World Literature Book Club at West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join the West Valley Regional Branch Library for a spirited and engaging discussion of the world’s best short stories! All selections are from The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction (HarperCollins, 2008), eds. Joyce Carol Oates and Christopher R. Beha. This month’s selections are:
September 9: Some Terpsichore by Elizabeth McCracken
September 16: Cowboy by Thomas McGuane
September 23: Sault Ste. Marie by David Means
September 30: Ranch Girl by Maile Meloy
We meet every Monday morning (excluding holidays).
RSVP: For the Zoom link, please send an email request to wvally@lapl.org with “World Literature” in the subject line.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 10 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-literature-book-club-38
Writers Group at Robertson Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Calling all writers! Get those creative juices flowing and join our writers group as everyone shares their work and gives feedback.
This group mostly meets in person, but email rbrtsn@lapl.org if you’d prefer to join via Zoom.
Where: Robertson Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm
Address: 1719 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/writers-group-1
Senior Writing Groupat Palisades Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Kathy Katims, founder of Saved by a Story, leads an ongoing writing group for seniors. New members are welcome to join all or any sessions.
Write to prompts, share (if you would like to), connect with fellow seniors in the neighborhood, hone your writing skills, and find your story.
RSVP:
RSVP is recommended but not required. RSVP to palsds@lapl.org. We will send you a welcome packet, guidelines, and a reminder the day before the meeting.
Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 861 Alma Real Dr., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/senior-writing-group-1
Book Club: What You Are Looking For Is in the Library at Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join Sun Valley Branch Library on the second Monday of every month for the adult fiction book club. Read the book and join the discussion.
Participants will discuss What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by author Michiko Aoyama.
RSVP:
Please email ebarrera@lapl.org for the monthly Google Meet virtual link.
Where: Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 4:45 pm
Address: Online Event
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/sun-valley-branch-book-club-3
YA for Adults Book Club: Where Sleeping Girls Lie at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss the book Where Sleeping Girls Lie by author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé.
Sade Hussein is starting her third year of high school, this time at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school, after being home-schooled. Misfortune has been a constant companion throughout her life, but even Sade doesn’t expect her new roommate, Elizabeth, to disappear after Sade’s first night. Or for people to think she had something to do with it.
Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé is the instant New York Times, International bestselling, & Award-winning author of Ace of Spades. She is an avid tea drinker, a collector of strange mugs, and a graduate from a university in the Scottish Highlands where she received a BA in English Literature. She also has an MA in Shakespeare Studies from Kings College London. When she isn’t spinning dark tales, Faridah can be found examining the deeper meanings in Disney channel original movies.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/ya-adults-book-club-where-sleeping-girls-lie
Bookbinding with Nova Community Arts at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Learn the art of bookbinding in LA’s oldest indie bookstore.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Honoring Our Ancestors Workshop with James Coats via Inlandia Institute – Online Event
Alternating Mondays, 9/9, 9/23, 10/7, and 10/21, 6:30-8:30 PM PT, on Zoom, plus Saturday, 11/2, in person at White Park, Riverside.
White Park time to be determined.
$50. Registration required. To register: https://tinyurl.com/Fall2024CWW
Honoring Our Ancestors is a workshop designed to celebrate loved ones we have lost. We will be writing elegy and celebration of life pieces as well as learning performance skills. The workshop will culminate with a reading/performance at this year’s Day of the Dead event on Saturday, November 2 at White Park in Riverside.
James Coats is a poet, performer, and educator born in Los Angeles and raised in the Inland Empire. You can take a poetry workshop with him through his organization Lift Our Voices Education, which hosts an award-winning workshop monthly called Be the Change. He is the author of four poetry collections. His most recent is Midnight & Mad Dreams.
Where: Inlandia Institute
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: Online Event
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/events/?month=9&yr=2024
Robertson Readers Book Club: Death at La Fenice at Robertson Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join Robertson Branch Library for a discussion of Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon. New members are welcome! Copies of the book are available for checkout at the branch while supplies last.
Where: Robertson Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 1719 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/robertson-readers-book-club-2
ALOUD Reading Series: Edwidge Danticat, with Robin Coste Lewis & We’re Alone at Central Library, Mark Taper Auditorium – In-Person Event
ALOUD welcomes American Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Edwidge Danticat with her new collection of essays We’re Alone. Danticat will discuss her beautiful, varied, and complex collection with celebrated poet, writer, and former Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, Robin Coste Lewis.
Edwidge Danticat is the author of several books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection, Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist, The Farming of Bones, The Dew Breaker, Brother, I’m Dying, Create Dangerously, Claire of the Sea Light, The Art of Death, Everything Inside, a Reese’s Book Club selection and National Book Critics Circle Awards winner.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 9th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St,. Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lfla.org/event/were-alone/
Terry Wolverton & Elisabeth Nonas, with Jen Cheng, Present New Books at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Terry Wolverton and Elisabeth Nonas, in conversation with Jen Cheng, will present their new books:
Terry Wolverton will present her novel Season of Eclipse.
After a chance encounter with terrorism at JFK leaves her snapping photos instead of fleeing, celebrated novelist Marielle finds herself thrust into the Witness Protection program—stripped of her vibrant life and identity.
With only her cat for company, Marielle plans her comeback with a sensational novel—until she discovers a fraudulent “posthumous” book bearing her name. Breaking cover, Marielle embarks on a perilous quest for truth, enlisting the aid of an eclectic crew including a young musician, Buddhist monks, and her stalwart ex-lover, Fresh.
Against all odds, Marielle is determined to reclaim her name and her life in this thrilling story of courage, identity, and resilience.
Elisabeth Nonas will present her novel Grace Period.
After 25 years, how do you rebuild your life?
Hannah’s wife has died unexpectedly.
Just as 70-year-old writing professor Hannah Greene walks into her retirement party, she’s called to the ER because Grace, her wife of 25 years, has been in what turns out to be a fatal car accident. This was definitely not part of the plan the two had for their lives, especially since Grace was ten years younger than Hannah. The plan had been for Hannah to join her art history professor wife on a sabbatical trip to Europe. Grace would do research, and Hannah would figure out what she wanted to do in her retirement.
How does an independent, feisty lesbian adjust to both her suddenly widowed and newly retired life? How can she survive the loss of the spouse who statistically should have survived her?
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/terry-wolverton-elisabeth-nonas
DeMar DeRozan, with Malika Andrews, & Above the Noise at Reparations Club Off-site at The Gathering Spot – In-Person Event
Six-time NBA all-star DeMar DeRozan, in conversation with journalist Malika Andrews, will discuss his book Above the Noise.
DeMar DeRozan is a six-time NBA All-Star, has been called a “basketball savant” (ESPN) and “the best closer in the NBA (GQ) but growing up in the streets of Compton, he faced constant hardships and danger, learning to keep his head down and mind his own business. But basketball became his escape, evolving from a mere pastime to an obsession and ultimately as a shield from the pervasive drugs and gang activity that surrounded him. In this remarkably honest account, DeMar reveals his greatest and most humbling lesson: acknowledging his own limitations after grappling with depression. Despite his accomplishments on and off the court, he remains a product of an unforgiving environment, carrying the weight of a relentless cycle of pain, fear, and resilience, etched into his very being.
Malika Andrews is a journalist and host of ESPN’s weekday NBA studio show, NBA Today. She also hosts NBA Countdown on ESPN and ABC. Andrews made her debut as a sideline reporter during the 2019-20 season. In 2021, at 26-years-old, Andrews became the youngest sports broadcaster to host the NBA Finals Trophy Ceremony. She made history in 2022 as the first ever woman to host the NBA Draft. She won the Outstanding Personality/Emerging On-Air talent Sports Emmy in 2022. She has appeared across multiple platforms on the Disney family of networks including Good Morning America, SportsCenter, ESPN.com and ESPN Radio. Prior to joining ESPN in October 2018, Andrews worked as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: The Gathering Spot
Date: Monday the 9th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 5211 W Adams Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website: https://rep.club/products/demar-derozan-event
R.U.P.O. Open Mic at Back to the Grind in Riverside – In-Person Event (Check to Verify)
RUPO Open Mic is every Monday Night at Back to the Grind in Riverside.
Every Monday at: 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 9th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Website: https://www.facebook.com/backtothegrind
At Skylight: Coco Mellors, with Amanda Montell, & Blue Sister at Skylight – In-Person Event
Coco Mellors, in conversation with Amanda Montell, will discuss her novel, Blue Sisters.
Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister’s death in this unforgettable story of grief, hope, and the complexities of family, from the acclaimed author of Cleopatra and Frankenstein.
Blue Sisters is a story of what it takes to keep living after loss—and, ultimately, to fall in love with life again.
Coco Mellors grew up in London and New York, where she received her MFA in fiction from New York University. Her debut novel, Cleopatra and Frankenstein, was a Sunday Times bestseller, has been translated into over fifteen languages, and is currently being adapted for television. She lives with her husband and son in New York.
Amanda Montell is a writer and linguist from Baltimore. She is the author of the acclaimed books Wordslut, Cultish, and The Age of Magical Overthinking. Along with hosting the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and more. She holds a degree in linguistics from NYU and lives in Los Angeles with her partner, plants, and pets. Find her on Instagram @Amanda_Montell.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-coco-mellors-presents-blue-sisters-w-amanda-montell
Book Event: Kelly Giles, with Jody David Armour, & Killing Justice at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Kelly Giles, in conversation with Jody David Armour, will discuss his debut memoir, Killing Justice.
Kelly Giles obtained his Juris Doctor Degree from Pepperdine University School of Law in 1989. He practiced U.S. immigration law for twenty-three years, until late 2012, and continues to practice Canadian immigration law. He self-published his Darwin’s Desert trilogy of poetry books between 2010 and 2012, Swimming in a Thunderstorm, Surfing the Tsunami and Surrendering to Transcendence. In 2014, he gave a talk entitled “Heart Surgery for the Legal Profession” to a class of USC Law Professor Jody Armour’s criminal law students related to his then upcoming memoir. For the past ten years, he has been a member of Aim for the Heart’s Microphone Sessions and Heart Sessions poetry and hip-hop workshops, founded by Tupac Shakur’s manager Leila Steinberg in 1996. He currently lives in Culver City, California, volunteers with Amnesty International, Reverb and Headcount, and is a member of UCLA Extension’s Writer’s Program Now, Film Independent, and NewFilmMakers LA. Killing Justice is his debut memoir.
