Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/06/25 – 10/12/25

World Literature Book Club via West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event

Join us for an engaging discussion on some of the world’s best short stories! This year’s selections are from 100 Great Short Stories edited by James Daley and The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction. This month’s selections (from 100 Great Short Stories) are:

October 6: The Lightning-Rod Man by Herman Melville

October 20: Selecting the Faculty by Robert Carlton

October 27: The Cold Embrace by Mary E. Braddon

We meet every Monday morning (excluding holidays).

RSVP:

For the Zoom link and weekly story to be discussed, email wvally@lapl.org with “World Literature” in the subject line.

Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 6^th

Time: 10 am

Address: Online Event

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-literature-book-club-10

Robertson Writers Group at Robertson Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event

Writing a book, poem, or screenplay? Need deadlines? Want constructive feedback? Then this is the place for you. Bring 5 – 10 double-spaced typed pages to read. Everyone will get a chance to read.

RSVP:

This group mostly meets in person, but email rbrtsn@lapl.org if you’d prefer to join via Zoom.

Where: Robertson Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 6^th

Time: 11 am

Address: 1719 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/robertson-writers-group-2

Seniors Writing Group at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Danny Stone, a Saved by a Story member, leads an ongoing writing group for seniors. New members are welcome to all or any sessions.

Write to prompts, share (if you want), connect with fellow seniors in the neighborhood, hone your writing skills, and find your story.

RSVP: An RSVP to studio@lapl.org is recommended but not required. If you RSVP we will send you a welcome packet, guidelines, and a reminder the day before the meeting.

Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 6^th

Time: 1 pm

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

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/senior-writing-group-2

Banned Books Read-In at Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join us for Banned Book Week, as patrons are encouraged to read a book that has been challenged or banned. You can pick out a library book or bring your own to attend our silent read-in. All participants will be able to redeem a free e-audiobook copy of Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books courtesy of libro.fm.

Where: Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 6^th

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm

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

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/banned-books-week-read

Talking Hearts Writing Circle with LA Poet Society at Bodevi Wine & Espresso Bar, San Fernando – In-Person Event

Join us on the first Monday of every month for the new Talking Hearts Writing Circle with guest facilitator Annalicia Aguilar.

Annalicia Aguilar is a Mexican American/mixed-race indigenous poet, screenwriter, playwright, producer, and educator. She has an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Writing, with emphasis in Theater. She has been a featured poet for the Trenches Full of Poets Series, the Los Angeles Poet Society, Sim’s Library of Poetry, and The Community Literature Initiative. Author of Broken, But Holding, published by Riot of Roses Publishing House.

A safe writing space for all humans. No prior writing experience required.

Donations welcome.

Where: Bodevi Wine & Espresso Bar

Date: Monday the 6^th

Time: 5:30 pm – 7 pm

Address: 909 San Fernando Rd., San Fernando, CA 91340

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Books Discussion for Adults: Good Dirt at Sorensen Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us to read and discuss this multi-generational epic, Good Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson, set in a well-to-do enclave in New England. For Adults.

The daughter of an affluent Black family pieces together the connection between a childhood tragedy and a beloved heirloom in this moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Black Cake, a Read with Jenna Book Club Pick.

Pick up a copy for checkout at the Customer Service Desk today.

Where: Sorensen Library, LACL

Date: Monday the 6^th

Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm

Address: 6934 Broadway Ave., Whittier, CA 90606

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14500850

Mystery Books Club: A Most Puzzling Murder at Lake Los Angeles Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us as we discuss a different mystery book each month. This month’s selection is A Most Puzzling Murder by Bianca Marais. Copies of the book are available at customer service desk for checkout. For adults.

Where: Lake Los Angeles Library, LACL

Date: Monday the 6^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Address: 16921 East Avenue O #A, Palmdale, CA 93591

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14610946

Open Write Night – October at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event

Now hosted twice a month, Chevalier’s Books Write Nights are back by popular demand! Whether you’re finalizing a book, crafting a screenplay, or just starting on a first draft, join us from 6:45–8:30 pm on the first Monday of every month for a chance to work on your writing in a community of fellow writers. These are free-form sessions where you can work on anything you’d like. If you’re searching for inspiration or motivation, why not write in community?

All Write Nights will be donation-based and we do not tolerate bigotry or harassment in any form.

*please note that we host a second Write Night each month for QTBIPOC (Queer, Transgender, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) writers only, so as to create a safe and dedicated space for all members of our community*

Free RSVP at site link.

Where: Chevalier’s Books

Date: Monday the 6^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2025-10-06/open-write-night-october

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 6^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501

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

Brian Baker, with Brett Gurewitz, & The Road at Book Soup – In-Person Event

Brian Baker, in conversation with Brett Gurewitz, will discuss The Road,

The Road is an illuminating selection of photographs spanning iconic punk rock guitarist Brian Baker’s many years of global touring with Bad Religion, Dag Nasty, and other bands. The images are intelligent and arresting, reflecting time spent both inside and outside the bubble of backstages and tour buses.

