Lit Angels: Morning Writing with Francesca Lia Block at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Come write with us!
Many people believe that a morning writing practice is key to finding your voice, your story and, in this case, your community! At the Village Well!
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning at 8:30 AM come join acclaimed author and writing instructor Francesca Lia Block for a brief intro and 40 minutes of free writing on any topic without judgement. Afterwards, you will be able to share a bit about your process and ask Francesca questions about 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: Monday the 14th
Time: 8:30 am – 9:30 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/2491020250414
World Literature Book Club at West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us for an engaging discussion on some of the world’s best short stories! This year’s selections are from 100 Great Short Stories edited by James Daley and The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction.
This month’s selections are from 100 Great Short Stories:
April 14: Mateo Falcone by Prosper Merimee
April 21: Napoleon and the Spectre by Charlotte Bronte
April 28: The Mortal Immortal: A Tale by Mary Shelley
We meet every Monday morning (excluding holidays).
RSVP:
Email wvally@lapl.org with “World Literature” in the subject line for the Zoom link and weekly story to be discussed.
Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 10 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-literature-book-club-1
Robertson Writers Group at Robertson Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Writing a book, poem, or screenplay? Need deadlines? Want constructive feedback? Then this is the place for you.
Bring 5 – 10 double spaced typed pages to read. Everyone will get a chance to read.
RSVP:
This group mostly meets in person, but email rbrtsn@lapl.org if you’d prefer to join via Zoom.
Where: Robertson Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 11 am
Address: 1719 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/robertson-writers-group-1
Seniors Writing Group at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Danny Stone, a member of Saved by a Story, leads an ongoing writing group for seniors. New members are welcome to all or any sessions.
Write to prompts, share (if you want), connect with fellow seniors in the neighborhood, hone your writing skills and find your story.
RSVP:
An RSVP to studio@lapl.org is recommended but not required. If you RSVP we will send you a welcome packet, guidelines, and a reminder the day before the meeting.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/senior-writing-group-2
Book Club: The Kamogawa Food Detectives via Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us for a lively book discussion. We meet online via Google Meet.
April: The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai
May: James by Percival Everette
Where: Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 4:45 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: (Online Event)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/sun-valley-branch-book-club-4
Evening Book Club: Real Americans at Manhattan Beach Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Patrons can enjoy a facilitated discussion of fiction and nonfiction titles. A limited number of titles are available for attendees at the library. For adults.
April selection: Real Americans by Rachel Khong
Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can’t shake the sense she’s hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers.
Where: Manhattan Beach Library, LACL
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address:1320 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/events?r=range&start=2025-04-14
YA for Adults Book Club: A Torch Against the Night at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes #2) by author Sabaa Tahir.
After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.
Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars’ survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.
But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.
Bound to Marcus’s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape…and kill them both.
Sabaa Tahir is a former newspaper editor who grew up in California’s Mojave Desert at her family’s eighteen-room motel. There, she spent her time devouring fantasy novels, listening to thunderous indie rock, and playing guitar and piano badly. Her #1 New York Times bestselling An Ember in the Ashes series has been translated into more than thirty-five languages, and the first book in the series was named one of TIME’s 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. Tahir’s most recent novel, All My Rage, won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and Poetry, and was an instant New York Times bestseller.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/ya-adults-book-club-torch-against-night
Inlandia Workshop: All Genres Workshop with James Coats – Online Event
Alternating Mondays, 4/14, 4/28, 5/12, 5/26, and 6/9/2025, 6:00-8:00 pm PT, on Zoom. All Levels.
$50. Registration required. https://tinyurl.com/Spring2025CWW
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.
Where: Inlandia Online
Date: Monday the 14th (through June 9th)
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/inlandia-writing-workshops-apr-june/
Author Event: Lynne Thompson with Azusa Library at Azusa Senior Center – In-Person Event
Celebrating poetry month with a reading with the 4th Poet Laureate of Los Angeles: Lynne Thompson. Join us to hear from selected poems from Lynne’s new book, Blue on a Blue Palette in celebration of National Poetry Month. We will be raffling off signed copies of Lynne’s book.
Where: Azusa Senior Center
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 740 N. Dalton Ave., Azusa, CA 91702
Website: https://azusaca.gov/Calendar.aspx?EID=13526&month=4&year=2025&day=2&calType=0
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 14th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Website: https://www.facebook.com/backtothegrind
At Skylight: Nghi Vo & Don’t Sleep with the Dead at Skylight – In-Person Event,
Nghi Vo will discuss Don’t Sleep with the Dead, a standalone companion novella to The Chosen and the Beautiful, her acclaimed reimagining of The Great Gatsby.
Nick Carraway―paper soldier and novelist―has found a life and a living watching the mad magical spectacle of New York high society in the late thirties. He’s good at watching, and he’s even better at pretending: pretending to be straight, pretending to be human, pretending he’s forgotten the events of that summer in 1922.
On the eve of the second World War, however, Nick learns that someone’s been watching him pretend and that memory goes both ways. When he sees a familiar face one very dark night, it quickly becomes clear that dead or not, damned or not, Jay Gatsby isn’t done with him.
In all paper there is memory, and Nick’s ghost has come home.
Nghi Vo is the author of the novels Siren Queen and The Chosen and the Beautiful, as well as the acclaimed novellas of the Singing Hills Cycle, which began with The Empress of Salt and Fortune. The series entries have been finalists for the Nebula Award, the Locus Award, and the Lambda Literary Award, and have won the Crawford Award, the Ignyte Award, and the Hugo Award. Born in Illinois, she now lives on the shores of Lake Michigan. She believes in the ritual of lipstick, the power of stories, and the right to change your mind.
Where: Skylight
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-nghi-vo-presents-dont-sleep-dead
Mark Whicker and Bill Plunkett Present: Don Drysdale: Up and In and L.A. Story, respectively, at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Mark Whicker will discuss his book, Don Drysdale: Up and In: The Life of a Dodgers Legend.
The definitive biography of Dodgers legend Don Drysdale.
In Up and In, longtime Orange County Register sportswriter Mark Whicker takes readers on a remarkable journey through Drysdale’s life and career. Featuring exclusive interviews with Drysdale’s teammates, broadcasting, and colleagues, this new biography paints a complete portrait of an unparalleled baseball life – from Drysdale’s early years in Van Nuys to his sudden passing in 1993 at age 56.
Bill Plunkett will discuss L.A. Story: Shohei Otani, The Los Angeles Dodgers, and a Season for the Ages.
The definitive portrait of Shohei Ohtani’s momentous debut season in Dodger blue.
L.A. Story is a multifaceted, insider’s portrait of a debut season for the ages. Veteran baseball scribe Bill Plunkett deftly captures the phenomenon of baseball’s “unicorn”, with storylines including Ohtani’s offensive explosion while recovering from Tommy John surgery, his first flirtations with postseason glory, and the gambling scandal involving his longtime interpreter and close friend that nearly upended everything before he could take his first at-bat at Dodger Stadium.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/stephen-witt
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 14th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-wkshop-tickets-1317381757299
No Pulp Open Mic Poetry at Work Evolution Laboratories, Long Beach – In-Person Event
This event is held every 2nd and 4th Monday of the month.
Doors open at 7:30 pm. All ages.
Where: Work Evolution Laboratories
Date: April the 14th
Time: 8:30 pm – 11 pm
Address: 235 E. Broadway, Suite 800, Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: https://www.lbpoetry.com/
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 ack. https://www.francescaliablock.com/
Note: Please RSVP at site.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/1885820250415
Virtual Book Club: The Heart of Winter via La Crescenta Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for our weekly Virtual Book Club on Zoom. In April we will be discussing The Heart of Winter by Jonathan Evison. If you have like to get the link to join the virtual book club, please email mwiggins@library.lacounty.gov. For adults.
We will be discussing the following sections:
April 15: Softer Landing—pages 181 – 268—Nothing Could be Finer
Where: La Crescenta Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13216666
Books and Bagels: Prophet Song at Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial 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.
April 15: Prophet Song, by author Paul Lynch
Where: Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 12:30 pm
Address: 501 S. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/books-and-bagels-1
Tuesday Afternoon Book Club: Eastbound at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join the Tuesday Afternoon Book Club to enjoy engaging discussions of great literature.
April title: Eastbound by Maylis de Kerangal
RSVP:
For the Zoom link, please email silver@lapl.org.
Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 2411 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/tuesday-afternoon-book-club-1
Before the Ban Book Club: Looking for Alaska at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Looking for Alaska by author John Green.
First drink. First prank. First friend. First love.
Last words.
Miles Halter is fascinated by famous last words—and tired of his safe life at home. He leaves for boarding school to seek what the dying poet François Rabelais called the “Great Perhaps.” Much awaits Miles at Culver Creek, including Alaska Young, who will pull Miles into her labyrinth and catapult him into the Great Perhaps.
Looking for Alaska brilliantly chronicles the indelible impact one life can have on another. A modern classic, this stunning debut marked #1 bestselling author John Green’s arrival as a groundbreaking new voice in contemporary fiction.
John Green is the award-winning, #1 bestselling author of books including Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, and Turtles All the Way Down. His books have received many accolades, including a Printz Medal, a Printz Honor, and an Edgar Award. John has twice been a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and was selected by TIME magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. He is also the writer and host of the critically acclaimed podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed. With his brother, Hank, John has co-created many online video projects, including Vlogbrothers and the educational channel Crash Course. He lives with his family in Indianapolis, Indiana. You can visit John online at johngreenbooks.com.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 1 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/ban-book-club-looking-alaska
Mysterious Book Club: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd at West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us for the next meeting of the Mysterious Book Club, a group of readers who love mystery and suspense. We are reading The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. This book club continues from the Palisades Library but we welcome all new members. Come even if you haven’t read the book. You can meet everyone, and you’ll know the title for next month.
This is the fourth mystery with Detective Hercule Poirot. The novel was voted by the British Crime Writers’ Association as the best crime novel ever. Its innovative twist ending had a significant impact on the genre. It is often called Agatha Christie’s masterpiece.
Online participation via Zoom is available on request to westla@lapl.org.
Where: West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: 11360 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mysterious-book-club-5
A Reading & Discussion with Joyelle McSweeney at Pomona College – In-Person Event
Joyelle McSweeney is a Guggenheim Fellow, poet, critic, and publisher of international literature in translation. She is the author of ten books, including Death Styles (2024) and Toxicon and Arachne (2020), which was praised in The New Yorker and earned her the Shelley Memorial Prize. Her essay collection The Necropastoral (2014) is a seminal work of eco-criticism. She co-edits Action Books, championing global literature, and has collaborated on translations of Korean modernist Yi Sang. McSweeney teaches at Notre Dame and continues to shape contemporary poetry and literary criticism.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Pomona College, Ena Thompson Reading Room
Date: Tuesday, the 15th
Time: 4:30 pm
Address: 333 N. College Way., Claremont, CA 91711
Website: https://claremontcreativewriting.com/
Book Club: The Burgess Boys at Pico Rivera Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join the Pico Rivera Library Book Club as we read The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout. For adults.
After their father died in a freak car accident, Jim and Bob Burgess were eager to leave their home in Shirley Falls, Maine. In the years that followed, they managed to find successful careers in the legal field in New York City. The two have a seemingly loving but competitive relationship that is only truly challenged after their sister Susan calls them seeking assistance. Her son Zach has been accused of committing a hate crime and she needs their help.
Where: Pico Rivera Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 6 pm – 7pm
Address: 9001 Mines Ave., Pico Rivera, CA 90660
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/12968469
Adult Book Club: The Mystery of Mrs. Christie at Norwood Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join Norwood Library’s Adult Book Club for a discussion of our latest selection The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict. For Adults Sponsored by The Friends of the Norwood Library
The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict, covers the December 1926 disappearance of writer Agatha Christie. After 11 days, Mrs. Christie re-emerges as mysteriously as she disappeared and questions still persist.
If you would like a copy of the book, please drop by Norwood Library to pick up a copy or get a digital copy.
Where: Norwood Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 6 pm – 7pm
Address: 550 Peck Rd., El Monte, CA 91732
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13327263
Book Talk: Abbi Waxman & One Death at a Time at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event
Join us for the paperback release of Abbi Waxman’s latest novel, ONE DEATH AT A TIME. Abbi will be in conversation with fellow novelist Hilary Liftin. Light refreshments will be served!
When Julia Mann, a bad-tempered ex-actress and professional thorn in the side of authority, runs into Natasha Mason at an AA meeting, it’s anything but a meet-cute. Julia just found a dead body in her swimming pool, and the cops say she did it (she already went to jail for murder once, so now they think she’s making a habit of it). Mason is eager to clear Julia’s name and help keep her sober, but all Julia wants is for Mason to leave her alone.
As their investigation ranges from the Hollywood Hills to the world of burlesque to the country clubs of Palm Springs, this unconventional team realizes their shared love of sarcasm and poor life choices are proving to be a powerful combination. Will secrets from their past trip them up, or will their team of showgirls, cat burglars, and Hollywood agents help them stay one step ahead? Are dead piranhas, false noses, and a giant martini glass important clues or simply your typical day in Los Angeles? And will they manage to solve the crime before they kill each other, or worse, fall off the wagon? Trying to keep it simple and take it easy is one thing—trying to find a murderer before they kill again is a whole other program.
Note: Please RSVP at site.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 6 pm – 11 am
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2025-04-15/book-talk-abbi-waxmans-one-death-time
Inlandia Workshop: Writing and Expressing Poetry in American Sign Language with Ryan Fingerle – Online Event
Alternating Tuesdays, 4/15, 4/29, 5/13, 5/27, and 6/10/25. 6:00-8:00 PM PT, on Zoom. (All Levels)
FREE Community Enrichment Workshop. Registration required. https://tinyurl.com/Spring2025CWW
Do you want to write poetry but don’t know where to start?
Would you rather express poetry in ASL but aren’t sure how to begin?
Join this interactive workshop designed for poetry lovers who want to explore both written and visual poetry in English and American Sign Language (ASL). Whether you’re looking to develop your skills in writing poetry or want to express poetry through ASL, this workshop is for you!
Ryan Fingerle is a Deaf writer, poet, educator, and community advocate whose passion for language knows no boundaries. Her work, “Stuck in the Middle,” was featured in the 2021 MUSE Literary Magazine, and she captivated a live audience by presenting her poem “Connected” in American Sign Language (ASL) during a National Deaf History and Poetry Month event. Ryan holds a M.A. from Southern New Hampshire University and serves as an English professor at Riverside City College and Crafton Hills College. She is deeply committed to empowering adult learners and their families to embrace and navigate both ASL and English.
Where: Inlandia Online
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/inlandia-writing-workshops-apr-june/
The Third Tuesday Book Club at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for a lively book discussion. Please call or email the branch for this month’s title.
Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., CA 90094
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/3rd-tuesday-book-club
Graphic Novel & Comic Book Club for Adults on Zoom Book via Palms – Rancho Park 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 as ebooks through hoopla and/or Libby/Overdrive.
April 15: The Road (2024) by Cormac McCarthy & Manu Lancent
Where: Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/comic-book-graphic-novel-book-club-adults-zoom
Diane Morrisey, with Carissa Stanton, & You Got This: Recipes Anyone Can Make and Everyone Will Love (a Cookbook) at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to welcome Diane Morrissey, in conversation with Carissa Stanton, to discuss You Got This: Recipes Anyone Can Make and Everyone Will Love (a Cookbook).
In these 100, simple recipes Diane Morrisey shows how anyone—whether you’re a new or seasoned cook—can pull together a meal in a cinch using ingredients that are already in your pantry and are designed for carnivores, pescatarians, and vegetarians alike.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., #33., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Diane-Morrisey-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
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 15th (through May 6, 2025)
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event
Website: https://www.dstlarts.org/calendar
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 15th
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm
Address: 14537 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDniBCVy64L/
Matt Goldman & The Murder Show at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Matt Goldman will discuss and sign The Murder Show.
Showrunner Ethan Harris had a hit with The Murder Show, a television crime drama that features a private detective who solves cases the police can’t. But after his pitch for the fourth season is rejected by the network, he returns home to Minnesota looking for inspiration.
His timing is fortunate—his former classmate Ro Greeman is now a local police officer, and she’s uncovered new information about the devastating hit and run that killed their mutual friend Ricky the summer after high school. She asks Ethan to help her investigate and thinks that if he portrays the killing on The Murder Show, the publicity may bring Ricky’s killer to justice.
