.com and follow @itsrorypower on Twitter and Instagram.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 8th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/not-so-secret-society-book-club-wilder-girls
Children’s Author Oliver Chin & Year of the Dragon at West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Native Angeleno, Oliver Chin celebrates the Lunar New Year and reads from his newest children’s picture book, The Year of the Dragon, the latest adventure in the popular annual series Tales from the Chinese Zodiac, in this multimedia presentation for the whole family.
Children can learn how to draw a dragon and then color Zodiac animal-themed coloring sheets. For Children aged four and up.
Note: See site for details.
Where: West L.A. Branch Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 8th
Time: 4:15 pm
Address: 1874 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/year-dragon-childrens-author-oliver-chin
Mystery Book Club: The Cold Dish at Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Mystery Boo Club participants will discuss The Cold Dish, by author Criag Johnson.
New members are always welcome. Copies of each month’s selection are available for checkout at the circulation desk.
RSVP:
For the Zoom link, please email venice@lapl.org.
Note: See site for details.
Where: Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 8th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-45
Brentwood Writing Workshop at Donald Bruce Kaufmann – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Bring any project that you’re working on to our weekly writing group. Poetry, novels, short stories, memoirs, and essays are all welcome. You will have free time to write and even lots of support from our great group of local writers.
Note: See site for details.
Where: Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 8th
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/brentwood-writing-workshop
Diverse Romance Book Club: Ayesha at Last at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Diverse Romance Book Club participants will discuss Ayesha at Last, by author Uzma Jalaluddin.
Ayesha Shamsi has a lot going on. Her dreams of being a poet have been set aside for a teaching job so she can pay off her debts to her wealthy uncle. She lives with her boisterous Muslim family and is always being reminded that her flighty younger cousin, Hafsa, is close to rejecting her one hundredth marriage proposal. Though Ayesha is lonely, she doesn’t want an arranged marriage. Then she meets Khalid, who is just as smart and handsome as he is conservative and judgmental. She is irritatingly attracted to someone who looks down on her choices and who dresses like he belongs in the seventh century.
Uzma Jalaluddin is a teacher and also writes a funny parenting column named “Samosas and Maple Syrup” for the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper. Her debut novel is Ayesha at Last.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 8th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/diverse-romance-book-club-ayesha-last
Malia Lazu, with Gina Belafonte, & From Intention to Impact at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Malia Lazu, in conversation with Gina Belafonte, presents her book, From Intent to Impact.
From Intention to Impact shows what organizations, leaders, and people at all levels must do to create more inclusive environments that honor and value diversity. Lazu shares a seven-stage guide through this process as well as a 3L model of listening, learning, and loving that readers can use from the initial excitement of doing “something” to the frustration when the inevitable pushback comes, and finally to the determination to do the hard work despite the challenges—on corporate and political fronts. While commitment from the top is paramount, for DEI to be most effective, it needs to be decentralized—among managers, within teams, and across the organization.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 8th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/malia-lazu
Anthony McLean & All Fired Up at Flintridge Bookstore – In-Person Event
Anthony McLean will present and discuss his new book, All Fired Up, which combines best practices from the self-care movement with proven strategies from the business world to help you drive your life forward. He shares wisdom for managing anxiety, prioritizing work-life balance, and developing confidence.
In addition to being an author and speaker, Anthony actively works in the film and television industry, and he’s currently in development on two feature films. He resides in Los Angeles, California, with his wife and their two kids.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Flintridge Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 8th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 858 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011
Speech Bubble Comic Books Club: UZUMAKI at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
North Figueroa hosts the first meeting of SPEECH BUBBLE, our new book club focusing on comics and graphic novels!
Our first selection will be UZUMAKI by Junji Ito. You do not need to have finished the book for the first meeting—we’ll be introducing the book and getting to know one another, hosted by our bookseller and comics aficionado Graham.
Remember: Members receive 20% off book club selections!
Hope to see you there!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Thursday the 8th
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-lrh2rdik
Trenches Full of Poets: 4 SoCal Poets Reading at Page Against the Machine – In-Person Event
Trenches Full of Poets is a monthly poetry reading hosted every 2nd Tuesday of the month by Mauricio Moreno and Nikolai Garcia, featuring readings by local poets and an Open Mic.
