Storytime with Sam Hirschman & Sam Says: You Are Born to Shine at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Join local author Sam Hirschmann at storytime to celebrate her debut picture book Sam Says: You are Born to Shine, a delightful story that teaches readers the power of expressing their true selves and what a gift it is to the world to be you!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Monday, the 17th
Time: 10:30 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/storytime-sam-hirschman
Comics Day: Animation Panel at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teens & Adults Event
Professionals from the comics and animation industry will join us to discuss their careers and offer advice for aspiring creators. This program is intended for teens & adults.
This event is part of Studio City Branch Library’s Comics Day on Monday, June 17. Explore the library’s Calendar of Events for a full list of events.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday, the 17th
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/comics-day-animation-panel
Mystery Book Club: The Heron’s Cry at Lake Los Angeles Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join our book club as we discuss a different mystery book each month.
This month’s selection is The Heron’s Cry; A Detective Matthew Venn Novel #2 by author Ann Cleeves. Copies of the book are available at customer service desk for checkout. For Adults.
North Devon is enjoying a rare hot summer with tourists flocking to its coastline. Detective Matthew Venn is called out to a rural crime scene at the home of a group of artists. What he finds is an elaborately staged murder—Dr. Nigel Yeo has been fatally stabbed with a shard of one of his glassblower daughter’s broken vases. Then another body is found, killed in the same way.
Where: Lake Los Angeles Library, LACL
Date: Monday, the 17th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 16921 East Avenue O, #A, Palmdale, CA 93591
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10817618
Philosophical Horror Book Club: Our Share of Night at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Philosophical Horror Book Club participants will discuss the novel Our Share of the Night by author Mariana Enriquez.
A woman’s mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family in the first novel to be translated into English by the International Booker Prize–shortlisted author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed.
Mariana Enriquez is a writer and journalist based in Buenos Aires. She has published two story collections in English, Things We Lost in the Fire and The Dangers of Smoking in Bed, which was a finalist for the International Booker Prize, the Kirkus Prize, the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction.
Megan McDowell has translated many of the most important Latin American writers working today. Her translations have won the National Book Award for Translated Literature, the English PEN award, the Premio Valle-Inclán, and two O. Henry Prizes, and have been nominated for the International Booker Prize (four times) and the Kirkus Prize. Her short story translations have been featured in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Times Magazine, Tin House, McSweeney’s, and Granta, among others. In 2020 she won an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is from Richmond, Kentucky, and lives in Santiago, Chile.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday, the 17th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event
Book Binding with Nova at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Learn the art of bookbinding with Nova Community arts in LA’s oldest indie bookstore.
SOLD OUT: Explore similar events at site.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Monday, the 17th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Writing Workshop: Writing for Children with José Chávez via Inlandia Institute – Online Event
This workshop is designed to meet the needs of those who wish to write or are writing for children. We’ll explore the writing voice for children, define a “picture book,” story arc, story introductions, appropriate vocabulary, children’s poetry, and more. There will be time to flex our writing muscles and develop the beauty and strength of our “voice” for children.
José Chávez is a retired bilingual teacher and dedicates his life to writing. He’s had poetry published in the Multilingual Educator Journal, Acentos Review, Inlandia Anthology and has written two award-winning bilingual poetry books for children. He lives in Riverside, CA, is married, and has three grown children.
NOTE: See site for registration & details. RSVP required.
Where: Inlandia Institute Online (Held on alternating Mondays)
Date: Monday, the 17th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/category/events/
Noah Gittell & Baseball: The Movie at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Noah Gittell will present and discuss his book, Baseball: The Movie.
Noah Gittell’s Baseball: The Movie features Field of Dreams, The Bad News Bears, A League of Their Own, and more: and is a probing and entertaining work at the intersection of pop culture and sports.
Baseball: The Movie is the first definitive history of this film genre that was born in 1915 and remains artistically and culturally vital more than a century later. Writer and critic Noah Gittell sheds light on well-known classics and overlooked gems, exploring how baseball cinema creates a stage upon which the American ideal is born, performed, and repeatedly redefined.
Traversing history and mythmaking, cynicism and nostalgia, this thoroughly researched book takes readers on a multifaceted tour of baseball on film.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday, the 17th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/noah-gittell
L.A. Book Launch: Rebecca Zanetti, with Dana Claire, & One Cursed Rose at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Rebecca Zanetti, in conversation with Dana Claire, will discuss her romance novel One Cursed Rose.
There will be a book signing to follow. This is a ticketed event so see link at site.
NOTE: See site for RVSP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
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
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Website: https://www.facebook.com/backtothegrind
At Skylight: Glynnis MacNicol, with Ann Friedman, & I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself at Skylight – In-Person Event
Glynnis MacNicol, in conversation with Ann Friedman, will discuss her new book I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman’s Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris.
After New York City emptied out in March 2020, the author, aged forty-six, unmarried with no children, spent sixteen months alone in her tiny Manhattan apartment. The isolation was punishing. A year without touch. Women are warned of invisibility as they age, but this was an extreme loneliness no one can prepare you for. When the opportunity to sublet a friend’s apartment in Paris arose, MacNicol jumped on it. Leaving felt less like a risk than a necessity.
What follows is a decadent, joyful, unexpected journey into one woman’s pursuit of radical enjoyment.
The weeks in Paris are filled with friendship and food and sex. There is dancing on the Seine; a plethora of gooey cheese; midnight bike rides through empty Paris; handsome men; afternoons wandering through the empty Louvre; nighttime swimming in the ocean off a French island. And yes, plenty of nudity.
Glynnis MacNicol is the author of the memoir No One Tells You This. She created and hosted the podcast Wilder. She lives in New York City.
Ann Friedman is a journalist, essayist, and co-author of the best-selling book Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close. She co-created and co-hosted the podcast Call Your Girlfriend. You can find her writing in The Cut, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and ELLE, and she is a contributing editor to The Gentlewoman. Her next book, about modern adulthood, will be published by Viking. Read her work and subscribe to her popular weekly newsletter at annfriedman.com.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Monday, the 17th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Santa Monica Main Library Book Group: Guide to Medieval England – Online Zoom Event
Santa Monica Main Library participants will discuss Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century, by author Ian Mortimer.
NOTE: See site for link, guidelines, and details.
Where: Santa Monica Main Library, SMPL
Date: Monday, the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://smpl.org/uploadedFiles
Paul Haddad & Inventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Paul Haddad presents his book, The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles.
In the tradition of Mike Davis’s classic work City of Quartz, Paul Haddad (Freewaytopia and 10,000 Steps a Day in L.A.) debunks many myths about the City of Angels with a wildly entertaining narrative that sheds new light on the fascinating birth of modern Los Angeles. Power came from a select few, whose triumphs, scandals, and correspondence are well documented in Inventing Paradise, along with other little-known facts about L.A. history.
NOTE: See site for signing prior to event and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Paul-Haddad-discusses-Inventing-Paradise
Monday Night Fiction Workshop at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – 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 17th
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-923479069757
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.
Every 1st & 3rd Monday of the month.
Featured guest TBA.
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: LB Unified
Date: Monday the 17th
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-595248092067
Books and Bagels: Poverty, by America at Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us on the third Tuesday of each month for bagels, coffee and tea. We will have a thoughtful discussion of the current selection and discuss other great things we’ve been reading.
Participants will discuss June’s selection, Poverty, by America, by author Matthew Desmond.
Where: Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 12:30 pm
Address: 501 S. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/books-and-bagels
Tuesday Afternoon Book Club: Invisible at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join for an engaging book discussion. Copies are available at the reference desk.
Participants will discuss Invisible by author Paul Auster.
Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 2411 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/tuesday-afternoon-book-club-6
Nonfiction Book Club: A Year in Provance at Donald Bruce Kauffman Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join for an engaging book discussion. Copies are available at the reference desk.
Participants will discuss A Year in Provance by author Peter Mayle.
Where: Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/nonfiction-book-club
Mysterious Book Club: Killers of a Certain Age at Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for this monthly meeting of our curious and incisive group of readers. This month’s book is Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn.
They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they’re sixty years old, four women friends can’t just retire—it’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller.
New members are always welcome! Come even if you haven’t read the book—you’ll meet the group and know the book to read for next time.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mysterious-book-club-22
The Poetry of Phillis Wheatley at Alma Reeves Woods – Watts Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Celebrate Juneteenth by learning about the struggles and triumphs of internationally-acclaimed slave poet Phillis Wheatley. Be inspired to write your own uplifting poem.
Where: Alma Reeves Woods – Watts Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 10205 Compton Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90002
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-phillis-wheatley
Kids Creative Writing Workshop at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Join us for an engaging series of writing workshops designed for children in grades 1-3. Led by experienced high school volunteers, these workshops will help foster literary skills. No prior experience necessary!
RSVP:
To reserve a spot for your child, please complete this google form at site.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/kids-creative-writing-workshop
Proclaim our Freedom: Juneteenth Poetry Reading at Exposition Park – Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Jorell Watkins, a doctoral candidate in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and author of a new book of poetry out this spring, will lead a reading celebrating Juneteenth.
Jorrell Watkins is from Richmond, VA. He is an alum of Hampshire College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He received fellowships from the Association of University Centers on Disabilities, the Smithsonian Institution, Fulbright Japan, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. His disability-inclusive play Meet Us at the Horizon was produced by Combined Efforts Theater Co. for its 2019 world premiere. His chapbook If Only the Sharks Would Bite won the inaugural Desert Pavilion Chapbook Series in Poetry (Black Rock Press, 2020). He is also the co-author of Studies in Brotherly Love (Prompt Press, 2021), a poetry chapbook based on Malcolm Corley’s paintings, with Claretta Holsey, DJ Savarese, and Lateef McLeod. His debut full-length collection, Play|House is forthcoming in 2024 by Northwestern University Press, Curbstone Books. Currently, he lives in LA and is pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing & Literature at USC.
Where: Exposition Park – Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 3900 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90062
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/proclaim-our-freedom-juneteenth-poetry-reading
Adult Book Club: Calypso at Norwood Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Calypso, by author Davis Sedaris.
