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 26^th

Time: 8:30 am – 9:30 am

Join us Mondays at 10:30 am for a fun half hour of songs and stories! Miss Amy shares brand new gems and long-time favorites, along with songs, crafts and activities. We meet in the courtyard.

Where: pages, a bookstore

Date: Monday the 26^th

Time: 10:30 am – 11 am

Address: 904 Manhattan Ave, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-05-26/kids-storytime

Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club: Axiom’s End at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

The Village Well Book Club offshoot, the Sci-fi Fantasy Book Club! To the Tolkien nerds, SJM stans, and R.F. Kuang enjoyers, this group is for you! On the fourth Tuesday of every month, we will come together and discuss a story that falls within the realms of either science fiction or fantasy (or sometimes both!). To join our emailing list, reach out to events@villagewell.com. Hope to see ya there!

This month’s pick is Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis.

A well-timed leak has revealed that the US government might have engaged in first contact. Cora Sabino is doing everything she can to avoid the whole mess, since the force driving the controversy is her whistleblower father. Even though Cora hasn’t spoken to him in years, his celebrity has caught the attention of the press, the Internet, the paparazzi, and the government—and with him in hiding, that attention is on her. She neither knows nor cares whether her father’s leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him—until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades.

Note: Please RSVP at site.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Monday the 26^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

RUPO Open Mic is every Monday Night at Back to the Grind in Riverside.

Every Monday from 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 26^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501

Website: https://www.facebook.com/backtothegrind

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 is passionate about discussing everything related to the craft and social significance of literature!

Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – Online event

Date: Monday the 26^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm

Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)

Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html 

Kids Book Fair at Open Arms Food Pantry – In-Person Event

Open Arms Food Pantry and Resource Center will be hosting a FREE Book Fair for Children in grades 1st-3rd.

Our book fair will feature new books on various topics to promote reading comprehension and literacy in South LA.

See site for details.

Where: Open Arms Food Pantry

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 9 am – 11:30 am

Address: 2010 West 62nd Street, Unit#130A, Los Angeles, CA 90047

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 27^th

Time: 10 am – 11 am

Join us and enjoy a lively book discussion and an art project. All supplies will be provided. For adults.

Sent into an arranged marriage, Tan Yunxian, forbidden to continue her work as a midwife-in-training as well as see her forever friend Meiling, is ordered to act like proper wife and seeks a way to continue treating women and girls from every level of society in 15th-century China.

Where: Stevenson Ranch Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 11:30 am – 1 pm

Join us to discuss The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier.

Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 2 pm – 3 pm

The Spoiler Alert! Young Adult Book Club is a teen book club where, each month, a different book will be chosen in the hopes of trying new genres, carousing the library catalog, and, of course, spilling those spoilers.

This month’s book is Dungeons and Drama by Kristy Boyce. Copies of the book are available at the Circulation Desk for check out!

RSVP:

Email Librarian Lisa at lisa.nena@lapl.org to sign up to receive a Zoom invitation.

Recommended for ages 14-18 only.

Where: Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 4 pm – 5 pm

Address: 601 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/books-and-bagels-1

Book Club: Rental House at El Monte Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us to discuss Rental House by Weike Wang. For adults.

Rental House by Weike Wang is a thought-provoking novel that explores the complexities of identity, belonging, and personal growth. Set in a small rental house, it follows a protagonist grappling with her past, present, and the uncertain future ahead. With sharp wit and poignant insights, Wang crafts a story about the challenges of navigating life’s transitions while searching for a place to call home.

Where: El Monte Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 5 pm – 6 pm

Join us for a thoughtful discussion of the current selection and share other great books with the group.
New members welcome!
Copies available at the front desk.

May 27: Stay True, Hua Hsu

Where: Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 4 pm – 5 pm

Address: Online Event (see site)

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/online-book-club-0

LGBTQ+ Book Club: Cinema Love at West Hollywood Library, LACL – In-Person & Virtual Hybrid Event

Join the LGBTQ+ Book Club for a hybrid (in-person and online) discussion of Cinema Love by Jiaming Tang. For adults.

This is a hybrid event and will be hosted in-person in the West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room as well as on Zoom. Please register at the link below to receive the link to the meeting via email.

https://library-lacounty-gov.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pd-Goqz4uGNNbzVuW720zsRrGxTK1VeLG

Where: West Hollywood Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

For Asian American, Native Hawaiian, & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, join us as we stroll through Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner’s unforgettable memoir about family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American. For adults.

Copies are available at the Customer Service desk and newcomers are always welcome!

Where: Quartz Hill Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Join us for our monthly book club! This month we’ll be discussing The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. Copies of the book will be available at the customer service desk. This program is for adults.

Where: Angelo M. Iacobani Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Cella Door welcomes participants to discuss The Mind of a Bee by Lars Chittka.

A rich and surprising exploration of the intelligence of bees.

Exploring an insect whose sensory experiences rival those of humans, The Mind of a Bee reveals the singular abilities of some of the world’s most incredible creatures.

Lars Chittka is professor of sensory and behavioral ecology at Queen Mary University of London. He is the coeditor of Cognitive Ecology of Pollination.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 6 pm

Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd., Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508

Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/phy-sci-book-club-mind-bee

Agoura Readers: The Glassmaker at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – Online Event

Join us to discuss The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier. For adults.

To attend this virtual meeting, contact Nina Hull at 818-889-2278 or nhull@library.lacounty.gov

Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Address: Online Event (see site)

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13394126

La Crescenta Book Club: Land of Milk and Honey at La Crescenta Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us to discuss Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang. For adults.

Celebrate Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month with this Asian American writer. La Crescenta Library Book Club meets on the 4th Tuesday of each month.

About a Chinese American chef who, lured to a decadent, enigmatic colony of the superrich in a near future in which food is disappearing, discovers the meaning of pleasure and the ethics of who gets to enjoy it, altering her life and, indirectly, the world.

Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Address: Online Event (see site)

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13394191

John Dinges, with Suzi Weissman, & Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing after the Coup at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event

Join us to hear John Dinges, in conversation with Suzi Weissman, to discuss Chile in Their Hearts: The Untold Story of Two Americans Who Went Missing after the Coup.

Set against the romance of revolution and the terror of a military coup, this arresting mystery is also a reckoning with the callousness of U.S. foreign policy.

In 1972 two idealistic young Americans, Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, arrived in Chile to participate in President Salvador Allende’s socialist and democratic revolution. A year later they were secretly executed as Chile’s military, with U.S. backing, deposed Allende. Following a sham investigation and cover-up, a Chilean defector leveled a stunning but ultimately false accusation: a CIA agent was in the room when one of the killings was ordered.

The defector’s tale inspired the acclaimed 1982 film Missing and established U.S. involvement as the accepted narrative. But Chile in Their Hearts exposes the tale as a fabrication and leads us to a more intriguing reality. This book will force readers to rethink what they thought they knew about this infamous case. Renowned investigative journalist John Dinges scoured U.S. and Chilean archives and interviewed new witnesses to reveal the true story of the killings and the compelling adventure of the two Americans’ lives against the backdrop of U.S. intervention in Chile.

John Dinges lived in and reported from Chile during its most violent period (1972–78). A correspondent for the Washington Post, and later managing editor at NPR, he is Professor Emeritus of Journalism at Columbia University. His books include The Condor Years: How Pinochet and His Allies Brought Terrorism to Three Continents.

Where: Diesel, A Bookstore

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Address: 225 26^th St., #33, Santa Moncia, CA 90402

Website: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2025-05-27/john-dinges-suzi-weissman

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 27^th

Time: 7 pm – 10 pm

Address: 14537 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91403

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Book Talk: Yrsa Daley-Ward, with Aisha Muharrar, & The Catch at Chevalier’s – In-Person Event

Yrsa Daley-Ward, in conversation with Aisha Muharrar, will discuss The Catch.

The inaugural novel in the Well-Read Black Girl Books series, The Catch is a darkly whimsical tale of women daring to live and create with impunity.

Twin sisters Clara and Dempsey have always struggled to relate, their familial bond severed after their mother vanished into the Thames. As infants they were adopted into different families, Clara sent to live with a successful, upper-class couple, and Dempsey with a sullen, unaffectionate city councilor. In adulthood, they are content to be all but estranged, until Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like their mother on the streets of London. The catch: this version of Serene, aged not a day, has enjoyed a childless life—the very life, it seems, she might have had if the girls had never been born.

As with most things, Clara and Dempsey cannot see eye to eye on the confounding appearance of this woman. Clara, a celebrity author with a penchant for excessive drinking and one-night stands, is all too willing to welcome the confident and temperamental Serene into her home. But cloistered Dempsey, who makes a modest living doing menial data entry work from the confines of her apartment, is dubious of the whole situation, believing this all to be the insidious ruse of a con woman. Clashing over this stranger who burrows deeper and deeper into their lives, the sisters hurtle toward an altercation that threatens their very existence, forcing them to finally confront their pasts—together.

In her riveting first foray into fiction, Yrsa Daley-Ward conjures a kaleidoscopic multiverse of daughterhood and mother-want, exploring the sacrifices that women must make for self-actualization. The result is a marvel of a debut novel that boldly asks, “How can it ever, ever be a crime to choose yourself?”

Yrsa Daley-Ward is a poet, writer, and actress. She is the author of The How, bone, and The Terrible, for which she won the PEN Ackerley Prize. She lives in Los Angeles.

NOTE: See site for link and further details.

Where: Chevalier’s

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004

Next meeting: Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War by author Viet Thanh Nguyen,

Facilitated by Mark Polak

NOTE: See site for link and further details.

Where: pages: a bookstore

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-05-27/nonfiction-book-club

Book Event: Eve L. Ewing, with Nikki Barry, & Original Sins at Reparations Club – In-Person Event

Join Rep Club for a discussion ofOriginal Sins: The (Mis)Education of Black & Native Children,with author Eve L. Ewing, in conversation with Nikki Barry.

While our schools are being scrutinized for their alleged “woke-ness,” an award-winning education scholar and former teacher shows that America’s classrooms were built to maintain the country’s racial hierarchy—and that they perpetuate inequality to this day.

In Original Sins, Ewing demonstrates that schools were designed to propagate the idea of white intellectual superiority, to “civilize” Native students and to prepare Black students for menial labor. Schools were not an afterthought for the “founding fathers”; they were envisioned by Thomas Jefferson to fortify the country’s racial hierarchy. And while those dynamics are less overt now than they were in centuries past, Ewing shows that they persist in a curriculum that continues to minimize the horrors of American history. Ewing argues that the most insidious aspects of the system are under the radar: standardized testing, tracking, school discipline, and access to resources.