Ethan is skeptical that Ricky’s death was anything but a horrible accident, but with the clock running out on his career, he’s willing to try anything. It doesn’t take long for them to realize they’ve dug up more than they bargained for. Someone is dead set on stopping Ethan and Ro from looking too closely into Ricky’s death—even if keeping them quiet means killing again…
The Murder Show is a pulse-racing novel about secrets, old friends, and how the past never leaves us by New York Times bestselling and Emmy Award winning author Matt Goldman!
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/matt-goldman-discusses-signs-murder-show
North Figueroa Book Club: Hurricane Season at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
This month we will be reading Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor!
Please order the book at https://bookshop.org/shop/northfigbookshop
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event
Mystery Book Club: The Quiet Librarian at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Mystery Book Club meets every other month, generally on the second Tuesday at 7:00 pm. We read new release mysteries. Book selection is done by email voting prior to each meeting so that the following month’s book will be available at the preceding month’s meeting.
Participants will discuss the April selection, The Quiet Librarian, by author Allen Eskins.
After the murder of her best friend, a librarian’s search for answers leads back to her own dark secrets in this “searing and timely” novel about a woman transformed by war, family, vengeance, and love, from the author of the beloved bestseller The Life We Bury (Kristin Harmel, author of The Paris Daughter).
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-04-15/mystery-book-club
Book Launch: Akwaeke Emezi & SOMADINA at Reparations Club – In-Person Event
Akwaeke Emezi will present and discuss her book Somadin.
From the National Book Award finalist and author of Pet comes a novel set in a magical West African world, about a teen girl who must save her missing twin while learning to navigate her own terrifying new powers.
Somadina and her twin brother, Jayaike, are practically the same person: they finish each other’s sentences and make each other whole. When the twins come of age, their magical gifts begin to develop, but while Jayaike’s powers enchant, Somadina’s cause fear to ripple through her town.
Always an outsider, Somadina now faces blatant—and dangerous—hostility. And things go from bad to worse when her brother—the one person she trusted—vanishes. Somadina knows that no matter the dangers, she must track him down. Even if it means entering the Sacred Forest. Even if it means grueling, otherworldly travel she may not survive. Even if it means finding the hidden places where those closest to the spirit world don’t dare to go. Does Somadina have the strength—within both her body and her soul—for the trying journey ahead?
National Book Award finalist Akwaeke Emezi masterfully weaves a tale of family, identity, and the power of the past, in a world where the extraordinary is ordinary.
Akwaeke Emezi (they/them) is a New York Times bestselling author of the novels Freshwater, The Death of Vivek Oji, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty, the young adult novels Pet and Bitter, the memoir Dear Senthuran, and the poetry collection Content Warning: Everything. Featured on the cover of Time as a Next Generation Leader, they have been a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and are a recipient of an NAACP Image Award. They are based in liminal spaces.
Where: Reparations Club
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3054 South Victoria Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
At Skylight: Katie Kitamura, with Danzy Senna, & Audition at Skylight – In-Person Event,
Katie Kitamura, in conversation with Danzy Senna, will discuss Audition.
One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilizing Möbius strip of a novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love.
Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately.
Katie Kitamura is the author of four previous novels, most recently A Separation and Intimacies, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for a Joyce Carol Oates Prize. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Literature, a Lannan fellowship, and many other honors, and her work has been translated into twenty-one languages. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.
Danzy Senna is the bestselling author of six previous books, including Caucasia, New People, and most recently Colored Television. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, she teaches writing at the University of Southern California.
Where: Skylight
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-katie-kitamura-presents-audition-w-danzy-senna
Anna-Marie McLemore, with Mackenzi Lee, & The Influencers, at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Anna-Marie McLemore, in conversation with Mackenzi Lee, will discuss her novel The Influencers.
A social media influencer’s empire is burned to the ground—literally. The top suspects? The five daughters who made her famous.
What do you really know about the people you’ve made famous?
“Mother May I” Iverson has spent the past twenty-five years building a massively successful influencer empire with endearing videos featuring her five mixed-race daughters. But the girls are all grown up now, and the ramifications of having their entire childhoods commodified start to spill over into public view, especially in light of the pivotal question: Who killed May’s newlywed husband and then torched her mansion to cover it up?
April is a businesswoman feuding with her mother over intellectual property; twins June and July are influencers themselves, threatening to overtake May’s spotlight; January is a theater tech who steers clear of her mother and the limelight; and the youngest…well, March has somehow completely disappeared. As the days pass post-murder, everyone has an opinion—the sisters, May, a mysterious “friend of the family,” and the collective voice of the online audience watching the family’s every move—with suspicion flying every direction.
A campy and escapist exploration of race, gender, sexuality, and class, The Influencers is an evisceration of influencer culture and how alienating traditional expectations can be, ripe for the current moment when the first generation of children made famous by their parents are, now, all grown up—and looking for retribution.
NOTE: See site for link and details.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Tuesday Night Café Series Celebrates National Poetry Month at Union Center for the Arts – In-Person Event
Hosted by traci kato-kiriyama and F. Douglas Brown, the Poetry Month poets performing include:
Chiwan Choi is co-founder of Writ Large Projects and the author of The Flood, Abductions and The Yellow House, among others.
Niko Deany is an actor, prose and poetry writer.
annakai hayakawa geshlider is a writer and a clown. Her work has been published in Hanging Loose Press, Actually People Magazine, and Rad Families: An Anthology.
Noriko Nakada is a multi-racial Asian American who creates fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art to capture the hidden stories she has been told not to talk about. Publications include her memoir series: Through Eyes Like Mine, Overdue Apologies, and I Tried.
Luivette Resto is associate editor of Tia Chucha Press and is the author of Unfinished Portrait, Ascension, and Living on Islands Not Found on Maps.
S. Pearl Sharp is an artist, actor and writer, and the author of What You Left Behind, Black Women for Beginners, and Higher Ground.
Alfa + Cynthia Wang + Priska
Masks required. Limited space for Open Mic.
Where: Union Center for the Arts
Date: Tuesday the 15th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address:120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: https://www.tuesdaynightproject.org/ or https://www.instagram.com/p/DIJkylSoK1p/?hl=en
The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert & Guest Doug Rawlings – Online Zoom Event
Cobalt Poets Reading & Open Mic and host Rick Lupert welcomes guest Doug Rawlings to read and discuss his work.
Doug Rawlings is an award-winning poet, teacher, and peace activist. He served with the US Army 7th Battalion, 15th Field Artillery regiment in Vietnam, 1969-70. Rawlings was born on December 8th, 1946, in Rochester, New York. In 1968, he graduated with a degree in economics from John Carroll University.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday, the 15th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com
Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic Night at Greenway Court Theatre – In-Person Event
The nation’s largest weekly spoken word Open Mic event is 26 years strong. DPL is a community space for every poet to be heard. They provide a platform to celebrate poetry while using it as the foundation for creativity, innovation, and expression across an array of media outlets.
$10 donation. Do NOT line up prior to 7:30 pm Free parking adjacent to the theater.
Masks are encouraged. All ages are welcome.
Where: Greenway Court Theatre
Date: Tuesday, the 15th
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/
Book Club: The Book of Two Ways at Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us for a lively discussion of the novel The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult.
Where: Granada Hills Branch, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 1:30 pm – 3 pm
Address: 10640 Petit Ave., Granada Hills, CA 91344
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-2
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, the 16th
Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: On-air Event (live)
Website: https://www.kpfk.org/on-air/poets-cafe/
Kids Creative Writing Workshop at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event
Join us for an engaging series of writing workshops designed for children in grades 1-3. Led by experienced high school volunteers, these workshops will help foster literary skills. No prior experience necessary!
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/kids-creative-writing-workshop-0
National Poetry Month: Poetry Zines at East Rancho Dominguez Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Celebrate National Poetry Month by creating your own poetry zine! Be a poet, illustrator, and publisher all in one with a DIY mini-magazine reflective of you. We’ll supply the materials; you supply the inspiration! For teens.
Where: East Rancho Dominguez Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 4420 E. Rose St., East Compton, CA 90221
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13293219
Graphic Novel Club: Speak Up Santiago! at Once Upon a Time, Montrose – In-Person Event
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 discuss Speak Up Santago! by Julio Anta and Gabi Mendez.
Celebrate our shared love of graphic novels and visual creativity! Iz and Apollo host our ever-popular book club.
Reader expectations:
Best for ages 8+.