February features include:
Jared Joseph’s preferred bio is, “Jared Joseph is boring.” You can find his boring self on IG @sleepless_in_america online
Ivette Ocampo, also known as “Sacred Mami,” grew up in the Pico Union neighborhood near downtown L.A. Her poetry is inspired by her experiences as an undocu brown femme navigating the U.S. as well as experiences of grief and love. She has released a short zine titled, 𝘏𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘺: 𝘝𝘰𝘭. 1, and is currently at work on Vol. 2. She has also been featured in 𝘋𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘡𝘪𝘯𝘦. She can be found on IG @_sacredmami along with her poetry @pensasenti_mientos.
K.R. Morrison is a poet, drummer, and writing teacher who splits her time between San Francisco and a place she calls Mermaid Town, close to San Diego. When she’s not banging on drums for two female-fronted bands, Harriot and Unicröne, or working on new manuscripts, she’s meeting with Santa Ana juvenile hall teens, teaching writing workshops, or reading tarot and natal charts for hungry humans eager to heal. Her first chapbook, Cauldrons, was published by Paper Press Books, wherein her poem, “Her Altar” received a Pushcart nomination. Morrison has featured for various podcasts and curations, and her poetry has been featured in numerous publications, most recently in the Beat Not Beat anthology published by Moon Tide Press. Find her on FB @K.R. Morrison and on IG @krmorrisonpoet.
RJ Walker is a performance poet and voice actor from Salt Lake City, Utah. He has performed at the National Poetry Slam numerous times and was a showcased poet on final stage, placing 6th overall at the 2017 Individual World Poetry Slam where he also won the NPS Spirit of the Slam award for organizing the first Compliment Deathmatch event. The next year he placed 4th at the National Poetry Slam with the Salt City Unified team. Locally, he organizes and hosts The Greenhouse Effect Open Mic, SLC’s longest running open mic style event. RJ is also a TEDX SLC speaker and was a keynote speaker for the League of Utah Writers’ Quills Conference.
Nikolai Garcia & Mauricio Moreno hostthis eventwith the goal of supporting published SoCal authors and the local independent bookstores that carry their works.
The event is free and open to the public, no tickets or reservations required!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Page Against the Machine
Date: Thursday the 8th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2714 E. 4ht St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events
Safia Elhillo, with Randa Jarrar, & Bright Red Fruit at Reparations Club – In-Person Event
Safia Elhillo, in conversation with Randa Jarrar, will discuss her newest YA fiction, Bright Rd Fruit.
Safia Elhillo is an award-winning poet and author. Her debut YA novel in verse, Home Is Not a Country, was longlisted for the National Book Award and received a Coretta Scott King Author Honor and an Arab American Book Award. Sudanese by way of Washington, DC, Safia is a Pushcart Prize nominee, co-winner of the 2015 Brunel International African Poetry Prize, and listed in Forbes Africa’s 2018 “30 Under 30.” She lives in Los Angeles.
Randa Jarrar is the author of the memoir Love Is An Ex-Country, the novel A Map of Home, and the collection of stories Him, Me, Muhammad Ali. She is a filmmaker and actor who has appeared in independent films and on the A24 TV shows Ramy and #1 Happy Family USA. She is a recipient of a Creative Capital Award and an American Book Award, as well as awards and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, PEN, and others. She lives in Los Angeles.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Reparations Club
Date: Thursday the 8th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3064 S. Victoria Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website: https://rep.club/products/safia-elhillo-event
Fiction Book Launch: Jill Fordyce & Belonging at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Village Well welcomes Jill Fordyce, author of the debut novel, Belonging to the store for a reading and signing.
Belonging is a heartbreaking and hopeful coming of age story that traverses lifelong friendship, first love, and a young woman’s fierce desire to transcend her traumatic childhood.
Jill Fordyce was born and raised in Bakersfield, California. She received a degree in English from the University of Southern California and a law degree from Santa Clara University. While practicing law, she continued to study writing through the Stanford Continuing Education creative writing program. Belonging is her debut novel. She and her husband, Craig, have five children, and live in California and Tennessee.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 8th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/33373
Frank C. Girardot, Jr. & Becoming Clark Rockefeller at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Frank C. Girardot, Jr. will present and discuss his book, Becoming Clark Rockefeller: Murder, Love, Deception, and the Con Man Behind It All.
