Philosophical Horror Book Club: The Eyes Are the Best Part at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss The Eyes Are the Best Part by author Monika Kim.
A novel about a young woman unraveling, Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are the Best Part is a story of a family falling apart and trying to find their way back to each other, marking a bold new voice in horror that will leave readers mesmerized and craving more.
Monika Kim is a second-generation Korean American living in Los Angeles’ Koreatown. She learned about eating fish eyes from her mother, who immigrated to Los Angeles from Seoul in 1985. The Eyes are the Best Part is her first novel and you can find her at monika-kim.com
Where: Cellar Door Books
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/philosophical-horror-book-club-eyes-are-best-part
All Genres Workshop with James Coats via Inlandia Institute – Online Event
Alternating Mondays, 1/6, 1/20, 2/3, 2/17, and 3/3/2025, 6:00-8:00 pm PT, on Zoom.
$50. Registration required. https://tinyurl.com/Winter2025CWW
In this multi-genre workshop, participants submit poetry and prose for critique. Discussions include the craft of writing and the challenges writers face.
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.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Inlandia Institute
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/my-calendar/?mc_id=2465
Vulnerability as a Superpower: 4 Session Writing Workshop with Yesika Salgado – Online Zoom Event
This is a self-produced workshop emphasizing price accessibility for community members.
Folks affected by LA Fires Register for FREE.
$150 Registration. Email tothebloomworkshop@gmail.com.
See site for details.
Where: Yesika Salgado Online
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.instagram.com/yesikastarr/p/DFvOQpEpslD/?img_index=1
Mics and Mugs Open Mic: Every Monday Night at Equator Coffees – In-Person Event
Mics and Mugs Open Mic is offered every Monday Night at Equator Coffees Culver City.
See site for details.
2 Item purchase per person.
Where: Equator Coffees
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 8900 Venice Blvd., #105, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.instagram.com
R.U.P.O. Open Mic at Back to the Grind in Riverside – In-Person Event
RUPO Open Mic is every Monday Night at Back to the Grind in Riverside.
Every Monday at 7 pm to 9 pm. Sign-ups are at 6:30 pm 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 17th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Website: https://www.facebook.com/backtothegrind
Emma Ruth Rundle & The Bella Vista at Skylight – In-Person Event
Emma Ruth Rundle will present her collection of poems, The Bella Vista.
Written on the road and in the air between tour locations, the chronological, self-referential poems of The Bella Vista follow a relationship from its enthralling genesis through its twisted convulsions and the devastation of its dissolution; culminating, eventually, with a sort of peace.
The collection is a concept album, an addiction memoir, a family tree, and a love letter all at once—to music, mistakes, and womanhood; to cross-country drives and other artists and the long road to finding oneself.
Emma Ruth Rundle is an internationally recognized musician and a multi-disciplinary artist: a painter, director, and poet. She has released 6 full-length solo albums and collaborated with other artists such as Dylan Carlson of Earth, Chelsea Wolfe, Thou, and others. Her music has been described as a hybrid of folk, ambient noise, and metal; as well as “patiently haunting” (New York Times), “swelling with gothic drama” (Pitchfork), and “starkly beautiful” (The Guardian). She was the first female curator of the Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands and has performed extensively all over the western world. She has had two solo exhibitions of her artwork (On Dark Horses at Ars Memoria, Chicago 2018; Dowsing Voice at Lethal Amounts, Los Angeles 2022) and has published poetry in The Heartworm Reader and in Sad Happens, an anthology by Brandon Stosuy.
Where: Skylight
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-emma-ruth-rundle-presents-bella-vista
Alejandro Heredia, with Myriam Gurba, & LOCA at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
It’s 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he’s held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she’d escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo’s worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other.
Loca follows one daring year in the lives of young people living at the edge of their own patience and desires. With expansive grace, it reveals both the grueling conditions that force people to migrate and the possibility of friendship as home when family, nations, and identity groups fall short.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Monday Night Fiction Workshop via 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 Literary Arts Center – Online event
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/calendar.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-1246047243849
Under Mic Influence: Featured Readings & Open Mic at LB Unified – In-Person Event
If you need an open mic, beautiful people, tasty eats, dope inspiration, good libations, and good vibrations, we have you covered!
Join host Kuahmel Alyeeus KuahAllah and @djkevjam for poetry, Open Mic, rare grooves, cocktails, tasty bites.
Every 1st & 3rd Monday of the month.
Featured guest TBA.
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: LB Unified
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm (Doors at 7:30 pm)
Address: 2222 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach, CA 90804
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/under-mic-influence-tickets-595248092067
Lit Angels: Healing Through Writing with Francesca Lia Block at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Let Francesca help you with all aspects of your writing!
Francesca Lia Block is the author of more than thirty books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association, and from the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, and PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY. Currently she teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, Pocket MFA, and numerous workshops across the country. Francesca also edits LIT ANGELS, a literary journal available on Substack. Her latest novel is HOUSE OF HEARTS now out in paper ack. https://www.francescaliablock.com/
Note: Please RSVP at site.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/1816320250218
Virtual Book Club: Colored Television at La Crescenta Library, LACL – Online Event
Join us for a weekly discussion on Zoom of Colored Television by Danzi Senna to celebrate African American & Black History Month.
A brilliant dark comedy about second acts, creative appropriation, and the racial identity-industrial complex Jane has high hopes her life is about to turn around. After years of living precariously, she, her painter husband, Lenny, and their two kids have landed a stint as house sitters in a friend’s luxurious home high in the hills above Los Angeles, a gig that coincides magically with Jane’s sabbatical. If she can just finish her latest novel, Nusu Nusu, the centuries-spanning epic Lenny refers to as her “mulatto War and Peace,” she’ll have tenure and some semblance of stability and success within her grasp. But things don’t work out quite as hoped. In search of a plan B, like countless writers before her Jane turns her desperate gaze to Hollywood. When she finagles a meeting with a hot young producer with a seven-figure deal to create “diverse content” for a streaming network, he seems excited to work with a “real writer” to create what he envisions as the greatest biracial comedy ever to hit the small screen. Things finally seem to be going right for Jane—until they go terribly wrong.
Please contact Marta Wiggins at mwiggins@library.lacounty.gov for more information and the link to the Zoom Meeting.
Where: La Crescenta Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/12859675
Author Talk: Lee Hawkins & I Am Nobody’s Slave via Virtual Program, LACL – Online Event
Join journalist and author Lee Hawkins as he talks to us about the examination of his family’s legacy of post-enslavement trauma and resilience in this riveting memoir, I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free.
I Am Nobody’s Slave tells the story of one Black family’s pursuit of the American Dream through the impacts of systemic racism and racial violence. This book examines how trauma from enslavement and Jim Crow shaped their outlook on thriving in America, influenced each generation, and how they succeeded despite these challenges.
To their suburban Minnesotan neighbors, the Hawkinses were an ideal American family, embodying strength and success. However, behind closed doors, they faced the legacy of enslavement and apartheid. Lee Hawkins, Sr. often exhibited rage, leaving his children anxious and curious about his protective view of the world. Thirty years later, his son uncovered the reasons for his father’s anxiety and occasional violence. Through research, he discovered violent deaths in his family for every generation since slavery, mostly due to white-on-Black murders, and how white enslavers impacted the family’s customs.
Hawkins explores the role of racism-triggered childhood trauma and chronic stress in shortening his ancestors’ lives, using genetic testing, reporting, and historical data to craft a moving family portrait. This book shows how genealogical research can educate and heal Americans of all races, revealing through their story the story of America—a journey of struggle, resilience, and the heavy cost of ultimate success. Register today to join the conversation!
About the Author: Lee Hawkins was a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist as a lead reporter on a series about the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 at the Wall Street Journal, where he worked for nineteen years. He has received several fellowships, including The Carter Center’s Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism, the Alicia Patterson Foundation Journalism Fellowship, the O’Brien Fellowship for Public Service Journalism, the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism National Fellowship for reporting on child well-being. Hawkins is a five-time winner of the National Association of Black Journalists’ “Salute to Excellence” Award. He is the creator and host of the podcast “What Happened in Alabama?” and lives in the New York City area.
Where: Virtual Program, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/12511326
Celina’s Scribes with Wil Clarke via Inlandia Institute – Online Event
Tuesdays, beginning 1/7/25, 11:30 am – 1:00 am PT, on Zoom.
Free. Registration required. https://tinyurl.com/Winter2025CWW
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 enjoys writing memoirs of his various experiences. His motto is, “You only live life once, so you may as well enjoy it the first time around and do all the good you can.”
Where: Inlandia Institute
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 11:30 am – 1 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/my-calendar/?mc_id=2493
Books and Bagels: Erasure at Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us on the third Tuesday of each month for fresh-baked bagels, coffee, tea, and a thoughtful discussion of the current selection, and share other great books with the group. New members welcome! Copies are available at the front desk.
February 18: Participants will discuss Erasure, by Percival Everett.
Where: Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 12:30 pm
Address: 501 S. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/books-and-bagels-1
Nonfiction Book Club at Donald Bruce Kaufman – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us on the third Tuesday of each month to discuss a different work of nonfiction. We read a wide variety of styles, genres, and authors, so please make sure to check in with the branch for a list of what we’re reading.
Where: Donald Bruce Kaufman – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/brentwood-nonfiction-book-club
Tuesday Afternoon Book Club at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us on the third Tuesday of each month to enjoy discussions of great literature. Contact the branch library to learn the selection for this month.
Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 2411 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/tuesday-afternoon-book-club-1
Middle Grade Book Club at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen Event
Middle grade readers are invited to join our monthly book discussion with snacks and crafts.
Our February read is Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk. We will have copies available for check out at the Playa Vista Branch Information Desk.
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/middle-grade-book-club-0
African American and Black History Month: Empower Through Poetry at Lake Los Angeles Library, LACL – In-Person Kids Event
The Harlem Renaissance gave a voice to poets like Langston Hughes. We will read There Was A Party For Langston by Jason Reynolds then inspect intersections between words, empowerment, and art by making poetic portraits.
Where: Lake Los Angeles Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 16921 East Avenue O, #A, Palmdale, CA 93591
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/12790456
Adult Book Club: Born a Crime at Norwood Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join Norwood Library’s Adult Book Club for a discussion of our latest selection Born A Crime by Trevor Noah. For Adults Sponsored by The Friends of the Norwood Library
Trevor Noah’s path from South Africa to The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Liberated by the end of apartheid, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle.
If you would like a copy of the book, please drop by Norwood Library to pick up a copy or get a digital copy.
Attendance is limited, and advance registration is required. Please register every individual in your party. This will be used to save your spots in the program. We cannot guarantee availability for any unregistered attendees.
Where: Norwood Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 16921 East Avenue O, #A, Palmdale, CA 91732
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/12856310
Adult Book Club: Don’t Let Them Bury My Story at Pico Rivera Library, LACL – In-Person Event
For African American and Black History Month, the Pico Rivera Library Book Club will be reading Viola Fletcher’s memoir Don’t Let Them Bury My Story: The Oldest Living Survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre in Her Own Words. For adults.
As the oldest survivor and last living witness of the tragic events that unfolded in 1921, Viola Fletcher shares her story from the terror of her childhood as a seven-year-old fleeing the burning streets of Greenwood to her current role as a 109-year-old family matriarch seeking justice for the affected families.