This is a discussion- based club. Participants should come prepared to share their thoughts about that meeting’s book choice.
Where: Once Upon a Time, Montrose
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 4 pm – 4:45 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13293219
Poetry for Teensat Angelo M. Iacobani Library, LACL – In-Person Teen Event
Happy National Poetry Month!
Have you been working on writing your own poetry or don’t know where to get started? We’ll be hosting a poetry workshop where we’ll get creative and experiment with different writing styles. For ages 12 – 18.
Attendance is limited and advance registration is required. To sign up, see library staff, or register online at Visit.LACountyLibrary.org/Events and filter by location or event date.
Where: Angelo M. Iacobani Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 4990 Clark Ave., Lakewood, CA 90712
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13275429
Rainbow Reads Book Club at Once Upon a Time, Montrose – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Kirby’s Lessons for Falling (in Love) by Laura Gao.
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.
Reader expectations:
Best for ages 13 and up.
This is a discussion-based club. Participants should come prepared to share their thoughts about that meeting’s book choice.
Limited space. No drop-ins. Purchase of book from Once Upon A Time required for RSVP.
Where: Once Upon a Time, Montrose
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 6 pm – 7pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
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 16th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: On-air Event (live at 101.5 FM)
Website: https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events
Book Event: Suzanna Barkataki & Movement for This Moment via Octavia’s Bookshelf – Online Even
Join us in partnership with Susanna Barkataki for an exclusive virtual event celebrating the pre-order of her book, Ignite Your Yoga! Your book order is your ticket—pre-order your copy through Octavia’s Bookshelf to access this special gathering.
What You’ll Experience:
A Sneak Peek & Signed Book – Get an exclusive look at Ignite Your Yoga before its release. Signed copies available for in-store pickup or shipping.
Movement for This Moment – A short, grounding practice inspired by the F.I.R.E. Framework to embody yoga’s power in today’s world.
A Deep & Honest Conversation – Susanna and Octavia’s Bookshelf founder, Nikki High, for a rich discussion on yoga, resilience, and reclaiming our power.
Tap into the F.I.R.E. Framework – Learn how Yoga’s Foundation, Integrity, Relationships, and Embodiment (F.I.R.E.) can transform not just your practice, but your leadership and activism.
Live Q&A & Community Connection – Ask questions, share reflections, and be in conversation with others who believe in the power of yoga.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Octavia’s Bookshelf
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Book Club for Adults: The Glassmaker at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us on the third Wednesday of every month for our long-running book club for adults!
Upcoming Meeting:
April (4/16): The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier.
RSVP:
Please email studio@lapl.org for participation details.
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-adults-2
Cal Hoffman, with Arye Gross, & Easy to Slip at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Cal Hoffman, in conversation with Arye Gross, will discuss Easy to Slip
Sam Kovner reads messages on walls and hears voices in the hall, and wonders: if you find yourself losing your mind, how do you get well?
Winter, 1976, Columbia University. Hearing voices and seeing hateful writing on walls, early admission Sam Kovner walks the New York streets, sleepless thirty-six hours. Through the radiant specificity of memory, he reckons with a hard-driving father, a caring, sometimes careless mother, a generous, self-involved uncle who’s just become a movie star, and star-struck grandparents. Sam fears the undertow of feelings: he’s not quite spent the night with someone he’s fallen for. Home for high-school graduation, a prom night affair reminds Sam of how he once knew love, freeing him to face his encroaching psychosis. Entering a hospital, he confronts traumatic, repressed memories with unflinching courage. With irrepressible humor and pathos, Easy to Slip recalls an era when youth mattered, and people healed from psychiatric illness.
Cal Hoffman is a writer, educator and actor. He graduated from Catholic University and attended Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London and the MFA Fiction Writing Program at Columbia University. He has taught English and creative writing to children of immigrants, private school students, and young people in foster care. As an actor, he has performed in regional theater across the country and starred in the acclaimed New York revival of Jules Feiffer’s “Elliot Loves.” Cal lives with his wife, Victoria Leacock Hoffman, and their son, Harry, in Washington, DC.
Arye Gross is an American actor, best known for Minority Report, Big Eden, Gone in Sixty Seconds, A Midnight Clear, and House II: The Second Story. Other film credits include: For The Boys, Grey Gardens, Mother Night, The Experts, Coupe de Ville, and Tequila Sunrise. Television credits include: regular and recurring roles on Castle, Wildfire, Ellen, The Riches, and The Practice. Theatre credits include: (Broadway) Brooklyn Boy (Biltmore Theatre); and regionally, Parfumerie (The Wallis), Circle Mirror Transformation, and the world premieres of Our Mother’s Brief Affair and Future Thinking (South Coast Repertory), and ‘The Librarian’ in Underneath The Lintel at The Geffen Playhouse.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., #33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/Cal-Hoffman-April-16-Author-signing
WeHo Reads: Richard Blanco and Kim Dower via Virtual Program, LACL – Online Event
Join us for an inspiring National Poetry Month discussion between two celebrated poets whose work explores the intersection of identity, culture, and human connection. For adults.
In partnership with the City of West Hollywood, this event is free and available to watch via YouTube Live on the WeHo Arts channel: youtube.com/wehoarts. No registration required. RSVP for a reminder: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weho-reads-richard-blanco-and-kim-dower-in-conversation-tickets-1273303207169
What role does poetry play in shaping our sense of self and our connection to the world? How can poetic expression illuminate identity, belonging, and universal truths?
This engaging conversation will delve into their creative processes, their perspectives on poetry as a transformative art form, and the ways their experiences have shaped their work.
The event will feature:
Richard Blanco, the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet, selected by President Obama, and a National Humanities Medal recipient. As a poet, memoirist, and advocate, Blanco’s work—including How To Love a Country and Homeland of My Body—reflects on cultural identity, belonging, and the human spirit, earning him widespread acclaim and recognition as a voice for diversity and justice. He was the first appointed Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County.
Kim Dower, former City Poet Laureate of West Hollywood, whose six acclaimed poetry collections—including her newest, What She Wants: Poems on Obsession, Desire, Despair, Euphoria as well as the bestselling I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom—are known for blending humor and heartache, memory and loss. Dower’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, Rattle, and O Magazine and is included in major anthologies such as Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond.
This dynamic exchange between two literary luminaries will offer insights into the transformative power of poetry and its ability to inspire both personal and collective change. Learn more at weho.org/wehoreads.
Where: Virtual Program, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 6;30 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13231394
Daniel D’Addario, with Amanda Dobbins, & The Talent at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Daniel D’Addario, in conversation with Amanda Dobbins, will discuss The Talent: A Novel.
As Hollywood prepares for its most glamorous evening, five actresses compete to see who will claim the top prize.
Adria, a dignified and highly regarded grand dame of the movie industry, is intent on cementing her legacy as one of the greatest thespians of all time, even as the younger generation creeps up quickly behind her. Bitty must keep a nervous breakdown—and an increasingly debilitating alcohol addiction—at bay, as she searches for genuine closeness in an unforgiving landscape. Contessa, a former child star, is determined to make the world, and her leading man, take her seriously. Davina attempts to find her footing in superficial Los Angeles, a far cry from her roots as a serious London stage actress. And Jenny—always the underdog to her rival, Adria—sees this awards season as her personal redemption, a chance to atone for past mistakes and make up for missed opportunities.
With humor, wit, and an insider’s insight, The Talent peels back the layers of women who are in the business of being perceived. And while they work to push their careers forward and maintain the public’s goodwill, all five are forced to confront truths about themselves that they would rather ignore: Could Adria and Jenny have been a team all these years, rather than bitter enemies? Is it their responsibility to offer a lifeline to poor Bitty, who is clearly teetering on the edge? Should Contessa and Davina dim their own rising stars to make those around them more comfortable? What do women in the spotlight owe each other, and themselves?
Amanda Dobbins is a co-host of The Big Picture podcast and the Features Lead at The Ringer. She has previously worked at New York magazine, Glamour, Buzzfeed, and HuffPost. She lives in Los Angeles with her family.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/daniel-daddario-conversation-amanda-dobbins-discusses-talent
Book Event: Kelsie Sheridan Gonzalez, with Dahlia De La Vega, & The Gods Time Forgot at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Kelsie Sheridan Gonzalez, in conversation with Dahlia De La Vega, will discuss The Gods Time Forgot.