This book delves into the life of a young immigrant entangled in a multi-generational murder investigation ensnaring some of the wealthiest Americans. Posing as bogus aristocrat Clark Rockefeller, he duped the affluent, leaving a trail of deception and national headlines in his wake.
Yet the story would grow even more sinister. In 1985, Linda Sohus, a talented, outgoing artist, and her husband John, a computer geek with dreams of space, mysteriously vanished from their quiet San Marino, California life. But why? Were they on a secret government mission, chasing elusive dreams, or had something terrible happened to them? The police investigated while the public and media speculated. But all leads came to a dead end, and eventually, the mystery faded into the shadows. Frank C. Girardot unveils this transcontinental, decades-long mystery with interviews from witnesses, court documents, and exclusive insights from the con man himself.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 8th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Frank-C-Girardot-discusses-Becoming-Clark-Rockefeller
Michèle Lamont in conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen, & Seeing Others at Live Talks LA – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Michèle Lamont, in conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen, will discuss her book, Seeing Others: How Recognition Works―and How It Can Heal a Divided World.
Acclaimed Harvard sociologist Michèle Lamont makes the case for reexamining what we value to prioritize recognition—the quest for respect—in an age that has been defined by growing inequality and the obsolescence of the American dream..
Michèle Lamont is Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies and the Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies at Harvard University. An influential cultural sociologist who studies inclusion and inequality, she has tackled topics such as dignity, respect, stigma, racism and anti-racism, class and racial boundaries, social change, and how we evaluate social worth across societies.
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s novel The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and numerous other awards. His most recent publication is A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial. His other books are the sequel to The Sympathizer, The Committed; a short story collection, The Refugees; Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War; and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. He has also published Chicken of the Sea, a children’s book written in collaboration with his son, Ellison. He is a University Professor at the University of Southern California. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, he is also the editor of The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives.
NOTE: See site for costs and details.
Where: New Roads School, Ann & Jerry Moss Theatre
Date: Thursday the 8th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 3131 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/michele_lamont/
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!
Open to all ages. Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday the 9th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event
Current Events Nonfiction Book Club at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss The man who invented motion pictures: a true tale of obsession, murder, and the movies by author Paul Fischer.
RSVP:
Please email studio@lapl.org for participation details.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 9th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 6145 N. Figueroa St.., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/meet-childrens-author-oliver-chin
Happy Year of the Dragon with Author Oliver Chin at Alma Reeves – Watts Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Special guest children’s book author Oliver Chin will help us ring in the Lunar New Year by reading his book The Year of the Dragon: Tales from the Chinese Zodiac and sharing a new book about chess. Learn more about Chinese New Year and figure out which one of the 12 animals of the zodiac represents you. Finally, create funny, fierce, or beautiful wood dragon art.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Watts Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 9th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 10205 Compton Ave.., Los Angeles, CA 90002
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/happy-year-dragon
Self-Care Book Club: Rest Is Resistance at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Self-Care Book Club participants will discuss Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, by author Tricia Hersey.
Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy. In this book, Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice.
Tricia Hersey is an artist, poet, theologian and community organizer. She is the founder of The Nap Ministry, an organization that examines rest as a form of resistance by curating sacred spaces for the community to rest via Collective Napping Experiences, immersive workshops, performance art installations, and social media. Tricia is a global pioneer and originator of the movement to understand the liberatory power of rest. She is the creator of the Rest is Resistance and Rest as Reparations frameworks. Her research interests include Black liberation theology, womanism, somatics, and cultural trauma. Tricia is a Chicago native and currently lives in South Georgia.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Friday the 9th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/self-care-book-club-rest-resistance
Damona Hoffman & F the Fairy Tale at Octavia’s Bookshelf – In-Person Event
Damona Hoffman will be reading and signing copies of her book, F The Fairy Tale! Get ready to dive into a world where love and relationships are anything but traditional. Damona will share insights and anecdotes that will make you question everything you thought you knew about dating. Don’t miss this chance to meet the author and get your book personalized! It’s going to be a night filled with laughter, wisdom, and maybe even a few dating horror stories. Grab your friends and come join us for an unforgettable evening!
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details. Giveaways by Democracy Clothing.
