Story Time with Ms. Amy at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Join us every Monday morning at 10:30 am for our special children’s storytime, led by our very own Ms. Amy.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 10:30 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 900266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/story-time-ms-amy
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 link and details.
Where: Robertson Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 11 am
Address: 1719 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/robertson-writers-group
The Book Jewel Writers Group at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
Honor your resolutions. Finish that book. Improve your craft. Get to know oth3r writers in your community.
Jion The Book Jewel’s Writers Group every 3rd Monday of the month stating at 5 pm.
Contact Thera for more info at BOOKJEWELWRITERS@GMAILCOM.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 6259 W 87th St. Westchester 90045
Website: https://www.thebookjewel.com/events
Philosophical Horror Book Club: Dark and Shallow Lies at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Philosophical Horror Book Club participants will discuss Dark and Shallow Lies, by author Ginny Myers Sain.
La Cachette, Louisiana, is the worst place to be if you have something to hide.
This tiny town, where seventeen-year-old Grey spends her summers, is the self-proclaimed Psychic Capital of the World—and the place where Elora Pellerin, Grey’s best friend, disappeared six months earlier. When a mysterious stranger emerges from the bayou—a stormy-eyed boy with links to Elora and the town’s bloody history—Grey realizes that La Cachette’s past is far more present and dangerous than she’d ever understood. Suddenly, she doesn’t know who she can trust.
Ginny Myers Sain lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and has spent the past twenty years working closely with teens as a director and acting instructor in a program designed for high school students seriously intent on pursuing a career in the professional theatre. Having grown up in deeply rural America, she is interested in telling stories about resilient kids who come of age in remote settings. She is also the author of Secrets So Deep.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/philosophical-horror-book-club-dark-and-shallow-lies
Book Club: Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? at Sheman Oaks Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Book Club participants will discuss the current Big Read selection: Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by author Roz Chast.
In her first memoir, New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents. Spanning the last several years of their lives and told through four-color cartoons, family photos, and documents, and a narrative as rife with laughs as it is with tears, Chast’s graphic novel memoir is both comfort and comic relief for anyone experiencing the life-altering loss of elderly parents.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Sherman Oaks Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
R.U.P.O. at Back to the Grind in Riverside – In-Person Event
RUPO Open Mic is back every Monday Night at Back to the Grind in Riverside.
Every Monday at a new time- 7pm to 9pm. Sign-ups are at 6:30pm and in person only, $4 cash admission. See you then!
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Back to the Grind, Riverside
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm (Sign-ups at 6:30 pm)
Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Website: https://www.facebook.com/backtothegrind
At Skylight: Tessa Hulls, with Melissa Chadburn, & Feeding Ghosts at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Tessa Hulls, in conversation with Melissa Chadburn, will present and discuss her graphic memoir, Feeding Ghosts.
This is a moving story about three generations of Chinese women, exploring love, grief, exile, and identity.
Sun Yi was a Shanghai journalist caught in the political crosshairs of the 1949 Communist victory. After eight years of government harassment, she fled to Hong Kong with her daughter. Upon arrival, Sun Yi wrote a bestselling memoir about her persecution and survival, used the proceeds to put Rose in an elite boarding school—and promptly had a breakdown that left her committed to a mental institution. Rose eventually came to the United States on a scholarship and brought Sun Yi to live with her.
Tessa watched her mother care for Sun Yi, both struggling under the weight of Sun Yi’s unexamined trauma and mental illness. Vowing to escape her mother’s smothering fear, Tessa left home and traveled to the farthest-flung corners of the globe (Antarctica). But at the age of thirty, it starts to feel less like freedom and more like running away, and she returns home to face the history that shaped her family.
Tessa Hulls is an artist, a writer, and an adventurer. Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Atlas Obscura, and Adventure Journal, and her comics have been published in The Rumpus, City Arts, and Spark. She has received grants from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, 4Culture, and the McMillen Foundation, and she is a recipient of the Washington Artist Trust Arts Innovator Award. Feeding Ghosts is her first book.
Melissa Chadburn’s debut novel A Tiny Upward Shove was longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Debut Novel award. Her extensive reporting on the child welfare system appears in the Netflix docuseries The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. Melissa is a worker lover and through her own labor and literary citizenship strives to upend economic violence. She received a Ph.D. in Creative Writing at the University of Southern California, and lives in greater Los Angeles. Her mother taught her how to sharpen a pencil with a knife and she’s basically been doing that ever since.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-tessa-hulls-presents-feeding-ghosts-w-melissa-chadburn
Book Signing & Conversation: Gennarose Nethercott & Colin Hinckley at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join Thistlefoot author Gennarose Nethercott, in conversation with Colin Hinckley, for a reading and book signing of her new book—short story collection Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart.
Gennarose Nethercott is the author of a novel, Thistlefoot, and a book-length poem, The Lumberjack’s Dove, which was selected by Louise Glück as a winner of the National Poetry Series. A writer and folklorist alike, she helps create the podcast Lore, and she tours nationally and internationally performing strange tales (sometimes with puppets in tow). Fifty Beasts to Break Your Heart—her newest book—marks her debut into short fiction. She lives in the woodlands of Vermont, beside an old cemetery.
Colin Hinckley grew up at the edge of the forest in rural Vermont where many of his most enduring nightmares were born. His work has appeared in Tales to Terrify, The Lindenwood Review, and more. Colin’s first novella, The Black Lord, was released in 2023 through Tenebrous Press. He lives in North Hollywood, California with his fiancee, Amanda, and his cat, Franklin.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/33371
Morgan Matson & Promchanted at Vroman’s Books – In-Person Event
Morgan Matson will present and discuss her book, Promchanted.
In this story, Stella Griffin doesn’t believe in fairy tales. Ever since her boyfriend dumped her three weeks before the prom—not ideal timing—she’s convinced every love story is a lie.
She’s ready to skip the prom entirely. But she and her best friend, Nisha, have been planning for years to celebrate at Disneyland before the prom…an OG OC tradition.
But when Stella and Reece push through a hidden door in Sleeping Beauty’s castle, they’re not in Anaheim anymore. They’re in the story. And if things don’t end the way they’re supposed to…they might never get home. Will they be able to pull off a fairy-tale ending?
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Morgan-Matson-discusses-Promchanted
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 18th
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-861475274737
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 18th
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/under-mic-influence-tickets-595249014827?aff=erelpanelorg
Book Club: The Enchanters at Baldwin Hills Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss the novel, The Enchanters by James Ellroy.
In the summer of 1962, Freddy O, a corrupt ex-cop, dope fiend, and freelance extortionist, believes Marilyn Monroe’s death and the kidnapping of a B-movie starlet are riddles only he can solve as he tears through all those who block his path to the truth.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Baldwin Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 12 pm – 1 pm
Address: 2906 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-enchanters-james-ellroy
Tuesday Afternoon Book Club: The World According to Joan Didion at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Book Club participants will discuss the novel, The World According to Joan Didion by Evelyn McConnell.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: 2411 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/tuesday-afternoon-book-club-6
Nonfiction Book Club: Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks- A Cool History of Hot Commodity at Donald Bruce Kaufman – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Nonfiction Book Club participants will discuss Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks- A Cool History of Hot Commodity by Amy Brady.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/nonfiction-book-club-0
Mysterious Book Club: In a Lonely Place at Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Mysterious Book Club participants will discuss In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes.
Los Angeles in the late 1940s is a city of promise and prosperity, but not for former fighter pilot Dix Steele. He prowls the foggy city night seeking solitary young women. His funds are running out when he hooks up with his old Air Corps buddy Brub, now working for the LAPD, who happens to be on the trail of the strangler who’s been terrorizing the women of the city for months…
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 861 Alma Dr., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/mysterious-book-club-19
NEW Before the Ban Book Club: The Civil War of Amos Abernathy at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Before the Ban Book Club participants will discuss The Civil War of Amos Abernathy by author Michael Leali.
