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!
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.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Monday, the 8th
Time: 8 am – 9 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/39993
Baby Time at Santa Monica Main Library, SMPL – In-Person Kids & Family Event
Introduce your child to storytime with interactive books, bounces and more. Free tickets available at 10:15 and 11:15 am. For ages 0-17 months.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Santa Monica Main Library, SMPL
Date: Monday, the 8th
Time: 10:30 am & 11:30 am
Address: 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://smpl.org/ or https://smpl.org/uploadedFiles
Summer Kids Book Clubat Florence Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Calling children in 1st to 4th grades! Join us for a fantastic afternoon of sharing books and fun activities! For children in grades 1 – 4 with parent or caregiver.
Where: Florence Library, LACL
Date: Monday, the 8th
Time: 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 7807 Compton Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90001
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11059487
Zine Club via Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us for Zine Club, where our group members meet in a virtual space to co-work, chat, and share inspiration for whatever projects we’re working on. Zine Club is based on the idea of gathering together to create zines, share zines we like, zines we are working on, music to make zines to, and much more.
Zine content can be personal, political, niche, artistic, or visual—there are no rules! We have zines for all ages by local and international zinesters. You can browse the collection at any of our 8 zine library locations, or search our catalog to place a hold and have your zines delivered to your nearest branch.
RSVP:
Please use this link to join the Zoom meeting.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday, the 8th
Time: 4 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/zine-club-1
Adult Fiction Book Club via Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us on the second Monday of every month for the adult fiction book club. Read the book and join the discussion.
The June selection is The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
In The Midnight Library, Haig’s enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one: following a different career, undoing old breakups, and realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist. She must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.
RSVP:
Please email ebarrera@lapl.org for the monthly Google Meet virtual link.
Where: Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday, the 8th
Time: 4:45 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/sun-valley-branch-book-club-3
One Book. One County Book Club: L. A. Weather via Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us to discuss the One Book, One County selection L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón.
“One Book, One County” is a community reading program bringing together 18 library districts in Los Angeles County. From June 1 – July 27, all participating libraries will be reading and discussing L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón. This community reading program fosters collaboration, education, and conversation across our county and emphasizes the power of connected libraries to create connected communities.
L.A. Weather is available in English in print, eBook, and eAudiobook from LAPL
RSVP:
The book club meets virtually via a Google Meet link. Please email ebarrera@lapl.org for the link.
Where: Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday, the 8th
Time: 4:45 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/one-book-one-county-1
Evening Book Club at Manhattan Beach Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss the One Book, One County selection, L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón. A limited quantity of titles are available for attendees at the library. For adults.
Oscar, the weather-obsessed patriarch of the Alvarado family, desperately wants a little rain. L.A. is parched, dry as a bone, and he’s harboring a costly secret that distracts him from everything else. His wife, Keila, desperate for a life with a little more intimacy and a little less Weather Channel, feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Their three daughters are left questioning everything they know. Each will have to take a critical look at her own relationships and make some tough decisions along the way.
Where: Manhattan Beach Library, LACL
Date: Monday, the 8th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 1320 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10632582
NEW YA for Adults Book Club: The Cruel Prince at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
YA for Adults Book Club participants will discuss The Cruel Prince, by author Holly Black.
The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air #1) is the first book in a stunning new series about a mortal girl who finds herself caught in a web of royal faerie intrigue.
Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever.
And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.
Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.
To win a place at the Court, she must defy him—and face the consequences.
Holly Black is the bestselling author of contemporary fantasy novels for teens and children, including Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale and the #1 New York Times bestselling Spiderwick series. She has been a finalist for the Mythopoeic Award and the Eisner Award, and the recipient of the Andre Norton Award. Holly lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Theo, in a house with a secret library. Her website is http://www.blackholly.com.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday, the 8th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/new-book-club-ya-adults-book-club-cruel-prince
Author Book Talk: Paul Haddad & Inventing Paradise at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Author Paul Haddad, in conversation with Tony Pierce, will discuss his book Inventing Paradise: The Power Brokers Who Created the Dream of Los Angeles, which traces the improbable rise of Los Angeles through the prism of six visionaries who had outsize influence on the city’s growth.
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 details.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Monday, the 8th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Burt Kearns and Dwayne Epstein Present: Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel and Killin’ Generals: The Making of the Dirty Dozen at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Burt Kearns will discuss his book Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel.
Over the last eighty years, Marlon Brando has become such an object of fascination, buried under so many accreted layers of mythos and half-truth, that it is all but impossible to see the man behind the icon. As we approach the centennial of this undisputed American legend, this book is a revelatory biography that tells its story the same way the man himself approached a role: from the inside.
Dwayne Epstein will discuss his book Killin’ Generals: The Making of The Dirty Dozen, the Most Iconic WWII Movie of All Time.
An explosive inside look at The Dirty Dozen, the star-studded war film that broke the rules, shocked the critics, thrilled audiences, and became an all-time classic.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday, the 8th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/burt-kearns-dwayne-epstein
Meditation Monday with Alex Petunia via Los Angeles Poet Society – Online Event
Meditation Monday with Alex Petunia is offered every 2nd Monday of the month via Zoom online.
Each session includes: breathing meditation, journaling time, creative writing prompts, and affirmations creation.
Come relax and write with community.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: L.A. Poet Society
Date: Monday the 8th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event: 840 2975 5764
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8DWCs5yB_C/?img_index=1
R.U.P.O. Open Mic at Back to the Grind in Riverside – In-Person Event
RUPO Open Mic is back every Monday Night at Back to the Grind in Riverside.
Every Monday at a new time: 7pm to 9pm. Sign-ups are at 6:30pm and in person only, $4 cash admission. See you then!
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Back to the Grind, Riverside
Date: Monday the 8th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Website: https://www.facebook.com/backtothegrind
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 8th
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-933552078397
No Pulp Open Mic at Work Evolution Laboratories, Long Beach – In-Person Event
No Pup Open Mic is held every 2nd and 4th every month, for all ages.
8th Floor.
@MALMALMALORY
Where: Work Evolution Laboratories (2 HR. PARKING at Harvey Milk Promenade Park)
Date: Monday the 8th
Time: 8:30 pm – 11 pm (Doors at 7:30 pm)
Address: 235 E Broadway Suite 800, Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://www.instagram.com/nopulp_media/ or https://www.lbpoetry.com/
Author Talk with Kate DiCamillo: Mercy Watson and Tales From Deckawoo Drive at Downey Library, LACL – Online Event
Newbery Medal winning author Kate DiCamillo will be sharing the stories behind the creation of her early chapter book series, the original Mercy Watson, and the follow up series, Tales from Deckawoo Drive. For all ages.
Kate DiCamillo is the award-winning author of over 30 books for children. She served as the 2014-2015 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, appointed by the Library of Congress. Several of her books have been turned into movies, and one was even adapted as an opera. She grew up in Florida and currently lives in Minnesota.
Where: Downey Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday, the 9th
Time: 11 am – 12 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11104230
Virtual Book Club: Mercy Watson and Tales From Deckawoo Drive via La Crescenta Library, LACL – Online Event
The La Crescenta Library Virtual Book Club meets weekly on Tuesdays at 11am on Zoom. Please contact Marta Wiggins at mwiggins@library.lacounty.gov for your Zoom invite to attend the book club. For adults.
In July we will discuss Piglet by Lottie Hazell. For Piglet, getting married is her opportunity to reinvent. And who could blame her, with a childhood nickname like that? Together, Kit and Piglet are the picture of domestic bliss—effortless hosts, a covetable wedding…But if a life looks too good to be true, it probably is.
In July we will discuss the following sections:
July 2—Part 1—98 Days through 13 Days—Pages 3 to 77
July 9—12 Days through 4 Days—Pages 78 to 151
July 16—2 Days through 0 Days—Pages 153 to 215
July 23—Part 2—Pages 217 to 306
July 30—Bonus Week—During this week, we finish any lingering discussion on Piglet and discuss other books we are reading, movies and series we are watching that we might recommend to others.
Where: La Crescenta Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday, the 9th
Time: 11 am – 12 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10782284
Nonfiction Book Club: Demon of Unrest at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – Online Event
Nonfiction Book Club participants will discuss Demon of Unrest by author Erik Larson.
Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday, the 9th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct., Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10919299
Book Club for Adults: Tourist Season at Bell Gardens Library, LACL – Online Event
Adults Book Club participants will discuss Tourist Season by author Brenda Novak.
Copies of this title are available at the Information Desk.
Where: Bell Gardens Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday, the 9th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 7110 Garfield Av., Bell Gardens, CA 90201
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11048795
Silver Lake Book Club: Love Medicine at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for engaging book discussions. Copies are available at the reference desk.
Participants will discuss Love Medicine by author Louise Erdrich.
Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday, the 9th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 2411 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/silver-lake-book-club-6
World Cultures Reading Circle: L.A. Weather at Westchester – Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the World Cultures Reading Circle to discuss the One Book, One County 2024 selection, L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón.
New members welcome.
“One Book, One County” is a community reading program bringing together 18 library districts in Los Angeles County! From June 1-July 27, all participating libraries will be reading and discussing L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón. This community reading program fosters collaboration, education and conversation across our county and emphasizes the power of connected libraries to create connected communities.