Where: Octavia’s Bookshelf
Date: Friday the 9th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 1365 N. Hill Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104
Website: https://www.octaviasbookshelf.com/events/f-the-fairy-tale
Diarmuid Hester & Nothing Ever Just Disappears at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Diarmuid Hester will discuss his book, Nothing Ever Just Disappears.
This book is a radical new history of seven queer lives and the places that shaped these groundbreaking artists. Nothing Ever Just Disappears brings to life the stories of seven remarkable figures and illuminates the connections between where they lived, who they loved, and the art they created. It shows that a queer sense of place is central to the history of the twentieth century and powerfully evokes how much is lost when queer spaces are forgotten.
From the suffragettes in London and James Baldwin’s home in Provence, to Kevin Killian’s San Francisco and Derek Jarman’s cottage in Kent, this is both a thrilling new literary history and a celebration of freedom, survival, and the hidden places of the imagination.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 9th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/diarmuid-hester
Saffron Cowboy Coffee Presents: Sonia Guiñansaca Poetry Reading at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Poet, performer and activist Sonia Guiñansaca, author of Nostalgia & Borders and editor of Somewhere We Are Human will join attendees for a reading and discussion.
Sonia will be reading from their poetry collection, Nostalgia & Borders. They will be joined by local poets Imanya (@modprometheus) & Alexa Vasquez (@Alexa_lapintora) each sharing a poem about Queerness, memory, and home. To learn more about Sonia’s work please visit SoniaGuinansaca.com.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Friday the 9th
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-lrs9b9q5
Book Launch: Emily Nagosi, with Sara Nasserzadeh, & Come Together at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Emily Nagosi, in conversation with Sara Nasserzadeh, will discuss her novel, Come Together.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Friday the 9th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Doran Larson & Inside Knowledge at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Doran Larson will discuss his book, Inside Knowledge: Incarcerated People on the Failures of the American Prison, a powerful critique of mass incarceration by the people who have experienced it.
Drawing from the writings collected in the American Prison Writing Archive, Doran Larson deftly illustrates how mass incarceration does less to contain any harm perpetrated by convicted people than to spread and perpetuate harm among their families and communities.
Doran Larson is Edward North Professor of Literature at Hamilton College. He is the author of Witness in the Era of Mass Incarceration, editor of Fourth City: Essays from the Prison in America, and founded and co-directs The American Prison Writing Archive
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Friday the 9th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-doran-larson-presents-inside-knowledge
Open Mic Nightat Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Every second Friday of the month, Village Well stays open a bit later in order to provide a platform for local performers through our open mic! All performers are welcome, including musicians, poets, storytellers, comedians, and magicians!
Acts are limited to 5-7 minutes in length and must be family friendly. Sign-ups begin at 6:30 pm and conclude at 7:30 pm!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday the 9th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/27553
Alison Dundes Renteln & International Human RIghts at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Alison Dundes Renteln will present and discuss her book,International Human Rights.
This book provides an interdisciplinary overview of international human rights issues, offering truly international coverage including the Global South. Considering the philosophical foundations of human rights, It explores the interpretive difficulties associated with identifying what constitute human rights abuses, and evaluate various perspectives on human rights. This book goes on to analyze institutions that strive to promote and enforce human rights standards, including the United Nations system, regional human rights bodies, and domestic courts, and also discusses a wide variety of substantive human rights including genocide, torture, capital punishment, and other cruel and unusual punishments.
In particular, the book offers an accessible introduction to key understudied topics within human rights, such as socioeconomic rights, cultural rights, and environmental rights. It also focuses on the rights of marginalized groups, including children’s rights, rights of persons with disabilities, women’s rights, labor rights, indigenous rights, and LGBTQ+ rights, making this an engaging and invaluable resource for the contemporary student.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday the 9th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Alison-Dundes-Renteln-discusses-International-Human-Rights
“Placemakers” (Culinary Historians of Southern California): Natalie Molina & A Place at the Nayarit at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Highlighting the Nayarit restaurant that her grandmother, Doña Natalia Barraza opened in 1951 in Echo Park, Natalia Molina’s talk is about place, family, and community. Interviewed by Nancy Zaslavsky, Molina discusses how Mexican immigrants who congregated at the Nayarit, hungry for flavor memories and language of home, were attempting to carve out a niche for themselves in their new homeland. Those who worked and ate at the Nayarit were not only putting food onto the table or into their mouths, they were establishing links with one another and creating a neighborhood.
