Join us to discuss George Saunder’s experimental novel Lincoln in the Bardo.

They serve as a warning to the president, persuading him to allow his young son to move on to the afterlife, lest he loose himself to grief and remain unable to move on.

RSVP

Where: Chevalier’s

Date: Monday the 16^th

Time: 5 pm – 6 pm

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

Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2025-06-16/fiction-book-club

Philosophical Horror Book Club: Piñata at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Participants will discuss Piñata: A Novel by author Leopoldo Gout.

It was supposed to be the perfect summer.

Carmen Sanchez is back in Mexico, supervising the renovation of an ancient abbey. Her daughters Izel and Luna, too young to be left alone in New York, join her in what Carmen hopes is a chance for them to connect with their roots.

Then, an accident at the worksite unearths a stash of rare, centuries-old artifacts. The disaster costs Carmen her job, cutting the family trip short.

But something malevolent and unexplainable follows them home to New York, stalking the Sanchez family and heralding a coming catastrophe. And it may already be too late to escape what’s been awakened…

They were worshiped by our ancestors.

Now they are forgotten.

Soon, they’ll make us remember.

A visual artist, filmmaker, and writer who hails from Mexico City, Leopoldo Gout studied sculpture at Central St. Martins School of Art in London. His work belongs to multiple collections and has been in exhibitions all over the world. After finishing his studies, Gout’s creativity extended into writing, television, and film. He is the author of the books Ghost Radio and the award-winning Genius YA trilogy, and the fable for all ages, Monarca.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Monday the 16^th

Time: 6 pm

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

Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/philosophical-horror-book-club-pi%C3%B1ata

Book Release Party: Michelle Huneven & Bug Hollow at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event

Celebrate the release of Bug Hollow: A Novel by author Michelle Huneven.

A decades-spanning family saga featuring the messy but loving Samuelson clan trying to make sense of the world after the loss of their son Ellis.

When Sally Samuelson was eight years old, her brother Ellis went missing the summer he graduated high school. Ellis finally turned up at the bucolic Bug Hollow, a last gasp of the beautiful Northern California counterculture in the seventies. He had found joy in the communal life there, but he died in a freak accident weeks later.

From that point, the Samuelsons never spin on the same axis. This is especially true after Julia, Ellis’s girlfriend from Bug Hollow, shows up pregnant on their doorstep.

Michelle Huneven is “known for five enthralling novels, which chronicle the lives of middle-class Americans in her lushly conjured native California, as her characters struggle with addiction, excruciating romances, and resounding losses as they continue to seek meaning and a way to be good” (American Academy of Arts and Letters). She captures the Samuelson clan with glorious precision and the deepest empathy as they fracture and rebuild again and again.

Where: North Figueroa Bookshop

Date: Monday the 16^th

Time: 6 pm

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

Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-man2aveq

Vinh Nguyen, with Kenneth Nguyen, & The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse: A Memory of Vietnam at Book Soup – In-Person Event

Vinh Nguyen, in conversation with Kenneth Nguyen, will discuss The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse: A Memory of Vietnam.

An unconventional memoir of conjuring the uncertain past and a long-lost homeland, and a vital document of one family’s journey through world history.

With the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, the U.S. war in Vietnam ended, but the refugee crisis was only beginning. Among the millions of people who fled Vietnam by boat were Vinh Nguyen, along with his mother and siblings, and his father, who left separately and then mysteriously vanished.

Decades later, Nguyen goes looking for the story of his father. What he discovers is a sea of questions drifting above sunken truths. To come to terms with the past, Nguyen must piece together the debris of history with family stories that have been scattered across generations and continents, kept for decades in broken hearts and guarded silences.

The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse takes readers on a poignant tour of disappeared refugee camps, abandoned family homes, and the lives that could have been. As the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War approaches, this powerful memoir is timelier and more important than ever, illuminating the stories, real and imagined, that become buried in the rubble of war.

Kenneth Nguyen is the host and creator of The Vietnamese podcast, a platform celebrating Vietnamese excellence across the globe. Since launching in 2020, Kenneth has produced over 400 episodes, engaging in insightful, in-depth conversations with voices from all corners of the global Vietnamese community. Driven by a deep passion for storytelling and cultural connection, he explores themes of identity, diaspora, entrepreneurship, and the work of the creative community—amplifying narratives that capture the depth and diversity of the Vietnamese experience.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Monday the 16^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Penny Reid, in conversation with CD Reiss, will discussGrin and Beard It.

A book signing will follow the event.

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Date: Monday the 16^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

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 16^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501

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

At Skylight: Melissa Febos, with Maggie Nelson, & The Dry Season at Skylight – In-Person Event

Melissa Febos, in conversation with Maggie Nelson, will discuss The Dry Season: A Memoir of Pleasure in a Year Without Sex.

This memoir an examination of the solitude, freedoms, and feminist heroes the author discovered during a year of celibacy and a wise and transformative look at relationships and self-knowledge.

In the wake of a catastrophic two-year relationship, Melissa Febos decided to take a break: For three months she would abstain from dating, relationships, and sex. Her friends were amused. Did she really think three months was a long time? But to Febos, it was. Ever since her teens, she had been in one relationship after another with men and women. As she puts it, she could trace a “daisy chain of romances” from her adolescence to her midthirties. Finally, she would carve out time to focus on herself and examine the patterns that had produced her midlife disaster.

By abstaining from all forms of romantic entanglement, Febos began to see her life and her self-worth in a radical, new way. Her year of divestment transformed her relationships with friends and peers, her spirituality, her creative practice, and, most of all, her relationship with herself. Blending intimate personal narrative and incisive cultural criticism, The Dry Season tells a story that’s as much about celibacy as its inverse: pleasure, desire, fulfillment. Infused with fearless honesty and keen intellect, it’s the memoir of a woman learning to live at the center of her own story, and a much-needed catalyst for a new conversation around sex and love.

Melissa Febos is the national bestselling author of four books, including Girlhood—which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative. She has been awarded prizes and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, LAMBDA Literary, the National Endowment for the Arts, the British Library, the Black Mountain Institute, the Bogliasco Foundation, and others. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Best American Essays, Vogue, The Sewanee Review, New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. Febos is a full professor at the University of Iowa and lives in Iowa City with her wife, the poet Donika Kelly. Her memoir, The Dry Season, will be published by Knopf in June.

Maggie Nelson is the author of over a dozen acclaimed books, several of which have become cult classics defying categorization. Her most recent title is Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth, from Wave Books (2025). A recipient of a MacArthur “genius” fellowship, Nelson currently teaches as a Distinguished Professor of English at USC.

Where: Skylight

Date: Monday the 16^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-melissa-febos-presents-dry-season-w-maggie-nelson

Community Circle: In Response to ICE Raids in L.A. at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore – In-Person Event

If you’re out protesting today, please be safe and look out for your neighbors ✊🏾❤️ Here’s a reminder for our community circle being held this Monday at 7 pm. We will have ASL interpretation and Spanish translation available. No registration necessary.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore

Date: Monday the 16^th

Time: 7 pm

Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd. Sylmar, CA 91342

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Bridget Crocker, with Jim Benning, & The River’s Daughter: A Memoir at Vroman’s – In-Person Event

Bridget Crocker, in conversation with Jim Benning, will discuss The River’s Daughter: A Memoir.

A vivid and propulsive memoir about finding courage and meaning in a life outdoors, by a world-class whitewater rafting guide.

After Bridget Crocker’s parents’ volatile divorce, she moved with her mother from Southern California to Wyoming. Her life was idyllic, growing up in a trailer park on the banks of the Snake River with a stepfather she loved, a new baby brother, and the river as her companion—until her mother suddenly took up a radical new lifestyle, becoming someone Bridget barely recognized. The one constant in her life—the place Bridget felt whole and fully herself—was the river. When she discovered the world of whitewater rafting, she knew she’d found her calling.

On the river, Bridget learned to read the natural world around her and came to know the language of rivers. One of the few female guides on the Snake River, she then traveled to the Zambezi River in Africa, some of the most dangerous whitewater in the world, where she faced death and learned to conquer her fears—both on the water and off. The river taught her how to overcome years of betrayals and abuse, to trust herself, and, finally, how to help heal her family from generational cycles of trauma and poverty.

A beautifully rendered memoir of a woman coming into her own, The River’s Daughter opens us to the possibilities of transformation through nature.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Monday the 16^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-06-16/bridget-crocker

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 16^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)

After three years of research, personal experimentation, and thousands of interviews across the globe, Sahil Bloom has created a groundbreaking blueprint to build your life around five types of wealth: Time Wealth, Social Wealth, Mental Wealth, Physical Wealth, and Financial Wealth. A life of true fulfillment engages all five types—working dynamically, in concert across the seasons of your journey.

No matter where you are on your path—a recent graduate, new parent, midlife warrior, retiree, or anything in between—The 5 Types of Wealth will help you act on your priorities to create an instant positive impact in your daily life, make better decisions, and design the life you’ve always dreamed of.