Where: Westchester – Loyola Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday, the 9th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 7114 W. Manchester Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-cultures-reading-circle-10
One Book, One County: L.A. Weather at Leland R. Weaver Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for a community reading program of exceptional scope – one book for all of Los Angeles County. This special book club will feature discussion about L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón
The 2024 selection for One Book, One County is L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón. Published in 2022, L.A. Weather is a New York Times bestseller that follows the Mexican-American Alvarado family during a year in Los Angeles “as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.”
María Amparo Escandón is a New York Times best-selling bilingual author (English/Spanish). Her novel, L.A. Weather, is a Reese’s Book Club pick and the winner of the Fiction Award at the International Latino Book Awards, 2022. Her first novel Esperanza’s Box of Saints, (Santitos in Spanish) has been the number one best seller in the Los Angeles Times Best Sellers List, it has 21 foreign editions and is read in over 86 countries. Her second novel is González & Daughter Trucking Co. (Transportes González e Hija, S.A. in Spanish.) María has been an L.A. resident for forty years.
Where: Leland R. Weaver Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday, the 9th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 4035 Tweedy Blvd, South Gate, CA 90280
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/111059609
Open Mic at The Library Coffee House, Long Beach – In-Person Event
This Open Mic is hosted by Chad Brian Poetry.
Sign-ups at 6:45 pm. All ages welcome.
NOTE: See site for guidelines, and details.
Where: The Library Coffee House
Date: Tuesday, the 91h
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3418 E. Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90803
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/
Mystery Book Club: Long Time Gone at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Mystery Book Club participants will discuss the July selection Long Time Gone, by author Charlie Donlea.
When DNA results reveal a disturbing connection to the mysterious disappearance of a famous baby nearly three decades ago, a woman’s search for answers draws her to an ominous small town in Nevada and a dangerous web of corruption, power, and lies in this engrossing, propulsive new novel from the internationally bestselling author of Twenty Years Later.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 9th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com
Author Talk: Elise Bryant, with Tembi Locke, & It’s Elementary at Reparations Club – In-Person Event
Author and YA romance rockstar Elise Bryant, in conversation with bestselling author and actor Tembi Locke, will discuss her book It’s Elementary.
Elise Bryant is the NAACP Image Award-nominated author of Happily Ever Afters, One True Loves, Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling, and It’s Elementary. For many years, Elise had the joy of working as a special education teacher, and now she spends her days reading, writing, and eating dessert. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Long Beach, California.
Tembi Locke is a writer, entrepreneur and thought-leader in creativity and resilience. She is a NY Times best-selling author, actor, screenwriter, and TV producer with a passion for connecting with her audience both on the page and on the screen. In partnership with Hello Sunshine, Tembi served as co-creator and executive producer for the adaptation of her memoir, From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home, for Netflix.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Reparations Club
Date: Tuesday the 9th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3054 S. Victoria Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website: https://rep.club/products/elise-bryant-event
At Skylight: Emma Spector, with Ruth Madievsky, & More, Please at Skylight – In-Person Event
Emma Spector, in conversation with Ruth Madievsky, will present and discuss her book, More, Please.
Join us for an unflinching and deeply reported look at the realities of binge-eating disorder from a rising culture commentator and writer for Vogue.
Melding memoir, reportage, and in-depth interviews with some of the most prominent and knowledgeable commentators currently writing about food, fatness, and disordered eating—Virginia Sole-Smith, Virgie Tovar, Aiyana Ishmael, Leslie Jamison, and others—Emma Specter explores binge-eating disorder as both a personal problem and a societal one. In More, Please, she provides a context, a history, and a language for what it means to always want more than you’ll allow yourself to have.
Emma Specter (she/they) is an author and journalist living in Los Angeles. Emma currently works as the culture writer at Vogue, where she covers film, TV, books, politics, news, and (almost) anything queer; they have previously worked at GARAGE and LAist and have freelanced for outlets including The Hairpin, Bon Appétit, them, Hollywood Reporter, and more. More, Please is her first book.
Ruth Madievsky is the author of the national bestselling novel, All-Night Pharmacy, winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction, as well as a Lambda Literary Award finalist. Her work appears in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, The Cut, and elsewhere. Originally from Moldova, she lives in Los Angeles, where she works as an HIV and primary care clinical pharmacist.
Where: Skylight
Date: Tuesday, the 9th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N, Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-emma-specter-presents-more-please-w-ruth-madievsky
Marjan Kamali & The Lion Women of Tehran at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Marjan Kamali will present and discuss The Lion Women of Tehran.
In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation.
Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.”
But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls’ high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.
Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequence
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday, the 9th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Marjan-Kamali-discusses-The-Lion-Women-of-Tehran
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert & Guest Reader Joaquín Zihuatane – Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with host Rick Lupert presents guest reader Joaquin Zihuatane and an open mic.
Joaquin Zihuatane is a poet, spoken word artist, and award-winning teacher. Born and raised in the barrio of East Dallas, in his work Joaquín strives to capture the duality of the Chicano culture. He is the author of numerous books, including Fight or Flight.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday, the 9th
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.
Guest poet of the month: Jennifer Kelly, author of Coming to Love My Darkest Places.
NOTE: Details at event link. Check to Verify.
Where: Unurban Coffee House
Date: Tuesday, the 9th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 3301 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups
Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic 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 9th
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
Lit Angels Writing Studio Class: Morning Pages 12 Questions with Francesca Lia Block at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Come write for one hour with acclaimed author and writing professor Francesca Lia Block! Prompts from FLB’s “12 Questions Method” will be given! Free!
Get your tickets on EVENTBRITE!
Francesca Lia Block, M.F.A., is the author of more than thirty books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association and from the New York Times Book Review, School Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly.
Her work has been translated into Italian, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Portuguese. Francesca has also published stories, poems, essays and interviews in The Los Angeles Times, The L.A. Review of Books, Spin, Nylon, Black Clock, The Fairy Tale Review and Rattle among others. In addition to writing, Francesca is a beloved and devoted teacher. She was named Writer-in-Residence at Pasadena City College in 2014 and in 2018-19 became a Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Redlands where she was a finalist for Professor of the Year award. Currently she teaches fiction at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, Otis Extension, Pocket MFA, and privately in Los Angeles where she was born and raised. She is co-editor of Lit Angels journal and runs the Lit Angels Writing Studio at Village Well
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 8 am – 9 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/39975
Mystery Book Club: One Shot Harry at West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Participants will meet to discuss the mystery novel One Shot Harry by author Gary Phillips.
RSVP:
Please email wvally@lapl.org with “Mystery Book Club” in the subject line for information on the title to be discussed and the Zoom link.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: West Balley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 10:30 am – 12 pm
Address: 19036 Vanowen St., Reseda, CA 91335
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-43
Book Club: Aunt Dimity and the Summer King at Wilmington Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will meet to discuss the novel Aunt Dimity and the Summer Kingby author Nancy Atherton.
RSVP:
If you need information, please contact: klarson@lapl.org.
Where: Wilmington Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 1300 N. Avalon Blvd., Wilmington, CA 90744
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/wilmington-book-club-10
Wednesday Book Club: The Furrows at Westchester – Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will meet to discuss the novel The Furrows: An Elegy: A Novel by author Namwali Serpell. New members are welcome.
Where: Westchester – Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 1300 N. Avalon Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/wednesday-book-club-5
Artesia Book Club: L.A. Weather at Artesia Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will meet to discuss the novel L.A. Weather by author María Amparo Escandón. For adults.
L.A. Weather is a New York Times bestseller that follows the Mexican American Alvarado family during a year in Los Angeles “as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.”
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Artesia Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: 18801 Elaine Ave., Artesia, CA 90701
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11081772
One Book, One County: L.A. Weather at Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will meet to discuss the novel L.A. Weather by author María Amparo Escandón. New members are welcome.
“One Book, One County” is a community reading program bringing together 18 library districts in Los Angeles County! From June 1 to July 27, all participating libraries will be reading and discussing L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón. This community reading program fosters collaboration, education, and conversation across our county and emphasizes the power of connected libraries to create connected communities.
Where: Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 1:30 pm – 3 pm
Address: 10640 Petit Ave., Granada Hills, CA 91344
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/one-book-one-county-book-discussion-la-weather
Adult Mystery Book Club: Happiness Falls at Sylmar Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will meet to discuss the novel Happiness Falls by author Angie Kim.
You can pick up your copy at the circulation desk or download it on the Libby or Hoopla apps.
Where: Sylmar Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 14562 Polk St., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/adult-mystery-book-club-0
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 10th
Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: On-air Event (live)
Website: https://www.kpfk.org/on-air/poets-cafe/
Pizza Face Pizza Party with Rex Ogle at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Award winning author Rex Ogle will be chatting with graphic novel fans over slices of pizza about all things books, writing, and middle school. Best for ages 8+.
RSVP. Space is limited.
Pizza Face is a funny, feel-good middle-grade graphic memoir about breaking out, battling puberty, and braving complicated friendships.
It’s time to face facts!
On the first day of seventh grade, Rex encounters a bump in the road—a big angry pimple right in the center of his forehead. And this is only the beginning of his problems. What follows is a frustrating battle with stubborn acne, body odor, and other embarrassments of puberty. Still struggling with a home life edging on the poverty line, Rex can’t afford to buy the acne medication or deodorant he needs, and bullies are noticing Rex’s awkward transformation. On top of it all, things have gotten weird with his friends, making Rex feel like he can’t do or say anything right. So far, seventh grade stinks!