There will be a book signing to follow. This is a ticketed event.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Wednesday the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodice.com/events-and-tickets
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 16th
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
Banned Books Club: May the Best Man Win at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Event
Our Banned Books Club pick for April 16th is May The Best Man Win by ZR Ellor, in honor of Autism Acceptance Month.
You can pick up a copy in store or keep supporting Underdog by purchasing the audiobook through us on Libro.fm
Banned Books Club meets every third Wednesday in store and online to discuss a new banned or challenged book each month. We’re also now on the BookClubsHQ app!
RSVP: bit.ly/readbannedbooks
NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and details.
Where: Underdog Bookstore
Date: Wednesday, the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 312 S. Myrtle Ave., Monrovia, CA 91016
Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events
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 — Mike Bonifer & White Men My Age;
- 9:05 pm – 10:00 pm — Open mic.
Suggested: $10.00 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 16th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DH_iBedvp6E/
Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop with Tom Laichas via 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.
Tom Laichas is author of four books of poetry, including Three Hundred Streets of Venice California (FutureCycle Press, 2023) and the forthcoming Landscapes From An American Afterlife (The Los Angeles Press, 2025). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Plume, BarBar, The Los Angeles Times, the Irish Times, The High Window Review (UK), and elsewhere. He is the winner of poetry prizes from Jabberwock Review, Puerto del Sol, and Prime 53, and has been shortlisted in competitions sponsored by The Moth (Ireland), Aesthetica, Arts & Letters, New Letters and Gunpowder Press. He lives with his family in Venice, California.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Wednesday, the 16th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org
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.
This week’s event is titled Ghosts & Echoes,
Hosted by John White, with vibes by DJ Hennytee.
Where: East Los Angeles Rising Youth Club
Date: Wednesday, the 16th
Time: 8 pm – 9:45 pm (Doors at 7:30)
Address: 324 N. McDonnell Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90022
Website: https://www.instagram.com/eastlossoul/ or https://www.bgcela.org/
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg and Guests: Pastiche Queen at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry at the Ugly Mug on Wednesday Nights.
Pastiche Queen (They/Them) is a non-binary latindigenous, interdisciplinary performance artist from Denver, CO currently based in Hollywood, CA. Their work as an actor and slam poet has been featured on AppleTV’s “Dear: Viola Davis”, and Facebook’s “Queer Community Leaders of Color Initiative”. Pastiche’s one-person show, originally developed as part of The REDCAT partnership with Da Poetry Lounge in 2022, “Level One Gygax”, won The Theatricum Botanicum Wordsmith Award for Advancing the Artform of Storytelling as well as multiple Producers’ Encore Awards. They are a grand slam championship title-holder in multiple individual slams as well as a proud member of The West Hollywood Slam Team. Pastiche’s book, Trans Velociraptors, out now.
$4 cover fee, cash only
NOTE: See site for further details.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday, the 16th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA
Website: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063442616115&sk=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.
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 17th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https: //shop.villagewell.com/events/1880320250417
Mystery Book Discussion: The Silver Swan at Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for engaging conversation about whodunnits, thrillers, and cri-fi. Light refreshments will be provided by Friends of the Palms Rancho Park Library. We meet on the 3rd Thursday of the month with the exception of June this year. Copies are available at reference and as ebooks.
April 17 – The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black (online meeting. Contact the branch for link: prncho@lapl.org)
Where: Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 1:30 pm
Address: 2920 Overland Ave,, Los Angeles, CA 90064
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-discussion-1
Book Club for Adults: The Accidental Empress at Chet Holifield Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss the novel The Accidental Empress by Allison Pataki. For adults.
Whether you like historical fiction, sci-fi, romance, or memoirs, this book club reads it all. This month, join us for a discussion of The Accidental Empress by Allison Pataki. For Adults.
Where: Chet Holifield Library, LACL
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1060 S. Greenwood Ave,. Montebello, CA 90640
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13208307
Teen Poetry Workshop at La Mirada Library, LACL – In-Person Teen Event
We’re celebrating National Poetry Month with author and poet April Halprin Wayland! Join us for this workshop where you can learn about poetry and craft your very own poem. For teens ages 13 – 17.
Where: La Mirada Library, LACL
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 13800 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada, CA 90638
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13293123
Arroyo Writing Group at Arroyo Seco Regional Branch Library, LAPL – 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 17th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6145 N, Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/arroyo-writing-group-0
Mystery Book Club: All Good People Here at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss All Good People Here: A Novel by author Ashley Flowers.
When Margot returns home to help care for her uncle after he is diagnosed with early-onset dementia, she feels like she’s walked into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembers—genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under circumstances eerily similar to January’s. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and to solve January’s murder once and for all.
But the police, Natalie’s family, the townspeople—they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January’s case feels. Could January’s killer still be out there? Is it the same person who took Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night twenty years ago?
Twisty, chilling, and intense, All Good People Here is a searing tale that asks: What are your neighbors capable of when they think no one
Ashley Flowers is the #1 female podcaster in the U.S., captivating the largest female audience in podcasting. As the host of Crime Junkie, the #1 true crime podcast worldwide, she regularly dominates the Apple Podcasts charts. With her signature blend of gripping narratives and intense storytelling, Ashley has built her media company, audiochuck, into a powerhouse, amassing over 2.6 billion downloads across a slate of hit shows, including The Deck, The Deck Investigates, and Crime Junkie AF on SiriusXM.
Ashley is also a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Her debut thriller, All Good People Here, became an instant bestseller, and her upcoming novel, The Missing Half, set to release in 2025, tells the gripping story of two women haunted by their sisters’ unsolved disappearances who band together to uncover the truth, even if it means shattering their worlds.
In 2020, Ashley founded Season of Justice, a nonprofit that has donated over $1.5 million to support more than 200 cold cases, funding DNA testing and other investigative tools to aid in solving these cases.
Born and raised in Indiana, Ashley resides there with her husband, daughter, and their beloved dog Chuck, the namesake of her media company.is watching?
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-all-good-people-here
Inlandia Workshop: Writing the Personal Essay with J.D. Mathes – Online Event
Alternating Thursdays, 4/17, 5/1, 5/15, 5/29, and 6/12/25 at 6:00-8:00 PM PT, on Zoom. (All Levels)
$50. Registration required. https://tinyurl.com/Spring2025CWW
In this workshop, participants will explore moments from their lives and use research to uncover connections between themselves and the wider world – topics can include nature, science, travel, culture, history – to write personal essays that ring with humanity
J.D. Mathes grew up a feral child in the deserts of the American Southwest who loved to read library books and take photographs. He is a 2019-2020 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellow, a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar alumnus, an award-winning author of four books, photographer, screenwriter, and arts reporter. Although Mathes still struggles with subject-verb agreement and where to put commas, he is finishing work on his memoir Of Time and Punishment.
Where: Inlandia Online
Date: Thursday the 17th (through June 12th)
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/inlandia-writing-workshops-apr-june/
Bel Canto Book Club, hosted by Union @ Compound: Forrest of Noise at Bel Canto Books, Long Beach – In-Person Event
Join us for the Bel Canto Book Club hosted by Union @ Compound (1395 Coronado Avenue, Long Beach CA 90804). We’ll meet every third Thursday of the month at 6:30pm to discuss a book of contemporary fiction or non-fiction handpicked by bookstore owner Jhoanna Belfer of Bel Canto Books.
Free to attend; RSVP requested. Drink/food purchase recommended. Find their full dinner menu available at site link.
RSVP requested.
Where: Bel Canto Books Union @ Compound
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1395 Coronado Ave., Long Beach, CA 90804
Cal Hoffman, with Richard Cox. & Easy to Slip at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Cal Hoffman, in conversation with Richard Cox, will discuss Easy to Slip.
Sam Kovner reads messages on walls and hears voices in the hall, and wonders: if you find yourself losing your mind, how do you get well?
Winter, 1976, Columbia University. Hearing voices and seeing hateful writing on walls, early admission Sam Kovner walks the New York streets, sleepless thirty-six hours. Through the radiant specificity of memory, he reckons with a hard-driving father, a caring, sometimes careless mother, a generous, self-involved uncle who’s just become a movie star, and star-struck grandparents. Sam fears the undertow of feelings: he’s not quite spent the night with someone he’s fallen for. Home for high-school graduation, a prom night affair reminds Sam of how he once knew love, freeing him to face his encroaching psychosis. Entering a hospital, he confronts traumatic, repressed memories with unflinching courage. With irrepressible humor and pathos, Easy to Slip recalls an era when youth mattered and people healed from psychiatric illness.