While touring is easily glamorized, all traveling musicians know that twenty-two hours of every day lack the lights, glitter, and other rock-and-roll trappings. For Baker, some of that time is spent photographing what interests him most in his surroundings. As revealed in The Road, his fascinations range from bizarre highway signage; to unsettling figurines, mannequins, and statuettes; to religious iconography that carries extra weight when one considers the ethos of a band called Bad Religion; to steaming cups of espresso and classic diner meals; to guitars, guitars, and more guitars; and so much more.

The Road is designed in collaboration with award-winning photographer and curator Jennifer Sakai. Music lovers across the globe will revel in a Brian Baker’s-eye view of the landscapes he inhabits, and gain insight into the sometimes disquieting and always beautiful imagery that seizes his attention and engages his obsessions.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Monday the 6^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2025-10-06/brian-baker-conversation-brett-gurewitz-discusses-signs-road

At Skylight: Tom Lutz, with Lisa Teasley, & Chagos Archipelago at Skylight – In-Person Event

Tom Lutz, in conversation with Lisa Teasley, will discuss his novel Chagos Archipelago (paperback).

A Spanish woman trying to retire as an assassin, a French Foreign Legion deserter from Madagascar, a mysterious (perhaps CIA) woman from America, a billionaire military contractor, and a man wandering the seas alone on a sailing ship bump into each other in the Indian Ocean, and not all of them survive.

Monica has had enough of her life as a contract killer when she meets lonely wanderer Frank Baltimore in a stupidly expensive resort in Madagascar. A few hundred miles away, Alain has had more than enough of his solitary post on a tiny island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and so when the mysterious Skye offers him a job, he says yes—he doesn’t know if she is CIA, Wagner, Darkwater, or a gangster, but he wants in. She takes him to Diego Garcia, the top-secret US military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean, for training. Things turn ugly and deadly when a man from Frank’s past turns up trying to break into the lucrative, secretive, already crowded world of paramilitary contractors. He, Monica, Alain, and Skye end up on his bad side and turn to each other for help.

Tom Lutz is the author of many books on literature and culture, as well as several books of travel writing and two novels. He taught, formerly, at UC Riverside, University of Iowa, CalArts, University of Copenhagen, and Stanford. He now lives in the French countryside with his wife, the writer and critic Laurie Winer, and their two expatriate cats.

Lisa Teasley is the author of acclaimed novels Dive and Heat Signature, and the award-winning story collection, Glow in the Dark, published by Bloomsbury. Her latest is the story collection Fluid published by Cune Press. Lisa is the librettist of the coming 2026 world premiere Long Beach Opera The Passion of Nell and the writer/presenter of the BBC television documentary “High School Prom.” Her essays, stories and poems have been much anthologized, including in WW Norton’s Flash Fiction America and Europa Editions’ The Passenger California. Her writings have been translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Swedish, Chinese, and Arabic. Lisa was the senior fiction editor for Los Angeles Review of Books, and is a visual artist as well, with a coming solo show next February at the Offus gallery.

Where: Skylight

Date: Monday, the 6^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-tom-lutz-presents-chagos-archipelago-w-lisa-teasley

Ron Koertge, with Lindsay Hill, & Pandora’s Kitchen: Poems at Vroman‘s – In-Person Event

Ron Koertge, in conversation with Lindsay Hill, will discuss and sign Pandora’s Kitchen: Poems.

The subjects in Ron Koertge’s poems include Hades’ unhappy wife Persephone, Nancy Drew, and Dracula’s Wives. He has located Jane Austen at the mall, comforted the sun itself, and celebrated a winning day at the races. In an early poem, he extols his chosen vocation by saying this: “It’s so great to be a poet. I’m basically self-employed with nobody to please but myself.” Yet pleasing his many fans is at the top of his Things-To-Do list. That is why poets from Billy Collins to B. H. Fairchild have called his poems masterful, quirky, deliciously sly, inventive, and surprisingly sweet.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Monday, the 6^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-10-06/ron-koertge

Continuing the Series Book Club: Breaking Dawn from the Twilight Series at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event

Our next Continuing the Story: Twilight Saga will discuss Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer.

General manager Taylor C. will lead our book club. Each month we sink our teeth into a new installment of the series. Welcome back to Forks!

No membership is necessary, but a ticket is required. RSVP

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 7:15 pm – 9 pm

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

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

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 6^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)

Website: https://www.beyondbaroque.org

Live Talks LA Presents: Steven Pinker, with Michael Shermer, & When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life at Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event

Steven PInker, in conversation with Michael Shermer, will discuss When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life.