Jody David Armour is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California. A widely published scholar and popular lecturer, he studies the intersection of race, law, morality, psychology, politics, ordinary language philosophy, and the performing arts. His latest book, N*gga Theory: Race, Language, Unequal Justice, and the Law (Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2020) looks at America’s criminal justice system – among the deadliest and most racist in the world – through deeply interdisciplinary lenses. His latest free speech article is titled “Law, Language, and Politics,” 22 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 1073 (2020). Armour is a Soros Justice Senior Fellow of The Open Society Institute’s Center on Crime, Communities & Culture, and he is on the Board of Directors for LEAP (Law Enforcement Action Partnership), an international 501(c)(3) non-profit of police, prosecutors, judges, corrections officials, and other law enforcement officials advocating for criminal justice reform.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Mary Lea Carroll & Across the Street Around the Corner at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Mary Lea Carroll will discuss her book, Across the Street, Around the Corner: A Road Home, an inspiring wisdom-packed, funny collection of neighborhood life set during the pandemic, when everyone-everywhere-was forced to stay home. As a world traveler and now not able to go anywhere, the author thinks, well, I can’t travel the world? Why not travel the block-see who and what’s right under my own nose?
This book melds together these neighborhoods, combining stories both hilarious and uplifting with simple observations and inspirations. It opens our eyes on how to live a little bit better in the neighborhood life happens to place you. In these divisive times, this slim, giftable book is a comfort and a balm and every bit as warm, engaging, inspiring, and funny as the author’s first two enduringly popular books, Saint Everywhere and Somehow Saints.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
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 9th
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-1007755783677
No Pulp Open Mic at Work Evolution Laboratories, Long Beach – In-Person Event
No Pulp Open Mic is held every 2nd and 4th Monday. Hosted by poet Juan Amador.
8th Foor. All Ages. Doors open 7:30 pm.
More info at https://www.instagram.com/p/C_bCSSqPEuo/
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Work Evolution Laboratories, Long Beach
Date: Monday, the 9th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 235 E Broadway, Suite 800, Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/
Celena’s Scribes Workshop with Wil Clarke via Inlandia Institute – Online Event
Tuesdays, 9/10, 9/17, 9/24, 10/8, 10/15, 10/22, 11/5, 11/12, and 11/19/24, 11:30 AM-1:00 PM PT, on Zoom.
Registration required. To register: https://tinyurl.com/Fall2024CWW
Participants respond to prompts about universal themes related to the human condition and are encouraged to explore all genres of writing. Individual writing is shared with a friendly, supportive group who do their best to encourage each member’s success.
Wil Clarke was born in Africa to missionary parents. He lived a total of 27 years in Africa. He is a career mathematician and is enjoying writing memoirs of his various experiences.
Where: Inlandia Institute
Date: Tuesday, the 10th
Time: 11:30 am – 1 pm
Address: Online Event
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/my-calendar/?mc_id=2381
Book Club at Northridge Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The Book Club meets every month via Zoom. All are welcome.
RSVP: Please email Emily at eaaronson@lapl.org for the Zoom link and book information.
Where: Northridge Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 10th
Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-21
Poetry Open Mic at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Share a poem you wrote or a poem you love. You are also welcome to just listen and enjoy. Emceed by Wyatt Underwood.
RSVP:
To receive a Zoom invitation, please contact wwood@lapl.org
Where: Westwood Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 10th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-open-mic
Book Talk: Cathryn Michon & I’m Still Here: A Dog’s Purpose Forever at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Cathryn Michon will discuss her book I’m Still Here: A Dog’s Purpose Forever.
Join Chevalier’s Books for the release of this illustrated book told from the point of a loving angel dog. They’re celebrating everyone’s furry companions!
Author Cathryn Michon co-wrote the blockbuster hit film A Dog’s Purpose. Elegant, full-color watercolor paintings by award-winning artist Seth Taylor make this sumptuous volume the perfect gesture of compassion for anyone who has ever said goodbye to a dog (or person) gone too soon, because it’s always too soon. It turns out that the best way to honor those we’ve loved and lost is to be here now, until we meet again.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Tuesday, the 10th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com
Micro Memoir Workshop with Davis Puma at Riverside Main Library via Inlandia Institute – In-Person Event
Alternating Tuesdays, 9/10, 9/24, 10/8, 10/22, and 11/5/24, 6:00-8:00 PM, in person at Riverside Main Library.
$50. Registration required. To register: https://tinyurl.com/Fall2024CWW
Micro memoirs are short standalone pieces that often explore a moment in time, rather than an expanded life chapter. They are drawn from personal experience. Micro memoirs combine truth-telling with narrative tension and are specific to the writer’s micro-memory. Join instructor David Puma for this in-person workshop at Riverside Main Library as participants unleash the power of micro memoir.
David Puma obtained his M.F.A. in creative writing at San Jose State University and his B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Redlands. He has been in advanced poetry workshops every semester for the last four years, and has performed spoken word across California, including the Bay Area, Los Angeles, and the Inland Empire – as well as in New York City and in London, U.K. Professionally, David’s poetry has been included on streaming platforms like Disney+.
Where: Inlandia Institute at Riverside Main Library
Date: Tuesday, the 10th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 3900 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside 92501
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/my-calendar/?mc_id=2356
Silver Lake Book Club at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the Silver Lake Branch Library for engaging book discussions. Copies of books are available at the reference desk.
Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 10th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 2411 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/silver-lake-book-club-6
World Cultures Reading Circle: West with Giraffes at Westchester Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the World Cultures Reading Circle to discuss West with Giraffes: A Novel by Janet Wallach.
New members welcome.
Where: Westchester Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 10th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 7114 W. Manchester Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-cultures-reading-circle-5
Peter Himmelman, with Laurie Sandell, & Suspended by No String at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Peter Himmelman, in conversation with Laurie Sandell, will discuss his book Suspended by No String: A Songwriter’s Reflections on Faith, Aliveness, and Wonder.
Echoing the lyricism of Leonard Cohen and the lighthearted poignance of Anne Lamott, Suspended by No String is a thought-provoking anthology of spiritual reflections that will inspire readers to reclaim their childlike sense of wonder. From Emmy and Grammy-nominated musician and award-winning writer, comes the timely and insightful book, Suspended by No String: A Songwriter’s Reflections on Faith, Aliveness, and Wonder. Suspended by No String is an uplifting collection of essays, personal narrative, and poetic reflections that offer a respite from the daily onslaught of doom and gloom, to give us hope and a new perspective on our lives.
Former Rolling Stone senior editor Parke Puterburgh, wrote that Emmy and Grammy-nominated musician, Peter Himmelman “is on the same plane as Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, and Bruce Springsteen and nudging his way to Dylanhood.” With over twenty-five critically acclaimed recordings to his credit, the singer-songwriter has been inspiring fans across the globe with his spiritually tinged Americana rock and roll for more than forty years. Himmelman is also the founder of Big Muse, a company that teaches creative thinking, leadership skills, and deeper levels of communication in all facets of life – from personal to professional. His clients include The Wharton School, UCLA, and The Ross School of Business, The United States Army War College, and international brands such as McDonald’s, Adobe, and Gap Inc. He has an Advanced Management Certificate from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Laurie Sandell has written for Esquire, GQ, Glamour, Marie Claire and InStyle, among others, and has contributed cartoons to New York, Glamour, and the Wall Street Journal. Her first book, the graphic memoir The Impostor’s Daughter, was nominated for a 2009 Eisner Award.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore (in the Courtyard)
Date: Tuesday the 10th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Peter-Himmelman-Author-signing
Conchas y Café Zine Workshop with DSTL Arts – Online Event
Be a part of a new fall bilingual writing workshop series with DSTL Arts online.
2024 – 2025 Publishing Year
Conchas y Café Zine; Vol. 10
Series/Issue 1: 9/3/24–12/17/24
Theme: Life’s Paths/Los caminos de la vida
Google Classroom Enrollment Code: rvdizwy
See links for details.
Where: DSTL Arts
Date: Tuesday, the 10th (through 12/17/24)
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Google Classroom Event (see site)
Website: https://www.dstlarts.org/calendar or https://www.dstlarts.org/conchasycafezine
Paul Wyld & Jim Morrison, Secret Teacher of the Occult: A Journey to the Other Side at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Peter Wyld will discuss his book Jim Morrison, Secret Teacher of the Occult: A Journey to the Other Side.
Wyld looks at the mystical works that inspired Morrison, including Kurt Seligmann’s The Mirror of Magic, Colin Wilson’s The Outsider, and the writings of Nietzsche and Jack Kerouac. Drawing on Morrison’s lyrics and poems, his intimate writings, and the recollections of friends like photographer Paul Ferrara and Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek, the author makes the case that Morrison was not simply a superficial dabbler in the occult but an actual secret teacher transmitting knowledge through the golden thread stretching back to Egypt and Thoth-Hermes.
Explaining how Morrison sought to use his role as a rock singer to promote the adventure of the spirit and express the power of inner experience, Wyld shows how praxis was at the heart of Morrison’s approach, a commitment revealed in his journey through the arduous ordeals of shamanic initiation. The author also reveals how, like many other esoteric teachers, Morrison paid heavily for his occult teachings, enduring an unjust criminal conviction in 1970 and dying less than a year later after an intense campaign of public persecution.
Revealing Jim Morrison as a shaman, mystic, and sage, Wyld shows how Morrison was part of a great spiritual awakening, a calling to which he gave himself over fully.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday, the 10th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/paul-wyld
Open Mic Poetry at The Library Coffee House, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Open Mic Poetry event hosted by Chad Brian.
Sign-ups at 6:45 pm. All Ages.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Library Coffee House, Long Beach
Date: Tuesday, the 10th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3418 E Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90803
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/
Adult Book Group: World of Wonders at Once Upon a Time, Montrose – In-Person Event
Participantswill discuss World of Wonders by author Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted—no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape—she was able to turn to our world’s fierce and funny creatures for guidance.
“What the peacock can do,” she tells us, “is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your life.” The axolotl teaches us to smile, even in the face of unkindness; the touch-me-not plant shows us how to shake off unwanted advances; the narwhal demonstrates how to survive in hostile environments. Even in the strange and the unlovely, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and kinship. For it is this way with wonder: it requires that we are curious enough to look past the distractions in order to fully appreciate the world’s gifts.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Tuesday, the 10th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/adult-book-group-world-wonders-aimee-nezhukumatathil-hybrid
Mystery Book Club: Things Don’t Break on Their Own at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel Things Don’t Break on Their Own by author Sarah Easter Collins.
This story is a heart-wrenching mystery about sisters, lovers, and a dinner party gone wrong.