Where: Pico Rivera Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 9001 Mines Ave, Pico Rivera, CA 90660
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/12546143
Cory Doctorow, with Wil Wheaton, & Picks and Shovels: A Martin Hench Novel at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Cory Doctorow, in conversation with Wil Wheaton, will discuss Picks and Shovels: A Martin Hench Novel.
The year is 1986. The city is San Francisco. Here, Martin Hench will invent the forensic accountant—what a bounty hunter is to people, he is to money—but for now he’s an MIT dropout odd-jobbing his way around a city still reeling from the invention of a revolutionary new technology that will change everything about crime forever, one we now take completely for granted.
When Marty finds himself hired by Silicon Valley PC startup Fidelity Computing to investigate a group of disgruntled ex-employees who’ve founded a competitor startup, he quickly realizes he’s on the wrong side. Marty ditches the greasy old guys running Fidelity Computing without a second thought, utterly infatuated with the electric atmosphere of Computing Freedom. Located in the heart of the Mission, this group of brilliant young women found themselves exhausted by the predatory business practices of Fidelity Computing and set out to beat them at their own game, making better computers and driving Fidelity Computing out of business. But this optimistic startup, fueled by young love and California-style burritos, has no idea the depth of the evil they’re seeking to unroot or the risks they run.
In this company-eat-company city, Martin and his friends will be lucky to escape with their lives.
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently Picks and Shovels (a follow-up to The Bezzle), The Bezzle (a follow-up to Red Team Blues) and The Lost Cause, a solarpunk science fiction novel of hope amidst the climate emergency. His most recent nonfiction book is The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation, a Big Tech disassembly manual. Other recent books include Chokepoint Capitalisim, a nonfiction about monopoly and creative labor markets; the Little Brother series for young adults; In Real Life, a graphic novel; and the picture book Poesy the Monster Slayer. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.
Wil Wheaton loves to tell stories. He’s been doing it his whole life. By age ten, he had already been acting for three years. In 1986, at age 12, he earned critical acclaim as Gordie Lachance in Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me; at 14, he began his four-year turn as Wesley Crusher on the hit TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, which lead to his portrayal of a fictionalized version of himself on CBS’s The Big Bang Theory.
He currently hosts The Ready Room, the official online hub for all things Star Trek universe. In his New York Times bestselling Still Just a Geek, an older, somewhat wiser Wil revisited 2004’s Just a Geek, with all-new reflections that show just how far he’s come. In this vulnerable, honest memoir about trying and failing and trying again, Wil opens up about love, trauma, tragedy, and confronting the worst parts of himself. Equal parts funny and poignant, Still Just a Geek weighs the folly of youth against the pain of experience—and celebrates all the strange, awful, beautiful adventures in between.
Note: Please RSVP at site.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Cory-Doctorow-Wil-Wheaton-Author-signing
Conchas y Café Bilingual Writing Zine Workshop via DSTL Arts – Online Event
Our Conchas y Café bilingual community writing workshop series is a 15-week virtual course that explores skills in poetry and other forms of creative writing. Writers of all skill levels are welcome to join.
The SPRING 2025 SEMESTER will culminate with the publishing of Conchas y Café Zine; Vol. 10, Issue 2.
The theme we will be exploring during this series and zine is the concept: “TBD.”
Days and Times: Tuesdays (weekly); 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
To enroll in our series, visit: https://classroom.google.com/c/NzAzMDE4NzMyODY4?cjc=ixjqfbg
Nuestra serie de clases bilingües comunitarias de escritura ‘Conchas y Café’ es un curso virtual de 15 semanas que explora técnicas poéticas y otras formas de escritura creativa. Autores de todo nivel técnico son bienvenidos a participar.
Where: DSTL Arts
Date: Tuesday the 18th (through May 6, 2025)
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event
Website: https://www.dstlarts.org/calendar
Book Club: James at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss James by author Percival Everett.
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
Reserve your tickets on EVENTBRITE!
Note: Please RSVP at site.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/1813120250218
Open Mic Readings Every Tuesday at the Aftermath Bar, Sherman Oaks – In-Person Event
CALLING ALL WRITERS! Every Tuesday we’ll be having Open Mic Readings open to the public! Read your poems, fiction, and spoken word at our open mic reading EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT from 7 pm – 10 pm!
Read your poetry, fiction, spoken word, or lyrics.
Free event. 21+
Note: Please RSVP at site.
Where: The Aftermath Bar
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm
Address: 14537 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDniBCVy64L/
Avon Jogia & Autopsy (of an Ex-Teen Heartthrob): (Poems of Rage, Love, Sex, and Sadness) at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Von Jogia will discuss and sign Autopsy (of an Ex-Teen Heartthrob): (Poems of Rage, Love, Sex, and Sadness).
Writer, director, and actor Avan Jogia delivers a bright and acidic poetry collection on fame, rage, love, and sadness. A biting postmortem of the modern age, for fans of Lana Del Rey and Atticus.
Avan Jogia grew up as a teen idol. He stumbled into the spotlight during the birth of the internet, the early days of Instagram and Twitter, before everyone online was a star. He spent his time in that spotlight writing, observing the cult of celebrity, the hilarity, the absurdity, and sometimes sinister side of being idolized before you’ve even had the chance to decide for yourself who you are.
Now, in his most revealing and honest work to date, he has assembled a book of poems as an act of self-dissection. Part boozy lovesick rage and part personal reflection on the nature of fame, Autopsy (of an Ex-Teen Heartthrob) is a sharp, tantalizing collection of poems examining Avan’s relationship with ego, idolatry, love as an act of worship, rage as an act of prayer, and sadness as confession.
NOTE: THIS IS A TICKETED EVENT. An event ticket must be purchased from Book Soup to join the signing line. You will receive your copy of Autopsy (of an Ex-Teen Heartthrob) at check-in.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Romance Book Club at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Our new Kiss & Tell romance book club meets monthly to discuss a romance novel and generally takes place on the third Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm. At each meeting we discuss and vote on next month’s book club selection
NOTE: See site for tickets and details on wait list. (Sold Out)
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 317 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-02-18/romance-book-club
At Skylight: Marcus Clayton, with Melissa Chadburn, & ¡PÓNK! at Skylight – In-Person Event
Marcus Clayton, in conversation with Melissa Chadburn, will present and discuss ¡PÓNK!.
A punk rock anti-memoir told through the eyes of a biracial Afrolatino punk academic.
PÓNK follows Moose, an alienated academic and lead guitarist for Pipebomb, as he navigates through spaces in and out of South East Los Angeles: punk clubs, college classrooms, family gatherings, street protests, and euphoric backyard shows. Oscillating between autofiction, memoir, and lyric, Clayton blurs genres while articulating the layered effects of racism, trauma, immigration, policing, Black hair, performance, and toxic academic language to uncover how one truly becomes an “ally.” Borrowing from the spatial lyricism of Claudia Rankine, the genre-bending storytelling of Alexander Chee, and the racial musings of James Baldwin, PÓNK ‘s narrative takes back punk rock and finds safe space in the mosh pit.
Marcus Clayton is a multigenre Afrolatino writer from South Gate, CA, with an M.F.A. in Poetry from CSU Long Beach. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California, focusing on intersections between Latinx literature, Black literature, Decolonization, and Punk Rock. Through Glass Poetry Press, he has a poetry chapbook, Nurture the Open Wounds. Current and forthcoming publications include Black Punk Now! and The Oxford Handbook of Punk Rock.
Melissa Chadburn’s debut novel, A Tiny Upward Shove, was published with Farrar, Straus, & Giroux in April 2022 and was longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Debut Novel Award. She’s done extensive reporting on the child welfare system and appears in the Netflix docuseries The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. She was just awarded her Ph.D. from USC’s Creative Writing Program. Melissa is a worker, lover, and through her own work and literary citizenship strives to upend economic violence. Her mother taught her how to sharpen a pencil with a knife and she’s basically been doing that ever since.
Where: Skylight
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-marcus-clayton-presents-%C2%A1p%C3%B3nk
Ticketed: Kelsey McKinney, with Amanda Montell, & You Didn’t Hear This From Me at Vroman’s Off-site at Wilshire Ebell Theatre – In-Person Event
Kelsey McKinney of Normal Gossip, in conversation with Amanda Montell, presents and discusses You Didn’t Hear This From Me.
A deliciously insightful exploration of why we are so obsessed with gossip, and what it can tell us about humans and their search for truth.
“Can you keep a secret?”
It’s harder than it seems – after all, it’s only human to thirst after the juicy updates, jaw-dropping stories, and idle chatter that we typically collect over drinks with friends.
No one knows this better than journalist Kelsey McKinney, whose Normal Gossip podcast has accrued a listenership of millions. In YOU DIDN’T HEAR THIS FROM ME, McKinney explores the murkiness of everyday storytelling.
What even is gossip, and why is it considered a sin? Why are we obsessed with the details of celebrity drama and tabloid headlines? How do we use and abuse gossip – and why do we want to do it at all?
McKinney dives deep into a range of cultural cornerstones – from the Epic of Gilgamesh as told by chatbots, to the scandalous betrayals in The Traitors – and captures the heart of gossiping: how enchanting and fun it can be to lean over and whisper something a little salacious into your friend’s ear.
With wit and honesty, McKinney unmasks what we’re actually searching for when we demand to know the truth – and how much the truth really matters in the first place.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Vroman’s Off-site at Wilshire Ebell Theatre
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 4401 W 8th St., Los Angeles, CA 90005
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert & Guest Jason Morphew – Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic with host Rick Lupert presents guest reader Jason Morphew.
Jason Morphew is the author of the collections Eject City (Poets Wear Prada, 2024) and dead boy (Spuyten Duyvil, 2018) and the chapbooks What to deflect when you’re deflecting (Poets Wear Prada, 2017) and In Order to Commit Suicide (Floating Wolf Quarterly, 2012). His poems have been published in Seneca Review, Lana Turner, Bellevue Literary Review, and Smartish Pace, among other journals. His essays and reviews have been published in The Daily Beast, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Publishers Weekly, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, among other magazines and newspapers.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com
LiveTalks LA Presents: Kristen Hannah, with Brooke Baldwin, & The Nightengale (10th anniversary) at Robert Frost Auditorium – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Kristen Hannah, in conversation with Brooke Baldwin, will discuss her novel The Nightengale.
With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war. The Nightingale was New York Times bestseller, Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year, and is soon to be a major motion picture.
Kristin Hannah, former lawyer turned writer, is the New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty novels, including The Women, The Nightingale, The Great Alone, and The Four Winds.
The Nightingale tells the stories of two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals, passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path toward survival, love, and freedom in German-occupied, war-torn France―a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the durability of women. It is a novel for everyone, a novel for a lifetime.
Kristin Hanna’s most recent novel is The Women—the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on the story of all women who put themselves in harm’s way to help others—women whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has all too often been forgotten. The Women is a profoundly emotional, richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose extraordinary idealism and courage under fire define a generation.
In The Women, like in The Nightingale and The Four Winds, Hannah exposes an important but largely unknown historical story: there were women serving in Vietnam. This novel shows us the Vietnam war up close and personal, through a woman’s eyes; what it was like to serve in a combat hospital and how it was to come home to an angry, bitter and divided America. What it was like to have your story forgotten.
It is about the unremembered women in an unpopular war. About women finding their voices and being sustained by friendships made on the battlefield. About the birth of a new culture and the music, ideas, fashion, and freedom that came with it, a story told about the price of patriotism and war through the hearts, minds, sacrifices and courage of the women who were there.