When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, the author envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. It is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it’s impossible to take a vacation from yourself. These stories are very funny, but much of the comedy emerges when you realize that your story is made up of more past than future.
Where: Norwood Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 4550 Peck Road, El Monte, CA 91732
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10534415
Book Club: House of Kennedy at Pico Rivera Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join the Pico Rivera Library Book Club as we discuss the book House of Kennedy by Cynthia Fagan and James Patterson. For adults.
Across decades and generations, the Kennedys have occupied a unique place in the American imagination: charmed yet cursed. The House of Kennedy is a revealing, fascinating account of America’s most storied family.
Where: Pico Rivera Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 9001 Mines Ave., Pico Rivera, CA 90660
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10801687
Before the Ban Book Club: Melissa at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Before the Ban Book Club participants will discuss Melissa, previously published as GEORG, by author Alex Gino.
BE WHO YOU ARE.
When people look at Melissa, they think they see a boy named George. But she knows she’s not a boy. She knows she’s a girl.
Melissa thinks she’ll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte’s Web. Melissa really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can’t even try out for the part…because she’s a boy.
With the help of her best friend, Kelly, Melissa comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte—but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.
Alex Gino loves glitter, ice cream, gardening, awe-ful puns, and stories that reflect the diversity and complexity of being alive. Their first novel, Melissa, was a winner of the Children’s Stonewall Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Children’s Choice Book Award. For more, please visit them at alexgino.com.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/ban-book-club-melissa
Writing Workshop: Micro Memoir with David Puma via Inlandia Institute – In-Person Event
Micro memoirs are short standalone pieces that often explore a moment in time, rather than an expanded life chapter. They are drawn from personal experience. Micro memoirs combine truth-telling with narrative tension and are specific to the writer’s micro-memory. Join instructor David Puma for this in-person workshop at Riverside Main Library as participants unleash the power of micro memoir.
David Puma obtained his M.F.A. in creative writing at San Jose State University and his B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Redlands. He has been in advanced poetry workshops every semester for the last four years, and has performed spoken word across California, including the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and the Inland Empire – as well as in New York City and in London, U.K. Professionally, David’s poetry has been included on streaming platforms like Disney+.
NOTE: See site for registration & details. RSVP required.
Where: Inlandia Institute at Riverside Main Library
Date: Tuesday, the 18th (On Alternating Tuesdays)
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/events/
In Conversation with Dylan C. Penningroth & Before the Movement at Once at Reparations Club Off-site at West Hollywood City Council Chambers – In-Person Event
In celebration of Juneteenth, the City of West Hollywood invites the community to attend In Conversation with Dylan C. Penningroth, historian, professor, and author of Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights where he will discuss his new book and the rich history and complex journey to civil rights and freedom for African Americans in the United States.
The discussion will take place at 6:00pm at the West Hollywood City Council Chambers and will be followed by a brief Q&A, and book signing curated by the Reparations Club bookshop. Don’t miss this opportunity to delve into the fascinating world of history and literature. Get ready for an enlightening and thought-provoking evening!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Rep Club at West Hollywood City Council Chambers
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://wehojuneteenth2024.splashthat.com/
3rd Tuesday Book Club: Demon Copperhead at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for a discussion of the novel Demon Copperhead by author Barbara Kingsolver.
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/3rd-tuesday-book-club-10
Book Club: Good Material at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Village Well Chapter welcomes Book Club participants to discuss Good Material, by author Dolly Alderton.
The author offers up a love story with two endings, demonstrating once again why she is one of the most exciting writers today, and the true voice of a generation.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/36299
Writers Bloc Presents: Griffin Dunne & The Friday Afternoon Club at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Griffin Dunne will discuss his Memoir, The Friday Afternoon Club.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Griffin Dunne springs from America’s literary royal family. His father was novelist and journalist Dominick Dunne. His uncle, a great novelist and essayist, was John Gregory Dunne. And then there was his aunt, Joan Didion. Until just recently, Griffin was best known and admired as an actor and as a director. But with the release of his documentary on Joan Didion, The Center Will Not Hold, he jumped right onto that acclaimed literary perch, so dominantly occupied by his father, aunt and uncle.
With his new book, The Friday Afternoon Club, a memoir about this family, Griffin Dunne joins the family business—with brilliance and great good humor, even as he takes us into the depths of family tragedy. While he has the keen observation skills of a journalist, he never coasts into detachment, or sets aside his own emotional involvement.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday, the 181h
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/writers-bloc-presents-griffin-dunne
Book Talk: Victor Luckerson, with Ghalani and Danya Bacchus, & Built From the Fire, based on Voices of Resilience: Descendants of the Tulsa Massacre at Malik Books, Culver City – In-Person Event
Victor Luckerson, in conversation with Ghalani and Danya Bacchus, will discuss his book, Built From the Fire, which explores the topic of: Voices of Resilience: Descendants of the Tulsa Massacre.
Victor Luckerson will transform Malik Books into a Juneteenth celebration of voices of resilience. Witness the Descendants of the Tulsa Massacre in Conversation with the author.
Victor Luckerson is a journalist and author based in Tulsa who works to bring neglected black history to light. His new book on the history of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Built From the Fire, is a multigenerational saga of a community in Tulsa’s “Black Wall Street,” that in one century survived the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, urban renewal, and gentrification. The book was named one of the 100 Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times and one of the 50 best nonfiction books of the year by the Washington Post.
Victor is also a former staff writer at The Ringer and business reporter for Time magazine. His writing and research have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Wired, and Smithsonian. He was nominated for a National Magazine Award for his reporting in Time on the 1923 Rosewood Massacre. He also manages an email newsletter about underexplored aspects of black history called Run It Back.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Malik Books, Westfield Culver City Mall, Suite 2820
Date: Tuesday, the 181h
Time: 7 pm
Address: 6000 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230
North Fig Book Club: The Day the Sun Died at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss The Day the Sun Died, by author Yan Lianke.
Set over the course of one increasingly bizarre night, The Day the Sun Died is a propulsive, darkly sinister tale from a world-class writer.
Yan Lianke newest novel, The Day the Sun Died—winner of the Dream of the Red Chamber Award, one of the most prestigious honors for Chinese-language novels—is a haunting story of a town caught in a waking nightmare.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lwfqgmmy
Kiss & Tell Romance Book Club at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Join Kiss & Tell Romance Book Club participants to discuss the June selection for discussion.
Contact bookstore for details on this new book club.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/kiss-tell-romance-book-club-0
Mystery Book Group: When You Disappeared via Santa Monica Public Library – Online Zoom Event
Santa Monica Library participants will discuss When You Disappeared, by author John Marrs.
NOTE: See site for link, guidelines, and details.
Where: Santa Monica Public Library, SMPL
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://smpl.org/uploadedFiles
At Skylight: KB Brookins, with Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, & Pretty at Skylight – In-Person Event
KB Brookins, in conversation with Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, will discuss her book Pretty.
Join us for a prize-winning, young Black trans writer of outsized talent, a fierce and disciplined memoir about queerness, masculinity, and race.
Even as it shines light on the beauty and toxicity of Black masculinity from a transgender perspective—the tropes, the presumptions—Pretty is as much a powerful and tender love letter as it is a call for change.
KB Brookins is a Black, queer, and trans writer and cultural worker from Texas. They are the author of Freedom House and How to Identify Yourself with a Wound. Brookins has poems, essays, and installation art published in Academy of American Poets, Teen Vogue, Poetry Magazine, Prizer Arts & Letters, Okayplayer, Poetry Society of America, Autostraddle, and other venues. They have earned fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, Equality Texas, and others.
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal was born in the Rio Grande Valley to Mexican immigrants. She is the author of Beast Meridian, which received a Whiting Award, a Kate Tufts Discovery Award nomination, and the Texas Institute of Letters John A. Robertson Award. She was a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles with her son.
Where: Skylight
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027
At the Elysian Theater: Priyanka Mattoo, with Jessi Klein, & Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones at Skylight – In-Person Event
Priyanka Mattoo, in conversation with Jessi Klein, will discuss her book Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones.
Join us for a wry, insightful, and very funny new voice, here is one woman’s peripatetic search for home, from Kashmir to England to Saudi Arabia to Michigan to Rome and, finally, to Los Angeles.
Priyanka Mattoo was born into a wooden house in the Himalayas, as were most of her ancestors. In 1989, however, mounting violence in the region forced Mattoo’s community to flee. The home into which her family poured their dreams was reduced to a pile of rubble.
Mattoo never moved back to her beloved Kashmir—because it no longer existed. She and her family just kept packing and unpacking and moving on. In forty years, Mattoo accumulated thirty-two different addresses, and she chronicles her nomadic existence with wit, wisdom, and an inimitable eye for light within the darkest moments.
Priyanka Mattoo is a writer, filmmaker, former talent agent, and a cofounder of Earios, a women-led podcast network. She is a contributor to The New York Times and The New Yorker, and a recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship. Mattoo holds degrees in Italian and law from the University of Michigan and currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and kids.
Jessi Klein is the author of You’ll Grow Out of It and I’ll Show Myself out, and the Emmy and Peabody award-winning head writer and an executive producer of Comedy Central’s critically acclaimed series Inside Amy Schumer. She is an actor and consulting producer on the hit Netflix show Big Mouth and has also written for Netflix’s Dead to Me and Amazon’s Transparent as well as Saturday Night Live. Klein has been featured on the popular storytelling series The Moth and has been a regular panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! Her work has been published in the New York Times, the New Yorker, GQ, and Cosmopolitan, and she has her own half-hour Comedy Central stand-up special.
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: Skylight at Elysian Theater
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1944 Riverside Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Sidney Morrison & Frederick Douglass: A Novel at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Sydney Morrison will present and discuss her novel Frederick Douglass.
Frederick Douglass was the most prominent African American of the 19th Century and Sidney Morrison has created a mesmerizing historical novel richly detailing his life and the Civil War Era.
This portrayal of Douglass distinguishes him as one of the founders of American democracy instrumental in ending the institution of slavery from which he escapes to become a fierce abolitionist, gifted orator, and newspaper publisher of The North Star. Douglass collaborates with William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and the Underground Railroad, as well as Presidents Abraham Lincoln to Grover Cleveland and becomes the first African American to hold esteemed political positions such as U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia and Minister to Haiti.