Nikki Barry (Shoshone-Bannock) is an assistant professor of environmental justice education at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is interested in designing land-based learning environments with Indigenous community and families. She also is exploring nature-human relationships and what these mean for reasoning and decision-making regarding the natural world. Nikki earned her Ph.D. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University, her M.A. in Teaching from Pacific University and her B.S. in Sociology from Northeastern University. She also has experience as a middle school and high school classroom teacher and has two young children of her own.

NOTE: See site for further details.

Where: Reparations Club

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: 3054 South VictoriaAve., Los Angeles, CA 90016

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-event-original-sins-eve-l-ewing-w-nikki-barry-tickets-1286831610989?aff=oddtdtcreator

Mary Mallory & First Women of Hollywood: Female Pioneers in the Early Motion Picture Business at Vroman’s – In-Person Event

Mary Mallory will discuss First Women of Hollywood: Female Pioneers in the Early Motion Picture Business.

Largely created by immigrants, the film industry evolved over its first few decades thanks to the work of people outside the traditional ruling class.

immigrants, people of color, women—partly as a result of elites denigrating the fledgling field. As the moving picture industry transitioned from neophyte to powerhouse, young and ambitious rebels energized its output.

Mostly written out of history, women provided an important component for popularizing silent film and making it a financial success. Women were integral in producing entertaining films to keep up with exploding demand. Men often resented their power and success, and as the studio system took hold, women found themselves out of favor and replaced.

First Women of Hollywood explores the invaluable contributions of these mostly forgotten and unacknowledged pioneers.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Tuesday the 27^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-05-27/mary-mallory-discusses-signs-first-women-hollywood-female-pioneers-early-motion

The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert & Guest Donna Hilbert – Online Zoom Event

Cobalt Poets Reading & Open Mic and host Rick Lupert welcomes guest Donna Hilbert.

Donna Hilbert is an American poet who also writes short stories, plays, and essays. She was a founding member of the Progressive Dinner Party in Long Beach, California, and she is also known for her commitment to progressive politics and community arts programs.

Her most recent book is Enormous Blue Umbrella, Moon Tide Press, 2024. Her wok is featured in numerous anthologies and journals.

Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event

Date: Tuesday, the 27^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: Online event (see site)

Website: https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com

Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic Night: Women & Femmes 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.

The 5th Tuesday of the month is Women & Femmes Night.

$10 donation. Do NOT line up prior to 7:30 pm Free parking adjacent to the theater.

Masks are encouraged.

Where: Greenway Court Theatre

Date: Tuesday, the 27^th

Time: 9 pm – 11 pm

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: Wednesday the 28^th

Time: 8:30 am – 9:30 am

Join us to discuss The Silver Bone (The Kyiv Mysteries) by Audrey Kurkov.

From Ukraine’s most celebrated novelist, “a gift for crime fiction fans” (New York Times Book Review) that introduces rookie detective Samson Kolechko in Kyiv as he tackles his first case, set against real life details of the tumultuous early twentieth century.

Kyiv, 1919. World War I has ended in Western Europe, but to the East, six factions continue to vie for control of Ukraine. Amidst the political turmoil, young Samson Kolechko is forced to place his engineering career on hold. But in the city of Kyiv everything remains up for grabs and new opportunity lurks just around the corner.

Whether you loved it, hated it, or haven’t finished it, we want to see you at our Mystery Book Group at America’s Oldest Children’s Bookstore!

We will be meeting to discuss the book outside of the shop in the circle in front of Star Cafe. You may still email your thoughts to share with our club if you are unable to attend in-person.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: Once Upon a Time

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 9 am

Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020

Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/mystery-book-group-silver-bone-andrey-kurkov

1^st Annual Poetry/Literary Festival (Day 1 of 2) at Santa Ana College – In-Person Event

Join us for the 1^st Annual Poetry/Literary Festival at Santa Ana College, curated by Professor Donato Martinez.

Check out the full line-up of performing spoken artists and scheduled performers from OC Female Writers to LGBT Writers.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: Santa Ana College, Outdoor Theater

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 10 am

Join us to discuss The Exiles: A Novel by author Christina Baker Kline,

New members welcome!

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: Westchester – Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 12 pm

Address: 7114 W. Manchester Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90045

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/wednesday-book-club-21

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 2^nd Monday of the month on KPFK Los Angeles 90.7 FM.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: KPFK 90.7 FM

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm

Address: On-air Event (live)

Website: https://www.kpfk.org/on-air/poets-cafe/

Good Trouble Reading Group: Urkanian Poetry via Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event

Join Dr. Andrea Liss on Zoom for our next Good Trouble Reading Group. We’ll be discussing a selection of poems from two books available at the Los Angeles Public Library—Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow: Selected Poems by Natalka Bilotserkivets and Ukraine at War: Street Art, Posters + Poetry, compiled by Daoud Sarhandi-Williams. The poems we’ll be discussing will be made available for attendees to read online.

Natalka Bilotserkivets is a Ukrainian poet, editor, and translator. She has published several collections of her poetry since her first book in 1976, but her work has only recently been translated into English. Her poem “May” was used as the core text in an award-winning bilingual theater piece commemorating the five-year anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, which brought her to international attention in the early 1990s. In 2021, Lost Horse Press published Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow: Selected Poems, a career-spanning anthology of Bilotserkivets’s poems translated from the Ukrainian by Ali Kinsella and Dzvinia Orlowsky. It was a finalist for the 2022 Griffin International Poetry Prize, the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry, ALTA’s National Translation Award in Poetry, and winner of the 2022 American Association for Ukrainian Studies 2020-2021 Translation Prize.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the world was watching. Six months later, British journalist and filmmaker Daoud Sarhandi-Williams travelled to Kyiv to photograph the city’s street art and discovered images that capture the hopes and fears of a city. He compiled his and others’ photographs, along with a trove of extraordinary war poetry by Ukrainian citizens, into a multimedia chronicle, Ukraine at War: Street Art, Posters + Poetry. It’s a unique artistic testament to the storied resilience of the Ukraine people, caught up in violent world-changing upheaval that is far from over.

The Good Trouble Reading Group shares books that engage themes of social justice with love and family at their core. Our group leader, Dr. Andrea Liss, is Professor Emerita of Visual Culture and Cultural Theory at California State University, San Marcos, and a local Echo Park resident. Her teaching and research focus on artwork, photography, and poetry that connect deeply with historical events and their echoes today in the fight for justice.

Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 4 pm

Address: Online Event (see site)

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/good-trouble-reading-group-ukrainian-poetry

Saved by a Story–Intergenerational Writing Group at the Wende Museum, Culver City – In-Person Event

Join participants of all ages write to prompts to spark creativity, share stories and build community.

We are excited to come together in community, to dive into our creativity and share our stories.

What is Saved by a Story-Intergenerational Writing Workshop at the Wende Museum? Participants of all ages write to prompts to spark creativity, share stories and build community. We write to surprise ourselves and discover the bounty of stories that lie within.

We come together and write, choose to share (or not, you decide), listen and write some more. We do this in the beautiful environs of the Wende Museum and its provocative and compelling collection. Some of our prompts will help us engage with the current exhibitions as well as engage with each other.

In later groups, we will draft stories and workshop them.

We offer creativity and community in a non-judgmental environment.

Please arrive 5 or 10 minutes early to get settled as we start punctually at 4pm.

Free venue parking.

Where: TheWende Museum, Culver City

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm

Address:10808 Culver Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90230

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/saved-by-a-storyintergenerational-writing-group-at-the-wende-museum-tickets-1246518282739

Science Fiction Book Club: Noor at Van Nuys Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join us to discuss Noor by Nnedi Okorafar.

Copies are available at the library.

Where: Van Nuys Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 5 pm

Address: 6250 Sylmar Ave., Van Nuys, CA 91401 

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/science-fiction-book-club-noor-nnedi-okorafar

Book Club: Crying in H Mart at Valley Plaza Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join us to discuss Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Copies are available at the library.

Where: Valley Plaza Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 6 pm

Join us to discuss Inventing the Dream: California Through the Progressive Era by historian Kevin Starr.

Copies are available at the library.

Where: North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Regional Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 6 pm

Address: 5211 Tujunga Ave., North Hollywood, CA 91601 

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/lets-read-los-angeles-inventing-dream

Sci-Fi Short Story Club: The Evolution of Human Science by Ted Chiang, with Meghan O’Gieblyn via Mark Twain Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event

Explore Ted Chiang’s short story The Evolution of Human Science with science fiction lovers from across the universe via Zoom. This month’s reading was selected by Meghan O’Gieblyn, the author of God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and The Search for Meaning, who will join our conversation.

The Evolution of Human Science is available in print, eBook, and eAudiobook.

Where: Mark Twain Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Address: Online Event (see site) 

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/sci-fi-short-story-club-evolution-human-science-ted-chiang-guest-meghan-ogieblyn

Book Club: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow at Topanga Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us for The Canyon Readers Collective Book Club! This month, we are celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. For adults.

This title is a thought-provoking novel that explores themes of friendship, love, and identity through the lens of the video game industry, offering a rich exploration of Asian American identity and representation in a digital age.

Copies of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow are available to check out at the Circulation Desk or downloadable online through Libby.

Where: Topanga Library, LACL

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Address: 122 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, CA 90290

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13474677

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 28^th

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

Join us to discuss Heir by Sabaa Tahir. Copies available at the library. For adults.

An orphan. An outcast. A prince. And a killer who will bring an empire to its knees. Beloved storyteller Sabaa Tahir interweaves the lives of three young people as they grapple with power, treachery, love, and the devastating consequences of unchecked greed, on a journey that may cost them their lives―and their hearts. Literally.

Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct., Agoura Hills, CA 91301

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13394227

Yrsa Daley-Ward, with Laura Warrell, & The Catch at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event

Yrsa Daley Ward, in conversation with Laura Warrell, will discuss The Catch.

​​​​​​​In her riveting first foray into fiction, Daley-Ward introduces twin sisters Clara and Dempsey, separated from their mother, Serene, in childhood. In adulthood, they are content to be all but estranged, until Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like their mother on the streets of London, but unchanged by time and living a childless life. In this kaleidoscopic multiverse of daughterhood and longing, Daley-Ward examines the sacrifices Black women make to achieve self-actualization.