This story is a heartfelt debut novel about a boy’s attempt to find himself in the history he loves.
Amos Abernathy lives for history. Literally. He’s been a historical reenactor nearly all his life. But when a cute new volunteer arrives at his Living History Park, Amos finds himself wondering if there’s something missing from history: someone like the two of them.
Michael Leali is an award-winning writer and educator. He earned his MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He is the author of the Golden Kite Award–winning novel The Civil War of Amos Abernathy and Matteo. Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois, Michael currently lives in California.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/new-ban-book-club-civil-war-amos-abernathy
Classic Detectives Book Club: Death on the Aisle at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss Death on the Aisle: A Mr. and Mrs. North Mystery, by author Richard Lockridge.
A light mystery set in a classic Broadway locale, Death on the Aisle is lent verisimilitude by author Richard Lockridge’s career as a theater critic. Though it is the fourth novel in the saga of this charming, witty couple, the series can be enjoyed in any order, with each installment depicting its own self-contained story.
Frances and Richard Lockridge were two of the most popular names in mystery during the forties and fifties. Inspired by Richard’s series of non-mystery stories for The New Yorker about a publisher and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. North, the Lockridge husband-and-wife duo collaborated successfully to write twenty-six mystery novels about the couple, which, in turn, became the subject of a Broadway play, a movie (starring Gracie Allen), and series for both radio and television. After Frances’s death in 1963, Richard discontinued the Mr. and Mrs. North series but continued to write until his own death in 1982.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/classic-detectives-book-club-death-aisle
3rd Tuesday Book Club: The Music Shop at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/3rd-tuesday-book-club-7
Conchas y Café Zine Writing Workshop via DSTL Arts – In-Person Event
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 19th (through April the 30th)
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.dstlarts.org/conchasycafezine
Beyond the Page with Katie Salisbury Presents: Anna May Wong & Not Your China via Reparations Club Off-Site at PICO HOUSE – In-Person Event
This is a ticketed event, so see website for details.
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: Reparations Club off site at Pico House
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 424 N Main St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: https://fcamla.ticketleap.com/beyond-the-page-with-katie-salisbury/ or https://fcamla.ticketleap.com/beyond-the-page-with-katie-salisbury/dates/Mar-19-2024_at_0630PM
Village Well Book Club: The Bee Sting at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Book Club participants this month will discuss The Bee Sting by Paul Murray.
From the author of Skippy Dies comes Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting, an irresistibly funny, wise, and thought-provoking tour de force about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is falling apart.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/33895
Margaret Wappler, with David Sheinkopf, & A Good Bad Boy at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Margaret Wappler, in conversation with David Sheinkopf, will present and discuss her book, A Good Bad Boy: Luke Perry and How a Generation Grew Up.
An artful and contemplative tribute to the late actor famed for his role as Dylan McKay in Beverly Hills, 90210.
In A Good Bad Boy, Margaret Wappler attempts to understand who Perry was and why he was unique among his Hollywood peers. She weaves poignant vignettes of memoir in which she serves as an avatar to show how Perry shaped a generation’s views on masculinity, privilege and the ideal of “cool.”
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/margaret-wappler
North Fig Book Club: Pedro Páramo at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss Pedro Páramo by author Juan Rulfo, with a foreward by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
A masterpiece of the surreal that influenced a generation of writers in Latin America, Pedro Páramo is the otherworldly tale of one man’s quest for his lost father. That man swears to his dying mother that he will find the father he has never met—Pedro Páramo—but when he reaches the town of Comala, he finds it haunted by memories and hallucinations. There emerges the tragic tale of Páramo himself, and the town whose every corner holds the taint of his rotten soul. Although initially published to a quiet reception, Pedro Páramo was soon recognized as a major novel that has served as a touchstone text for writers including Mario Vargas Llosa and José Donoso. Now published in a new translation from the definitive Spanish edition by celebrated Rulfo scholar Douglas J. Weatherford, and featuring a foreword by Gabriel García Márquez, this new edition of the novel cements its place as one of the seminal literary texts of the twentieth century.
Our April selection is LIARMOUTH by John Waters.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Tuesday the 19th
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-lspcpduh
At Skylight: Lisa Ko, with Rachel Khong, & Memory Piece at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Lisa Ko, in conversation with Rachel Khong, will discuss her novel, Memory Piece.
Lisa Ko, the award-winning author of The Leavers offers a visionary novel of friendship, art, and ambition that asks: What is the value of a meaningful life?
In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three teenagers drawn together by their shared sense of alienation and desire for something different. “Allied in the weirdest parts of themselves,” they envision each other as artistic collaborators and embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity.
Moving from the predigital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different from the one they were promised.
Lisa Ko is the author of The Leavers, which was a 2017 National Book Award for Fiction finalist, won the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, and was a finalist for the 2018 PEN/Hemingway Award. The Leavers was a national bestseller and was named a best book of the year by NPR, Entertainment Weekly, BuzzFeed, the Los Angeles Times, and others. Ko’s short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories and her essays and nonfiction have been published in The New York Times, The Believer, and elsewhere.
Rachel Khong is the author of the novels Goodbye, Vitamin and Real Americans, forthcoming from Knopf in April 2024.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Tuesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-lisa-ko-presents-memory-piece-w-rachel-khong
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic + Featured Reader Lynda La Rose – Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets Series, presented by Rick Lupert via Zoom, will feature an Open Reading and guest Lynda La Rose.
Lynda La Rose is a poet/performance artist who has been writing poetry since 1993; she has been published in several poetry anthologies including I Love Your Poetry, What?!?!, Listen to Me: Shared Secrets From WriteGirl, San Gabriel Poetry Calendar, and the City Of Los Angeles African American Heritage Month Cultural Affairs Guide for 2011, 2012 and 2013. In 2007 she wrote, performed, and produced “Summerfruit”, a one-woman show told in the language of poetry/spoken word. She is the author of the collection Sunshine and Concrete.
NOTE: Details and Zoom link at event link.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday the 19th
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 Coffee House
Date: Tuesday the 19th
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 SLAM and special events) they hold open mic night. In a standard slam, there are five judges that are selected. Before the competition begins, the host may bring up a sacrificial poet who is not competing in the slam but is scored by the judges in order for them to calibrate their scoring.
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 19th
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm
Address: 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChLUBSRPCFb/ or https://www.dapoetrylounge.com/events/open-mic-night
Coffee Time Book Club: The Oceans and the Stars at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Coffee Time Book Club participants will discuss the novel, The Oceans and the Stars: A Sea Story, A War Story, A Love Story by author Mark Helprin.
This novel is about the majesty of the sea; a life dedicated to duty, honor, and country; and the gift of falling in love.
A Navy captain near the end of a decorated career, Stephen Rensselaer is disciplined, intelligent, and determined to always do what’s right. In defending the development of a new variant of warship, he makes an enemy of the president of the United States, who assigns him to command the doomed line’s only prototype––Athena, Patrol Coastal 15––with the intent to humiliate a man who should have been an admiral.
Rather than resign, Rensselaer takes the new assignment in stride, and while supervising Athena’s fitting out in New Orleans, encounters a brilliant lawyer, Katy Farrar, with whom he falls in last-chance love. Soon thereafter, he is deployed on a mission that subjects his integrity, morality, and skill to the ultimate test, and ensures that Athena will live forever in the annals of the Navy.
