Participants will discuss Manhunt by Gretchen Felker Martin.

Manhunt is an explosive post-apocalyptic novel that follows trans women and trans men on a grotesque journey of survival.

Beth and Fran spend their days traveling the ravaged New England coast, hunting feral men and harvesting their organs in a gruesome effort to ensure they’ll never face the same fate.

Robbie lives by his gun and one hard-learned motto: other people aren’t safe.

After a brutal accident entwines the three of them, this found family of survivors must navigate murderous TERFs, a sociopathic billionaire bunker brat, and awkward relationship dynamics—all while outrunning packs of feral men, and their own demons.

byGretchen Felker Martin is a Massachusetts-based bestselling horror author and film critic. Her debut novel, Manhunt, was named the #1 Best Book of 2022 by Vulture, and was one of the Best Horror Novels of 2022 by Esquire, Library Journal, and Paste. Her sophomore novel, Cuckoo, debuted on the USA Today bestseller list. You can read her fiction and film criticism on Patreon and in TIME, The Outline, Nylon, and more.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Monday the 21^st

Time: 6 pm

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

Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/philosophical-horror-book-club-manhunt

Book Club: Wicked at Sherman Oaks Martin Pollard Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event

Join us for a conversation about Wicked by Gregory McGuire.

Years before Dorothy and her dog crash-land, another little girl makes her presence known in Oz. This girl, Elphaba, is born with emerald-green skin—no easy burden in a land as mean and poor as Oz, where superstition and magic are not strong enough to explain or overcome the natural disasters of flood and famine. Still, Elphaba is smart, and by the time she enters Shiz University, she becomes a member of a charmed circle of Oz’s most promising young citizens.

But Elphaba’s Oz is no utopia. The Wizard’s secret police are everywhere. Animals—those creatures with voices, souls, and minds—are threatened with exile. Young Elphaba, green and wild and misunderstood, is determined to protect the Animals—even if it means combating the mysterious Wizard and risking her single chance at romance. Ever wiser in guilt and sorrow, she can be grateful when the world declares her a witch. And she can even make herself glad for that young girl from Kansas.

Please email shrmno@lapl.org for the Zoom link.

Where: Sherman Oaks Martin Pollard Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 21^st

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Address: 14245 Moorpark St., Sherman Oaks, CA 91423

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/sherman-oaks-book-club-wicked-gregory-maguire

QTBIPOC Write Night! At Chevalier’s – In-Person Event

We are pleased to welcome you to the first of our recurring Write Night series, exclusive to those who identify as QTBIPOC (Queer, Transgender, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color).

Safe spaces and safe places do not come into being on their own; they require nurturing, care, and constant growth. Chevalier’s Books is committed to offering a safer space for all our neighbors and community members, and we recognize the need to cultivate dedicated opportunities for historically marginalized writers to flourish, in life and creatively.

For queer and trans writers, for Black and Brown writers, and for writers who hold multiple, overlapping identities, a protected space is vital not just for creativity to flourish, but for true freedom of expression to blossom.

All Write Nights are donation based. QTBIPOC Write Nights require free advanced registration and, for the safety of all guests, will be facilitated by a QTBIPOC-identifying staff member. As with all of our events, we do not tolerate bigotry or harassment in any form.

NOTE: Register at website.

Where: Chevalier’s

Date: Monday the 21^st

Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2025-07-21/qtbipoc-write-night

Rupo Open Mic at Back to the Grind in Riverside – In-Person Event

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

Every Monday 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 21^st

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501

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

Book Release: Jamie Hood, with Aiden Arata, & The Trauma Plot at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event

From a rising literary star and the author of how to be a good girl comes a brilliant, biting, and beautifully wrought memoir of trauma and the cost of survival.

In Trauma Plot, Hood draws on disparate literary forms to tell the story that lurked in good girl’s margins—of three decades marred by sexual violence and the wreckage left behind. With her trademark critical remove, Hood interrogates the archetype of the rape survivor, who must perform penitence long after living through the unthinkable, invoking some of art’s most infamous women to have played the role: Ovid’s Philomela, David Lynch’s Laura Palmer, and Artemisia Gentileschi, who captured Judith’s wrath. In so doing, she asks: What do we as a culture demand of survivors? And what do survivors, in turn, owe a world that has abandoned them?

Trauma Plot is a scalding work of personal and literary criticism. It is a send-up of our culture’s pious disdain for “trauma porn,” a dirge for the broken promises of #MeToo, and a paean to finding life after death.

Jamie Hood is the author of how to be a good girl, one of Vogue’s Best Books of 2020, and regards, marcel, a monthly newsletter on Proust and other miscellany. Her essays and criticism have appeared in The Baffler, Bookforum, The Nation, Los Angeles Review of Books, The New Inquiry, The Drift, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn.

NOTE: See site for link and details.

Where: Stories Books & Café

Date: Monday the 21^st

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://storiesla.com/events

Bruce Holsinger, with Sarah Sligar, & Culpabililty at Vroman’s – In-Person Event

Bruce Holsinger, in conversation with Sarah Sligar, will discuss his novel, Culpability.

When the Cassidy-Shaws’ autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, killing an elderly couple, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret, implicating them each in the tragic accident.

During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie’s future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei’s odd behavior tugs at Noah’s suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident—suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet’s teenaged daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI.

Culpability explores a world newly-shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.

NOTE: See site for link and details.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Monday the 21^st

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-07-21/bruce-holsinger

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 21^st

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)

Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-1491720107999

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

Let Francesca help you with all aspects of your writing!

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 10 am – 11 am

Join us weekly on Zoom on Tuesday mornings at 11AM for the Virtual Book Club. In July we will be discussing The River Is Waiting, a novel by Wally Lamb.

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

Week 4: July 22: Parts 3 & 4 Page 321 to the end of the book.

Week 5: July 22: Wrap-up discussion of The River is Waiting & discussion of recommendations for other books, movies, etc.

Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that’s before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart. Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model. Buoyed by them and by his mother’s enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation might still be possible. Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves?

Where: Virtual Event, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

Address: Online Event (see site)

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13985487

Bestsellers Book Club: The Paris Apartment at Stephenson Ranch Library, LACL – In-Person Event

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

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less-than-ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up he’s not there. The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

Where: Stephenson Ranch Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 11:30 am – 1 pm

Address: 25950 The Old Rd., Stevenson Ranch, CA 91381 

In this Civil War love story, is inspired by a real-life friendship across enemy lines, The wife of a missing Confederate soldier discovers a wounded Yankee officer and must decide what she’s willing to risk for the life of a stranger.

Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 2 pm – 3 pm

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

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13819437

Inlandia Writers Craftlab: Find Your Voice in Picture Books with Isabel Quintero via Inlandia Institute – Online Zoom Event

Welcome to the Inlandia Writers Craftlab, a creative space open to writers of all levels to stretch their abilities and learn new skills! If you enjoy taking things apart to see how they work, or looking at things through a microscope, this is your laboratory to experiment, explore, and discover new things about your writing.

In this workshop, led by author Isabel Quintero, explore classic and contemporary work for young readers and examine how those stories are put together and then apply them to our own writing. The workshop is designed to strengthen confidence and voice in writing for young people.

6 Weeks, Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting July 22. 4:00-6:00 pm on Zoom

Cost: $150 • $250 • $350 (new pay what you can model)

Isabel Quintero is an award-winning writer from the Inland Empire. Her works include: Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, the Ugly Cat and Pablo series (illustrated by Tom Knight), Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide (illustrated by Zeke Peña), My Papi Has a Motorcycle (illustrated by Zeke Peña), several anthologies, and most recently Mamá’s Panza (illustrated by Iliana Galvez). She has several books forthcoming from Kokila.

Where: Inlandia Institute

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm

Address: Online Zoom event 

Website: https://inlandiainstitute.org/inlandia-writers-craftlab-writing-picture-books-july-22/

Hooked on Books Book Club: The River We Remember at Quartz Hill Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us to discuss William Kent Rrueger’s novel, The River We Remember. For adults.

In 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by a shocking murder, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances in this dazzling novel, an instant New York Times bestseller. For adults.

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

Where: Quartz Hill Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Address: 5040 W. Ave. M 2, Quartz Hill, CA 93536

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13896146

Phy-Sci Book Club: Determined (Second half of the book) at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Join participants to discuss Determined: A Life of Science Without Free Will by Robert M. Sapolsky.

One of our great behavioral scientists, the bestselling author of Behave, mounts a devastating scientific and philosophical case against free will—an argument with profound consequences.

Robert Sapolsky’s Behave, his now classic account of why humans do good and why they do bad, pointed toward an unsettling conclusion: we may not grasp exactly how nature and nurture create the physics and chemistry that cause all human behavior, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. In Determined, Sapolsky takes his argument all the way, mounting a brilliant (and in his inimitable way, delightful) full-frontal assault on the pleasant fantasy that there is some separate self who tells our biology what to do.

Robert M. Sapolsky is the author of several works of nonfiction, including A Primate’s Memoir, The Trouble with Testosterone, and Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. His most recent book, Behave, was a New York Times bestseller and named a best book of the year by The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. He is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant.” He and his wife live in San Francisco.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 6 pm

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

Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Address: 5400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-4

La Crescenta Book Club: An Unfinished Love Story at La Crescenta Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us as we discuss An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Find your copy of the book and the discussion questions at the Book Club Corner located across from the Customer Service Desk. For adults.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian reflects on her 42-year marriage with Dick Goodwin, one the shining stars of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier and the journey of going through the letters, diaries, documents and memorabilia he saved over the years.

Where: La Crescenta Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:45 pm

Address: 2809 Foothill Blvd., La Crescenta-Montrose, CA 91214

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14024568

Agoura Readers Book Club: The Jackal’s Mistress at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – Online Event

Join us to discuss Chris Bohjalian’s novel, The Jackal’s Mistress. For adults.

In this Civil War love story, is inspired by a real-life friendship across enemy lines, The wife of a missing Confederate soldier discovers a wounded Yankee officer and must decide what she’s willing to risk for the life of a stranger.

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

Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Address: Online Event

When the Cassidy-Shaws’ autonomous minivan collides with an oncoming car, seventeen-year-old Charlie is in the driver’s seat, with his father, Noah, riding shotgun. In the back seat, tweens Alice and Izzy are on their phones, while their mother, Lorelei, a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence, is absorbed in her work. Yet each family member harbors a secret, implicating them each in the accident.

During a weeklong recuperation on the Chesapeake Bay, the family confronts the excruciating moral dilemmas triggered by the crash. Noah tries to hold the family together as a seemingly routine police investigation jeopardizes Charlie’s future. Alice and Izzy turn strangely furtive. And Lorelei’s odd behavior tugs at Noah’s suspicions that there is a darker truth behind the incident—suspicions heightened by the sudden intrusion of Daniel Monet, a tech mogul whose mysterious history with Lorelei hints at betrayal. When Charlie falls for Monet’s teenaged daughter, the stakes are raised even higher in this propulsive family drama that is also a fascinating exploration of the moral responsibility and ethical consequences of AI.