What makes this portrayal of Douglass unique is that it takes readers beyond the public persona by also detailing the women in his life, which is central to understanding the great man as a fully complex human whose life was rich in conflict, drama, and suspense.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Sidney-Morrison-discusses-Frederick-Douglass
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert & Guest Reader Jan Steckel – Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with host Rick Lupert presents guest reader Jan Steckel and an open mic.
Jan Steckel is a San Francisco Bay Area-based writer of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction, who is also known as an activist in the bisexual community and an advocate on behalf of the disabled and the underprivileged.
Steckel has published over a hundred of her short stories, poems and nonfiction pieces in print and in online publications such as Scholastic Magazine, Yale Medicine, Red Rock Review, So to Speak, Redwood Coast Review, and Bellevue Literary Review. Board-Certified in Pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics in 1997, Steckel obtained her Physician and Surgeon License from the Medical Board of California in 1997; she became a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2000. After she left medicine permanently in 2001, her experiences as a pediatrician continued to inform her work.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt/calendar.html
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show – In-Person Event
The Sunless Sea Open Mic: Poetry and Spoken Word Show is offered every week at the Unurban Coffee House. Hosted by DeForest Wright, all are invited to attend.
Featured poet of the month:
Mauro W. Monteiro is an Angeliño by choice. Carioca by chance.
NOTE: Details at event link. Check to Verify.
Where: Unurban Coffee House
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 3301 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups
Lit Angels Writing Studio Class: Morning Pages at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Come write for one hour with Tracey Simmons. Prompts will be given.
Get your tickets on EVENTBRITE!
Tracey Simmons has an MFA in Creative Writing, from Antioch University LA. Her writing has been published in Wussy Magazine, Reclamation Magazine, Aunt Chloe: A Journal of Artful Candor, and Lit Angels, and she’s a regular contributing writer for Q Bee App. She leads a writing group called, “The Written Journey ” and is currently finishing her debut novel, Specimen.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 8 pm – 9 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/39198
Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic: SLAM Night at Greenway Court – In-Person Event
The nation’s largest weekly Open Mic event is 25 years strong. They hold open mic nights. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in their audience.
The 3rd Tuesday of the month will be SLAM NIGHT.
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 the theater.
Masks are encouraged. All ages are welcome.
Where: Greenway Court Theatre
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
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/womenfemmes-night
Storytime with Mr. Steve At Vroman’s Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Join Mr. Steve and the gang at our Colorado Blvd. location at 11 am for story time!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday, the 19th
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/storytime-mr-steve-422
Poets Café: Celebrating Poetry via KPFK 90.7 FM – Live On-Air Event
Poets Café celebrates Poetry. This program is a weekly half-hour literary arts discussion and reading program featuring guest authors and their works.
NOTE: Poetry From Around the World is a segment of this series offered monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month on KPFK Los Angeles 90.7 FM.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: KPFK 90.7 FM
Date: Wednesday, the 19th
Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: On-air Event (live)
Website: https://www.kpfk.org/on-air/poets-cafe/
Kids Zine Workshop at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Kids Event
A Kids Zine Workshop is offered for one hour at Chevalier’s Books.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Wednesday, the 19th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/calendar
Juneteenth Celebration at The World Stage – In-Peron & Online Hybrid Event
The World Stage presents a s special Juneteenth Celebration.
- 4 pm — S.H.I.N.E. Mawusi Dru and Dance Ensemble
- 5 pm — World Stage Big Band
- 7 pm — Anansi Writers Workshop
The World Stage YouTube Channel:
Facebook Live:
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 19th
Time: 4 pm – 8 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.theworldstage.org/events.html
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 the Los Angeles Poet Society.
Guests TBA
This program is offered weekly on radioollin Los Angeles 101.5 FM.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: 101.5 FM
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: On-air Event (live at 101.5 FM)
Website: https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events
Chef Adam Glick & Live Free, Eat Well at Deisel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Chef Adam Glick will discuss and sign Live Free, Eat Well.
Chef Adam Glick has traveled the world cooking in tiny galley kitchens, in campers, and over campfires. Along the way, he’s developed skills for making the most of limited kitchen space and using resources from the environment to create innovative, delicious recipes even on the road. Learn his techniques for outdoor and small-space cooking and make restaurant-worthy meals on your next outdoor adventure.
Adam Glick has spent more than a decade sailing around the world as a private yacht chef. He’s covered more than 100,000 nautical miles, visited 70+ countries, and accumulated stories for a lifetime. His travels and challenges while cooking professionally, combined with his passion for the outdoors, have primed him for a life of preparing five-star food in beautiful, remote, and off-grid locations. He has appeared on the television shows Below Deck Mediterranean, Below Deck Sailing Yacht, Cutthroat Kitchen, and Stoked. Adam resides in the Pacific Northwest with his dog, Tex. He enjoys cooking for friends and family and continuing to create and inspire others to live free and eat well.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore (in the Courtyard)
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Chef-Adam-Glick-Author-signing
RECESS Open Mic is at SIPA HQ, Palms Up Academy – In-Person Event
RECESS Open Mic is at SIPA HQ on Wednesdays. (Check to Verify)
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 HQ
Date: Wednesday, the 19th
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
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.
Today this event will follow other presentations as part of a special Juneteenth Celebration event. See site above at 4 pm event.
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 19th
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 Rooja Mohassessy, an Iranian-born poet and educator. She is a MacDowell Fellow and an MFA graduate of Pacific University, Oregon. Her ekphrastic debut collection, When Your Sky Runs Into Mine (Feb 2023) was the winner of the 22nd Annual Elir Poetry Award. Rooja has been featured on NPR, The Hive Poetry Collective, and other poetry podcasts and radio stations. Her poems and reviews have appeared in Narrative Magazine, Nimrod, Poet Lore, RHINO Poetry, Southern Humanities Review, CALYX Journal, Ninth Letter, Cream City Review, The Adroit Journal, New Letters, The Rumpus, The Journal, Verse Daily, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. Her work is also anthologized in California Fire & Water, A Climate Crisis Anthology, and Colossus: Body, a compilation of writings by Californians writing on the themes of bodily autonomy and reproductive rights. Rooja is an editorial assistant at the journal Prairie Schooner.
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 19th
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-924978735297
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg and Featured Guest Aksel Villegas at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Nights features Aksel Villegas.
Aksel Villegas is a musician, photographer, jeweler, and recently, a published poet. He won a poetry competition his senior year of high school, which encouraged him to continue writing; We are still getting the end results—his aftermath.
$4 cover fee, cash only
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday, the 19th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events or https://www.facebook.com/events/1643358079800293/?ref=newsfeed
Children’s Summer Book Club: And then comes summer at Sunkist Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for our children’s book club as we read together “And then comes summer” by Tom Brenner followed by an art activity. For ages 5 – 12 with parent or caregiver.
Where: Sunkist Library, LACL
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 P-pm
Address: 840 Puente Ave., La Puente, CA 91746
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10798838
Brentwood Writers Workshop at Daniel Bruce Kauffman – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Are you a writer looking for creative ways to manifest your story and, most importantly, keep moving forward? Are you interested in collaborating with others to explore:
What makes a story interesting?
Why audiences invest in characters?
How to inject insight into your stories?
How to strengthen story elements?
The Brentwood Writers Workshop is looking for fellow writers to gather, brainstorm, and bring their experience and skills to their fellow writers. We’re here to workshop ideas, coach each other through challenges, and support and inspire one another, all with the goal of making traction on our writing projects.
Where: Daniel Bruce Kauffman – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 5:30 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/brentwood-writing-group
Comic Book & Graphic Novel Discussion for Adults via Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us each month for a comic book & graphic novel book discussion. We will rotate between indie titles and titles from Marvel & DC. It’s a great starting point for new readers or devoted fans of the genre.
Participants will discuss Hawkeye: My Life As A Weapon (2013) written by Matt Fraction, illustrated by David Aja.
RSVP:
This program meets via Zoom. Please pre-register at site.
Where: Palms–Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/comic-book-graphic-novel-discussion-adults-0
Mystery Book Club: Ash Dark as Night at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the book Ash Dark as Night (Harry Ingram Mystery #2) by author Gary Phillips.
In the follow-up to One-Shot Harry, fearless crime photographer and occasional private eye Harry Ingram finds himself in the LAPD’s crosshairs after capturing damning evidence of police brutality.
Los Angeles, August 1965. Anger and pent-up frustrations boil over in the Watts neighborhood after a traffic stop of two Black motorists. As the Watts riots explode, crime photographer Harry Ingram snaps photos at the scene, including images of the police as they unleash batons, dogs, and water hoses on civilians. When he captures the image of an unarmed activist being shot down by the cops, he winds up in the hospital, beaten, his camera missing. Proof of the unjust killing seems lost—until Ingram’s girlfriend, Anita Claire, retrieves the hidden film in a daring rescue. The photo makes front-page news.
A recuperating Ingram is approached by Betty Payton, a comrade of Anita’s mother, who wants Ingram’s help tracking down her business associate Moses “Mose” Tolbert, last seen during the riots. Ingram follows the investigation down a rabbit hole of burglary rings, bank robberies, looted cash, and clandestine agendas—all the while grappling with his newfound fame, which puts him in the sightlines of LAPD’s secretive intelligence division.
Gary Phillips has published novels, comics, novellas, short stories and edited or co-edited several anthologies, including the Anthony-winning The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir. Almost thirty years after its publication, his debut, Violent Spring, was named one of the essential crime novels of Los Angeles. He was also a writer and co-producer on Snowfall, a show streaming on Hulu about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central, where he grew up.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-ash-dark-night
Montana Avenue Branch Book Group: When You Disappeared at Montana Branch Library, SMPL – In-Person Event
Montana Avenue Branch Library Book Group participants will discuss Demon Copperhead, by author Barbara Kingsolver.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Montana Branch Library, SMPL
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 1704 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: https://smpl.org/uploadedFiles
Bel Canto Book Club: How Far the Light Reaches at Union @ Compound, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Bel Canto Book Club is an in-person book club that meets on the third Thursday of each month to discuss a handpicked favorite from bookstore owner Jhoanna, of Bel Canto Books.