Sahil Bloom is an inspirational writer and content creator, captivating millions of people every week through his insights and biweekly newsletter, The Curiosity Chronicle. His debut book The 5 Types of Wealth was a New York Times and USA Today bestseller. Bloom is a successful entrepreneur, owner of SRB Holdings, and the managing partner of SRB Ventures, an early-stage investment fund. Bloom graduated from Stanford University with an MA in public policy and a BA in economics and sociology. He was a four-year member of the Stanford baseball team.

Max Lugavere is a health and science journalist, New York Times bestselling author, and host of The Genius Life, one of the top health podcasts in the U.S. With over 80 million downloads, he’s known for translating complex science into practical, actionable advice. He’s the author of the bestselling Genius book series, co-director of the dementia-focused documentary Little Empty Boxes, and a trusted voice on platforms like The Joe Rogan Experience, The Diary of a CEO, and national television. Max speaks globally at corporate and wellness events, teaches nutrition for Peterson Academy, and recently brought his advocacy to Washington, D.C., participating in Senate-level discussions on improving public health through prevention and dietary reform.

NOTE: Ticket purchase at website.

Where: Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center at Vista Del Mar

Date: Monday the 16^th

Time: 8 pm

Address: 3200 Motor Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90034

(Free Parking available at the venue)

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 17^th

Time: 10 am – 11 am

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

Each week we read and discuss 1/4 of the book. Please see the weekly discussion breakdown below.

Week 3: June 17: Pages 152 – 225

Where: Virtual Event, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

Address: Online Event (see site)

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13843939

Books & Bagels: All the Sinners Bleed at Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join us on the third Tuesday of each month for fresh-baked bagels, coffee, tea, and a thoughtful discussion of the current selection, and share other great books with the group.
New members welcome! Copies are available at the front desk.

June 17: All the Sinners Bleed, by S.A. Cosby

Where: Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 12:30 pm

Address: 501 S. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291

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

Middlemarch Symposium at Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join the Tuesday Afternoon Book Club for a deep dive into George Eliot’s Middlemarch for three summertime sessions in June, July and August.

Find out why Middlemarch was voted the all-time number one British novel in a BBC poll of literary critics.

See if you agree with Virginia Woolf that it is “one of the few English novels written for grownup people.”

Participants will receive their own paperback copy of the book, courtesy of the Friends of Silver Lake Library (FOSLL), while supplies last.

Reading Schedule:

June 17: Read the Introduction, Books One and Two

July 15: Read Books Three, Four, and Five

August 19: Read Books Six, Seven, and Eight

Where: Silver Lake Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 1 pm

Address: Glendale Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90039

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/middlemarch-symposium

Poetry Writing Workshop: California Southern at Cerritos Library – In-Person Teen Event

Learn to express yourself through poetry in a workshop led by poet Mike Sonksen. No prior poetry experience is necessary. Notebooks and writing utensils will be provided, but participants are welcome to bring their own materials. Ages 13 & up.

We are excited to feature Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, reading from his new book, California Southern, at the Cerritos Library.

There will be a writing workshop & open mic to follow! Stay tuned for surprise guests!

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez is a reporter at LAist 89.3, an NPR affiliate in Los Angeles. In 1994 he co-founded the performance-poetry group The Taco Shop Poets in San Diego, and in the early 2000s he founded the Spine of Califas poetry series with Xiuy Velo and Willie Herron of Los Illegals. His 1990s Chicano true crime podcast, The Forgotten Revolutionary, won a Golden Mic for 2022. He’s the author of California Southern: writing from the road, 1992-2025.

Where: Cerritos Library, Skyline Room

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 6 pm

Address: 18025 Bloomfield Ave., Cerritos, CA 90703

Website: https://calendar.cerritos.gov/library/Detail/2025-06-17-1800-Poetry-Writing-Workshop or https://www.instagram.com/p/DKlPslHJvVV/?hl=en

Book Club: Lily and the Octopus at Norwood Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join Norwood Library’s Adult Book Club for a discussion of our latest selection Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley.

Teddy is single in L.A and debates with his dachshund, Lily, who occupies his heart. He is also able to communicate with the “octopus” attached to Lily’s head, which is a lethal cranial tumor. Teddy faces off with the “octopus”, engaging it in a battle of wills that takes on epic proportions. A tribute to the love between a pet and its human.

If you would like a copy of the book, please drop by Norwood Library to pick up a copy or get a digital copy here: https://tinyurl.com/LilyOctopusRowley

Attendance is limited, and advance registration is required.

Where: Norwood Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Address: 4550 Peck Rd., El Monte, CA 91732

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13583967

Book Club: Klara and the Sun at Pico Rivera Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join the Pico Rivera Library Book Club as we read Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling novel, Klara and the Sun, for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Month. For adults.

From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change forever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans. In this novel, Ishiguro looks at our rapidly changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?

Where: Pico Rivera Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Address: 9001 Mines Ave., Pico Rivera, CA 90660

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13539673

Janelle Brown & What Kind of Paradise at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event

Janelle Brown will discuss and sign What Kind of Paradise.

A teenage girl breaks free from her father’s world of isolation to discover that her whole life is a lie in this propulsive new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things and Watch Me Disappear.

The first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world.

Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-1990s, Jane knows only the world that she and her father live in: the woodstove that heats their home, the vegetable garden where they try to eke out a subsistence, the books of nineteenth-century philosophy that her father gives her to read in lieu of going to school. Her father is elusive about their pasts, giving Jane little beyond the facts that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident, the crash propelling him to move Jane off the grid to raise her in a Waldenesque utopia.

As Jane becomes a teenager she starts pushing against the boundaries of her restricted world. She begs to accompany her father on his occasional trips away from the cabin. But when Jane realizes that her devotion to her father has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime, she flees Montana to the only place she knows to look for answers about her mysterious past, and her mother’s death: San Francisco. It is a city in the midst of a seismic change, where her quest to understand herself will force her to reckon with both the possibilities and the perils of the fledgling internet, and where she will come to question everything she values.

In this sweeping, suspenseful novel from bestselling author Janelle Brown, we see a young woman on a quest to understand how we come to know ourselves. It is a bold and unforgettable story about parents and children; nature and technology; innocence and knowledge; the losses of our past and our dreams for the future.

Janelle Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of I’ll Be You, Pretty Things, Watch Me Disappear, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, and This Is Where We Live. An essayist and journalist, she has written for Vogue, The New York Times, Elle, Wired, Self, Los Angeles Times, Salon, and more. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two children.

Where: Diesel, A Bookstore (in the Courtyard)

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

Address: 225 26^th St., Santa Monica, CA 902

Website: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2025-06-17/janelle-brown-author-signing

Book Club: We Do Not Part at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Participants will discuss We Do Not Part by author Han Kang.

Han Kang’s most revelatory book since The Vegetarian, We Do Not Part tells the story of a friendship between two women while powerfully reckoning with a hidden chapter in Korean history.

One winter morning, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend Inseon to visit her at a hospital in Seoul. Inseon has injured herself in an accident, and she begs Kyungha to return to Jeju Island, where she lives, to save her beloved pet—a white bird called Ama. A snowstorm hits the island when Kyungha arrives. She must reach Inseon’s house at all costs, but the icy wind and squalls slow her down as night begins to fall. She wonders if she will arrive in time to save the animal—or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. Lost in a world of snow, she doesn’t yet suspect the vertiginous plunge into the darkness that awaits her at her friend’s house.

Blurring the boundaries between dream and reality, We Do Not Part powerfully illuminates a forgotten chapter in Korean history, buried for decades—bringing to light the lost voices of the past to save them from oblivion. Both a hymn to an enduring friendship and an argument for remembering, it is the story of profound love in the face of unspeakable violence—and a celebration of life, however fragile it might be.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

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

Read your poetry, fiction, spoken word, or lyrics.

Free event. 21+

Note: Please RSVP at site.

Where: The Aftermath Bar

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 7 pm – 10 pm

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

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Based out of Portland, Oregon, Salt & Straw is the brainchild of two cousins, Tyler and Kim Malek, who had a vision but no recipes. They turned to their friends for advice—chefs, chocolatiers, brewers, and food experts of all kinds—and what came out is a super-simple base that takes five minutes to make, and an ice cream company that sees new flavors and inspiration everywhere they look.

Using that base recipe, you can make dozens of Salt & Straw’s most beloved, unique (and a little controversial) flavors, including Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons, Roasted Strawberry and Toasted White Chocolate, and Buttered Mashed Potatoes and Gravy.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/tyler-malek-salt-and-straw

North Figueroa Book Club: Discussing Loved and Missed at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event

Book club participants will discuss Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt.

You can find the book on bookshop.org.

Where: North Figueroa Bookshop

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 7 pm

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

A book signing will follow the event.

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

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

At Skylight: Ivy Pochoda, with Rider Strong, & Ecstasy at Skylight – In-Person Event

Ivy Pochoda, in conversation with Rider Strong, will discuss Ecstasy, a deliciously dark horror reimagining of a Greek tragedy.