Culpability explores a world newly shaped by chatbots, autonomous cars, drones, and other nonhuman forces in ways that are thrilling, challenging, and unimaginably provocative.

Bruce Holsinger is the author of four novels, including The Displacements and The Gifted School, and many works of nonfiction, most recently On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age (Yale University Press). His books have been recognized with the Colorado Book Award, the John Hurt Fisher Prize, the Philip Brett Award, the John Nicholas Brown Prize, the Modern Language Association’s Prize for a First Book, and others. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and many other publications, and he has been profiled on NPR’s Weekend Edition, Here & Now, and Marketplace. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Holsinger teaches in the department of English at the University of Virginia, where he specializes in medieval literature and modern critical thought and serves as editor of the quarterly journal New Literary History. He also teaches craft classes and serves as board chairman for WriterHouse, a local nonprofit in Charlottesville.

Janelle Brown is the New York Times bestselling author of What Kind of Paradise, 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

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

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

The first two novellas in Martha Wells’s New York Times bestselling Murderbot series, collected in paperback for the first time!

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”

First, read the story that started the Murderbot phenomenon in All Systems Red!

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is (and to watch its favorite show in its downtime).

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.

Then, In Artificial Condition Murderbot teams up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), and together, they infiltrate the mining facility where Murderbot went rogue to try to understand its past.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

CALLING ALL WRITERS! Every Tuesday we’ll be having Open Mic Readings open to the public! Read your poems, fiction, and spoken word at our open mic reading EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT from 7 pm – 10 pm!

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

Free event. 21+

Note: Please RSVP at site.

Where: The Aftermath Bar

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 7 pm – 10 pm

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

An open-hearted interrogation of our digital selves, braiding cultural criticism, memoir, and narrative musings into an exploration of identity, girlhood, media, tech, nature and “finding the depth and beauty in the fucked-up world we live in” from a writer, artist, and influencer (Phoebe Bridgers).

You Have a New Memory is a deeply human inventory of the digital sphere, a searing analysis of the present and a prescient assessment of the future. In her highly anticipated debut, Aiden Arata brings us raw reportage from the liminal space between online and offline worlds, illuminating how we got here and where to go next.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

Your body contains a symphony of tiny timepieces, synchronized to the sun and subtle signals in your environment and behavior. But modern insults like artificial light, contrived time zones, and late-night meals can wreak havoc on your internal clocks.

Armed with advances in biology and technology, a circadian renaissance is reclaiming those lost rhythms. The Inner Clock explores the emerging science and its transformative applications: How could taking a walk in the morning and going to bed at the same time each night keep your body in sync? Why are some doctors prescribing treatments at specific times of day? And how might a better understanding of our circadian rhythms improve educational outcomes, optimize sports performance, and support the longevity of our planet?

How the groundbreaking science of circadian rhythms can help you sleep better, feel happier, and improve your overall health.

Facilitated by Lilliana Lettieri.

RSVP

Where: pages: a bookstore

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 7 pm

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

Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-07-22/wellness-book-club

Nonfiction Book Club: Author James Tejani & A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event

James Tejani will join participants to discuss & A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth: The Making of the Port of Los Angeles – and America.

A deeply researched narrative of the creation of the Port of Los Angeles, a central event in America’s territorial expansion and rise as a global economic power.

The Port of Los Angeles is all around us. Objects we use on a daily basis pass through it: furniture, apparel, electronics, automobiles, and much more. The busiest container port in the Western hemisphere, it claims one-sixth of all US ocean shipping. Yet despite its centrality to our world, the port and the story of its making have been neglected in histories of the United States. In A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth, historian James Tejani corrects that significant omission, charting the port’s rise out of the mud and salt marsh of San Pedro estuary—and showing how the story of the port is the story of modern, globalized America itself.

By the mid-nineteenth century, Americans had identified the West Coast as the republic’s destiny, a gateway to the riches of the Pacific. In a narrative spanning decades and stretching to Washington, DC, the Pacific Northwest, Civil War Richmond, Southwest deserts, and even overseas to Europe, Hawaii, and Asia, Tejani demonstrates how San Pedro came to be seen as all-important to the nation’s future.

San Pedro was no place for a harbor, Tejani reveals. The port was carved in defiance of nature, using new engineering techniques and massive mechanical dredgers. Business titans such as Collis Huntington and Edward H. Harriman brought their money and corporate influence to the task. But they were outmatched by government reformers, laying the foundations for the port, for the modern city of Los Angeles, and for our globalized world. Interweaving the natural history of San Pedro into this all-too-human history, Tejani vividly describes how a wild coast was made into the engine of American power. A story of imperial dreams and personal ambition, A Machine to Move Ocean and Earth is necessary reading for anyone who seeks to understand what the United States was, what it is now, and what it will be.

James Tejani grew up on San Pedro Bay and earned his PhD from Columbia University. He has received fellowships from the Huntington Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is an associate professor of history at California State University.

Facilitated by Mark Polak.

RSVP

Where: pages: a bookstore

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 7 pm

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

THE AUTHOR OF THE MEMO HELPS YOU DISCOVER WHAT YOU NEED TO NAVIGATE EVERY WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION CHALLENGE WITH CONFIDENCE.

We are living in a world of broken trust, especially in the workplace. Employees have heard too many empty promises and are unmotivated. Managers are scrambling to keep eyes on direct reports in demanding environments. Nobody knows how to talk to one another. Trust is the central pillar of any functioning workplace. But without it too many of us are unhappy, fed up, and ready to walk out the door.

Minda Harts is the bestselling and award-winning author of The Memo: What Women of Color Need to Know to Secure a Seat at the Table as well as Right Within: How to Heal from Racial Trauma in the Workplace. She is an assistant professor of public service at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and the founder of The Memo LLC, a career development company. She was named by LinkedIn as the #1 Top Voice for Equity in the Workplace in 2020 and as one the top 100 People Transforming Business by Business Insider in 2022. She has a weekly career podcast for women of color titled Secure the Seat.

Amy DuBois Barnett is an award-winning music executive and author. Amy DuBois Barnett has held senior leadership roles at Paramount, Hearst, Disney, Time Inc., and several independently owned brands. She earned national acclaim as the editor-in-chief of Ebony, Teen, People, where she made history as the first Black woman to helm a major mainstream magazine in the U.S., and Honey Magazine, as well as the deputy editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar.

She is the author of the NAACP Image Award-nominated advice book, Get Yours! How to Have Everything You Ever Dreamed of and More (Doubleday/Broadway Books). Her short fiction has been recognized with an award from the Hurston/Wright Foundation and has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Barnett’s highly anticipated debut novel, If I Ruled the World, will be published by Flatiron Books in January 2026.

Where: Reparations Club

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 7 pm

Address: 3054 S. Victoria Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016

With breathtaking photography and personal commentary, readers are mesmerized by the world of wine, food and travel. Extensive resources are provided for wine lovers who want to know where to go, what to look for, and how to discover their favorite wines.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Tuesday the 22^nd

Time: 7 pm

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-07-22/michael-c-higgins

The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert hosts Blake Lynch – Online Zoom Event

Cobalt Poets Reading & Open Mic and host Rick Lupert welcomes featured guest Blake Lynch.

Blake Lynch is a. poet, editor, journalist, Wall Street analyst, and game developer based in Virginia. He holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a JD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Hanging the Angels is his first full-length, traditionally printed poetry collection.

Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event

Date: Tuesday, the 22^nd

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

The nation’s largest weekly spoken word Open Mic event is 26 years strong. DPL is a community space for every poet to be heard. They provide a platform to celebrate poetry while using it as the foundation for creativity, innovation, and expression across an array of media outlets.

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

Masks are encouraged.

Where: Greenway Court Theatre

Date: Tuesday, the 22^nd

Time: 9 pm – 11 pm

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

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.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 8:30 am – 9:30 am

Join participants to discuss Cicadas Sing of Summer Graves by Quinn Conner.

Prosper, Arkansas had not always been this way. Years ago, at the height of the summer swelter, in the wake of an unexpected storm, the local dam failed, and the valley flooded—drowning the town and everyone trapped inside.

The secrets of old Prosper drowned with them.

Now, decades later, when a mysterious locked box is pulled from the depths of the lake, three descendants of that long-ago tragedy are hurled into another feverish summer. Cassie: the reclusive sole witness to an impossible horror no one believes. Lark: a wide-eyed dreamer haunted by bizarre visions. June: caught between longing for a fresh start and bearing witness to the ghosts of the past. Bound together, all three must contend with their home’s complex history—and with the ruins of the town lost far beneath the troubled water.

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

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

Where: Once Upon a Time, Montrose

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 9 am

Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose 91020

Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/mystery-book-group-cicadas-sing-summer-graves-quinn-connor

Author Talk: Rex Ogle & Free Lunch via Virtual Event, LACL – Online Event

Join award-winning author Rex Ogle as he discusses his book Free Lunch where he talks about his struggles to navigate sixth grade as a poor kid in a wealthy school district signed up for the free meal program.

Free Lunch is the story of Rex’s efforts to navigate his first semester of sixth grade—who to sit with, not being able to join the football team, Halloween in a handmade costume, classmates and a teacher who take one look at him and decide he’s trouble; all of this while wearing secondhand clothes and being hungry. His mom and her boyfriend are out of work, and life at home is punctuated by outbursts of violence. Halfway through the semester, his family is evicted and ends up in government-subsidized housing in view of the school. Rex lingers at the end of last period every day until the buses have left, so no one will see where he lives.

Rex Ogle is the author of Free Lunch, winner of the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award; Punching Bag, a New York Public Library Best Book; Abuela Don’t Forget Me, finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award; and Road Home, which received a Printz Honor and a Stonewall Book Award Honor. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Where: Virtual Event, LACL

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 1 pm – 1:45 pm

Address: Online Event

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13910613

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 23^rd

Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm

Address: On-air Event (live)

Copies are available to check out at the Circulation Desk.

Where: Topanga Library, LACL

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm

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

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14058707

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 23^rd

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

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

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

Romantasy Book Club: The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love at Topanga Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join participants to discuss The Ornithologist’s Field Guide to Love by India Holton. For Adults.

Rival ornithologists hunt through England for a rare magical bird in this historical-fantasy rom-com reminiscent of Indiana Jones but with manners, tea, and helicopter parasols.

Copies are available to check out at the Circulation Desk.

Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

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

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13819496

Mystery Book Club at Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Contact the branch for this month’s title. Feel free to email pvista@lapl.org or call 310-437-6680.