Twenty-five years ago, a young girl left home to walk to school. Her younger sister soon followed. But one of them arrived, and one of them didn’t.
Her sister’s disappearance has defined Willa’s life. Everyone thinks her sister is dead, but Willa knows she isn’t. Because there are some things that only sisters know about each other—and some bonds only sisters can break.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 10th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-26
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert & Guest Karen Rigby – Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with host Rick Lupert presents guest reader Karen Rigby and an open mic.
Karen Rigby is a poet and writer born in Panama, who now lives in Arizona. Her latest poetry book is Fabulosa (JackLeg Press, 2024.) Her debut poetry book, Chinoiserie (Ahsahta Press, 2012), was selected by Paul Hoover for a 2011 Sawtooth Poetry Prize, and described by Booklist as “poignant, powerful, and urgent.”
Karen’s work has been honored by a National Endowment for the Arts literature fellowship, a Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, and an Artist Opportunity Grant from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. She is a 2023 recipient of an Artist Opportunity Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Her poetry is published in journals such as The London Magazine, Poetry Northwest, The Oxonian Review, and Australian Book Review.
She’s read at venues including Rice University, Saint Vincent College, and the Tucson Festival of Books, and served as an AWP Writer to Writer Mentor (Season 20 and Season 18). A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Karen freelances as a book reviewer.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday, the 10th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com/cobalt
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.
Every 5th Tuesday of the month we celebrate Women and Femme voices only on the mic. This open mic is hosted by Yesika Salgado and Jasmine Williams, with music and vibes by DJ Faucet.
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 10th
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
Wilmington Book Club: Daughter of Fortune at Wilmington Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel Daughter of Fortune by author Isabel Allende.
RSVP:
For more information please contact: klarson@lapl.org
Where: Wilmington Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 1300 N. Avalon Blvd., Wilmington, CA 90744
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-43
Wednesday Book Club: First Gen at Westchester – Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the book First Gen: A Memoir by author Alejandra Campoverdi.
Where: Westchester – Loyola Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 7114 W. Manchester Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/wednesday-book-club-8
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 11th
Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: On-air Event (live)
Website: https://www.kpfk.org/on-air/poets-cafe/
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 11th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: On-air Event (live at 101.5 FM)
Website: https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events
All Genres Workshop with Victoria Waddle via Inlandia Institute – Online Event
Alternating Wednesdays, 9/11, 9/25, 10/9, 10/23, and 11/6/24, 6:00-9:00 PM PT, on Zoom.
$50. Registration required. To register: https://tinyurl.com/Fall2024CWW
In this multi-genre workshop, participants submit poetry and prose for biweekly critiques and receive feedback from other group members. Discussions include the craft of writing and the challenges writers face. The workshop leader provides biweekly articles and links related to participants’ work, particularly to problems that were discussed in the previous session.
Victoria Waddle is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer, with fiction and nonfiction published in literary journals and anthologies, including in Best Short Stories from The Saturday Evening Post Great American Fiction Contest. A collection of her short fiction, Acts of Contrition, is available from Los Nietos Press and her chapbook, The Mortality of Dogs and Humans, is available from Bamboo Dart Press. Her YA novel about a teen escaping a polygamist cult is coming from Inlandia Books. Previously the managing editor of Inlandia: A Literary Journey, she helped to establish a yearly teen issue. In a previous life, she was a high school English teacher and librarian.
Where: Inlandia Institute
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 6 pm – 9 pm
Address: Online Event
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/events/?month=9&yr=2024
Book Club at Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
This is an online mostly fiction book club. We select book titles throughout the year. For August we read The Maid by Nita Prose.
RSVP: Email pcoima@lapl.org to receive the Zoom link.
Where: Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/pacoima-book-club-2
Poetry at DiPiazza’s, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Open Mic hosted by Tamara Madison.
Ages 21+. More info at: https://www.facebook.com/groups
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: DiPiazza’s, Long Beach
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 5205 Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/groups
Book Launch: Chuck Rosenthal & Awake For Ever in a Sweet Unrest at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Local author Chuck Rosenthal, in conversation with author Elena Karina Byrne, will launch his new novel Awake For Ever in a Sweet Unrest.
They will discuss his inspirations and the melding of history and fiction in this Romantic tome.
Deep within the hidden library of Los Angeles’ iconic poetry venue, Beyond Baroque, all modern electronics mysteriously fail. There, 19-year-old Beatriz encounters Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley, who promises a magical adventure back to 19-century Europe.
There, Beatriz meets literary legend John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Lord Byron, experiencing the romantic landscapes and dangerous exploits of their world. As she navigates this liminal space, Beatriz discovers the power of poetry and art, and the courage to find her own identity.
Chuck Rosenthal is a writer living in Topanga Canyon, California. He is the author of Awake For Ever in a Sweet Unrest as well as fourteen other novels and five other books.
Elena Karina Byrne is the 26-year Programming Consultant & Poetry Stage Manager for The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and Literary Programs Director for the historic Ruskin Art Club. She also works as a freelance lecturer and book editor.
Get your tickets on EVENTBRITE!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/41838
Jessica Elisheva Emerson, with Rabbi David Kasher, & Olive Days at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Jessica Elisheva Emerson, in conversation with Rabbi David Kasher, will discuss her debut novelOlive Days.
A smoldering debut novel about a young mother in an Orthodox Jewish community of Los Angeles whose quest for authenticity erupts in a passionate affair following a night of wife swapping.
Told in the fevered tenor common to both lust and religious devotion, Olive Days is an unforgettable story of the agonizing choices women make to balance duty against desire.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/jessica-elisheva-emerson
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 the Palms Up Academy curriculum and manifests their mission statement in a physical (and digital) space.
Join them 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 11th
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
Clement Goldberg, with Guests, & New Mistakes at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Clement Goldberg, in conversationwith guests Harry Dodge, Zackary Drucker, Ali Liebegoee + Michelle Tea will discuss his book New Mistakes.
New Mistakes is about classic human follies of desire and ambition foreground a revelatory awakening the planet needs.
UFOs in formation in the sky. Vegetation—from cranky houseplants to wise old conifers—telepathically transmit their complaints. A cat gone viral rebels against her influencer caretaker. In California, interconnected strangers find one another, drawn by messy threads of sex and art, their lives falling apart as an extraordinary new reality arises.
Clement Goldberg is an award-winning artist, writer, director and animator. They work across multiple disciplines to create satirical yet hopeful projects that center collective grief rooted in climate crisis, cultural erasure, and extinction. Clement’s film Let Me Let You Go received a 2022 Creative Capital Award.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-m0bjaaw9
Literary Titans: Percival Everett and David Mas Masumoto In Conversation at A Noise Within, Pasadena – In-Person Event
Open Book and Red Hen Press present a special event and conversation with best-selling authors Percival Everett (Erasure, James) and David Mas Masumoto (Epitaph for a Peach, Secret Harvests).
This promises to be a memorable evening for avid readers throughout Los Angeles. Mingle at pre-hosted happy hour, enjoy the riveting dialogue, and take part in the Q & A and book signing, held from 7:00 – 9:00 pm at A Noise Within Theatre in Pasadena.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: A Noise Within Theater
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107
Website: https://www.discoverlosangeles.com/event
At Skylight: Brian Evenson, with Sarah Rose Etter, & Good Night, Sleep Tight at Skylight – In-Person Event
Brian Evenson, in conversation with Sarah Rose Etter, will discuss his book Good Night, Sleep Tight.
From the “master of literary horror” (GQ) comes a collection of new stories tracing the limits and consequences of artificial intelligence and “post-human” relationships. Populated by twins stepping into worlds of absence, bears who lick their cubs into creation, and artificial beings haunted by their less-than-human nature, each page sketches a world where our all-too-real feelings of isolation and ecological dread take on an otherworldly tinge.
In Good Night, Sleep Tight, Brian Evenson deftly weaves ethical dilemmas, maternal warmth, and echoes of apocalypse into his most tender, disquieting book yet.
Brian Evenson has won the World Fantasy Award, The International Horror Guild Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award. He is also the recipient of three O. Henry Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was a finalist for the Ray Bradbury Prize.
Sarah Rose Etter is the author of Ripe, the chapbook Tongue Party, and The Book of X, winner of a Shirley Jackson Award for best novel. Her work has appeared in Time, Guernica, BOMB, the Bennington Review, The Cut, VICE, and elsewhere. She has been awarded residences at the Jack Kerouac House, the Disquiet International program in Portugal, and the Gullkistan in Iceland. She earned her BA in English from Pennsylvania State University and her MFA in fiction from Rosemont College. She lives in Los Angeles. For more info, visit SarahRoseEtter.com.
Where: Skylight
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Book Launch: MEMENTO MORI: The Art of Contemplating Death to Live a Better Life with Joanna Ebenstein at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Joanna Ebenstein will discuss MEMENTO MORI: The Art of Contemplating Death to Live a Better Life.
Joanna Ebenstein is the founder and creative director of Morbid Anatomy. An internationally recognized death expert, her books include Memento Mori: The Art of Contemplating Death to Live a Better Life, Anatomica: The Exquisite and Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy, Death: A Graveside Companion and The Anatomical Venus. She is also an award winning curator, photographer, and graphic designer, and teacher of the many times sold out class Memento Mori: Befriending Death with Art, History and the Imagination.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Ava Dellaira, with Nicola Yoon, & Exposure at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Ava Dellaira, in conversation with Nicola Yoon, will discuss her novel Exposure.
Best friends Juliette Marker and Annie Ricci shared an enviable childhood bond, both mesmerized by Juliette’s famous mother, Margot, a renowned photographer who documented their idyllic southern California adolescence.
After a series of unexpected events, Juliette leaves Annie and California for Chicago, where, as a white college freshman, she meets Noah King, a Black high school senior. These two lonely souls enter each other’s orbit, forge a connection, and, after a chance meeting, spend one eventful evening together.
Years later, Noah has done the impossible and made it in Hollywood. His first film is about to be released. He and his beloved wife Jesse, a successful writer herself, have just had a baby when Annie makes a startling discovery about Juliette that will threaten to blow up the life Noah has struggled to build. Details of that fateful Chicago night more than a decade earlier come to light, causing all who love Juliette and Noah to confront the discomfort of conflicting truths.
Spanning decades and told from multiple perspectives, this powerful, provocative debut delves into the complex lives and relationships of those affected by one life-changing moment, sharply exploring how race, artistic ambition, friendship, and grief expose different versions of the same story.