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 3:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/pizza-face
Stonewall Honor Book Discussion Series: The Long Run via Robertson Branch Library, LAPL – Online YA Event
Join the Palisades and Robertson Branch Libraries on Zoom for a monthly teen book discussion series as we feature five Stonewall honor books in Young Adult Literature. The first and most enduring award for LGBTQIA+ books, sponsored by the American Library Association’s Rainbow Round Table.
RSVP:
Submit your email address here to receive a Zoom link.
Where: Robertson Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/stonewall-honor-book-discussion-series-long-run-james-acker
2nd & 3rd Grade Book Club: The Area 51 Files at pages a bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Participants will discuss The Area 51 Files by author Julie Buxbaum.
A 2023 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Juvenile Novel!
“Good-natured humor lands alongside imaginatively rendered extraterrestrials (including a living cubist representation), while quick pacing keeps things light. B&W illustrations by Naidu both illuminate and expand upon this tongue-in-cheek mystery adventure.”—Publishers Weekly
Julie Buxbaum is the New York Times bestselling author of the young adult novels Tell Me Three Things, What to Say Next, Hope and Other Punch Lines, and Admission. She also wrote the critically acclaimed The Opposite of Love and After You. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. She frequently has UFOs (Unidentified Food Objects) all over her shirt.
Lavanya Naidu is a children’s book illustrator and animator, born and raised in Kolkata. A graduate of the National Institute of Design, she has worked on numerous children’s books as well as animation projects. She currently lives in Melbourne and recently completed her role as the head of design on the animated kids series The Strange Chores (season 2) at 12field Animation. In her spare time, Lavanya enjoys collecting dinosaur models and befriending dogs.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: {pages} a bookstore
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/2nd-3rd-grade-book-club-6
Malibu Library Book Club: L.A. Weather at Malibu Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will meet to discuss the novel L.A. Weather by author María Amparo Escandón. For adults.
L.A. Weather is a New York Times bestseller that follows the Mexican American Alvarado family during a year in Los Angeles “as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.”
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Malibu Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 23519 West Civic Center Way, Malibu, CA 90265
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11034148
One Book, One County Book Club: L.A. Weather at Sorenson Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will meet to discuss the novel L.A. Weather by author María Amparo Escandón. For adults.
L.A. Weather is a New York Times bestseller that follows the Mexican American Alvarado family during a year in Los Angeles “as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.”
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Sorenson Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6934 Broadway Ave., Whittier, CA 90606
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10919692
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 10th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: On-air Event (live at 101.5 FM)
Website: https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events
Book Club: The Long Run via Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Participants will discuss Lessons in Chemistry by author Bonnie Garmus.
RSVP:
Email pcoima@lapl.org to receive the Zoom link.
Where: Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/pacoima-book-club-2
One Book, One County Book Club: L.A. Weather at Alondra Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will meet to discuss the novel L.A. Weather by author María Amparo Escandón. For adults.
L.A. Weather is a New York Times bestseller that follows the Mexican American Alvarado family during a year in Los Angeles “as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.”
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Alondra Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 11949 Alondra Blvd., Norwalk, CA 90650
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11114747
Cory Richards, with Lauren Taus, The Color of Everything at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Cory Richards, in conversation with Lauren Taus, will discuss his book, The Color of Everything.
In this book, renowned climber and National Geographic photographer Cory Richards shares his incredible adventures—and the early trauma that drove him to seek such heights.
The Color of Everything is a thrilling tale of risk and adventure, written by a man who has done it all: He’s stood at the top of the world, climbed imposing mountain faces alone in the dark, and become the only American to summit an 8,000-meter peak in winter. But it is also the story of a tumultuous life—a stirring, lyrical memoir that captures the profound musings of an unquiet mind grappling with the meaning of success, the cost of fame and addiction, and whether it is possible to outrun your demons. With exquisite prose and disarming candor, accompanied by stunning photos from his career, Richards excavates the roots of his trauma and shares what it took for him to climb out of it.
Cory Richards is an internationally renowned photographer, filmmaker, and author. He is the first and only American to climb one of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks in winter. His documentation of the climb and the aftermath of the experience was made into the award-winning documentary COLD and appeared on the cover of the 125th-anniversary issue of National Geographic. Richards is a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year, Photographer Fellow, and a two-time recipient of an Explorers Grant. He has photographed twelve feature assignments for the magazine. He has an active speaking career, in which he speaks about conservation, mental health, leadership, and vulnerability. The Color of Everything is his first book.
Lauren Tuas is the founder of Inbodied Life, a psychedelic education and training platform that provides evidence-based guidance to practitioners and patients alike. Lauren graduated Summa Cum Laude from Barnard College at Columbia University with a BA in Religious Studies before completing her Masters in Social Work at NYU. Licensed as a clinical therapist in both New York and California, she is also trained by MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies), and The Ketamine Training Center.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, tickets, and details.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., #33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Cory-Richards-July-10-Author-signing
Poetry at DiPiazza’s Pizza, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Featured poets: Sarah Thursday & Ra Avis
Sign-ups at 6 pm.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: DiPiazza’s Pizza
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 5205 Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://www.facebook.com/groups
Chevy Chase Book Club: L.A. Weather at Chevy Chase Library, Glendale – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the One County, One Book selection, L.A. Weather by author María Amparo Escandón.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Chevy Chase Library, Burbank
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 3301 East Chevy Chase Dr., Glendale, CA 91306
Website: https://glendaleca.libnet.info/event/10362043
Richard Gurman & Married…with Children vs. the World at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Richard Gurman will discuss his book Married… With Children, and celebrates the rebellious, satirical vision of the show and the battle to keep it alive that paved the way for the tremendous diversity in family comedy style we see today.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/richard-gurman
Khuê Pham, with Michael Scott Moore, & Brothers and Ghosts at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
pages: a bookstore together with the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles is pleased to present an evening with author Khuê Pham who will be discussing her debut novel Brothers and Ghosts (translated from German) with Michael Scott Moore on Wednesday, July 10th at 7pm. Brothers and Ghosts is the story of a young woman, torn between two cultures, belonging to neither, a family, torn apart by a war they had no choice about.
Ocean Vuong has called Brothers and Ghosts “a groundbreaking work in German literature, Pham’s novel marks a seminal accomplishment that tells the dignified, thorough, and epic story of a Vietnamese family through clear, gem-like sentences and unflinching observations. With Pham’s vision, nothing is left unturned and all things are salvaged and lost at once. A courageous and bold achievement by a bright new voice.”
Khuê Phạm is an award-winning Vietnamese-German journalist and writer. Born in Berlin, she studied in London and worked as a producer for NPR`s Berlin Bureau before becoming an editor at the German weekly “Die ZEIT”. In 2012, she co-wrote a non-fiction book about second generation immigrants in Germany. In 2021, she published her debut novel “Brothers and Ghosts”, which is inspired by her Vietnamese family in Berlin, Saigon and California. Translated into English by Daryl Lindsey and Charles Hawley, it will be published in the US in September. You can read more about Khuê here: https://www.khuepham.de/english or Instagram: @pham_fatal
Michael Scott Moore is a journalist and a novelist and a good friend of pages. This is a free event but we hope you will consider supporting the authors and pages by purchasing a book.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/khue-pham-discussion-michael-scott-moore
RECESS Open Mic is at SIPA HQ, Palms Up Academy – In-Person Event
RECESS Open Mic is at SIPA HQ on Wednesdays.
This dynamic open mic is the most accessible public program in our curriculum and manifests our mission statement in a physical (and digital) space.
Join us at the intersection of Historic Filipinotown & The World: Search to Involve Pilipino Americans.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and details.
Where: SIPA HQ
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 7 pm – 9:30 pm (Doors at 6:30; Open Mic at 8 pm)
Address: 3200 W. Temple St., Ste. 100, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://www.palmsupacademy.com
At Skylight: Sabir Pirzada, with Pornsak Pichetshote, & Dandelion at Skylight – In-Person Event
Sabir Pirzada, in conversation with Pornsak Pichetshote, will present and discuss Dandelion.
When climate change and automation disrupt the lives of millions, a new civilization is formed in the skies–one that threatens the wealthy citizens who’ve been hoarding Earth’s meager resources for themselves.
From Sabir Pirzada, writer of Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel TV series, comes a bold vision of the future!
Sabir Pirzada has written on such shows as Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and Person of Interest. In comics, he has written Cult of Carnage: Misery and Ms. Marvel. His first original graphic novel with Image, Dandelion, will be released in June 2024. Sabir lives in Los Angeles with his wife and child where he works in comics, television, and film.
Pornsak Pichetshote started his career as a Thai American rising star editor at DC’s Vertigo imprint, his books being nominated for dozens of Eisner awards—from the award-winning Daytripper to critical darling Sweet Tooth. He left Vertigo to become an executive in DC Entertainment’s media team, where he started and oversaw DC’s TV department. His critical and commercial horror book INFIDEL marked his first major work as a comics writer. His current work with Image Comics is the Eisner and Harvey-winning The Good Asian, which he’s currently adapting for television with James Wan’s Atomic Monster.