Where: Playa Vista Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Address: 6400 Playa Vista Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90094

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-4

Noel Rubinton, with Jeff Gordinier, & Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee, at Diesel, A Bookstore – In- Person Event

Noel Rubinton, in conversation with Jeff Gordinier, will present and discuss Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee.

Noel Rubinton is a journalist and strategic communications consultant whose writing has appeared in leading publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. He was a reporter and editor for Newsday for many years.

Jeff Gordinier is a writer whose byline has appeared in The New York Times, the Globe & Mail, Food & Wine, Outside, Town & Country, Artful Living, Air Mail, and many other publications. His work has won a National Magazine Award as well as a journalism award from the New York Press Club, and he has been nominated by the James Beard Foundation for the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award. As the food & drinks editor for Esquire, he explores the culinary world and the individuals who shape it. Gordinier is also the author of 2019’s Hungry, a memoir chronicling his experiences with Noma chef René Redzepi, and the co-editor of 2015’s Here She Comes Now, a collection of essays about women in music. He has taught food writing at Drexel University in Philadelphia and has appeared in the Netflix shows Chef’s Table and Somebody Feed Phil. In 1988 he graduated from Princeton University, where he studied with John McPhee as well as with Joyce Carol Oates and Russell Banks. He lives in Los Angeles.

Where: Diesel, A Bookstore

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2025-07-23/noel-rubinton-jeff-gordinier-July-23

Fun Run Fundraiser at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Event

Thank you to @adrenalinerunclub for supporting @underdogbookstore!

All are welcome to join the Fun Run Fundraiser on Wednesday, July 23rd. We’ll meet at 6:30 pm at the bookstore and start at 6:45 pm for a 4-mile run or 2-mile walk.

Click link at website to sponsor the team and raise funds for the Underdog Bookstore 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Our mission is to foster community engagement with literacy and learning through diverse books and inclusive events. We are committed to uplifting underrepresented voices and providing a safe space with free programs and resources for our community.

Come for the books, stay for the cause, and let’s make a difference together!

RSVP at website.

Where: Underdog Bookstore

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

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

Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events/fun-run-fundraiser

Reading Rhythms at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Reading Rhythms is a series of welcoming reading parties designed to make it easy for people to gather and read socially. We invite you to bring any book you want and facilitate silent reading periods, as well as 1-on-1 breakouts, and group discussions to pull on the threads of the books that everyone is engaging with.​​

In a world that can often feel devoid of interest and meaningful connection, we bring readers together to reconnect with our love of learning, to experience the wonder of beautiful venues and curated music, and to gather amongst all of the people who want to be in that very same room.

Get your tickets at the site link.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

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

What does it mean to be a hero, in sports and in life?

Heroes aren’t just the ones who bring home medals. Hero Redefined delves into the lesser-known stories of Olympic athletes-and a couple of special Olympic venues-that challenge the conventional narrative of glory and gold. In riveting personal profiles exploring herculean feats of strength, perseverance, and sportsmanship, award-winning sports journalist Doug Levy offers a new vision of heroism. There is more than one path to greatness, and the extraordinary acts of resilience and personal sacrifice by these athletes have left an indelible mark on the spirit of the Olympic games in quiet but fundamental ways through the ages.

Each chapter reveals a different face of heroism-immense resilience, strength of character, unparalleled sportsmanship, an incredible zeal to compete, and a seemingly superhuman will to finish. Throughout, Levy celebrates the heroic human spirit and its relentless drive to carry the torch forward-both inside and outside of the Olympic Games.

Where: Book Soop

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/doug-levy

James Frey & Next to Heaven at pages, a bookstore – In-Person Event

Welcome James Frey to an evening event celebrating the publication of his new book, Next to Heaven, at {pages} a bookstore.

The event time has changed – please note the new date and time.

Next to Heaven is a darkly funny, razor-sharp thriller that peels back the gilded surface of America’s wealthiest enclaves. This incendiary novel delivers an addictive and voyeuristic plunge into a world where privilege, scandal, and moral decay intertwine, culminating in betrayal, chaos, and murder.

Welcome to New Bethlehem, Connecticut—a town of immaculate lawns, sprawling mansions, and the illusion of perfection. Beneath the designer yoga sets and curated Instagram lives, however, lies a darker truth.

At the heart of the story are Devon and Belle: beautiful, wealthy, and unsatisfied. Desperate to feel something beyond the monotony of luxury, they orchestrate an exclusive party for New Bethlehem’s elite—a spectacle of opulence and indulgence designed to push boundaries. The guest list is a who’s who of moral compromise: an ex-NFL quarterback clawing at relevance, a hockey coach with a weakness for forbidden affairs, and a Wall Street predator who treats wealth as a weapon.

With biting wit and unflinching precision, Frey takes readers on a satirical thrill ride through the dark heart of privilege. Fans of The White Lotus and Big Little Lies will find themselves captivated by the twists and turns of a narrative that exposes the treachery behind the American Dream.

James Frey was called America’s Most Notorious Author by Time Magazine, and the Bad Boy of American Literature by The New York Times. He has written multiple global bestsellers, including A Million Little Pieces, Bright Shiny Morning, and The Final Testament of the Holy Bible. He has sold more than 30 million books, and his work is published in 42 languages. He lives in a small town in Connecticut.

Where: pages, a bookstore

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-07-23/special-author-event-james-frey

Book Event: Sangu Mandana & Sarah Beth Durst at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event

Sangu Mandanna and Sarah Beth Durst will present their fantasy novels: A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping and The Enchanted Greenhouse, respectively.

There will be a book signing to follow.

RSVP required.

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

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 23^rd

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

The Outsiders meet Sons of Anarchy in this gripping debut about a group of young men dragged into a drug-running operation.

It’s 2009, the height of the Great Recession. Best friends Eddy, Cueball, and Jesse are fresh out of high school and wild at heart, but the economy is in the dumps. With jobs scarce along Florida’s Space Coast, they join a furniture-moving company run by Cueball’s father, a gruff ex-con biker who’s supposedly retired from the fast life. But when a mysterious old boss arrives in town, the payload is switched out, and the young men are coerced into shipping a new designer drug up the East Coast.

Florida Palms is a gritty coming-of-age story with enormous heart and an unflinching vision of violence and inequities facing forgotten communities. In a relentless race against desperate circumstances, the young friends must fully embrace the crime life or abandon their loyalties and risk ending up face down in the muck of the unforgiving swamps.

Joe Pan is the author of five poetry books and founder of Brooklyn Arts Press, one of the smallest independent houses ever honored with a National Book Award in Poetry, and publisher of Augury Books, honored with a Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry. His writing has appeared in the Boston Review, Hyperallergic, The New York Times, and Poets & Writers, and he’s been profiled by Publishers Weekly, The Rumpus, and The Wall Street Journal. He grew up along the Space Coast of Florida and now lives in Los Angeles. With his wife he co-founded BAH, an activist group that serves unhoused populations with sleeping bags and goods. Florida Palms is his debut novel.

Tom Bissell is the author of eleven books, including Creative Types, Apostle, and(with Greg Sestero) The Disaster Artist. He’s also worked on multiple video games and television shows. Most recently, he wrote the last three episodes of Andor: A Star Wars Story for Disney+. He lives in Los Angeles with his family.

Where: Skylight

Date: Wednesday, the 23^rd

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-joe-pan-presents-florida-palms-w-tom-bissell

Book Release: Autofocus Essay Anthology: If I Can Be Honest at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event

Before there was Autofocus Books, there was Autofocus Lit, an online journal dedicated to artful autobiographical writing in its various genres and forms. The online journal began in October 2020 and published 318 original pieces from established and emerging writers before it closed in October 2024 to continue building the press that grew out of it. This anthology collects over forty works of short-form prose (400 – 3,000 words), selected by the journal’s founder and editor-in-chief, Michael Wheaton. These works are arranged into the seven big thematic containers that developed over the publication’s four years: friends, family, heartbreak, the body, violence, death, and life. If I Can Be Honest provides an instructive, engrossing, and polyvocal survey of artful autobiographical prose two decades into 21st century literature.

Featuring readings from:

Alyson Zetta Williams is a writer, painter, Sagittarius, and lipstick-lover from SoCal who totally called the re-emergence of the velcro shoe.

Diana Ruzova is a Soviet-born, Los Angeles-based writer with an MFA in literature and creative nonfiction from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She is known for her essays, interviews, and criticism, which have appeared in publications like the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, BOMB, and New York Magazine’s The Cut. She was also a Kenyon Review Writers Workshop Fellow in the summer of 2024.

Lexi Kent-Monning is the author of the novel The Burden of Joy (2023). She’s an alumna of the Tyrant Books workshop Mors Tua Vita Mea in Sezze Romano, Italy, and was awarded a residency at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiú, New Mexico.

D.T. Robbins is the author of Birds Aren’t Real and This Is What Happens When You Leave Me Alone. His writing has appeared in HAD, X-R-A-Y, Pithead Chapel, and elsewhere. He’s also the Editor in Chief of Rejection Letters, a literary magazine and small press. His latest novel, Leasing, about a chaotic suburban apartment complex, arrives this fall from House of Vlad.

Katharine Coldiron is The Cultivist’s West Coast Event Manager & Member Liaison. After graduating from Barnard College, Katherine spent just under three years working in art fairs at the Gagosian Gallery in New York, coordinating and executing all logistical components. Before that, she worked as a museum educator at the Skirball Cultural Center and has experience in the education department of the Petersen Automotive Museum. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of Determined to Succeed and is based in Los Angeles.

Where: Stories Books & Café

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://storiesla.com/events

Vroman’s Fiction Reading Group: This Other Eden at Vroman’s – In-Person Event

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

This event is free and open to the public.

July’s pick for discussion is This Other Eden by Paul Harding.

Fiction Reading Group meetings are held inside Vroman’s Bookstore on the second floor in the event space.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 7 pm

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

Participants will discuss The Sirens by Emilia Hart.

Where: Zibby’s Bookshop

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

Time: 7 pm

Address: 1113 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90403

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/zibbys-bookshop-july-book-club-tickets-1325170644069?aff=odcleoeventsincollection

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 — Edwin Bodney;
• 9:05 pm – 10:00 pm — Open mic.

Suggested: $10.00 Donation via PayPal: The World Stage Gallery.

Date: Wednesday, the 23^rd

Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm

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

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

Story Salon: Theme Oops I Did It Again at Art Parlor in Valley Village – In-Person Event

Join us for a night of storytelling, with the theme: Oops I Did It Again!

Storytellers coming soon!

Where: Art Parlor

Date: Wednesday the 23^rd

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

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

Poets Say ICE out of LA: A Night of Resistance, Poetry, and Community at Beyond Baroque – In-Person Event

A gathering to amplify voices against ICE in LA through powerful poetry and solidarity!