Natalia Molina is a Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and Dean’s Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. Her research explores the interconnected histories of race, place, gender, culture, and citizenship. Her most recent book is A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community, on immigrant workers as “placemakers” who nurtured and fed the community through the restaurants they established, which served as urban anchors. In addition to publishing widely in scholarly journals, Professor Molina is a MacArthur Fellow. She enjoys opportunities for intellectual and cultural exchange, whether in the classroom, lecture hall or over a restaurant table.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 10:30 am – 12 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Book Club: Honor at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss the book Honor, by author Thrity Umrigar.
Honor is a novel about two couples and the sometimes dangerous and heartbreaking challenges of love across a cultural divide. Two women from India must navigate how to be true to their homelands and themselves at the same time.
Read the book and join our lively discussion!
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm
Address: 1245 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-3
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 and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Literature & Fiction Study Rooms
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-1
Vroman’s Special Storytime: Ruth Spiro & Love Grows at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Author Ruth Spiro will read her children’s book, Love Grows.
Love Grows is a delightful celebration of family, plants, and the boundlessness of love told in lively, poetic letters from aunt to niece with bright, irresistible illustrations!
Young readers and gardeners will also love the sidebars on each spread with fun and informative facts about the plants.
Ruth will also be presenting her book How to Explain Coding to a Grown-Up.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event
Teen Poetry Club with WriteGirl/Bold Ink Writers at Altadena Main Library – In-Person Teen Event
Teen Poetry Club is moderated by WriteGirl/Bold Ink Writers. This is a wonderful trans and LGBTQ friendly space to learn and build poetry writing skills, share your work, and get inspired by fellow writers. Bring your imagination and love of writing and join the club!
All teens (8th – 12th grade) are welcome to join!
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Altadena Main Library, Small Meeting Room
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Address: 600 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.altadenalibrary.org/programs/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D170543260
UCR Writers Week 24: Prelude Session: Noah Arjomand & Randi LeClair FILM SCREENINGS – In-Person Event
Bridge (Sundance) Short Racial tensions sizzle in small-town diner Randi LeClair (Pawnee Nation) Filmmaker Eat your Catfish (PBS) Feature A documentary about a mother with late-stage ALS. “Dark humor and extraordinary intimacy.” Noah Amir Arjomand is an author and filmmaker at UCR.
Kali Veach hosts.
2022 Best Documentary, Istanbul Film Festival & Antenna Documentary Festival
Eat Your Catfish
Fixing Stories: Local Newsmaking and International Media in Turkey and Syria
UCR Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellow in Writing for the Performing Arts
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: UC Riverside, Interdisciplinary South (INTS) 1128
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 900 University Ave., Riverside CA 92521
Website: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/5tqb5s5z5ibt or https://writersweek.ucr.edu/schedule2024
Monologue Reading with Jennifer Berry and Jeanette Farr at Once Upon a Time – In-Person Event
Local playwrights Jennifer Berry and Jeanette Farr will be performing their published monologues from the anthology The Best Women’s Stage Monologues, 2023. Best for theater kids ages 12+ and adults.
Jennifer Berry is a writer and creator who dives into the personal and political aspects of women’s lives: their work; their families; and their friendships. Her feature film “The Exchange” was the opening short film at The Madrid International Film Festival. It was also honored at the Hollywood Reel Film Festival and The LA Women’s in February 2020. Her play “Ojalá” had its world premiere at Casa 0101 in 2010 and her play “The Maid’s Daughters” was a finalist at Eugene O’Neill Theater Conference in 2016 & 2017. She has also written a children’s book, The Prayer Box.
Jeanette Farr, a playwright and actress originally from Turlock, California, is a graduate of California State University Stanislaus, and holds an MFA in Theatre Arts with an emphasis in playwriting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her plays have been produced around the world including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Her work has been recognized by the Nevada Arts Council, The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.
Her plays continue to yield performances at high schools, forensics competitions, community and professional theatres across the United States and abroad. An alumnus of the Kennedy Center Summer Playwriting Intensive (2007), Jeanette is a proud member of The Antaeus Playwrights’ Lab, The Playwrights Union and the Dramatists Guild of America.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/monologue-reading
Black History Month: Invisible Man at Will & Ariel Durant Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us to Raul Ellison’s first novel Invisible Man, a story within a story, a flashback from the narrator’s present to his youth, when he graduated high school and attended an all-Black southern college. The narrator relocates to New York City, hoping to find opportunity and racial equality. Instead, he finds corruption and disillusionment.