Ava Dellaira was born in Los Angeles. She received her undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago, and then received her MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop after which she moved to Los Angeles assisting Stephen Chbosky, the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, as an associate producer on his film adaptation of the book. Author of Love Letters to the Dead, Ava adapted it into a screenplay for Temple Hill (the company that produced Twilight and The Fault In Our Stars). She has since written In Search of Us and the upcoming adult novel Exposure.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/ava-dellaira-discusses-exposure
September Hype Book Club: The Next Best Fling at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
The Hype Book Club is led by bookseller Paola and members discuss popular books that we see everyone talking about.
September’s selection is The Next Big Fling by author Gabriella Gamez.
In this engaging debut, the sexual chemistry between two relatable messy protagonists champions body positivity while delivering a love letter to the joys of reading books.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 7:15 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA, 90232
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 — PW;
- 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 11th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.instagram.com/anansiwritersworkshop/ or https://www.facebook.com/anansiwritersworkshop/
Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Online Zoom
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 11th
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-1009216181767
Pomona Velley Poetry SLAM at LionLIkeMIndState – In-Person Event
Sept 11th is Our first Slam of the Season.
Poets sharpen your Pens.
Edit your poems.
And PRACTICE your Slay!
Competition Rules posted on site.
Sign up at the Door!
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Fairplex Pomona
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm
Address: 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona, CA91760
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C_MwS9WRY7m/?hl=en or https://www.instagram.com/p/C–7Ke9y_xi/?hl=en
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg and Spillway Magazine Book Launch at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Nights will feature the lunch of Spillway Magazine Book Launch.
We are honored to be hosting the book launch for Moon Tide Press’ first published issue of Spillway Magazine. There are so many excellent poets in this volume and can’t wait to see these performances! More information will be forthcoming.
$4 cover fee, cash only
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday, the 11th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events
Not So Secret Society Book Club: This Book Won’t Burn at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss the book This Book Won’t Burn by author Samira Ahmed.
This is a timely and gripping social-suspense novel about book banning, activism, and standing up for what you believe.
After her dad abruptly abandons her family and her mom moves them a million miles from their Chicago home, Noor Khan is forced to start the last quarter of her senior year at a new school, away from everything and everyone she knows and loves.
Reeling from being uprooted and deserted, Noor is certain the key to survival is to keep her head down and make it to graduation.
But things aren’t so simple. At school, Noor discovers hundreds of books have been labeled “obscene” or “pornographic” and are being removed from the library in accordance with a new school board policy. Even worse, virtually all the banned books are by queer and BIPOC authors.
Noor can’t sit back and do nothing, because that goes against everything she believes in, but challenging the status quo just might put a target on her back. Can she effect change by speaking up? Or will small-town politics—and small-town love—be her downfall?
Samira Ahmed is the New York Times bestselling author of Love, Hate, & Other Filters and Internment. She was born in Bombay, India, and has lived in New York, Chicago, and Kauai, where she spent a year searching for the perfect mango. She invites you to visit her online at samiraahmed.com and on Twitter and Instagram @sam_aye_ahm.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/not-so-secret-society-book-club-book-won%E2%80%99t-burn
Teen Anime/Manga Club at Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen Event
Teens ages 11-18 are welcome to join our Anime/Manga Club led by O. Service.
For this session, we will be searching the entire library for hidden Dragon Balls in a Library scavenger hunt. Search the stacks for every last one!
We will be watching a few key scenes from the anime Dragonball Z and also have a discussion about the different versions of the long-standing manga.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 501 S. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/teen-animemanga-club-2
Mystery Book Club via Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join the Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library 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
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club
Diverse Romance Book Club: Courting Samira at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss the book Courting Samira by author Amal Awad.
Set in Sydney, Australia, Courting Samira is a charming, big-hearted rom-com about a twenty-seven-year-old Palestinian woman who finds herself in an unexpected love triangle—a sparkling ode to meddling best friends, traditional courtship, The Princess Bride, and, of course, https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/book
Amal Awad is a journalist, author, and screenwriter. She has written for Elle, The Guardian, and other publications and held senior editorial roles at a number of trade media publications. She has spoken at schools, universities, and writers’ festivals around Australia, and she facilitates workshops on diversity, multiculturalism, women’s issues, and pop culture. Amal is the author of eight books, including four novels—Courting Samira, This is How You Get Better, The Things We See in the Light, and Bitter & Sweet—and the nonfiction books The Incidental Muslim, Beyond Veiled Clichés, Fridays With My Folks, and In My Past Life I was Cleopatra. Courting Samira is the first of her books to be published in America.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/diverse-romance-book-club-courting-samira
Thrival Open Micat Hot Java Coffee, Long Beach – In-Person Event
All arts community open mics & community plugs. All ages. More info on Instagram @thrivalopenmic
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Hot Java
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2101 E. Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90803
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/ or https://www.instagram.com/thrivalopenmic/
Randy Fertel, with Lolis Eric Elie, & Winging It: Improv’s Power and Peril in the Time of Trump at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Randy Fertel, in conversation with Lolis Eric Elie, will discuss Winging It :Improv’s Power and Peril in the Time of Trump.
In Winging It, literary scholar and cultural polymath Randy Fertel returns to the interrogation of improvisation he began with his earlier work A Taste for Chaos (2015). In this new volume, Fertel explores the wider landscapes of popular culture and public affairs, ranging deftly from the unmediated experience in Fred Astaire’s tap dancing, Frans Hals’s brush strokes, hook-up culture, psychedelic trips, social media, and Hamilton’s hip-hop to—last, though not least—the performative and demagogic posturing of Donald Trump. The gesture all improvisations share—“I will create this on the fly,” or as Trump has it, “my gut knows more than many brains”—defies rationality and elevates embodied emotions, instinct, and intuition, challenging our assumption that everything of value depends upon long study, tradition, and hard work. Claiming to be free of serious purpose, improvisation only pursues pleasure. Or so it says.
Randy Fertel is a writer and philanthropist dedicated to the arts, education, New Orleans, and the environment. Fertel holds a Ph.D. in English and American literature from Harvard University and is the author of A Taste for Chaos: The Art of Literary Improvisation and The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak: A New Orleans Family Memoir. Fertel has taught English at Harvard University, Tulane University, LeMoyne College, and the New School for Social Research. He specializes in the literature of the Vietnam War and the literature of exile. In addition to his writing, Fertel is president of the Fertel Foundation and the Ruth U. Fertel Foundation, named for his mother Ruth Fertel, founder of Ruth’s Chris Steak House. He is co-founder of the Ridenhour Prizes for Courageous Truth-telling, now in its 20th year. He lives in New Orleans and New York.
Lolis Eric Elie is a New Orleans born, Los Angeles based writer and filmmaker. His television credits include work on “Bosch,” “The Chi,” “The Man in the High Castle,” “Greenleaf” and the HBO series “Treme.” Working with the award-winning director Dawn Logsdon, he co- produced and wrote the PBS documentary, Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans. He is the co-author or “Rodney Scott’s World of Barbecue: Every Day’s a Good Day,” from Clarkson-Potter. His essay, “America’s Greatest Hits,” is included in Best African American Essays: 2009. A former columnist for The Times-Picayune, he is the author of Smokestack Lightning: Adventures in the Heart of Barbecue Country and co-producer and writer of Smokestack Lightning: A Day in the Life of Barbecue, the documentary based on that book. He is editor of Cornbread Nation 2: The Best of Southern Food Writing. A contributing writer to The Oxford American, his work has appeared in Gourmet, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Bon Appetit, Downbeat and The San Francisco Chronicle.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Randy-Fertel-Lolis-Eric-Elie-Author-signing
Mayor’s Book Club: Algorithms of Oppression at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Culver City Mayor Yasmine-Imani McMorrin’s quarterly book club returns at Village Well! The mayor will be in conversation with Dr. Sayifa Umoja Noble about Dr. Noble’s book Algorithms of Oppression.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Get your tickets on EVENTBRITE!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/41664
Jean-Baptiste Phou, with Sayon Syprasoeuth, & Coming Out of My Skin at Bel Canto Books, Retro Row – In-Person Event
Jean-Baptiste Phou, in conversation with artist Sayon Syprasoeuth, will discuss his memoir Coming Out of My Skin.
This is a compelling memoir that focuses on the intersectionality of race and sexuality experienced by a gay Asian man living in a white world.
Born to Chinese-Cambodian parents in France, Jean-Baptiste Phou has pursued a diverse artistic career since 2008. Through his public views and artistic works, he has focused mainly on the experiences of Asians in France. Up until now, he’s always been careful not to raise issues of sexuality—in particular, his homosexuality.
In this searing memoir, Phou faces his fears and shame to examine the role his ethnic origin has played in the construction of his sexual identity and his romantic relationships in a predominantly white environment. An astute observer of the various ways in which his body has been perceived, Phou explores how these perceptions have shaped his relationship with himself and others. How does a marginalized person develop emotionally and build, reclaim, and express their sexuality? Drawing on various works of history, sociology, gender studies, literature, and popular culture, Phou sensitively examines various strategies developed in response to this question.
Jean-Baptiste Phou is a writer and artist born in 1981 in Paris to Chinese-Cambodian parents. He is the author of the play ‘Cambodia, Here I Am!’, performed in French and Khmer and the director of the short film ‘My Mother’s Tongue’ (2022) that received the Public’s Choice award at the 29th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema. His works explore issues of identity, exile, and the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge genocide.
Sayon Syprasoeuth is a visual artist, a community worker and activist that works connect us all. He received his Master of Fine Art from Claremont Graduate University (CGU, 2007) and is one of the four 2024 honorees whose names were added to the Harvey Milk Promenade Park for their contributions to the LGBTQ+ and Long Beach communities. He currently lives and works in Long Beach, California.
Where: Bel Canto Books, Retro Row
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2106 E 4th St Long Beach, CA 90814
Laurent Bouzereau & The de Palma Decade: Redefining Cinema with Doubles, Voyeurs, and Psychic Teens at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Laurent Bouzereau will discuss his book The de Palma Decade: Redefining Cinema with Doubles, Voyeurs, and Psychic Teens.
Journey with award-winning filmmaker and author Laurent Bouzereau through acclaimed director Brian De Palma’s renowned—and controversial—horror and thriller films that redefined cinema in the 1970s and early 80s with interviews conducted over three decades and fresh takes.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/laurent-bouzereau
Group Readers & Nerve Cowbow, Journal of Poetry Short Fiction, Art & More at Page Against the Machine, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Welcome a posse of past contributors to 𝙉𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙬𝙗𝙤𝙮, a biannual journal of poetry, short fiction, art, and music that was published as a hard copy periodical from 1996 to 2022.