Lena wants her life back. Her wealthy, controlling, humorless husband has just died, and now she contends with her controlling, humorless son, Drew. Lena lands in Naxos with her best friend in tow for the unveiling of her son’s pet project—the luxurious Agape Villas.

Years of marriage amongst the wealthy elite has whittled Lena’s spirit into rope and sinew, smothered by tasteful cocktail dresses and unending small talk. On Naxos she yearns to rediscover her true nature, remember the exuberant dancer and party girl she once was, but Drew tightens his grip, keeping her cloistered inside the hotel, demanding that she fall in line.

Lena is intrigued by a group of women living in tents on the beach in front of the Agape. She can feel their drums at night, hear their seductive leader calling her to dance. Soon she’ll find that an ancient God stirs on the beach, awakening dark desires of women across the island. The only questions left will be whether Lena will join them, and what it will cost her.

Ecstasy is a riveting, darkly poetic, one-sitting read about empowerment, desire, and what happens when women reject the roles set out for them.

Ivy Pochoda is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Wonder Valley, Visitation Street, These Women, and Sing Her Down which won the LA Times Book Prize. She won the 2018 Strand Critics Award for Best Novel and the Prix Page America in France and has been a finalist for the Edgar Award, among other awards. For many years, Ivy has led a creative writing workshop in Skid Row Los Angeles where she helped found Skid Row Zine. She is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of California Riverside-Palm Desert low-residency MFA program. She lives in Los Angeles.

Rider Strong is a writer, director, and former actor best known for his work in television and horror films. He co-hosted the literary podcast Literary Disco and currently co-hosts Pod Meets World, a rewatch podcast.

Where: Skylight

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-ivy-pochoda-presents-ecstasy-w-rider-strong

The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert & Guest Regie Cabico – Online Zoom Event

Cobalt Poets Reading & Open Mic and host Rick Lupert welcomes guest Regie Cabico.

Regie Cabico is a critically acclaimed performance poet who has won top prizes in the 1993, 1994, and 1997 National Poetry Slams. His poetry appears in over 30 anthologies including Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, Spoken Word Revolution and Slam. He was also featured in MTV’s “Free Your Mind” Spoken Word Tour.

Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event

Date: Tuesday, the 17^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: Online event (see site)

Tuesday Night Café: Features & Open Mic – In-Person & Online Hybrid YouTube Streaming Event

Tuesday Night Café featured guests include: Joyce Kwon, Yuchi Ma, Hana Hope, Strom, Teresa Mei Chuc, & DJ THATFLYPINAY.

We were rained out last week. We may have to move locations next week due to law enforcement occupation of Little Tokyo and a potential curfew. But we do our best to set up every first and third Tuesday and will continue to serve our community by offering space to gather. All power to the people. ICE out of LA.

We’re tracking community needs and what we can do in the space next week—keep checking back for updates. Our location may shift, but we are keeping it as close to Little Tokyo and as in community as we can. We’ll update if things change.

Teresa Mei Chuc (Tuệ Mỹ Chúc) is multilingual, was born in Sài Gòn, Việt Nam and fled her Vietnamese homeland with her mother and brother shortly after the American war in Việt Nam, spending three and a half months in a freight boat stranded in the East Sea before being rescued. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, Invisible Light (Many Voices Press, 2018), Keeper of the Winds (FootHills Publishing, 2014) and Red Thread (First edition, Fithian Press, 2012 & Second edition, Shabda Press, 2021) and two poetry chapbooks, Incidental Takes (Hummingbird Press, 2023) and How One Loses Notes and Sounds (Word Palace Press, 2016).

Check site for open mic details and updates.

Where: Tuesday Night Café at Union Center for the Arts

Date: Tuesday, the 17^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Chris Guillebeau, in conversation with Michael Gervais, will discuss his book, Time Anxiety: The Illusion of Urgency and a Better Way to Live.

In a world obsessed with squeezing the most out of every moment, the fear of falling behind can trap us in a paralyzing stress cycle. Incomplete to-do lists, unanswered emails, and unmet life goals haunt our thoughts, leaving us overstimulated and exhausted.

In Time Anxiety, Chris Guillebeau, author of the popular newsletter A Year of Mental Health, reveals that this pervasive sense of time scarcity stems not from a lack of hours in the day but from unrealistic expectations and misaligned priorities. Weaving together eye-opening research on time perception, executive functioning challenges, and the psychological roots of avoidance, he offers a bold path for redefining our relationship with the clock.

The first step is to build a tolerance for incomplete to-do lists and the inevitability of disappointing people, abandoning the goal of “catching up.” We have to set our own limits because no one else will.

Ultimately, Time Anxiety is a call to wake up from the trance of busyness and reclaim our most precious resource. By breaking the habits of overstressing, overdoing, and underliving, we can start savoring our limited time on earth.

Chris Guillebeau is the New York Times bestselling author of The $100 Startup, Side Hustle, and The Happiness of Pursuit, which have sold over one million copies worldwide. During a lifetime of self-employment that included a four-year commitment as a volunteer executive in West Africa, he visited every country in the world (193 in total) before his thirty-fifth birthday.

Michael Gervais is a sport and performance psychologist. He is one of the world’s leading experts on the relationship between the mind and human performance. He founded Finding Mastery, powered by a world-class team of Olympians, PhDs, psychologists and changemakers, to bring insights from the frontier of sport and performance into the business world. He is the host of the popular Finding Mastery podcast that explores the psychology of the world’s most extraordinary thinkers and doers. He is the author of The First Rule of Mastery, published by Harvard Business Review Press.

NOTE: Ticket purchase at website.

Where: Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center at Vista Del Mar

Date: Tuesday the 17^th

Time: 8 pm

Address: 3200 Motor Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90034

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.

SLAM event on every 3^rd Tuesday.

$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 17^th

Time: 9 pm – 11 pm

Address: 544 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036

Lit Angels: Morning Writing with Francesca Lia Block at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Come write with us!

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.

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 18^th

Time: 8:30 am – 9:30 am

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

Jemimah Wei explores the formation and dissolution of family bonds in a story of ambition and sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.

Where: pages: a bookstore

Date: Wednesday the 18^th

Time: 10 am – 11 am

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

Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-06-18/coffee-time-book-club

Photographer’s Eye: Mario G. Reyes – Shining a Light on Little Tokyo at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Please join us for a Photographer’s Eye lecture about Mario G. Reyes. Gwen Muranaka will share images and memories of Reyes.

For more than four decades, Mario G. Reyes chronicled the important moments in the Japanese American community in Little Tokyo and the Southern California region as the photo editor of The Rafu Shimpo (Los Angeles Japanese Daily News), now in its 122nd year. Reyes passed away in January at 69, shortly after the Japanese American National Museum staged a retrospective of his work, Obras de Luz. He was born in Mexico City and immigrated with his family to LA when he was four years old and started working at The Rafu as a senior at Roosevelt High School. Reyes was a fixture in the Japanese American community for four decades at events such as Nisei Week, Obon festivals, Manzanar Pilgrimages, as well as covering youth sports and the Dodgers.

Gwen Muranaka, former Rafu Shimpo senior editor, worked alongside Reyes for more than twenty years. Muranaka is a writer and cartoonist who has worked for publications in Los Angeles and Tokyo, Japan. She was recognized with the Distinguished Journalist Award by the Society of Professional Journalists, Greater Los Angeles Chapter in 2023.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: Central Library, LAPL, Meeting Room A

Date: Wednesday, the 18^th

Time: 12:15 pm – 1:15 pm

Address: 19036 Vanowen St., Reseda, CA 91335

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-2

Book Club: The Rosie Project at Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event

Please join us for a lively discussion of the novel The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday, the 18^th

Time: 1:30 pm – 3 pm

Address: 19036 Vanowen St., Reseda, CA 91335

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-rosie-project

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 18^th

Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm

Address: On-air Event (live)

RSVP:

Optional: email katie.wright@lapl.org to RSVP.

Where: Canoga Park Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday, the 18^th

Time: 4 pm

Address: 20939 Sherman Way., Canoga Park, CA 91303

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/write

Middle Grade Book Club: The Trouble with Heroes at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event

Participants will discuss The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner.

Bestselling and award-winning author Kate Messner takes readers on a heart-filling journey as a boy finds his path to healing.

One summer.

46 mountain peaks.

A second chance to make things right.

Finn Connelly is nothing like his dad, a star athlete and firefighter hero who always ran toward danger until he died two years ago. Finn is about to fail seventh grade and has never made headlines…until now.

Caught on camera vandalizing a cemetery, he’s in big trouble for knocking down some dead old lady’s headstone. Turns out that grave belongs to a legendary local mountain climber, and her daughter makes Finn an unusual offer: she’ll drop all the charges if he agrees to climb all forty-six Adirondack High Peaks in a single summer. And there’s just one more thing—he has to bring along the dead woman’s dog.

In a wild three months of misadventures, mountain mud, and unexpected mentors, Finn begins to find his way on the trails. At the top of each peak, he can see for miles and slowly begins to understand more about himself and his dad. But the mountains don’t care about any of that, and as the clock ticks down to September, they have more surprises in store. Finn’s final summit challenge may be more than even a hero can face.