Please join us for a discussion and analysis of this book. How important was the book to the American Civil Rights movement? In the racially divided society, what message(s) did the author try to relay to his readers? Why was the book titled Invisible Man? What social struggles did the African American community experience during the pre-Civil Rights era in the early and mid-20th century? Other than conveying a social message in his novel, did the author attempt to deliver a political message as well?
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Will & Ariel Durant Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 7140 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Deep Critique Workshop & Four Fathers Press – Online Event
Deep Critique Workshop led by DKC (Submit up to 3 poems totaling no more than 150 lines including the subject of or at least mentioning city or living for Four Feathers Press online edition: City Living by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59pm, February 16th)
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Romance Author Panel at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join three incredible authors for an early Valentine’s Day discussion on love and dating.
Amy Spaulding is the author of several novels, including the bestselling For Her Consideration, We Used to Be Friends and The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles), which was named a best book of 2018 by NPR, the Boston Globe, Kirkus Reviews, and more. She is a recipient of the 2023 Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award for the authentic, funny, and diverse representation of the LGBTQ+ community in her books.
Treva Brandon Scharf is an ICF-certified life/dating/relationship coach, former fitness pro, marriage first-timer at 51, and author of the book, Done Being Single: A Late Bloomer’s Guide to Love.
Nancy Beverly has worked on Roseanne, Blossom, Desperate Housewives and Ghost Whisperer, but even more fun, she wrote and produced The Calamities of Jane, an 11-part 90-minute web series about a woman dealing with ageism and sexism in Hollywood (imagine that?!) and Shelby’s Vacation, a lesbian romance film that got into over a dozen film festivals. She’s had several plays produced and most recently, she wrote and starred in her one-person show Sister from Another Planet at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/33630
Walela Nehanda, with Clarkisha Kent, & Bless the Blood at Reparations Club – In-Person Event
Walela Nehanda, in conversation with Clarkisha Kent, will discuss her debut YA poetry
Walela Nehanda is a Black non-binary writer, cultural worker, cancer & stem cell transplant survivor, and mental health advocate from Los Angeles, California.
Clarkisha Kent is a Nigerian American writer, culture critic, former columnist, and author of Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto. Her writing has been featured in outlets like Entertainment Weekly, Essence, gal-dem, PAPER, BET, HuffPost, MTV News, The Root, and more.
She is also the creator of #TheKentTest, a media litmus test designed to evaluate the quality of representation that exists for Black women and women of color in film and other media. Additionally, she co-created a more recent media litmus test—with fat liberation activist SydneySky G—titled The Kelli & Kat Test. The test was crafted in order to analyze the caliber of media that exists for fat [Black] women and/or non-men.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Reparations Club
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3064 S. Victoria Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website: https://rep.club/products/walela-nehanda-event
Obsidian Tongues Open Mic at Café con Libros, Pomona – In-Person Event
Obsidian Tongues Open Mic is held every 2nd Saturday of the month and Ceasar Avelar hosts and welcomes special guests. Spoke word is celebrated here.
Where: Café con Libros, Pomona
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 280 W. 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: https://cafeconlibrospress.org/event-calendar/
Griot Café Open Mic with Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain & Featured Guest at Shades of Africa, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Sistah Shy & Samuel Rain host the Griot Café Open Mic & Poetry event every Saturday evening at Shades of Africa in Long Beach. See site to subscribe for reminders, etc.
Where: Griot Café at Shades of Africa
Date: Saturday the 10th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 1001 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://shadesofafrika.com/griot-cafe-open-mic-poetry/
Monologue Reading with Jennifer Berry and Jeanette Farr at Once Upon a Time – In-Person Event
Local playwrights Jennifer Berry and Jeanette Farr will be performing their published monologues from the anthology The Best Women’s Stage Monologues, 2023. Best for theater kids ages 12+ and adults.