Brooke Baldwin is a TV host, award-winning journalist and bestselling author. Brooke most recently published a first-person essay in Vanity Fair entitled: Leaving CNN Was How I Found My Voice. She’s now the author of a weekly Substack entitled Unraveling, with Brooke Baldwin.
For more than a decade, Brooke anchored her own live daily news show on CNN. After CNN, she hosted a popular social experiment show on Netflix called The Trust. She is the author of the bestselling book Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power, redefining the word ‘huddle’ to explore how women lean on one another to provide support, empowerment, inspiration, and the strength to enact meaningful change.
NOTE: See website for tickets and details. Free Parking available at the venue.
Where: Robert Frost Auditorium
Date: Tuesday the 18th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 4401 Elenda St., Culver City, CA 90230
Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/kristin-hannah/
Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic Night at Greenway Court – In-Person Event
The nation’s largest weekly Open Mic event is 25 years strong. At an open mic, all are welcome to share their poetry or sit in their audience.
NOTE: See sign-ups, details, and guidelines at website link.
$10 donation. Do NOT line up prior to 7:30 pm Free parking adjacent to the theater.
Feature: Matthew Cuban Hernandez hosts SLAM.
Masks are encouraged. All ages are welcome.
Where: Greenway Court Theatre
Date: Tuesday, the 18th
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm
Address: 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/ChLUBSRPCFb/ or https://www.dapoetrylounge.com/events/
Coffee Time Book Club: at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Our Coffee Time Book Club meets monthly, generally on third Wednesday of each month at 10:00am
We tend to read new-release literary fiction. At each meeting we discuss and vote on what we will read and discuss for the following month.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 317 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-02-19/coffee-time-book-club
Book Club: Horse at Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for a lively discussion of the novel Horse by Geraldine Brooks.
Where: Granda Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 1:30 pm – 3 pm
Address: 16640 Petit Ave., Granada Hills, CA 91344
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-horse
Poets Café 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.
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, the19th
Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: On-air Event (live)
Website: https://www.kpfk.org/on-air/poets-cafe/
Big Read Book Club: The House on Mango Street at Washington Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss the Big Read Book of 2025, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/big-read-book-club-house-mango-street-3
Book Club for Adults: Invisible at San Gabriel Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for a book discussion of Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster by Stephen L. Carter. For ages 18 and up.
Eunice Hunton Carter, Stephen Carter’s grandmother, was raised in a world of stultifying expectations about race and gender, yet by the 1940s, her professional and political successes had made her one of the most famous black women in America. When special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey selected twenty lawyers to help him clean up the city’s underworld, she was the only member of his team who was not a white male. Without the strategy she devised, Lucky Luciano, the most powerful Mafia boss in history, would never have been convicted.
Where: San Gabriel Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address: 500 S. Del Mar Ave., San Gabriel, CA 91776
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/12778644
African American and Black History Month: Creating Self-portraits with Poetry at Charter Oak Library, LACL – In-Person Kids & Family Event
Celebrate African American and Black History Month by learning about famous poet Langston Hughes. We will read and discuss poems written by him and other famous African American poets. For ages 5 – 12 with their parent or caregiver.
Afterwards, create your own self-portrait with words that describe you!
Where: Charter Oak Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 20540 E. Arrow Hwy., Covina, CA 91724
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/12856435
Anime Your Way! at Lake View Terrace Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen Event
Are you a fan of graphic novels, manga or anime? Join our guest artist, Carlos Nieto III, former Simpsons and King of the Hill illustrator, who will lead a workshop on how to create and draw your own cartoon characters! All materials are provided. Free and open for ages 11 – 17.
Where: Lake View Terrace Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 12002 Osborne St., Lake View Terrace, CA 91342
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/anime-your-way-9
Graphic Novel Club: Fresh Start at Once Upon a Time – In-Person MG/Teen Event
This group meets on the 3rd Wednesday of the month @4 pm for 45 minutes. Please note the March change to accommodate Spring Break.
Humor! Adventure! Magic! Graphic novels have it all! These are the *coolest* kind of book there is—do you think so too? If so, then our fabulous Graphic Novel Club is for you!!
Participants will read and discuss Fresh Start by author Gale Galligan.
Best for ages 8+.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/graphic-novel-club-fresh-start-gale-galligan
Middle Grade Book Club at pages: a bookstore – In-Person MG Event
Our Middle Grade Book Club meets monthly, generally on third Wednesday of each month at 4:30 pm
We read new-release MG fiction. At each meeting we discuss and vote on what we will read and discuss for the following month.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 317 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-02-19/middle-grade-book-club
Book Club for Adults: Homegoing at San Fernando Library, LACL – In-Person Event
This Book Club meets the third Wednesday of every month. Copies of the current title are available at the Information Desk. New members are always welcome! For adults.
In honor of African American and Black History Month, we’re reading Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonial, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising half-caste children who will be sent abroad to be educated in England. Her sister, Esi, will be imprisoned beneath Effia in the Castle’s women’s dungeon, and then shipped off on a boat bound for America, where she will be sold into slavery. Stretching from the tribal wars of Ghana to slavery and Civil War in America, from the coal mines in the north to the Great Migration to the streets of 20th century Harlem, Yaa Gyasi’s has written a modern masterpiece.
Where: San Fernando Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 217 N. Maclay Ave., San Fernando, CA 91340
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/126705
Rainbow Reads Book Club: The Rules of Royalty at Once Upon a Time – In-Person Teen Event
This group meets on the 3rd Wednesday of the month @6 pm. Please note the March change to accommodate Spring Break.
Our Rainbow Reads Book Club celebrates diversity in Young Adult books as we read books featuring various identities and stories. This is a safe space welcome to teens of all identities and allies! Join Iz and Apollo for our proud book club.
Participants will read and discuss The Rules of Royalty: A Novel by author Cale Dietrich.
Best for ages 13+.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/rainbow-reads-book-club-rules-royalty-cale-dietrich
All Genres Workshop with Victoria Waddle via Inlandia Institute – Online Event
Class Level: Int.-Adv.
Alternating Wednesdays, 1/8, 1/22, 2/5, 2/19, and 3/5/25, 6:00-9:00 pm PT, on Zoom.
$50. Registration required. https://tinyurl.com/Winter2025CWW
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.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Inlandia Institute
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/my-calendar/?mc_id=2470
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 radio in Los Angeles 101.5 FM.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: 101.5 FM
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: On-air Event (live at 101.5 FM)
Website: https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events
Book Club for Adults: The First Ladies at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss The First Ladies by Marie Benedict.
RSVP:
Please email studio@lapl.org for participation details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-adults-2
Kenneth Turan & Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg: The Whole Equation (Jewish Lives) at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Kenneth Turan will discuss his book Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg: The Whole Equation (Jewish Lives).
Kenneth Turan brings to life the extraordinary partnership of Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg and their role in creating the film industry as we know it.
One was a tough junkman’s son, the other a cosseted mama’s boy, but they dreamed the same mighty dream: that the right movies could make a profit and change both the culture and individual lives. Sharing a religion and an evangelical zeal for film, Louis B. Mayer (1884–1957) and Irving Thalberg (1899–1936) were unlikely partners in one of the most significant collaborations in movie history. Over the course of their decade-long relationship, as key players at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and major players in Hollywood, they joined forces in redefining and mastering the template for the film industry.
Mayer, older by more than a dozen years, was the business-minded face of the studio, while Thalberg worked closely with the creative corps, especially writers; together they rarely set a foot wrong. And while Mayer initially viewed Thalberg as the son he never had, the two would go from passionate friends to near enemies before Thalberg’s shocking death at the age of thirty-seven.
In the first joint biography of the two men in fifty years, film critic Kenneth Turan traces their fraught relationship while examining the complicated history of Jewish identity in Hollywood.
Kenneth Turan was the film critic of the Los Angeles Times for nearly thirty years and was also a film critic for National Public Radio. He is the author of Not to Be Missed: Fifty-Four Favorites from a Lifetime of Film, among other books. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.
Note: Please RSVP at site.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Kenneth-Turan-Author-signing
Paul Miloknay & Welcome to Hollywood: A Survival Guide for Aspiring Writers at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Paul Miloknay will discuss and sign Welcome to Hollywood: A Survival Guide for Aspiring Writers.
This groundbreaking book is a vital resource for new writers striving to make their mark in the competitive world of entertainment, particularly those without representation. In Welcome to Hollywood, Miloknay delves into the common pitfalls that can derail promising careers, such as underestimating the competition, neglecting to secure written agreements, and aligning with unsuitable collaborators.
“This book is designed to be a safety net for aspiring writers,” says Miloknay. “Hollywood is an exciting but challenging place, and without proper guidance, many talented writers can easily fall into traps that hinder their progress. My goal is to provide a clear, practical roadmap that helps writers protect their work and build meaningful industry relationships.”
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
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 Filipino town & The World: Search to Involve Pilipino Americans.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and details.
Where: SIPA HQ
Date: Wednesday, the 19th
Time: 7 pm – 9:30 pm (Doors at 6:30; Open Mic at 8 pm)
Address: 3200 W. Temple St., Ste. 100, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://www.palmsupacademy.com
At Skylight: Yáng Shuāng-zǐ & Lin King, with Charles Yu, & TAIWAN TRAVELOGUE at Skylight – In-Person Event
Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and Lin King, in conversation with Charles Yu, will discuss Taiwan Travelogue, a bittersweet story of love between two women, nested in an artful exploration of language, history, and power!
May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She’s been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear.
Soon a Taiwanese woman—who is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name—is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko’s travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook. Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It’s only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the “something” is.
Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, this novel was a sensation on its first publication in Mandarin Chinese in 2020 and won Taiwan’s highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod Award. Taiwan Travelogue unburies lost colonial histories and deftly reveals how power dynamics inflect our most intimate relationships.
Yáng Shuāng-zǐ is a writer of fiction, essays, manga and video game scripts, and literary criticism. Her works have been translated into Japanese and French.
Lin King’s writing and translations have appeared in Boston Review, Joyland, Asymptote, and Columbia Journal.
Charles Yu is the author of four books, including Interior Chinatown, which won the National Book Award for Fiction. His writing has appeared in numerous publications including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s and Time. Together with TaiwaneseAmerican.org, he has also sponsored the Betty L. and Jin C. Yu Creative Writing Prizes for Students. Click here for more information!.
Where: Skylight
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Readings of Resentment: A Reading at Stories Books & Café In-Person Event
Join artists and authors reading selected works of envy, jealousy, and rivalry.
Featuring:
John Tottenham is the author of one novel, numerous essays, and three volumes of poetry: The Inertia Variations (Kerosene Bomb 2004 & 2010), Antiepithalamia & Other Poems of Regret and Resentment (Penny-Ante 2012) and The Hate Poems (Amok 2018).
Matthew Goldin is a NY-born, experimental mixed media artist and cultural strategist, conceived in the Beverly Hills Hotel—no tats, no education. His most recent book is Matthew (Hesse Press, 2024).
Ivanna Baranova is a poet and artist from the Pacific Northwest living in Los Angeles, is Co-Director of The Poetic Research Bureau, and former Creative Communications Coordinator of The Poetry Project. Recent books include Threshold (Inpatient Press, 2024) and Continuum (Metatron Press, 2023).
Gracie Hadley is an arts writer and critic from Central California living in Los Angeles. She graduated from Bard College where she studied Art History. In addition to writing criticism, Gracie works as a freelance copy-writer and editor. She is currently the manager of publicity for Inventory Press.