Cal Hoffman is a writer, educator, and actor. He graduated from Catholic University and attended Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London and the MFA Fiction Writing Program at Columbia University. He has taught English and creative writing to children of immigrants, private school students, and young people in foster care. As an actor, he has performed in regional theater across the country and starred in the acclaimed New York revival of Jules Feiffer’s play Elliot Loves. Cal lives with his wife, Victoria Leacock Hoffman, and their son, Harry, in Washington, DC.
Richard Cox has moved seamlessly from classical theater (Bolingbroke opposite William Hurt in Richard II on Broadway) and film (recently Al Pacino’s Lear Rex), off Broadway hits (Obie Award winning Moonchildren, and Alice in Wonderland opposite Meryl Streep), Broadway musicals (winning the coveted Clarence Derwent Award and Tony and Drama Desk nominations for Platinum) and Blood Brothers to feature film (Stuart Richards, the killer, opposite Al Pacino in Cruising) TV MOWs (Dershowitz in Norman Mailer’s American Tragedy) and mini-series (David Seidelman, the journalist, in Robert Altman and Garry Trudeau ‘s Tanner which won the Grand Prize at Cannes) to TV comedy (the family therapist in Titus), series work and a huge number of memorable guest stars in every genre on such shows as Southland, ER, Designing Woman, Leverage, Star Trek TNG, NCIS LA, Prospero on The Librarians and Gray Talbott on Alpha House.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/cal-hoffman
Harbor Lights Poetry Night Event at Harbor College Arena Theatre – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Come join us for LA Harbor Lights Poetry Nights at Harbor College with featured guest Denise Dumars.
Workshop and Open Mic – Free Poetry Books!
Only two more Poetry Nights left in the semester. Come out for this one to write haiku with sci-fi/horror/fantasy writer Denise Dumars.
For Details, email: lozadach@laccd.edu
Should you want to join us via zoom, please email lozadach@laccd.edu for link.
Where: Harbor College Arena Theatre (Theatre Drama Speech Bldg. 107
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.instagram.com
At Skylight: Alex Dimitrov, with Morgan Parker, & Ecstasy at Skylight – In-Person Event
Alex Dimitrov, in conversation with Morgan Parker, will discuss his poetry collection Ecstasy.
NOTE: See website link for tickets and details.
Where: Skylight
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1717 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-alex-dimitrov-presents-ecstasy-w-morgan-parker
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.
Get your tickets at site!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/1336720250417
Jason Bailey, with Tim Grierson, & Gandolfini at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Jason Bailey, in conversation with Tim Grierson, discusses and signs Gandolfini
A purchase of the book from Vroman’s is greatly appreciated and makes events like this possible.
A deeply reported, perceptive, and celebratory biography of beloved actor James Gandolfini from a prominent critic and film historian.
Based on extensive research and original reporting, including interviews with friends and collaborators, Gandolfini is a detailed and nuanced appraisal of an enduring artist.
More than a decade after his sudden passing, James Gandolfini still exerts a powerful pull on television and film enthusiasts around the world. His charismatic portrayal of complex, flawed, but always human men illuminated the contradictions in all of us, as well as our potential for grace, and the power of love and family.
In Gandolfini, critic and historian Jason Bailey traces the twinned stories of the man and the unforgettable roles he played. Gandolfini’s roots were working class, raised in northern New Jersey as the son of Italian immigrants, and acting was something he loved for a long time before he could see it as a career. It wasn’t until he was well into his bohemian twenties that he dedicated himself to a life on the stage and screen.
Bailey traces his rise, from bit parts to character roles he enlivened with menace and vulnerability, to Tony Soprano, the breakout role that would make him a legend, and onto a post-Sopranos career in which he continued to challenge himself and his audience.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91101
The Poetry Diet Open Mic & Features at The Living Room – In-Person Event
In Honor of National Poetry Month, the Poetry Open Mic features:
AKoldPiece is an educator, spoken word artist, host. author of The Weather Report (World Stage Press)
Carter Kane is a poet from the San Fernando Valley. He first found is passion for poetry in song writing when he was in middle school. His first appearance in the L.Á poetry scene was in April 0f 2023 at Da Poetry Lounge.
Gia Civerolo is a Los Angeles based poet, producer, educator, and special needs advocate. She has immersed herself into the poetry community for the past two years and is thrilled to have graduated from the CLI Poetry Publishing Class with this first full-length collection She Confuses Lovers, Movies, Angels, and Poems.
$10 at site!
Where: The Living Room
Date: Thursday the 17th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 1026 S, Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90015
Website: https://www.instagram.com/thepoetrydiet/
Lit Angels: Morning Writing with Francesca Lia Block at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Many people believe that morning writing practice is key to finding your voice, your story and, in this case, your community! At the Village Well!
Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning at 8:30 AM come join acclaimed author and writing instructor Francesca Lia Block for a brief intro and 40 minutes of free writing on any topic without judgement. Afterwards, you will be able to share a bit about your process and ask Francesca questions about your writing.
About the instructor:
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 paperback. https://www.francescaliablock.com/
Come make some magic at the Village Well! All genres and levels are welcome!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 8:30 am – 9:30 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events
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 18th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event
Bilingual Storytime at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Bilingual Storytime! Exposing your children to multiple languages is highly beneficial for their learning and development, and what better way to do it than through this fun activity where we will read a wonderful story in both English and Spanish.
¡Hora de cuentos bilingüe! Exponer a tus hjijos a varios idiomas es de gran beneficio para su aprendizaje y desarrollo, y qué mejor que hacerlo en esta divertida actividad en donde leeremos un maravilloso cuento en inglés y en español.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/2070820250418
Stranger Than Fiction Book Club: The Wild World Handbook: Creatures at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-Person Kids Event
Join participants to discuss The Wild World Handbook: Creatures by Andrea Debink, For ages 7 – 12 with parent or caregiver.
Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct., Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13084056
OC Poetry Slam 1 Year Anniversary: Open Mic Night Every Friday Night at The Den Café, Santa Ana – In-Person Event
See you for a night of local talent, food, coffee and cocktails at The Den Cafe. A stage that’s been a home for OC’s artist since 1999.
Sign-ups start at 5:30 with @rodharrison66
Music starts at 6pm
Spoken word and poetry are welcome!
Where: The Den Café
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 6 pm (Doors at 5:30 pm)
Address: 125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, CA 9270
Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DHuMOcESB9H/?hl=en
Graphic Novel Adaptation Release Event: Parable of the Talents at Octavia’s Bookshelf – Online Event
Following the acclaimed graphic novel adaptations of Kindred and Parable of the Sower, this new release vividly continues Butler’s powerful story. Creators Damian Duffy, John Jennings, and David Brame have brought to life Lauren Olamina’s harrowing journey through a world facing rising authoritarianism, fundamentalism, and social upheaval.
With Butler’s visionary work dominating cultural conversations—from NPR to Rolling Stone—this event celebrating Parable of the Talents: A Graphic Novel Edition is not to be missed!!
REGISTER at WEBISTE LINK! Admission is free for all, but books can be pre-ordered here!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Octavia’s Bookshelf at Octavia E. Butler Magnet School
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1505 North Marengo Ave., Pasadena, CA, 91103
Website: https://www.octaviasbookshelf.com/events/parable-of-the-talents-a-graphic-novel-adaptation-release
Day 1 of International Poetry Film Festival: at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Beyond Baroque unveils the fourth season of the International Poetry Film Festival, Los Angeles. The evening centers on Poetry Goes to the Movies, an anthology edited by Suzanne Lummis, and published under Beyond Baroque Books’ Pacific Coast Poetry Series imprint. The conversation brings together a panel of filmmakers and poets including Elena Karina Byrne, Harrison Hamm, among others. The opening night screening will showcase five standout films from this year’s official selection, each based on a poem.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Friday, the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org
Seán Hewitt, with Jason Blitman, & Open, Heaven at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Seán Hewitt, in conversation with Jason Blitman, presents his debut novel, Open, Heaven.
Set in a remote village in the north of England, Open, Heaven unfolds over the course of one year in which two teenage boys meet and transform each other’s lives.