In the face of escalating ICE raids, we gather in protest through poetry, art, and collective action. Artists and organizers unite to demand justice for our undocumented neighbors and the broader immigrant community, including California’s essential workforce. This event also calls attention to the targeting of activists who confront ICE agents for violating constitutional rights of people through unlawful, warrantless detentions and deportations.

For decades, many poets have illuminated the undocumented experience and stood at the forefront of the struggle for human rights in the U.S. While the Trump administration continues efforts to dismantle these movements, the artist community refuses to be silent. On stolen land, no human being is illegal, and poets stand in unwavering solidarity with our communities to build a more just future.

The evening will feature poems of solidarity by: Janel Pineda, Pam Concepcion, Claudia Hernandez, Luivette Resto, Xóchitl-Julisa Bermejo, Marc J. Cid, Iván Salinas, Andy Sanchez, Carolina Rivera Escamilla, Paola Gutierrez, Karo Ska, VOTH, Taz Ahmed, Diosa Xochiquetzalcoatl, plus other speakers.

Expect a night rooted in collective efforts towards liberation with poetry, protest posters, zines, art, and organizing resources that raise awareness and uplift voices against injustice. Local organizers will also share ways to take action.

$20 suggested donation—all proceeds from ticket and raffle sales will go directly to families impacted by ICE raids. Donations can be made on Eventbrite or at the door. Poets demand: ICE out of our city for good. Join us in resistance!

Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.

Ticket purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the event, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early.

NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information. 

Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

Date: Wednesday, the 23^rd

Time: 7:30 pm – 10:30 pm

Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/poets-say-ice-out-of-la-a-night-of-resistance-poetry-and-community-tickets-1486670514529

Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop with Jose Hernandez Diaz 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.

Jose Hernandaz Diaz is a 2017 NEA Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020) Bad Mexican, Bad American (Acre Books, 2024) The Parachutist (Sundress Publications, 2025) and Portrait of the Artist as a Brown Man (Red Hen Press, 2025). He has been published in Bennington Review, The Yale Review, The London Magazine, The Southern Review, Poetry Ireland Review, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011, and in The Best American Poetry 2025. He has taught creative writing at the University of California at Riverside. Currently, he is the Visiting Writer in Residence at the University of Tennessee.

NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information. 

Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

Date: Wednesday, the 23^rd

Time: 8 pm – 10 pm

Address: Online event (see site)

Website https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday-night-poetry-workshop-tickets-1480973755369

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 23^rd

Time: 8 pm – 9:45 pm (Doors at 7:30)

Host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry welcome featured guest Peggy Dobreer.

Peggy Dobreer is a Renaissance artist looking for good trouble. She’s a Poetry Matters, award-winning, eco poet with multiple Pushcart nominations. Also, a former choreographer, experiential educator and forever student of embodied mystical traditions, Dobreer has served as curator, mentor and editor-in-chief of Slow Lightning Lit since its inception in 2021.

$5 cover fee, cash only.

Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange

Date: Wednesday, the 23^rd

Time: 8 pm – 10 pm

Let Francesca help you with all aspects of your writing!

Do you want to write professionally or for personal satisfaction and healing but aren’t sure where to start and need some inspiring tips and support? Do you have a project that needs revision? Are you feeling stuck creatively? Join acclaimed author and writing instructor Francesca Lia Block for a discussion of her 12 Questions followed by free writing and Q&A. Come be a part of the supportive Lit Angels writing community and consider writing a story to share at our Valentine’s event on 2/7 for possible submission in Lit Angels Journal.

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/

Tuesdays & Thursdays @10AM | $15

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Thursday the 24^th

Time: 10 am – 11 am

Participants will discuss the novel Wild Saragasso Sea by Jean Rhys. For adults.

Summary provided by the publisher:

“Wide Sargasso Sea, a masterpiece of modern fiction, was Jean Rhys’s return to the literary center stage. She had a startling early career and was known for her extraordinary prose and haunting women characters. With Wide Sargasso Sea, her last and best-selling novel, she ingeniously brings into light one of fiction’s most fascinating characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. This mesmerizing work introduces us to Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman who is sold into marriage to the prideful Mr. Rochester. Rhys portrays Cosway amidst a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.”

Where: Culver City Julian Dixon Library, LACL

Date: Thursday the 24^th

Time: 12 pm – 1 pm

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

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13849738

Between the Lines Book Club: The City and Its Uncertain Walls at Castaic Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join participants for a discussion of The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami. For Adults.

A search for this lost love takes a man into middle age and on a journey between the real world and an other world. As the seasons pass and the man grows more uncertain about the porous boundaries between these two worlds, he meets a strange young boy who helps him to see what he’s been missing all along.

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

Where: Castaic Library, LACL

Date: Thursday the 24^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

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

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13896160

Cultural Cooldown Potluck at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Like to talk about books? Duh!! It’s a Cultural Cool Down Potluck here at our store on Thursday, July 24th at 6:00 pm! Temps will be scorching, but our AC will be working (hopefully smiley). We invite you to bring a dish that helps you cool down! Paletas, cucumbers, watermelon, edamame- bring a little to share! Drinks work too! Perfect time to reconnect with our community and our many beautiful and diverse cultures! What better way to do that with than books and food?

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Thursday the 24^th

Time: 6 pm

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

Agents of Change is the timely and revelatory exploration of the pioneering women who changed the insulated world of international espionage—from the barrier-crashing challenges of the 1960s to the present-day reckoning—told through the eyes of a former intelligence operative herself.

Foreword by Valerie Plame, New York Times bestselling author of Fair Game and former CIA operations officer

Years after her successful and impactful career at the CIA, Christina Hillsberg became enthralled with the stories of the trailblazing women who forged new paths within the Agency long before she began her career there in the aughts. These were women who sacrificed their personal lives, risked their safety, defied expectations, and boldly navigated the male-dominated spy organization.

Through exclusive interviews with current and former female CIA officers, many of whom have never spoken publicly, Agents of Change tells an enthralling and, at times, disturbing story set against the backdrop of the evolving women’s movement. It was in the 1960s, a “secretarial” era, when women first gained a foothold and pushed against the one-dimensional, pop-culture trope of the sexy Cold War Bond Girl. Underestimated but undaunted, they fought their way, decade by decade, through adversity to the top of the spy game.

Seamlessly weaving together the individual stories of these exceptional women, Hillsberg deftly tackles not just the fight for gender equality at the CIA but also the current dilemma the Agency faces when dealing with the culmination of a decades-long culture of sexual harassment and assault. Each chapter sheds a light on women’s issues during a different decade before bringing to life the stories of female CIA operations officers whose experiences were emblematic of that given era. In this fascinating and empowering chronicle, Hillsberg takes readers inside the Agency in a way that’s never been done before, paying long-overdue tribute to the survivors and thrivers, the indispensable groundbreakers, and the defiant rabble-rousers who made the choice to change their lives and, in turn, changed history.

Christina Hillsberg (Chicago, IL) is a former CIA intelligence officer and writer. While at the CIA, she wrote analytic assessments for the President, his Cabinet, and other senior level policymakers. Christina specialized in African politics and leaders and was one of the Intelligence Community’s few Swahili and Zulu linguists. She later worked in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, clandestinely collecting intelligence from the field. She is the recipient of multiple CIA Exceptional Performance Awards. After leaving the CIA, Christina worked in Information Security at Amazon, where she stood up the company’s first Insider Threat program, created a new global framework to analyze cyber risks, and established new processes to utilize intelligence tradecraft to analyze information security threats.

In 2017, she left Amazon to become a writer. She is the author of Agents of Change: The Women Who Transformed the CIA and License to Parent: How My Career as a Spy Helped Me Raise Resourceful, Self-Sufficient Kids. Her writing has been featured in The Washington Post, The Seattle Times, Harvard Business Review, Parents Magazine, Thrive Global, Parade, and more.

Amanda Montell is a New York Times-bestselling author and iHeart Radio Award-winning podcaster. Her nonfiction books include Cultish, Wordslut, and The Age of Magical Overthinking, which have been praised by The Atlantic, The Economist, NPR, and others. In addition to hosting the hit podcasts Sounds Like A Cult and Magical Overthinkers, Amanda has written for publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, and Esquire. Amanda holds a degree in linguistics from NYU and lives in Southern California.

Where: Zibby’s Bookshop

Date: Thursday the 24^th

Time: 6 pm

Address: 1113 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90403

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/author-event-christina-hillsberg-amanda-montell-tickets-1325278085429?aff=odcleoeventsincollection

Omar Hussain, with Rick Wartzman, & A Thousand Natural Shocks at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event

Omar Hussain, in conversation with Rick Wartzman, will discuss and sign A Thousand Natural Shocks.

Omar Hussain’s debut novel is a mesmerizing meditation on trauma, memory, and identity wrapped in a high-octane thriller.

Dash, a reporter in Monterey, California, is desperate to outrun his past. During the day, he investigates the reemergence of a long-dormant serial killer. At night, he has become entangled with a criminal cult that promises a pill to erase his traumatic memory.

But as Dash begins to lose his memories—and his sense of self—he discovers a dark secret about the cult, one that would horrify its members. And soon he finds himself in a race against time to evade the cult, unveil the killer, and reconcile his past before his own memories fade away.

Omar Hussain is a writer from the San Francisco Bay Area currently living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He holds an MFA in creative writing from NYU. A Thousand Natural Shocks is his first novel. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Jellyfish Review, X-R-A-Y Magazine, Tiny Molecules, The Cabinet of Heed, Ellipsis Zine, Spelk, Lunate, The Metaworker and Dream. His short fiction has been published in over a dozen literary journals including the Jellyfish Review, X-R-A-Y Magazine, and Dream Noir, among others.

Rick Wartzman is the author of five books on the intersection of business and society, including his two latest: The End of Loyalty: The Rise and Fall of Good Jobs in America and Still Broke: Walmart’s Remarkable Transformation and the Limits of Socially Conscious Capitalism. Rick is the winner of a California Book Award and the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, as well as a two-time finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a finalist for a PEN USA Literary Award.

Where: Diesel, A Bookstore

Date: Thursday, the 24^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

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

A poignant memoir exploring small town baseball as a lens into what’s right and wrong with modern America—written by an acclaimed journalist and Army Ranger who, after returning from Iraq to a painfully divided country, rediscovered its core values in the bleachers of a minor league ballpark in Batavia, New York.

Facilitated by Dave Suiter.

Where: pages, a bookstore

Date: Thursday the 24^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Aspiring writer and all-around naive person Allison expected her life to finally take shape when she moved to Los Angeles. After years grieving her brother’s untimely death and allowing her mercurial father’s feelings and desires to infect her own, she feels ready to become the main character in her own story again. But in LA, as with anywhere else, she’s rudderless, unable to write and barely scraping by as an English teacher.