RSVP required.
Participants will discuss How Far the Light Reaches, by author Sabrina Imbler.
Where: Union @ Compound
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 1395 Coranado, Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://bookshop.org/lists/2024-bel-canto-book-club
Amin Ghaziani, with Lucas Hilderbrand, & Long Live Queer Nightlife at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Amin Ghaziani, in conversation with Lucas Hilderbrand, will discuss his book Long Live Queer Nightlife, a journey into underground parties where cultural creatives, many of whom are queer, trans and racial minorities, reclaim the night in the name of those long left out.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/amin-ghaziani
Queer Spaces Storytelling Night at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
It’s time for another QUEER SPACES STORYTELLING NIGHT, hosted and curated by Jen Hitchcock aka @bookshowla!
This month’s lineup will be announced soon!
It is a safe bet that if you are a queer person, you have a story about a queer space that inspired and shaped you. Where you found your tribe. Where you felt safe, seen, understood, loved. This is an evening of unique individual stories about our communal gathering spots, be they historical or contemporary, in real life or virtual. Dedicated queer space will always be essential to our community. Queer Spaces Storytelling Night strives to preserve this notion through the ancient art of sharing stories.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Thursday, 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-lulmxbbt
Trenches Full of Prose Reading Series: Jared Joseph, Solomon Vertiz, Jesenia Chavez & Brandi Wells at Page Against the Machine – In-Person Event
Trenches Full of Prose is hosted by Jesse Tovar and offers readings by 4 SoCal poets every quarter on the 3rd Thursday of the month. Features this month include:
Jared Joseph’s preferred bio is, “Jared Joseph is boring.” He is the author of the absurdist novel, Danny and the Ambulance, published in the fall of 2023 by Shortish Project. You can find his boring self on IG @sleepless_in_america_online.
Solomon Vertiz is a self-taught writer/artist from Southeast Los Angeles. He has self-published two art/poetry zines, Poppy Zine (2022), and Entropy of Love (2023). His poetry/micro fiction/essays can be found in: 𝘍𝘌𝘌𝘋 𝘓𝘪𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘨, 𝘈𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘫𝘦𝘴 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘨 and 𝘚𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘦𝘴𝘢𝘳 (formerly 𝘋𝘳𝘺𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥). Feel free to peruse his thoughts vicariously through his blog: http://www.saturdaynightwristblog.wordpress.com
Jesenia Chavez is a proud Chicana, public school teacher, writer, poet, and storyteller. She co-hosts 𝘘𝘶𝘦́ 𝘔𝘦 𝘊𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴 (𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘔𝘦), a storytelling podcast featuring diverse experiences in the Lantix community. Her debut poetry collection, This Poem Might Save You (Me) was published by Alegria Publishing in 2022. Chavez is currently working on an essay collection. She believes in the healing powers of storytelling, poetry, dancing, nature, and hugs.
Brandi Wells earned their MFA in creative writing from the University of Alabama and their PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Southern California. They’re currently an Assistant Professor of creative writing at CSU Fullerton. Their fiction has appeared in 𝘗𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘰 𝘋𝘦𝘭 𝘚𝘰𝘭, 𝘔𝘪𝘥-𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸, 𝘛𝘳𝘪-𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘺 and other journals. Their novella, This Boring Apocalypse, was published by Civil Coping Mechanisms in 2015, and their debut novel, The Cleaner, was published by Hanover Square Press, an imprint of HarperCollins, in early 2024.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Page Against the Machine
Date: Thursday, the 29th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2712 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events
At Skylight: Thomas Moniz, with Natashia Deón, & Friends Are Necessary at Skylight – In-Person Event
Thomas Moniz, in conversation with Natashia Deón, will discuss his novel, Friends Are Necessary, a story about the power of friendship, community, and the families we create for ourselves.
Efren “Chino” Flores has just moved back to the Bay Area from Seattle, jumping from sublet to sublet. In Washington, he was a beloved middle school biology teacher with a loving wife and a child on the way until a stunning loss changed his life. Now he’s working temp jobs and struggling to put himself back out into the world.
But there to nurture Chino is a coterie of new and old friends and lovers who form a protective web around him. As Chino begins to date more men and women—and to open himself up again to love—his bonds with other people grow both rich and profound. The author has created an anthem to both queer and platonic love
Where: Skylight
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027
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!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 7 pm –9 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/34292
Alex Landau & The Mother of All Things at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Alex Landau will present and discuss her book, The Mother of All Things: A Novel.
Kept busy by her obligations as a wife and mother, art history professor Ava Zaretsky has little time to devote to her research and writing. Now tagging along on her film-producer husband’s shoot in Bulgaria for the summer, where she’s mostly solo parenting her sweet son and rebellious budding tween daughter, she has a chance encounter with her fierce feminist mentor from college, which changes everything.
This is a revelatory tale of a woman’s evolving sense of responsibility to herself and her family, as she achieves a new appreciation of the gifts of female wisdom and self-belief.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Alexis-Landau-discusses-The-Mother-of-All-Things
Lit Angels Writing Studio Class: Meditation to Fuel Your Creative Fire at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
The Meditation workshop is led by Jen Becherer.
Creativity cannot thrive in stress, so leave it at the door and join us for a guided meditation and breath work session which will have you floating on cloud 9 and have your creative flames burning bright for days afterwards!
From Entertainment Executive to Mindful Leadership Coach, Jen helps her clients transition from burnout to living a life that’s more abundant, stress free, and on their terms. Through breathing techniques, guided visualization meditation, creative exercises, and group sessions she’s watched her clients limiting beliefs and creative blocks dissolve, being replaced with a renewed passion for life and their confident place of leadership within it.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/39203
L.A. Book Launch: Lynne Thompson, with Pam Ward, & Blue on a Blue Palatte at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Lynn Thompson will present her new book, Blue on a Blue Palette, with a reading and conversation with guest poet Pam Ward.
2021-22 Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, Lynne Thompson, in conversation with Pam Ward, will present and discuss her new collection, Blue on a Blue Palette.
This book reflects on the condition of women—their joys despite their histories, and their insistence on survival as issues of race, culture, pandemic, and climate threaten their livelihoods. The documentation of these personal odysseys—which vary stylistically from abecedarians to free verse to centos—replicate the many ways women travel through the stages of their lives, all negotiated on a palette encompassing various shades of blue. These poems demand your attention, your voice: “Say history. Claim. Say wild.” The author will be joined by Pam Ward for a reading and conversation in The Wanda Coleman Theater. Reception & book signings to follow after the readings.
Lynne Thompson was Los Angeles’ 2021-22 Poet Laureate and is a Poet Laureate Fellow of the Academy of American Poets. She is the author of three collections of poetry, Beg No Pardon, winner of the Perugia Press and Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award; Start With A Small Guitar; and most recently, Fretwork, winner of the 2019 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize selected by Jane Hirshfield. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, Thompson is the recipient of multiple awards including an Individual Artist Fellowship from the City of Los Angeles, the Tucson Literary Festival Poetry Prize, and the Steven Dunn Poetry Prize as well as fellowships from the Summer Literary Series to study in Kenya and the Vermont Studio Center. An attorney by training, Thompson sits on the Boards of The Poetry Foundation, Cave Canem, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. In June of 2022, she completed her four-year service as Chair of the Board of Trustees at Scripps College, her alma mater. Thompson’s recent work can be found or is forthcoming in the literary journals Best American Poetry 2020, Kenyon Review, The Common, The Massachusetts Review, and Copper Nickel, and the anthology Beat Not Beat, among others.
Writer/designer, Pam Ward released her poetry book Between Good Men & No Man at All, World Stage Press. She’s published two novels, Want Some Get Some, and Bad Girls Burn Slow, Kensington.
A UCLA graduate, recipient of a California Arts Council Fellow, a Pushcart Poetry Nominee, Pam has published in Chiron, Calyx, Voices of Leimert Park and the LA Times. She’s currently working on a novel about her aunt’s dalliance in the Black Dahlia Murder, an event that shocked the nation and happened in Pam’s own neighborhood.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm (Doors at 7:30 pm)
Address: 681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-book-launch-blue-on-a-blue-palette-by-lynne-thompson-tickets-919600057527
Live Talks LA: An Evening with Walter Mosley & Farewell Amethystine at Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center at Vista Del Mar – In-Person Event
From “master of the genre” (Washington Post) Walter Mosley, Detective Easy Rawlins’ latest client sends him down a warren of memory and nostalgia—blinding him to reason and risk.
Easy Rawlins returns in Walter Mosley’s latest, Farewell, Amethystine, set in January 1970. All is right in the world of LA’s premiere Black detective… and then Amethystine Stoller arrives. Her ex-husband is missing. And as Easy takes his first step in the investigation, he trips and falls into the memory of things past—loss, love, a world war, and a hunger that has eaten at him since he was a Black boy on his own on the streets of Fifth Ward, Houston, Texas.
Easy finds himself pressed into a reckoning and has to make a choice that will almost certainly hasten a permanent descent, one that might sunder his soul.
Walter Mosley is one of America’s most celebrated modern-day crime fiction writers. In 2020, he received the 2020 National Book Award’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He has been named a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America. His work has been translated into 25 languages. As an executive producer, he adapted his novel The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey for AppleTV+ and serves as a writer and executive producer for FX’s Snowfall
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center at Vista Del Mar
Date: Thursday, the 20th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 3200 Motor Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90034
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/walter_mosley/
Spectacular Storytime at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Spectacular Storytime is our most popular story time and is ready to delight and dazzle! This is also the prime time to see Pippi Longstocking, our bookstore cat in action.
Open to all ages. Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event
Your Author Series: Michael Martinez & Composting for Community at Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Join us in welcoming Michael Martinez, founder of LA Compost, a nonprofit organization providing compost access and education, as he reads from his new book Composting for Community.