Where: Skylight
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N, Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-sabir-pirzada-presents-dandelion-w-pornsak-pichetshote
Hype Book Club: Funny Story at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
July’s Hype Book Club is led by bookseller Paola, and participants will discuss romance novel Funny Story by author Emily Henry.
Everyone is welcome!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Wednesday the 10th
Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Anansi Virtual Writers Workshop at The World Stage – In-Person Event
The Anansi Writers Workshop was founded in 1990 by Kamau Daáood, Akilah Oliver, Nafis Nabawi and Anthony Lyons. In 1993, Michael Datcher initiated the development of a three-part format for the workshop. Our tradition of a community workshop began in the late 1960s at the Watts Writers’ Workshop, where World Stage co-founder Kamau Daáood started his writing career. For general information and booking, contact V. Kali, the Anansi Writers Workshop Coordinator, at vkaliflowers@gmail.com.
- 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Formal workshop;
- 8:30 pm – 9:00 pm — TBA;
- 9:05 pm – 10:00 pm — Open mic.
Suggested: $5.00 Donation via PayPal: The World Stage Gallery.
NOTE: See site for further details and any change in the schedule. Contact kaliflowers@gmail.com or call (323) 293-2451.
Where: The World Stage
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
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 10th
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-929168587257
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg and Featured Guest Alexandra Umlas at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Nights features Alexandra Umlas.
Alexandra Umlas is a is a Humanities teacher and poet who lives in Huntington Beach, CA. Her full length poetry collection, At the Table of the Unknown, is available through Moon Tide Press.
$4 cover fee, cash only See less
$4 cover fee, cash only
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday, the 10th
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/979828243679919
Book Club for Adults: The Giver of Stars at Lawndale Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will meet to discuss the novel The Giver of Stars by author Jojo Moyes.
The Giver of Stars is a historical fiction novel about the packhorse librarians in Depression era Kentucky.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Lawndale Library, LACL
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 am
Address: 14615 S. Burin Ave., Lawndale, CA 90260
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11113231
One Book, One County: L.A. Weather at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will meet to discuss the novel L.A. Weather by author María Amparo Escandón. For adults.
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct., Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10946388
Mystery Book Club: End of Our Story at Culver City Julian Dixon Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will meet to discuss the novel End of Our Story by author A.J. Finn. For adults.
Summary provided by the publisher:
“I’ll be dead in three months. Come tell my story.” So writes Sebastian Trapp, reclusive mystery novelist, to his longtime correspondent Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction. With mere months to live, Trapp invites Nicky to his spectacular San Francisco mansion to help draft his life story…while living alongside his beautiful second wife, Diana; his wayward nephew, Freddy; and his protective daughter, Madeleine. Soon Nicky finds herself caught in an irresistible case of real-life “detective-fever.”
NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.
Where: Cluver City Julian Dixon Library, LACL
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 4975 Overland Ave., Culver City, CA 90230
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10883206
Your Author Series: Rex Ogle & Free Lunch at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Join us in welcoming award-winning author Rex Ogle as he reads from his book Free Lunch.
Instead of giving him lunch money, Rex’s mom has signed him up for free meals. As a poor kid in a wealthy school district, better-off kids crowd impatiently behind him as he tries to explain to the cashier that he’s on the free meal program. The lunch lady is hard of hearing, so Rex has to shout. Free Lunch is the story of Rex’s efforts to navigate his first semester of sixth grade―who to sit with, not being able to join the football team, Halloween in a handmade costume, classmates and a teacher who take one look at him and decide he’s trouble―all while wearing secondhand clothes and being hungry. Unsparing and realistic, Free Lunch is a story of hardship threaded with hope and moments of grace. Rex’s voice is compelling and authentic, and Free Lunch is a true, timely, and essential work that illuminates the lived experience of poverty in America.
Rex Ogle is an award-winning author and the writer of nearly a hundred children’s books, comics, graphic novels, and memoirs—most notably Free Lunch, which won the ALA/YALSA award for Excellence in Non-Fiction. Born and raised (mostly) in Texas, Rex moved to New York City after college to intern with Marvel Comics before moving over to DC Comics, Scholastic, and Little Brown Young Readers. Now living in Los Angeles, he writes every day when he’s not outdoors hiking with his dog, playing Mario Kart with friends, or thinking up new ideas for books.
Those attending the program will have the opportunity to take home a copy of Free Lunch. Intended for middle readers from sixth to ninth grade.
Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 2411 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-rex-ogle
Local Kid Author: L.J. Randle at Valley Plaza Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Are you curious about what it’s like to create characters, dream up adventures, and bring them to life in your very own book? Meet J.L., the amazing kid author who turned dreams into reality! Join us for an enchanting chat where you can ask all your burning questions about writing, publishing, and sparking your imagination!
Where: Valley Plaza Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 12311 Vanowen St., North Hollywood, CA 91605
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/kid-author-jl-randle
Not So Secret Society Book Club: The Buried and the Bound at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss The Buried and the Bound (The Buried and the Bound Trilogy #1) by author Rochelle Hassan.
This story is a contemporary fantasy YA debut from Rochelle Hassan about monsters, magic, and wicked fae, perfect for fans of The Darkest Part of the Forest and The Hazel Wood.
Leo Merritt is no stranger to magical catastrophes. On his sixteenth birthday, a dormant curse kicked in and ripped away all his memories of his true love. A miserable year has passed since then. He’s road-tripped up and down the East Coast looking for a way to get his memories back and hit one dead end after another. He doesn’t even know his true love’s name, but he feels the absence in his life, and it’s haunting.
Desperate for answers, he makes a pact with Aziza: he’ll provide much-needed backup on her nightly patrols, and in exchange, she’ll help him break the curse.
Rochelle Hassan grew up reading about dragons, quests, and unlikely heroes; now she writes about them, too. She is the author of the middle grade novel The Prince of Nowhere and young adult fantasy novel, The Buried and the Bound. She lives in New York.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/not-so-secret-society-buried-and-bound
Koreatown Book Club: L.A. Weather at Pio Pico – Koreatown Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Participants are joining others in the One Book, One County reading of L.A. Weather, by author María Amparo Escandón. The first 5 attendees will receive a free copy of the book! Light refreshments will be served.
Where: Pio Pico – Koreatown Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 694 S, Oxford Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90005
Website: https://lapl.org/wAvets-on/events/one-book-one-county-koreatown-book-club
Mystery Book Club at Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us on Zoom the second Thursday of each month for a thoughtful discussion of our latest selection. Copies available at the front desk. For Zoom link and more information please email venice@lapl.org.
Where: Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club
Open Mic Night at Anaheim Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for Open Mic Night, open to performers and spectators of all ages. Poets, singers, songwriters, storytellers, writers and listeners are welcome! Includes a featured reading by Michelle Gonzalez. Call 714-765-1880 at least 72 hours in advance if ADA accommodations required.
Performer sign-ups begin at 4:45 p.m.
Where: Anaheim Central Library, Central Multipurpose Room
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 500 W Broadway, Anaheim, CA 92805
Website: https://anaheim.net/Calendar.aspx?EID=36988&month=7&year=2024&day=11&calType=0
Brentwood Writers Workshop at Donald 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 do 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: Donald Bruce Kauffman – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 5:30 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/brentwood-writing-group
Diverse Romance Book Club: Before I Let Go at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Before I Let Go by author Kennedy Ryan.
It couldn’t save their marriage.
Yasmen wasn’t prepared for how her life fell apart, but she’s finally starting to find joy again. She and Josiah have found a new rhythm, co-parenting their two kids and running a thriving business together. Yet like magnets, they’re always drawn back to each other, and now they’re beginning to wonder if they’re truly ready to let go of everything they once had.
Soon, one stolen kiss leads to another…and then more. It’s hot. It’s illicit. It’s all good—until old wounds reopen. Is it too late for them to find forever? Or could they even be better, the second time around?
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/diverse-romance-book-club-i-let-go
Thrival Open Mic at Hot Java, Long Beach – In-Person Event
All arts community open mics & community plugs. All ages. More info on Instagram @thrivalopenmic
Open to all ages. Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Hot Java
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2101 E, Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90803
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/
Carol Mitchell & What Start a Bad Mornin’ at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Carol Mitchell will discuss her novel What Start a Bad Mornin’.
Using three interwoven narratives spanning the United States, Trinidad, and Jamaica, Carol Mitchell’s debut gives voice to an immigrant woman forced to confront her repressed memories of violent trauma. Only then can she discover what she is capable of when it comes to self-preservation and the protection of her family.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/carol-mitchell
At Skylight: Olivia Gatwood & Whoever You Are, Honey at Skylight – In-Person Event
Olivia Gatwood will present and discuss her debut novel, Whoever You Are, Honey.
Join us or this darkly brilliant debut novel explores how women shape themselves beneath the gaze of love, friendship, and the algorithm—by a thrilling feminist voice for the age of AI.
On the Santa Cruz, California, waterfront, every house is a flawless glass monolith. Except for one. In a dilapidated bungalow, Mitty and her elderly roommate, Bethel, are the oddball pair who represent the last vestiges of a free-spirited town taken over by the tech elite. But their lives are about to be forever changed when a new couple, Sebastian and Lena, move in next door.