Mark Helprin is the internationally acclaimed, bestselling author of Paris in the Present Tense, Winter’s Tale, In Sunlight and in Shadow, A Soldier of the Great War, Freddy and Fredericka, The Pacific, Swan Lake, Ellis Island, Memoir from Antproof Case, and numerous other works.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 10 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 900266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-20
Book Club: The Other Einstein at Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Book Club participants will discuss the novel, The Other Einstein, by author Marie Benedict.
RSVP:
Please email grnhls@lapl.org for the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 1:30 pm – 3 pm
Address: 10640 Petit Ave., Granada Hills, CA 91344
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-other-einstein
Poets Café: Poetry Event via KPFK 90.7 FM – Live On-Air Event
Poets Café hosts poets in discussion and is aired weekly on KPFK.
Poet, writer, and publisher of Vagabond Press Mark Lipman will be in conversation with Dr. Cornell West on the role of poetry in society, with poetry by Annahita Mahdavi West.
This program is offered monthly on KPFK Los Angeles 90.7 FM.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: KPFK 90.7 FM
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: On-air Event (live)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=813924580779889&set=pb.100064870620917.-2207520000
Graphic Novel Club: Mabuhay! at Once Upon a Time – In-Person MG Event
Graphic Novel Book Club participants will discuss Mabuhay! by author Zachary Sterling.
Humor! Adventure! Magic! Graphic novels have it all! Iz and Apollo will host our ever-popular book club.
Best for ages 9-12. Masks are recommended.
This is a discussion- based club. Participants should come prepared to share their thoughts about that meeting’s book choice.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 900266
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/graphic-novel-club-mabuhay-zachary-sterling
Middle Grade Book Club: Daughters of the Lamp at pages: a bookstore – In-Person MG Event
Middle Grade Book Club participants will discuss the novel, Daughters of the Lamp by author Nedda Lewers.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 900266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/middle-grade-book-club-16
Feedback Circle Workshop via The Poetry Lab – Online Event
The Feedback Circle workshop is appropriate for writers who have at least 5 poems ready for revision. Participants will have opportunities for feedback in small groups, large groups, and one-on-one settings. Much attention will be paid to giving feedback to others compassionately and equitably. Craft-focused feedback will be strongly encouraged, and a review of elements of craft will be made available to facilitate this focus.
Maximum class size: 12 people
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Poetry Lab
Date: Wednesday the 20th (Six weeks: continues on March 27th, & April 3rd, 10th,17th, and 24th)
Time: 5 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: https://www.thepoetrylab.com/feedback
Big Read Book Club: Can We Talk About Something More Pleasant? at Lakeview Terrace Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss Can We Talk About Something More Pleasant?by author Roz Chast.
This discussion will include an individual caregiver and/ or social worker to discuss the issues of cognitive decline, emotional stress for caregivers, and the need for prior communication on the topics discussed in Roz Chast’s book, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Lakeview Terrace Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 12002 Osborne St. Lake View Terrace, CA 91342
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/big-read-book-discussion-20
Book Launch & Signing: Nova Jenkins, with Meg Howrey, & The Stars Turned Inside Out at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Nova Jacobs, in conversation with Meg Lowrey, will discuss her book The Stars Turned Inside Out.
The discovery of a suspicious death at a famous Swiss physics laboratory sparks a mystery that merges science, philosophy, and the high-stakes race to unlock the fundamental nature of our universe in this thrilling new novel from the Edgar Award–nominated author of the “hugely entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) The Last Equation of Isaac Severy.
Nova Jacobs has an MFA from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts and is a recipient of the Nicholl Fellowship from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Jeremy. She is the author of The Stars Turned Inside Out and The Last Equation of Isaac Severy.
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Reading in Bed with Jessica: L.A, Poet Society via 101.5 FM – Live On-Air Event
Reading in Bed with Jessica hosts poets and writers in conversation and is aired weekly on 101.5 FM.
Jessica Wilson Cardenas is the founder of L.A. Poet Society.
Guests TBA
This program is offered weekly on radioollin Los Angeles 101.5 FM.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: L.A. Poet Society via www.radioollin.com 101.5 FM
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: On-air Event (live at 101.5 FM)
Website: https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events
Rainbow Reads: Teen LGBTQIA+ Book Club: Callie and the Champions of Heleston at Once Upon a Time – In-Person Teen Event
Teen LGBTQIA+ Book Club participants will discuss Callie and the Champions of Heleston by author Esme Symes-Smith.
Celebrate all the identities and stories!
Best for ages13 and up. Masks are recommended.
This is a discussion- based club. Participants should come prepared to share their thoughts about that meeting’s book choice.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 900266
Rex Ogle & Four Eyes: A Graphic Novel at Vroman’s – In-Person MG Event
Rex Ogle presents and discusses Four Eyes: A Graphic Novel, a humorous and heartwarming middle-grade graphic memoir about fitting in, facing bullies, and finding the right pair of glasses.
In this true coming-of-age story, Rex has his sights set on surviving sixth grade, but now he’s got to find a way to do it with glasses, no friends, and a family that just doesn’t get it!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 13th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Rex-Ogle-discusses-Four-Eyes
Hillary Yablon, with Erin Malone, & Sylvia’s Second Act at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Hillary Yablon, in conversation with Erin Malone, will present and discuss her book, Sylvia’s Second Act.
Her husband’s cheating on her. She hates Boca. Sylvia is mad and she isn’t going to take it anymore. She’s moving back north to NYC, to the city of her dreams—with her best friend, Evie, in tow.
Hillary Yablon lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two young sons. She is a graduate of Princeton University and earned her MA in poetry from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. This, her debut novel, received the Allegra Johnson Prize at UCLA.
Erin Malone is a partner and literary agent at WME. Prior to books, she worked in film/TV. Originally from the Midwest, she worked in WME’s NYC office before moving to LA, where she lives with her husband, a writer, and their two kids.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore (in the Courtyard)
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Hillary-Yablon-March-20-Author-signing
Sasha Issenberg, with Todd Purdum, & The Lie Detectives at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Sasha Issenberg, in conversation with Todd Purdum (Vanity Fair),will present and discuss her book, The Lie Detectives.
Journalist Sasha Issenberg returns to the cutting edge of political innovation to reveal how campaigns are navigating the era’s most pressing challenge: how to win in a world awash in lies.
The Lie Detectives presents a vivid snapshot of a political class trying to come to terms with an exploding social media landscape and using every weapon in its arsenal to counter the biggest threat it has ever faced to its way of doing business and winning power.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/sasha-issenberg
Book Launch: Sam Nakahira & Ruth Asawa: An Artist Takes Shape at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Sam Nakahira will present and discuss his graphic novel, Ruth Asawa: An Artist Takes Shape.
Brave, unconventional, and determined, Ruth Asawa let nothing stop her from living a life intertwined with art.
Renowned for her innovative wire sculptures, Japanese American artist Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) was a teenager in Southern California when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II. Japanese Americans on the West Coast were forced into camps. Asawa’s family had to abandon their farm, her father was incarcerated, and she and the rest of her family were sent to a detention center, and later to a concentration camp in Arkansas. Asawa nurtured her dreams of becoming an artist while imprisoned and eventually made her way to the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina.
This graphic biography by Sam Nakahira, developed in consultation with Ruth Asawa’s youngest daughter, Addie Lanier, chronicles the genesis of Asawa as an artist—from the horror of Pearl Harbor to her transformative education at Black Mountain College to building her life in San Francisco, where she would further develop and refine her groundbreaking wire sculptures.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Wednesday the 20th
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-lsuumrqn
RECESS Open Mic Is Back at SIPA HQ, Palms Up Academy – In-Person Event
RECESS Open Mic Is Back at SIPA HQ on Wednesdays.
Featuring a Student Showcase in the month of March!