Nerve Cowboy editors Jerry Hagins and Joseph Shields will be joined by SoCal contributors Suzanne Allen, Donna Hilbert, Karla Huston, Clint Margrave, Kathryn McMurray, Jenni O’Rourke, Wendy Rainey, Kevin Ridgeway, Joan Jobe Smith, Fred Voss, and Charles Webb.
The event is free and open to the public.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Page Against the Machine
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2714 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1719198502227412
Alexandra Romanoff, with Elissa Sussman, & Big Fan at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person YA Event
Alexandra Romanoff, in conversation with Elissa Sussman, will discuss her romance novel, Big Fan.
This story is a rom-com about a rising star in the political world, healing from her ex-husband’s sex scandal, now intrigued by an outreach from the leader of the boy band subject of her youth obsession.
Whiskey and refreshments will be provided by Lodestar Whiskey.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA, 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Garth Greenwell, with Colm Tóibín, & Small Rain at Skylight – In-Person Event
Garth Greenwell, in conversation with Colm Tóibín, will discuss his novel Small Rain, in partnership with The Author’s Guild Foundation.
In this novel, a medical crisis brings one man close to death—and to love, art, and beauty.
A poet’s life is turned inside out by a sudden, wrenching pain. The pain brings him to his knees, and eventually to the ICU. Confined to bed, plunged into the dysfunctional American healthcare system, he struggles to understand what is happening to his body, as someone who has lived for many years in his mind.
This is a searching, sweeping novel set at the furthest edges of human experience, where the forces that give life value—art, memory, poetry, music, care—are thrown into sharp relief. Time expands and contracts. Sudden intimacies bloom. Small Rain surges beyond the hospital to encompass a radiant vision of human life: our shared vulnerability, the limits and possibilities of sympathy, the ideal of art and the fragile dream of America. Above all, this is a love story of the most unexpected kind.
Garth Greenwell is the author of What Belongs to You, which won the British Book Award for Debut of the Year, was longlisted for the National Book Award, and was a finalist for many other awards, including the PEN/Faulkner Award, the LA Times Book Prize, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His second book, Cleanness, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and the Prix Sade, among others. A New York Times Notable Book, it was named a Best Book of 2020 by over thirty publications. His cultural criticism has appeared widely, and he writes regularly about books, music, and film for the Substack newsletter To a Green Thought. A 2020 Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the 2021 Vursell Award for prose style from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.
Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, including Long Island; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award; The Testament of Mary; and Nora Webster; as well as two story collections and several books of criticism. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and has been named as the Laureate for Irish Fiction for 2022–2024 by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Tóibín lives in Dublin and New York.
With nearly 15,000 members, the Authors Guild is the nation’s oldest and largest professional organization for published writers. It advocates on behalf of working writers to protect free speech, freedom of expression, and authors’ copyrights; fights for fair contracts and authors ability to earn a livable wage; and provides a welcoming community for writers and translators of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and journalism. Through its educational and charitable arm, the Authors Guild Foundation, it also offers free programming to teach working writers about the business of writing, as well as organizing public events that highlight the importance of a rich, diverse American literary culture and the authors who contribute to it. most unexpected kind.
Where: Skylight
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-garth-greenwell-presents-small-rain-w-colm-toibin
Lit Angels – Meditation to Fuel Your Creative Fire with Jen Becherer at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Disconnect from the stressors of daily life and turn your focus inwards to what truly matters…YOU!
If you’re feeling burnt out, stressed, or creatively un-inspired you’re not alone. Creativity cannot thrive in stress, so leave it at the door and join Village Well for a guided meditation and breath work session which will have you floating on cloud nine, and have your creative flames burning bright for days afterwards!
From Entertainment Executive to Mindful Leadership Coach, Jen helps her clients transition from burnout to living a life that’s more abundant, stress free, and on their terms. Through breathing techniques, guided visualization meditation, creative exercises, and group sessions she’s watched her clients’ limiting beliefs and creative blocks dissolve, being replaced with a renewed passion for life and their confident place of leadership within it. http://www.jenniferbecherer.com
About Lit Angels Writing Studio:
There are so many fitness classes available for the body, but what are you doing to exercise your creative mind?
Lit Angels offers classes that provide just that—a fun and freeing way to work out the creative muscles and eliminate the stumbling blocks that might be holding you back, not only in your writing, art, or performance projects, but in all areas of your life—uplifting and refreshing your mind and soul, improving relationships, work, and your outlook on the future. Taught by top-level working professionals, Lit Angels classes cultivate community and connection, something we all desperately need in these challenging times.
Come make some magic at the Village Well! All genres and levels are welcome!
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/41774
Aurélie Thiele, & The Paris Understudy at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Aurélie Thiele presents her debut novel The Paris Understudy,which brings to life the hard choices Parisians made–or failed to make–under Nazi occupation, in the tradition of Pam Jenoff and Fiona Davis.
1938. Paris Opera legend Madeleine Moreau must keep newcomer Yvonne Chevallier, whose talent she fears, off the stage. As the long-standing star of the opera, she is nowhere near ready to give up her spotlight. The perfect solution: enlist Yvonne as her understudy so she can never be upstaged. When Madeleine is invited to headline at Germany’s pre-eminent opera festival, she is sure this will cement her legacy. But war is looming, and when she learns that Adolf Hitler himself will be in attendance, she knows she’s made a grave error. As Madeleine makes a hurried escape back to France, Yvonne finds herself unexpectedly thrown into the limelight on the German stage.
When a newspaper photograph shows Hitler seemingly enraptured by Yvonne, Yvonne’s life is upended. While she is trying frantically to repair her reputation at home, Yvonne’s son is captured and held as a prisoner of war. Desperate to free her son, she makes an impossible choice: turn to the enemy.
As the Nazis invade Paris, both women must decide what they are willing to do in pursuit of their art. They form an unlikely alliance, using their fame to protect themselves and the people they love from the maelstrom of history.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/aur%C3%A9lie-thiele-discusses-paris-understudy
Celebrating the Poetry of Tyrone Williams at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Beyond Baroque presents several distinguished readers in honoring the work of Tyrone Williams.
This event celebrates Tyrone Williams and his legacy as a major poet in the contemporary American literary landscape and a beloved mentor to students, poets, and colleagues. The celebration is open to the public and features readings and commentary reflecting on Williams’ work by Will Alexander, Alan Golding, Jeanne Heuving, Aldon Lynn Nielsen, Lauri Scheyer, and Harmony Holiday.
Tyrone Williams was David Gray Chair of Poetry and Letters at University at Buffalo at the time of his passing from cancer on March 11, 2024, at age 70. As described by his Buffalo colleagues, “Professor Williams is widely regarded as one of the leading American poets of the late-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Embodying a rare combination of extraordinary brilliance and generosity, he is beloved and admired by his contemporaries, and served as an influential, adored mentor to many younger poets.” Born in Detroit, Williams earned his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in English from Wayne State University. Before assuming the Gray Chair at Buffalo, Williams was an esteemed faculty member and former English Department Chair at Xavier University in Cincinnati from 1983 to 2022. His full-length poetry collections include c.c., On Spec, As Iz, Adventures of Pi, The Hero Project of the Century, and Stilettos in a Rifle Range. His many awards and fellowships included residencies at Djerassi and Casa Libre de Solana, and the Stephen Henderson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature and Poetry from the African American Literature and Culture Society.
Livestream: If you can’t join Beyond Baroque in-person the event will be livestreamed on Beyond Baroque’s YouTube channel at the scheduled time of the event. A Link will be sent to you 24 hours prior to the event after registering.
About the authors:
Will Alexander is a writer, artist, philosopher, and pianist Will Alexander was born in Los Angeles, California in 1948 and has remained a lifetime resident of the city. He earned a BA in English and creative writing from the University of California–Los Angeles in 1972. Alexander’s over two dozen books of poetry include Across the Vapour Gulf (2017), Compression & Purity (2011), The Sri Lankan Loxodrome (2009). Alexander was a 2022 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Alan Golding is Emeritus Professor of English and former Director of the annual Literature and Culture Since 1900 Conference at the University of Louisville. He is the author of From Outlaw to Classic: Canons in American Poetry, which won a CHOICE Best Academic Book Award, and Writing Into the Future: New American Poetries from The Dial to the Digital.
Jeanne Heuving was the 2021-2022 Judith E. Wilson Fellow in Poetry, Cambridge University, UK. Her recent books include Mood Indigo, Brilliant Corners, and Indigo Angel and her-coedited book with Tyrone Williams, Inciting Poetics: Thinking and Writing Poetry and her edited volume, Nathaniel Mackey, Destination Out: Essays on His Work.
Aldon Lynn Nielsen was the first winner of the Larry Neal Award for poetry. His most recent books are Tray, You Didn’t Hear This From Me, Back Pages: Selected Poems, Sufferhead, Spider Cone and The Inside Songs of Amiri Baraka.
Lauri Scheyer is Xiaoxiang Distinguished Professor and Director of the British and American Poetry Research Center at Hunan Normal University (China). Her books include A History of African American Poetry, Slave Songs and the Birth of African American Poetry, and The Heritage Series of African American Poetry.
Harmony Holiday: earned a BA in rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley and an MFA at Columbia University. She is the author of Negro League Baseball (2011), winner of the Fence Books Motherwell Prize; Go Find your Father/A Famous Blues (Ricochet Editions, 2013), a “dos-a-dos” book featuring poetry, letters, and essays; and Hollywood Forever (Fence Books, 2017), which she is turning into an afroballet and Maafa (Fence, 2021), an exploration of reparations and the body.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Thursday, the 12th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-the-poetry-of-tyrone-williams-tickets-999730730527
Spectacular Storytime at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Spectacular Storytime is our most popular story time and is ready to delight and dazzle! This is also the prime time to see Pippi Longstocking, our bookstore cat in action.
Open to all ages. Free to attend.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Friday, the 13th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event
Current Events/Nonfiction Book Club: Why We Remember at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the Studio City Branch Library on the second Friday of every month for the current events nonfiction book club.
Participants will discuss Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory’s Power to Hold on to What Matters by author Charan Ranganath
RSVP:
Please email studio@lapl.org for participation details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday, the 13th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/current-events-nonfiction-book-club-1
Self-Care Book Club: Sacred Medicine at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Book Club participants will discuss the book Sacred Medicine: A Doctor’s Quest to Unravel the Mysteries of Healing by author Lissa Rankin, M.D.