Olivia Gatwood is the author of two poetry collections, New American Best Friend and Life of the Party, and the co-writer of the film The Governesses and Adele’s music video for “I Drink Wine.” She has received international recognition for her poetry, writing workshops, and work as a Title IX Compliant educator in sexual assault prevention and recovery. Her performances have been featured on HBO, MTV, VH1, the BBC, and more. Her poems have appeared in The Poetry Foundation, Lambda Literary, and The Missouri Review. Originally from Albuquerque, she lives in Los Angeles.
Where: Skylight
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N, Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-olivia-gatwood-presents-whoever-you-are-honey
Joseph Kanon & Shanghai at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Joseph Kanon will present and discuss his book Shanghai.
After the violence of Kristallnacht (1938), European Jews, now desperate to emigrate, found the consular doors of the world closed to them. Only one port required no entry visa: Shanghai, a self-governing Western trading enclave in what was technically Chinese territory, a political anomaly that became an escape hatch—if you were lucky enough to afford a ticket on one of the great Lloyd liners sailing to the East and safety.
Daniel Lohr was one of the lucky ones—lucky enough to have escaped the Gestapo when his colleagues in the resistance were caught, lucky to have an uncle waiting in Shanghai, lucky to find a casual shipboard flirtation turn unexpectedly passionate. But even lucky refugees have to confront the reality of Shanghai. With all their assets, and passports confiscated by the Nazis, they arrive penniless and stateless in a tumultuous, nearly lawless city notorious for vice.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Joseph-Kanon-discusses-Shanghai
Asian Poets & Writers in Solidarity with Gaza at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online YouTube Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque hosts a fundraiser by Poets & writers for refugees from Gaza and medical aid for Palestinians.
This event requires a ticket purchase of $20. All proceeds of this event will be donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians and a GoFundMe for a mother and her family as they seek shelter and try to evacuate Gaza to survive. Donations to more families can be made through Operation Olive Branch, a Grassroots movement collective to support & amplify aid requests of Palestinian families.
Co-Organized by Teresa Mei Chuc and Carolyn Huynh, the evening will include local organizations and vendors tabling with a variety of resources on the ongoing conflict in Palestine. The program in The Wanda Coleman Theater will feature Asian American authors coming together in support of Palestinian liberation.
Featured artists include:
Jessica Abughattas was the Poet Laureate of Altadena, California and editor of Altadena Poetry Review from 2020-2022. She has taught poetry workshops for Kundiman, Sevilla Writers House, and Northeastern University’s Writing Center. Her short poetry film “Dinner Party” premiered at Mizna Twin Cities Film Festival in 2021, was a finalist for Palette Poetry’s Brush and Lyre Prize, and appeared at RAWI Fest. She’s writing a second poetry collection in LA.
Muriel Leung is the author of the forthcoming novel-in-stories How to Fall in Love in a Time of Unnamable Disaster (W.W. Norton & Company) and several collections that include Imagine Us, The Swarm (Nightboat Books), Bone Confetti (Noemi Press), and Images Seen to Images Felt (Antenna) in collaboration with artist Kristine Thompson.
Ghada Mourad teaches French and Francophone studies and Arabic literature in translation at University of California, Irvine and California State University, Fullerton. She translates from Arabic and French. Her translations have appeared in various US literary journals and magazines, including Asymptote, Two Lines, The Common, Pen English and Denver Quarterly.
Neela Bannerjee is NPR’s Chief Climate Editor. She manages NPR’s Climate Desk, which includes editors and reporters around the country. The Climate Desk focuses on making complex science accessible to audiences, spotlighting barriers to addressing climate change, explaining climate solutions and revealing how climate change disproportionately affects marginalized people.
Lan Duong came with her family from Viet Nam to the U.S. in 1975, when she was a three-year old child. She was raised in San Jose and wrote poetry to make meaning from her heritage. She is a researcher and is now working on a memoir. She lives with her partner Viet Thanh Nguyen and two children.
F. Douglas Brown is a Black and Filipino poet and the author of ICON (Writ Large Press, 2018) and Zero to Three. He has been an educator for over 25 years.
Do Nguyen Mai is a Vietnamese American poet and activist from Santa Clarita, California. They attended College of the Canyons from where they received their associate degrees in history and the liberal arts and science and authored Battlefield Blooming and Ghosts Still Walking.
Arianne Alizio is a filmmaker and poet devoted to storytelling as placemaking as healing practice. They make dreams tangible by way of narrative-weaving and abundance-mapping, often in the realms of cinema, design, writing, divination, and collective liberation.
Traci Kato-Kiriyama is a multi-disciplinary artist, writer/author, actor, arts educator & community organizer. Traci is the author of Navigating With(out) Instruments, and writes about her forebearers’ life experiences with racism in early 20th century America and her own fighting of cancer, dislocation and marginalization, and fighting against grief and loss toward resistance.
More TBA.
Ticket purchase will be required at the door, or guests may provide proof of donation to Medical Aid for Palestinians, a direct GoFundMe, or any organization committed to providing humanitarian aid to Palestinian families seeking asylum or those affected by wars in the Middle East.
If you don’t have the means to donate but would like to attend the event, please send us an email to info@beyondbaroque.org.
NOTE: See site for further details, $20 donation, and tickets.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Thursday, the 11th
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Spectacular Storytime: Definitely NOT Cursed Storytime with Megan Woodward 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.
Today, author Megan Woodward will read from her interactive story This Book Is Definitely Not Cursed.
For ages 4+
Open to all ages. Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday, the 12th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event or https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/definitely-not-cursed
Book Club: Trust at Claremont Helen Renwick Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join our monthly book club for an engaging discussion of our latest selection, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Trust by Hernan Diaz.
For adults.
Where: Claremont Helen Renwick Library, LACL
Date: Friday, the 12th
Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 am
Address: 208 N Harvard Ave N, Claremont, CA 91711
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11048978
Current Events Nonfiction Book Club: All the Beauty in the World at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us on the second Friday of every month for the current events nonfiction book club.
Participants will discuss All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley.
RSVP:
Please email studio@lapl.org for participation details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday, the 12th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/current-events-nonfiction-book-club-1
Your Author Series: Rex Ogle & Free Lunch at Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids & MG Event
Join us in welcoming award-winning author Rex Ogle as he reads from his book Free Lunch.
Instead of giving him lunch money, Rex’s mom has signed him up for free meals. As a poor kid in a wealthy school district, better-off kids crowd impatiently behind him as he tries to explain to the cashier that he’s on the free meal program. The lunch lady is hard of hearing, so Rex has to shout. Free Lunch is the story of Rex’s efforts to navigate his first semester of sixth grade―who to sit with, not being able to join the football team, Halloween in a handmade costume, classmates, and a teacher who take one look at him and decide he’s trouble―all while wearing secondhand clothes and being hungry. Unsparing and realistic, Free Lunch is a story of hardship threaded with hope and moments of grace. Rex’s voice is compelling and authentic, and Free Lunch is a true, timely, and essential work that illuminates the lived experience of poverty in America.
Rex Ogle is an award-winning author and the writer of nearly a hundred children’s books, comics, graphic novels, and memoirs—most notably Free Lunch, which won the ALA/YALSA award for Excellence in Non-Fiction. Born and raised (mostly) in Texas, Rex moved to New York City after college to intern with Marvel Comics before moving over to DC Comics, Scholastic, and Little Brown Young Readers. Now living in Los Angeles, he writes every day when he’s not outdoors hiking with his dog, playing Mario Kart with friends, or thinking up new ideas for books.
Those attending the program will have the opportunity to take home a copy of Free Lunch. Intended for middle readers from sixth to ninth grade.
Where: Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday, the 12th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 1874 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-author-series-rex-ogle-0
Anime and Manga Club at El Monte Library, LACL – In-Person Teen Event
Otakus unite! Join us as we stream and discuss popular anime and manga. For Teens, ages 13 – 17.
Where: El Monte Library, LACL
Date: Friday, the 12th
Time: 4 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 3224 Tyler Ave, El Monte, CA 91731
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10240732
Thrival Open Mic at Confidential Coffee, Long Beach – In-Person Event
All arts community open mics & community plugs. All ages. More info on Instagram @thrivalopenmic
Open to all ages. Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Confidential Coffee
Date: Friday, the 12th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 137 W 6th St., Long Beach 90802
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/
Mateo Askaripour, with Christina Hammonds Reed, & This Great Hemisphere at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Mateo Askaripour, in conversation with Christina Hammonds Reed will discuss his novel This Great Hemisphere.
With the captivating worldbuilding of N. K. Jemisin’s novels and blazing defiance of Naomi Alderman’s work, This Great Hemisphere is a novel that brilliantly illustrates the degree to which reality can be shaped by non-truths and vicious manipulations, while shining a light on our ability to surprise ourselves when we stop giving in to the narratives that others have written for us.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday, the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/mateo-askaripour-christina-hammonds-reed
The Prose Bowl: a Night of Spoken Word with Get Lit and LAist at The Crawford, Pasadena – In-Person Teen Event
It’s a celebration of L.A. poetry at LAist with Get Lit – Words Ignite! Get Lit youth poets, standout local artists, and a renowned featured poet will get together for a night of spoken word performance hosted by Get Lit’s Mason Granger (he/him). Come early to enjoy sips, a DJ set, and tons of cool people to connect with in the name of poetry. Drinks and music start at 6 p.m. and the show kicks off at 7 p.m.