So, when she has a serendipitous run in with famed radio personality Reid Steinman, an idol of her father’s and her late brother’s, she’s eager to see where their relationship might go, and who she might become. Caught in his thrall, she falls back into her old self-effacing patterns, struggling to maintain the boundaries of her own identity. Suddenly, an unanticipated lifeline emerges: an intoxicating tryst with Reid’s adult daughter, Maddie. She’s forced to balance her romance with Reid with her gnawing desire for the intoxicatingly charming Maddie, as it becomes increasingly evident that she and Allison’s late brother share more than a few qualities.

Through candid self-awareness, keen observations, and deliciously wry humor, First Time, Long Time asks, what happens to a young woman’s goals when she becomes involved with a famous man whose needs seem so much louder than her own? And how might she move forward when so much in her past remains unresolved?

Amy Silverberg is a writer and comedian. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing & Literature from USC. Her fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, The Paris Review, Granta, The Idaho Review, TriQuarterly, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. Her stand-up has been featured on Comedy Central, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. She also writes television, most recently for “The Movie Show” on the SYFY Channel.

Aimee Bender is the author of six books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998) which was a NY Times Notable Book, An Invisible Sign of My Own (2000) which was an L.A. Times pick of the year, Willful Creatures (2005) which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the year, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010) which won the SCIBA award for best fiction, and an Alex Award, The Color Master, a NY Times Notable book for 2013, and her latest novel, The Butterfly Lampshade, which came out in July 2020, and was longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper’s, Tin House, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, and more, as well as heard on PRI’s “This American Life” and “Selected Shorts”.

Where: Skylight

Date: Thursday, the 24^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Shy Watson is an incoming PhD candidate in Creative Writing & Literature at the University of Southern California. She has authored two full-length poetry collections: Horror Vacui (House of Vlad) and Cheap Yellow (Civil Coping Mechanisms).

Brittany Menjivar was born in the DMV; she now works and plays in the City of Angels. She serves as a Short Takes columnist for the Los Angeles Review of Books; her journalism and cultural criticism can also be found in Coveteur, Document Journal, and V Magazine, among other outlets.

Camila Valle is a writer, activist, editor, and translator. Articles by this author (4): Abortion: a pillar of a broad pro-democracy and human rights coalition; COVID-19 in the Age of Bolsonaro; The Fight for Abortion and Reproductive Justice after Roe; Making Everything a Feminist Issue: Argentina’s Feminist Movement

David San Miguel N/A

Claire Dougherty is from Stockton, CA and is currently based in LA. Her poems have been published in Fence, Second Factory, and RECLINER, which she co-edits. And you—support NOPF with a tax-deductible donation.

Where: Stories Books & Café

Date: Thursday the 24^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

We hope that these meetups will provide an opportunity to connect, collaborate, and spend time in community. Whether you’re self-published and new to the industry or have trade tales to share from your experience in indie or major publishing – all authors are welcome here.

Our space is food, drink, and pet friendly, so feel free to bring your favorite refreshments and animal companions!

RSVP at Website link.

Where: Underdog Bookstore

Date: Thursday the 24^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DL0HFw8JPyG/?hl=en&img_index=1

Opiod Crisis Book Talk: Dr. Melody Glenn & Mother of Methadone at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Join us at Village Well Books & Coffee for an enlightening conversation with Dr Melody Glenn, presenting her new book Mother of Methadone. Dr Glenn will be joined by writer-researcher Morgan Godvin and physician-scientist Dr Max Jordan Nguemeni Tiako.

This presentation is hosted in conjunction with Drug Checking Los Angeles, Community Health Project Los Angeles (CHPLA), The Sidewalk Project, Bienestar, HOPICS, the Center for Social Medicine at UCLA, and the Southern California Addiction Medicine Consortium.

Reserve your tickets on EVENTBRITE.

About the book:

A call to remove the stigma against addicts, addiction, and treatment providers.

Dr. Melody Glenn was a burned-out emergency physician who had grown to resent the large population of opioid dependent patients passing through her ER. While working at a methadone clinic, she realized how effective harm reduction treatments could be and set out to discover why they weren’t used more broadly. That’s when she found Dr. Marie Nyswander.

In the 1960’s, Nyswander defied the DEA and medical establishment to co-develop methadone maintenance as a treatment for heroin addiction. According to some addiction specialists, its discovery could be considered as monumental as the discovery of penicillin. Yet, it still carries a stigma today.

Deftly weaving together interviews, media coverage, and historical documents, Glenn recovers Nyswander’s important legacy and reveals how the forces of racism, fearmongering politicians, and misinformation colluded to set us back decades in our understandings of opioids.

With Nyswander as her guide, Glenn also shares her journey through addiction medicine as she confronts her own personal and philosophical quandaries around bias, ambition, and saviorism in the medical field.

As the US continues to struggle with opioid and fentanyl use in communities, Mother of Methadone is a powerful reminder of the ways biases have prevented doctors from saving countless lives.

About the participants:

Dr Melody Glenn is a Tucson author and addiction and emergency physician at The University of Arizona. Her first book, Mother of Methadone, about the work of Dr. Marie Nyswander and Dr. Glenn’s own work battling the opioid epidemic half a century apart, will be published by Beacon Press in August. While a Tin House Workshop Alum with an MFA in prose from Mills College, she also conducts research and serves as the medical director for both the inpatient addiction medicine consult service and an outpatient addiction clinic. Her work has been supported by the DeGroot Foundation, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and an El Sur artist residency, and her publications have appeared in both medical and literary journals, and she speaks nationally on addiction.

Morgan Godvin, BA is a writer and researcher at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine in the Epidemiology, Policy, and Implementation Lab, where she helped start Drug Checking Los Angeles. A decade ago, she was arrested countless times and given two felonies for drug possession, ultimately being sentenced to five years in federal prison. In addition to her work in Southern California, Ms. Godvin serves on Oregon’s drug decriminalization Measure 110 Oversight and Accountability Council, founded a national harm reduction nonprofit (Beats Overdose), and is a EdTrust Justice fellow, striving for more higher ed opportunities for people in prison and after release. She speaks and writes for international audiences about her own experience of opioid use disorder and methadone treatment.

Max Jordan Nguemeni Tiako, MD, MS is an Assistant Professor of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. His work includes studying racial disparities in access to opioids for pain and medications for opioid use disorder generally and in pregnancy. Clinically, Dr. Nguemeni focuses on addiction medicine, pain medicine, and primary care for people living with sickle cell disease. He has published over 50 scientific papers, and he writes Adverse Reaction.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Thursday the 24^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Join us in the infamous staircase of the original Venice city hall building for a showcase of experimental, obscure, and punk poetry. This July features SFV punk novelist Facundo Rompehuevos, reading from his new book Children Chasing Tigers; zinester and emerging poet Dominic Xalli Anaya Gulaya, whose poems have appeared in Drifter Zine, Transmuted, and LBRNTH; Brendan Constantine, one of the most prominent voices in the Los Angeles poetry scene; and Jeanetta Rich will be reading from her debut collection Black Venus Fly Trap with screenings of her short films before and after the readings.

Dominic Xalli Anaya Gulaya is a young Disabled butch writer. Zie cares deeply about storytelling as a form of resistance and community-building, and aims to embody that in hir poetry. Xalli has published in Drifter Zine, Transmuted, and LBRNTH among others, acted as the Editor-in-Chief for hir high school’s literary magazine, and worked as an Executive Editor and Junior Board member for Polyphony Lit. In hir daily life, most of hir energy goes toward zines, reading & writing, folk punk music, watching horror movies, and mutual aid.

Jeanetta Rich is a mother and poet based in Los Angeles. Her work focuses on the emotional lives of voiceless women, those who have been silenced through poverty and/or lack of education. Her work was recently featured in Texte zur Kunst’s 30th Anniversary issue, “The Feminist.” Black Venus Fly Trap is her debut poetry collection.

Brendan Constantine is a poet based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in Poetry, The Nation, Best American Poetry, Tin House, Ploughshares, and Poem-a-Day among other journals. A popular performer, Brendan has presented his work to audiences throughout the U.S. and Europe, also appearing on NPR’s All Things Considered, TED ED, numerous podcasts, and YouTube. He currently teaches at the Windward School and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His fifth collection, The Opposites Game is forthcoming from Red Hen Press

Facundo Rompehuevos is a Chicano activist, writer, husband, father and recovering alcoholic and drug addict born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. He is the author of the novel Children Chasing Tigers (Anxiety Press, 2025) and two books of poetry, Irreconcilable Contradictions (2017) and Grabbing the Stars from the Sky (2021), both published by Fourth Sword Publications. You can bother him on Substack at facundorompehuevos.substack.com.

Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

Date: Thursday the 24^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm

Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/skulls-stairs-facundo-dominic-xalli-jeanetta-rich-brendan-constantine-tickets-1482273954299?aff=oddtdtcreator

Tia Chucha’s Book Club at Tia Chucha’s Cultural & Bookstore – In-Person Event

Participants will discuss Ghost Roots by Pemi Aguda.

Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore

Date: Thursday the 24^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342

Website: https://www.instagram.com/p/DL0HFw8JPyG/?hl=en&img_index=1

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 25^th

Time: 8:30 am – 9:30 am

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 25^th

Time: 9:30 am

Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020

¡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 25^th

Time: 11 am

Join host Katja Bartholmess for an open writing studio at Heavy Manners Library from 1-3!

No frills, no prompts, just write!

Manuscripts, Screenplays, Articles…whatever you’re working on, let’s do it in each other’s company!

RSVP at site. (Pay What You Want Donation)

Where: Heavy Manners Library

Date: Friday the 25^th

Time: 1 pm

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

Website: https://heavymannerslibrary.com/events/writing-gets-lonely-open-writing-studio-7-25

Middle Grade Book Club: Holes at Claremont Helen Renwick Library, LACL – In-Person Kids Event

Join us for a new book club for middle grade readers! We’re starting off with Holes by Louis Sachar. Come share your thoughts on some of the best stories of all time and enjoy a book-themed activity. For ages 10 – 14.

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

Where: Claremont Helen Renwick Library, LACL

Date: Friday the 25^th

Time: 2 pm – 3 pm

Address: 208 N. Harvard Ave., Claremont, CA, 91711

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13997001

Horror Book Club: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls at Compton Library, LACL – In-Person Teen Event

Join us to discuss Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls. To borrow a print copy of the books, please contact the Compton Library directly. For Ages 18+

Do you find yourself attracted to the strange and unusual? Do you enjoy what others may find frightening? If so, join the Horror Book Club where each month we’ll provide you with diverse horror authors and titles to discuss with people who enjoy the same genre as you.

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. Under the watchful eye of the stern Miss Wellwood, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. There’s Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to find a way to keep her baby and escape to a commune. And Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, a wisp of a girl, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid…and it’s usually paid in blood.