Mateo’s father is a composter, but when the class falls silent during his career day presentation, he sets out to learn more about not only his father’s job but about composting itself. His dad’s seemingly ordinary job unveils a world of interconnectedness, family heritage, and environmental stewardship that changes Mateo’s perspective. Guided by his family, Mateo delves into the science of composting and witnesses the transformation of trash into nourishing compost that provides life for our planet.
Those attending the program will have the opportunity to take home a copy of Composting for Community. Intended for children ages 5 and up.
Where: Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 11 am
Address: 4625 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. CA 90019
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-michael-martinez-0
Special Storytime: Cherry Mo & Home in a Lunchbox at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Welcome picture book author and illustrator Cherry Mo for a special storytime when Cherry will read her own book Home in a Lunchbox (out on June 11th) to all of us, and we’ll talk with her about writing and illustrating picture books!
When Jun moves from Hong Kong to America, the only words she knows are hello, thank you, I don’t know, and toilet. Her new school feels foreign and terrifying. But when she opens her lunchbox to find her favorite meals—like bao, dumplings, and bok choy—she realizes home isn’t so far away after all. Through lush art and spare dialogue, Cherry Mo’s breathtakingly beautiful debut picture book reminds readers that friendship and belonging can be found in every bite.
Cherry Mo grew up in Hong Kong and moved to the United States at the age of ten. Home in a Lunchbox is her debut picture book and was inspired by her first days of school in America. Cherry writes and illustrates stories that she hopes bring young readers a sense of comfort and belonging. Practicing self-awareness is also a big part of her life and translates into her work. Besides writing and illustrating, she loves to play Chinese “Connect Five”, send postcards, and find joy in simple things, like a plain tortilla or steamed bun!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 11 am
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com
Poetry Performance: The Pop Hop X Besos at The Pop Hop – In-Person Event
Join local poet Celeste at a reading for her new poetry collection! In BESOS, Celeste explores the themes of grief, love, abandonment, empowerment, and culture. These poems honor the Latine roots. The journey of the book allows the reader to connect and see the writer’s healing process.
Celeste is a Mexican- and Puerto Rican-American, author, poet, and businesswoman. Published at 24, she has been able to reach many from her community with her poetry and her book is available for purchase in three local bookstores in Los Angeles. She was recently featured in HIPLATINA!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: The Pop Hop
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 5002 York Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://www.thepophop.com
Bookish Literary Discussion: Alex Espinoza and Mike Madrid at Once Upon a Time & SoCal News Group – Online Event
Bookish Discussion is hosted by Sandra Tsing Loh and will feature authors Alex Espinoza and Mike Madrid presenting their new book releases.
Alex Espinoza will discuss his new novel, The Sons of El Rey a timeless story about a family of luchadores contending with forbidden love and secrets in Mexico City, Los Angeles, and beyond.
With alternating perspectives, Ernesto and Elena take you from the ranches of Michoacán to the makeshift colonias of Mexico City. Freddy describes life in the suburban streets of 1980s Los Angeles and the community their family built, as Julian descends deep into our present-day culture of hook-up apps, lucha burlesque shows, and the dark underbelly of West Hollywood. The Sons of El Rey is an intimate portrait of a family wading against time and legacy, yet always choosing the fight.
Mike Madrid will discuss his book The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority Is Transforming Democracy.
An insightful investigation of how and why the two major political parties have failed to appeal to the Latino vote—the second largest ethnic voting group in the country—and the impact it will have on American democracy and politics for decades to come.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore & SoCal News Group
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/bookish-june-2024
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 21st
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 280 W. 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: https://cafeconlibrospress.org/event-calendar/
Kim Watson & Trespass: Portraits of Unhoused Life, Love, and Understanding at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Kim Watson will discuss his book,Trespass: Portraits of Unhoused Life, Love, and Understanding.
Trespass offers an honest and unflinching depiction of the beauty and humanity of unhoused life, as seen through the eyes of photographer Kim Watson, who has spent three years on the streets of Los Angeles Watson’s portraits capture the hopes and demands of people in need of support and consideration. In this book of extraordinary photo essays,
Watson dares us to look inside ourselves and confront our own biases as we consider the conditions of others so, together, we can process our collective trauma and develop sustainable documenting his intimate and deeply felt relationships with the unhoused,
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/kim-watson
Cece Tefler, with Rook Campbell, & Make It Count at Reparations Club – In-Person Event
Cece Telfer, in conversation with Rook Campbell, will discuss her book, Make It Count.
This is a discussion with the first openly transgender woman to win a NCAA title. Cece Telfer will discuss her raw and inspiring story in Make It Count, joined in conversation by scholar and storyteller Rook Camobell.
Cece Telfer is a Jamaican American athlete who, in June 2019, became the first openly transgender woman to win a NCAA title. Telfer became a NCAA National Champion in the 400- meter hurdles event which put her on the trajectory of becoming a U.S. Olympic hopeful for the Tokyo Olympics 2021. In June 2021, Telfer qualified for the 2021 U.S. Olympic Team Trials | Track & Field in the 100M & 400-meter hurdles. Telfer has appeared on multiple national media outlets, including The New York Times, CNN International, ESPN, Women’s Health, People Magazine, The Advocate, and more, capturing global attention for her incredible story.
Rook Campbell’s work as a scholar, community leader, and storyteller is concerned with the ordinary, everyday encounters of sport, play, and games. As a professor, Campbell explores the politics, money, and culture of sports. These academic workings may be laden with theory, but ultimately, the primary sports stakeholder is simple. Sport is about humans and lived experiences. At the intersection of academia and art, Campbell created That Day I Was the Fastest Boy in the World as a public engagement aimed to build empathy, voice, and visibility through storytelling. Across the Los Angeles swimming community, Campbell designed and leads LANEMATE Project which hosts transgender and non-binary swim activations.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Reparations Club
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 3054 S. Victoria Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website: https://rep.club/products/cece-telfer-event
L.A. Book Launch: Daisy Garrison, with Robin Benway, & Six More Months of June at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Daisy Garrison, in conversation with Robin Benway, will discuss her debut romance novel Six More Months of June.
There will be a book signing to follow.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Emma Copely Eisenberg, with Jean Kyoung Frazier, & Housemates at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Emma Copely Eisenberg, in conversation with Jean Kyoung Frazier, will discuss her novel, Housemates.
This is a novel of love, friendship, and chosen family in a fractured America, by the award-winning author of The Third Rainbow Girl, where two young housemates embark on a road trip to discover themselves.
Two housemates decide to jaunt into a road trip with an ambitious mission: to document America through words and photographs.
What ensues is a journey into the heart of the nation, bringing the housemates into conversation with people from all walks of life—“the absurd dreamers and failures of this wide, wide country”—as they try to make sense of the times they are living in. Along the way, Leah and Bernie discover what it means to chase their own ideas and dreams, and to embrace what they are capable of both romantically and artistically.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Elizabeth Acevedo, with Safia Elhillo, & Family Lore: A Novel at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Elizabeth Landau, in conversation with Safia Elhillo, will discuss Family Lore: A Novel.
This novel is the story of one Dominican American family told through the voices of its women.
Spanning the three days prior to a wake, Family Lore traces the lives of each of the Marte women, weaving together past and present, Santo Domingo and New York City. Told with Elizabeth Acevedo’s inimitable and incandescent voice, this is an indelible portrait of sisters and cousins, aunts and nieces—one family’s journey through their history, helping them better navigate all that is to come.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Elizabeth-Acevedo-discusses-Family-Lore
Lit Angels Writing Studio Class: Morning Pages at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Come write for one hour with Melissa Pleckham. Prompts will be given.
Get your tickets on EVENTBRITE!
About the teacher:
Melissa Pleckham is a writer, actor, and musician living in Los Angeles with her husband and cats. Her work has appeared in Francesca Lia Block’s Lit Angels Literary Journal, Pyre Magazine, Tales from the Moonlit Path, The Sirens Call eZine, Luna Luna, and a forthcoming issue of Coffin Bell, and her music has been featured on FX’s American Horror Story. She is currently writing her first novel.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 8 pm – 9 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/39205
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club: J. Ryan Stradal and Guests Alison Turner and Lou Matthews at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque presents an evening with author J. Ryan Stradal, Alison Turner, and Lou Mathews reading their fiction and poetry.
New York Times bestselling author J. Ryan Stradal delivers a story of a couple from two very different restaurant families in rustic Minnesota, and the legacy of love and tragedy, of hardship and hope, that unites and divides them. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club is a window into a colorful, vanishing world of relish trays and brandy Old Fashioneds. The author has once again given us a story full of his signature honest, lovable yet fallible Midwestern characters as they grapple with love, loss, and marriage; what we hold onto and what we leave behind; and what our legacy will be when we are gone.
The author will be reading alongside L.A.’s literary couple Alison Turner (author of The Second Split Between) and Lou Mathews (author of Shaky Town and L.A. Breakdown). Book signings to follow the readings.
J. Ryan Stradal is the author of New York Times bestseller Kitchens of the Great Midwest, which won the American Booksellers Association Indie’s Choice Award for Adult Debut Book of the Year, and the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award for the year’s top novel. His second novel, the national bestseller The Lager Queen of Minnesota, won the WILLA Literary Award and was a finalist for the Heartland Booksellers Award. His third and newest novel is Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, also a Heartland Award finalist, and a national bestseller the first week of its release. His shorter writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Granta, and The Guardian, among other places. Born and raised in Minnesota, he now lives with his family in California.
Alison Turner’s debut collection, The Second Split Between, was selected by Dorianne Laux to be the winner of the 2021 Catamaran Poetry Prize for West Coast Poets. Her poems have appeared in various journals including The American Poetry Journal, Mid-American Review, Hudson Review, San Pedro River Review, Catamaran, and Poetry East. She lives under the Hollywood sign with her husband, writer Lou Mathews.