Sophie Appel is a poet, curator, & historical map archivist currently living in Los Angeles, California. Appel is the founder of Melrose Botanical Garden, an art gallery & project space.
Hosted by:
Alexandra Jade
Where: Stories Books & Coffee
Date: Wednesday, the 19th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Julie Tieu, with Erin La Rosa, & Girl Most Likely To at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Julie Tieu, in conversation with Erin La Rosa, willpresent and discuss Girl Most Likely To
A frenemies-to-lovers contemporary romance by Julie Tieu which takes place over the course of one make-or-break evening, almost entirely at a high school reunion…
Rachel Dang, once voted “Most Likely to Succeed” in high school, is fun-employed for the first time. After years of doing everything her boss asked, it’s time to say yes to new opportunities. So when she gets invited to her twentieth high school reunion by none other than her former frenemy, Danny Phan, Rachel agrees despite their unresolved past.
As a teenager, Danny was seen as smart, but unfocused. Teachers often paired him with Rachel, hoping her work ethic would rub off on him. Though Danny and Rachel weren’t exactly friends, she had seen a different side of him, one that only existed online over intimate late-night AIM chats that never translated into real life. When they meet again, Rachel discovers their roles have reversed. Danny is thriving in his career while she’s the one flailing.
The reunion takes an unexpected turn when a simple errand takes them into town for a night of mishaps and misadventure where they run into a colorful cast of characters from their childhood. Rachel and Danny soon rediscover the feelings they once shared and must decide if this is only a quick trip down memory lane or a second chance for their happily ever after.
Erin La Rosa is the author of The Backtrack, Plot Twist, For Butter or Worse, Womanskills and The Big Redhead Book. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and four daughters (two human, two feline).
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 19th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
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 — Yazmenne Archer &Yaha Is Home Alone;
- 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 19th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.instagram.com or https://www.facebook.com
Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Online Event
The West Coast’s longest-running free poetry workshop is offered by Beyond Baroque 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 be prepared to share one poem.
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. An instructive video is available at the site.
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 Literary Arts Center
Date: Wednesday, the 19th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday-night-poetry-workshop-tickets-1248240253199
Poetry Nights with East Los Soul at East Los Angeles Rising Youth Club – In-Person Event
East Los Soul presents Poetry Nights every Wednesday from 8 pm – 9:45 pm at East L.A. Rising Youth Club. Poetry starts at 8:15 pm.
Every 2nd Wednesday will be a poetry contest with a $200 prize for the poet winner, via unanimous vote.
Every 4th Wednesday will be an art contest with a $200 prize for the artist winner, via unanimous vote.
$2 entrance fee
Where: East Los Angeles Rising Youth Club
Date: Wednesday, the 19th
Time: 8 pm – 9:45 pm
Address: 324 N. McDonnell Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90022
Website: https://www.bgcela.org/
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg and Guest Aman K. Batra at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Nights and the feature is Aman K. Batra.
Aman K. Batra is a poet and writer known for exploring themes of identity, culture and social justice.
$4 cover fee, cash only
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday, the 19th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events
Lit Angels: Heal Through Writing with Francesca Lia Block at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Let Francesca help you with all aspects of your writing!
Do you want to write professionally or for personal satisfaction and healing but aren’t sure where to start and need some inspiring tips and support? Do you have a project that needs revision? Are you feeling stuck creatively? Join acclaimed author and writing instructor Francesca Lia Block for a discussion of her 12 Questions followed by free writing and Q&A. Come be a part of the supportive Lit Angels writing community and consider writing a story to share at our Valentine’s event on 2/7 for possible submission in Lit Angels Journal.
Francesca Lia Block is the author of more than thirty books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association, and from the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, and PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY. Currently she teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, Pocket MFA, and numerous workshops across the country. Francesca also edits LIT ANGELS, a literary journal available on Substack. Her latest novel is HOUSE OF HEARTS now out in paper back. https://www.francescaliablock.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!
Reserve your tickets on EVENTBRITE!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events
All Genres Workshop with Mae Wagner Marinello via Inlandia Institute – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Thursdays, 11:15 am – 1:15 pm, In person at the Redlands Community Center, 111 W. Lugonia Ave, Redlands, Ongoing. Meets Weekly. (A Zoom option may be available; contact Inlandia for details.)
This ongoing writing workshop meets weekly at Redlands Community Center. Memoir writing, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction writing are all encouraged and welcome. Discover the pure joy of writing and creating with others in a supportive environment.
Mae Wagner Marinello has been a part of Inlandia since a 2008 writing workshop with Ruth Nolan. In 2014, she began facilitating a weekly writing workshop called Joslyn Joy Writers, at the Joslyn Senior Center in Redlands. During the pandemic lockdown, the weekly workshop continued on Zoom; it is now a hybrid class averaging between 10-20 combined participants on Zoom and in-person.
NOTE: All Levels. See site for details.
Where: Inlandia Institute at the Redlands Community Center
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 11:15 am – 1:15 pm
Address: 111 W. Lugonia Ave, Redlands, CA 92374
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/my-calendar/?mc_id=2504
Big Read Book Club (ESL/ELL- Low Intermediate) With Leah: The House on Mango Street at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss The House on Mango Street, by author Sandra Cisneros.
Are you an English language learner and interested in practicing your reading? This book club is for ESL/ELL adults who want to work on vocabulary, grammar, and reading skills. Read selections from The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros in class with other learners. Books will be provided. For more information, please call 213-228-7037 ext. 0 or email singleton@lapl.org.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Singleton Adult Literacy Center
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 1 pm – 2:20 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/big-read-book-club-house-mango-street-0
Mystery Book Club Discussion: Cold Earth at Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Participants will discuss Cold Earth, by author Ann Cleeves.
Where: Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: 2920 Overland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-discussion-0
Book Club for Adults: End of Story at Chet Holfield Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss End of Story by A.J. Finn.
Whether you like historical fiction, sci-fi, romance, or memoirs, this book club reads it all.
Where: Chey Holfield Library, LACL
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1050 South Greenwood Ave., Montebello, CA 90640
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event
Spotlight on Black Female Authors via L.A. County Library – Online Event
Looking for something new to read? Join us as we celebrate the diverse world of Black female authors and recommend some of our favorite titles.
Where: LA County Library
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Virtual Program, LACL
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event
Anime Your Way With Carlos Nieto at Junipero Serra Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen Event
Join us for a free one-hour drawing class taught by Carlos Nieto III, a former artist of The Simpsons and King of the Hill. You will learn how to create and modify an anime character from scratch. No drawing experience is needed! All materials are provided, and participants are encouraged to bring their preferred materials. This program is recommended for ages 11 years and older.
Where: Junipero Serra Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 4607 S. Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90037
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/anime-your-way-carlos-nieto-1
Swim Team Book Club at Anthony Quinn Library, LACL – In-Person Kids Event
To celebrate African American and Black History month, we’ll talk about the graphic novel Swim Team and do a related craft. Copies of the book are available to check out at the customer service desk. For ages 8 – 12 with a parent or caregiver.
Where: Anthony Quinn Library, LACL
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 3965 E. Cesar E Chavez Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90063
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event
Arroyo Writing Group at Arroyo Seco Regional Branch Library – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Writers of any level of experience are invited to join our writing group for practice both writing short pieces across many genres and sharing your writing with others. Each month we will engage with a different writing prompt preparing our own short work in response and bringing it to share at our meeting.
If you are unable to join us in person you are welcome to join us virtually.
RSVP:
Contact us at ayosco@lapl.org for this month’s writing prompt or to request the meeting link.
Where: Arroyo Seco Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6145 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/arroyo-writing-group-0
Hollywood Creative Writing Club on Zoom via Frances Howard Goldwyn – Hollywood Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Kick start your New Year’s resolution by joining our new creative writing club and getting the feedback and motivation to finish that masterpiece. Each month, members will meet online to discuss their progress and solicit critique from the group. Those who feel comfortable may share small portions of their work with the group ahead of time. We focus on novels, short stories and narrative non-fiction. Any genre is permitted. The host will also occasionally send literature to the members to facilitate discussion. This may include the work of acclaimed authors or writing advice.
Please email nneata@lapl.org to obtain the Zoom link.
The majority of the meetings will take place on Zoom but we may occasional meet in person at the Hollywood Library.
RSVP:
Email nneata@lapl.org to confirm attendance.
Where: Frances Howard Goldwyn – Hollywood Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/hollywood-creative-writing-club-zoom
West L.A. Book Club: Knife via West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
The West LA Book Club meets on the third Thursday of each month. We alternate between fiction and nonfiction. Digital copies of selected titles are generally available on Libby or Hoopla three weeks prior to the discussion date.
February 20 – Knife by Salman Rushdie.
Where: West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/online-book-club
Comic Book & Graphic Novel Discussion Group via West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us each month for a graphic novel and comic book discussion. We read a little bit of everything, ranging from capes and cowls to independent titles. A great starting point for new or devoted fans of the genre. Physical copies are available at the Information Desk and online ebooks through hoopla and/or Overdrive.
February 20 – Beta Ray Bill: Argent Star (2021) by Daniel Warren Johnson.
RSVP:
This program meets via Zoom. Please preregister in advance to receive the meeting link.
Where: Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/comic-book-graphic-novel-discussion-group-0
Mystery Book Club: The Tainted Cup at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the book, The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan #1) by author Robert Jackson Bennett.
A Holmes and Watson–style detective duo take the stage in this fantasy with a mystery twist, from the Edgar-winning, multiple Hugo-nominated Robert Jackson Bennett.
In Daretana’s greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead, killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body. Even here at the Empire’s borders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death both terrifying and impossible.
Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times, and that she can solve impossible cases without even stepping outside the walls of her home.
At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, magically altered in ways that make him the perfect aide to Ana’s brilliance. Din is at turns scandalized, perplexed, and utterly infuriated by his new superior—but as the case unfolds and he watches Ana’s mind leap from one startling deduction to the next, he must admit that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.
As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.
Robert Jackson Bennett is the author of the Founders Trilogy and the Divine Cities Trilogy, which were both Hugo Award finalists in the Best Series category. The first book in the Divine Cities Trilogy, City of Stairs, was also a finalist for the World Fantasy and Locus awards, and the second, City of Blades, was a finalist for the World Fantasy, Locus, and British Fantasy awards. His previous novels, which include American Elsewhere and The Company Man, have received the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, and the Philip K. Dick Citation of Excellence. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-tainted-cup
Writing Workshop: Haunting Small Spaces: Flash Fiction with Kate Maruyama via Zoom – Online Event
Kate Maruyama leads a flash fiction workshop titled Haunting Small Spaces for two weeks only.
Tight & terrifying, flash can squish time into a small space or expand a moment to breathe. Flash fiction is a versatile and thrilling form to work in.
Live workshop, Thursdays February 20, 27 6 pm-7:30 pm PST (9-10:30 EST) on Zoom
Cost: $85
All Proceeds Go To Support the @shirleyjacksonawards!
Where: Kate Maruyama Online Event
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGBbqihy9Ux/?img_index=1
Bel Canto Book Club: at Union@Compound, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Join us for the Bel Canto Book Club (2025) hosted by Union @ Compound in Long Beach.
We’ll meet every third Thursday of the month at 6:30 pm to discuss a book of contemporary fiction or non-fiction handpicked by bookstore owner Jhoanna Belfer of Bel Canto Books.
Participants will discuss Grievers (Book #1) by author Adreinne Maree Brown.