Attendance is limited, and advance registration is required. This will be used to save your spot in the program. We cannot guarantee availability for any unregistered adult. To sign up, see library staff, or register online at Visit.LACountyLibrary.org/Events and filter by location or event date.

Where: Compton Library, LACL

Date: Friday the 25^th

Time: 4 pm – 5 pm

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

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13991201

Black Lit Book Club: The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Join participants to discuss the novel The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye by Briony Cameron.

This “thrilling, swashbuckling story” (People) based on true events illuminates a woman of color’s rise to power as one of the few female pirate captains to sail the Caribbean, and a forbidden love story that will shape the course of history.

In the tumultuous town of Yáquimo, Santo Domingo, Jacquotte Delahaye is an up-and-coming shipwright, but her ambitions are bound by the confines of her self-seeking French father. When her way of life and the delicate balance of power in the town are threatened, she is forced to flee her home and become a woman on the run along with a motley crew of refugees, including a mysterious young woman named Teresa.

Jacquotte and her band become indentured servants to the infamous Blackhand, a ruthless pirate captain who rules his ship with an iron fist. As they struggle to survive, Jacquotte finds herself unable to resist Teresa despite their differences. When Blackhand hatches a dangerous scheme to steal a Portuguese shipment of jewels, Jacquotte must rely on her wits, resourcefulness, and friends to survive. But she discovers there is a grander, darker scheme of treachery at play, and she ultimately must decide what price she is willing to pay to secure a better future for them all.

Briony Cameron is a queer disabled writer based in Cardiff, UK. Her father was of Jamaican, Panamanian, and Cuban heritage and her mother is of English and Welsh heritage. She studied English and creative writing at university, graduating in 2020. She has a keen love of history that began with her first reading of The Three Musketeers as a child. She has been writing since she could pick up a pencil, first emulating the comic books her dad raised her on before moving on to novels. In 2020 her short story “The Nantes Affair” was longlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Short Story Competition, and her debut novel, The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye, was longlisted that same year for the Penguin WriteNow Competition, and in 2021 it was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Prize. Alongside writing, she is an avid knitter and she loves to play videogames and spend time with her dog, Keanu.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Friday the 25^th

Time: 6 pm

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

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 25^th

Time: 6 pm (Doors at 5:30 pm)

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

This event with Voices Unidas en Pacoima.

We are dedicating all our live events to help support KIND: Kids in Need of Defense. They are a non-profit organization that provides legal services, support, and resources to immigrant and refugee children.

Join us at our upcoming shows, featuring live music, poetry, and open mic.

We want to PACK THE OPEN MIC LIST! Come join us and contribute to our fundraiser.

Join our KIND page: https://fundraise.supportkind.org/fundraise/la-poet-society-is-kind

RSVP to let us know if you want to join the open mic list.

Where: Bodevi Wine & Espresso Bar

Date: Friday the 25^th

Time: 7 pm – 10 pm

Ben Matlin will discussUnbound: Notes from a Reluctant Disability Activist.

This insightful and often witty collection of essays charts the making of a reluctant disability activist—including his commentary for NPR, the New York Times and elsewhere.

Ben Mattlin was born in 1962 with spinal muscular atrophy, a congenital and progressive neuromuscular weakness. He never stood or walked but grew up expecting a normal life. In this book of essays, he chronicles that life and also charts his growth as a reluctant disability activist and public intellectual.

Mattlin’s disability was from birth. Raised in a family that insisted that he be educated in a mainstream setting, he never thought about his disability as being an obstacle until adulthood. It was not until he had graduated from Harvard and could not find a job that he began to understand what disability rights activists were talking about.

These collected short pieces chronicle Mattlin’s intellectual coming-of-age including his beginnings, difficult conversations about disability, the social aspects of being disabled in a nondisabled world, and a wider perspective as the author looks back on his sixty years of disability. The book contains a variety of essays intermixed with a few edited podcast transcripts. Some of the pieces are deeply personal; others are stridently political. All of them are guaranteed to make readers see life and the world in a new way.

Altogether, this collection is a frank, unsentimental examination of some of the most important and moving issues of our day—always rendered with intelligence, sensitivity, and a liberal sprinkling of humor.

Date: Friday the 25^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

Meet Mari, a young woman whose life is abruptly upended when her long-term boyfriend, Javi, unexpectedly breaks up with her. The story meticulously chronicles Mari’s immediate reaction and the subsequent stages of her grief, painting a vivid picture of heartbreak, confusion, and the painful process of detaching from a relationship that once defined a significant part of her identity. We witness her navigate the initial shock, the intense sadness, and the challenging task of rebuilding her daily routines and sense of self without Javi.

NOTE: RSVP

Where: Chevalier’s

Date: Friday the 25^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2025-07-25/romance-book-club-july

L.A. Book Event: Malcolm D. Lee, with TBA Guests, & The Best Man Unfinished Business at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event

Malcolm D. Lee will create a tasting with Sable Bourbon and guests Harold Perrineau, Taye Diggs, and Morris Chestnut. Celebrating friendship, heritage, and the spirit of camaraderie.

A book signing will follow. RSVP.

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Date: Friday the 25^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Check site for more details.

Where: Stories Books & Café

Date: Friday the 25^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://storiesla.com/events

L.A. Book Launch: David Lloyd & The Press, Shelter, and The Pact: Three Plays fat Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person Event

Join us for a book launch compiling three captivating plays written by David Lloyd: The Press, Shelter, and The Pact: Three Plays.

The evening opens with staged readings from The Press and The Pact, directed by filmmaker Liza Johnson, known for her cinematic explorations of power and identity.

Alexandra Poulain writes about these plays in the forward, “presented together, the three plays form a striking trilogy around the politics and dramaturgy of violence. They suggest that the ruthless, technologically implemented violence of the fascist state. This trilogy of plays cuts deep into the architecture of political violence. What is exposed here, in the continuum of violence that runs through the three plays, is no less than the dark secret of Western capitalist modernity: that it is grounded in violence, and always harbors the possibility of collapsing into fascism.”

After the readings in The Wanda Coleman Theater, join us for a reception and book signings.

David Lloyd is an Irish-born poet, playwright, and critic whose work spans literature, politics, and cultural theory. His publications include Arc & Sill: Poems 1979–2009 (Shearsman, 2012), The Harm Fields (Georgia Review Books, 2022), and most recently, The Press, Shelter, and The Pact: Three Plays (Three Count Pour, 2025). His chapbook terra terra was released by Magra Books in 2022. Lloyd is widely known for his incisive writing on nationalism, colonialism, and aesthetics.

Liza Johnson is an acclaimed American film director, producer, and writer. In addition to a body of short films, she has directed four feature films including Return (2011), Hateship, Loveship (2013), and Elvis & Nixon (2016). Johnson’s work is known for its subtle yet powerful treatment of displacement, personal agency, and structural violence.

Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

Date: Friday the 25^th

Time: 8 pm – 10 pm

Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Venice Beach Los Angeles, CA 90291

RSVP:

Please email: akagan@lapl.org or gkim@lapl.org for the Zoom login information.

Where: Palisades Branch Library, LAPL 

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 10 am – 11 am

Address: Online Event (see site)

Link in bio! Every Saturday starting July 19 from 10 am – 1 pm, teens are invited to a free poetry club at the Get Lit office in Los Angeles. This weekly space offers hands-on training in the craft of poetry, performance, and editing.

Writers will receive one-on-one support to help polish their work, connect with a diverse and passionate community, and explore real-world opportunities to share their voice.

No experience needed, just a willingness to show up and speak your truth.

Where: Get Lit Office 

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 10 am – 1 pm

Read the book and join our lively discussion!

July 26: The Butterfly House by Katrine Engberg

Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 11 am

Address: 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/mystery-book-club-14

View Park Library Book Club: 72 Hour Hold at View Park Bebe Moore Campbell Library, LACL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event

Participants will read and discuss 72 Hour Hold by Bebe Moore Campbell. For adults.

In person at View Park Bebe Moore Campbell Library or via Zoom. Please visit the library, call, or email cray@library.lacounty.gov to be added to the email list.

Where: View Park Bebe Moore Campbell 3Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm

Address: 3854 W. 54^th St., Los Angeles, CA 90043

During Kentucky’s Great Depression, Pack Horse Library Project member Cussy Mary Carter, a young outcast, delivers books to the hillfolk of Troublesome Creek, hoping to spread learning in these desperate times, but not everyone is keen on her or the Library Project.

Where: Gardena Mayme Dear Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm

Address: 1731 W Gardena Blvd., Gardena, CA 90247

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/13749993

Open Mic Poetry: Lynda V.E. Crawford Features at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Share your original poems, lyrics, spoken word, or just enjoy listening. Each poet will have five minutes to read an original work. If you wish to read, sign up when you arrive.

Our featured speaker will be Lynda V. E. Crawford. Crawford says of her poetry, “I write poems to sneak behind eyes, blow through ears, and stretch voices.” Crawford was born and raised in Barbados and lives in California. Both homes sway her writing. The Pushcart Prize nominee’s work has appeared in national and international journals including Prairie Schooner, ArtsEtc Barbados, The Caribbean Writer, The Galway Review, The Bookends Review, California Quarterly, and Exposition Review. Crawford is the author of the poetry collection Washing Water (World Stage Press, October 2024).

Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 1 pm

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

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/open-mic-poetry-12

Fourth Saturdays: Poetry at the Claremont Library at Claremont Helen Renwick Library – In-Person Event

Join Fourth Saturdays: Poetry at the Claremont Library, a free monthly poetry reading series organized by local poets Lucia Galloway, Karen Maya, Genevieve Kaplan, & George Hammons, and supported by Friends of the Claremont Library.

Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl is a multilingual and multidimensional spoken word poetiza and seasoned language arts educator with a B.A. in English and M.Ed. in Cross-Cultural Teaching. Diosa X has been published online and in print on both sides of the US-Mexico border and Brazil, and is the author of six poetry collections, with her seventh book, MeXicana, slated to be released in 2025. Learn more about her at http://www.diosax.net.

Karen Greenbaum-Maya is a retired clinical psychologist, former German major and restaurant reviewer, and three-time Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee. Her work has appeared all over the place. Her work in fairy tales and dream interpretation, and her obsession with Kafka and flirtation with Buber have led her inevitably to prose poems. Her collections include three chapbooks, Burrowing Song, Eggs Satori, and Kafka’s Cat (Kattywompus Press), and, The Book of Knots and their Untying (Kelsay Books). A collection of poems about her late husband’s illness and death from lung cancer in 2018, The Beautiful Leaves, was published by Bamboo Dart Press in 2023. Bamboo Dart Press also publishes her sixth collection, Eve the Inventor. She co-curates Fourth Saturdays, a long-running poetry series in Claremont, CA. Find her online at http://www.cloudslikemountains.blogspot.com/.