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 20th
Time: 7 pm – 9:30 pm (Doors at 6:30; Open Mic at 8 pm)
Address: 3200 W. Temple St., Ste. 100, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://www.palmsupacademy.com
At Skylight: Ream Shukairy, with Hannah V. Sawyerr, & Six Truths and a Lie at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Ream Shukairy, in conversation with Hannah V. Sawyerr, will discuss her novel, Six Truths and a Lie.
This book is his timely and harrowing examination of America’s justice system, the story of six Muslim teens falsely accused of a deadly attack.
As fireworks pop off at a rowdy Fourth of July bonfire party, an explosion off the California coast levels an oil rig—resulting in chaos and worse, murder.
At the center are six Muslim teens – six patriots, six strangers, and six suspects.
An old soul caught in the wrong place. An aspiring doctor. An influencer with a reputation to protect. A perfect daughter with secrets to hide. A soccer star headed for Stanford. An immigrant in love. Each with something to hide and everything to lose.
Ream Shukairy is the author of The Next New Syrian Girl and Six Truths and a Lie. She is a Syrian American born and raised full-time in Orange County, California and part-time over summers in Syria. Whether in California or Syria, she feels at home where her family is and wherever there’s a beach. She has a talent for learning languages and is always on the search for the next place she can travel and flex her words. The daughter of immigrants, there isn’t a stereotype she won’t try her hardest to defy. She invites you to visit her online at reamshukairy.com and on Instagram @ream_shu and Twitter @ream_shukairy.
Hannah V. Sawyerr was recognized as the Youth Poet Laureate of Baltimore in 2016. Her spoken word has been featured on the BBC’s World Have Your Say program, as well as the National Education Association’s “Do You Hear Us?” campaign. Her written word has been included in Essence, gal-dem, and xoNecole. She holds a BA in English from Morgan State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. Sawyerr is an English professor at Loyola Marymount University and lives in Los Angeles, California. ALL THE FIGHTING PARTS is her debut novel.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Katie Gee Salisbury, with Jeff Yang, & Not Your China Doll at Vroman’s Books – In-Person Event
Katie Gee Salisbury, in conversation with Jeff Yang, will present and discuss her book, Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong.
Set against the glittering backdrop of Los Angeles during the gin-soaked Jazz Age and the rise of Hollywood, this debut book celebrates Anna May Wong, the first Asian American movie star, to bring an unsung heroine to light and reclaim her place in cinema history.
Jeff Yang is a writer, journalist, producer and screenwriter, and the author of The Golden Screen: The Movies that Made Asian America and co-author of the New York Times bestselling RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now, as well as Once Upon a Time in China and I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action, the action icon’s autobiography. He’s currently working with Academy Award-nominated director Renee Tajima-Peña and the Center for Asian American Media to develop The Golden Screen as a five-part PBS documentary.
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Katie-Gee-Salisbury-discusses-Not-Your-China-Doll
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 — WDP & Yasmine Safdie Book Release;
- 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 20th
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 20th
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-863033324907
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg & Guest Feature HanaLena Fennel 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 HanaLena Fennel.
HanaLena Fennel is the author of Letters to the Leader: Poems Written in Response to the 55 Executive Orders From Donald J. Trump’s First Year as President of the United States andis a contributor to the anthology Shit Men Say to Me, both publications from Moon Tide Press.
$4 cover fee, cash only
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday the 20th
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/337977508709477
Celebrate World Poetry Day at Heritage House, Riverside – In-Person Event
Inlandia Institute and Museum of Riverside Present World Poetry Day at Heritage House.
Featuring poets: Romaine Washington, Cindy Rinne, Lydia Theon Ware i, James Ducat, and James Coats.
We will also have an open mic! Bring your poetry – in any language – to share!
Note: See site for details.
Where: Heritage House, Riverside
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 8193 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside 92504
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/my-calendar/?mc_id=2275
West L.A. Book Club: The Dutch House at West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Book Club participants will discuss The Dutch House by author Ann Patchett.
RSVP:
For the Zoom link, please contact Carrie at cdavies@lapl.org.
Note: See site for details.
Where: West L.A Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/west-la-book-club
Mystery Book Club: A Curious Beginning at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Mystery Book Club participants will discuss A Curious Beginning, by author Deanna Raybourn.
The New York Times bestselling author of the Lady Julia Grey mysteries returns once more to Victorian England and introduces intrepid adventuress Veronica Speedwell….
London, 1887. After burying her spinster aunt, orphaned Veronica Speedwell is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as with fending off admirers, Veronica intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.
Deanna Raybourn is the author of the award-winning, New York Times bestselling Lady Julia Grey series, currently in development for television, as well as the USA Today bestselling and Edgar Award nominated Veronica Speedwell Mysteries and several standalone works.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-curious-beginning
Acid Verse: The Mixtape Launch Party by L.A. Poet Society at Sonido Valle Record Shop – In-Person Event
Acid Verse: The Mixtape Launch party is hosted by Tauri & Nikolai Garcia, and features:
Natalie Garcia is a Chicana Poet, Author, Songwriter, Spoken-Word Artist, and Actress. Her writing focuses on healing, self-love, and spiritual manifestation.
Jesse Mendez N/A
Nathan Castellanos is the author of Salted Plastic: The Comedic Horror of Gentrification.
Phuong Vo is passionate about weaving racial, class, and gender analysis into her community building. She believes that radical movements for liberation must include people like her parents who are complicated and secretively kind. From them, she has inherited the abilities to rapidly spread news and bà tám when needed. Phuong is currently the Community Organizer based in Orange County. In her free time, she enjoys learning the piano and writing poetry.
Stephanie Seis N/A
Jennifer Baptiste is a children’s librarian, writer, poet, and copywriter.
Wanted Records (DJ) & Iris De Anda (Roots of Redemption: You Have No Right to Remain Silent) (Special Performance)
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Sonido Del Valle Record Shop
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 2108 1st St., Los Angeles, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=816968300474467&set=pcb.816968317141132
Playa Vista Ladies Book Club: House of Thieves at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss House of Thieves, by author Charles Belfoure.
In 1886 New York, a respectable architect shouldn’t have any connection to a band of thieves and killers who rule the underbelly of the city. But when John Cross’s son racks up a gambling debt, Cross must pay it back himself.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: The Book Jewel Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St, Westchester, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.thebookjewel.com/events
Ticketed Event: Brent Underwood & Ghost Town Living at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Brent Underwood will discuss his book, Ghost Twon Living.
The siren song of Cerro Gordo, a desolate ghost town perched high above Death Valley, has seduced thousands since the 1800s, but few fell harder for it than Brent Underwood, who moved there in March of 2020, only to be immediately snowed in and trapped for weeks.
He came looking for a challenge different from the traditional 9-5 job but discovered something much more fulfilling—an undertaking that would call on all of himself and push him beyond what he knew he was capable of.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/brent-underwood
Melt the Mic Poetry SLAM with Host Celia DaPoetat 818 Community Darkroom – In-Person Event
Celia DaPoet hosts Melt the Mic Poetry SLAM, where all ages are welcome and six wild card slots are available.
Poets featuring include: Dharma Lemon, D, Jasmine MInchez, Blu, Joseph Bricker, and Soul Stuf.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details. Tickets $10.
Where: 818 Community Darkroom
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 7712 Gloria Ave., Unit #5, Van Nuys, CA 91406
Website: https://www.instagram.com/
Trenches Full of Prose: Readings by Four SoCal Writers at Page Against the Machine – In-Person Event
Trenches Full of Prose is a monthly prose reading series created, curated, and hosted by Jesse Tovar and Brian Dunlap, with the goal of supporting published SoCal authors and the local independent bookstores that support them.