Lou Mathews has written seven books and published three of them, Shaky Town, Just Like James, and L.A. Breakdown, a Los Angeles Times Best Book. He has taught in UCLA Extension’s acclaimed creative writing program since 1989. His stories have been published in ZYZZYVA, New England Review, Short Story, Black Clock, Paperback L.A., and many fiction anthologies. Mathews is also a journalist, playwright, and passionate cook, as well as a former mechanic, street racer, and restaurant critic. He has received a Pushcart Prize and a Katherine Anne Porter Prize, as well as California Arts Commission and NEA Fiction fellowships, and is a recipient of the UCLA Extension Teacher of the Year and Outstanding Instructor awards.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
SWAAM Spoken Word Art & Music Event & Open Mic by Lorenzo Frank at Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center – In-Person Event
Join us to hear a featured poet, plus an Open Mic, hosted by Lorenzo Frank on the first and third Fridays of the month.
Featured artist TBA
Lorenzo Frank is the author of ‘Nzinga Teaches/Learns a Lesson’ book series.
NOTE: See site for costs, guidelines, and details.
Where: Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 8 pm – 11 pm
Address: 4305 Degnan Blvd., Leimert Park, Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.facebook.com/swaampoetry or https://www.depoet.info/swaam
Third Fridays Rapp Saloon Reading Series, with host Elena Secota, via Rapp Saloon – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Third Fridays at Rapp Saloon Open Mic & Featured Readers is an event offered every 3rd Friday of the month, curated by host Elena Secota.
Featuring: Wayne Allen LeVine, Brooke Benson, Todd Beeson, & Surprise Guests.
Wayne Allen LeVine is a writer, poet, philosopher, storyteller, impassioned public speaker and author. LeVine’s previously published books include Forgiveness for Forgotten Dreams, Myths & Artists, the Amazon.com Best Seller Insights of an Ordinary Man, and now his long awaited The Fourth Reflection
Brooke Benson is a Los Angeles singer, songwriter and spoken word artist. Her debut release is titled I Am the Sun.
Todd Beeson is a musician, instructor, and songwriter who performs with his wife Brooke Benson.
RSVP and details at site.
Share your voice at the Open Mic, where there is a time limit of 4 minutes max. Sign-ups are: 8 pm – 8:30 pm.
NOTE: See site for event details.
Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 8:30 pm – 11 pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90401 (Zoom link in bio)
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo
The Parables Convening: An Octavia E. Butler Celebration at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
In anticipation of the summer of 2024, marked as the setting of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, we eagerly anticipate this Convening, aiming to honor Butler’s legacy on her birthday at the Central Library, a place she cherished. The celebration will include a scholarly panel discussion, a book dialogue, a tabletop roleplaying campaign, and silkscreening with Color Compton. Patrons who RSVP for any of the event’s programs will be eligible for a book giveaway graciously sponsored by Seven Stories Press.
Harvesting Hope: A Panel Discussion
Time: 10 a.m. – 11 a.m.
Location: Taper Auditorium
A panel of scholars of Octavia E. Butler will discuss the meaning of her work in 2024 centered around the question, “What seeds should we sow?” including:
Lynell George, author of A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler.
Schessa Garbutt, founder/director of Firebrand, a branding and design agency for changemakers
Nikki High, owner of local Octavia’s Bookshelf
Moderated by: Rabiya Kassam-Clay, Los Angeles educator
Seeding Ideas: A Book Club Discussion
Time: 10 a.m.- noon
Location: Meeting Room A
At the Convening, readers will join together for a book club session to discuss Parable of the Sower, moderated by educators.
Journey to Earthseed: A Tabletop Roleplay Campaign in Octavia E. Butler’s Parable Universe
Time: 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Location: Meeting Room B
Young Angeleno game masters will lead an interactive role-playing adventure game around the quote “The destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars,” from the Parable of the Sower series with the intent “to co-create our own understanding of the hope, creativity, and resilience that shaped Octavia’s first book.” This role-playing game will also tie Butler’s work to the climate change we face today.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Octavia Lab
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 10 am – 12 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/parables-convening-octavia-e-butler-celebration
Book Launch: Jenny Turnbull & Tate’s Wild Rescue at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Join {pages} a bookstore for local children’s author Jenny Turnbull’s debut launch! Saturday, June 22, 2024 at 10:30 am in our courtyard
We are thrilled to have a special launch party with crafts and giveaways to celebrate our friend and local children’s author Jenny Turnbull on the launch of her debut picture book
Jenny Turnbull is a children’s book author who lives by the sea in Los Angeles. She left a career in film and television to pursue her passion for writing and has never looked back. Tate’s Wild Rescue is a debut picture book, honoring the author’s love for animals. When not writing, she enjoys exploring the wild with her husband and her furry best friend, Enzo.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 10:30 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Mystery Book Club: An Octavia E. Butler Celebration at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Read the book and join our lively discussion! There is no meeting in December.
Participants will discuss The Crossing Places by author Elly Griffiths.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://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 details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-1
Vroman’s Special Storytime: Cherry Mo & Home in a Lunchbox at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Cherry Mo will present and discuss her children’s book, Home in a Lunchbox.
Cherry Mo’s stunning debut is about a young girl who immigrates to America and finds home in an unexpected place.
When Jun moves from Hong Kong to America, the only words she knows are hello, thank you, I don’t know, and toilet. Her new school feels foreign and terrifying.
But when she opens her lunchbox to find her favorite meals—like bao, dumplings, and bok choy—she realizes home isn’t so far away after all.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Vromans-Special-Storytime-Cherry-Mo-presenting-Home-in-a-Lunchbox
Storytime + Signing: Kim-Hoa Ung & A Gift for Nai Nai at Bel Canto Books – In-Person Event
Bel Canto Books Retro Row is delighted to host a Storytime + Signing with author Kim-Hoa Ung and her children’s book,A Gift for Nai Nai.
This debut picture book is about a girl who struggles to crochet a lucky hat for her Nai Nai’s birthday and learns that the perfect gift comes from within.
Lyn Lyn’s beloved Nai Nai has a birthday party approaching! All she wants to do is make her a lucky hat, but her crochet skills are not nearly as refined as her Nai Nai’s. Lyn Lyn cleverly asks for Nai Nai’s help, saying the hat is a gift “for a friend.” She wants it to be a surprise, after all.
Where: Bel Canto Books, Retro Row
Date: Sunday, the 22nd
Time: 12 pm
Address: 2106 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
AIRC Book Club: There, There: A Novel at Huntington Park Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss There, There: A Novel by author Tommy Orange, a Cheyenne and Arapaho writer.
Free copies of the book are available while supplies last.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Huntington Park Library, LACL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: 6518 Miles Ave, Huntington Park, CA 90255
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10755595
3-Week Manga Workshop with Sebraé Harris and Inlandia at Riverside Main Library – In-Person Event
Join Inlandia Institute at Riverside Main Library for a creative workshop introduction to the inner workings of the Japanese comic medium, Manga, which will explore terminology, story, character design, and paneling to create your own one shot or series! Presented by animator and mangaka, Sebraé Harris.
Sebraé Harris – AKA “StarLite Crystal” – is an African American artist, entrepreneur, and professional mangaka. He started drawing at the age of four and began taking art seriously when he was eight. Sebraé is a graduate of Riverside City College with degrees in Fine & Applied Arts, Animation, and Business & Entrepreneurship. The Vermillion Speedateer is his first manga/comic series.
NOTE: See site for registration & details.
Where: Inlandia at Riverside Main Library
Date: Saturday, the 22nd (On Alternating Saturdays)
Time: 1 pm – 3 pm
Address: 3900 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, CA 92501
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/my-calendar/?mc_id=2328 or https://inlandiainstitute.org/events/
San Pedro Library Book Club: Sisters in Arms at San Pedro Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will celebrate Juneteenth by discussing Kaia Alderson’s novel Sisters in Arms: a Novel of the Daring Black Women Who Served During World War II.
Please read the book before the meeting on June 22. Learn about how two black officer candidates meet the challenge of being in the first black female officers class during World War II and the challenges they overcome in the United States and in Europe.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: San Pedro Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: 931 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro, CA 90731
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/san-pedro-library-book-club-celebrates-juneteenth-sisters-arms
Drag Story Hour at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
It’s just what it sounds like! Join us for an extra sparkly storytime with a drag performer bringing costume, humor, and play to read inclusive children’s books to delight families and their kids of all ages. We’re excited to celebrate diversity and individuality and invite you to be yourself and bring your imagination! Post-storytime photos with the performer are encouraged. Intended for ages 3-11. For more information, please contact children@lapl.org.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/drag-story-hour-0
GLP Practice at Get Lit – Words Ignite – In-Person Teen Event
This event is for current Get Lit Players.
213.388.8639
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Get Lit
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 672 S. Lafayette St., #10, Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.getlit.org/events/
A Reading Featuring: Stacey Levine & Douglas Messerli at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque presents an evening with Stacey Levine, and Douglas Messerli reading their new work of prose and poetry.
Stacey Levine will be reading from her most recent novel Mice 1961 (Verse Chorus Press). The novel recounts a pivotal day in the fraught relationship of two orphaned sisters through the eyes of their obsessively observant housekeeper. Will Jody be able to cope if her younger sibling Mice, bullied and belittled in their community for her appearance and habits, leaves home? How will their all-watching companion convey her fierce attachment to them both? When an unsettling stranger arrives, all three women are driven toward momentous changes. Set in southern Florida at the peak of Cold War hysteria, this work of fiction is a powerful meditation on belonging and separateness, conformity and otherness.
Douglas Messerli will be sharing poems from his ambitious project, Writing Through, a collection he began working on at the turn of the century inspired by the writings of fellow poets such as Diane Ward, Charles Bernstein, Elizabeth Robinson, Paul Vangelisti, and many more, as well as predecessors who’ve made an impact in his life and creative work.
Stacey Levine is the author of two previous novels, Dra—and Frances Johnson, and two story collections, My Horse and Other Stories and The Girl with Brown Fur. Her fiction has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Tin House, The Iowa Review, Yeti, The Santa Monica Review, and other magazines. For her fiction she has received a PEN Award, a Genius Award from Seattle’s news weekly The Stranger, and numerous prize nominations, grants, and fellowships. She lives and teaches in Seattle.