In 2007, Lissa Rankin left a promising career in medicine to tend to her own health and well-being. Her search to discover why people really get sick and what truly optimizes health outcomes launched a bestselling book, two television specials, and a revolution in the way we look at mind-body medicine. But so many questions remained for this doctor and skeptic. How is it that some people do everything right and stay sick, while others seem to do nothing extraordinary yet fully recover? How does faith healing work—or does it? What’s behind the phenomenon of spontaneous remission—and is this something we can influence? Can we make ourselves miracle-prone?
Lissa Rankin, MD, is the star of two national public television specials and the author of seven books, including the New York Times bestselling Mind Over Medicine. Founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute, she is a physician, educator, and health-care advocate who seeks to bridge the divides between traditional medicine, complementary medicine, and cutting-edge trauma therapy. Dr. Rankin leads online training programs for medical and healing-arts professionals, as well as the public, and has offered workshops at retreat centers internationally. Her nonprofit Heal At Last seeks to provide equal access to trauma healing and spiritual practices for everyone who needs treatment. She resides in Northern California. For more, visit lissarankin.com.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Friday, the 13th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/self-care-book-club-sacred-medicine
Book Talk: Aurélie Thiele, with Catherine Schuster, & The Paris Understudy at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Aurélie Thiele, in conversation with Catherine Schuster, will discuss her novel The Paris Understudy.
1938. Paris Opera legend Madeleine Moreau must keep newcomer Yvonne Chevallier, whose talent she fears, off the stage. As the long-standing star of the opera, she is nowhere near ready to give up her spotlight. The perfect solution: enlist Yvonne as her understudy so she can never be upstaged. When Madeleine is invited to headline at Germany’s preeminent opera festival, she is sure this will cement her legacy. But war is looming, and when she learns that Adolf Hitler himself will be in attendance, she knows she’s made a grave error. As Madeleine makes a hurried escape back to France, Yvonne finds herself unexpectedly thrown into the limelight on the German stage.
Painting an enrapturing portrait of resilient wartime women, The Paris Understudy is a love letter to the arts and a stark depiction of the choices we make to survive, for fans of Kate Quinn and Kristen Harmel.
Aurélie Thiele is French American and lives in Dallas, Texas. She has studied writing at the UCLA Extension School and Bennington Writing Seminars.
Catherine Schuster writes flash fiction and is working on her first novel. She has been published in Active Muse and Flash Fiction Magazine, occasionally posts on Medium, was nominated for a 2023 Pushcart Prize, and teaches creative writing at the Writers Studio. She will complete her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars in January 2025. She reads like a crazy person, is happily manipulated by her 100 pound Black Russian terrier, Angel, and lives walking distance from Chevalier’s.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Friday, the 13th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com
Swing Set Open Mic at The Center, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Swing Set is back. It’s time to join in community for another Swing Set Open Mic night @centerlb
They’re calling all poets, musicians, comedians, storytellers for another magical night. Performers and artists of all kinds, come through!
Swing Set isn’t just about performance—It’s about real connection and finding mirrors in the people all around you. They’re so excited to share space with everyone again.
RSVP via the Eventbrite link in our bio. Starts at 6:30pm. Performance sign-ups (and vibes) start at 6!
Swipe and visit Eventbrite for more information. Feel free to DM Swing Set any questions.
SIGN UP: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/swing-set-open-mic-64793621533
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: The Center Long Beach
Date: Friday, the 13th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 2017 E 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/
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
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Confidential Coffee
Date: Friday, the 13th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 137 W 6th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/ or https://www.instagram.com/thrivalopenmic/
Billie Lee & Why Are You So Sensitive? at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Billie Lee will discuss her book Why Are You So Sensitive?: Navigating Everyday, Unintended Microaggressions.
This book is a lively, engaging, and honest look at microaggressions told from a variety of different perspectives—and what we can do about them
In Why Are You So Sensitive?, the author shares stories of microaggressions she’s both received and committed, alongside an all-star list of contributors from different backgrounds including Brian Michael Smith and Jacob Tobia. Psychologist and microaggression expert Dr. Gina Torino provides analysis and advice to help readers better understand the underlying dynamics at play and simple ways to reduce harm in their own interactions.
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday, the 13th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/billie-lee
Author Panel: Trinity Nguyen, Brandon Hoang, Marie Lu and Dahlia De La Vega at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Celebrate the new releases by authors Trinity Nguyen, Brandon Hoang, Marie Lu and Dahlia De La Vega.
Trinity Nguyen presents A Bahn Mi for Two.
Brandon Hoang presents his debutGloria Buenrostro Is Not My Girlfriend.
Marie Lu is the author of the Legend series, The Young Elites trilogy, the Warcross series, the Skyhunter series, Batman Nighwalker, and the Kingdom of Back.
Dahlia De La Vega is the LA-based bookstagrammer and book reviewer behind ofpagesandprint on social media.
There will be a signing following the conversation. This is a ticketed event.
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Friday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Charlotte Shane, with Ann Friedman, & An Honest Woman at Skylight – In-Person Event
Charlotte Shane, in conversation with Ann Friedman, will discuss her book An Honest Woman: A Memoir of Love and Sex Work.
Through the lens of her years spent as a sex worker, Charlotte Shane offers a provocative and tender reckoning of what it means to be a heterosexual woman and a feminist in a misogynistic society.
In her early twenties, Charlotte Shane quit her women’s studies graduate program to devote herself to sex work because it was a way to devote herself to men. Her lifelong curiosity about male lust, love, selfishness, and social capital dovetailed with her own insatiable desire for intimacy to sustain a long career in escorting, with unexpectedly poignant results.
Braiding the personal and the universal, Shane’s memoir is a merciless and moving love letter to straight men and an indictment of habitual dishonesty, a condemnation of every social constraint acting on heterosexual unions, and a hopeful affirmation of the possibility for true connection between men and women.
Charlotte Shane is a nonfiction author and essayist. She is the author of Prostitute Laundry and N.B., both published by TigerBee Press, which she cofounded in 2015. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, The Nation, Bookforum, Harper’s, Sports Illustrated, and elsewhere.
Ann Friedman is a journalist, essayist, and co-author of the best-selling book Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close. She co-created and co-hosted the podcast Call Your Girlfriend. You can find her writing in The Cut, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and ELLE, and she is a contributing editor to The Gentlewoman. Her next book, about modern adulthood, will be published by Viking Books. Read her work and subscribe to her popular weekly newsletter at annfriedman.com.
Where: Skylight
Date: Friday, the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-charlotte-shane-presents-honest-woman-w-ann-friedman
Open Mic Night at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Calling all musicians, poets, authors, and comedians for our bi-monthly open mic night!
This all-inclusive event will create space for local artists of any medium to share their talents with the community. Come hang out, as an audience member, or a performer, and meet some talented locals!
Sign-ups for performers are at the door, day of, 30 minutes prior to the event. Sets are limited to 5-10 minutes. All performances must be family friendly.
We will provide two microphones and two mic stands. Please bring any other equipment you will need.
This event is free, no registration is required!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday, the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/40555
Désirée Zamorano, with Naomi Hirahara, & Dispossessed at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Désirée Zamorano, in conversation with Naomi Hirahara, will discuss Dispossessed.
Manuel Galvan is separated from his parents and sister during the mass expatriation of Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the 1930s. He grows from a small, lost and confused boy into a wandering and angry teenager pushed out of high school and into the dockyards. Later as a loyal, passionate husband he is a man searching for a life of value and dignity despite his losses. Set against the backdrop of (Mexican) American history in Los Angeles, forced deportations, the demolition of Chavez Ravine, sterilization of Latinas, student protests and rising political consciousness, this story spans his life, from 6 to 60, and his search for his missing family, the missing pieces of his life.
Désirée Zamorano is the author of the highly acclaimed literary novel, The Amado Women. Her novel Human Cargo was Latinidad’s mystery pick of the year. She is a Pushcart prize nominee and award-winning short story writer. Her work is often an exploration of issues of invisibility, injustice, or inequity. A selection of her writing can be found in Catapult, Cultural Weekly, The Kenyon Review Online, and Akashic’ s South Central Noir. She teaches linguistic and cultural diversity at Cal State Long Beach.
Naomi Hirahara is the Edgar® Award-winning author of the Officer Ellie Rush Mysteries, including Grave on Grand Avenue and Murder on Bamboo Lane (which received the T. Jefferson Parker Mystery Award). Born and raised in Pasadena, Naomi received her bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University and studied at the Inter-University Center for Advanced Japanese Language Studies in Tokyo. She worked as a reporter and editor of The Rafu Shimpo in downtown Los Angeles. She is also the author of the Mas Arai Mysteries (including Summer of the Big Bachi, Gasa-Gasa Girl, and Snakeskin Shamisen) and the middle-grade novel 1001 Cranes, and has written, edited, and published several nonfiction books, largely about the Japanese American experience.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday, the 13th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/desiree-zamorano-discuss-dispossessed
Latin América: A Spoken Word Play at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
Witness a talented group of directors, writers, actors, and more perform Latin América, A Spoken Word Show. This production shines a spotlight on different stories embracing Latino/a/e/x heritage and culture through various forms of spoken word poetry and music.
Produced by Alegría Publishing, Latin América, A Spoken Word Show invites you as an audience member to reflect on what it means to be an artist of color in today’s world, and the beauty and power of embracing our unique stories.
Travel on an emotional journey throughout the show, guided by both seasoned performers and new emerging talent like Emanuel Loarca, Davina Ferreira, Franceli Chapman, Iyari Arteaga, Lisbeth Coiman, Jean-Pierre Rueda, Alegría Zuluaga, Diana Medina, and Virginia Bulacio, and a musical performance by Juan Cardenas. From laughter to tears, join Beyond Baroque for an evening of theater, community, and music in the Wanda Coleman Theater!
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday, the 13th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/latin-america-a-spoken-word-play-tickets-996659855457?aff=oddtdtcreator
How to Get Started Writing When You Don’t Know Where to Start with Renee Gurley via Inlandia Institute – Online Event
(All levels)
Alternating Saturdays, 9/14, 9/28, 10/12, 10/26, and 11/9/24, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM PT, on Zoom.
$50. Registration required.
To register: https://tinyurl.com/Fall2024CWW
Do you want to start writing, but don’t know where to begin? Let Renee Gurley show you the way! Learn how to get your thoughts down on paper and expand them into clear ideas. Explore the basics of structure, language use, point of view, story, memoir, and more. “How to Get Started Writing When You Don’t Know Where to Start” will give you concrete tools to help you become the writer you’ve always wanted to be. Beginning and aspiring writers welcome!