Kate Messner is a former middle-school English teacher and the author of E. B. White Read Aloud Award winner The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. and its companion, The Exact Location of Home; Sugar and Ice; Eye of the Storm; Wake Up Missing; All the Answers; The Seventh Wish; Capture the Flag; Hide and Seek; the Marty McGuire chapter book series; the Ranger in Time chapter book series; and several picture books. She lives on Lake Champlain with her husband and two kids. When she’s not reading or writing, she loves hiking, kayaking, biking, and watching thunderstorms over the lake. http://www.katemessner.com.

Where: pages: a bookstore

Date: Wednesday the 18^th

Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm

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

Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-06-18/middle-grade-book-club

Book Club for Adults: The Story She Left Behind at San Fernando Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us as we discuss The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry. Copies of the current title are available at the Information Desk. New members are always welcome! For adults.

In 1927, eight-year-old Clara Harrington’s magical childhood shatters when her mother, a renowned author, disappears off the coast of South Carolina. Her mother stunned the world with a book written in an invented language that became a national sensation. Her departure leaves behind not only a devoted husband and heartbroken daughter, but also the hope of ever translating the sequel to her landmark work. By 1952, Clara is an illustrator when a stranger contacts her from London claiming to have discovered a handwritten dictionary of her mother’s lost language. Clara must find the courage to uncover the truth about her mother and the story she left behind. A captivating novel of mystery and family legacy that captures the profound longing for a mother and the evergreen allure of secrets.

Where: San Fernando Library, LACL

Date: Wednesday, the 18^th

Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Address: 217 N. Maclay Ave., San Fernando, CA 91340

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13586887

Arroyo Writing Group (Special Meeting) at Arroyo Seco Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event

Writers of any level of experience are invited to join our writing group for practice both writing short pieces across many genres and sharing your writing with others.

For this special Summer Reading Challenge edition of our meeting we will engage with the prompt: The first words of your piece are Reading brings us together…Bring your response to the prompt to share.

If you are unable to join us in person you are welcome to join us virtually.

RSVP:

Contact us at ayosco@lapl.org to request the meeting link.

Where: Arroyo Seco Regional Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday, the 18^th

Time: 6 pm

Address: 6145 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/arroyo-writing-group-1

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 18^th

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

Address: On-air Event (live at 101.5 FM)

Website: https://www.lapoetsociety.org/events

Book Club for Adults: The Women at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Participants will discuss The Women by Kristin Hannah.

Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday, the 18^th

Time: 6:30 pm

Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-adults-2

Howard Smith & My Friend Johnny: The Last 20 Years of a Beautiful Life with Johnny Carson and Friends at Deisel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event

Howard Smith will discuss and sign My Friend Johnny: The Last 20 Years of a Beautiful Life with Johnny Carson and Friends.

For two decades, Howard Smith shared an extraordinary friendship with Johnny Carson—not as the legendary Tonight Show host, but simply as John. A neighbor turned close companion, Howard entered John’s private world, far from the spotlight. In My Friend Johnny, Howard paints an intimate portrait of the man behind the iconic desk—funny, kind, and generous, yet deeply complex. From tennis matches to quiet moments, their bond lasted until John’s passing. Set against Malibu’s elite circles, Howard’s journey includes personal and revealing accounts with icons like Princess Diana, Bruce Springsteen, Wayne Gretzky, Mark Wahlberg, Oprah, Jerry Weintraub, David Foster, Usher, Arnold Palmer, Clint Eastwood, Jimmy Hoffa, Tommy Lasorda (who changed Howard’s life forever), and seven US Presidents.

Howard Smith has led a “Forrest Gump” life filled with fascinating celebrities, unexpected adventures, and extraordinary opportunities. He achieved great success leading the world’s largest software company for a decade until a heart attack—and L.A. Dodgers Manager Tommy Lasorda urging him to change course—led him to retire in his forties and focus on truly living. He moved to Malibu and discovered he was neighbors with Johnny Carson, who became a dear friend and changed his life’s trajectory. Howard’s remarkable journey is one of fate, perseverance, and bold choices.

NOTE: RSVP at website.

Where: Diesel, A Bookstore

Date: Wednesday, the 18^th

Time: 6:30 pm

Address: 225 26^th Street, Suite 33, Santa Monica, CA 90402

In the seventies, Record Plant Studios was at the heart of the largest boom in record production in music history. With studios in New York, Los Angeles, and Sausalito, and a fleet of remote recording trucks, Record Plant was everywhere there was music. In 1976 alone, three #1 albums—Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key Of Life, the Eagles’ Hotel California, and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours—were all recorded in Record Plant studios.

Based on the memoirs and archives of studio cofounder Chris Stone, and interviews with over one hundred studio employees, music producers, and recording artists, Buzz Me In narrates this previously untold story of classic rock ‘n’ roll as the authors received it from industry insiders working behind the iconic studio’s locked doors, alongside the great rock stars of the twentieth century.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Wednesday the 18^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/martin-porter-david-goggin

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 18^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

A humorous collection of autobiographical essays from comedian and Somebody Somewhere actor Jeff Hiller, who shares his journey from growing up “profoundly gay” in 1980s Texas to his experiences as an inept social worker and how he clawed, scraped, and brawled to Hollywood’s lower middle-tier.

While struggling to find success as an actor and pay the bills, something accidentally happened to Jeff Hiller: he aged. And while it’s one thing to get older and rest on the laurels of success from the blood, sweat, and tears of your youth, it’s quite another to be old and have no laurels. At forty, stuck in a temp job making spreadsheets, the dream of becoming a star seemed out of reach. But after twenty-five years of guest roles on TV and performing improv in a grocery store basement, he finally struck gold with a breakout role on HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, playing Joel—the kind of best friend everyone wishes they had.

In his book, Jeff dives into the grit and grind of climbing the Hollywood ladder. It’s a raw and often hilarious tale of the struggles, triumphs, and humiliations that shaped him into the wonderfully imperfect person he is today. With a mix of awkward charm and heartfelt honesty, Jeff shares his journey: growing up very Lutheran in Texas, navigating bullying as a gay kid, working as a social worker for unhoused youth and HIV prevention, and the endless ups and downs of being a struggling actor. For every one of us who have a dream that we’re chasing—and chasing, and chasing—his is a funny, moving, and utterly relatable story.

Jeff Hiller is an actor, writer and comedian who has appeared on TV shows such as Somebody Somewhere, American Horror Story: NYC, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, 30Rock, and Law and Order: CI, among numerous others. His film roles include Greta, Morning Glory, Ghost Town, and Set it Up, and he has performed on Broadway, off-Broadway, in Shakespeare in the Park, Disney musicals, and regional theater. Jeff regularly performs solo shows at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre and improvises at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in LA and NYC.

NOTE: See site for tickets.

Address: 2511 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/dynasty-typewriter-jeff-hiller-presents-actress-certain-age

Banned Books Club: Giovanni’s Room at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Event

Our Banned Books Club pick for June 18th is Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin.

You can pick up a copy in store or keep supporting Underdog by purchasing the audiobook through us on Libro.fm

Banned Books Club meets every third Wednesday in store and online to discuss a new banned or challenged book each month. We’re also now on the BookClubsHQ app!

RSVP: bit.ly/readbannedbooks

Where: Underdog Bookstore

Date: Wednesday, the 18^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Megan Greenwell, in conversation with Ann Friedman, will discuss Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream.

A timely work of singular reportage and a damning indictment of the private equity industry told through the stories of four American workers whose lives and communities were upended by the ruinous effects of private equity takeovers.

Private equity runs our country, yet few Americans have any idea how ingrained it is in their lives. Private equity controls our hospitals, daycare centers, supermarket chains, voting machine manufacturers, local newspapers, nursing home operators, fertility clinics, and prisons. The industry even manages highways, municipal water systems, fire departments, emergency medical services, and owns a growing swath of commercial and residential real estate.

Private equity executives, meanwhile, are not only among the wealthiest people in American society, but have grown to become modern-day barons with outsized influence on our politics and legislation. CEOs of firms like Blackstone, Carlyle, KKR, and Apollo are rewarded with seats in the Senate and on the boards of the country’s most august institutions; meanwhile, entire communities are hollowed out as a result of their buyouts. Workers lose their jobs. Communities lose their institutions. Only private equity wins.

Acclaimed journalist Megan Greenwell’s Bad Company unearths the hidden story of private equity by examining the lives of four American workers that were devastated as private equity upended their employers and communities: a Toys R Us floor supervisor, a rural doctor, a local newspaper journalist, and an affordable housing organizer. Taken together, their individual experiences also pull back the curtain on a much larger project: how private equity reshaped the American economy to serve its own interests, creating a new class of billionaires while stripping ordinary people of their livelihoods, their health care, their homes, and their sense of security.