Meliza Banales also known as Missy Fuego, is an author, advocate, and adventurer. Their novel, Life Is Wonderful People Are Terrific (Ladybox Books), was honored by Vida Latina in 2023. They are the author of the poetry collection, root for the underdog, (Dodsworth Books).
Matthew Callier is the author of seven books: one novel, two short story collections, two volumes of poetry, and two children’s titles. His stories, poems, and essays have appeared in over one hundred publications, including the 𝘚𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘵 and the 𝘓𝘰𝘴 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘛𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴. He is the recipient of numerous awards, most notably the Shakespeare Award, the Short Story America Prize, the New England Book Festival Award, the Los Angeles Book Festival Prize, and the Paris Book Festival Prize.
Elliot Paulson is the author of The Herding of Shepards and Being and Becoming Myself: A Guide for Self Understanding. His newest poetry collection is Flowers Aren’t Always Beautiful. Paulson lives in Los Angeles and is more hopeful than he has been.
Sara Finnerty was the co-curator of The Griffith Park Storytelling Series and a Nonfiction Editor at 𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦. She has stories and essays published in 𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘺, 𝘊𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘵, 𝘌𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, and many others. She is originally from Queens, NY and lives in Los Angeles with her family.
Trenches Full of Prose was conceived and curated by poet and Systemic Dreaming literary events organizer Jesse Tovar. Co-host Brian Dunlap is the author of Concrete Paradise and the Editor-in-Chief of the online publication losangelesliterature.com.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Page Against the Machine
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2712 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events
Ijeoma Oluo + Siena Chiang, & Be a Revolution via Reparations Club – Online Event
Author Ijeoma Oluo, in conversation with author Siena Chiang, will present and discuss her book Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—And How You Can Too.
Jeoma Oluo is a writer, speaker, and internet yeller. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race and, most recently, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America. Her work has been featured in the Guardian, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, among many other publications. She was named to the 2021 Time 100 Next list and has twice been named to the Root 100. She received the 2018 Feminist Humanist Award and the 2020 Harvard Humanist of the Year Award from the American Humanist Association. She lives in Seattle, Washington. For more on Ijeoma go to: https://www.ijeomaoluo.com/
Siena Chiang handles operations for Rep Club. She is also an independent strategist, focused on moving resources to worker organizing and other related efforts, and an advisor to values-aligned organizations on how to grow in a people-first way. Since 2021, Siena has been leading a recurring online series talking to authors, organizers, and workers about organizing. In her past life, Siena worked in healthcare and for the NYC Mayor’s Office, focused on sustainability and disaster recovery in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Outside of paid work, she has a ceramics practice.
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: Reparations Club
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://rep.club/products/march-21st-event-virtual-be-a-revolution-w-ijeoma-oluo-siena-chiang
At Skylight: Jamie Figueroa, with Keenan Norris, & Mother Island at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Jamie Figueroa, in conversation with Keenan Norris, will discuss her book,Mother Island, a seering memoir that explore the institutions that defined a Puerto RIcan woman and what she unlearned to discover herself.
Growing up in the Midwest, raised by a Puerto Rican mother who was abandoned by her family, Jamie Figueroa and her sisters were estranged from their culture, consumed by the whiteness that surrounded them. In Mother Island, Figueroa traces her search for identity as shaped by and against a mother who settled into the safety of assimilation. Figueroa presents a cultural coming-of-age story. Candid and raw, Mother Island gets to the heart of the question: Who do we become when we are no longer trying to be someone else?
Jamie Figueroa is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer (Catapult 2021), which was short-listed for the Reading the West Book Award and long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, was an Indie Next pick, a Good Morning America must-read book of the month, and was named a most anticipated debut of the year by Bustle, Electric Literature, The Millions, and Rumpus. A member of the faculty in the MFA Creative Writing program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Figueroa has published writing in American Short Fiction, Emergence Magazine, Elle, McSweeney’s, Agni, The New York Times, and the Boston Review, among other publications. A Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA) alum, she received a Truman Capote Award and was a Bread Loaf Rona Jaffe Scholar. Boricua (Afro-Taíno) by way of Ohio, Figueroa is a longtime resident of northern New Mexico.
Keenan Norris’s latest novel is The Confession of Copeland Cane, the winner of the 2022 Northern California Book Award. His essays have garnered a 2021-22 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award and 2021 Folio: Eddie Award, while his debut novel Brother and the Dancer won the 2012 James D. Houston Award. Most recently, he’s authored the biblio-memoir Chi Boy: Native Sons and Chicago Reckonings and the novella Lustre. Keenan is an Associate Professor and coordinator of the Steinbeck Fellows Program at San Jose State University.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-jamie-figueroa-presents-mother-island-w-keenan-norris
Book Release Event: Brittany Manjivar and Guests & Parasocialite at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Dream Boy Book Club presents the release of Parasocialite by Brittany Menjivar featuring readings from Erin Satterthwaite, Tess Pollok, and Sasha Nastasi followed by a Q&A with the author.
A hot fashion photographer hacks into girls’ computers with spyware and they love it. A teenage bride seethes with jealousy as her A-list husband tends to a Make-A-Wish child. A famous Twitter user is flushed down a toilet at a party in the Hills. This is the world of PARASOCIALITE, where excitement and ecstasy abound — but happiness is harder to come by.
Brittany Menjivar was born in the DMV. She now works and plays in the City of Angels. She is co-founder of Car Crash Collective a poetry and prose reading series, partially incited by a near-fatal car crash she suffered. She has also worked as a scare actor, an improv instructor, and a video vixen.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
All Women’s Open Mic with Kate Burns at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Village Well is partnering with local trauma-healing poet Kate Burns to provide a platform for female poets, musicians, storytellers, and comedians. While all are welcome to attend, this is an event that aims to amplify women’s voices only.
Acts are limited to 3-5 minutes in length. Sign-ups begin at 6:30 pm and conclude at 7:00 pm!
Also, please note that not all material may be considered “family-friendly” so please use discretion when deciding to bring children.
RSVP on EVENTBRITE!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/34292
Poetry Reading: Sam Sax, Jos Charles & Safia Elhilo at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person Event
Beyond Baroque welcomes powerhouse poets Sam Sax, author of PIG, Jos Charles, author of A Year & Other Poems, and Safia Elhillo, author of Bright Red Fruit, for a night of poetry in The Wanda Coleman Theater. Book signings to follow the readings.
Sam Sax is a queer, Jewish writer and educator. They are the author of Madness, winner of The National Poetry Series and Bury It, winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. They’re the two-time Bay Area Grand Slam Champion with poems published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Granta, and elsewhere. Sax has received fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Poetry Foundation, and Yaddo, and is currently serving as a Lecturer in the ITALIC program at Stanford University. Their first novel, Yr Dead, will be published by McSweeney’s in 2024.
Jos Charles is author of the poetry collections a Year & other poems (Milkweed Editions, 2022); feeld, a Pulitzer-finalist and winner of the 2017 National Poetry Series selected by Fady Joudah (Milkweed Editions, 2018); and Safe Space (Ahsahta Press, 2016). Charles is visiting faculty for UC RIverside’s Creative Writing Department and teaches as a part of Randolph College’s low-residency MFA program. She resides in Long Beach, CA.
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. Her latest book is the YA novel in verse, Bright Red Fruit (Make Me a World, 2024). Sudanese by way of Washington, DC, Elhillo 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.
NOTE: See site for further details, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 8 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
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 22nd
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event
Black Lit Book Club: Library of the Dead at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Black Lit Book Club participants will discuss Library of the Dead (Edinburgh Nights series), by T.L. Huchu.
This book is a sharp contemporary fantasy following a precocious and cynical teen as she explores the shadowy magical underside of modern Edinburgh.