James—a sheltered, shy sixteen-year-old—is alone in his newly discovered sexuality, full of an unruly desire but entirely inexperienced. As he is beginning to understand himself and his longings, he also realizes how his feelings threaten to separate him from his family and the rural community he has grown up in. He dreams of another life, fantasizing about what lies beyond the village’s leaf-ribboned boundaries, beyond his reach: autonomy, tenderness, sex. Then, in the autumn of 2002, he meets Luke, a slightly older boy, handsome, unkempt, who comes with a reputation for danger. Abandoned by his parents—his father imprisoned, and his mother having moved to France for another man—Luke has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on their farm just outside the village.
Open, Heaven is a novel about desire, yearning, and the terror of first love. With the striking economy and lyricism that animate his work as a poet, Hewitt has written a mesmerizing hymn to boyhood, sensuality, and love in all its forms. A truly exceptional debut.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event
Comics O’Clock: A comics Reading hosted by Mikey Heller at Heavy Manners Library – In-Person Event
Comics O’Clock is a comics reading featuring live readings by local cartoonists hosted by Mikey Heller. This event will be pay what you want, with donations going to Heavy Manners Library.
The Following are the Featured Readers:
Casey Nowak is a multiple Ignatz Award-winning and Eisner-nominated cartoonist best known for their popular graphic story collection Girl Town (2018). Their work focuses on the delicacy and power of human thought, mystery, identity and intimacy. They are currently writing and illustrating two different sci-fi epics, one titled Bodyseed, the other, Bravo. In 2018 they were proud to join the newly-founded independent comics label Diskette Press, where they assist with logistics, production and fulfilment.
Maddy Peters is a cartoonist in Los Angeles. She writes and draws comics. Sometimes she draws posters, album covers, and editorial illustrations too. My work has appeared in LA-based publications including Jr Hi the Magazine and the LA Tenants Union Handbook. She is currently seeking a publisher for her current project, a horror-comedy graphic novel called The Baby Man.
Maurice Buckley is an illustrator and educator. He received his BFA at Alfred University in 2013. Since then he’s been teaching art all around New York City, through organizations such as The Art Student’s League of New York and Doing Art Together.
In addition to teaching, he works from home as a freelance artist. He currently resides in Chicago Illinois and is working on his next major projects, Mamma Mabel and Seymour.
C. Daniela Shapiro received a BA in philosophy from The University of Rochester and her MFA from Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design in Illustration and Visual Culture. Her aim in life, and thus her work, is to expand empathy and understanding through storytelling and visual metaphor.
Christine Lesantos is a queer Vietnamese-Chinese-American Los Angeles based comic artist, illustrator, writer, and story artist! 🙂
Andrew Greenstone hasbeen alive since 1986. He’s spent most of that time drawing comics. Life story: He was Raised in Brunswick ME, He graduated from SCAD in 2009. He spent a stint hanging around in White River Junction, but didn’t go to the comic school there. He’s one of the founding members of the Secret Society of Ghostscouts. Now he lives in Hollywood California where he freelances.
Jesse Walker is books editor of Reason Magazine. The University og Michigan alumnus has written the books The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory (HarperCollins, 2013) and Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America (NYU Press, 2001), and he maintains a blog called The Perpetual Three-Dot Column.
Robert Goodin lives in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles with his wife, 4 foster kids and a bunch of native plants. You can follow Goodin on Instagram @nidoog and e-mail him at nidoog@robertgoodin.com.
Fran Krause was born in Utica New York. After earning his BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design, he relocated to New York City, where he worked as an animator and story artist on several shows including Blue’s Clues, Superjail, Little Einsteins, and Saturday Night Live. His short film Mister Smile screened at over fifty film festivals and won top prizes at the Ottawa Animation Festival, the Atlanta Film and Video Festival, and the USA Film Festival. He also directed and co-created two pilots for Cartoon Network, Utica Cartoon and Upstate Four. Fran relocated to Los Angeles in 2010 to join the faculty in the Character Animation Department of CalArts. He has since animated for Buck Studios and National TV and worked on storyboards with Cartoon Network for Over the Garden Wall at Cartoon Network. He received his MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College in 2014. Fran is the creator behind the popular Deep Dark Fears comic series, which has been compiled into a book by Ten Speed Press and released in September 2015.
RSVP at website (Pay What You Want Donation)
Where: Heavy Manners Library
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1200 North Alvarado Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://heavymannerslibrary.com/events
Pre-Release Event: Kelsey Impicciche, with Christine Riccio, & Voice of the Ocean at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Kelsey Impicciche, in conversation with Christine Riccio, will discuss Voice of the Ocean.
There will be a book signing to follow. This is a ticketed event.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodice.com/events-and-tickets
At Skylight: Malcolm Harris, with Matt Pearce, & What’s Left at Skylight – In-Person Event
Malcolm Harris, in conversation with Matt Pearce, will discuss his book What’s’ Left.
Climate change is the unifying crisis of our time. But the scale of the problem can be paralyzing, especially when corporations are actively staving off changes that could save the planet but which might threaten their bottom lines. To quote Greta Thunberg, despite very clear science and very real devastation, the adults at the table are still saying “blah blah blah.” Something has to change—but what, and how?
In What’s Left, Malcolm Harris cuts through the noise and gets real about our remaining options for saving the world. Just as humans have caused climate change, we hold the power to avert a climate apocalypse, but that will only happen through collective political action. Harris outlines the three strategies—progressive, socialist, and revolutionary—that have any chance of succeeding, while also revealing that none of them can succeed on their own. What’s Left shows how we must combine them into a single pathway: a meta-strategy, one that will ensure we can move forward together rather than squabbling over potential solutions while the world burns.
Vital and transformative, What’s Left confirms Malcolm Harris as next-generation David Graeber or Mike Davis—a historian-activist who shows us where we stand and how we got here, while also blazing a path toward a brighter future.
Malcolm Harris is the author of the national bestseller Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials; and Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit: History Since the End of History. He was born in Santa Cruz, CA and graduated from the University of Maryland.
Matt Pearce is a Los Angeles-based journalist, a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, and the former president and a co-founding officer of Media Guild of the West, which represents unionized journalists in Southern California, Arizona and Texas. He is a senior policy advisor for Rebuild Local News.
Where: Skylight
Date: Friday the 18th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-malcolm-harris-presents-whats-left-w-matt-pearce
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.
Featured guests: Mimi Tempestt
Mimi Tempestt (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and daughter of California. She has a M.A. in Literature from Mills College, and a Ph.D in Creative/Critical studies. She is the author of the poetry collection the delicacy of embracing spirals (City Lights, 2023).
Tickets at Eventbrite.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center
Date: Friday, the 18th
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.
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 18th
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
Graphic Novel Book Club: The Hidden Life of Trees via Bel Canto Books, Long Beach – Online Event
Participants will discuss The Hidden Life of Tress: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World by author Peter Wohllenben.
Where: Bel Canto Books, Long Beach
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://belcantobooks.net/events
Caffeinated Verse: Open Mic Poetry with Nathan Hassel at Malibu Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join Malibu Poet Laureate Nathan Hassall to hear readings of original pieces written by local poets and bring a poem of your own to read during the open mic. For adults.
This event is part of the City’s free poetry workshops in partnership with Malibu Library, the Malibu Poet Laureate Committee, the Malibu Arts Commission, and the Friends of the Malibu Library, offering community members engaging, educational opportunities to find expression through poetry with a renowned local poet.
Where: Malibu Library, LACL
Date: Saturday, the 19th
Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm
Address: 23519 West Civic Center Way, Malibu, CA 90265
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13275032
Story Time and Drawing with David Shannon & That’s Not Funny David! at Once Upon a Time, Montrose – In-Person Event
David Shannon is back and better than ever in his newest picture book, That’s Not Funny, David!. For the event, David will read his book, draw, and then be available to sign his books. Best for ages 4+.
Masks are recommended for our events. If you can’t make it to the event, you can order signed books in advance below.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Saturday, the 19th
Time: 11 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/thats-not-funny-david
Read the Park Event: Rep Club Off-site Event at LA State Historic Park – In-Person Event
Read outside. Alone. Together. With FREE food, books & workshops at LA State Historic Park.
Join us for a community celebration of books, creativity, and connection in one of LA’s most beautiful green spaces. It’s like Rep Club’s popular Read the Room, but outside.