Where: Claremont Helen Renwick Library

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 2 pm – 4 pm

Address: 208 N. Harvard Ave., Claremont, CA 90745

Weekend Book Club: Gabriel’s Moon: A Novel at Carson Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Participants will join a facilitated discussion of Gabriel’s Moon: A Novel by William Boyd. For adults.

Where: Carson Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 2 pm – 3 pm

Address: 151 E. Carson St., Carson, CA 90745

Rafael FJ Alvarado was born in Hollywood, California and has poetry in his blood. His granduncle is Luis Cardoza Y Aragon, the famous Guatemalan poet and associate of Pablo Neruda, His grandmother, Laura Cardoza Muller, is also a renowned poet who has a big influence on Rafael’s writing. A ubiquitous promoter of poetry, Rafael has become an institution in the Los Angeles poetry community. Most recently, he has taken his inspiration to the web-based World Wide Radio Network on blogtalkradio.com where he produces a gamut of original programming about poetry and writing. He has produced several chapbooks, and his poetry has been anthologized in the Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, Living Dolls: A Photo-Poetic Paper Doll Project and poeticdiversity.

Billy Burgos is a graphic designer/illustrator/poet originally from Belize. Hehas been published in numerous journals, is the co-editor of the poetry Broadsheet Sic 3, and is a mainstay of the local L.A. poetry scene.His first collection, titled Eulogy to an Unknown Tree, was published by Writ Large Press in 2013.

Consuelo Flores is a prolific Day of the Dead artist, who has led academic workshops nationwide, and written and directed both short and full-length plays. She’s an active member of a threaded poetry collective whose first collection will be published in July.Four of her Paper Fashions will be exhibited from June – November 2025 and “Barrio 2100” an art show she’s curated at Avenue 50 Studio in July, 2025 which features the work of Armando Norte and their two adult sons.

Pam Ward released her first poetry book, between good men & no man at all through World Stage Press. Pam is the author of three novels, Want Some, Get Some, chronicling a heist after the ’92 riots and bad girls burn slow, a tale of a mother working funeral homes. A UCLA graduate and recipient of a “California Arts Council Fellow” and a “Pushcart Poetry Nominee,” Pam edited the first anthology of Los Angeles black women poets entitled, The Supergirls Handbook. While operating a design studio and teaching at Art Center College of Design, Pam merged writing and graphics to produce “My Life, LA” documenting Black Angelinos in poster/stories. Pam’s literary showcase, “I Didn’t Survive Slavery For This!” a multi-media poetic riff on life post emancipation, featured a collective of poets of The World Stage. Pam currently designs, runs her community imprint Short Dress Press. Pam recently completed her third novel Bury My Dress on Central Ave., about her aunt’s connection to the Black Dahlia murder, a crime so horrific it shocked the whole world.

Where: Hyde Park Miriam Matthews Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 2:30 pm – 4 pm

Join us for a multinational spoken word event that will take place on the fourth Saturday of each month on-site at the Northridge Branch Library and online via Zoom. There will be an open reading included.

RSVP:

Email Emily at eaaronson@lapl.org for Zoom link.

Where: Northridge Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 3 pm

Address: 9061 Darby Ave., Northridge, CA 91426

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/keepers-culture-poetry-reading-series-0

Author Event: Elizabeth Hernandez at Wilmington Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join us and meet Elizabeth Hernandez, MPA, author of Beyond the Broken Gates: A Collection of Short Stories. Beyond the Broken Gears is a raw and moving collection of short stories that outline Elizabeth’s life journey. Through captivating narratives, the book explores growing up in the historic yet challenging streets of Wilmington, CA. Her story is one of struggle and survival, and a tale of navigating the complex realities of financial hardships, faith, family, and identity.

Where: Wilmington Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 3 pm – 4:30 pm

Address: 1300 N. Avalon Blvd., Wilmington, CA 90744

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/meet-woman-behind-collection-short-stories-1

Chatsworth Teen Book Club: One of Us Is Lying at Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen Event

Hosted by the Teen Council.

The book selection for July is One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus, a young adult mystery/suspense novel.

Pay close attention and you might solve this. On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
 
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?

Where: Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 3 pm – 4 pm

Address: 21052 Devonshire St., Chatsworth, CA 91311

Join Lori this month for a discussion of 1984 by George Orwell.
The story follows Winston Smith, a government employee who secretly rebels against the Party’s oppressive control over truth, history, and personal freedom. As Winston seeks truth and love in a world of constant surveillance and propaganda, he ultimately faces the devastating power of a regime that controls not only actions but thoughts.

Where: North Hollywood Amelia Earhart Regional Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 3 pm

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

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

L.A. Street Poetry Festival: Resistance Pop-Up with GET LIT Youth Poetry Reading at Homeboy Arts Academy – In-Person Event

The LA Street Poetry Festival Committee proudly presents our first pop-up reading at HOMEBOY ART ACADEMY! We’ll be showcasing the GET LIT youth poets and presenting the Homeboy Art Academy Anthology, published by our partners, El Martillo Press.

This is a free show with donations welcome to support our 2nd annual LA Street Poetry Festival (planned for August).

All youth are welcome.

Where: Homeboy Arts Academy

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 3 pm – 5 pm

Address: 1231 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90012

Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Charlie Brice & Richard Spisak + Poets in Four Feathers Press via Saturday Afternoon Poetry – Online Event

Hosted by DKC, Charlie Brice and Richard Spisak will feature at this reading, along with readers from Four Feathers Press online edition: Watermelon Hues.

Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.

Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry Online

Date: Saturday, the 26^th

Time: 3 pm – 5 pm

Address: Online Zoom Event

Where: Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 3:30 pm – 5 pm

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

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/zine-workshop-and-reading

Author Signing: Paul Miloknay & Welcome to Hollywood at Zibby’s Bookshop, Santa Monica – In-Person Event

Author Paul Miloknay will present and sign his book, Welcome to Hollywood: A Survival Guide for Aspiring Writers.

Welcome to Hollywood: A Survival Guide for Aspiring Writers is the essential handbook for writers beginning their journey in the entertainment industry without representation. This comprehensive guide dives into the pitfalls that many new writers face, such as underestimating the competition, failing to secure written agreements, and partnering with the wrong collaborators. It then shifts to best practices that protect your work and foster valuable industry relationships.

Paul Miloknay is an attorney specializing in entertainment law, with a background in commercial litigation. He completed his undergraduate studies in English and Film at Yale before attending UCLA Law School. After briefly working as a commercial litigator and trial lawyer, he shifted his focus to entertainment law, a field where he has excelled for over 25 years. Paul has successfully represented a diverse range of clients, including prominent writers, directors, actors, and influencers, as well as many emerging talents. He is well respected in the entertainment industry for his insightful legal guidance and dedication to his clients’ success. Paul currently resides in Los Angeles.

Where: Zibby’s Bookshop

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 4 pm – 5 pm

Address: 1113 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90403

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/author-signing-with-paul-miloknay-tickets-1415788404229?aff=odcleoeventsincollection

Historical Fiction Book Club: Small Island at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Join participants to discuss Small Island: A Novel by Andrea Levy.

An international bestseller. Andrea Levy’s Small Island won the Orange Prize for Fiction, The Orange Prize for Fiction: Best of the Best, The Whitbread Novel Award, The Whitbread Book of the Year Award, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.

Hortense Joseph arrives in London from Jamaica in 1948 with her life in her suitcase, her heart broken, her resolve intact. Her husband, Gilbert Joseph, returns from the war expecting to be received as a hero, but finds his status as a black man in Britain to be second class. His white landlady, Queenie, raised as a farmer’s daughter, befriends Gilbert, and later Hortense, with innocence and courage, until the unexpected arrival of her husband, Bernard, who returns from combat with issues of his own to resolve.

Told in these four voices, Small Island is a courageous novel of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of shattering compassion and of reckless optimism in the face of insurmountable barriers—in short, an encapsulation of that most American of experiences: the immigrant’s life.

Born in London, England to Jamaican parents, Andrea Levy (1956-2019) was the author of Small Island, winner of the Whitbread Award (now Costa Award), the Orange Prize for Fiction (now Women’s Prize for Fiction), and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. The BBC Masterpiece Classic television adaptation of her novel won an International Emmy for best TV movie/miniseries.

Andrea’s other books include the Man Booker Prize finalist The Long Song, also adapted by the BBC for television, and Fruit of the Lemon, among others.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 5 pm

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

Kindness Always: Literary Series Aiding Kids in Need of Defense, with L.A. Poet Society at The Libros, Lincoln Heights – In-Person Event

Join LA Poet Society in the goal of raising money for immigrant children, so they don’t have to face going to court alone. Let’s be there for all children.

This event will feature: Sandy Shakes, Carlos Ornelas, Anna Goodman.

We are dedicating all our live events to help support KIND: Kids in Need of Defense. They are a non-profit organization that provides legal services, support, and resources to immigrant and refugee children.

Join us at our upcoming shows, featuring live music, poetry, and open mic.

We want to PACK THE OPEN MIC LIST! Come join us and contribute to our fundraiser.

Join our KIND page: https://fundraise.supportkind.org/fundraise/la-poet-society-is-kind

RSVP to let us know if you want to join the open mic list.

Where: The Libros, Lincoln Heights

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 7 pm – 10 pm

Hosted by Ceasar K. Avelar and Cory “Besskepp” Cofer. Featuring beats by JB.

Lineup for the reading TBA.

FREE. RSVP at website link.

Where: Café con Libros Press, Pomona

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

10 poets will compete on stage to be crowned champion of the OC Poetry Slam. To sign up email ocpoetryslam@gmail.com.

OC Poetry Slam is a poetry community founded by Tomi Simmons and Kimberly Bittle. We host poetry slams, writing workshops, and community write-ins for the Orange County community. We are committed to fostering inclusion and equity within the writing and performance communities.

Where: The Den Café, Santa Ana

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 7 pm – 10 pm

Where: 125 North Broadway #D, Santa Ana, CA 92701

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oc-poetry-slam-tickets-1486356625679

Book Release Event: Lauren Salerno & The Undead Bookshop at Avenue 50 Studio – In-Person Event

A Women Who Submit Event. Reading & Fundraising Gala.

Lauren Salerno will present her book The Undead Bookshop.

Build up your library and support women and nonbinary writers. Books by the WWS authors reading at the PUBLISHED! event will be available for purchase that night.

Where: Avenue 50 Studio

Date: Saturday the 26^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 10 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.

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 27^th

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

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

We invite you to slip on your warmest PJs and join us for an exclusive Bluey themed Pajama Party Storytime on Sunday July 27th!

We’ll have books, stickers, and even some free giveaways.

So, grab your kiddo, get your jammies, and we’ll see you at the bookstore!

The first 24 kids to arrive will get a limited-edition activity book on us.