Jennifer Berry is a writer and creator who dives into the personal and political aspects of women’s lives: their work; their families; and their friendships. Her feature film “The Exchange” was the opening short film at The Madrid International Film Festival. It was also honored at the Hollywood Reel Film Festival and The LA Women’s in February 2020. Her play “Ojalá” had its world premiere at Casa 0101 in 2010 and her play “The Maid’s Daughters” was a finalist at Eugene O’Neill Theater Conference in 2016 & 2017. She has also written a children’s book, The Prayer Box.
Jeanette Farr, a playwright and actress originally from Turlock, California, is a graduate of California State University Stanislaus, and holds an MFA in Theatre Arts with an emphasis in playwriting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her plays have been produced around the world including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Her work has been recognized by the Nevada Arts Council, The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.
Her plays continue to yield performances at high schools, forensics competitions, community and professional theatres across the United States and abroad. An alumnus of the Kennedy Center Summer Playwriting Intensive (2007), Jeanette is a proud member of The Antaeus Playwrights’ Lab, The Playwrights Union, and the Dramatists Guild of America.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Sunday the 11th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/monologue-reading
Anthony Nerada, with Adam Sass, & Skater Boy at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Anthony Nerada, in conversation with Adam Sass, will discuss his debut YA queer romance Skater Boy.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 11th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Second Sunday Poetry Reading: Steve Cohen & Radomir Voltech Luza at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Alex M. Fankel hosts Second Sunday Poetry Reading and welcomes:
Steve Cohen always liked the way words fit together. He’s a photographer and very visually oriented. He finds that putting words together is an exciting and fascinating experience. Poetry is written music and what you can do with words is wonderful. You can make people laugh and you can make people cry, you can make people love and you can make people hate and with the right combination of words you can even make people think. He loves the absurd and the weird and sometimes the weird takes over with his writing.
Radomir Voltech Luza was born in Vienna, Austria in 1963 to prominent Czech parents. The Pushcart Prize nominated (2012) Poet Laureate of North Hollywood, CA and author of 37 books (33 collections of Poetry) is the winner of the 2021 San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival Book Contest for LOSING ME: POEMS FROM BED 23C.
The Catholic of over 50 years finished fourth in the 2022 SGVPF Book Contest with TIN TULIP but tied for first in the broadside contest. The Jesuit High School and Tulane University (New Orleans, LA) graduate was a second-place finisher in the 2020 SGVPF Chapbook Contest and also garnered The Irwin Award (Book Publicists of Southern California) for Most Creative Collection of Poetry for 2016’s EROS OF ANGELS.
The SAG/AFTRA/AEA veteran actor, stand-up comedian, improvisational performer, published fiction and creative non-fiction writer and host has had 75 poems published in over 40 literary journals, anthologies and websites such as: Journal of Modern Poetry, Boog City, Nerve Cowboy, Spare Change, Lummox, Bicycle Review, Los Angeles Daily News, KYSO Flash, Sahara, Askew, The Eintouist, Poetry Motel, Boston Globe, New Laurel Review, Papyrus (Cover), Poetry Superhighway, Poeticdiversity.org, Spectrum, Bucks County Courier Times, Bent Pin Quarterly, Sage Trail, Phantom Seed, Pegasus, Skysage, Poet (Cover), Writers of the Desert Sage, roguescholars.com, lucidmoonpoetry.com, Altadena Poetry Review, Altadena Literary Review, Cultural Weekly, Bicycle Review, An Eye For An Eye Makes The Whole World Blind Anthology and Men In The Company Of Women Anthology, among others.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: The Studio Theatre at St. Denis Building
Date: Sunday the 11th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 3433 Cahuenga Blvd West, Los Angeles 90068
(Near Universal Studios)
Website: https://www.secondsundaypoetry.com/
SoCal Ladies of Romance Group Reading at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
North Figueroa hosts four of southern California’s finest romance authors for a reading and discussion on writing romance, building drama, and sparking intrigue. We’ll have readings from: Nalo J. Stewart, Genesis Woods, Monique Fisher, and Courtney Irving.
The discussion will focus on creating romance, building drama, and parking intrigue in romance fiction.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Sunday the 11th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lrr65ud5
Fantasy Romance Book Club at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
February’s Fantasy Romance Book Club participants will discuss Beasts of Prey, by author Anana Gray.
Bookseller Taylor C. leads this book club. Please join us.
No membership is necessary, feel free to show up!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 11th
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 