In the tradition of deeply human reportage like Matthew Desmond’s Evicted, Megan Greenwell pulls back the curtain on shadowy multibillion dollar private equity firms, telling a larger story about how private equity is reshaping the economy, disrupting communities, and hollowing out the very idea of the American dream itself. Timely and masterfully told, Bad Company is a forceful rebuke of America’s most consequential, yet least understood economic forces.

Date: Wednesday, the 18^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Where: Vroman’s

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-06-18/megan-greenwell-conversation-ann-friedman-discusses-signs-bad-company-private

Anansi 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. Hosted by Jessica Gallion aka “Yellawoman.”

• 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 18^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm

Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008

You know what we dig? Our Storytellers…You guys…And ourselves- Story Salon! Come dig with us on Wednesday 6/18! Tickets can be purchased early with the link in bio or at storysalon.com.

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

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

You know what we dig? Storytellers…Story Salon!

Storytellers for this week are coming soon!

Where: Art Parlor

Date: Wednesday the 18^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm (Doors at 7 pm)

Address: 5302 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Valley Village, CA 91607 

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/story-salon-can-you-dig-it-tickets-1383048147239?aff=Website

Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop with Tom Laichas via Beyond Baroque – Online Event

The West Coast’s longest-running free poetry workshop is offered by Beyond Baroque on Zoom and welcomes new and seasoned poets to share their work and provide feedback. Please be prepared to share one poem. This workshop will be hosted via the Zoom video-conferencing platform. Please be prepared to share one poem.

Please spend some time before the workshop learning how to share documents via Zoom. It will keep the session moving if you’re able to make your poem viewable quickly and easily. An instructive video is available 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 18^th

Time: 8 pm – 10 pm

Address: Online event (see site)

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday-night-poetry-workshop-tickets-1409684186349?aff=erelexpmlt

Poetry Nights with East Los Soul at East Los Angeles Rising Youth Club – In-Person Event

East Los Soul presents Poetry Nights every Wednesday from 8 pm – 9:45 pm at East L.A. Rising Youth Club. Poetry starts at 8:15 pm.

Featuring theme: TBA

Hosted by John White, with vibes by DJ Hennytee.

Where: East Los Angeles Rising Youth Club

Date: Wednesday, the 18^th

Time: 8 pm – 9:45 pm (Doors at 7:30)

Host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry welcome featured guest Peter Lechuga.

Peter Lechuga is a Chicano wordsmith, teaching artist, musician, PlantBasedgod, and Karaoke King born and raised in Southern California. As director of the non-profit, LionLike Creative Education, he teaches future generations the power of poetry, while creating a safe space for them to express themselves, find their own voice, and become published authors. He is the co-founder and editor of the new literary zine, ILL Poetry Anthology. His poetry has been shared on college campuses and has been published in No Pulp Poetry Club’s Community Milk, Chaffey Review, and Inlandia Institute, amongst other publications. His debut poetry collection, Myth Opportunities, published by Daxson Publishing, is available now. When not reading, writing, or killing the mic, he can be found hiking in the mountains spitting freestyles.

$4 cover fee, cash only See less.

$4 cover fee

Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange

Date: Wednesday, the 18^th

Time: 8 pm – 10 pm

Naheemah McMicheaux McCallop is an influential global speaker, executive wellness coach, and the visionary founder of Divine Pause®, the practice, and movement supporting Black Women and WOC leaders to slow down, connect in, and make self-care a leadership practice to close the generational well-being gap.

Naheemah is also the Chief Storyteller at Story Inside You, LLC agency. She and her team specialize in unleashing the power of adult and youth voices through writing, workshops, and publishing. Her coaching philosophy revolves around empowering her clients to activate the story inside them and know it matters.

Where: Bel Canto Books, Retro Row

Date: Thursday the 19^th

Time: 3 pm – 4 pm

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

In the follow-up to the National Book Award–longlisted Shutter, Navajo forensic photographer Rita Todacheene grapples with a fanatical serial killer—and the ghosts he leaves behind.

A dual-voice cat-and-mouse thriller, told from the points of view of a killer who has created his own deadly religion and the only person who can stop him, an embattled young detective who sees the ghosts of his Native victims.

In Gallup, New Mexico, where violent crime is five times the national average, a serial killer is operating unchecked, his targets indigent Native people whose murders are easily disguised as death by exposure on the frigid winter streets. He slips unnoticed through town, hidden in plain sight by his unassuming nature, while the voices in his head guide him toward a terrifying vision of glory. As the Gallup detectives struggle to put the pieces together, they consider calling in a controversial specialist to help.

Rita Todacheene, Albuquerque PD forensic photographer, is at a crisis point in her career. Her colleagues are watching her with suspicion after the recent revelation that she can see the ghosts of murder victims. Her unmanageable caseload is further complicated by the fact that half the department has blacklisted her for ratting out a corrupt fellow cop. And back home in Tohatchi on the Navajo reservation, Rita’s grandma is getting older. Maybe it’s time for her to leave policework behind entirely—if only the ghosts will let her…

Ramona Emerson is a Diné writer and filmmaker originally from Tohatchi, New Mexico. Her debut novel, Shutter, was longlisted for the National Book Award and the Bram Stoker Award, nominated for the Edgar for Best First Novel, a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel, and winner of the Lefty Award for Best First Novel. She has a bachelor’s in Media Arts from the University of New Mexico and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she and her husband, the producer Kelly Byars, run their production company Reel Indian Pictures.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Thursday the 19^th

Time: 6 pm

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

Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/mystery-book-club-exposure

Book Launch: Kyra Davis Laurie & The Great Mann at Chevalier’s – In-Person Event

Kyra Davis Laurie celebrates the launch of her new book, The Great Mann, a poignant retelling of The Great Gatsby, set amongst L.A.’s Black elite.

In this poignant retelling of The Great Gatsby, set amongst L.A.’s Black elite, a young veteran finds his way post-war, pulled into a new world of tantalizing possibilities—and explosive tensions.

In 1945, Charlie Trammell steps off a cross-country train into the vibrant tapestry of Los Angeles. Lured by his cousin Marguerite’s invitation to the esteemed West Adams Heights, Charlie is immediately captivated by the Black opulence of L.A.’s newly rechristened “Sugar Hill.”

Settling in at a local actress’s energetic boarding house, Charlie discovers a different way of life—one brimming with opportunity—from a promising career at a Black-owned insurance firm, the absence of Jim Crow, to the potential of an unforgettable romance. But nothing dazzles quite like James “Reaper” Mann.

Reaper’s extravagant parties, attended by luminaries like Lena Horne and Hattie McDaniel, draw Charlie in, bringing the milieu of wealth and excess within his reach. But as Charlie’s unusual bond with Reaper deepens, so does the tension in the neighborhood as white neighbors, frustrated by their own dwindling fortunes, ignite a landmark court case that threatens the community’s well-being with promises of retribution.

Told from the unique perspective of a young man who has just returned from a grueling, segregated war, The Great Mann weaves a compelling narrative of wealth and class, illuminating the complexities of Black identity and education in post-war America.

Kyra Davis Lurie is a New York Times bestselling author and screenwriter. Her novels have been published in nine languages across six continents. Kyra was born and raised in California and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their utterly perfect dog, Potus.

In the spirit of Juneenth, we not only invite you to discuss this beautiful book but also encourage you to review our vast collection of books from some of the word’s best African American authors and to donate to support the Altadena Community Preservation, which is dedicated towards the rebuilding of one of the United States’ most prominent and historic black communities.

Where: Chevalier’s

Date: Thursday the 19^th

Time: 7 pm

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

Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2025-06-19/book-launch-kyra-davis-lauries-great-mann

All Women’s Open Mic Night at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Village Well is partnering with local trauma-healing poet Kate Burns to provide a platform for female poets, musicians, storytellers, and comedians. While all are welcome to attend, this is an event that aims to amplify women’s voices only.

Acts are limited to 3-5 minutes in length. Sign-ups begin at 6:30 pm and conclude at 7:00 pm!

Also, please note that not all material may be considered “family-friendly” so please use discretion when deciding whether or not to bring children.

Get your tickets at website!

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Thursday the 19^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

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

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 20^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 20^th

Time: 9:30 am

Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020

How long has it been since you visited Book Soup? Make a plan to join us for our special 50th anniversary weekend, Friday, June 20th through Sunday, June 22nd. We can promise surprises, special guests, a random book or two that you didn’t know you needed to read right now, and so much more!

We’ll have a special reception with a video archive from 5-9 pm on Friday night. Drop in and share a favorite memory and bring someone who has never been to the store! We want to celebrate our first 50 in true Sunset Strip fashion: with old friends and new!

Where: Book Soup

Date: Friday the 20^th

Time: 10 am – 9 pm

Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069

Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/glenn-goldman-day-book-soup

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 20^th

Time: 11 am

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

No frills. No prompts. Just write.

Drop in and stay awhile.

Where: Heavy Manners Library

Date: Friday the 20^th

Time: 1 pm – 3 pm

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

Website: https://heavymannerslibrary.com/events

Dav Pilkey Book Party: Dogman and Captain Underpants at Artesia Library, LACL – In-Person Kids Event

Celebrate the author of the Dog Man and Captain Underpants series by creating a superhero as unique as you! Learn about the life of Dav Pilkey and then draw and design your own graphic novel. For kids ages 5 – 12.