Yrsa Daley-Ward is an English writer, model, and actor. She is known for her debut book, bone, as well as for her spoken-word poetry, and for being an “Instagram poet.” Her memoir, The Terrible, was published in 2018, and in 2019 it won the PEN/Ackerley Prize. She co-wrote Black Is King, Beyoncé’s musical film and visual album, which also serves as the visual companion to the 2019 album The Lion King: The Gift. She lives in Los Angeles.

Laura Warrell is the author of Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, and long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Lit Hub, Los Angeles Review of Books, Huffington Post, and other publications. Laura has attended residencies at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writer’s Workshop. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the low-residency MFA program at Pacific University.

PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world.

Where: Diesel, A Bookstore

Date: Wednesday the 28^th

Time: 6:30 pm

Address: 225 26^th St., #33, Santa Monica, CA 90402

Website: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/yrsa-daley-ward-laura-warrell-pen-may-28

Aaron John Curtis & Old School Indian at Book Soup – In-Person Event

Aaron John Curtis will discuss and sign Old School Indian.

A coming-of-middle-age novel about an Ahkwesáhsne man’s reluctant return home and what it takes to heal.

Abe Jacobs is Kanien’kehá ka from Ahkwesáhsne—or, as white people say, a Mohawk Indian from the Saint Regis Tribe. At eighteen, Abe left the reservation where he was raised and never looked back.

Now forty-three, Abe is suffering from a rare disease—one his doctors in Miami believe will kill him. Running from his diagnosis and a failing marriage, Abe returns to the Rez, where he’s persuaded to undergo a healing at the hands of his Great Uncle Budge. But Budge—a wry, recovered alcoholic prone to wearing punk T-shirts—isn’t all that convincing. And Abe’s time off the Rez has made him a thorough skeptic.

To heal, Abe will undertake a revelatory journey, confronting the parts of himself he’s hidden ever since he left home and learning to cultivate hope, even at his darkest hour.

Delivered with crackling wit, Old School Indian is a striking exploration of the power and secrets of family, the capacity for healing and catharsis, and the ripple effects of history and culture.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Wednesday the 28^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069

Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/aaron-john-curtis

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 28^th

Time: 7 pm – 9:30 pm (Doors at 6:30 pm; Open Mic at 8 pm)

Address: 3200 W. Temple St., Ste. 100, Los Angeles, CA 90026

Website: https://www.palmsupacademy.com

Book Release: A Swale a Sort of Swaddle with Abby Walthausen at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event

Abby Walthausen’s A Swale a Sort of Swaddle is a prismatic eco-thematic collection, intimately alert to the scary wonders of new motherhood in a world seething through various convulsions. Her lines move with sharp, high levels of proprioception. Taut and fluid, she crafts a haptic Dickinsonian music which is truly the sign of an original poet and a major new voice in American poetry. The speakers contemplate motherhood, religion, domesticity, displacement, and the natural world with dark humor and sonic virtuosity. These poems expose the “gruesome” “touch tank” world as at once holy and absurd.

Abby Walthausen is a writer and teacher living in Los Angeles. She hosts a poetry podcast called “A Lovely Wallpaper,” which is part interview and part learning poems by memory.

Also featuring

Sara Ellen Fowler is a writer and artist living in Los Angeles. Her writing has appeared in The Offing, X-TRA Contemporary Art Journal, Interim, and Gigantic Sequins, among others. In 2023, she was awarded a California Arts Council Individual Fellowship Award administered by Los Angeles Performance Practice for Los Angeles County. Her first book, Two Signatures, was selected by Joan Naviyuk Kane for the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry in 2023.

Amina Cain is the author of the novel Indelicacy, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and finalist for the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, published in 2020 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and two collections of short stories, Creature and I Go To Some Hollow. A Horse at Night: On Writing, came out in October of 2022 with Dorothy, a publishing project in the US and Daunt Books in the UK. In 2021, she was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. Her writing has appeared in Granta, The Paris Review Daily, BOMB, LA Times, Tate Etc. and other places. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband where she is finishing work on her second novel, My New Face.

Where: Stories Books & Café

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026

Website: https://storiesla.com/events

Vroman’s Fiction Reading Group: Orbital at Vroman’s – In-Person Event

The Vroman’s Fiction Reading Group meets  the 4th Wednesday of every month at 7pm.

This event is free and open to the public.

May’s pick is Orbital by Samantha Harvey.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Wednesday the 28^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-05-28/vromans-fiction-reading-group

Story Salon: I Was Someplace I Wasn’t Supposed To Beat The Art Parlor – In-Person Event

A night of storytelling in a friendly and comfortable environment with light refreshments. All ages.

Story Salon is an opportunity for Los Angeles area storytellers to get on stage and share!

Each week is filled with 5-7 minute duration stories on a variety topics and themes. Laugh, cry, and sigh along with us as we go along with each storyteller on stage.

Do you want to be someplace you are suppose to be? Well Story Salon invites you to our next event!

Where: The Art Parlor

Date: Wednesday the 28^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: 5302 Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 91607

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/story-salon-i-was-someplace-i-wasnt-supposed-to-be-tickets-1335482266409

Anansi Virtual Writers Workshop at The World Stage – In-Person Event

The Anansi Writers Workshop was founded in 1990 by Kamau Daáood, Akilah Oliver, Nafis Nabawi and Anthony Lyons. In 1993, Michael Datcher initiated the development of a three-part format for the workshop. Our tradition of a community workshop began in the late 1960s at the Watts Writers’ Workshop, where World Stage co-founder Kamau Daáood started his writing career. For general information and booking, contact V. Kali, the Anansi Writers Workshop Coordinator, at vkaliflowers@gmail.com.

• 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm — Formal workshop;
• 8:30 pm – 9:00 pm — TBA;
• 9:05 pm – 10:00 pm — Open mic.

Suggested: $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 28^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm

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 on 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 28^th

Time: 8 pm – 10 pm

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.

Featuring theme: Say It Before Summer

Hosted by John White, with vibes by DJ Hennytee.

Where: East Los Angeles Rising Youth Club

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 8 pm – 9:45 pm (Doors at 7:30)

Host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry welcome featured guests: Oscar Velasquez & Shawnte Orion.

Oscar Velazquez is an Anaheim based poet whose work draws power from memory, heritage, and lived experience. With roots in his Mexican American identity and a voice shaped by struggle, his poems carry raw emotion, sharp observation, and an unfiltered honesty that grips the page and the stage. His writing has been featured in the Anaheim Poetry Review anthology and Citric Acid, one of Orange County’s premier literary journals. He’s performed at The Cheech Chicano Art Museum, Santa Ana’s Boca de Oro Literary Festival, and the MUZEO Museum in Anaheim. Through poetry, Velazquez carves out a space where pain meets beauty and survival becomes art.

Shawnte Orion is the author of Gravity & Spectacle (a collaboration with photographer Jia Oak Baker from Tolsun Books) and The Existentialist Cookbook (NYQBooks). He is an editor for rinky dink press and his poems have appeared in Threepenny Review, Barrelhouse, Sugar House Review, New York Quarterly, and on the flipside of a split 7inch vinyl record with San Francisco band Sweat Lodge.

$4 cover fee

Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange

Date: Wednesday, the 28^th

Time: 8 pm – 10 pm

Join us for the 1^st Annual Poetry/Literary Festival at Santa Ana College, curated by Professor Donato Martinez.

Check out the full line-up of performing spoken artists and scheduled performers from the OC Spoken Word Poets to Voices of Diversity.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: Santa Ana College, Outdoor Theater

Date: Thursday, the 29^th

Time: 10 am

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 paperback. https://www.francescaliablock.com/

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 29^th

Time: 10 am – 11 am

Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events

Outdoor Book Club: Damnation Spring at Malibu Equestrian Park, LACL – In-Person Event

Join the Outdoor Book Club at Malibu Equestrian Park to discuss Damnation Spring in the fresh air! We will meet at the picnic tables next to the arena. Copies are available to pick up at Malibu Library. For adults.

Damnation Spring is an intimate, compassionate portrait of a family whose bonds are tested and a community clinging to a vanishing way of life. An extraordinary story of the transcendent, enduring power of love—between husband and wife, mother and child, and longtime neighbors.

Where: Malibu Equestrian Park, LACL

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 12 pm – 1 pm

Address: 6225 Merritt Dr., Malibu, CA

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13437891

Book Discussion: Square Haunting at Sunland Tujunga Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join us for this community-led book discussion of Square Haunting: Five Writers in London between the Wars by Francesca Wade.

Where: Sunland Tujunga Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 1 pm

Address: 7771 Foothill Blvd., Tujunga, CA 91042

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-discussion-9

We Love L.A. Book Club: Daughter of the Dragon at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

We Love L.A. Book Club examines books and authors that weave the diversity and rich history of our city into their works. 



The selection for May is Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous With American History by Yunte Huang. This biography tells the story of Anna May Wong, who fought anti-Chinese xenophobia, sexism, cinematic exploitation, and ageism that defined American culture in the 20th century to become Hollywood’s first Chinese American film star. 



The library will have copies to check out or check our e-media page for electronic access on Libby and hoopla.

Please bring book suggestions for future meetings.

Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 3 pm

Address: 5027 Caspar Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90041

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/we-love-la-book-club-21

Big Read Book Club: The House on Mango Street at Lake View Terrace Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Book club discussion! Please join us as we discuss the Big Read title The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros.

Where: Lake View Terrace Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 4 pm

Address: 12002 Osborne St., Lake View Terrace, CA 91342

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/big-read-book-club-house-mango-street-6

Poetry Workshop with Martin Jago at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

The Poetry Workshop invites new and seasoned poets to share new work and provide feedback, facilitated by British American poet Martin Jago. This weekly two-hour workshop is suitable for adults, and the group is limited to a maximum of twelve participants.

Attendees should bring their own poetry to share, a notebook, and a pen.

Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

Address: 2411 Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-martin-jago

Marina De Rey Book Club: The Four Winds at Lloyd Taber-Marina del Rey Library, LACL – In-Person & Event

Join us as we explore The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah. This novel follows Elsa Martinelli, a woman who faces immense hardship as she struggles to survive with her children in the drought-stricken plains of 1930s Texas. For adults ages 18+.