Featured poets are the West Hollywood Slam Team.
GET LIT YOUTH POETS
Auris Barrios
Ariana Lee
Samantha Rios
Brianna Macklin
Ashley Tahay
This program may contain some mature language or themes.
ABOUT WEST HOLLYWOOD SLAM TEAM
West Hollywood Slam Team is West Hollywood’s (Los Angeles) first official poetry slam team! They are a group of gender, sexually, and racially diverse poets, making their mark in the slam world. They competed and won the 2024 Chillist Slam Competition and recently competed in Portland, Oregon at The Big Foot Poetry Regional Slam.
The West Hollywood Slam Team is composed of:
Brian Sonia-Wallace: Recent Poet Laureate of West Hollywood and published author @rentpoet on Instagram
Nate Lovell: Winning slam coach and competitor @thenatelovell on Instagram
Missy Fuego: Published author, and multi-title-holding slam champion @missyfuego on Instagram
Tee: LA Poetry Brothel resident, and member of Pride Poets @allfearsaside on Instagram
Pastiche Queen: Multiple-Title Holding Slam Champion, Award-Winning Playwright, Trans Representative of Hollywood Fringe Equity & Access Committee. Instagram: @PasticheQueen
Mason Granger is the Deputy Director at Get Lit. Originally from Philadelphia by way of Willingboro, NJ, Mason is a poet with 19+ years of professional experience on stage & in classrooms across 49 states and six countries as part of the performance poetry trio, The Mayhem Poets. In 2014, he created SlamFind, a digital platform to connect fans of poetry videos with the poets & live poetry venues where these videos are born. Connecting the poetry community to itself and the rest of the world continues to be the foundation of his work to this day.
Between 2016-2018, Mason was the official videographer for Poetry Slam Inc., producing several iconic poetry videos that continue to garner millions of views across multiple platforms. In the spirit of his mission of always keeping the ‘live’ in ‘live poetry’, he also hosted the weekly PoetNY open mic at Bowery Poetry Club in NYC from 2017-2019 while also serving as Executive Director of Bowery Arts & Science through 2019.
Now as a Los Angeles resident in his fourth year with Get Lit, Mason continues to pursue creative projects while helping to shape the future of spoken word poetry education in the state of California and beyond.
Where: The Crawford
Date: Friday, the 12th
Time: 7 pm – 8:15 pm
Address: 474 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena, CA
Website: https://laist.com/events/the-prose-bowl-a-night-of-spoken-word-with-get-lit-jul-2024
Joseph Kanon & Toward Eternity at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Anton Hur will present and discuss his novel Toward Eternity.
In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer. The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells which not only cure those afflicted but leaves them virtually immortal.
Literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning Beloved, in honor of his husband. When Yonghun—himself a recipient of nanotherapy—mysteriously vanishes into thin air and then just as suddenly reappears, the event raises disturbing questions. What happened to Yonghun, and though he’s returned, is he really himself anymore?
Exploring the nature of intelligence and the unexpected consequences of progress, the meaning of personhood and life, and what we really have to fear from technology and the future, Toward Eternity is a thought-provoking novel that challenges the notion of what makes us human—and how love survives even the end of that humanity.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday, the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Anton-Hur-discusses-Toward-Eternity
OC Book Fair Event at Old Town Tustin – In-Person Event
Come explore a world of independent booksellers, publishers and bookish vendors. Featuring author talks & book signings, activities for kids of all ages, panel discussions and literary workshops. Browse through booths featuring different genres in literature, find unique gifts for your bookworm bestie and treat yourself to something wonderful while supporting local, independently owned businesses!
Join us on El Camino Real between Main Street and Second Street.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: El Camino Real, between Main Street & Second Street
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 10 am – 7 pm
Address: Old Town Tustin, CA
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/were-oc-book-fair or https://www.theocbookfair.org/
One Book, One County: L.A. Weather at Hacienda Heights Library, LACL – In-Person Kids Event
Join our monthly book club for an engaging discussion of our latest selection, L.A. Weather by Maria Amparo Escandon. For adults.
New members are always welcome. Copies of the Book Club books will be available for pick-up at the Ask Us Desk one month prior to the book club meeting date.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Hacienda Heights Library, LACL
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 10:30 am
Address: 16010 La Monde St., Hacienda Heights, CA 91745
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11019139
Book Club: The Ministry for the Future at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss The Ministry for the Future by author Kim Stanley Robinson.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 11 am
Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-3
Poetry Workshop at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join this inclusive, in-person poetry workshop where poets of all levels can come together, share their work, and foster a vibrant poetry community. Participants are invited to bring a poem, no longer than one page, to read and receive valuable feedback from fellow poets. Engage in thoughtful discussions and provide your own insights on the work of others. Whether you’re a seasoned poet or just starting out, this workshop offers a supportive environment to refine your craft, connect with like-minded individuals, and celebrate the power of words.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Literature & Fiction Study Rooms
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-1
One Book, One County: L.A. Weather at Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for our One Book, One County discussion of L.A. Weather, by author María Amparo Escandón.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 2920 Overland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/one-book-one-county-4
Adult Book Club: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry at Littlerock Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join our monthly adult book club for an engaging discussion of our latest selection, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. For adults.
The book follows A. J. Fikry, whose life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history, and now his prized possession, a rare collection of Poe poems, has been stolen.
If you would like to participate, please visit Littlerock Library to pick up a copy or use Libby for a digital version.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Littlerock Library, LACL
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 35119 80th St. E, Littlerock, CA 93543
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10883303
Special Storytime: Megan Woodward & This Book Is Definitely Not Cursed at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Megan Woodward will present and discuss her children’s book, This Book Is Definitely Not Cursed.
If this book were cursed, then you would probably become cursed if you read it. You’d start to experience strange symptoms, like the wiggles, the giggles, trouble licking your elbow, and all your food tasting like cabbage. And then you would need to take silly steps to break the curse, like reading a goofy poem or smelling someone’s feet.
Luckily for you, there’s no need to worry because this book is definitely not cursed! So read away without fear.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/Megan-Woodward-presenting-This-Book-is-Definitely-Not-Cursed
One Book, One County: L.A. Weather at Charter Oak Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join our discussion of our latest selection, L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón. For adults.
This novel that follows the Mexican American Alvarado family during a year in Los Angeles “as they wrestle with impending evacuations, secrets, deception, and betrayal, and their toughest decision yet: whether to stick together or burn it all down.”
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Charter Oak Library, LACL
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Address: 20540 E. Arrow Hwy., Covina, CA 91724
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/11178304
The Poets of the Los Angeles Public Library Workshop Reading at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Please join us for a public reading of new poetry from the poets of the Los Angeles Public Library poetry workshop and featured guests, including poet Tom Laichas.
Tom Laichas’s poetry collections include Three Hundred Streets of Venice California (FutureCycle Press, 2023), Sixty-Three Photographs from the End of a War (3.1 Press, 2021), and Empire of Eden (The High Window Press, 2019).
He earned a Ph.D. in History from UCLA for work on the origins of California state fiscal oversight, and has served as Senior Editor at the journal World History Connected, published through George Mason University for an audience of world history teachers instructors at the high school and college levels.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Meeting Room A
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 12 pm – 1:30 pm
Address :630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poets-los-angeles-public-library-workshop-reading
Youth Poetry Workshop at Pomona Public Library – In-Person Event
Please join us for a Youth Poetry workshop led by Matt Sedillo, Literacy Director of the Mexican Cultural Institute of Los Angeles and Caesar K. Avelar, Pomona Poet Laureate.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Pomona Public Library
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Address :625 S. Garvey Ave., Pomona, CA 9i766
Website: https://www.pomonaca.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/3745/222
Graphic Novel Party with Rex Ogel & Max Brailler at Children’s Book World – In-Person MG Event
Please join award winning authors & friends, Rex Ogle and Max Brallier, for a fun-filled talk about writing stories & creating books that kids love!
Celebrating the launch of Rex Ogle’s newest graphic novel, Pizza Face: A Graphic Novel, the sequel to his popular, Four Eyes.
Rex Ogle is the author of Free Lunch, recipient of the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. His original graphic novel series, Four Eyes, is based on the highs and lows of his middle-school years growing up in Texas. Under the pen name Rey Terciero, he authored Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy as well as Swan Lake: Quest for the Kingdoms. Before becoming a full-time writer, Rex worked as an editor in New York for many years and championed a number of licensed titles, including the New York Times bestsellers Star Wars: Jedi Academy, Secret Hero Society: Study Hall of Justice, and Neil Patrick Harris’s The Magic Misfits. Rex now writes full time from his home in California. When he’s not busy writing, Rex can be found hiking with his dog, playing Mario Kart with his friends, or reading a new favorite book. Learn more about Rex at rexogle.com.