Grievers is the story of a city so plagued by grief that it can no longer function.
Dune’s mother is patient zero of a mysterious illness that stops people in their tracks—in mid-sentence, mid-action, mid-life—casting them into a nonresponsive state from which no one recovers. Dune must navigate poverty and the loss of her mother as Detroit’s hospitals, morgues, and graveyards begin to overflow. As the quarantined city slowly empties of life, she investigates what caused the plague, and what might end it, following in the footsteps of her late researcher father, who has a physical model of Detroit’s history and losses set up in their basement. She dusts it off and begins tracking the sick and dying, discovering patterns, finding comrades in curiosity, conspiracies for the fertile ground of the city, and the unexpected magic that emerges when the debt of grief is cleared.
Free to attend; RSVP requested. Drink/food purchase recommended. Find their full dinner menu and discussion guidelines at site.
Where: Bel Canto Books at Union@Compound
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1395 Coronado Ave., Long Beach, CA 90804
Nicole J. Sachs & Mind Your Body at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Nicole J. Sachs will discuss her book Mind Your Body: A Revolutionary Program to Release Chronic Pain and Anxiety.
Learn how to free yourself from chronic pain, anxiety, fatigue, and myriad debilitating conditions through the transformative process of nervous system regulation in this accessible guide from psychotherapist and leading Mindbody clinician Nicole Sachs, LCSW. In Mind Your Body, Sachs teaches readers about Mindbody medicine—which helped her overcome her own debilitating pain and dark prognosis. She explains the essential practice of turning inward, using her revolutionary JournalSpeak method, which has enabled countless people to achieve striking mental, emotional, and physical healing. Mind Your Body takes chronic pain recovery into its next stage, for a new generation of readers who have been so underserved by our medical system.
Note: Please RSVP at site.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Nicole-J-Sachs-February-20-Author-signing
Inlandia Presents Book Launch: Judy Kronenfeld & Apartness at Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California, Riverside – In-Person Event
Celebrate the launch of Apartness: A Memoir in Essays and Poems by Judy Kronenfeld at the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California, 3933 Mission Inn Ave, Riverside. 6:30 PM. Books will be available for sale and signing. To RSVP and preorder your copy of Apartness, please visit https://tinyurl.com/Apartness-RSVP.
Note: Please RSVP at site.
Where: Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 3933 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, CA
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/my-calendar/?mc_id=2523
Playa Vista Ladies Book Club: The Bromance Book Club at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss The Bromance Book Club #1 by author Lyssa Kay Adams.
The first rule of book club: You don’t talk about book club.
Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott’s marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 6259 West 87th St., Westchester, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFL0HjoSu2y/?hl=en
Karen Wang Diggs & The Book of Awesome Asian Women: Empresses, Warriors, Scientists, and Mavericks at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Karen Wang Diggs will discuss and sign her book, The Book of Awesome Asian Women: Empresses, Warriors, Scientists, and Mavericks.
The Book of Awesome Asian Women illuminates the stories of powerful Asian women who have shaped history, providing inspiration and recognition to their incredible contributions across the globe.
A Crucial Addition to Women’s History. In a world where the accomplishments of women are finally being celebrated, The Book of Awesome Asian Women brings much-needed attention to the underrepresented stories of Asian women throughout history. This book continues the legacy of the successful “Awesome Women” series by amplifying the voices of those who have often been overlooked or misrepresented. Perfect for anyone seeking gifts for Asian women or gifts for girls, this book ensures these important stories are shared.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/karen-wang-diggs
All Women’s Open Mic at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Village Well is partnering with local trauma-healing poet Kate Burns to provide a platform for female poets, musicians, storytellers, and comedians. While all are welcome to attend, this is an event that aims to amplify women’s voices only.
Acts are limited to 3-5 minutes in length. Sign-ups begin at 6:30 pm and conclude at 7:00 pm!
Also, please note that not all material may be considered “family-friendly” so please use discretion when deciding whether or not to bring children.
Reserve your tickets on EVENTBRITE!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events
Jenn Bregman & The Last Hamilton at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Jenn Bregman will discuss and sign The Last Hamilton: A Novel.
After the last heir of Alexander Hamilton’s line is murdered, her heartbroken husband and best friend team up in this twisty thriller where a mysterious death uncovers not just an ancient secret society, but the treasures it holds.
The more they know, the more danger they’re in.
When Elizabeth Walker, the last heir of the Alexander Hamilton line, is tragically killed by a subway train in New York, foul play is immediately suspected. Elizabeth had been terrified, frantic, and manic during her last days, running mysterious errands, searching for a strange antique key, and sending cryptic messages to her best friend, Sarah Brockman.
The morning after Elizabeth’s death, a box of tattered documents lands on Sarah’s doorstep, confirming her suspicions about Elizabeth’s strange behavior and shocking death. She brings the box to Elizabeth’s grieving husband, Ralph. Working together, they are stunned to discover that Elizabeth was part of a secret society established by Hamilton himself to keep the United States just and free, its influence woven into every corner of the country’s history. As Sarah and Ralph race through the streets of New York to uncover the truth behind Elizabeth’s death, they must stop an ingenious and sinister plot before someone else catches up to them–and the secrets of Hamilton’s society are lost forever.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 20th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-02-20/jenn-bregman-discusses-last-hamilton
How a Book Changed My Life Student Essay Contest: Letter to an Author at Diamond Bar Library, LACL – In-Person Teen Event
If you’re a book lover, you’ve likely read something, fiction or non-fiction, classic or contemporary, that has left its mark on you. Now’s your chance to express your appreciation to the author with an essay in the form of a letter.
In this letter, you’ll describe how the author’s work has altered your worldview or personal life. Who knows—the author may even read it!
Don’t miss out on the opportunity.
Three (3) winners will be chosen and will each be awarded $300.
Pick up an entry form at Diamond Bar Library or download a form here. You can submit the completed entry form and essay by dropping it off or mailing it to Diamond Bar Library.
The deadline for submission is April 15, 2025. Winners will be announced on April 26, 2025.
Prizes: $300 (3)
Contest Rules:
* Open to students ages 13-18
* Entries must be 1,000 words or less
* Must be mailed or dropped off at Diamond Bar Library
* All entries become the property of LA County Library
* A completed entry form must accompany all essay submissions
Sponsored by the Diamond Bar Friends of the Library
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Diamond Bar Library, LACL
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: All Day (see site)
Address: 21800 Copley Dr., Diamond Bar, CA 91765
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event
Pajama Storytime at Once Upon a Time, Montrose – In-Person Kids & Family Event
Our most popular story time 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.
There is a large FREE parking lot off Florencita Dr. as well as metered parking along Honolulu Ave. and Montrose Ave.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: Once Upon a Time, Montrose
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/pajama-story-time-1
Book Club: I’ll be gone in the dark at La Mirada Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss I’ll be gone in the dark by Michelle McNamara.
Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called “The Golden State Killer.” Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities. For adults.
Where: La Mirada Library, LACL
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 am
Address: 13800 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada, CA 90638
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event
African American & Black History Month: Book Discussion of Nickle Boys at Culver City Julian Dixon Library, LACL – In-Person Event
For African American and Black History Month, please join us for a book discussion on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer winner, The Nickel Boys. For adults.
Summary provided by the publisher:
“When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow ‘delinquent’ Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.”
Where: Culver City Julian Dixon Library, LACL
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address: 4975 Overland Ave., Culver City, CA 90230
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event
Author Event: Sajni Patel & A Touch of Blood at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person YA Event
Cellar Door Bookstore welcomes young adult fantasy author Sajni Patel to our store to celebrate the release of her newest book in the Venom series, A Touch of Blood on Friday, February 21st at 5:00 pm.
You know her first book, A Drop of Venom—a Medusa retelling in Indian lore—as it’s a Cellar Door bestseller and it was one of our young adult book club’s favorite books they read and discussed! Now Sajni Patel is back with her highly anticipated next book in the series which is based on the story of Greek mythology’s Persephone! Meet the author and get your books signed!
Before Manisha, the youngest of three sisters, was sent to hide on the floating mountain, her eldest sister, Eshani, made a deal with the shades. In order to save her people in the midst of a tragic war, she exchanged her life for theirs. Now, years later, the shades claim their due, dragging Eshani into the Nightmare Realm where she must find the Gatekeeper to fulfill her end of the bargain. Nothing is as it seems in a land filled with ravenous monsters, ghoulish residents, and a river full of the dead. But most terrifying of all is the Shadow King, who intends to use Eshani to obtain immortality. As it turns out, Eshani—nicknamed “little goddess of spring”—is the key to fulfilling the Nightmare Realm’s prophecy. There’s only one person who can help Eshani escape, and he has his own problems. Hiran has spent most of his life hiding, but destiny beckons, and he can no longer resist the call of the realm. But how can a stowaway, long thought to be dead, save an entire world? Nothing will stop the Nightmare Realm from getting what it wants. Except maybe a king in the making and a goddess rising.
A Touch of Blood comes out on February 25th. You can preorder your copy below, in-store, or by calling us at 951-787-7807!
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/sajnipatel
Risa Williams, with Mike Sonksen, & Get Stuff Done Without the Stress: 5 Secrets for Making the Best Use of Your Time and Achieving Your Goals for Greater Happiness at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Risa Williams, in conversation with Mike Sonksen, will discuss and sign her book, Get Stuff Done Without the Stress: 5 Secrets for Making the Best Use of Your Time and Achieving Your Goals for Greater Happiness.
Stress Relief Tips for Peace of Mind
Learn how to design your time to make space for things that are meaningful to you. Are you stuck in a “toxic productivity” mindset where output matters more than your personal wellbeing and happiness? Learn to practice self-kindness and stretch your perception of time by finding your calm each day, which can help you get stuff done without the stress. Using goal-mapping tools, you’ll learn how to stay balanced across many areas of your life while achieving your goals, and how to feel “happy and done” with things you’ve just completed. We only have so much time on this planet, how do we really want to spend it?
Don’t let stress get the best of you. With stress becoming one ofthe biggest epidemics in recent history, more people are feeling more burnt out and stressed out than ever. That is why you’ll need a self-help guidebook about navigating your productivity in calmer, kinder, and healthier ways. Get Stuff Done Without Stress is a time management book sharing five key secrets for organizing your time, navigating your stress, and mastering your focus, that anyone can use in everyday situations. With psychotherapist and time management coach Risa William’s scientific yet upbeat advice for connecting with our balance and wellbeing, you’ll unlock more ways to go and get your goals without tipping yourself over into stress.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/risa-williams
At Skylight: Jose Pimienta, with S.H. Cotungo, & Halfway to Somewhere at Skylight – In-Person Event
Jose Pimienta, in conversation with S.H. Cotungo, will present and discuss Halfway to Somewhere.
New school, new country, but only half a family?! Embark on a coming of age journey with a middle school teen navigating their parents’ divorce while moving to a new country in this stunning graphic novel.
Ave thought moving to Kansas would be boring and flat after enjoying the mountains and trails in Mexico, but at least they would have their family with them. Unfortunately, while Ave, their mom, and their younger brother are relocating to the US, Ave’s father and older sister will be staying in Mexico…permanently. Their parents are getting a divorce.
As if learning a whole new language wasn’t hard enough, and now a Middle-Schooler has to figure out a new family dynamic…and what this means for them as they start middle school with no friends.