Where: Marina Del Rey Library, LACL

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Address: 27971 Sloan Canyon Rd., Castaic, CA 91384

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13491090#branch

Book Talk: Meena Ahmed, with Daniel Weiss, & Indian Genius at Chevalier’s – In-Person & Event

Join us to hear Meena Ahmed, in conversation with Daniel Weiss, discuss Indian Genius.

Ahamed’s brilliant portraits of such well-known figures as Satya Nadella, Vinod Khosla, Shantanu Narayen, Chandrika Tandon, Nikesh Arora, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Deepak Chopra, Nikki Haley, and Fareed Zakaria populate the pages of her book. Based on a series of interviews and full of fresh and surprising stories, reveals the private strengths that made possible each individual’s public achievements.

Where: Chevalier’s

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm

Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004

Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2025-05-29/book-talk-meena-ahamed-discusses-indian-genius-daniel-weiss

Writing From the Inside Out: Staying Grounded at Heavy Manners Library – In-Person Event

Writing from the Inside Out: Staying Grounded is a workshop hosted by Angela Wurtzel. It will focus on cultivating a sense of belonging in the natural world.

Where: Heavy Manners Library

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 6 pm

Address: 1200 N. Alvarado St. Unit D, Los Angeles, CA 90026

Website: https://heavymannerslibrary.com/events

ALOUD Reading Series: Ocean Vuong & The Emperor of Gladness at Aratani Theater – In-Person Event

ALOUD in partnership with Skylight Books presents MacArthur fellow and The New York Times bestselling author and poet Ocean Vuong in conversation with Tonya Mosley, Emmy award-winning journalist and the co-host of Fresh Air. His new bighearted novel, The Emperor of Gladness, follows the cycles of history, memory, and time, showing the profound ways in which love, labor, and loneliness form the bedrock of American life. At its core it is a brave epic about what it means to exist on the fringes of society and to reckon with the wounds that haunt our collective soul.

Where: Aratani Theater

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 7 pm

Daniel Tam-Claiborne, in conversation with Rachel Khong, will discuss and sign Transplants.

A harrowing and poignant novel following two young women in pursuit of kinship and self-discovery who yearn to survive in a world that doesn’t know where either of them belong.

On a university campus in rural Qixian, Lin and Liz make an improbable pair: Lin, a Chinese student closer to her menagerie of pets than to her peers, and Liz, a Chinese American teacher grieving her mother’s sudden death. They’re each met with hostility—Lin by her classmates, who mock her for dating a white foreigner; Liz by her fellow English teachers, who exploit their privilege—and forge an unlikely friendship.

After a startling betrayal that results in Lin’s expulsion, they swap places. Lin becomes convinced to pursue her degree at a community college near Liz’s Ohio hometown, while Liz searches for answers as to what drove her parents to leave China before she was born. But when a global catastrophe deepens the fissures between modern-day China and an increasingly fractured United States, Lin and Liz—far from home and estranged from themselves—are forced to confront both the familiar and the strange in each other.

Unspooling over the course of a single extraordinary year in our not-yet-distant past and in small towns from Dandong to Deadwood, Transplants is a piercing story of migration, belonging, and the parts of ourselves that get lost in translation. Alternating between Liz and Lin’s perspectives, it is a lyrical and moving exploration of race, love, power, and freedom that illuminates the limits and possibilities of what can happen when we open ourselves to the unknown and reveals how even our fiercest differences may bring us closer than we might ever imagine.

Daniel Tam-Claiborne is a multiracial writer, multimedia producer, and nonprofit director. He is the author of the short story collection What Never Leaves, and his writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Catapult, Literary Hub, Off Assignment, The Rumpus, HuffPost, and elsewhere. A 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, he has also received support from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Kundiman, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the New York State Summer Writers Institute, and others. Daniel holds degrees from Oberlin College, Yale University, and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069

Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/daniel-tam-claiborne-rachel-khong

Kink & Ink Poetry Readings May at Legacy Studios – In-Person Event

Monthly SoCal based poetry reading specifically aimed at the kink community.

Kink & Ink is now being held at Legacy studios on the last Thursday of every month. Legacy is a new produngeon space in Los Angeles! Come check out the space and see what they’re all about!

*THE ENTRANCE IS LOCATED BEHIND THE BUILDING!*

Detailed schedule at site.

Where: Legacy Studios

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 7 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: 8762 W. Pico Blvd. Suite B, Los Angeles, CA 90035

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kink-ink-poetry-readings-may-tickets-1351148474459?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

Special Author Event: Julian Ryder & Thriving on Creativity at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event

Julian Ryder will present and discuss Thriving on Creativity: A Leader’s Guide to Building a Creative Future.

What does it mean to be a leader in a world where creativity is the ultimate competitive advantage? How can we unlock the full creative potential within our organizations?

Thriving on Creativity: A Leader’s Guide to Building a Creative Future is an essential resource for leaders who recognize that creativity is no longer a luxury but a necessity in today’s fast-paced, innovation-driven world. Written by an award-winning creative director with a distinguished history in creativity education, this book offers a fresh and intriguing perspective on harnessing the creative potential within all organizations.

Whether you are leading a Fortune 500 company or a small startup, Thriving on Creativity offers actionable strategies that can be tailored to your unique challenges, helping to drive innovation and long-term success.

Julian Ryder is the founder and chief creative officer of The Right Brain Project, a pioneering firm dedicated to unlocking creativity in organizations and empowering leaders to tap into their full creative potential. With over 35 years of experience as an entrepreneur and creative leader in business and education, Julian has guided countless teams to achieve transformative results.

His award-winning work has shaped campaigns for globally recognized brands such as Nike, the Australian Tourist Commission, Alka-Seltzer, Honda, and Procter & Gamble.

Where: pages: a bookstore

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

In this Latinx YA fantasy inspired by El Zorro, Lola de La Peña becomes the masked heroine Salvación in order to save her family and town from a man who would destroy it for the magic it contains…if she doesn’t fall in love with one of his men first.

There will be a book signing to follow the discussion.

NOTE: RSVP for this ticketed event.

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA 90232

Website: https://www.therippedbodice.com/events-and-tickets

Book Launch: Zsuzsa Berend, with Stefan Timmermans, & A Tale of Two Surrogates at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Join us for the launch of Zsuzsa Berend’s A Tale of Two Surrogates.The author will be in conversation with Stefan Timmermans. Reserve your spot at Eventbrite!

A Tale of Two Surrogates explores the complicated emotional, medical, legal, and ethical issues surrounding assisted reproduction.

Based on more than a decade of ethnographic research conducted by a sociologist and an anthropologist, this book presents, in an accessible graphic novel format, the intertwined stories of two fictional women who decide to become gestational surrogates. It immerses the reader in the worlds of Jenn, from California, and Dana, from Tel Aviv, as they decide to become surrogates and make sense of the process, involve their families, and manage their relationships with the intended parents.

The experiences of these composite characters highlight various paths, interpretations, and experiences that are common in surrogacy. Interspersed throughout the narrative are short interludes that depict surrogacy in other countries, putting the stories of Dana and Jenn in a more global context.

With a substantial scholarly apparatus, including a discussion guide and suggestions for further reading, this entertaining graphic narrative is an excellent tool for classes in graphic medicine, medical ethics, gender and family studies, and medical anthropology. It also offers valuable perspective to anyone involved in the surrogacy process—not only surrogates and intended parents but also medical providers, lawyers, legislators, and family members.

Zsuzsa Berend lives in Los Angeles and teaches sociology at UCLA. She has published several articles and a book, The Online World of Surrogacy, based on her decade-long ethnographic research.

Stefan Timmermans is a professor at the UCLA Department of Sociology as well as a professor at ISG. His research draws from medical sociology and science studies and uses ethnographic and historical methods to address key issues in the for-profit U.S. health care system. He has conducted research on medical technologies, health professions, death and dying, and population health.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 7 pm

William Loving, with J. Ryan Stradal, will discuss and sign Blue Earth River.

In a small Midwestern town, divisions are sharp and passions high. Global capitalism has gutted the local economy; drugs, alcohol and racial resentment have filled the void. A diverse, multi-generational, yet anxious cast of characters hangs together by a few threads, one of which is the local newspaper and its beloved advice column, “Dear Molly.” As Molly declines into dementia, her husband Augustus steps in to continue the column, which evolves into a bracing screed against vanity and hypocrisy as he exorcises his own demons, creating a cause cé lè bre. When an anonymous letter writer begins responding in ominous tones, it seems the town may be forced to confront mass violence.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-05-29/william-loving-conversation-j-ryan-stradal-discusses-blue-earth-river

DEEP DIVE POETRY & FICTION at Philosophical Research Society – In-Person Event

Join us for a very special literary event in the historic PRS library!

A literary event in the historic PRS library with hosts Mandy Kahn and Jane McCarthy.

Chad Sweeney’s most recent poetry book, Little Million Doors won the Night Boat Books Prize and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. He is a full professor of English/Creative Writing at CSU San Bernardino, where he serves as Faculty Inclusion Fellow for Disability and director of the Neurodiversity Center. Sweeney has published sixteen collections of poetry, prose and translations from Spanish and Farsi, including work in the Best American Poetry, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, Poets & Writers and The Writer’s Almanac.Sweeney is currently working on a book-length coming-of-age autism memoir which explores personal experience in dialogue with disability theory and linguistics.

William Archila is the winner of the 2023 Philip Levine Prize for Poetry for his collection S is For. His first collection The Art of Exile was awarded the International Latino Book Award, an Emerging Writer Fellowship Award from the Writer’s Center and was selected for The Fifth Annual Debut Poets Round Up” in Poets & Writers. The Gravedigger’s Archaeology, Archila’s second book, received the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize. His work has been published in Poetry Magazine, The American Poetry Review, AGNl, Copper Nickle, Colorado Review, The Georgia Review, Kenyon Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Missouri Review, Pleiades, Poetry Northwest, Prairie Schooner, Indiana Review, TriQuarterly and the anthologies Latino Poetry: The Library of American Anthology, The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, and The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States. He has work forthcoming in Ploughshares. He is a PEN Center USA West Emerging Voices fellow and has received an MFA in poetry from the University of Oregon.