Max Brallier is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. His books and series include The Last Kids on Earth, Eerie Elementary, Mister Shivers, Galactic Hot Dogs, and Can YOU Survive the Zombie Apocalypse? He is a writer and producer for Netflix’s Emmy-award-winning adaptation of The Last Kids on Earth. Visit him at MaxBrallier.com.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Children’s Book World
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 12:30 pm – 2 pm
Address: 10580 1/2 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064
SoCal Manga Book Club at Little Tokyo Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Please join our book club dedicated to uniting manga and anime enthusiasts. Each month, we cover a different series and focus on the first volume. Come by and suggest your favorite series that rarely gets discussed.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Little Tokyo Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: 203 S. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/socal-manga-book-club
L.A. Book Launch: Patricia Olson, with Gedda Ives and Christine Candland, & Reflections at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online YouTube Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque hosts an afternoon reading with Patricia Olsson, reading with Gedda Ives and Christine Candland, to present her debut poetry collection Reflections.
Enjoy a reception with light refreshments before and after the readings.
Patricia Olson was born in Brooklyn, New York. Reflections is her first full-length collection.
Gedda Ilves has been a beacon at Beyond Baroque for some years. Born in Harbin, China, Gedda grew up in Harbin and Shanghai, emigrating in 1949 and eventually arriving in Los Angeles by way of South Africa and Brazil.
Her 5th book of poetry, As Butterly to a River, was published in 2019 by Conflux Press. At over 250 pages, this wonderful collection includes not only new poems, but also selections from her previous books; work spanning the last 15 years. Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, and the recognition Gedda has garnered includes the Editor’s Choice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Poetry from poetry.com and the International Library of Poetry, runner up for the Paris Book Festival Award, finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award, and awards from The London, Paris and Los Angeles Book Festivals Gedda’s first four books of poems are catalogued in the Los Angeles Central Library.
Christine Candland’s two poetry collections are entitled Paris Spoken Here and When Snow Walks In. Her two novels are entitled Pleiades Rising and Topaz Woman. She received awards in the National Best Books, Creative Arts Council, National Indie Excellence, London and Paris Book Festival competitions and was a Finalist in the Eric Hoffer. Several of her poems have been featured in the California Quarterly and Altadena Review. She has read her work at the Mar Vista, Whittier and Kaufman Brentwood Libraries and participated in a writer’s panel at Emeritus College. She grew up in Maryland and holds a BA degree in psychology from Adams State College and graduate degrees from University of New Mexico and Southwestern University.
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm (Doors at 1:30 pm)
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Book Release Party: Joan Renner & Of Monsters and Movie Stars at Little Tokyo Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Please join us for refreshments, gangsters, glamour, and cake as we celebrate the release of Of Mobsters and Movie Stars: The Bloody “Golden Age” of Hollywood (WildBlue Press). Author Joan Renner will be on hand to sign books and dish the dirt about Los Angeles true crime in the 1920s/1930s. Books will be available for purchase while supplies last, so stop by this open-house style event and have some retro fun.
About the book: In this gripping historical account, expert crime historian Joan Renner explores the shadowy world of fame and crime during Hollywood’s most glamorous era. As Los Angeles transformed into the epicenter of film, it also became a haven for notorious criminals and mobsters, weaving a complex tapestry of allure and danger that is sure to intrigue.
Renner brings to life stories that are more thrilling than fiction, including harrowing LAPD showdowns, dark dealings behind the studio gates, and tragic fates of luminaries whose off-screen lives were as dramatic as their on-screen personas. She delves into infamous episodes, such as the shocking case of Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, accused of “accidentally” crushing to death a young actress beneath his enormous weight as he raped her, and other lesser-known, but equally hair-raising stories of actors brought down by scandal and corruption.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Meeting Room B
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 2 pm – 5 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mobsters-and-movie-stars-book-release-party
Everything Book Club: Four Lost Cities at Lancaster Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join our discussion of our latest selection, Four Lost Cities by Annalee Newitz. For adults.
In the Everything Book Club we read a variety of genres; we wish to expand our horizons and try to include many perspectives.
Four Lost Cities is a journey through urban life from the Neolithic to the present. Journalist Annalee Newitz travels to archaeological sites in Turkey, Italy, Cambodia, and here in the United States, presenting cutting-edge research about our past that may inform what will happen to the cities of today.
Attendance is limited, and advance registration is required. Please register every individual in your party, including kids. This will be used to save your spots in the program. We cannot guarantee availability for any unregistered attendees.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Lancaster Library, LACL
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address: 601 W Lancaster Blvd, Lancaster, CA 93534
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/10915729
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Poetry Critique Workshop – Online Zoom Event
Poetry Critique Writing Workshop will be led by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (See site)
Website: http://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Book Tour Event: Award-Winning Author Saúl Hernández at LibroMobile, Santa Ana – In-Person Event
Join us to hear award-winning author Saúl Hernández present his poetry book, How to Kill a Goat and Other Monsters.
This event is moderated by Gustavo Hernandez 2024-2026 O.C. Poet Laureate.
Come and join us for this live event from 3-5pm PST on Saturday, July 13th at the Bristol Food Court, just a few doors away from LibroMobile Bookstore.
RSVP
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: LibroMobile at Bristol Food Court
Date: Saturday, the 6th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol St., A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/book-tour-event-by-the-award-winning-author-saul-hernandez
BookEvent: Isabella Santana & Abuela Lore at East Los Angeles Museum of Art – In-Person Event
Join us for a Poetry Reading followed by a reception with light refreshments to meet the artist.
Isabella Santana will present and celebrate her book, Abuela Lore.
Isabella Santana is a poet from Los Angeles, California. She’s proud of her Ecuadorian and Guatemalan heritage and is part of the new generation of Latine authors. Urban Word recognized her as a Los Angeles Youth Poet Ambassador for 2022 and 2023, and she has performed her poetry for organizations like Univision.
NOTE: See site for details. FREE.
Where: ESMoA
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 3:30 pm – 5 pm
Address: 14929 Hawthorne Blvd., Lawndale, CA 90260
Website: https://www.instagram.com/esmoaorg/p/C89-jFBpOOF/ or https://esmoa.org/event/abuela-lore-with-isabella-santana/
Speech Bubble Book Club: It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Join us for another meeting of Speech Bubble, our comics and graphic novel book club, hosted by Jordan Navarro! This month we’ll be discussing It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thoroughgood.
Members receive 20% off book club selections!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-ly3m3t9x
Contact Tracing: A Literary Reading and Book Release at NoHo First UMC Courtyard – In-Person Event
Join us for “Contact Tracing: Art, Community, and Collective Healing.” All in the community are invited to join us for stories and poetry.
Lisa Cheby presents her new chapbook Contact Tracing, with guest readers.
Immerse yourself in the world of storytelling as talented authors share their work in person. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with fellow book lovers and support the literary community. See you there!
Featuring:
Deziree Zamorano is the author of the literary novel, The Amado Women, and her latest novel, Dispossessed, will be released September 10th.
Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilara writes to the desert landscape of her childhood and the urban chaos of adulthood. Her recent YA novel, Breaking Pattern, is available from Inlandia Press.
Lauren Eggert-Crowe is the author of four poetry chapbooks, including Bitches of the Drought. Her essays and reviews have been widely published.
Kat Kambes writes poetry, plays, and fiction. The Shadows of Things is a collection of short stories that she’s working on. It’s those things behind the obvious, the shadowy things, she wants to look at.
Bonnie Kaplan is a poet and writer, and long-time teacher of adults in reentry. Her chapbook, Where I Live Now, was selected by Smith College and Nine Syllables Press as a semi-finalist 2023.
Rachael Warecki’s novel-in-progress, The Split Decision, was a finalist in the 2019 CRAFT First Chapters Contest. Her short work has received the Tiferet Prize, semifinalist honors in the American Short(er) Fiction Contest and the Boulevard Creative Nonfiction Contest, and a Best of the Net nomination, and has appeared or is forthcoming in publications including The Masters Review, Hypertext, Midwestern Gothic, Tahoma Literary Review, and elsewhere.
Lisa Eve Cheby is the author of Contact Tracing and Buffy a-Averts a Mid-Life Apocalypse.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: NoHo First UMC, Courtyard
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 4832 Tujunga Ave., North Hollywood, CA 91601
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/contact-tracing-a-literary-reading-book-release-tickets-934676631967?aff=ebdsoporgprofile or https://nohoartsdistrict.com/events/contact-tracing-a-literay-reading-chapbook-release/
Weaving a World: Arabic Poetry in Translation at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online YouTube Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque and The Markaz Review is proud to present Weaving a World: Arabic Poetry in Translation. Titled after the Sudanese poet Al-Saddiq Al-Raddi’s poem, “Weaving a World,” the evening of readings in The Wanda Coleman features authors Zeina Hashem Beck, Zêdan Xelef, and Maya Salameh. This event is part of the Poetry Coalition’s slate of programs in the spring and summer that reflect the transformative impact poetry has on individual readers and communities across the nation and is made possible (in part) by the Academy of American Poets with support from the Mellon Foundation.
Zeina Hashem Beck is a Lebanese poet. Her third poetry collection, titled O, was published by Penguin Books in July 2022. It won the 2023 Arab American Book Award for poetry and was named a Best Book 2022 by Lit Hub and The New York Public Library. Her second full-length collection, Louder than Hearts (Bauhan Publishing 2017), won the 2016 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize. Poet Naomi Shihab Nye wrote about this book, “Everything Arabic we treasure comes alive in these poems. Readers will feel restored to so many homes, revived, amazed. Zeina Hashem Beck writes with a brilliant, absolutely essential voice.” Zeina is also the author of two chapbooks: 3arabi Song (Rattle 2016), selected from 1720 manuscripts as winner of the 2016 Rattle Chapbook Prize, and There Was and How Much There Was (smith|doorstop 2016), chosen by Carol Ann Duffy, who praised her “remarkable gift for storytelling” in this pamphlet rich with women’s voices. Her first book, To Live in Autumn (The Backwaters Press 2014), centered on Beirut, won the 2013 Backwaters Prize.