Douglas Messerli is the author of nine books of poetry, most recently Stay, published in 2018. He is a writer, editor, publisher, and professor. In 1976 he founded Sun & Moon Press, which was devoted to publishing experimental poetry, fiction, and drama, until it closed in 2004 and Messerli opened Green Integer. Messerli graduated with a B.A., an M.A., and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Maryland, in 1969, 1974, and 1979, respectively. He has taught at Temple University, Occidental College, California Arts Institute, Otis College of Art and Design, and California Institute of Technology.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
Fourth Saturdays Poetry Readings: Jose Hernandez Diaz and Judy Kronenfeld at Claremont Helen Renwick Library– In-Person Event
Jose Hernandez Diaz is the author of The Fire Eater (2020), Bad Mexican, Bad American (2024), and the forthcoming Portrait of the Artist as a Brown Man (2025). He is published in many journals and teaches at UC Riverside, and online for several creative writing programs, and serves as Poetry Mentor in the Adroit Journal Summer Mentor Program.
Judy Kronenfeld is the author of six full-length books of poetry, including If Only There Were Stations of the Air (2024). Her third chapbook, Oh Memory, You Unlocked Cabinet of Amazements! has just been released by Bamboo Dart Press. Her memoir-in-essays is forthcoming from Inlandia Books. She is Lecturer Emerita in Creative Writing at UC Riverside.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Claremont Helen Renwick Library
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 208 N. Harvard Ave., Claremont, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo
Poetic Voice of L.A. Event in Miriam’s Garden Series: Sesshu Foster & Featured Guests at Hyde Park Miriam Matthews Branch Library – In-Person Event
Sesshu Foster will read in the first hour, 2 pm – 3 pm.
Ceesar K. Avelar, Jenise Miller & Luivette Resto will read in the second hour, 3 pm – 4 pm.
Sesshu Foster is a poet and novelist working in Los Angeles. Winner of two American Book Awards, his most recent books include the novel ELADATL: A History of the East Los Angeles Dirigible Air Transport Lines (co-authored with artist Arturo E. Romo) and a book of poems, City of the Future.
Ceasar K. Avelar is the current Poet Laureate of Pomona and the author of the collection God of the Air Hose. He is also founder and host of Obsidian Tongues Open Mic in Pomona.
Jenise Miller is a Black Panamanian poet and writer and urban planner from Compton, California. Her work explores art, archives, mapping, and intersectional history. She is the author of The Blvd.
Luivette Resto is an award-winning poet, a mother of three revolutionary humans, and a middle school English teacher. She is the author of three collections: Unfinished Portrait, Ascension, and most recently Living on Islands Not Found on Maps.
Hosted by Yago Cura.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Hyde Park Branch Miriam Matthews Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 2205 Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8Nlqg5yV2N/?locale=kk-KZ
Juneteenth Celebration at Manhattan Beach Library, LACL – In-Person Kids & Family Event
In celebration of Juneteenth, the Library invites you to join us for special performances by Ina the Sunshine Storyteller and Chazz Ross, followed by for the inauguration of the Bruce’s Beach Commemorative Collection as local historian Dr. Anthony Lee discusses the collection and the significance of Juneteenth.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Manhattan Beach Library, LACL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1320 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10950767
Storytime & Book Signing: TaraJi P. Henson & You Can Be a Good Friend (No Matter What!) at Malik Books, Culver City – In-Person Kids Event
Join us for an enchanting storytime and book signing event with the multi-talented Taraji P. Henson! Get ready to embark on a journey through the pages of her latest children’s book, You Can Be a Good Friend (No Matter What!), a heartwarming tale inspired by her passion for teaching children the value of embracing differences and celebrating uniqueness.
In this debut picture book from Taraji P. Henson, quirky, stylish and a bit off-the-cuff Lil TJ is ready for her first day of school. But when she gets there, TJ finds that everything she does is a little different than everyone else and she’s standing out in all the wrong ways. Once TJ’s classmate Beau notices, he relentlessly teases her. TJ is filled with anxiety and doubt until she recalls some important words of wisdom from her Grandma Patsy. When she looks inside, to her own creativity and personality, she figures out how to help herself make new friends!—and helps someone else too!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Malik Books, Westfield Culver City Mall, Suite 2820
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 6000 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230
Website: https://malikbooks.com/events-1/ola/services/taraji-p-henson-storytime-booksigning
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Poetry Readings: Toti O’Brien & Cindy Rinne at Lamanda Park Branch Library – In-Person Event
Publishing Party for Cause & Effect (Toti O’Brien & Cindy Rinne) + Poets published in Four Feathers Press PARENTS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: PARENTING POETRY
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Lamanda Park Branch Library, Altadena, CA
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 140 S. Altadena Dr., Pasadena CA
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
LA River Arts: Summer Solstice River Session & Reflections Performance with Nancy Lynée Woo– In-Person Event
Explore art, culture, and place along the LA River/Paayme Paxaayt in a series of artist-guided site visits and walks.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Richard Lillard Outdoor Classroom in Studio City
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 4 pm – 8 pm
Address: Richard Lillard Outdoor Classroom Los Angeles, CA 91604
A Reading of The Last Syrian at LibroMobile, Santa Anas – In-Person Event
LibroMobile presents a reading of The Last Syrian, translated by Ghada Mourad.
This book is a rare narrative of gay love in the Arab world that travels into the lives of a group of spirited youth during the Syrian Revolution.
Youssef’s mother has always told him that he is named after the biblical prophet Joseph who had the power of foresight. But when Youssef participated in the first demonstration in Damascus in 2011, he felt that the uprising against the Bashar al-Assad regime after forty years of silence and fear was “a miracle more powerful than that of the prophet.
While Josephine, a charming young Alawite, gathers in her home a group of youth to fight for their visions of a promising future, a forbidden love story unfolds between two men, Youssef and Mohammad. Meanwhile, young Khalid’s love for Josephine is brutally interrupted by the agents of the oppressive regime. Homosexuality clashes with tradition, emancipation with persecution, and feelings with loyalties, leading to an upheaval that sweeps away the destinies of the young as well as that of an entire nation.
Omar Youssef Souleimane’s eloquent novel is not only a narrative of the Syrian Revolution; it is also a story about inter-generational conflicts, rebellion, and liberation. With intense, poetic prose, he brilliantly captures the indomitable yearning for freedom that, despite all obstacles and setbacks, always survives in a hopeful person’s heart until it’s attained.
RSVP
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: LibroMobile
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol, A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/a-reading-of-the-last-syrian-translated-by-ghada-mourad
Zine Party: Chandeliers by Erin K. Drew at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Join us for a reception for Chandeliers Volume 1, the first in a series of new drawing zines by interdisciplinary artist Erin K Drew.
Chandeliers troubles itself with cartoon research and feminist cartography. It admires art history through a glittering, prismatic lens and deploys rambunctious formalism to modulate the built environment.
Special guests Bethy Squires and Tiffany Lin will offer multimedia support. More details TBA.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lwfqlf1u
La Raza Unida: Defend Re/Arte Fundraiser at Re/Arte Centro Literario – In-Person Event
Come support @re.arte.la all the while building the Partido in Boyle Heights/ELA!
Food and refreshments.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Re/Arte Centro Literario
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2123 E. Cesar Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90033
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8LiqFVpNtT/
Mobile Data Mag Open Mic Poetry Series: 2024 Summer Series at The Pop Hop – In-Person Event
Mobile Data Mag’s Open Mic Poetry, 2024 Summer Series, will feature local poets and is hosted by Jesse Tovar.
This event is the 2nd of the Summer Series’ 4 readings offered monthly at The Pop Hop in Highland Park Los Angeles. This month’s features are:
Scotty Noon Creley is a poet and professor. He is for hire as an editor and writer. Forbes, Whittier College, Whittier Scholars. theythembo.
Daniel Jose Ruiz is an educator and writer from Los Angeles. Like most others, he can’t claim LA as his birthplace; he’s a transplant too, but he’s been here for more than half his life, so that should count for something, right? He is a native Texan although he only lived there for a few years, but at least if he ends up back there, he can get those cool Native Texan license plates.
Future events will be offered on July 20 and August 17.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Pop Hop
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 5002 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C7ubDLYS9S7/
Poetry Readings Featuring: Dion O’Reilly, Dorianne Laux & Michelle Bitting at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque presents an evening of powerful poetry with Dorianne Laux, Michelle Bitting, & Dion O’Reilly!
Authors Dion O’Reilly (Sadness of the Apex Predator), Dorianne Laux (Life On Earth), and Michelle Bitting (Dummy Ventriloquist) are celebrating newly published collections and will be reading from their latest books at Beyond Baroque. Enjoy a reception and book signings after the program.
Dorianne Laux’s sixth collection, Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her fifth collection, The Book of Men, was awarded The Paterson Prize. Her fourth book of poems, Facts About the Moon, won The Oregon Book Award and was short-listed for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Laux is also the author of Awake; What We Carry, a finalist for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award; Smoke; as well as a fine small press edition, The Book of Women. She is the co-author of the celebrated text The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. Her latest collection is Life On Earth and will be released in January of 2024.
Dion O’Reilly is the author of three poetry collections: Sadness of the Apex Predator (University of Wisconsin’s Cornerstone Press 2024), Ghost Dogs (Terrapin Books 2020), and Limerence, a finalist for the John Pierce Chapbook Competition, forthcoming from Floating Bridge Press. Her work appears in The Sun, Rattle, Cincinnati Review, The Slowdown, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She is a podcaster at The Hive Poetry Collective, leads poetry workshops, and is a reader for Catamaran Literary Quarterly. She splits her time between a ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains and a residence in Bellingham, Washington.