Renee Gurley, MA, MFA, is a writer and English teacher with over 20 years of experience with words, whose works have appeared in Coping Magazine, Lehigh Valley Woman’s Journal, and Budget Press.
Where: Inlandia Institute
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 10 am – 12 pm
Address: Online Event
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/events/
East Los Angeles Book Festival with Los Angeles Poet Society at East Los Angeles Civic Center – In-Person Event
The Los Angeles Poet Society is honored to join the celebrations at the East Los Book Festival! They are planning to bring their typewriters and their authors! Join them at the LA Poet Society table for some custom poems—just for you!
Also, performing at the event are:
Jessica M. Wilson, Mauricio Moreno “Soul on Fire”, Angelica Sanchez, Sol Qari, Lupe Montiel and more!
Catch the show, stay for the books and the community!
Where: East Los Angeles Civic Center
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 10 am – 4 pm
Address: 4801 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90022
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/C_qoL5gtAcz/
Book Club: The Marriage Portrait at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Read the book and join the Westwood Branch Library lively discussion!
Participants will discuss The Marriage Portrait by author Maggie O’Farrel.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 11 am
Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-3
Table Reading: What Is Freedom? at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Live YouTube Hybrid Event
Join Beyond Baroque for a session of careful, attentive live reading and interpretation of “What Is Freedom?” from Between Past and Future by Hannah Arendt. This reading is the 15th installment of a series of Table Reading sessions as part of the Fred Rogers Dewey Legacy Project (FRDLP), hosted by Renée Petropoulos. This project involves participants reading aloud around a table and interpreting the text as each pulls meaning from it. There is no need to read anything ahead of time—the text will be passed out at the table. Just come, sit, and read with them.
NOTE: See site for further details and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 11 am
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html
Special Author Event: James Ponti, with Stuart Gibbs, & The Sherlock Society at pages: a bookstore – In-Person MG Event
Join pages: a bookstore to hear children’s author James Ponti, in conversation with Stuart Gibbs, about his new middle grade novel The Sherlock Society.
In the tradition of Nancy Drew, four kids and one grandfather in Miami tackle a decades-old mystery in this first book in the action-packed and funny Sherlock Society middle grade series from New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award–winning author James Ponti!
Please RSVP at site.
Where: pages: a bookstore (in the Courtyard)
Date: Saturday the 14th
Time: 11 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/special-author-visit-james-ponti-conversation-stuart-gibbs
Kids Storytime with Janet Zappala at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join Village Well every Wednesday and Saturday for a storytime amongst the cozy bookstacks of Village Well!
We’re happy to welcome children’s author and six-time Emmy Award-winner Janet Zappala, whose book Guapo’s Giant Heart is the recipient of the 2022 Moonbeam Silver Medal and 2022 Story Monsters Approved Picture Books awards. Her newest picture book release, Guapo’s Great Rescue, was recently honored with the 2024 Family Choice Award.
Reserve a spot on EVENTBRITE!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/41725
Special Storytime: Linda Lu & Sour Apple at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Linda Lu presents her children’s picture book Sour Apple,which is about an apple who learns the importance of self-acceptance and patience after being left behind during picking season..
Ever been picked last? Well, this sour apple knows a thing or two about what it feels like to be forgotten. When apple season passes and he’s left on the cold, hard ground, he questions his place in the world.
As his introspection branches out into different ideas of what could have been if he was chosen, he learns some core truths about what it means to be alive.
Linda Liu is an illustrator and a designer based in Southern California with a taste for tactile textures, saucy shapes, and palatable palettes. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and now works freelance and full-time so she can be a girl boss and a girl employee at the same time. She is the author and illustrator of Hidden Gem and Sour Apple.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/storytime-featuring-linda-liu-discussing-sour-apple
Book Launch: Barney Saltzberg & The Smell of Wet Dog at Children’s Book World – In-Person Kids Event
Barney Saltzberg presents a book launch and pet poetry slam for his book The Smell of Wet Dog.
Equal parts heart-melting and stinky, The Smell of Wet Dog is a must-have illustrated poetry book for every young canine fan. Beloved author and illustrator Barney Saltzberg offers up twenty-seven poems on the evergreen topic of human’s best friend. Many have all the humor of a Shel Silverstein classic. Others are unexpectedly poignant, about separation anxiety or older dogs growing less spry. All are accompanied by Saltzberg’s lively and loveable artwork. Whether you are a dog lover, love a dog lover, or are simply dog-curious, The Smell of Wet Dog is for someone in your life. One thing’s for sure: You’ll leave this book inspired to write an ode to a furry friend of your own!
Barney Saltzberg is the bestselling author of over 40 books for children, including One of These is Not Like the Others, Hug This Book, Beautiful Oops! and the Animal Kisses series, with over 800,000 copies in print. He has also recorded four albums of songs for children. He lives in Los Angeles.
Where: Children’s Book World
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 12:30 pm
Address: 10580 ½ W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064
SoCal Manga Book Club: Half-Known Life at Little Tokyo Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
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.
Where: Little Tokyo Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: 203 S. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/socal-manga-book-club
Fail-a-bration Storytime at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
We’ll be reading the picture book Fail-a-bration by Brad and Kristi Montague (out on 9/10)!
You are cordially invited to a giant fail-a-bration party! Bring with you the cake that came out lopsided, the spelling test mistakes, or the plant that died.
Brad and Kristi Montague have started a movement for kids and adults alike to celebrate the way failing actually means you tried and learned something. Failing doesn’t have to be bad! It’s just part of the process of learning to do something better.
So if you missed the goal during that soccer game or burned thecookies, put on a party hat and join the fail-a-bration, to let the fail fires light the way to success!
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/fail-bration-storytime
17 Place Vendôme by Vincent Johnson: A Visual Lecture with the Artist at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event
In the Spring of 2024, Beyond Baroque presented 17 Place Vendôme, an exhibition at The Mike Kelley Gallery produced by Vincent Johnson and co-curated in collaboration with Renée Petropolous.
Artist Vincent Johnson comes back for a lecture in the Wanda Coleman Theater presenting further research spanning from the 17th century to the 1930s that investigates the foundations of the modern art world in the brutality of the slave trade.
The original exhibition, 17 Place Vendôme took its name from the home of the leading gallery for 20th century European Modernism when it opened in 1939, backed by Andre Malraux and Jean Paul Sartre with catalog essays by Andre Breton. Both the history of the physical address, and the arts ecosystem it housed, cannot be separated from the slave trade. 17 Place Vendôme had been the late 17th century palace of Antoine Crozat, the wealthiest slave owner in French history and the country’s first billionaire. His younger brother, Pierre Crozat, was a connoisseur and patron of art, and acquired the art collection that formed the core of the paintings collection in the Hermitage after being purchased by Catherine the Great. Meanwhile, the catalog raisonné was invented in the Pierre Crozat palatial dwelling in Paris, while conversations about art moved from the Palace of Versailles to Pierre’s.
Through wide-ranging scholarship and a series of collages, Johnson resituates the social, financial, intellectual, and physical architecture of Western Art in the profound violence enacted by European and North American slavers.
NOTE: See site for further details and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
Queer and Trans YA Author Showcase at Will & Ariel Durant Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Hear about and browse recently published YA books by queer and trans authors; share your own favorites, chat, and eat snacks!.
Where: Will & Ariel Durant Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 7140 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/queer-and-trans-ya-author-showcase
Kids Book Club: Wolfish at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Participants will discuss Wolfish by Christiane M. Andrews, an adventurous fantasy inspired by the myth of twin boys Romulus and Remus.
Inspired by Roman mythology, this mysterious and uniquely magical adventure explores the intricate roles of nature and fate in our lives, the power of language to shape our world, and the boundless importance of love and kindness.
Christiane M. Andrews is the author of the highly acclaimed Wolfish and Spindlefish and Stars. A longtime writing and literature instructor, she lives with her husband and son and a small clutch of animals on an old New Hampshire hilltop farm. She invites you to visit her online at cmandrews.com.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/kids-book-club-wolfish
Lit Angels – YA/Middle Grade Workshop with Tim Cummings at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Tim Cummings will lead a YA/MG writing workshop on Finding the Structure for the Story You Want to Tell.
How do I structure my novel when so many ways exist? The Classic Story Structure, The Hero’s Journey, The Seven-Point Structure, The Kishotenketsu Method, The Three-Act Structure, The Snowflake Method, A Disturbance and Two Doors, The Story Circle, Freytag’s Pyramid, Fichtean Curve…are you kidding? Is any better than the other? And, why are they all…kind of the same?
Tim Cummings is the author of the best-selling coming-of-age novel Alice the Cat, published in May of 2023 by Fitzroy Books. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. Recent publications include F(r)iction, Scare Street, Lunch Ticket, MeowMeow PowPow, From Whispers to Roars, Drunk Monkeys, Hare’s Paw, and Critical Read/RAFT, for which he won the ‘Origins’ contest for his essay “You Have Changed Me Forever.” He teaches writing for UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, The Townies Inc in Ojai, runs private workshops, and coaches authors.
Reserve a spot on EVENTBRITE!
NOTE: See site for cost, details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/41778
Book Club Discussion: Black Cake at North Hollywood Branch Library – In-Person Event
Join our monthly book discussion, held on the second Saturday of each month. The discussion will be led by a different member of our staff and the book of their choice. Pick up the next book a month before the discussion. Check out Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson and join the discussion on September 14.
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson is a historical fiction novel about two estranged siblings, Byron and Benny, who inherit a traditional Caribbean black cake and a voice recording from their mother, Eleanor, after her death in California.
Where: North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 5211 Tujunga Ave., North Hollywood, CA 91601
Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/september-book-discussion
Saturday Afternoon Poetry Deep Critique Writing Workshop via Zoom Online Event
Deep Critique Workshop led by DKC (Submit up to 3 poems totaling no more than 150 lines including the subject of or at least mentioning bitter or sweet for Four Feathers Press online edition: Bitter Sweet by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59pm, September 20th).
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (See site)
Website: https://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Tuesday Night Project (TNP) Jubilee at Tersaki Budokan – In-Person Event
Join this mini-fest and fundraiser for Tuesday Night Project, celebrating 25 years of art & community. Highlighting Asian American writers.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Terasaki Budokan
Date: Saturday the 14th
Time: 4 pm – 9 pm
Address: Check site to verify.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/photo
Local Author Book Launch: David A. Romero, with Rich Ferguson, Susan Hayden, Brian Sonia-Wallace, and Ellen Webre, & Diamond Bars 2 at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Author, poet, and spoken word artist David A. Romero launches his new semi-autobiographical novel in verse, Diamond Bars 2, with special guests from Moon Tide Press!