T. L. Huchu has been published previously (as Tendai Huchu) in the adult market, but the Edinburgh Nights series is his genre fiction debut. His previous books (The Hairdresser of Harare and The Maestro, The Magistrate and the Mathematician) have been translated into multiple languages and his short fiction has won awards. Tendai grew up in Zimbabwe but has lived in Edinburgh for most of his adult life.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/black-lit-book-club-library-dead
QT Open Mic Night at Café con Libros, Pomona – In-Person Event
QT Open Mic Night is held every 4th Friday at Café con Libros, Pomona.
Liam and Charlie host a fun LGBTQ+ meeting. Share in a poem (serious, fun, or saucy) or enjoy a fun round of BEST STORY WINS!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Café con LIbros, Pomona
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 280 W. 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: https://cafeconlibrospress.org/event-calendar/
Nervous Ghost Open Mic at Brewjeria Co., Pico Rivera – In-Person Event
Nervous Ghost Press presents the Nervous Ghost Open Mic every 4th Friday at Brewjeria in Pico Rivera.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Brewjeria Co.
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 4937 Durfee Ave., Pico Rivera CA
Website: https://www.nervousghostpress.org/openmic
Luis J. Rodriguez & Guests & All Roads Lead Home/Todos Los Caminos Llevan a Casa at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore – In-Person Event
Luis J Rodriguez will be joined by Alfonso Vaquez, Abraham Peralta, Matt Sedillo & Fe Montes for this special reading event.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar CA
Website: https://www.tiachucha.org/events
Rolly Kent & Hits, Flops, and Phone Ringing in a Dark House at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Rolly Kent will discuss his collection of poems, Phone Ringing in a Dark House.
Phone Ringing in a Dark House is filled with the mystery of loss, love, and the restorative powers of memory and language. In these forty-eight poems, the product of an intense return to poetry after a twenty-year absence, Rolly Kent writes about ordinary moments when the known and unknown overlap.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/rolly-kent
Saffron Coffee Presents: Sonia Guiñansaca Poetry Reading at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Sonia Guiñansaca presents a reading, performance, and discussion of her book Nostalgia & Borders.
Sonia Guiñansaca is also editor of Somewhere We Are Human. 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.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Friday the 22nd
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: Christina Hwang Dudley, with Suzanne Park, & Pride and Preston LIn at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Christina Hwang Dudley, in conversation with Suzanne Park, will discussPride and Preston Lin.
This novel is a contemporary AAPI take on a Jane Austin Remix, and there will also be a book signing following the discussion.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Morgan Parker & You Get What You Pay For at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Morgan Parker will present and discuss her book, You Get What You Pay For: Essays.
Dubbed a voice of her generation, poet and writer Morgan Parker has spent much of her adulthood in therapy, trying to square the resonance of her writing with the alienation she feels in nearly every aspect of life, from her lifelong singleness to a battle with depression. She traces this loneliness to an inability to feel truly safe with others and a historic hyperawareness stemming from the effects of slavery.
In a collection of essays as intimate as being in the room with Parker and her therapist, Parker examines America’s cultural history and relationship to Black Americans through the ages. She touches on such topics as the ubiquity of beauty standards that exclude Black women, the implications of Bill Cosby’s fall from grace in a culture predicated on acceptance through respectability, and the pitfalls of visibility as seen through the mischaracterizations of Serena Williams as alternately iconic and too ambitious.
Morgan Parker’s debut book of essays, You Get What You Pay For, will be released March 12, 2024. She also is the author of young adult novel Who Put This Song On?; and the poetry collections Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night, There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé, and Magical Negro, which won the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award. Parker is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, winner of a Pushcart Prize, and a Cave Canem graduate fellow. She lives in Los Angeles with her dog, Shirley.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Ron Cey & Penguin Power: Dodger Blue, Hollywood Lights, and a One-in-a-Million Big League Journey at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Ron Cey will present and discuss his book,Penguin Power: Dodger Blue, Hollywood Lights, and a One-in-a-Million Big League Journey.
NOTE: Ron Cey will be signing books only. No memorabilia.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Ron-Cey-presents-and-signs-Penguin-Power
At the Threshold: Translation & Transposition with Piotr Florczyk & Sarah McClay at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person & Live YouTube Hybrid Event
This poetry reading is an evening of poetry in translation and original work. Building the Barricade (White Pine Press), translated by Florczyk from Polish to English, is a collection documenting the polish poet Anna Świrszczyńska’s experiences as a military nurse during the 63 days of the 1944 Warsaw uprising. Author and scholar Sarah Maclay will join with readings from her original work.
Piotr Florczyk’s recent books include Swimming Pool, an Object Lessons title, the poetry collection From the Annals of Kraków, which is based on the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, as well as numerous volumes of translations, including Invisible, the selected poems of Jacek Gutorow, which was named Autumn 2021 Translation Choice by Poetry Book Society in the UK, and a new edition of Building the Barricade by Anna Świrszczyńska. He teaches global literary studies at the University of Washington and lives in Los Angeles. For more information about him and his work, please visit www.piotrflorczyk.com
Nightfall Marginalia (What Books Press, 2023) is Sarah Maclay’s fifth collection. Her poems and essays, supported by a Yaddo residency and a City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship and awarded the Tampa Review Prize for Poetry and a Pushcart Special Mention, among other honors, have appeared in APR, FIELD, Ploughshares, The Tupelo Quarterly, The Writer’s Chronicle, The Best American Erotic Poetry: From 1800 to the Present, Poetry International, where she served as Book Review Editor for a decade, and beyond. She teaches at LMU and offers workshops at Beyond Baroque, roaming between LA and her native Montana.
NOTE: See site for further details, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday the 22nd
Time: 8 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Torrance Innovation Festival: Author Sessions with Bel Canto Books Off-stie – In-Person Event
Torrance Innovation Festival includes a series of author and illustrator events.
Come meet some amazing local authors at one of their workshops and stop by the book booth to say hi and purchase books! All of these spotlight authors are donating their time and energy to spread joy and literacy!
Where: Bel Canto Books off-site at Torrance Innovation Festival
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 10:30 am – 3 pm
Address: See site for details.
Website: https://sites.google.com/tusd.org/torrance-innovation-festival/events/author-sessions or https://belcantobooks.net/events
Mystery Book Club: Small Mercies at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss Small Mercies: A Detective Mystery by author Dennis Lehane.
This story is an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston’s history, when the 1974 desegregation of Boston’s public schools exploded in violence.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 11 am
Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-14
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 Rooms
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 11 am
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-1
Book Launch Party: Dav PIlkey & Dog Man Series at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Kids Event
Join us to celebrate the book launch of The Scarlet Shedder, the newest installment of Dav Pilkey’s #1 global bestselling Dog Man series. We’ll have a costumed character and crafts for all fans of Dog Man to enjoy.
Make sure to RSVP at our EVENTBRITE! (NOTE: The Eventbrite may say the event is ‘Sold Out,’ however, you are still welcome to walk-in and attend!)
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/35121
Vroman’s Local Author Day: Kids Edition at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Local Authors’ Kids Edition introduces Sasha Lee and Kathleen Rinden presenting their books.
Sasha Lee presents her book, The Hanapēpē Hero.
Set in the small Hawaiian town of Hanapēpē, a young boy, Ron, worries that he won’t find the perfect gift for his mother’s birthday. However, his thoughtfulness leads him to set out on a journey, and his discoveries will serve as a gift to the entire town.
Kathleen Rinden presents her book, Tippety Squirrel’s Neighborhood.
Come join Tippety as she explores her neighborhood to visit friends and finds all of the ways the townsfolk are still enjoying life and staying connected!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Vromans-Local-Author-Day-Young-Readers-Edition-March-2024
Little Saigon Book Street x Matilija Lending Library – In-Person Event
Join local Southeast Asian authors and publishing professionals for an afternoon of book talks, food, and community. Little Saigon Book Street presents our first event at Matilija Lending Library!