Michelle Bitting is the author of five poetry collections: Good Friday Kiss, winner of the inaugural C & R Press De Novo First Book Award; Notes to the Beloved; The Couple Who Fell to Earth; Broken Kingdom, winner of the Catamaran Poetry Prize; and Nightmares & Miracles (Two Sylvias Press), winner of the Wilder Prize and recently named one of Kirkus Reviews’ 2022 Best of Indie. Her chapbook Dummy Ventriloquist is forthcoming in 2024 from C & R Press. Recent poetry appears on The Slowdown, The Poetry Society of New York’s Milk Press, and is featured as Poem of the Week in The Missouri Review. Bitting is writing a novel centered around Los Angeles and her great grandmother, stage and screen actor Beryl Mercer, and is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and Literature at Loyola Marymount University.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
Melrose Trading Post Event by Greenway Arts Alliance at Melrose Trading Post at Fairfax H.S. – In-Person Event
Melrose Trading Post is a reading and spoken word event held every Sunday, rain or shine, at Fairfax High School, and tickets are available online as well as at the ticket booth on Sunday at the event.
Check every Sunday for story time and reading events
Where: Melrose Trading Post, Greenway Main Stage at Fairfax HS
Date: Sunday, the 23rd (Every Sunday)
Time: 10 am – 5 pm
Address: 7850 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046
Website: https://melrosetradingpost.org/tickets/
Drop-In Class at Get Lit Office – In-Person Teen Event
Drop In Class is back! This FREE class offers writing, practice, performance training, and confidence building for poets of ALL experience levels.
213.388.8639
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Get Lit
Date: Sunday, the 23rd
Time: 11 am – 1:30 pm
Address: 672 S. Lafayette St., #10, Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.getlit.org/events?loxi_pathname=%2Fmonth%2F2024%2F6
Storytime + Signing: Kim-Hoa Ung & A Gift for Nai Nai at Bel Canto Books – In-Person Event
Kim-Hoa Ung will present and discuss her book, A Gift for Nai Nai.
A debut picture book about a girl who struggles to crochet a lucky hat for her Nai Nai’s birthday and learns that the perfect gift comes from within.
Lyn Lyn’s beloved Nai Nai has a birthday party approaching! All she wants to do is make her a lucky hat, but her crochet skills are not nearly as refined as her Nai Nai’s. Lyn Lyn cleverly ask for Nai Nai’s help, saying the hat is a gift “for a friend.” She wants it to be a surprise, after all.
The book will feature backmatter with a crochet pattern for young enthusiasts as well as an author’s note so that the reader can learn some of the Chinese translations.
Kim-Hoa Ung is a Chinese American author-illustrator and amigurumi artist. She enjoys creating stories that explore family relationships, friendship, empathy, culture and heritage, and immigrant life. She is a lover of all things kawaii and inspirational. When Kim-Hoa is not creating stories, you can find her crocheting pieces for art shows, sending snail mail, and making arts and crafts with her kids. She lives with her family in Southern California. This is her debut picture book.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: Bel Canto Books, Retro Row
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 12 pm
Address: 2106 E 4th St Long Beach, CA 90814
Cellar Door Book Club: The End of Drum Time at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss The End of Drum Time: A Novel by author Hanna Pylväinen.
An epic love story about a young reindeer herder and a minister’s daughter in the nineteenth century Arctic Circle
In 1851, at a remote village in the Scandinavian tundra, a Lutheran minister known as Mad Lasse tries in vain to convert the native Sámi reindeer herders to his faith. But when one of the most respected herders has a dramatic awakening and dedicates his life to the church, his impetuous son, Ivvár, is left to guard their diminishing herd alone. By chance, he meets Mad Lasse’s daughter Willa, and their blossoming infatuation grows into something that ultimately crosses borders—of cultures, of beliefs, and of political divides—as Willa follows the herders on their arduous annual migration north to the sea.
Hanna Pylväinen is the author of the novel We Sinners, which received a Whiting Award and a Balcones Fiction Prize. Her work has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, Chicago Tribune, and the Wall Street Journal; she is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from many institutions. She has taught at the University of Michigan, Princeton University, Virginia Commonwealth University; currently, she is on the faculty at the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. She lives in Philadelphia.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday, the 23rd
Time: 12 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/cellar-door-book-club-end-drum-time
Write Your Way: James Coats Workshop at Garcia Center for the Arts – In-Person Event
Elevate your writing skills and lean how to make an impact and the business of publishing at our upcoming workshop.
NOTE: See site for google form and details.
Where: The Garcia Center for the Arts
Date: Sunday, the 23rd
Time: 12 pm – 4 pm
Address: 536 W. 11th St., San Bernadino, CA 92410
Website: https://www.instagram.com
Liberation Festival: A Memory of Us with Reparations Club X SoCal Grantmakers at Rep Club – Book Stage – In-Person Event
Join us for an afternoon of honoring Black legacies at Rep Club, in collaboration with SoCal Grantmakers! We’ll discuss the importance of archiving Black life with a panel of educators, librarians, archivists, and booksellers.
The day will include:
- A discussion about the importance of archiving Black life and legacies
- Archiving stations to practice archiving via junk journaling, audio recording, community art making and more
- Catered food and refreshments
- A closing celebration with music, connection and community building
THE FULL DETAILED SCHEDULE TO BE ANNOUNCED.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Reparations Club
Date: Sunday, the 23rd
Time: 12 pm – 5 pm
Address: 3054 S. Victoria Ave LA, CA 90016
Website: https://rep.club/products/liberation-festival
4th Annual Queer Writers Festival with L.A. Poet Society at Midnight Hour Records – Book Stage – In-Person Event
Queer Writers Festival is a celebration of Queer Creatives & Resistance!
They are honored to recognize and share the stage with:
Alex Infinity
Angel Miguel Lopez
Luis Cornejo
Guido Mendoza
Missy Fuego
Lili of the Valley
Angelica Sanchez
Sel Borges
Boog J. Ghosst
Popcorn
Sof Forealdoe
Angelina Leanos
Michael Kearns
Sol Qari
Cody Sisco
Phoung Vo
Martín Negrón
Live Theatre: “Let’s Just Be Blunt.”
Fashion Show: Luis Cornejo
Our Queerness & Culture: a dialogue
Queen Popcorn: Drag Poetess
Sof Forealsoe Comedy
Music: Alex Infinity
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: The Midnight Hour
Date: Sunday, the 23rd
Time: 1 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1101 San Fernando Rd., San Fernando, CA 91340
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8MorfsJdBi/
Books & Gardens Book Club: 1st Anniversary Meeting: We Are Bridges at Stoneham Nature Center – In-Person Event
June’s book is We Are Bridges: A Memoir by Cassandra Lane, who is scheduled to appear.
RSVP using the link below:
https://anc.apm.activecommunities.com/losangelescounty
Free to join, but participants must acquire the book on their own (physical book, e-book, or audio book).
The Books & Gardens Book Club is a fun way to build community while discussing interesting books.
Participants receive a 20% discount if they buy their book at Village Well Books & Coffee in Culver City. https://villagewell.com/
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Stoneview Nature Center, Patio
Date: Sunday, the 23rd
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: Kenneth Hahn Park, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events
Roar Shack’s June Show with David Rocklin: Features & Open Mic at Echo Park Time Travel Mart – In-Person Event
Roar Shack returns on Sunday, June 23 at 4 pm with another stellar lit lineup! Join us as we welcome Angela Bullock, Shubha Venugopal, Romaine Washington, Nancy Murphy, and Karla Brundage! Don’t miss it!
Angela Bullock is an actor and writer and the author of Project Girl: a Memoir.
Shubha Venugopal holds a PhD in literature from the University of Michigan and an MFA in creative writing from Bennington College. She is an Associate Professor at the California State University, Northridge.
Romaine Washington is a poet and writer and the editor of These Black Bodies Are… A Blacklandia Anthology, and Cholla Needles 88. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Purgatory Has an Address and Sirens in Her Belly. Washington’s poetry has been nominated for Best of the Net and she is a twice-nominated Pushcart Prizepoet.
Nancy Murphy is a Los Angeles based writer and performer and 2020 winner of the Aurora Poetry contest. Previous publications include Gyroscope Review, SWWIM Every Day, The Baltimore Review, The South Carolina Review, Stoneboat Literary Journal, Sheila-Na-Gig, glassworks, The Ekphrastic Review, Blue Heron Review, Louisville Review and others. She was recently featured in “Poets on Craft” at the online arts magazine Cultural Daily.
A long-time volunteer at WriteGirl, Nancy has mentored teens through writing programs. In 2016, she wrote and performed a solo show in various venues including the Hollywood Fringe Festival where she earned an Encore Award.
Karla Brundage is a poet and writer and the founder of West Oakland to West Africa Poetry Exchange (WO2WA), which has facilitated cross-cultural exchange between Oakland and West African poets.
NOTE: See site for further details and information.
Where: Echo Park Time Travel Mart
Date: Sunday, the 23rd
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 1714 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1382818552389222/
Anthology Book Release Event: Long Beach Spits Fire at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join us at https://www.instagram.com/communitylitla/ for the release of Long Beach Spits Fire anthology.
NOTE: See site for RSVP link, tickets, and details.
Where: Sims Library of Poetry
Date: Sunday, the 23rd
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 2702 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043
Website: https://www.instagram.com/communitylitla/
An Evening of Fiction & Poetry: Katherine Haake, Davis Starkey & Gail Wronsky at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join us for an exciting literary event featuring acclaimed authors Katharine Haake, Gail Wronsky, and David Starkey, who will read from their latest collections.
Katharine Haake will present her new eco-fable, What Happened Was, published by 11:11 Press, which explores a future shaped by climate change with a blend of humor, intimacy, and political context.
Gail Wronsky will share selections from her latest poetry collection, showcasing her distinctive voice and insightful perspectives.
David Starkey will introduce his novel Poor Ghost, a story about a famous rock band and a retired insurance salesman whose lives converge in unexpected ways.
NOTE: See site for RSVP link, tickets, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday, the 23rd
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/39317
June Historical Romance Book Club: The Gentleman’s Book of Vices at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
June’s Historical Romance Book Club is led by orders manager Katie S. and meets on the 4th Sunday of the month.
This month’s discussion will focus on The Gentleman’s Book of Vices: A Gay Victorian Historical Romance by author Jess Everlee.
A scribbled signature on a worn book page sets off an affair as scorching as anything Miles has ever written. But Miles is clinging to a troubled past, while Charlie’s future has spun entirely out of his control.
Please join us. No membership is required.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Los Angeles Literature 