NOTE: See site for tickets and details.
Where: Reparations Club at L.A. State Historic Park
Date: Saturday, the 19th
Time: 11 am – 3 pm
Address: 1245 North Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Kids Storytime with Michael Stivers at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Kids Event
Culver City local Michael Stivers taught preschool and kindergarten for thirty years. He learned graphics programs to make the illustrations for Scat the Cat. He made the book at home for his students and their families. He decided to make a version to publish and share with other families and teachers. Come experience how Scat the Cat changes colors with magic words!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday, the 19th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., 1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/2468020250419
Kids Storytime: Maika Llaneza & The Gobbling Goblins at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Gobble up this new picture book inspired by Filipino mythology featuring trinket-stealing goblins whose knack for thievery just might save the day.
Mind your manners; hang on to your toys (and pineapples?)
When Caden and Cailyn forget to say thank you to Lola Mi for their gifts, the famous gobbling goblins come to take the children’s treasures. Gobble gobble gobble. It’s all in a day’s work.
But then a band of mischievous elves swipes some curious VIPs (Very Important Pineapples) from the house…pineapples that look suspiciously like Caden and Cailyn. Not saying thank you is one thing, but turning children into fruit? Talk about impolite! Now the goblins are on a rescue mission to get those pineapple-kids back from the elves. Can their latest gobble save the day?
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday, the 19th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-04-19/maika-llaneza-reads-signs-gobbling-goblins
Sisters in Crime LA: Historical Mysteries & Thrillers at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us as we welcome authors from Sisters in Crime Los Angeles! For adults
Georgia Jeffries (The Younger Girl), A.D. Price (The Birthday of Eternity), A.E. Wasserman (1887: The Day They Turned Off the Water), and Jeri Westerson (Rebellious Grace) will read from their novels and have a panel discussion, followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Attendance is limited, and advance registration is required. Please register every individual in your party, including kids. This will be used to save your spots in the program. We cannot guarantee availability for any unregistered attendees.
Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date: Saturday, the 19th
Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct., Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13275086
Day 2 of International Poetry Film Festival: at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
The Official Selection of the International Poetry Film Festival, Los Angeles features screenings of nearly 40 poem-based films from around the world, including selections from France, Canada, El Salvador, Ireland, the United States, among other countries. All films will be screened in The Wanda Coleman Theater. The official schedule for the festival’s program will include a variety of experimental, narrative, documentary, and animated poem-based films.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Beyond Baroque
Date: Saturday, the 19th
Time: 1 pm – 6 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/calendar
Poetry Reading: William Archika, with Guests, & S Is For at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
S is For is an investigation by poet William Archila of the Central American migrant crisis haunted by the past of the civil war in El Salvador, the meanings of family spirits, and trees disappearing to urban sprawl—always wielding the voice of the immigrant, the refugee, and the ever-present exile as a weapon against invisibility and displacement. Inventive and compassionate, Archila’s poems navigate the meanings of family spirits, weeds and wildflowers, and the irreverence to lay down roots with our dead. The collection expresses the importance of an inner voice from the perspective of exile—people with no country, no language, ghosts split between present and past, between home and foreign. In a variety of forms—quasi-sonnet, sestina, ekphrastic, syllabic, lyric, memorial—the poems create a bridge between flaws and fractures, between the northern region of Central America and the beloved north which is the US. S is for: every letter never uttered, but evoked.
William Archila is the author of The Art of Exile which was awarded the International Latino Book Award, and The Gravedigger’ s Archaeology which received the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize. He was also awarded the 2023 Jack Hazard fellowship. He has been published in Poetry Magazine, The American Poetry Review, AGNl, Copper Nickle, Kenyon Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Missouri Review, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, TriQuarterly, and Indiana Review.
Moderated by Douglas Manuel, Archila is joined by guest readers:
Michelle Bitting is a fourth generation Angeleno, Michelle grew up in Los Angeles near the ocean. She studied theatre, wrote poems, danced, played music as an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley and went on to study Meisner acting and perform as a modern dancer, including a two year workshop and filming stint with Twyla Tharp for the James L. Brooks movie, I’ll Do Anything.
Amaud Jamaul Johnson is born and raised in Compton, California, poet Amaud Jamaul Johnson was educated at Howard University and Cornell. His debut collection, Red Summer (2006), examines the infamous race riots of 1919, during which nearly a hundred African American men in cities across the country were lynched. The book won the 2004 Dorset Prize from Tupelo Press.
Luis J. Rodriguez is also a novelist/memoirist/short story writer/children’s book writer/essayist as well as a community & urban peace activist, mentor, healer, youth & arts advocate, husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.He has 16 books in all genres (poetry, children’s books, fiction, and nonfiction), including the best-selling memoir, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday, the 19th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-04-19/william-archila
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Lawrence Berger & Karen Peirce Gonzalez via Saturday Afternoon Poetry – Online Event
Join us for a Poetry Reading led by DKC, and featuring Lawrence Berger and Karen Pierce Gonzalez + Poets published I Four Feathers Press.
Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry
Date: Saturday, the 19th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)
Website: https://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Club: Gideon the Ninth at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb Series #1) by author Tamsyn Muir.
The Emperor needs necromancers.
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.
Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense.
Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth, first in The Locked Tomb Trilogy, unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.
Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.
Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.
Of course, some things are better left dead.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/sci-fi-fantasy-book-club-gideon-ninth
Queer Book Club: Yours for the Taking at Bel Canto Books, Long Beach – Online Event
Participants will discuss Yours for the Taking by Gabrielle Korn.
Hosted by LogansLovelyLibrary.
Where: Bel Canto Books, Retro Row
Date: Saturday the 19th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2106 E .4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: https://belcantobooks.net/events
Poetry Book Launch: Donna Spruijt-Metz, with David Ulin, & To Phrase a Prayer for Peace at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Kids Event
Donna Spruijt-Metz, in conversation with David Ulin, will discuss her book To Phrase a Prayer for Peace.
Donna Spruijt-Metz’s poems appear in Poem-a-day, AQR, and elsewhere. Her books include General Release from the Beginning of the World and three collections forthcoming in 2025: To Phrase a Prayer for Peace and Scuttle My Balloon (with Flower Conroy); and Wu Wei Eats an Egg (Translation of Lucas Hirsch).
Among David L. Ulin’s 20 books are Thirteen Question Method and Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles. His work appears in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Harper’s, The Paris Review, and The Best American Essays 2020. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Lannan Foundation, Ucross Foundation, as well as a COLA Grant from the City of Los Angeles, is a Professor of English at the University of Southern California. He co-directs the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities and edits the journal Air/Light.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Saturday, the 19th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., 1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/2496220250419
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 20th (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
Speech Bubble Comic Book Club: Boys Weekend at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss Boys Weekend by @mattielubchansky, a satirical sci-fi twist on the ‘bachelor party gone wrong’ trope.
The book centers around a trans girl who spends a weekend in Vegas with her college bros for the first time after coming out.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Sunday the 20th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-m8ezo1xn
April Focus on Craft Book Club: Nine Tailed at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Developmental editor and teacher Jeanne De Vita will lead our discussion of: Nine Tailed by author Jayci Lee.
We read romance novels from a writer’s viewpoint. But everyone is welcome, you don’t have to be a writer.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 7:15 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://www.therippedbodice.com/events-and-tickets
Out of Pocket: 4 Unhinged Poets at The Lyric Hyperion – In-Person Event
If you know our style, then you know you not what to expect! Come check out the wildest Out-of-Pocket poets in LA at the @lyrichyperion
Featuring:
Mr. Chai Tea is an autistic 3rd-generation Thai-American born and raised in Los Angeles. With a background in Mechanical Engineering, he combines his love for storytelling, comedy, and poetry to promote empathy and share his unique experiences as a nerd and adventurer. He is the author of the book How Chai Tea is Made.
Magdalena is a multi disciplinary artist and creative magic maker. A lover of words and sounds. If creation is our liberation, we must save artselves.
Juan Amador is an actor/spoken word/writer and author of Pimping My Trauma.
Lilah Juergens (she/her) is a bipolar trans lovergirl priestess bringing you poems and cookies from beyond the k-hole.
Tix link in bio!
$15 Pre-sale; $20 at the Door
Where: The Lyric Hyperion Theater
Date: Sunday the 20th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 2106 Hyperion Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.instagram.com
Los Angeles Literature 