Where: Artesia Library, LACL

Date: Friday the 20^th

Time: 4 pm – 5 pm

Address: 18801 Elaine St., Artesia, CA 90701

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13726862

Live Juneteenth Event at Al Guhin Park, San Bernardino – In-Person Event

Come celebrate Juneteenth with Empire award winner @judah1 The 1st Poet Laureate of Pomona and founder of @lionlikeartcommunity at Al Guhin Park. June 19th at 5 pm.

Time: 5 pm

Address: 3664 Little League Drive, San Bernardino, CA 92410

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 20^th

Time: 6 pm (Doors at 5:30 pm)

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

Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DHuMOcESB9H/?hl=en

Ticketed Event: George Takei & It Rhymes with Takei at Vroman’s – In-Person Event

Following the award-winning bestseller, They Called Us Enemy, George Takei’s new full-color graphic memoir reveals his most personal story of all—told in full for the first time anywhere! George Takei will sign his new graphic novel, It Rhymes with Takei.

Now, for the first time ever, George shares the full story of his life in the closet, his decision to come out as gay at the age of 68, and the way that moment transformed everything. Following the phenomenal success of his first graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy, George Takei reunites with the team of Harmony Becker, Steven Scott, and Justin Eisinger for a jaw-dropping new testament. From his earliest childhood crushes and youthful experiments in the rigidly conformist 1950s, to global fame as an actor and the terrible fear of exposure, to the watershed moment of speaking his truth and becoming one of the most high-profile gay men on the planet, It Rhymes with Takei offers a sweeping portrait of one iconic American navigating the tides of LGBTQ+ history.

Combining historical context with intimate subjectivity, It Rhymes with Takei shows how the personal and the political have always been intertwined. Its richly emotional words and images depict the terror of entrapment even in gay community spaces, the anguish of speaking up for so many issues while remaining silent on his most personal issue, the grief of losing friends to AIDS, the joy of finding true love with Brad Altman, and the determination to declare that love openly—and legally—before the whole world.

Looking back on his astonishing life on both sides of the closet door, George Takei presents a charismatic and candid account of how far America has come…and how precious that progress is.

This is a ticketed event. Tickets include access to the signing line and one copy of It Rhymes with Takei.

NOTE: Ticket purchase and event guidelines at website.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Friday the 20^th

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

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

Songs of No Provenance tells the story of Joan Vole, an indie folk singer forever teetering on the edge of fame, who flees New York after committing a shocking sexual act onstage that she fears will doom her career. Joan seeks refuge at a writing camp for teenagers in rural Virginia, where she’s forced to question her own toxic relationship to artmaking—and her complicated history with a friend and mentee—while finding new hope in her students and a deepening intimacy with a nonbinary artist and fellow camp staff member.

A propulsive character study of a flawed and fascinating artist, Songs of No Provenance explores issues of trans nonbinary identity, queer baiting and appropriation, kink, fame hunger, secrecy and survival, and the question of whether a work of art can exist separately from its artist.

Lydi Conklin is the author of Rainbow Rainbow, which was long-listed for the Story Prize and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection. Their fiction has appeared in Tin House, American Short Fiction, and The Paris Review. They’ve drawn comics for The New Yorker, The Believer, Lenny Letter, and other publications. Songs of No Provenance is their first novel.

Claire Vaye Watkins is the author of three works of fiction: Battleborn, Gold Fame Citrus and I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness. She teaches creative writing at UC Irvine and Bennington College and lives in the Mojave Desert.

Meriel O’Connell is a poet and musician based in Los Angeles. She began her career as a musician in 2023, and has since performed across LA and toured the United States and Europe. Coming from the LA punk scene, Meriel is now shifting her focus to solo projects and writing and will begin a graduate degree in poetry this July at Warren Wilson.

Emily Bielagus is a singer/songwriter and guitarist who has composed music for a variety of media including podcasts and film. A founding member of the queer country trio Kings, Emily can now be seen performing all over LA with her rock ‘n roll band Wild Yawp. She is also the proud co-owner of The Ruby Fruit, one of the gayest places on Earth.

Where: Skylight

Date: Friday the 20^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-lydi-conklin-presents-songs-no-provenance-w-claire-vaye-watkins

Open Mic Night at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Event

Let’s uplift queer voices and celebrate the creative talents of our community!

Underdog’s Open Mic Nights offer a safe, welcoming space to share poetry, music and more. Sign-ups are open to all whether you’re a first-timer or experienced performer. You might even be lucky enough to leave with a signed book from one of the poets we carry in store!

Walk-ins are welcome or sign-up at website.

Where: Underdog Bookstore

Date: Friday the 20^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 312 S. Myrtle Ave., Monrovia, CA 91016

Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events/open-mic-night-2

SWAAM Spoken Word Art & Music Event at Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center – In-Person Event

SWAAM Spoken Word Art & Music is offered every 1st & 3rd Friday of the month and hosted by Loranzo Frank.

Featured guests: TBA

Tickets at Eventbrite.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center

Date: Friday, the 20^th

Time: 8 pm – 12 am

Address: 4305 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008

Website: https://www.depoet.info/swaam

Las hijas chingonx de immigrantes: Event at The Wicked Wolf, Long Beach – In-Person Event

Open Mic event featuring: Handsomeherbavore, Beachcitypoetress, Its1DopeGirl, Torillerx_tales

@pricklypearproductions4

Tickets at Eventbrite.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: The Wicked Wolf

Date: Friday, the 20^th

Time: 8 pm – 11 pm

Third Fridays at Rapp Saloon: Open Mic & Featured Readers, will be this week, and is offered every 3^rd Friday of the month.

First Friday: Cynthia Alessandra Briano

Second Friday: Russell Greene

Fourth Friday: Jim Bolt

Fifth Friday: James Evert Jones

This is a hybrid event, live in-person while offering a Zoom option for our performers and guests.

Our featured guest poets and artists this month TBA.

NOTE: See site or flyer for details.

Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA – In-Person & Online Event

Date: Friday, the 20^th

Time: 8:30 pm – 11 pm

Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90402

Graphic Novel Book Club: at Bel Canto Books – Online Event

Graphic novel fan or graphic novel curious? Join us as we read and discuss a new graphic novel or memoir on the 3rd Saturday of each month at 10 am.

Where: Bel Canto Books, Long Beach

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 10 am – 11 am

Address: Online Event (see site)

Website: https://belcantobooks.net/events

Storytime: Helena Ku Rhee & Shoes Off, Please at Children’s Book World – In-Person Event

Join us for story time fun with Helena Ku Rhee and dancing music from Mista Cookie Jar!

Helena Ku Rhee will present her children’s book, Shoes Off, Please.

Where: Children’s Book World

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 10 am – 11 am

Address: 10580 1/2 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064

Website: https://www.childrensbookworld.com/event/helena-ku-rhee-storytime-shoes-please-saturday-june-21st-1030am

Poetry and Memory: A Generative Poetry Workshop with Kim Dower at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person Event

“This workshop provides an opportunity to mine our memories to awaken new, startling poems. We will explore the rich territory of ideas, people, places, and emotions from our past, and examine how memory can inform and affect our writing. Students will learn how to dig into memories from the span of their lives and will see how uncovering one memory often leads to another and another, creating fresh, imaginative work that surprises both the writer and reader.

The 3-hour workshop will be a mixture of lecture, reading contemporary poetry based on poets’ memories, and practicing “fever writing” or “automatic writing,” tapping into our memories and the subconscious and reading aloud to the class. Although geared for poets and writers, this workshop will also be of value to non-writers, particularly those interested in psychology, by showing how we can capture and utilize details from our memories to use as inspiration no matter what our discipline.

Participants will leave with a wealth of ideas for poems and stories and will feel energized by the notion that memory matters!”

Kim (Freilich) Dower (City Poet Laureate of West Hollywood from October 2016 – October 2018) has published six highly acclaimed collections of poetry all from Red Hen Press. The bestselling, I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom, an Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist. Sunbathing on Tyrone Power’s Grave, won the 2020 Independent Publishers Book Award Gold Medal for Poetry. Kim’s work has been featured in numerous literary journals including Plume, Ploughshares, Rattle, The James Dickey Review, The Writers Almanac,” and her poems are included in several anthologies, notably, Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond. She teaches poetry workshops for Antioch University, UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, and the West Hollywood Library. Born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, Kim lives with her family in West Hollywood, CA. To learn more about Kim, visit her website: http://www.kimdowerpoetry.com.

NOTE: Ticketed event available for purchase at website.

Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 11 am – 2 pm

Where: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291

Where: Linda Vista Branch Library, Pasadena PL

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

Address: 1281 Bryant St., Pasadena, CA 91103

Website: https://www.cityofpasadena.net/library/calendar/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Devent%26eventid%3D182340945

Notable Fiction Book Group: James via Santa Monica Public Library – Online Event

Notable Fiction Book Group participants will discuss the novel James by Percival Everett.