Jose Pimienta’s stunningly illustrated and thought provoking middle graphic novel is about exploring identity, understanding family, making friends with a language barrier, and above all else, learning what truly makes a place a home.
Jose Pimienta was raised in Mexicali, Baja California and now resides in Los Angeles, CA where they work on comics and storyboards for animation and film. Suncatcher was their debut YA graphic novel and ended on many ‘Best of’ lists. Their second graphic novel, Twin Cities received four starred reviews and Jose’s work with students, in both English and Spanish, has made they a great guest at many school across the US. In their stories, they focus on the importance of Latinx culture and the experience of growing up on the border.
S. H. Cotugno is a queer and mixed-race Victorian horror nerd born and raised in Los Angeles, California. They are a director, writer, and storyboard artist in the animation industry and have previously worked on projects such as Gravity Falls, The Owl House, and Star vs. the Forces of Evil. The Glass Scientists will be their first published graphic novel. You can see more of their work by following them on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok (@arythusa).
Where: Skylight
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-jose-pimienta-presents-halfway-somewhere-w-s-h-cotugno
Stacey Simmons & Mushroom Pharmacy at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Stacey Simmons will present and discuss here book Mushroom Pharmacy.
. A practical, approachable guide to using psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in mushrooms, for health and wellness, including information on varietals, microdosing, and the treatment of an array of mental and psychical ailments.
Psilocybin is proving to have profound impact on health and wellness, particularly in the areas of mental health and addiction. From author and certified psychedelic therapist Stacey Simmons, MA, PhD, LMFT, Mushroom Pharmacy is the first comprehensive, easy-to-understand guide to using mushrooms safely and effectively to alleviate symptoms, and potentially cure the underlying causes, of dozens of ailments from depression, anxiety, and addiction to OCD, PTSD, Lyme Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, Migraines and more. In this deeply researched, practically oriented guide, Dr. Simmons helps readers understand how psilocybin acts on the brain, the key elements of responsible psychedelic therapy, and how the effects of this practice can lead to deep and permanent healing. The book also educates readers in the practical aspects of how to responsibly forage for or grow their own mushrooms, how to identify and use different more than 30 different psychedelic mushroom varieties, and how to understand the dosing and administration of psychedelics.
Written by an expert in the field, this groundbreaking work is a must-have for anyone interested in the brave new world of psychedelic medical treatment.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday the 21st
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-02-21/stacey-simmons-discusses-mushroom-pharmacy
An Evening of International and Translated Poetry at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Krzysztof Siwczyk and Catherine Theis are celebrating new poetry collections in translation
Beyond Baroque presents An Evening of International and Translated Poetry, featuring Polish poet Krzysztof Siwczyk, whose poems were recently translated into English by author Piotr Florczyk in A Calligraphy of Days.
In addition, poet Catherine Theis presents translations to English-speaking audiences of Italian poet Jolanda Insana in the bilingual edition, Slashing Sounds.
The authors and translators will be reading original and translated texts joined by David St. John in the Wanda Coleman Theater. After the readings, be sure to join us for a reception and book signings.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm (Doors at 7:30 pm)
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
SWAAM Spoken Word Art & Music Event at Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center – In-Person Event
SWAAM Spoken Word Art & Music is offered every 1st & 3rd Friday of the month and hosted by Loranzo Frank.
Our regular Host Lorenzo will be in New York performing in the Show Bluesology the entire month of February.
Please welcome our Guest Host “Akoldpiece,” who will be holding it down.
Akoldpiece is a father, educator, writer, poet, spoken word artist & host. He is a graduate of UCLA with a B.A. in History.
This gentle giant has a special gift for creating haiku and short stories accented with his wit and humble personality. AKoldPiece has traveled as far as the motherland “Afraka” to share his artistry.
Featured guests: TBA
Tickets at Eventbrite.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 8 pm – 12 am
Address: 4305 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.depoet.info/swaam
Third Fridays Rapp Saloon Reading Series & Open Mic with host Elena Secota at Rapp Saloon, Santa Monica – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Third Fridays at Rapp Saloon: Open Mic & Featured Readers, will be this week, and is offered every 3rd Friday of the month by host Elena Secota.
The format of The Rapp Saloon Poetry Reading Series occurs each Friday hosted and curated as follows:
First Friday: Cynthia Alessandra Briano
Second Friday: Russell Greene
Third Friday: Elena Secota
Fourth Friday: Jim Bolt
Fifth Friday: James Evert Jones
This is a hybrid event, live in-person while offering a Zoom option for our performers and guests.
Our featured guest poets and artists this month TBA.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA – In-Person & Online Event
Date: Friday, the 21st
Time: 8 pm – 11 pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.facebook.com/RappSaloonReading or https://www.instagram.com/rappsaloon/?hl=en
Culver City Book Festival at Wende Museum with Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
The Culver City Book Festival returns to highlight the work of local authors, publishers, journals, and literary nonprofits.
RSVP!
Or, if you’d like to volunteer, sign up at website!
In addition to tables exhibiting the work of local presses, there will be panels on a variety of topics including:
Immigration with Jason de León, Natalia Molina, and Jesse Katz, moderated by Gustavo Arellano—reserve your spot at website!
Genre with Olivie Blake, Chuck Tingle, Philip Fracassi, Sarah Langan, Liz Kerin, and CJ Leede—reserve your spot at website!
A conversation on Altadena’s history as a community for Black artists
Creative activities for all ages including Zine Making
Kids activities: Storytime with Seth Fishman, Collage-making with Shira Sergant, Origami with Joel Stern
Exhibitors will include local presses such as: 826LA, What Books Press, Heavy Manners Library, Con Todo Press, and more.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee at Wende Museum
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 10 am – 5 pm
Address: 10808 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events
Mystery Book Club: November Road at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Read the book and join our lively discussion!
February 22: November Road by Lou Berney.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 11 am
Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-14
Mystery Book Club: November Road at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Read the book and join our lively discussion!
February 22: November Road by Lou Berney.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 11 am
Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-14
Book Club: Redwood Court at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Redwood Court by DeLana R.A. Dameron. For adults.
Copies of the book are available at the Customer Service Desk.
A breathtaking debut about one unforgettable Southern Black family, seen through the eyes of its youngest daughter as she comes of age in the 1990s. Mika Tabor, the baby of the family, learns important lessons from people who raise her; her hardworking parents, her older sister, her retired grandparents and the community of Redwood Court.
Where: Gardena Mayme Dear Library, LACL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 1731 W. Gardena Blvd., Gardena, CA 90247
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-14
Fresh Pressed Mimi Zine Fest at The Pop Hop – In-Person Event
Fresh pressed is a mini zine fest highlighting local QTBIPOC+ authors, indie publications, and bookshops! The Pop-Hop will be hosting them in collaboration with our friends across the street at Be Nice Have Fun. Be sure to check out both locations! 11 am to 5 pm.
Where: The Pop Hop
Date: Saturday the 2nd
Time: 11 am – 5 pm
Address: 5002 York Blvd., Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://withfriends.co/event
Kids Storytime: Seth Fishman & Brendon and the Totally Troublesome Time Machine at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Kids Event
Author Seth Fishman will present his children’s book Brendon and the Totally Troublesome Time Machine.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events
Ticketed: Patrick Renna & A Little Slugger’s Guide to the Unwritten Rules of Baseball and Life at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Patrick Renna presents and signs A Little Slugger’s Guide to the Unwritten Rules of Baseball and Life.
Patrick Renna, best known for his role in the 1993 film The Sandlot, offers baseball-themed anecdotes and affirmations. Heartfelt reminders that life’s a marathon, not a sprint, may be familiar, but many young readers will find them revelatory. The author also stresses that failure is just as much a part of life as success, encourages children to embrace individuality and work hard despite being the underdog, and emphasizes that practice shows commitment and “prepares you for the big game or the test.”
All these lessons will be relatable to young people, and many are supported by real-life stories: basketball superstar Michael Jordan’s short-lived stint in minor league baseball, an unexpected victory during Game One of the 2015 World Series, and Renna’s willingness to swallow his fear when, as a young teen, he was handed a new script just an hour before shooting a pivotal scene in The Sandlot. Each tidbit stands alone, but taken together, all 20 tenets provide a lively road map to life.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Inspiring Journeys: African American Histories at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for Inspiring Journeys: African American Histories, a day of celebration for African American Heritage Month. The speakers, workshops, entertainment, and family activities will surely spark joy and insight.
From health and wellness to genealogy and technology to arts and crafts for all ages, there is something for everyone. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to celebrate African American history and culture in a fun and welcoming atmosphere.
This event is free and open to all, so bring your friends and family along for a day of celebration and learning.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 1 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/inspiring-journeys-african-american-histories
AIRC Book Club: Calling for a Blanket Dance at Huntington Park Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Calling for a Blanket Dance by Oscar Hokeah.
Experience the journey Ever Guimausaddle goes through as he navigates intergenerational trauma, multiethnic identities, family, and community.
This emotional debut novel features 12 different perspectives, spans 5 decades, and takes place in Oklahoma.
Copies of the book are available for checkout at Huntington Park Library and may also be downloaded as an eBook or audiobook at LACountyLibrary.org
Light refreshments served courtesy of Friends of the Huntington Park Library.
For ages 18 and up.
Where: Huntington Park Library, LACL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: 6518 Miles Ave., Huntington Park, CA 90255
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/12817314
The Poetry of Rumi with Omid Arabian at Donald Bruce Kaufman – Brentwood Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Scholar Omid Arabian returns to the Kaufman Brentwood Branch Library to discuss the life, art, and influence of the Persian poet Rumi.
Where: Donald Bruce Kaufman – Brentwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 2 pm
Address: 11820 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-rumi-omid-arabian
Dating Workshop: How to Be Dateable at Book Jewel – In-Person Event
Co-Authors Julie Krafchick and Yue Xu discuss & present their book How to Be Dateable and lead a dating workshop.
Julie Krafchick is an expert on dating, relationships, and connection in the digital world. She’s the co-creator and host of Dateable, which has been named one of the top podcasts about modern dating and relationships by the New York Times, The Huffington Post, Oprah Daily, and more.
Yue Xu is a seasoned dating expert, dating coach and author based in Los Angeles.
Ages 18+
Don’t miss this dating workshop in-person with @dateablepodcast #thebookjewel
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 2 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Westchester, CA 90045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DFvZFUHymg8/?hl=en
Poetry in Nature Readings at Descanso Gardens – In-Person Event
Host Jimmy Vega hosts Beverly La Fontaine, Mike the Poet Sonksen, Erika Ayon, and Jessa Calderon.
We’ll be reading nature poems and be bringing in concrete and asphalt into the realm of the environment around us, a great honor to bring an offering of poetry for Amy Uyematsu and the Uyematsu camellias that are on the grounds at Descanso. Join us.
Where: Descanso Gardens
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 2 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Westchester, CA 90045
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGGq33dSovQ/
BRC Book Club: Calling for a Blanket Dance at Black Resource Center, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us as we discuss 3 titles: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, by author James McBride; Attack from Within, by author Barbara McQuade; and Lovely One.by author Ketanji Brown Jackson. Pick up your copies today. Please see front desk staff to check out titles.
Where: Black Resource Center, LACL
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 2:30 pm
Address: 150 E. El Segundo Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90061
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event
NEW DATE: William O. Tyler and Viktor T. Kerney & We Belong: An All-Black/All-Queer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Comics Anthology at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Co-Editors William O. Tyler and Viktor T. Kerney discuss & sign We Belong: An All-Black/All-Queer Sci-Fi/Fantasy Comics Anthology.