Matilija Lending Library is a community library, bookstore, and creative space in El Monte dedicated to uplifting BIPOC stories and power in the San Gabriel Valley.
Learn about local Southeast Asian authors and publishing professionals through a series of panels, munch on banh mi/sip on Vietnamese iced coffee, and celebrate the writing community in the heart of the SGV.
This event is completely free and begins with a poetry reading by author Teresa Mei Chuc at 12:50 pm.
NOTE: See site for complete schedule of events and details.
Where: Matilija Lending Library
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 12:30 pm – 5 pm
Address: 3571 Lexington Avenue El Monte, CA 91731
Open Mic Poetry at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Share your original poems, lyrics, spoken word. or just enjoy listening. Each poet will have five minutes to read an original work. If you wish to read, sign up when you arrive.
Our featured speaker will be Wendy Van Camp, the Poet Laureate for the city of Anaheim. She is a speculative poet, author, editor, artist, and podcaster. Her poetry is influenced by cutting-edge technology, astronomy, and daydreams. She is a nominated finalist for the Elgin Award, a Pushcart Prize, and a Dwarf Stars Award. Her writing has appeared in many journals around the world, including: Star*Line, Scifaikuestand Indy Author Magazine.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 1 pm
Address: 5027 Casper Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90041
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/open-mic-poetry-4
Children’s Reading: A LIfe of Song: The Story of Ella Fitzgerald at Octavia’s Bookshelf – In-Person Kids Event
Discover the untold story of Ella Jenkins, the First Lady of Children’s Music. While many know her from Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, few realize that her groundbreaking career in children’s music was rooted in the fight for equality.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Octavia’s Bookshelf
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 1:30 pm – 3 pm
Address: 1365 N. Hill Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104
Website: https://www.octaviasbookshelf.com/events/a-life-of-song-the-story-of-ella-jenkins
Subversive Scribes: Poetry Readings at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person Event
This poetry reading is a bilingual reading featuring Latin American texts and translations. Featuring: translators Suzanne Jill Levine, Stephen Kessler, Elena Barcia, and editor Efrain Kristal reading translations of Latin American and Spanish poets Marjorie Agosin, Luis Cernuda, Malú Urriola, and Jorge Luis Borges.
Elena Barcia is a film and literary translator. She has translated hundreds of movies and collaborated with directors like Martin Scorsese, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro Iñárritu on the subtitle translations of their films. Her literary translations include Miguel de Unamuno’s novel Niebla (Fog) (Northwestern University Press, 2017), and poetry translations published in The Harvard Review, Asymptote, and Exchanges, a Journal of Literary Translation. In both 2022 and 2023 she was a finalist for Poetry International’s Summer Chapbook competition, and her translation of Chilean poet Malú Urriola’s book Cadáver exquisito (Exquisite Corpse) was published by Valparaíso Editions in June of 2023.
Stephen Kessler’s translations of Luis Cernuda have won numerous awards, including the 2010 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award (Academy of American Poets). His original books of poetry include, most recently, Last Call (Black Widow Press, 2021). He lives in Santa Cruz where his weekly op-ed column appears in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Efraín Kristal is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at UCLA. He is a specialist of Latin American literature in comparative contexts, and of translation studies. For this event, he will read poems by Jorge Luis Borges; and his publications on Borges include Invisible Work, Borges and Translation (2002), Querencias. Guerra, traducción y filosofía en Jorges Luis Borges (2022) and Poems of the Night (2010), an edited volume of Borges’ poetry published by Penguin Classics for a series of books under the editorial care of Suzanne Jill Levine.
Suzanne Jill Levine is a noted translator of Latin American literature since the 1970s, and has received many honors including the Guggenheim and PEN prizes. Among her books and essays are the “Subversive Scribe” and a biography of Manuel Puig for FSG (2000). Her recent work, “FAITHFUL: a translator’s memoir,” has been featured in Another Chicago Magazine (2023) and the Catamaran Literary Review (2024).
NOTE: See site for further details, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/subversive-scribes-tickets-849727476757?aff=oddtdtcreator
Women’s History Month at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Celebrate some amazing women with stories and more! Intended for children ages 3-8. For more information, please contact children@lapl.org.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Children’s Literature
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/womens-history-month-storytime
Miriam’s Garden Poetry Reading at Hyde Park Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Yago Cura hosts the Miriam’s Garden Poetry Reading in the garden of the Hyde Park Miriam Matthews Branch Library.
Features today: Daryl Gussin, Sarah Rafael Garcia & Brenda Vaca.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Hyde Park Miriam Matthews Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 2205 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.facebook.com/laplhydepark/
Two Thriller Book Launches: Authors Parker Adams & Eric Beetner at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
Two authors of the most anticipated thriller novels of the year will be in conversation about their new books.
Author Joseph Reid/Parker Adams lives in San Diego with his wife and children. His first career was as a research marine biologist, studying all manner of sharks including great whites. After receiving biology degrees from Duke University and the University of California at Davis, Joseph left science for Notre Dame Law School. For nearly twenty-five years, he has worked as a patent litigator, trying million- and billion-dollar cases for litigants ranging from individual inventors to Fortune 50 companies. Now he writes. his most recent book is The Lock Box.
Author Eric Beetner is that writer you’ve heard about but never read. Then when you finally do you wonder why you waited so long. There are over 30 books and more than 100 short stories so you’d better get started. His most recent book is The Last Few Miles of Road.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 6259 W 87th St. Westchester 90045
Website: https://www.thebookjewel.com/events
Arroyo Seco Book Club at Arroyo Seco Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us for a lively book discussion. Email ayosco@lapl.org with questions or for participation details.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Arroyo Seco Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 6145 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/arroyo-book-club-1
Poetry Workshop with WriteGirl and Bold Ink Writers at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Learn the craft of writing poetry from professional poets. Journals will be provided.
Bold Ink Writers will present fun and fresh writing activities.
Get ready to express your inner poet!
This program is for teens (girls, boys, non-binary and/or gender expansive youth).
RSVP:
Scan the QR code at website to register for this workshop. Questions? Email: silver@lapl.org.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 2411n Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-1
Keepers of Culture: Poetry Reading Series at Northridge Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us for a multinational spoken word event that will take place on the fourth Saturday of each month on-site at the Northridge Branch and online via Zoom. There will be an open reading included.
RSVP:
Please email Emily at eaaronson@lapl.org for the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Northridge Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 9051 Darby Ave., Northridge, CA 91325
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/keepers-culture-poetry-reading-series
Big Read Book Discussion: Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? at Arroyo Seco Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join the Arroyo Seco Book Club for a lively discussion of the Big Read Book, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by author Roz Chast.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Arroyo Seco Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 6145 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/big-read-book-discussion-21
Author Talk: Meet Author Baba Lou Florez at El Sereno Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Spiritual practitioner and author of The Modern Art of Brujeria: A Beginners Guide to Spellcraft, Medicine Making, and Other Traditions of the Global South, Baba Lou Florez will explore the art and history of Brujeria and other spiritual traditions through a world wisdom lens. Learn how spiritual traditions and herbs from Central and South America and the Caribbean can empower individuals and communal ties and prepare to be transported!
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: El Sereno Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address: 5226 S. Huntington Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90032
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/ancient-spirituality-modern-times-meet-author-baba-lou-florez
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Readings by Four Feathers Poets in Singer Park – In-Person Event
Join us on Saturday, March 23rd, 3 to 5 pm in Singer Park on California Blvd & St. John Ave in Pasadena for:
Poetry Readings and Publishing Party for Four Feathers Press 4 in 1 Book Six featuring:
DKC, BILL CUSHING, MARK A FISHER, and MARIA WASEEM + Poets published in Four Feathers Press TALES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: MYTHIC POETRY.