As always, our storytime events are free to attend, but we recommend you RSVP so that we can accommodate all who want to join.

Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore

Date: Sunday the 27^th

Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm

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

Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2025-07-27/bluey-storytime-pajama-party

The Conscious Tea Book Club: Bad Land at Bel Canto Books at KUBO Long Beach – In-Person Event

The Conscious Tea is an online and local book club created to cope with these crazy unprecedented times. We will be reading and discussing works that build political education, intersectionality and awareness amongst the Asian community. There will also be a focus on Asian-based authors as well. Every month we will change between fiction and non-fiction to keep it lively and engaging. This is the space where you can share your thoughts and connect respectively.

RSVP

Where: Bel Canto Books at KUBO Long Beach

Date: Sunday the 27^th

Time: 11 am – 1 pm

Where: 3976 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, CA 90807

Website: https://belcantobooks.net/events

Burning Issues Book Club: California Against the Sea via Bel Canto Books – Online Event

The Burning Issues Book Club meets online on the last Sunday of the month.

Participants will discuss the July selection, California Against the Sea: Visions for Our Vanishing Coastline by Rosanna Xia.

Los Angeles Times coastal reporter Rosanna Xia asks: As climate chaos threatens the places we love so fiercely, will we finally grasp our collective capacity for change?

Xia, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, investigates the impacts of engineered landscapes, the market pressures of development, and the ecological activism and political scrimmages that have carved our contemporary coastline—and foretell even greater changes to our shores. From the beaches of the Mexican border up to the sheer-cliffed North Coast, the voices of Indigenous leaders, community activists, small-town mayors, urban engineers, and tenacious environmental scientists commingle. Together, they chronicle the challenges and urgency of forging a climate-wise future.

Where: Bel Canto Books

Date: Sunday the 27^th

Time: 12 pm – 1 pm

Where: Online Zoom Event (see site)

Website: https://belcantobooks.net/events

Community Grief Circle at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Event

This supportive space is open to anyone navigating any type of loss—whether it’s the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, a life transition, or any grief that feels too heavy to carry alone. Come as you are to share, connect, and find healing in community.

Join Jen Venegas, death doula and grief worker, at Underdog Bookstore on the last Sunday of each month from 12:00 – 1:30 pm. This is a free, all ages event. This is a place where you can be held in community and hold others through our collective grief and individual grief.

All are welcome.

Where: Underdog Bookstore

Date: Sunday the 27^th

Time: 12 pm – 1:30 pm

Participants will discuss the July selection Bellies by Nicola Dinan.

Bellies is a tender, witty, and emotionally rich novel about love, identity, and transformation. It follows Ming and Tom, university sweethearts whose relationship is tested when Ming comes out as a trans woman. Through alternating perspectives, the story explores the complexities of gender, queerness, and intimacy, offering a heartfelt portrayal of growing up and growing apart.

Beyond the characters’ personal journeys, the novel delivers a profound commentary on the queer community, emphasizing the significance of chosen family and the resilience that thrives within queer spaces. Timely and deeply moving, it prompts thoughtful reflection on the rich, complex realities of queer life and relationships.

Where: Chevalier’s Off-site at Barnsdale Art Park-

Date: Sunday the 27^th

Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm

Where: 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90027

Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2025-07-27/queer-book-club-july

LA Made + Razorcake Presents: Eastside Punks at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

LA Made in collaboration with Razorcake magazine is proud to present a screening of Eastside Punks, a film series showcasing another Los Angeles punk scene, one whose existence has developed parallel to, and occasionally intersected with, but remains largely marginalized from L.A.’s greater musical underground.

Blending live footage and interviews with multiple generations of musicians, artists, writers, and scenesters, Eastside Punks taps into stories from the scene’s history: its beginnings in East L.A.’s art and music underground of the 1970s; early eastside punk pioneers who contributed to the foundations of Los Angeles’s original punk scene; the birth of a unique eastside scene, the rise and fall of its premier club, The Vex, and the bands that called it home.

We will screen two short films highlighting the bands Brat and Nervous Gender. Afterwards, band members Teresa Covarrubias and Rudy Medina (Brat) and Edward Stapleton (Nervous Gender) will be onstage in moderated conversation with Jimmy Alvarado and Todd Taylor from Razorcake.

Reservations are not required but are highly encouraged. To reserve your seat, please visit this link to find the event. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

This program is made possible by the LA Made Fund.

Where: Central Library, LAPL, Mark Taper Auditorium

Date: Sunday, the 27^th

Time: 2 pm

Address: 630 W. 7^th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/la-made-eastside-punks-razorcake

Zillennial Book Club: The Spirit Bares Its Teeth at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Join participants to discuss The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White.

Bestselling author Andrew Joseph White returns with the transgressive gothic horror of our time!

Mors vincit omnia. Death conquers all.

London, 1883. The Veil between the living and dead has thinned. Violet-eyed mediums commune with spirits under the watchful eye of the Royal Speaker Society, and sixteen-year-old trans, autistic Silas Bell would rather rip out his violet eyes than become an obedient Speaker wife.

After a failed attempt to escape an arranged marriage, Silas is diagnosed with Veil sickness—a mysterious disease sending violet-eyed women into madness—and shipped away to Braxton’s Finishing School and Sanitorium. When the ghosts of missing students start begging Silas for help, he decides to reach into Braxton’s innards and expose its guts to the world—so long as the school doesn’t break him first.

Featuring an autistic trans protagonist in a historical setting, Andrew Joseph White’s much-anticipated sophomore novel does not back down from exposing the violence of the patriarchy and the harm inflicted on trans youth who are forced into conformity.

Andrew Joseph White is a queer, trans author from Virginia, where he grew up falling in love with monsters and wishing he could be one too. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University in 20 and has a habit of cuddling random street cats. Andrew writes about trans kids with claws and fangs, and what happens when they bite back.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Sunday the 27^th

Time: 4 pm

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

Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/zillennial-book-club-spirit-bares-its-teeth

Author Event: Dina Alvarez, Dina Aronson, Dr. Sarah Milken and Nada Jones & Midlife Private Parts at Zibby’s Bookshop, Santa Monica – In-Person Event

Join us for an In-person author event for Midlife Private Parts, a soulful and revealing collection of essays that explore the many facets of this transformative time in life. Each story sheds light, with humanity and good humor, on what it really feels like to move through the world as a midlife woman and beyond.

Whether it’s sexual pleasure, midlife reinvention, menopause, friendship, redefining style at a certain age, dating after divorce, feeling invisible, or simply being in the last place you ever thought you’d be, you’ll feel seen in these essays that acknowledge the changes and challenges but capture the power, freedom and confidence that comes with age. Told through the eyes of contemporary women writers, authors, and creatives, each shares a story of coming to terms with aging and confronting the unexpected moments that define midlife.

About the authors:

Dina Alvarez started her writing career as a freelancer for a parenting publication in New York City covering education, local politics, and lifestyle. She later co-founded SomosPadres, the first and only bilingual parenting publication for Hispanic families in New York City. Dina is an avid reader and lover of anthologies, particularly those that tell women’s stories. She is the mother of two sons and a native New Yorker. She continues to call the city home where she lives with her family.

Dina Aronson is a writer, editor, and pro-age advocate who is passionate about shining a light on midlife women and reframing the cultural conversation around aging. She began her career as an attorney, later founding a legal search consultancy, but pivoted as she approached midlife and couldn’t find relevant content that reflected her experience. She began freelancing for start-ups aimed at the forty and above woman, and founded the Patina blog, now a Substack newsletter called Patina with Dina Aronson, where she explores topics in and around aging through her midlife lens. She has two grown stepsons and currently resides between New York City and Miami with her husband.

Dr. Sarah Milken is the creator and host of the podcast The Flexible Neurotic, where she and her female listeners explore reinventing themselves in the second half of life, together. Sarah is inspiring midlife women to focus on themselves and to dig deep (her show’s symbol is a golden shit shovel) to uncover new possibilities for their lives. Sarah has amassed thousands of Instagram followers and has created a dedicated and engaged community with her podcast that ranks in the top 1%. Sarah graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.A. in communications, and went on to receive her PhD in Educational Psychology at the University of Southern California, after which she taught in the graduate school of education at USC. She has served on several philanthropic boards as well as the board of a Los Angeles private school. After taking time off to raise her two children (now teens), she realized she needed to recreate herself and capitalize on all her strengths, hence the Flexible Neurotic podcast was born. Sarah and her husband, Jeremy, live in Pacific Palisades, California. They are currently ½ empty nesters, with one 12th grade daughter at home, and their son is currently attending the University of Pennsylvania.

Nada Jones is the Founder, CEO and Podcast Host of Liberty Road, a multimedia brand curating the modern midlife. After 20 years of working with female founders and starting to notice a trend of women feeling a bit lost as they approached midlife, Nada decided it was time to help women connect the dots to what’s next. She knew two things: 1) This is not our mother’s midlife, and there are few examples of what this stage of life could look like, and 2) the midlife space was (thankfully) focusing on hormones, but who was addressing the whole woman. Vocation and purpose, health and wellness, and lifestyle and life-stage issues all needed some airtime too. In 2023 she launched Liberty Road to curate the best advice, products, and services out there to help women navigate their middle-third with intention and purpose. Liberty Road’s multimedia platform includes events, a membership, and a podcast.

Where: Zibby’s Bookshop

Date: Sunday the 27^th

Time: 4 pm – 5 pm

Address: 1113 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90403

Curated by Grist, the leading media organization dedicated to foregrounding stories of climate change, Metamorphosis is a visionary and speculative collection. Immersive, thought-provoking, and often surprising, these stories serve as a springboard for exploring how fiction can help us envision a tomorrow in which we flourish and thrive.

Where: North Figueroa Bookshop

Date: Sunday the 27^th

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-d064fc27-0de7-49eb-ba49-b91de175d76

Satrang Open Mic Night at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Picture a night in a cozy bookstore sipping chai while watching a talented lineup of queer (and some ally) South Asian musicians, storytellers, comedians, and poets. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then please join us on Sunday, July 27th at Village Well Books and Coffee for an amazing creative and cultural event.

Join our host Kaith Karishma to tell stories, sing, and make each other laugh, and be sure to come ready to buy art, jewelry, clothing and more from our amazing vendors!

And of course, if you are interested in performing you can sign up here (buying a ticket is required to perform): https://forms.gle/Djfu7DRC5AR4axdH7

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Sunday the 27^th

Time: 6 pm – 10 pm

The Historical Romance Book Club meets on the 4^th Sunday of the month, and participants read all historical romance titles, all aeras, both old and new. Everyone is welcome.

This month’s selection is Midnight by Beverly Jenkins.

Hosted by Orders Manager Katie S.

RSVP required.

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Date: Sunday the 27^th

Time: 7:15 pm – 9 pm

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

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