This book showcases speculative fiction from Black and queer perspectives. The contributors range from comics veterans with decades of experience to creators whose work is in print here for the first time.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 3 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/william-o-tyler-viktor-t-kerney
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Readings at Lamanda Park Library, Pasadena – In-Person Event
Join a Poetry Reading featuring published books by Marvinlouis Dorsey and Mina V. Kirby + Poets published in Four Feathers Press online edition: Southern California Embrace, hosted by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Marvinlouis Dorsey is the author of Snacky Snacks.
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Lamanda Park Library
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 140 S. Altadena Dr., Pasadena, CA 91107
Website: https://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Historical Fiction Book Club: The Reformatory at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss The Reformatory; A Novel by author Tanarive Due.
Gracetown, Florida
June 1950
Twelve-year-old Robbie Stephens, Jr., is sentenced to six months at the Gracetown School for Boys, a reformatory, for kicking the son of the largest landowner in town in defense of his older sister, Gloria. So begins Robbie’s journey further into the terrors of the Jim Crow South and the very real horror of the school they call The Reformatory.
Robbie has a talent for seeing ghosts, or haints. But what was once a comfort to him after the loss of his mother has become a window to the truth of what happens at the reformatory. Boys forced to work to remediate their so-called crimes have gone missing, but the haints Robbie sees hint at worse things. Through his friends Redbone and Blue, Robbie is learning not just the rules but how to survive. Meanwhile, Gloria is rallying every family member and connection in Florida to find a way to get Robbie out before it’s too late.
The Reformatory is a haunting work of historical fiction written as only American Book Award–winning author Tananarive Due could, by piecing together the life of the relative her family never spoke of and bringing his tragedy and those of so many others at the infamous Dozier School for Boys to the light in this riveting novel.
Tananarive Due is an American Book Award and NAACP Image Award–winning author, who was an executive producer on Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror for Shudder and teaches Afrofuturism and Black Horror at UCLA. She and her husband, science fiction author Steven Barnes, cowrote the graphic novel The Keeper and an episode for Season 2 of The Twilight Zone for Paramount Plus and Monkeypaw Productions. Due is the author of several novels and two short story collections, Ghost Summer: Stories and The Wishing Pool and Other Stories. She is also coauthor of a civil rights memoir, Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights (with her late mother, Patricia Stephens Due). Learn more at TananariveDue.com.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/historical-fiction-book-club-reformatory
Journal of the Plague Years Panel Presents: Fight or Flight at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Journal of the Plague Years Presents: Fight or Flight panel discussion at Village Well.
Feeling stuck in this political moment? Come listen to experts in the fields of culture, immigration, climate, and more discuss what to write and do to meet our present situation.
Literary writers and muckraking journalists inspire, provoke, and brainstorm how to face the failed state of the U.S. as we enter a second Trump Era.
Find more information and get your tickets on EVENTBRITE!
About the panelists:
Susan Zakin is best-known as the author of Coyotes and Town Dogs: Earth First! and The Environment Movement. She has written for numerous national magazines and newspapers. She is the founding editor of the magazine Journal of the Plague Years.
Marc Cooper is an American journalist, author, journalism professor and Substack author. He is a contributing editor to The Nation. His writing has also appeared in such publications as the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s Magazine, The New Yorker, The Christian Science Monitor, Playboy and Rolling Stone.
Jean Guerrero is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and a senior journalism fellow at the UCLA Latina Futures 2050 Lab. An award-winning investigative journalist, essayist and speaker, Guerrero is the author of Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Agenda.
Sammy Roth is the climate columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He writes the twice-weekly Boiling Point newsletter and hosts the Boiling Point podcast, both of which focus on clean energy solutions. He previously reported for the Desert Sun and USA Today, where he covered renewable energy and public lands. He grew up in Westwood and would very much like to see the Dodgers win the World Series again.
Dr. Zahra Aghajan, a neuroscientist, bridges science and technology to advance our understanding of the brain, leveraging this knowledge to fuel scientific discovery and innovate healthcare applications. Featured in the documentary How to Build a Truth Engine, she discusses why our brains are vulnerable to disinformation and how neuroscience can help address this challenge.
Jason Berlin was a TV writer/producer for 18 years, until Trump was elected, and he quit his career to join the Resistance full-time. The CA Democratic Party hired him as Regional Organizer for LA County, and he rallied a volunteer army who topped the DCCC national charts, registered 6,000+ voters across SoCal – and helped flip 5 swing districts in the 2018 midterms, including all of Orange County. Weeks later, he founded Field Team 6 with a simple mission: Register Democrats. Save the World. By bringing proudly partisan voter registration to swing states nationwide, Field Team 6 helped register 700,000 Democratic voters in 2020, and brought that total to 2.3 million by the ‘22 midterms. In ’24, Field Team 6 conducted what may be the largest voter drive in history, contacting 25 million unregistered likely Democrats – who helped swing 5 Senate seats and 43 house seats. Currently, Field Team 6 is registering new swing state Democrats to take back the House in ’26, the rest in ’28… and save our democracy!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday the 22nd
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events
Nervous Ghost Open Mic with Laura Sermeño – Online Event
Join the Community Arts Workspace Open Mic by Nervous Ghost Press, with poet and guest emcee Laura Sermeño.
Laura Sermeño was born in Montebello, CA, raised and educated in Sur El Monte, (UCLA matriculated), educated by her people—from the classrooms to the streets. In 2012, she began auditioning for spoken word performances. In 2015, she was accepted into the Voices of our Nation’s (VONA) Southern California Regional Workshop, focusing on “Poetry as Documentary.” Her first full-length poetry collection is Born to Cry. She teaches and resides in Pasadena, CA.
Where: Nervous Ghost Open Mic
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Online YouTube Event (see site)
Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhhhZJ8qI-g
Queer Book Club: This Poison Heart at LogansLovelyLibrary with Bale Canto Books, Retro Row, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Join us for the Queer Book Club hosted monthly by LogansLovelyLibrary at Bel Canto Books Retro Row!
Dive into diverse and thought-provoking queer literature with a group of like-minded book lovers. Each month we will be reading a queer fiction book with different genres and queer representation. Whether you’re a seasoned reader or just starting to explore LGBTQ+ literature, this club is the perfect place to share your thoughts and connect with others.
Participants will discuss the February selection This Poison Heart by author Kalynn Bayron.
Where: Logans Lovely Library with Bel Canto Books
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2106 East 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
L.A. Book Launch: Brute Entropy by jerry the priest at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us for a book launch of jerry the priest’s latest work, featuring poets from Los Angeles and Oakland.
Joining the book launch are authors Richard Modiano, Dennis Cruz, and Richard Loranger from Oakland, California. After the readings in the Wanda Coleman Theater enjoy a reception with refreshments and book signings.
jerry the priest’s slender volume documents a range of spiritual quests and misadventures, by turns cringeworthy and hilarious, interspersed with a collection of highly transgressive poetry and short stories, all of which serve to illustrate first-hand, the ravages of unmedicated bi-polar disorder. It is at the same time, a work of blackest humor, a travel diary and an educational tome, as well as a cautionary tale. The intended audience is anyone with a zest for transgressive literature a la Kathy Acker, William S. Burroughs and Jean Genet. It is for those who are challenged by the mores of polite society and find outright rejection of said mores inspiring and amusing. It is for those readers who especially love adept, skillful and evocative usage of the English language. Step onto the interstate. Put your mouth where your lips are.
jerry the priest, legal name Jerome Dunn, has been creating material for exhibition, publication and live presentation since 1979, when he studied experimental music at the University of Redlands. A vocal performer since early childhood, his formal study of music began with his first trombone lesson in 1967. Essays, poems, stories and illustrations have appeared in Beat Not Beat, Coagula Art Journal, La Quadra, the Nervous Breakdown, Bombay Gin and many others, and his guitar/vocal/ trombone work and lyrics are featured on Cheap Disaster (’92), Stark Aloe Vera (’95), Lovely Children (2011), Never a Dull Blundr (2023) and Sharp Toothe Sissy (2024). He’s lived and taught in Katmandu Nepal, Istanbul Turkey, Boston Massachusetts, Boulder Colorado, Portland Oregon, San Francisco/San Leandro/Los Angeles California, and written in Banaras, Bodhgaya, Konya, Damascus, Petra, Jerusalem, Mexico City, San Cristobal de las Casas, Antigua, Buenos Aires, Seattle, New Orleans, Chicago, Denver, Santa Fe, Bar Harbor, Vancouver, Halifax, Atlanta, Asheville and Manhattan, among other locales. He holds a BA in Performance Studies from Naropa University, and an MFA in Theater Directing/Production from California Institute of the Arts.
Richard Loranger is a multi-genre writer, performer, musician, visual artist, and all-around squeaky wheel, currently residing in Oakland, CA. Their podcast “My 12-Month Video Fast” can be found by the brave on Spotify and most pod-venues. Their latest book of poetry and flash prose, Mammal, was released by Roof Books in October 2023. They’re also the author of Unit of Agency (now in its second edition), Be A Bough Tit, Sudden Windows, Poems for Teeth, The Orange Book, and ten chapbooks, and have work in over 100 magazines and journals. You can find more about their work and scandals at http://www.richardloranger.com.
Dennis Cruz is a vital poet who inhabits the voice of the perpetual outsider and the purely American dissident. He has been writing, performing and publishing his work for over 30 years. His latest collection of Poetry THE BEAST IS WE is out now via Punk Hostage Press.
While a resident of New York City, Richard Modiano became active in the literary community connected to the Poetry Project where he came to know Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, William S. Burroughs and Ted Berrigan. Modiano served on the board of directors of Valley Contemporary Poets from 1995 until 2001. In 2001 he was a programmer at Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center, joined the Board of Trustees in 2006, and from 2010 to 2019, he served as Executive Director. In that time he produced and curated hundreds of literary events, and with Henry Morro, Suzanne Lummis and Liz Camfiord co-founded and named Beyond Baroque Books’ sub-imprint The Pacific Coast Poetry Series. In 2019 he was elected Vice President of the California State Poetry Society. In 2023 Modiano joined the board of directors of the Los Angeles Poetry Society. The Huffington Post named him as one of 200 people doing the most to promote poetry in the United States. Modiano is the winner of the 2022 Joe Hill Prize for labor poetry and is a Push Cart Prize nominee. His collection The Forbidden Lunch Box is published by Punk Hostage Press. He is one of the rotating hosts for KPFK’s Poets Café. Richard is a rank-and-file member of the Industrial Workers of the World and a member of the National Writers Union.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday, the 22nd
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm (Doors at 6:30 pm)
Address: 681 Venice Blvd Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291
Melrose Trading Post Event & L.A. Poet Society at 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.
JOIN us in space R18 each Sunday, from 11 am – 5 pm.
All poems are donation based, so you name your price.
NOTE: Check every Sunday for story time and reading events
Where: Melrose Trading Post, Greenway Main Stage at Fairfax HS
Date: Sunday, the 23rd (Every Sunday)
Time: 10 am – 5 pm (market); 11 am – 5 pm (poets on demand)
Address: 7850 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046
Website: https://www.instagram.com
826LA@Hammer: Writing, Experimenting, and Remixing: Playful Exercises for Teen Creative Writers at Hammer Museum – In-Person Teen Event
Free collaborative workshops, presented with 826LA, combine writing with creative activities for groups of up to 20 students.