Lory Bedikian has been awarded the 2023 Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize in Poetry and the First Prize Award in the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry as part of the 2022 Nimrod Literary Awards and are featured in the Fall/Winter 2022 Issue of the Nimrod International Journal. Her collection, The Book of Lamenting, was awarded the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. Bedikian earned an MFA from the University of Oregon. Newer work is published in Miramar, Tin House, The Los Angeles Review, Northwest Review, on the Best American Poetry blog, and Poets.org. Her poems have also been included in the anthology Border Lines: Poems of Migration, BOULEVARD, The Adroit Journal, Literary Matters, Orion, wildness, Poetry Northwest, and featured on Pádraig Ó Tuama’s Poetry Unbound podcast, and forthcoming in Gulf Coast, Guesthouse, and the Massachusetts Review.

Michelle Bitting was short-listed for the 2023 CRAFT Character Sketch Challenge, the 2020 Montreal International Poetry Prize, and a finalist for the 2021 Coniston Prize and 2020 Reed Magazine Edwin Markham Prize. She won Quarter After Eight’s Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Contest and was a finalist for the Ruminate Magazine, Sonora Review and New Millennium Flash Prose contests. She is the author of five poetry collections: Good Friday Kiss, winner of the inaugural C & R Press De Novo First Book Award; Notes to the Beloved, winner of the 2011 Sacramento Poetry Center Book Prize; The Couple Who Fell to Earth (2016, C & R Press); Broken Kingdom, winner of the 2018 Catamaran Poetry Prize; and Nightmares & Miracles (Two Sylvias Press), winner of the Wilder Prize and recently named one of Kirkus Reviews’ 2022 Best of Indie. Her chapbook Dummy Ventriloquist is forthcoming in 2024 from C & R Press. Recent poetry appears on The Slowdown, Thrush, Cleaver, The Poetry Society of New York’s Milk Press, and is featured as Poem of the Week in The Missouri Review. Bitting holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Pacific University, Oregon, and a PhD in Mythological Studies, emphasis Poetry and Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is writing a novel centered around Los Angeles and her great grandmother, stage and screen actor Beryl Mercer, and is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing and Literature at Loyola Marymount University.

Ticket price: $5 – $15 (sliding scale) (in person event only)

Please email events@prs.org or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.

Where: Philosophical Research Society

Date: Thursday the 29^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm

Address: 3910 Los Feliz Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/deep-dive-poetry-fiction-tickets-1331875658949            

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 30^th

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.

There is a large FREE parking lot off Florencita Dr. as well as metered parking along Honolulu Ave. and Montrose Ave.

Free to attend.

NOTE: Free to attend.

Where: Once Upon a Time, Montrose

Date: Friday, the 30^th

Time: 9:30 am

Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020

Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/pajama-story-time-16

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 30^th

Time: 11 am

Join us to read and discuss the book The Reformatory, by Tananarive Due.

To borrow a print copy of the books, please contact the Compton Library directly. For Adults, ages 18+

Where: La Mirada Library, LACL

Date: Friday the 30^th

Time: 4 pm – 5 pm

Address: 240 W. Compton Blvd., Compton, CA 90220

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13467742

Vices Poetry Workshop at Burden of Proof, South Pasadena – In-Person Event

Vices is a poetry workshop led by Alejandra Roggero and Poetry for the Masses in collaboration with non-alcoholic bottle shop and market, Burden of Proof.

All ages. Free venue parking.

The theme for this workshop is Vices, and we’re collaborating with a very special business that we admire and love so much—Burden of Proof—a non-alcoholic bottle shop and market located in the heart of South Pasadena.

Vices will provide both novice and advanced writers the creative tools to explore their lived experience alongside the theme. Through two guided writing exercises and sharing, participants will delve into themes of identity, escape, dependence, and rebirth, while using poetry and community as a vehicle.

Where: Burden of Proof

Date: Friday the 30^th

Time: 6 pm – 9 pm (Doors at 5:30 pm)

Address: 1012 Mission Street, South Pasadena, CA 91030 

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vices-poetry-workshop-tickets-1349093598269

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 6 pm

Spoken word and poetry are welcome!

Where: The Den Café

Date: Friday the 30^th

Time: 6 pm (Doors at 5:30 pm)

Open mic – Poetry night returns – your hosts Ham and Kavya bring back their rotating poetry night. Open to all with an emphasis on prioritizing BIPOC / LGBTQIA+ voices.

Where: Wood Coffee Co./Nolan Wood

Date: Friday the 30^th

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

Address: 2728 East 10th Street, Long Beach, CA 90804

Website:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/open-mic-poetry-night-tickets-1349189334619

Ticketed Event: Tommy Dorfman, with Kaia Gerber, & Maybe This Will Save Me: A Memoir of Art, Addiction and Transformation at Book Soup Off-site – In-Person Event

Tommy Dorfman, in conversation with Kaia Gerber, will discuss Maybe This Will Save Me: A Memoir of Art, Addiction and Transformation.

For years, Tommy Dorfman turned her back on her thoughts and emotions, hoping they’d simply go away.

After a lifetime of confusion, she finally gained clarity around her gender and began to transition.

But there were still parts of herself she’d locked away, elements of her story that she needed, for the first time, to fully confront.

She sought guidance in a tarot deck.

Maybe This Will Save Me is structured through the cards of that tarot pull. The youngest of five children, she grappled with her own identity from an early age and spent her teenage years numbed by drugs and alcohol. At the same time, she harbored dreams of creative stardom and a desire to make herself seen. Charting her early struggles in theater, her rise to fame in 13 Reasons Why, her hard-fought journey to sobriety, and the relationships that shaped her, Maybe This Will Save Me is a luminously written, bracingly honest, and structurally audacious memoir of an artist whose vision transcends mediums.

Where: Book Soup Off-site at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles

Date: Friday the 30^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: 540 S. Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90020

Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/tommy-dorfman

Speakeasy & Open Mic @Bodevi with L.A. Poet Society – In-Person Event

SPEAKEASY @BODEVI returns MAY 30!

Catch our show and witness some of the most amazing Poets and Artists in our communities across LA!

We are so excited to present: Ceasar Avelar, former Pomona Poet Laureate!

Ceasar Avelar is the author of God of the Air Hose (El Martillo Press, 2023). He is the founder and Host of Obsidian Tongues Open Mic in Pomona, CA.

Also featuring are Poets: Gia Civerolo, Peter Lechuga, Ideas Aubrey, and Susan Suntree!

Gia Civerolo is a Los Angeles based poet, producer, educator, and special needs advocate. She has immersed herself into the poetry community 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.

Peter Lechuga is a writer, poet, and musician who writes about nature, beauty, and social injustice. He rhymes under the pseudonym 4Tell as a member of the Pilgrims art collective, which collaborates with artists to create visual art while making conscious, avant-garde hip-hop.

Ideas Aubrey is a spoken word artist and poet who also works as a youth educator. He is known for performing his poetry and creating art that is both thought-provoking and engaging. Aubrey uses his art to share personal stories and emotions, connecting with audiences on a deep level. 

Susan Suntree’s life-long commitment to poetry, performance, teaching, and community work intends to awaken the creative spirit on behalf of what is wild, communal, and generous. As a poet, performer, and essayist, her work investigates the dynamics of science, art, and spiritual philosophies as they engage contemporary life. She has presented her poetry and performances nationally and internationally, and has published books of poetry, biography, and creative nonfiction, as well as translations, essays, reviews, and book chapters.

Her best-selling book, Sacred Sites: The Secret History of Southern California (University of Nebraska Press 2010; updated paperback 2020; audio book 2021), won the Southern California Independent Booksellers Award for Nonfiction, PEN Josephine Miles Award for Poetic Narrative, and a Mellon Foundation Elemental Arts award.

Our special featured Musician is Alex Infinity!

Join the fun at Bodevi Wine & Espresso Bar, 909 N. San Fernando Rd. San Fernando.

$5 donation requested.

OPEN MIC to all artists!

No hate. All love!

Let’s enjoy a night of bohemian expression and support the artists of our time!

Where: Bodevi Wine & Espresso Bar

Date: Friday the 30^th

Time: 7 pm – 10 pm

Join Daryl Gussin, with guests Laura Sermeno (Born to Cry and Loving You Like a Mexican!), Faucundo Rompehuevos (Children Chasing Tigers!), and Priyanka Voruganti, will celebrate $22 Cheesecake and A Year in Submissions.

Jesse says there will be espresso martinis. Swipe to see all the local self-published books you could go home with.

Where: The Libros, Lincoln Heights

Date: Friday the 30^th

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

Address: 3422 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90004

Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DKBDC7Pv4iP/?img_index=1

At Skylight: Arianna Rebolini, with Aiden Arata, & Better at Skylight – In-Person Event

Arainna Rebolino, in conversation with Aiden Arata, will present and discuss Better: A Memoir About Wanting to Die.

A gutsy, riveting memoir that intimately explores suicide, its legacy in families, and the cyclical, crooked path of recovery.

Why do so many people want to die—and how do we begin to understand what makes a person choose suicide?

After a decade of therapy and a stint in a psychiatric ward to treat suicidal depression, Arianna Rebolini was “better.” She’d published her first book, enjoyed an influential, rewarding publishing job, and celebrated both a marriage and the birth of her first child—but none of it was enough to keep the desire to die at bay. One night, grappling with overwhelming debt and a prolonged depression, she composed goodbye letters to her husband and son while they slept just feet away.

In Better, Arianna interweaves the story of her month-long period of crisis with decades of personal and family history, from her first cry for help in the fourth grade with a plastic knife, to her fears of passing down the dark seed of suicide to her own son, and her brother’s own life-threatening affliction. To make sense of this dark desire, Arianna pored over the journals, memoirs, and writings of famous suicides, and eventually developed theories on what makes a person suicidal. Her curiosity was driven by the morbid, impossible need to understand what happens in the fatal moment between wanting to kill oneself and doing it—or, unthinkably, the moment between regretting the action and realizing it can’t be undone. When her own brother became institutionalized, Arianna realized that all the patterns and trenchant insights could not crack the shell of his annihilating depression—and that the only way to help a person live is to address the societal factors that make them want to die.

A harrowing intellectual and emotional odyssey marked by remarkable clarity and compassion, Better is a tour through the seductive darkness of death and a life-affirming memoir. Arianna touches on suicide’s public fallout and its intensely private origins as she searches for answers to the profound question: How do we get better for good?

Arianna Rebolini is a writer from New York. She is the co-author, with Katie Heaney, of the novel Public Relations. She lives in Queens with her husband, son, and two cats.