Zêdan Xelef is a poet, translator, organizer, and archivist. They grew up in the Yazidi community of Shingal Mountains where they herded four goats with three other cousins. They are the co-creator of Tew Tew, an oral history and oral traditions archive with a mission to preserve the endangered Yazidi oral traditions in response to the Yazidi genocide. They’re the writer of A Barcode Scanner (Kashkul Books 2021/Gato Negro Ediciones 2022) and co-editor and co-translator of the upcoming Something Missing from This World: Contemporary Yazidi Poetry (Deep Vellum, August 2024). Photo by Rae Rad.
Maya Salameh is a Syrian and Lebanese American poet from San Diego, California. She is the author of How To Make An Algorithm in the Microwave (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize and finalist for the California Book Award, as well as the chapbook rooh (Paper Nautilus Press, 2020). Her poems have appeared in POETRY, The Rumpus, AGNI, ANMLY, Asian American Writer’s Workshop, and the LA Times, among others. She has performed her work at Carnegie Hall, the DeYoung Museum, and her mother’s kitchen.
The Markaz Review (TMR) is a nonprofit publication and virtual center that seeks to promote the writers, artists, filmmakers and other creative people of the greater Middle East, generally thought to include the Arab world, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan and North Africa. As an online community, TMR is a creative and literary destination that seeks to erase the boundaries between peoples and celebrate culture.
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm (Doors at 6:30 pm)
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weaving-a-world-arabic-poetry-in-translation-tickets-929941880197
Wordy Ink & Poetry Show Event: Featuring Eric Moraga at Whittier Art Gallery – In-Person Event
Join us for a Poetry Show That Will Last Forever!
Poet and publisher Eric Moraga will read present a poetry reading while being tattooed by artist Tyler Kinnamin and live painted by Angel Kinnaman.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Whittier Art Gallery
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 8035 Painter Ave.,Whittier , CA 90602
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C8Ni9ppS3f_/
Obsidian Tongues Open Mic at Café con Libros, Pomona – In-Person Event
Please join host Caesar K. Avelar, Pomona Poet Laureate for Obsidian Tongues Poetry Readings & Open Mic Night.
Open Mic Night is for everyone-play a song on your guitar, read a poem, or share a story. The spoken word is celebrated!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Café Con Libros, Pomona
Date: Saturday, the 13th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm
Address: 280 W. 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: https://cafeconlibrospress.org/event-calendar/
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.
NOTE: Check every Sunday for story time and reading events
Where: Melrose Trading Post, Greenway Main Stage at Fairfax HS
Date: Sunday, the 13th (Every Sunday)
Time: 10 am – 5 pm
Address: 7850 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046
Website: https://melrosetradingpost.org/tickets/
Kids Storytime & Book Signing: Megan Woodward & This Book Is Definitely Not Cursed at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Kids Event
Megan Woodward is a children’s book author and her debut picture book is This Book Is Definitely Not Cursed (Simon and Schuster, 2024). It’s silly and interactive and will make a great read-aloud!
NOTE: See site for RSVP link, tickets, and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday, the 14th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/40232
Holy Pepperoni Storytime at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Kids Event
Join us for our monthly children’s storytime, hosted by Pants and Jacket, the stars of the brand new children’s TV show, Holy Pepperoni!
Pants and Jacket will read some of their favorite picture books followed by a fun and magical activity.
The Holy Pepperoni Reading Hour is free and open to kids of all ages!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Sunday, the 14th
Time: 11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-ly3modaa
Cellar Door Book Club: Family Lore at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the book Family Lore: A Novel, by author Elizabeth Acevedo.
Family Lore is a the story of one Dominican American family told through the voices of its women.
Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die. So when she decides she wants a living wake—a party to bring her family and community together to celebrate the long life she’s led—her sisters are surprised. Has Flor foreseen her own death, or someone else’s? Does she have other motives? She refuses to tell her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila.
But Flor isn’t the only person with secrets: her sisters are hiding things, too. And the next generation, cousins Ona and Yadi, face tumult of their own.
Spanning the three days prior to the 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.
Elizabeth Acevedo is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Poet X, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Carnegie medal, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award. She is also the author of With the Fire on High—which was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal—and Clap When You Land, which was a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor book and a Kirkus finalist. She holds a BA in Performing Arts from The George Washington University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem, Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and resides in Washington, DC with her loves.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday, the 14th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com
Author Appearances: Ann Bernath, Chick Lewis & Jemela Macer at Flintridge Books – In-Person Event
Flintridge hosts three authors to read and present their books:
Jemela S. Macer, Ph.D. presents Between Two Worlds: An Armenian American Woman’s Journey Home, and takes us on a deeply reflective journey to reclaim lost parts of her ancient Armenian soul and unite them with her modern American life. Born the grandchild of Armenian Genocide survivors, Macer asks: How does transgenerational trauma live within us? How do we forgive our perpetrators and find healing? Macer discusses her upbringing in California, her travels to India, Europe, Pakistan, China, South America, and finally, her time in ancient Western Armenia.
Jemela S. Macer is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Pasadena, CA. She taught English as a Second Language and cross-cultural communication at the University of Southern California and cross-cultural psychology at Antioch University. She has also consulted in the areas of diversity and parenting.
Chick Lewis will present Just Another Pilgrim on the Trian to Wau. The author gave notice to his job as a physicist, sold nearly everything he owned, and headed out from Los Angeles to see the world. And see it he did. In the following 41 months of vagabonding, he used the cheapest local transport, stretched every dollar, and opened himself up to the beauty of the people and cultures – and adventures – surrounding him, as he circumnavigated the globe.
Chick Lewis returned home to work at 3D Systems as a design engineer. He designed and built the prototypes for the world’s first commercial 3-D printers, using resin and lasers, and is named as a co-inventor on at least 18 U.S. Patents. Chick retired in 2009 and resumed traveling extensively.
Ann Bernath presents Rock, Stone, Pebble. Chances were slim that a young woman from the Provinces would encounter legendary Dusters during a short ride across the Wildlands. But when her coach is waylaid by masked riders and her coach mate is abducted, her adventure in the Wildlands begins with two Dusters named Rock and Stone.
Southern California native Ann Bernath has been writing since the age of 6, inspired by the “Author! Author!” episode of “The Patty Duke Show.” In 2023, two of her short stories were included in the TechLit anthology Inner Space and Space and Outer Thoughts: Speculative Fiction from Caltech and JPL Authors. She self-published Rock. Stone. Pebble that same year. She writes genre fiction—westerns and sci-fi/fantasy in particular—and has both a prequel and a fantasy novel in progress.
Where: Flintridge Books
Date: Sunday the 14th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 858 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada Flintridge, CA, 91011
Obscenesters Book Club: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Join us for the first meeting of OBSCENESTERS, a book club focusing on the erotic, the abject and the queerly unclassifiable, hosted by Tina Horn.
For the first meeting, we’ll be discussing Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by author Andrea Lawler.
It’s 1993 and Paul Polydoris tends bar at the only gay club in a university town thrumming with politics and partying. He studies queer theory, has a dyke best friend, makes zines, and is a flaneur with a rich dating life. But Paul’s also got a secret: he’s a shapeshifter. Oscillating wildly from Riot Grrrl to leather cub, Paul transforms his body and his gender at will as he crossed the country––a journey and adventure through the deep queer archives of struggle and pleasure.
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl is a riotous, razor-sharp bildungsroman whose hero/ine wends his/her way through a world gutted by loss, pulsing with music, and opening into an array of intimacy and connections.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Sunday, the 14th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-lxl0ctg5
Second Sunday Poetry: Radomir Luza, From His Nursing Home – Online Zoom Event
Join host Alex M. Frankel for Second Sunday Poetry with featured guest Radomir Luza, online via Zoom to read his work from his nursing home.
Radomir has been confined to a nursing home for some time. The veteran LA poet will make an appearance on Zoom with some of his newer poems.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: The Studio Theatre at St. Denis Building
Date: Sunday, the 14th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: https://www.secondsundaypoetry.com/
Poetry Reading & Open Mic at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Published & paid? Never-shared-your-writing-with-anyone? WE’RE CALLING ALL POETS! ♡
Come and hear from our headlining poets and bring your own work to share!
After readings, we’ll open up the floor to you. Sign-ups will start at 5:45pm.
NOTE: Check store for details,
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Sunday, the 14th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 133 Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-reading-open-mic-tickets-927502403657?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp&aff=ebdsshcopyurl
Fantasy Romance Book Club: Caraway of the Sea at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
July’s Fantasy Romance Book Club is led by bookseller Taylor C, and participants will discuss romance novel Caraway of the Sea (Phoenix Rising #1) by author Madeline Buget.
This novel is a grim-cozy pirate fantasy featuring an asexual female main character.
Lodestar Whiskey will provide snacks and a whiskey tasting for anyone 21+.
Everyone is welcome!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 7th
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 