Join Village Well for a reading and signing.
Get your tickets on EVENTBRITE!
The long-awaited sequel to the nationally-touring spoken word artist David A. Romero’s full-length poetry debut Diamond Bars: The Street Version, Diamond Bars 2 is a novel in verse—a semi-autobiographical year-in-the-life of a poet protagonist working through grief, dealing with alcoholism, and coping with the fact that being a professional poet might not be all it’s cracked up to be. Poems blend fact with fiction, serving up picaresque tales with recurring characters living out their own kind of limbo in Diamond Bar and its neighboring cities. This direct follow-up to My Name Is Romero mixes the author’s trademark humor with some philosophy and soul-searching. A love letter to his hometown, Diamond Bars 2 paints vibrant portraits and landscapes of people and places known by the author; some long gone.
David A. Romero is a Mexican American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of El Martillo Press. Romero has received honorariums from nearly a hundred colleges and universities in the USA and has performed live in Mexico, Italy, and France.
Former US Beat Poet Laureate Rich Ferguson has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Wanda Coleman, Moby, and other esteemed poets and musicians. He is the author of Everything Is Radiant Between the Hates (Moon Tide Press, 2020) and is the co-editor of Beat Not Beat (Moon Tide Press, 2022).
Susan Hayden is the author of Now You Are a Missing Person, a lyrical memoir in poems, stories and fragments. Published by Moon Tide Press in 2023, the book received a starred review from Kirkus. She is the creator, curator and producer of Library Girl, a monthly literary series.
Brian Sonia-Wallace has been described as a “creative genius” by the LA’s Department of Cultural Affairs and “disappointingly normal” by the New York Times. Sonia-Wallace is the fourth poet laureate of the city of West Hollywood. He is the author of Maze Mouth (Moon Tide Press, 2023).
Ellen Webre is a poet and social media specialist for Two Idiots Peddling Poetry and Moon Tide Press. She is a recent graduate of UCI’s Masters in Teaching program, and has a BA in screenwriting from Chapman University. She is theauthor of A Burning Lake of Paper Suns (Moon Tide Press 2021).
NOTE: See site for guidelines and details.
Get your tickets on EVENTBRITE!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/41722
Mics That Matter at The City Centre SB – In-Person Event
Join Mics That Matter for stories of hope, homage, and survival.
Featuring: Demetri, Kelly, Treesje Thomas, James Coats, and Brandon Allen.
NOTE: See site for details. Admission is free.
Where: The City Centre SB
Date: Saturday the 14th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 455 W. 4th St., Suite B, San Bernardino, CA 92401
Website: N/A
The NEW Series: K-Ming Chang, Joseph Rios, & Michelle Tea at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Livestream Event
Beyond Baroque presents an exceptional evening of multidisciplinary work commissioned by Beyond Baroque and debuting new commissioned writing from nine authors through Fall 2024.
Across three installments, an entirely different set of authors respond to one unique theme for the evening. For the first installment, writers K-Ming Chang, Joseph Rios, and Michelle Tea respond to the theme, In Transit.
Before and after the readings, Long Beach sensation, DJ Ziba Z, will be spinning tunes for the night. Latest book titles from the authors will be available for purchase & author signings at the Scott Wannberg Bookstore & Lounge.
K-Ming Chang is a Lambda Literary Award winner, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, and an O. Henry Prize Winner. She is the author of the New York Times Book Review Editors’ choice novel BESTIARY (One World/Random House, 2020), which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and the Otherwise Award. In 2021, her chapbook BONE HOUSE was published by Bull City Press. Her latest books are ORGAN MEATS (One World, 2023) and a novella titled CECILIA (Coffee House Press, 2024).
Joseph Rios was born in the San Joaquin Valley in 1987. He is a Xicano writer and the author of Shadowboxing: Poems & Impersonations (Omnidawn, 2017), winner of a 2018 American Book Award. A Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University, Rios is the recipient of scholarships and fellowships from Community of Writers, CantoMundo, Letras Latinas, and the California Arts Council. Rios lives on Yokuts land in Fresno, California, where he serves as poet laureate. In 2024, he received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.
Michelle Tea is the author of over a dozen books of memoir, fiction, poetry and children’s lit — including her latest, Knocking Myself Up. Her memoir Valencia won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction, even though it was obviously all true. It was also made into a sprawling, feature-length art film using nearly 20 different directors and different Michelles. Her recent-ish essay collection, Against Memoir, was awarded the PEN/America Diamonstein-Speilvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. She is also the recipient of the legendary Rona Jaffe Awards, and a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow.
DJ Ziba Z hosts a weekly two hour public radio show on KLBP 99.1FM in Long Beach, California Sundays from 2-4pm! Archives of the show can be heard on MixCloud.com/DJZibaZ. DJ Ziba Z started her radio show career on college radio at KUCI 88.9FM in Irvine in the year 2000. Ziba now spins mostly vinyl and can be seen spinning monthly at the Pike Bar off 4th or at her day job as a public librarian in Pacific Palisades. In her spare time Ziba makes ZebraRadar Zine and helps to organize L.A. Zine Fest.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday, the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
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 14th
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
The Melrose Trading Post is a pioneering arts-based marketplace held every Sunday at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, CA with 275 local creative small business vendors, delicious food booths and local live music.
MTP was founded in 1997 with a mission to champion small businesses, art and community. The market funds Greenway Arts Alliance’s arts education programming and provides employment and leadership development opportunities for students at Fairfax High School.
NOTE: Check every Sunday for story time and reading events
Where: Melrose Trading Post, Greenway Main Stage at Fairfax HS
Date: Sunday, the 15th (Every Sunday)
Time: 10 am – 5 pm
Address: 7850 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046
Website: https://melrosetradingpost.org/tickets/
Mindful Morning Journaling Workshop at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Growth Club is a dynamic community for high achievers redefining success on their terms.
Join Village Well for a weekly journaling event to reflect, write, and connect with our inner selves and each other. Designed for those who seek to slow down and find clarity in the chaos of everyday life.
We’ll guide you through prompts that inspire deep introspection and personal growth. Whether you’re a seasoned journaler or new to this practice, this event is a safe haven to express your thoughts, set intentions and uncover the wisdom within.
Reserve a spot on EVENTBRITE!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday, the 15th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/41711
Hispanic Heritage Month with Lil’ Libros and Lauren Snachez at Vroman’s – In-Person Event (Check availability)
Join Vroman’s as we celebrate the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month with Lauren Sánchez and Patty Rodriguez from Lil’ Libros as well as four of their amazing authors! This fun filled afternoon will give you a chance to hear from authors, listen to Storytime, get your books signed, and other fun activities for kids.
First, we welcome our friends from Lil’ Libros as we are joined by an amazing panel: Cindy Montenegro (author My Mind is a Mountain / Mi mente es una montaña), Mariana Galvez (author/illustrator My Pet Flamingo), CHOGRIN (author Kid del Toro), and Cynthia Gonzalez (author The Life of / La vida de Llort). The panel will discuss their books before we have a Special Storytime.
After that we will welcome Lauren Sánchez as she discusses her new book The Fly Who Flew to Space with co-founder of Lil’ Libros, Patty Rodriguez. Following their conversation, we will have another special storytime with Lauren!
To finish off the event attendees will have a chance to get your book signed by the authors and head down to our outside Paseo for some fun kids’ activities!
Please register through Eventbrite as there is limited seating in our upstairs event space. Registration is free, but please note registration does not guarantee seating, it is first come, first served. There will be an overflow line for anyone who wants to participate in the signing but was not able to RSVP in time.
NOTE: Event SOLD OUT online. Check for availability.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Sunday, the 15th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91001
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com
Banned Books Reading Group at West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library LAPL – In-Person Event
The banned books reading group will be reading materials that have been historically challenged or are on the American Library Association’s current challenge list. For current titles, please contact the West LA library at westla@lapl.org or 310-575-8323.
Where: West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Sunday, the 15th
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 11360 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90025
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/banned-books-reading-group
Bucket List Book Club: Lolita at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel Lolotia by author Vladimir Nabokov.
The most famous and controversial novel from one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century tells the story of Humbert Humbert’s obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze.
Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1899. After studying French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, he launched his literary career in Berlin and Paris. In 1940 he moved to the United States, here he achieved renown as a novelist, poet, critic, and translator. Lolita, arguably his most famous novel, was first published, by the Olympia Press, Paris, on September 15, 1955, and became a controversial success. Nabokov died in Montreux Switzerland in 1977.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday, the 15th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/bucket-list-book-club-lolitato
Celebrating Latinx Poetry at Bel Canto Books – In-Person Event
Join Bel Canto Books for Celebrating Latinx Poetry with liz gonzalez, Mia Amore Del Bando, Xochitl-Julisa Beremejo + more at KUBO, LB.
In honor of Latinx Heritage Month, our panel of poets include: liz Gonzalez, author of Dancing in the Santa Ana Winds: Poems y Cuentos New and Selected; Mia Amore Del Bando author of Fragments of a Woman’s Brian; Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo author of Incantation: Love Poems For Battle Sites; and more!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Bel Canto Books
Date: Sunday, the15th
Time: 4 pm – 6 pm
Address: 3976 Atlantic Ave, Long Beach, CA 90807
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-latinx-poetry-tickets-1001461607627
Speech Bubble Comics Club at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Join North Figueroa Bookshop for Speech Bubble Comics Club, hosted by Jordan Navarro aka @navasketch!
This month we are reading THE HARD SWITCH by Owen Pomeroy.
Ada, Haika, and Mallic are on a mission…one last mission, before everything, everywhere shuts down. They’re raiding old, abandoned spaceships and wrecks for the (sometimes-expensive) parts – and they make just enough money to get by. But living their nomadic, exploring life isn’t sustainable when they can’t afford fuel anymore.
The time is coming when the mineral that makes inter-system jumps possible runs out. When it does, the scattered inhabitants of the vast galaxy will be stuck where they are. Everything will be different . . . unless the discovery in the latest wreck Ada, Haika, and Mallic are scavenging can unlock a whole new kind of interstellar transit.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Sunday, the 15th
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-m0bkevz5
Focus on Craft Book Club: A Love Song for Ricki Wilde at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
September’s Focus on Craft Book Club is led by developmental editor and teacher Jeanne De Vita, and participants will discuss the novel A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by author Tia Williams.
Everyone is welcome!
NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 15th
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 