Aiden Arata is a writer and artist whose writing has appeared in publications including BOMB, Mask, NYLON, The Rumpus, The Fanzine, Wonderland, Hobart, and others, as well as NDA: An Autofiction Anthology (Archways Editions 2022). Arata’s visual and video work was showcased in Kunsthalle Bremen’s bicentennial exhibition “Generation*. Jugend trotz(t) Krise” (Bremen, Germany, 2023) and has been featured on platforms including Vice, The Cut, Harper’s Bazaar, Mashable, NBC, Seventeen, and The Washington Post. YOU HAVE A NEW MEMORY is her first essay collection. She lives in Los Angeles and on the internet as @aidenarata.

Where: Skylight

Date: Friday the 30^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-arianna-rebolini-presents-better-w-aiden-arata

Book Release: Jon King, with Mark Haskell Smith, & To Hell with Poverty! at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event

To Hell With Poetry! documents King’s story from a south London slum and working-class background to international success as core musician, lyricist, writer, and producer in the legendary post-punk/funk band Gang of Four. King’s memoir takes the reader on an episodic journey full of raucous adventures from his childhood and teenage years, to the height of Gang of Four’s success in the seventies and eighties.

Jon King is an English musician, songwriter, and Grammy-nominated art director in the post-punk band Gang of Four.

Mark Haskell Smith is the author of seven novels with one-word titles including Moist, Salty, Blown, and Mémoires translated by Julien Gueríf. Nonfiction includes Naked at Lunch and Heart of Dankness and, most recently, Rude Talk in Athens: Ancient Rivals, the Birth of Comedy, and a Writer’s Journey Through Greece.He has written for in the Los Angeles Times, Alta, Literary Hub and many others. He lives in Los Angeles.

Where: Stories Books & Café

Date: Friday, the 30^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026 

Told through a prism of female voices, this cinematic debut follows five women with vastly different origins—from the Philippines to Ethiopia to New York City—whose lives bring them to the Arabian Gulf, where they collide with devastating and profound consequences.

Dounia, a young Saudi mother, finds herself alienated in a desolate, post-weather, air-conditioned modernist box and decides to rebel against all forms of domesticity. Flora, a Filipina domestic worker haunted by the flood that claimed her infant’s life, navigates the perils of her boss’s insurrection. Zeinah, a Syrian woman, seeks love within the confines of her arranged marriage to a jihadist and finds herself joining the female morality police. Justine, a white American curator, reckons with her own violence and ethical limitations when her life intersects with Eskedare, a spirited and defiant Ethiopian teenager whose dreams have dead-ended in the Gulf. Bold moves unlock vital consequences, each woman’s journey con­fronting us with our own capacity for cruelty, rebellion, resilience—and hope.

Written with unsettling intimacy and determined empathy, Gulf exposes the stark realities of what happens when a woman’s agency is stripped away and asks how far we will go to survive.

Mo Ogrodnik is a filmmaker, writer, and profes­sor in the film department at NYU. She was the associate dean of the arts for NYU in Abu Dhabi and the director of FIND, a creative lab exploring the transnational heritage of the UAE. She’s served as a mentor for the Sundance Labs in Jordan and received fellowships from Yaddo and MacDowell.

Mona Simpson is an American novelist. She has written six novels and studied English at University of California, Berkeley, and languages and literature at Columbia University. She won a Whiting Award for her first novel, Anywhere but Here. It was a popular success and adapted as a film by the same name, released in 1999. She wrote a sequel, The Lost Father. Critical recognition has included the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and making the shortlist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for her novel Off Keck Road.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Friday the 30^th

Time: 7 pm

Beyond Baroque presents a multilingual poetry reading featuring poetry in regional languages of Spain translated to English.

Beyond Spanish presents an evening of poetry in four different regional languages of Spain: Basque, Catalan, Galician, and Spanish, with authors Olaia Alonso de la Varga, Elena Barcia, Pau Castelló i Ferrer, Miren Ciganda, Àngels Ferrer, Gerardo Fueyo Bros, Carla Ramiro Fariña, David Roe, & Bea Uzal. English translations of the poems will be read as well. Presented in collaboration with The Education Office of the Consulate General of Spain.

Enjoy a reception with light refreshments before and after the reading.

Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

Date: Friday the 30^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm

Address: 681 Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90291

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beyond-spanish-poetry-in-basque-catalan-galician-spanish-tickets-1364515936899

Poetry Pop-Off! Poetry #4: Nostalgia Edition – In-Person & Livestream Hybrid Event

Get ready to witness the art of spoken word at The Poetry Pop-Off! An open mic along with a showcase of well-seasoned poets and entertainment. 2025 is on and popping-off!

*All styles of poetry welcome. *No hate speech or defaming art allowed. *Dress code classy casual. *Street parking available.

Where: See SITE

Date: Friday the 30^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm

Address: 732 East 9th Place, Los Angeles, CA 90021

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poetry-pop-off-poetry-4-nostalgia-edition-music-fooddrinksfun-tickets-1354302748979?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

Kids Storytime with Jesse Byrd at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Join us every Saturday for a storytime among the cozy shelves at Village Well!

This May 31st, we’re thrilled to welcome back to the store Jesse Byrd, who will read from some of his picture books!

Jesse Byrd is the author of five picture books and his debut graphic novel, Dream Warriors: A New World, releases this Fall. As an editor, art director, and literary agent he has helped sell and develop 60+ traditionally published children’s books in the last three years. He’s passionate about helping artists break through and grow within the noisy publishing industry and has co-founded Moonbeam Literary & Media to adapt those children’s media properties into a range of formats. When he’s not championing the work of other artists or making art of his own, he’s helping kids become published authors via Moonbeam’s literacy program which has transformed 400+ kids into published authors since 2021.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 9 am – 5 pm

Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232

See site for details.

Where: Bel Canto Books, Long Beach

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 10 am – 11 am

Address: Online Event (see site)

Website: https://belcantobooks.net/events

Book Club for Adults: The Wager at Live Oak Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join our book club for an engaging discussion of our latest selection, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann. Copies of the book will be available at the Customer Service Desk. For Adults.

See site for details.

Where: Live Oak Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm

Address: 22 W. Live Oak Ave., Arcadia, CA 91007

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13446818

Big Read Book Club: The House on Mango Street at Panorama City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join us to discuss the Big Read Book of 2025, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.

A collaboration with the Spanish Book Club and Adult Literacy Reading Club, the program is designed to enhance reading skills while exploring themes of identity, culture, and community through vibrant storytelling. Participants will read selected excerpts, engage in discussions, and share personal reflections on the narrative.

Following the reading session, we will host a film screening of the adaptation inspired by the book. This provides a unique opportunity to experience the story in a different medium and deepen our understanding of the characters and themes.

Where: Panorama City Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 2 pm

Address: 14346 Roscoe Blvd., Panorama City, CA 91402

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/big-read-book-club-house-mango-street-2

Viet Storytelling Festival: Celebrating 50 Years of the Diaspora and Our Oral Traditions at Echo Park Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join us for an afternoon of storytelling events, featuring Vietnamese language and culture. We will have bilingual storytimes, a caregiver workshop, arts and crafts, an oral history booth, and a resource/book fair! Participate for a chance to win some raffle prizes! All ages are welcome to attend.

Where: Echo Park Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 2 pm – 5 pm

Address: 1410 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90026

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/viet-storytelling-festival-celebrating-50-years-diaspora-and-our-oral-traditions

Book Club: Everything Is Illuminated at Will & Ariel Durant Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Read the book and join our discussion for Jewish Heritage Month!

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer follows a young American Jew named Jonathan on a journey to the Ukraine to find Augustine, a woman who supposedly saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanying Jonathan are Alex, his Ukrainian translator, Alex’s grandfather, and a dog named Sammy Davis Jr. The story blends Jonathan’s personal quest with Alex’s narrative and a fantastical history of Jonathan’s grandfather’s village.

Where: Will & Ariel Durant Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 2 pm

Address: 7140 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/everything-illuminated-jonathan-safran-foer

¡PÓNK! Zine Fest: Marcus Clayton, Lxs Cochinxs, The Groans at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event

Join us for a celebration of Marcus Clayton’s ¡PÓNK! Oscillating between autofiction, memoir, and lyric, Clayton blurs genres as we follow Moose, an alienated academic and lead guitarist for Pipebomb!, Navigating through spaces in and out of South East Los Angeles: punk clubs, college classrooms, family gatherings, street protests, and euphoric backyard shows while articulating the layered effects of racism, trauma, immigration, policing, Black hair, performance, and toxic academic language to uncover how one truly becomes an “ally.”

¡PÓNK!’s narrative takes back punk rock and puts you in the middle of the moshpit.

The afternoon kicks off in D.I.Y. with a mini zine fest at the Poets’ Garden, including UnitedWeMosh, Razorcake Zine, Drifter Zine, Xtended Release, Genesis Perez, los ojos, Autohaus Zines, Duncan Cuervo, Cucatlicue Collective, LAPL Venice Branch, Facundo Rompehuevos, Tiny Tech Zines, & John Dishwasher! Chica De Luz will be spinning vinyl through the afternoon and pizza cooked on the spot by AmigosPies!

At 6 pm, in The Wanda Coleman Theater, Chris L. Terry will interview Clayton, delving into the ins and outs of the book, ponk attitudes across L.A., and creating as an Afrolatino writer. Poets Tony Wallin-Sato and David Diaz will be reading brief original pieces.

After the author conversation, join us for two band performances closing out the night in the Poets’ Garden by punk bands Lxs Cochinxs & The Groans!

Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Art Center

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 3 pm – 9 pm

Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ponk-zine-fest-marcus-clayton-lxs-cochinxs-the-groans-tickets-1352005919099?aff=oddtdtcreator

Megan E. Freeman & Away at Vroman’s – In-Person Event

Join Megan E. Freeman to hear her discuss her book Away.

A group of children investigate the threat that prompted large-scale evacuations in this powerful and dramatic companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Alone told in multiple POVs.

After an imminent yet unnamed danger forces people across Colorado to leave their homes, a group of kids including an aspiring filmmaker and a budding journalist find themselves in the same evacuation camp. As they cope with the aftermath of having their world upended, they grow curious about the mysterious threat.

And as they begin to investigate, they start to discover that there’s less truth and more cover-up to what they’re being told. Can they get to the root of the conspiracy, expose the bad actors, and bring an end to the upheaval before it’s too late?

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 3 pm

Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-05-31/megan-e-freeman-discusses-signs-away

Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Poets on POETRY FOR THE PEOPLE! Website – Online Zoom Event

Poets published on the POETRY FOR THE PEOPLE! website (Submit up to 3 poems about today’s world in flux totaling no more than 150 lines each by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59 pm, May 30th).

Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.

Where: Zoom Online, Saturday Afternoon Poetry

Date: Saturday, the 31^st

Time: 3 pm – 5 pm

Address: Online event (see site)

Website: https://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/

Glendora Pride in the Foothills at Underdog Bookstore Off-site at Finkbiner Park – In-Person LGBTQIA Event

At the Underdog booth we’ll have a curated book selection for all ages, plus author signings with Alicia Gael, Anna Gram, Jen Lyon and Laina Villaneuve.

Alicia Gael (she/her) started writing stories when she was twelve, but didn’t publish her first novel until she was sixty-five. She has a Creative Writing Certificate from UC San Diego Extension, a master’s in criminology from CSU Fresno and is a graduate of the Golden Crown Literary Society’s writing academy I-III. She is also a retired probation officer and criminal justice professor. Her short stories have been published in The Bangalore Review (Deception) and The Quiet Reader (No Time For Stories). The first chapter of her yet to be completed historical fiction novel, The Journey, was published in the 2022 CA Writer’s Literary Review anthology. She lives on the California Central Coast with her wife and can often be found kayaking or looking for sea glass on the beach.

Anna Gram was born and raised in Arkansas by a mother who taught her to always chase her dreams. And she has done just that. She currently resides in Southern California where her day job is sound editor for some of television’s most popular shows. Writing has been a part of her life since she was nine years old, and she is overjoyed to finally have her stories come to life on the page for all to read. When she’s not working on a new story, she enjoys relaxing with a round of boxing at her local gym, attempting to pare down her TBR pile of books, and snuggling with her cat, Xena, who refuses to be ignored at all costs. Her book is Coming Up Clutch.

Jen Lyon is an avid lover of sports, travel, theatre, and the ocean. When she isn’t writing, Jen can be found sailing, browsing the shelves of her local bookstore, cheering ardently at an NWSL soccer match, or training horses at her Southern California horse ranch, where she lives with her wife, Donna, and their dogs and horses.    Follow Jen on Instagram @jenlyonauthor where she unapologetically spams her page with photos of her corgis, dachshund, horses and obscenely large Maine Coon cats.

Laina Villeneuve admits that her real-life courtship would read like a blatant plot manipulation. But it all worked out in the end and she and her wife live in Southern California with their three children. An English professor with a passion for lesbian fiction, she also has a lifelong love for horses.

Where: Underdog Bookstore at Finkbiner Park

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 4 pm – 7 pm

Address: 160 North Wabash Ave, Glendora, CA 91741

Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events/glendora-pride-in-the-foothiils

UCR Center for Ideas & Society Conversation: andre m. carrington & John Jennings at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Participants will hear a conversation between author and editor andré m. carrington (The Black Fantastic: 20 Afrofuturist Stories) and Hugo Award Winning graphic novel artist and editor John Jennings (The Parable of the Talents: A Graphic Novel Adaptation).

The Black Fantastic is a cutting-edge collection of the best short stories in contemporary Afrofuturist fiction—from Hugo, Nebula, and Stoker award-winning Black authors, edited by andré m. carrington. The Parable of the Talents is the graphic novel adaptation that follows John Jennings’s adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s The Parable of the Sower graphic novel adaptation, which a lot of you purchased here at Cellar Door when it was released! This is your opportunity to hear from two extremely brilliant minds on Afrofuturism, graphic novels, horror, fantasy, and everything in between! And you will have the opportunity to have your copies of the books signed by andré and John!

About The Black Fantastic: Including Afrofuturist science fiction, weird and fantastic tales, horror and the paranormal, apocalyptic lyricism, time travel, superheroes, and more, here are twenty mindblowing, horror-strewn, weird, woke, nerdy, terrifying, liberating, fantastic, utopian, surreal, genre-defying and empowering short stories, all of them worth reading and rereading now and far into futurity. Reclaiming histories of racism and oppression and seizing the day, these writers are forging kaleidoscopic new senses of Black identity, community, and imaginative freedom.

About Parable of the Talents: A Graphic Novel Adaptation: Set against a background of a war-torn continent under the control of a Christian fundamentalist fascist state, Parable of the Talents is a modern masterpiece that resonates powerfully. Parable of the Talents is told in the voice of Lauren Olamina’s daughter, Asha Vere—from whom she has been separated for most of the girl’s life—interspersed with sections in the form of Lauren’s own journals. Asha searches for answers about her past while struggling to reconcile with her mother’s legacy—caught between her duty to her chosen family and her calling to lead humankind into a better future among the stars.

andré carrington is a scholar of race, gender, and genre in Black and American cultural production. His first book, Speculative Blackness: The Future of Race in Science Fiction (Minnesota, 2016) interrogates the cultural politics of race in the fantastic genres and fan cultures. He is editor of The Black Fantastic, the Library of America anthology of contemporary short speculative fiction by Black authors. His forthcoming book, Audiofuturism, on radio adaptations of Black speculative texts. He is past recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard and the National Humanities Center. His writing appears in journals, books, and blogs including Verso and Black Perspectives. He lives in Riverside and he enjoys birding.

John Jennings is a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside. Jennings is co-editor of the Eisner Award-winning collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of the Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art. Jennings is also a 2016 Nasir Jones Hip Hop Studies Fellow with the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. Jennings’ current projects include the horror anthology Box of Bones, the coffee table book Black Comix Returns (with Damian Duffy), and the Eisner-winning, Bram Stoker Award-winning, New York Times best-selling graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler’s classic dark fantasy novel Kindred. Jennings is also founder and curator of the ABRAMS Megascope line of graphic novels.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 4 pm

Join us for a discussion of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley as part of our module on psychodystopias!

Where: Chevalier’s

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 4 pm

Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004

Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2025-05-31/philosophy-book-club

Heartbeats Circle Open Mic: Palabra del Pueblo with L. A. Poet Society at The Libros, Lincoln Heights – In-Person Event

We are so honored to present a wonderful showcase this month, celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander family!

Join guest host Soul Stuf for the Heartbeats Circle Open Mic, featuring: Lauren Yang, Brie B-G, Mr. Chai Tea, Mani Suri, and The Usolosopher!

Lauren Yang was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. She observes all that moves and stands around her as she transmutes what she sees and hears into poetry, comedy, dance, and music. As an environmentalist and artist, she aims to love deeply and live furiously with every last spark of energy she can muster for the wellbeing of our Earth and humanity.

Brie B-G organizes nouns.

Mr. Chi 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.

Mani Suri is a veteran of the Poetic License crowd in L.A. He is the author of three chapbooks, Poetry My Wife Hates and the Mistresses I Could Have Had Would Have Loved, Reflection: More Poetry My Wife Hates or the Mistresses I’ll Never Have Who Might Have Loved It, and Poetry My Wife Hates: Third in a Series. Mani has been published in anthologies, and has been featured locally, and as far away as Berkeley, Austin, and London. He co-hosted the weekly reading at the Rapp Saloon in Santa Monica for eight years.

Usolosopher is a self-published author, poet, and spoken word artist from Long Beach, California of Samoan descent. His mission is to ignite the pen for Pacific Islanders worldwide for he feels that they are the minority of the minority and his voice can hopefully spark the ocean flood of Pacific Islander voices. His books The Diary of a Mad Uso and Usolosophy: Poetic Soulpieces and USOPoetic: Usoulful Poems are available online for purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, other online book retailers, and at Made by Millworks in Long Beach on Pine Avenue.

The show begins at 6 pm. Open Mic is available to all genres of creatives. We welcome everyone. 5 mins at the mic.

We offer a safe space for all creatives, and do not tolerate hate speech.

Where: The Libros, Lincoln Heights

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

15 poets will compete to be crowned the OC Poetry Slam champion! Come and enjoy a night full of poetry!

Come and enjoy a night full of poetry!

NOTE: Tickets at Eventbrite.

Where: The Den Café

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 7 pm – 10 pm

Address: 125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana, CA 9270

Where: LogansLovelyLibrary, Bel Canto Books, Retro Row

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 2106 E 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814

Website: https://belcantobooks.net/events

Write Like a Mother: Group Reading of Women Authors, and Q&A at Sunny’s Bookshop – In-Person Event

Group Reading with Luivette Resto, Elizabeth L. Silver, Samantha Dunn, Cassandra Lane, Natashia Deón, Carribean Fragoza, Domenica Ruta!

Luivette Resto is an award-winning poet, a mother of three revolutionary humans, and a middle school English teacher. She was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico but proudly raised in the Bronx. She is a CantoMundo and Macondo Fellow and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She has three books of poetry: Unfinished Portrait, Ascension, and Living on Islands Not Found on Maps.She is the associate editor of Tía Chucha Press, one of the co-hosts of Poetry LA, and she sits on the boards for Women Who Submit and Beyond Baroque.

Elizabeth L Silver is the author of the novels, The Majority (Riverhead) and The Execution of Noa P. Singleton (Crown), as well as the memoir, The Tincture of Time: A Memoir of (Medical) Uncertainty (Penguin Press). She currently teaches creative writing with the UCLA Writers Program. She is the founder and director of Onward Literary and lives in Los Angeles with her family.

Samantha Dunn is the senior editor of premium content at the Southern California News Group. She produces the company’s virtual program BOOKISH, about authors and the literary life. She is also the author of several books including the novel Failing Paris, a PEN West award finalist, and the bestselling memoirs, Not By Accident: Reconstructing a Careless Life and Faith in Carlis Gomez. Sam also teaches nonfiction writing at Chapman University and at the literary nonprofit Writing by Writers.

Cassandra Lane is author of We Are Bridges (Feminist Press) and winner of the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize. She is editor in chief of L.A. Parent magazine in Los Angeles. Her stories have appeared in the L.A. Times, MSNBC.com, Everything But the Burden, Writers Resist, Writing the Golden State: The New Literary Terrain of California, The NYT’s “Conception” series and more.

Natashia Deón is a two-time NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literature, Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award Nominee, practicing criminal attorney, judge for the LA Times Book Prize (Fiction and Debut Fiction), and author of the critically acclaimed novels, GRACE and The Perishing. A professor of creative writing at UCLA and Antioch University, her personal essays have been featured in The New York Times, Harper’s, The Los Angeles Times, and other places.