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry in Singer Park
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: California Blvd. & St. John Ave.
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Friends of Hyde Park Book Club at Hyde Park Miriam Matthews Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Please join us on the fourth Saturday of every month from 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. for the Friends of the Hyde Park Book Club. Every month, we read a different book; if you’d like to know which one we’re reading next, call us at the branch, 323-750-7241.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Hyde Park Miriam Matthews Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 2205 W. Florence Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/friends-hyde-park-book-club
Author Panel: Life as an Author at Casita Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for an author panel and discussion about Life as an Author, featuring:
Arlene Abundis is a Cuban American author whose work honors resilience through mental and emotional health. She has struggled with social anxiety and post-traumatic stress for over two decades.A former preschool teacher, she lives nestled with her husband and three children between the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains in California.Sheis the author of Into the Mighty Sea.
Alegría Zuluagra is a proud multi- ethnic woman—orgullosamente (proudly) Colombian, Mexican and Indonesian. She is a hopeless romantic, a gardener, and cultivator of sueñ os through her writing. A writer and an advocate for education through literature and art. Sheis the author of Ella Es.
Nicole Moreno Deinzer is the author of Serial Entrepreneur.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Casita Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 1440 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C4WJxxPyeD_/?next=%2Fnayle_gonzalez_%2F&hl=es-la
Historical Fiction Book Club: Rashi’s Daughter Book 1: Joheved at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss Rashi’s Daughter Book 1: Joheved: A Novel of Love and the Talmud in Medieval France (Rashi’s Daughter Series) by Maggie Anton.
Rashi’s Daughter Book I is the first novel in a dramatic trilogy set in eleventh-century France about the lives and loves of three daughters of the great Talmud scholar
In 1068, the scholar Salomon ben Isaac returns home to Troyes, France, to take over the family winemaking business and embark on a path that will indelibly influence the Jewish world, writing the first Talmud commentary, and secretly teaching Talmud to his daughters.
Joheved, the eldest of his three girls, finds her mind and spirit awakened by religious study, but, knowing the risk, she must keep her passion for learning and prayer hidden. When she becomes betrothed to Meir ben Samuel, she is forced to choose between marital happiness and being true to her love of the Talmud.
Maggie Anton was born Margaret Antonofsky in Los Angeles, California. Raised in a secular, socialist household, she reached adulthood with little knowledge of her Jewish religion. All that changed when David Parkhurst, who was to become her husband, entered her life, and they both discovered Judaism as adults. In the early 1990’s, Anton began studying Talmud in a class for women taught by Rachel Adler, now a professor at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. She became intrigued with the idea that Rashi, one of the greatest Jewish scholars ever, had no sons, only three daughters. Slowly but surely, she began to research the family and the time in which they lived. Legend has it that Rashi’s daughters were learned in a time when women were traditionally forbidden to study the sacred texts. These forgotten women seemed ripe for rediscovery, and the idea of a book about them was born.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Poetry & Music Jam at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event
The Poetry & Music Jam event features Meganut and the Front Porch Band.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.simslibraryofpoetry.org/event-details/poetry-music-jam-17
Notes From the Chicano Underground Event at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Event
Notes From the Chicano Underground: Talk with Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs and Matt Sedillo.
Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs is a full professor of Modern Languages and Cultures, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the Seattle University. She is the current Theiline Pigott-McCone Chair (2018-2020) at Seattle University. She was a commissioner for the Washington State Arts Commission from 2014 to 2017.
Matt Sedillo is an acclaimed political poet and public speaker, the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass and City on the Second Floor, and the co-founder of El Martillo Press.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Re/Arte
Date: Saturday the 23rd
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2121 E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https//reartela.com/pages/calendar-of-events
Children’s Storytime: Charlotte Offsay & The Quiet Forest at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Kids Event
Join us to celebrate the book launch of The Quiet Forest by author Charlotte Offsay.
Through her work, local author Charlotte Offsay hopes to make children laugh, to inspire curiosity, and to create a magical world her readers can lose themselves in time and time again. You may recognize her book, Challah Day, which we loved reading together last August. We’re so excited to have her back at Village Well to share her latest book, The Quiet Forest.
Make sure to RSVP on our EVENTBRITE!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/35122
Latinx Book Club: The Grief Keeper at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Latinx Book Club participants will discuss The Grief Keeper, by author Alexandra Villasante.
This stunning YA debut is a timely and heartfelt speculative narrative about healing, faith, and freedom. The Grief Keeper is a tender tale that explores the heartbreak and consequences of when both love and human beings are branded illegal.
Alexandra Villasante has always loved telling stories—though not always with words. She has a BFA in Painting and an MA in Combined Media (that’s art school speak for making work out of anything). Born in New Jersey to immigrant parents, Alex has the privilegio of dreaming in both English and Spanish.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/latinx-book-club-grief-keeper
La Palabra Reading Series: Open Mic Featuring Pam Concepcion and VOTH at Avenue 50 Studios – In-Person Event
La Palabra Reading Series is held every 4th Sunday of the month and hosts a Poetry Open Mic hosted by Chloe Diaz. THis month features Pam Concepcion and VOTH.
Pam Concepcion is an emerging poet born and raised in the Philippines, now living in Southern California. A lover of softball, Concepcion is currently a Commubity Literature Initiative (CLI) student wirking on her debut poetry collection.
VOTH knows what it’s like to be trapped by one’s own mental asylum, and he is on a road of enlightenment where he’s learned there’s more than one way to cope with the faces of trauma, to heal, and brings hope to the pain fear created. His debut collection of poetry, Dieagnosis, was released by Riot of Roses Publishing in 2023.
Where: Avenue 50 Studios
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 131 N. Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://avenue50studio.org/monthly-event-calendar
Book Launch: Neely Tubati Alexander, with Lauren Kung Jessen, & In a Not So Perfect World at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Author Neely Tubati Alexander, in conversation with Lauren Kung Jessen, will discuss her new romance novel, In a Not So Perfect World.
This follow-up to Alexander’s Love Buzz is a Caribbean romp about a designer of apocalyptic video games with a strategy for (almost) everything who discovers what happens when her best laid plans go off course.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Earthseed Symposium Book Club: The Three-Body Problem at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
The Earthseed Symposium Book Club meets to discuss THREE-BODY PROBLEM by Cixin Liu.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lspcrr1v
Book Release: Parasocialite by Brittany Menjivar at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Dream Boy Book Club presents the release of Parasocialite by Brittany Menjivar featuring readings from Erin Satterthwaite, Tess Pollok, and Sasha Nastasi followed by a Q&A with the author.
A hot fashion photographer hacks into girls’ computers with spyware and they love it. A teenage bride seethes with jealousy as her A-list husband tends to a Make-A-Wish child. A famous Twitter user is flushed down a toilet at a party in the Hills. This is the world of PARASOCIALITE, where excitement and ecstasy abound — but happiness is harder to come by.
Brittany Menjivar was born in the DMV. She now works and plays in the City of Angels. She is co-founder of Car Crash Collective a poetry and prose reading series, partially incited by a near-fatal car crash she suffered. She has also worked as a scare actor, an improv instructor, and a video vixen.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Sunday the 24th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Historical Romance Book Club: Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
March’s Historical Romance Book Club participants will discuss Don’t Want You Like a Best Friend, by author Emma R. Alban. Orders manager Katie S leads this book club. Please join us.
This is a debut queer Victorian romance in which two debutantes distract themselves from having to seek husbands by setting up their widowed parents, and instead find their perfect match in each other—the lesbian Bridgerton/Parent Trap you never knew you needed!
No membership is necessary, feel free to show up!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 24th
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 