Recommended for ages 8–14.
Reservations encouraged. Visit 826la.org or call 310-915-0200.
What makes a story sing? How do writers remix genres like fiction, poetry, hip hop, newspapers, and social media to create new, spontaneous work? How does rhythm and poetry feed our creative work? In this workshop, students will focus on play, experimentation, and joy in writing to answer some of these questions. Led by author and educator Ricco Siasoco.
Where: The Hammer Museum
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024
At Los Feliz 3: Mallory O’Meara, with Brea Grant, & Daughter of Daring at Skylight Off-site – In-Person Event
From LA Times bestselling author Mallory O’Meara, the story of America’s first professional stuntwoman, Helen Gibson, who rose to fame during a time when women ruled Hollywood.
Helen Gibson was a woman willing to do anything to give audiences a thrill. Advertised as “The Most Daring Actress in Pictures,” Helen emerged in the early days of the twentieth-century silent film scene as a rodeo rider, background actor, stunt double, and eventually one of the era’s biggest action stars. Her exploits on motorcycles, train cars, and horseback were as dangerous as they were glamorous, featured in hundreds of films and serials—yet her legacy was quickly overshadowed by the increasingly hypermasculine and male-dominated evolution of cinema in the decades that would follow her.
Mallory O’Meara, in conversation with Brea Grant, will discuss Daughter of Daring.
Mallory O’Meara is an award-winning, bestselling historian and author. Her first book, The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller in hardcover and paperback. She has also co-hosted the hit podcast Reading Glasses since 2017.
Brea Grant is an award-winning filmmaker, comic book writer, and actor. She most recently directed the horror thriller Torn Hearts for Blumhouse/Epix/Paramount starring Katey Sagal. She has co-hosted the hit podcast Reading Glasses since 2017.
NOTE: See site for ticketing info and details.
Where: Skylight at Los Feliz 3 Theatre
Date: Sunday, the 23rd
Time: 1 pm
Address: 1822 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/los-feliz-3-mallory-omeara-presents-daughter-daring-w-brea-grant
Banned Books Reading Group at West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The banned books reading group reads and discusses materials that have been historically challenged or are on the American Library Association’s “Banned and Challenged Books” lists. 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 23rd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 11360 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/banned-books-reading-group-0
Big Read: Sandra Cisneros, with Dr. Natalia Molina, & The House on Mango Street at West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
The Los Angeles Public Library is proud to present Sandra Cisneros, author of this year’s Big Read book, The House on Mango Street. She will be in conversation with USC Professor and MacArthur Fellow Dr. Natalia Molina.
Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist, and essayist whose work explores the lives of the working class. Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, a MacArthur Fellowship, the PEN/Nabokov Award for International Literature, and the National Medal of Arts, among many others. Her novel The House on Mango Street has sold over seven million copies, has been translated into over twenty-five languages, and is required reading in elementary, high school, and universities across the nation.
Natalia Molina is a Distinguished Professor and Dean’s Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Her most recent book, A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community, was a finalist for a James Beard Award and received 14 awards and honorable mentions from various organizations. She has written for the LA Times, the Washington Post, San Diego Union-Tribune, and elsewhere. In 2020, she was named a MacArthur Fellow.
This is a free event, and those attending the program will have a chance to win a copy of The House on Mango Street.
Reservations are not required but highly encouraged. To reserve your seat, please go to this link. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Where: Central Library, LAPL, Mark Taper Auditorium
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/big-read-sandra-cisneros-conversation-dr-natalia-molina
Black History Literary Salon with Poet Laureate Camille Hernandez & Guests at Anaheim Central Library – In-Person Event
Join Camille Hernandez and other local brilliant Black poets for a first-ever Black Literary Salon at @anaheimlibrary. We’ll read original works, explore Anaheim’s history as a sundown town, and dream out loud of futures where safety isn’t an elusive concept.
Featured guests include:
Nia Campbell is an artist, designer, writer, and educator from Richmond, Virginia. She received a BFA in Painting & Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University and a minor in Art History with an emphasis on Black art and cinema history. She later received an MFA in Design from VCUarts Qatar where she developed the modular board game Reclamancipation as her thesis.
James Coats is an author, poet, and educator born in Los Angeles and raised in the Inland Empire. He received his BFA from Cal Poly Pomona and his MBA from Cal State San Bernardino. As a creative change agent, he believes the arts can inspire youth and influence positive change in the world. His first poetry collection, If I had Lived, was published in 2018. In 2021, he founded Lift Our Voices Education, which hosts the monthly “Be The Change: Social Justice Writing Workshop.” His newest poetry collection, Midnight & Mad Dreams, is published by World Stage Press. Follow him on Instagram @MrLovingWords.
Josh Evans N/A
Karimi Ndwiga N/A
Where: Anaheim Central Library
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 2 pm
Address: 500 W. Broadway, Anaheim, CA 92805
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DGCjJgfRUW7/?img_index=1
Latinx Book Club: Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by author Jennifer De Leon.
First-generation American LatinX Liliana Cruz does what it takes to fit in at her new nearly all-white school. But when family secrets spill out and racism at school ramps up, she must decide what she believes in and take a stand.
Liliana Cruz is a hitting a wall—or rather, walls.
There’s the wall her mom has put up ever since Liliana’s dad left—again.
There’s the wall that delineates Liliana’s diverse inner-city Boston neighborhood from Westburg, the wealthy—and white—suburban high school she’s just been accepted into.
And there’s the wall Liliana creates within herself, because to survive at Westburg, she can’t just lighten up, she has to whiten up.
Jennifer De Leon is an author, editor, speaker, and creative writing professor who lives outside of Boston. She is the editor of Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education, the 2015–2016 Writer-in-Residence at the Boston Public Library, and a 2016–2017 City of Boston Artist-in-Residence. She is also the second recipient of the We Need Diverse Books grant. She is the author of Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From and Borderless.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 2 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/latinx-book-club-dont-ask-me-where-im
Black Images Poetry Slam with Antoinette Titus Judge at West Adams/Leimert Park Family Service Center – In-Person Event
Mike Guinn Ent Presents Black Images: A Black History Month Poetry Slam.
Come celebrate Black History Month with powerful spoken word performances honoring black voices and experiences at our poetry slam event!
Featuring NAACP Image Award Nominee and Poet Laureate Samuel Rain AKA Complicated Passions.
Samuel Rain Benjamin also known as Complicated Passions is published writer, a spoken word artist and has assisted countless others in the poetry community in reaching their goals as well. His latest project, “Dark Man Blues” is creating a stir that is a transformation from his signature style.
Where: West Adams/Leimert Park Family Service Center
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm (Doors at 2:30 pm)
Address: 4305 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.instagram.com/inthespiritent
Rick Steves & On The Hippie Trail at First Congregational Church Los Angeles – In-Person Event
Rick Steves discusses and signs On the Hippie Trail:Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer.
Stow away with Rick Steves for a glimpse into the unforgettable moments, misadventures, and memories of his 1978 journey on the legendary Hippie Trail.
In the 1970s, the ultimate trip for any backpacker was the storied “Hippie Trail” from Istanbul to Kathmandu. A 23-year old Rick Steves made the trek, and like a travel writer in training, he documented everything along the way: jumping off a moving train, making friends in Tehran, getting lost in Lahore, getting high for the first time in Herat, battling leeches in Pokhara, and much more. The experience ignited his love of travel and forever broadened his perspective on the world.
This book contains edited selections from Rick’s journal and travel photos with a 45-years-later preface and postscript reflecting on how the journey changed his life. Stow away with Rick Steves on the adventure of a lifetime through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal.
You know Rick Steves. Now discover the adventure that made him the travel writer he is today.
Where: First Congregational Church of LA
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 540 S. Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90062
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event
Zillenieal Book Club: Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by author Katherine May.
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age, this is an intimate, revelatory exploration of the ways we can care for and repair ourselves when life knocks us down.
Sometimes you slip through the cracks: unforeseen circumstances like an abrupt illness, the death of a loved one, a break-up, or a job loss can derail a life. These periods of dislocation can be lonely and unexpected. For May, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. Wintering explores how she not only endured this painful time, but embraced the singular opportunities it offered.
A moving personal narrative shot through with lessons from literature, mythology, and the natural world, May’s story offers instruction on the transformative power of rest and retreat. Illumination emerges from many sources: solstice celebrations and dormice hibernation, C.S. Lewis and Sylvia Plath, swimming in icy waters and sailing arctic seas.
Ultimately Wintering invites us to change how we relate to our own fallow times. May models an active acceptance of sadness and finds nourishment in deep retreat, joy in the hushed beauty of winter, and encouragement in understanding life as cyclical, not linear. A secular mystic, May forms a guiding philosophy for transforming the hardships that arise before the ushering in of a new season.
Katherine May is the New York Times bestselling author of Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times. A writer of both fiction and nonfiction, May has had journalism and essays appear in a range of publications including The New York Times, The Times (London), Good Housekeeping, and Cosmopolitan. She lives by the sea in Whitstable, England and is an avid lover of the outdoors.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 4 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Earth Seed Symposium Book Club: The Poppy War at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss The Poppy War by author R.F. Kuang.
Join us for the next meeting of Earthseed Symposium, a speculative fiction book club in the tradition of Octavia E. Butler. This month’s selection is The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang.
Where: North Figeroa Bookshop
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 9042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-m6ybdism
Book Release & Readings: Dinah Lenney & Snapshots: Essay and Image at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Celebrate the release of the anthology Snapshots: Essay and Image with editor Dinah Lenney and author/contributors sharing their work.
Join us at Village Well Books & Coffee for a panel celebrating the release of Snapshots, a brand new anthology with a diverse array of essays and photography.
Editor Dinah Lenney moderates a conversation and reading with authors featured in the collection including:
Aimee Liu (Glorious Boy), Tod Goldberg (Gangsterland), Aimee Bender (The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake), and Ivy Pochoda (Sing Her Down).
Reserve your tickets on EVENTBRITE!
If pictures are worth a thousand words, what kinds of words might they inspire? What stories would they tell and would they be joyful or sad, elegant or savage?
Snapshots features 36 such meditations from a diverse group of writers, each of whom draws on a photograph from their personal archive to inspire a short essay. Intimate and powerful, these reflections exhibit a range of sensibilities and experiences, offering unique insight into the lives and interests of both established and emerging authors.
Expressing a dynamic array of styles, relationships, landscapes, and preoccupations, Snapshots is an album for our life and times.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events
Space Stories VII: a variety show for works-in-progress at The Pop Hop – In-Person Event
Space Stories: A Variety Show is produced and hosted by writer and performer Midge Lema. The evening features multiple guest artists presenting new works-in-progress like music, comedy, animation, short stories, script readings, and more! Potential space performers must sign-up through the form by Saturday February 15. Time slots will be limited to 15 minutes and under. Due to limited *space*, signing up does not guarantee a spot in the line-up until the host confirms with you. Tickets are $10 for audience, but performers attend for free. Join us in space!
Performer sign-up via our Instagram! @thepophop
Where: The Pop Hop
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 5002 York Blvd., Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://withfriends.co/event
Historical Romance Book Club: A Gamble at Sunset at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
February’s participants will discuss A Gamble at Sunset by author Vanessa Riley.
Orders manager Katie S will lead this discussion on examining historical romance titles from all eras.
Everyone is welcome. RSVP required.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 23rd
Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90323
Website: https://www.therippedbodicela.com/events-and-tickets
Los Angeles Literature 