This community-led, monthly book discussion group meets virtually at 11 a.m. on the third Saturday of the month. This book group discusses prize-winning fiction titles. To register, email library@santamonica.gov.

Where: Santa Monica Public Library

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm

Join us every Wednesday and Saturday for a storytime amongst the cozy bookstacks of Village Well!

This June, we’re thrilled to welcome back author Barney Saltzberg to read from two of his most recent books, Like a Banana and Rabbit’s Feat.

Reserve your seat on EVENTBRITE!

Barney Saltzberg is the author of more than 30 books for children, including Beautiful Oops!, My Book of Beautiful Oops!, Good Egg, and the bestselling Touch and Feel Kisses series. Additionally, he’s recorded four albums of songs for children. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, two dogs, and a pond full of fish.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

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

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

New Date! Tom Toro & Crocodiles Need Friends, Too at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event

Tom Toro will read and sign his book Crocodiles Need Friends, Too!

This action-packed story is full of humor and heart follows a lonely predator on the hunt…for pals.

Croc isn’t like other crocodiles. She is a reptilian ballerina! An aquatic architect! A croc ‘n’ roll STAR! She is creative, cool, and fun. But the other animals only notice her sharp teeth and scary eyes. It’s lonely when nobody sees who you are deep down.

When disaster strikes, Croc has a chance to use her super-special talents to prove what a great friend she can be—and show the savanna that you can discover something new about someone by simply looking under the surface.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-06-21/tom-toro

Venice Summer Fest at Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Come visit the library at the Venice Summer Fest, sign up for Summer With the Library reading challenge, and learn about all the awesome things you can access with your library card. Don’t have a library card? No worries, you can get one right then and there!

Where: Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 12 pm – 5 pm

Address: 12006 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/mar-vista-library-venice-fest

Sisters in Crime LA: Murder on the Move at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us as we welcome authors from Sisters in Crime Los Angeles! For adults

Judith Ayn (Dead Merchandise), Nicole Maggi (A Murder in Zion), and Nancy Cole Silverman (Murder on the Med) will read from their novels and take part in a panel discussion, followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Attendance is limited, and advance registration is required. Please register every individual in your party, including kids. This will be used to save your spots in the program. We cannot guarantee availability for any unregistered attendees.

Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm

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

Where: Central Library, LAPL, Children’s Literature

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 2 pm – 3 pm

Address: 630 W. 5^th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071

This is a tense and emotional young adult horror novel from award-winning author Racquel Marie about a teen girl leading a group of survivors on a perilous journey during the apocalypse.

Flora Braddock Paz is not the girl who survives. A colorful creative who spends as much time fearing death as she does trying to hide that fear from her loved ones, she’s always considered herself weak. But half a year into the global outbreak of a rabies mutation that transforms people into violent, zombielike “rabids,” she and her older brother, Cain, are still alive. With their mom dead, their dad missing, and their Los Angeles suburb left desolate, they form a new plan: venture out to the secluded Northern California cabin they vacationed in growing up—their best chance at a safe haven and maybe even seeing their dad again.

The dangers of the world have changed, but so has Flora. Still, their journey up the state is complicated by encounters with familiar faces, hidden truths, new allies, and painful memories of the whole family’s final time making this trip the previous year. And for Flora, one thing inevitably remains: No matter how far you run, death is never far behind.

See site for details.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 2 pm – 3 pm

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-06-21/racquel-marie-conversation-justine-pucella-winans-discusses-signs-if-we-survive

Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Featuring Joe Camhi and Megan Sood – Online Zoom Event

Featuring performances by poets Joe Camhi and Megan Sood + Poets published in Four Feathers Press online edition: Stone Worlds.

Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.

Where: Zoom Online, Saturday Afternoon Poetry

Date: Saturday, the 21^st

Time: 3 pm – 5 pm

Address: Online event (see site)

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

Priming for Poetry: Writing Exercises at Culver City Julian Dixon Library, LACL – In-Person Event

In this generative poetry workshop, local poet Cesca Brenner will offer guidance and inspiration with a variety of writing exercises designed to push the inner critic out of the way so you can find your creative self. For adults.

Where: Culver City Julian Dixon Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 3:30 pm – 5 pm

Address: 4975 Overland Ave., Culver City, CA 90230

We are so excited to bring our festival to Somos Familia Valle’s amazing building in Sun Valley!

We’ll have incredible Queer Writers from all over LA county, along with performers, vendors, and more! If you would like to participate, please send a message to ASAP. We are going to announce our lineup on June 10!

Last year, we were excited to give out awards from Senator Menjivar, and for the first time, showcase a fashion show, music, comedy, and storytellers.

We can’t wait to see all the beautiful magick that is coming to be this year!

Huge thanks to our supporters, Somos Familia Valle, and LA County Supervisor, Lindsey Horvath!

Where: Somos Familia Valle

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 4 pm – 8 pm

Join participants to discuss the YA novel Little Thieves by Margaret Owen.

Once upon a time, there was a horrible girl…

Vanja Schmidt knows that no gift is freely given, not even a mother’s love—and she’s on the hook for one hell of a debt. Vanja, the adopted goddaughter of Death and Fortune, was Princess Gisele’s dutiful servant up until a year ago. That was when Vanja’s otherworldly mothers demanded a terrible price for their care, and Vanja decided to steal her future back… by stealing Gisele’s life for herself.

The real Gisele is left a penniless nobody while Vanja uses an enchanted string of pearls to take her place. Now, Vanja leads a lonely but lucrative double life as a princess and jewel thief, charming nobility while emptying their coffers to fund her great escape. Then, one heist away from freedom, Vanja crosses the wrong god and is cursed to an untimely end: turning into jewels, stone by stone, for her greed.

Vanja has just two weeks to figure out how to break her curse and make her getaway. And with a feral guardian half-god, Gisele’s sinister fiancé, and an overeager junior detective on Vanja’s tail, she’ll have to pull the biggest grift yet to save her own life.

Margaret Owen, author of The Merciful Crow series, crafts a delightfully irreverent retelling of “The Goose Girl” about stolen lives, thorny truths, and the wicked girls at the heart of both.

Margaret Owen was born and raised at the end of the Oregon Trail and has worked in everything from thrift stores to presidential campaigns. She is the author of the instant Indie Bestseller Little Thieves, which received five starred reviews and was a Kids’ Indie next pick and YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection. Her debut, The Merciful Crow duology, was an NPR Best Book of the Year, a Tor.com Best of the Year, and a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection.

In her free time, she enjoys exploring ill-advised travel destinations, raising money for social justice nonprofits through her illustrated work, and negotiating a hostage situation with her monstrous cats. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 5 pm

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

Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/sci-fi-fantasy-book-club-little-thieves

Poetry Reading: Susan McCabe, with Catherine Theis, & Lake & I Woke a Lake at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event

Join us for the book launch of I Woke a Lake by Susan McCabe, in conversation with Catherine Theis. Her poetry charts intimacy with nature and all that is changing in the world and climate.

Susan McCabe is a queer poet and the author of Descartes’ Nightmare (The University of Utah Press, 2008), winner of the 2007 Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry. A professor of poetry and creative writing, she lives in Santa Monica, California.

Catherine Theis is the author of the poetry collection The Fraud of Good Sleep and the play MEDEA. She is the translator of Slashing Sounds (University of Chicago Press, 2024), the first collection of the Italian poet Jolanda Insana to be published in English. Theis’ newest collection of poems, By a Roman, will be published by Antiphony Press in September 2025.

Where: North Figueroa Bookshop

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 5 pm

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

About the book:

An inhumane math pervades this country: even as our government extracts labor and often taxes from undocumented workers, it excludes these same workers from its social safety net. As a result, these essential workers struggle to get their own basic needs met, from healthcare to education, from freedom of association to the ability to drive to work without looking for ICE in the rearview mirror.

When Alix Dick’s family found themselves in the crosshairs of cartel violence in Sinaloa, Mexico, she and her siblings were forced to flee to the U.S. Many of the scenes that she shares are difficult and unforgettable: escaping from a relationship in which her partner threatened to report her to immigration; getting root canals done in an underground dental clinic. But there are moments of triumph, too: founding her own nonprofit; working on films that tell important stories; and working with her co-author Dr. Garcia to tell her story in a framework that lays bare the realities of structural oppression.

As Alix and Antero tally the costs of undocumented life, they present a final bill of what is owed to the immigrant community. In this way, their book flips the traditional narrative about the economics of immigration on its head.

RSVP at site.

Where: Octavia’s Bookshop

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 5:30 pm – 7 pm

Where: 1353 N. Hill Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104

Website: https://www.octaviasbookshelf.com/events/the-cost-of-being-undocumented

Exposition Review Launch: Vol. X: Spring at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Join Exposition Review to celebrate the launch of Vol. X: “Spring”! Enjoy drinks and snacks, and meet the Expo editors as well as the talented contributors to their landmark tenth issue. This launch party and reading will feature readings across multiple genres, tributes by the editorial team, and toasts to the Expo Fam (that’s you!)!