Carribean Fragoza is a fiction and nonfiction writer from South El Monte, CA. Her collection of stories Eat the Mouth That Feeds You was published in 2021 by City Lights and was a finalist for a 2022 PEN Award. She is the Prose Editor at Huizache Magazine and 2023 Whiting Literary Award recipient.

Domenica Ruta is the New York Times bestselling author of the memoir With or Without You and the novels Last Day and All the Mothers. She co-edited the anthology We Got This: Solo Mom Stories of Grit, Heart and Humor. She lives in New York City with her family.

Where: Sunny’s Bookshop

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 7 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: 18604 Ventura Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 91356

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/write-like-a-mother-group-reading-qa-tickets-1344918229629

Horror Anthology Launch: Tormented Flesh at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Authors will read and discuss stories from the brand-new horror anthology Tormented Flesh.

Please join Francesca Lia Block, James Nulick, Grant Wamack, and Omar King at Village Well Books & Coffee for a celebration of the publication of the Anxiety Press body horror anthology Tormented Flesh.

Authors will read from and discuss stories they contributed to the book. If you can’t wait till October to get in the macabre mood, this is the event for you. Come listen to some spooky, gaudy body horror stories!

About the participants:

Grant Wamack is the Wonderland award nominated author of The Frolicking, Bullet Tooth, and God’s Leftovers. He’s a tarot reader, Navy vet, and can be found floating around Los Angeles.

James Nulick is the author of several highly acclaimed books including The Moon Down to Earth, Valencia, Lazy Eyes, and Haunted Girlfriend. His latest novel Plastic Soul was recently published by Fellow Travelers Series, an imprint of Publication Studio.

Mr. Omar King resides in Gardena, California. He is the author of An Odyssey of Dingbats! (New Ritual Press).

Francesca Lia Block is the author of over 30 books and lives, writes, and teaches creative writing in Los Angeles. She also runs the Lit Angels writing studio at The Village Well.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Saturday the 31^st

Time: 7 pm

Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/horror-anthology-launch-tormented-flesh-tickets-1331284390449

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 1^st (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

ZZYZX Word: Poetry & Music Podcast at The Libros, Lincoln Heights – In-Person Event

They loved us so much, they invited us to return!

Workshop new poems and music!

All genres welcome.

See you at The Libros June 1st!

Where: The Libros, Lincoln Heights

Date: Sunday the 1^st

Time: 11 am

The Hour of Chaos Fundraiser features a Literary Liberation workshop, Open Mic and round robin readings by many features:

Natashia Deon, Chris Siders Jervey Tervalon, Nikki Blak, Bess Kepp

Dante Mitchell, V Kali, Ernest Hardy, Dr. Ashaki Jackson, Matt Gamin

Alyeshia Wise, Kuahmel, Amanda Choo Quan, Terry Hymnal Robinson, Rhys Langston

Also:Beat Set by ABF and audio selection by Black Self-Help Moving and Storage.

Where: Cielo Gallery, with Writ Large Projects

Date: Sunday the 1^st

Time: 1 pm – 6 pm

Address: 3201 Maple Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90011 

Where: West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library

Date: Sunday the 1^st

Time: 2 pm

Address: 11360 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025 

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-1

Middle Grade Book Talk: Megan E. Freeman & Away at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person MG Event

Join us for a discussion with middle-grade author Megan E. Freeman!

Away is about a group of children who investigate the threat that prompted large-scale evacuations in this powerful and dramatic companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Alone told in multiple POVs.

After an imminent yet unnamed danger forces people across Colorado to leave their homes, a group of kids including an aspiring filmmaker and a budding journalist find themselves in the same evacuation camp. As they cope with the aftermath of having their world upended, they grow curious about the mysterious threat.

And as they begin to investigate, they start to discover that there’s less truth and more cover-up to what they’re being told. Can they get to the root of the conspiracy, expose the bad actors, and bring an end to the upheaval before it’s too late?

Megan E. Freeman attended an elementary school where poets visited her classroom every week, and she has been a writer ever since. She writes middle grade and young adult fiction. Megan is also a Pushcart Prize–nominated poet. An award-winning teacher with decades of classroom experience, Megan taught multiple subjects across the arts and humanities to students of all ages. She lives near Boulder, Colorado. Visit her online at MeganEFreeman.com.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Sunday the 1^st

Time: 3 pm – 4 pm

Our Writing Group meets on the first Sunday of every month!

Bring paper and a pen, bring your laptop, bring a prompt to share, bring a project to work on or just come prepared to free write among other writers, and perhaps exchange projects and feedback!

Where: North Figueroa Bookshop

Date: Sunday the 1^st

Time: 5 pm – 6 pm

Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042

Sign-ups start at 4:30 pm and the event will be 5-7 pm. Arrive early to get a taste of all the action, good eats, and support local queer and LGBTQIA+ businesses and performers. Streaming live on Twitch and YouTube—link in bio! You definitely won’t want to miss it! Open mic sign-ups start at 4:30 pm and will be a lottery-based system to ensure fair chances for all.

Our theme this season is: Time Check ⏱️ Living for the day is a call to be present. We define the meaning of who we are by seizing the gift of today. Opportunities come and go and sometimes pass by without us acting on it. While tomorrow is not promised, this moment is yours to make.

Features:

@naughtypopcorn is a an obscure poet, upcycling designer and drag performer of Latin extraction.

Joshua Rafael Castro is a fiction author, poet, lyricist, and musical entertainer from Los Angeles, CA. A graduate of Alhambra High School and a former East Los Angeles College student, he served as an assistant editor and proofreader for ELAC’s literary magazine Milestone from 2014-2016, as well as its sole social media administrator from 2012-2016. Joshua Castro lives in Los Angeles, CA with his loving and supportive husband John.

Where: Pilipino Workers Center

Date: Sunday the 1^st

Time: 5 pm – 7 pm

Join us for a reading of The Lost Songs of Nina Simone by Shonda Buchanan!

Pushcart nominee Shonda Buchanan will read from her newest collection, inspired by the iconic singer. Joining Shonda are acclaimed authors Toni Ann Johnson and Ryane Nicole Granados.

Nina Simone’s ghost lives in these poems by award-winning author, Shonda Buchanan. Like the icon’s life and art, The Lost Songs of Nina Simone is complex, daring, sensuous, hard and soft all at once.

The author weaves a prism of language, sound and light around and through the life of concert pianist, singer and Civil Rights activist, the incomprehensible Nina Simone. With this book, Buchanan is declaring this The Century of the Black Woman, providing a realistic glimpse into not only Simone’s life, but the lives of Black women in America, past and present, and their choices in a myopic, unforgiving country.

A grandchild of enslaved Africans, American Indians and Irish migrants, born into poverty as Eunice Waymon in a traditionally large family, Nina Simone lived a life few Black American women lived during the Jim Crow era in the South, yet rose to ultimately impact the world with her creative genius and determined spirit. This book is both an emotional and historical excavation of an artist’s life, capturing the rise and descent of that life, including Simone’s family history, her childhood and young womanhood, as well as the addiction, mental health struggles and abuse.

The Lost Songs of Nina Simone embodies the rich legacy—the pleats between the cloth—of Simone’s artistry, beauty, self-immolation and rage.

Reserve your seat on EVENTBRITE!

Pushcart Prize nominee, Oxfam Ambassador, USC Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities Fellow and City of Los Angeles (COLA) Department of Cultural Affairs Master Artist Fellow, Shonda Buchanan is the author of five books, including the award-winning memoir Black Indian. Shonda is also a faculty member in Alma College’s MFA Program in Creative Writing.

Finalist for the 2021 Mississippi Review poetry contest, Shonda’s memoir, Black Indian, won the 2020 Indie New Generation Book Award and was chosen by PBS NewsHour as a “Top 20 books to read” to learn about institutional racism. About to enter a 3rd printing, Black Indian begins the saga of her family’s migration stories of Free People of Color communities exploring identity, ethnicity, landscape, and loss. Her first collection of poetry, Who’s Afraid of Black Indians?, was nominated for the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and the Library of Virginia Book Awards.

Toni Ann Johnson won the Flannery O’Connor Award for her linked story collection Light Skin Gone to Waste, selected for the prize and edited by Roxane Gay. The book was nominated for a 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work and shortlisted for the 2024 Saroyan Prize. A novella, Homegoing, won Accents Publishing’s inaugural novella contest and was published in 2021. Johnson’s first novel, Remedy for a Broken Angel, was nominated for a 2015 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author. In 2024, she was selected by Crystal Wilkinson as an inaugural winner of the Screen Door Press Prize for her linked story collection, But Where’s Home? forthcoming in February of 2026.

Ryane Nicole Granados has always called Los Angeles her home and her writing finds its roots in her love of her community. She is inspired to write stories of survival that magnify the marginalized while also unearthing the splendor of second chances. Ryane earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, Los Angeles and she was named the 2021 Established Writer and Individual Arts Fellow by the California Arts Council. Currently, Ryane teaches at Loyola Marymount University where she also serves as the Associate Director of the Academic Resource Center and Writing Center. Her literary work has been featured in various publications including Pangyrus, The Manifest-Station, High Country News, The Atticus Review, and LA Parent Magazine. Her storytelling has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and showcased in KPCC’s live series Unheard LA.​ Her novella, The Aves, debuted October 2024.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Sunday the 1^st

Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm

$5 for 5 minutes performance.

Sign-ups open at 5:45 pm

Where: Chevalier’s

Date: Sunday the 1^st

Time: 6 pm – 6:45 pm

Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004

We read widely across the romance genre, featuring LGTBQIA authors.

No membership is necessary, but RSVP is required.

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Date: Sunday the 1^st

Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm

Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA 90232

Website: https://www.therippedbodice.com/events-and-tickets

Dazed and Confused Poetry Club 2025at The Glendale Room – In-Person Event

Host Fernando Funes hosts the Dazed and Confused Poetry Club every 1^st Sunday of the month.

As always, this show is in the spirit of your high school poetry club – we celebrate angst, melancholy, unbridled joy, and every emotion your adolescent self could ever feel! Bring your high school self and share those ink and pencil lines from your tattered and frayed and dog eared notebooks!

This event features featured performers and an Open Mic.

Where: The Glendale Room

Date: Sunday the 1^st

Time: 8:30 pm – 10 pm

Address: 127 Artsakh Ave., Glendale, CA 91206

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dazed-and-confused-poetry-club-2025-every-1st-sunday-tickets-815625045467?aff=ebdssbdestsearch