Exposition Review is an independent, multi-genre literary journal that publishes narratives by new, emerging, and established writers in the genres of fiction, flash fiction, nonfiction, poetry, scripts for stage & screen, film, experimental narratives, visual art, and comics.

Reserve your seat on EVENTBRITE!

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 6 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Learn more and RSVP at website link!

Where: Bel Canto Books

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://belcantobooks.net/events

Obsidian Tongues Open Mic at Lopez Urban Farms, Pomona – In-Person Event

Join host Ceasar K. Avelar to welcome featured guest Boom.likeflowers to the monthly Obsidian Tongues Open Mic.

An open mic where poets plant seeds for future generations.

Bring your poems, music, songs, opinions, at an open mic that that practices radical partnishership and a pay what you can economy here at @lopezurbanfarm, where the community is always first.

bloom.likeflowrs—or bloom for short—is Black, queer, poet and educator from Long Beach. Their writing is rooted in providing a voice to the silenced, honoring the Black experience, and exploring the dynamic versions of themselves. Her name is an affirmation of self and a call to action. Please join us in her artistry, lovingly described as the practice of planting seeds and tending to soil.

Where: Lopez Urban Farms

Date: Saturday the 21^st

Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm

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.

Juneteenth features include:

MCW board member and poet extraordinaire @lyndarosela will be reading poetry alongside @akoldpiece, @nomad_the_poet, @peopleschampjames, @flyyhigh2wise, @dizztommy, and @teegurugreen. See you on June 22 for our 4th annual event.

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 22^nd

Time: 10 am – 5 pm (market); 11 am – 5 pm (poets on demand)

Address: 7850 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046

Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore

Date: Sunday the 22^nd

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

Join us for a book reading and drawing lesson from Kaylee Hawley, illustrator of Luca Magoo, Don’t Eat the Glue, and learn what it is like to draw for books!

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Luca Magoo is an art class enthusiast who finds himself in a gooey predicament when he’s tempted to taste the slippery glue he’s using for his project. With the quick intervention of Miss Rutledge, Luca learns an important lesson about curiosity and self-control. Follow Luca’s sticky adventure and discover the fun and meaningful moments that arise from his colorful classroom escapades.

Kaylee Hawley is an illustrator of cheerful, bright themes, and has spent the past 7 years sharing her love of illustration to students of all ages. She has recently illustrated her first children’s book and wants to share the fun of Luca Magoo to more children.

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Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Sunday the 22^nd

Time: 11:30 am – 12:30 pm

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

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

Cultivating Voices at Poetry Pride Parade (Part 2) – Online Event

Hosted by Sandy Yannone online, this event will feature former Poet Laureate of West Hollywood, Jen Cheng.

Where: Poetry Pride Parade (Part 2)

Date: Sunday the 22^nd

Time: 12 pm – 2 pm

Where: Online Event (see site)

RSVP

Where: LibroMobile

Date: Sunday the 22^nd

Time: 12 pm – 2 pm

Where: 1150 S. Bristol St, #A3., Santa Ana, CA 92704

Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/oc-poet-laureate-office-hours-with-gustavo-hernandez

Latinx Book Club: House of Bone and Rain at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Join participants to discuss House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias.

For childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo, death has always been close. Hurricanes. Car accidents. Gang violence. Suicide. Estamos rodeados de fantasmas was Gabe’s grandmother’s refrain. We are surrounded by ghosts. But this time is different. Bimbo’s mom has been shot dead. We’re gonna kill the guys who killed her Bimbo swears. And they all agree.

Feral with grief, Bimbo has become unrecognizable, taking no prisoners in his search for names. Soon, they learn Maria was gunned down by guys working for the drug kingpin of Puerto Rico. No one has ever gone up against him and survived. As the boys strategize, a storm gathers far from the coast. Hurricanes are known to carry evil spirits in their currents and bring them ashore, spirits which impose their own order.

Blurring the boundaries between myth, mysticism, and the grim realities of our world, House of Bone and Rain is a harrowing coming of age story; a doomed tale of devotion, the afterlife of violence, and what rolls in on the tide.

Gabino Iglesias is the author of the Shirley Jackson and Bram Stoker award-winning novel, The Devil Takes You Home, as well as author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning novels Zero Saints and Coyote Songs. He is a writer, journalist, professor, and literary critic living in Austin, Texas. He is the horror columnist for the New York Times Book Review.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Sunday the 22^nd

Time: 2 pm

An homage to the childhood genius of Black science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler. Bringing to view a selection of Butler’s unpublished writings and drawings, this book traces her fascination with human-alien symbiosis to her early empathy with horses and other marginalized creatures.

The figure of the horse, at once earthly and transcendent, represented the contradictions of freedom and captivity that enabled young Octavia to develop her nuanced sense of voice and place. Drawing on previously unknown archival research, this volume illustrates how Butler’s development as a writer was tied to her extraordinary resourcefulness and self-awareness growing up as an awkward, bookish Black girl in segregated, Cold War Pasadena. She persistently re-visited and revised her early writings on teenage angst, Martians, Westerns, and racial politics. In one way or another her supernatural characters defied the constraints of gender, race, and class with equine-inflected resilience.

In the spirit of Butler’s passion for library research, this book is comprised of twenty-six short A-Z chapters, on vocabulary, images, and themes central to her authorial formation. It is part childhood biography, art and literary analysis, and memoir. It interweaves the author’s personal recollections with scholarly musings on poetry, film, and literature inspired by Butler’s encyclopedic reading habits and experiments with genre. Just as cross-species kinships are at the heart of her Afro-futurist, eco-feminist storytelling, Butler demonstrates that coming-of-age is an ongoing process and key to healing our damaged planet.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Sunday the 22^nd

Time: 3 pm – 4 pm

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

Yeongju is burned out. She did everything she was supposed to: go to school, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. In a leap of faith, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighborhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster-and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju-they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live.

A heartwarming story about finding acceptance in your life and the healing power of books, Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop is a gentle reminder that it’s never too late to scrap the plot and start again.

Hwang Bo-reum studied Computer Science and worked as a software engineer. She wrote several essay collections: I Read Every Day, I Tried Kickboxing for the First Time and This Distance is Perfect.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Sunday the 22^nd

Time: 4 pm

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

Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/zillennial-book-club-welcome-hyunam-dong-bookshop

Karen B. Winnick & Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event

Join us to welcome Karen B. Winnnick to discuss Why Wolves Matter: A Conservation Success Story.

Written in a lyrical style, Why Wolves Matter is an ecological tale that helps children to understand the interconnectedness of all things in the natural world. Once all the wolves were gone, the elk population grew so large that the trees and vegetation on which they fed disappeared, throwing the Park and the remaining wildlife into disarray.

A non-fiction picture book, including a timeline and bibliography, Why Wolves Matter is about the importance of the top predator in nature, how balance was restored in Yellowstone National Park, and the circle made whole again—with important historical and scientific relevance for children.

A deeply committed animal person, Karen B. Winnick has created many picture books about animals. She’s a member of an oversight commission for the Los Angeles Zoo, and a member and supporter of many groups working to save animals, including wolves.

Karen Winnick is an author and illustrator of Why Wolves Matter, Can You Spot the Leopard, Mr. Lincoln’s Whiskers, Sybil’s Night Ride, Lucy’s Cave, A Year Goes Round, Barn Sneeze, Cassie’s Sweet Berry Pie, Sandro’s Dolphin and Patch & The Strings. She is the author of The Good Night Baby Animals and Night of the Fireflies. Her paintings have been exhibited in local galleries, and her poetry has been published in magazines and anthologies. She has also produced a play, Kindertransport, about Jewish children sent to England during WWII.

Karen serves as President of the Board of Commissioners for the Los Angeles Zoo; the Board of Trustees Emeritus at Brown University; the Board of Trustees at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library; the Board of Trustees of Fauna and Flora, International and the Board of Governors Syracuse University Hillel. She has also served on the Board of Trustees of The Jewish Museum in New York and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council in Washington, D.C.

Where: Diesel, A Bookstore

Date: Sunday the 22^nd

Time: 4 pm

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

Website: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2025-06-22/karen-b-winnick-author-signing

Earthseed Symposium Book Club: Gideon the Ninth at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event

This month, participants are discussing Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. You can find it here on bookshop.org.

Where: North Figueroa Bookshop

Date: Sunday the 22^nd

Time: 5 pm – 7 pm

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

Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-m9nblg8p

Book Launch: Chaela Volpe & Brain-Fueled Workplace at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Kids Event

Reserve your seat on EVENTBRITE!

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Sunday the 22^nd

Time: 5 pm – 7 pm

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

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

Historical Romance Book Club: A Gentleman’s Gentleman at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event

Orders manager Katie S. will lead this book club discussion of A Gentleman’s Gentleman by author TJ Alexander.

This book club focuses on all historical romance novels from all eras.

No membership is necessary, but RSVP is required.

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Date: Sunday the 22^nd

Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm

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

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