From one of the world’s most celebrated intellectuals, a brilliantly insightful work that explains how we think about each other’s thoughts about each other’s thoughts, ad infinitum. It sounds impossible, but Steven Pinker shows that we do it all the time. This awareness, which we experience as something that is public or “out there,” is called common knowledge, and it has a momentous impact on our social, political, and economic lives.

“Common knowledge” is necessary for coordination, for making arbitrary but complementary choices like driving on the right, using paper currency, and coalescing behind a political leader or movement. It’s also necessary for social coordination: everything from rendezvousing at a time and place to speaking the same language to forming enduring relationships of friendship, romance, or authority. Humans have a sixth sense for common knowledge, and we create it with signals like laughter, tears, blushing, eye contact, and blunt speech.

But people also go to great lengths to avoid common knowledge—to ensure that even if everyone knows something, they can’t know that everyone else knows they know it. And so we get rituals like benign hypocrisy, veiled bribes and threats, sexual innuendo, and pretending not to see the elephant in the room.

Pinker shows how the hidden logic of common knowledge can make sense of many of life’s enigmas: financial bubbles and crashes, revolutions that come out of nowhere, the posturing and pretense of diplomacy, the eruption of social media shaming mobs and academic cancel culture, the awkwardness of a first date. Artists and humorists have long mined the intrigues of common knowledge, and Pinker liberally uses their novels, jokes, cartoons, films, and sitcom dialogues to illuminate social life’s tragedies and comedies.

Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He has won many prizes for his teaching, his research on language, cognition, and social relations, and his twelve books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Rationality. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World Today.”

Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, the host of the podcast The Michael Shermer Show, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University where he teaches Skepticism 101. For 18 years he was a monthly columnist for Scientific American. He writes a weekly Substack column. He is the author of New York Times bestsellers Why People Believe Weird Things and The Believing Brain, Why Darwin Matters, The Science of Good and Evil, The Moral Arc, Heavens on Earth, Giving the Devil His Due: Reflections of a Scientific Humanist, and Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational.

Where: Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center at Vista Del Mar

Date: Monday, the 6^th

Time: 8 pm

Address: 3200 Motor Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034

Website: https://livetalksla.org/events/steven_pinker/

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

Let Francesca help you with all aspects of your writing!

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

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: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 10 am – 11 am

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Tuesday Tales: A Travelin’ Storytime, Session 1 at Fairview Branch Library, SMPL – In-Person Kids Event

This fun and engaging weekly series, featuring stories, songs, and rhymes, travels to a different library location each week. Limited space; free tickets available. For ages 3 – 5.

Where: Fairview Branch Library, SMPL

Date: Tuesday the 6^th

Time: 10:30 am – 11 am

Address: 2101 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405

Website: https://www.santamonica.gov/events

Virtual Book Club: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls via La Crescenta Library, LACL – Online Event

Join us weekly on Zoom on Tuesday mornings at 11 am for the Virtual Book Club. In September we will be discussing Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix. For adults.

Please contact Marta Wiggins at mwiggins@library.lacounty.gov for your invite to join the Zoom discussion and other details about the Virtual Book Club. You can pick up your copy of Isola at the La Crescenta Library Customer Service Desk. Below is the breakdown for the weekly discussion.

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

Week 1: October 7: Chapters 1 – 10 Pages: 1 – 126

Week 2: October 14: Chapters 11 – 20 Pages: 127 – 248

Week 3: October 21: Chapters 21 – 31 Pages: 249 – 385

Week 4: October 28: Chapters 32 to the end of the book Pages: 386 to the end of the book

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.

Where: La Crescenta Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14499561

Tuesday Tales: A Travelin’ Storytime, Session 2 at Fairview Branch Library, SMPL – In-Person Kids Event

This fun and engaging weekly series, featuring stories, songs, and rhymes, travels to a different library location each week. Limited space; free tickets available. For ages 3 – 5.

Where: Fairview Branch Library, SMPL

Date: Tuesday the 6^th

Time: 11:30 am – 12 pm

Address: 1704 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90403

Website: https://www.santamonica.gov/events

Celebrate Stories Without Borders, Art & Spoken Word at Farmers Market Triangle – In-Person Event

Join us Tuesday 10/7 for Cal State LA’s Stories Without Borders Week, Art & Spoken Word, supporting undocumented students at Cal State LA.

Featured poets Jean Pierre Rueda, Virginia Bulacio, and Jesenia Chavez will guide an interactive workshop and share their own work. Explore your voice, write freely, and connect with others.

Virginia Bulacio is a bilingual poet, educator, and community organizer based in Los Angeles. Born in Argentina, she migrated to Los Angeles as a teen, where writing and the arts became her form of expression and advocacy.

Jesenia Chavez is a proud Chicanita, public school teacher, poet, and storyteller. Her writing is deeply rooted in her Parents’ migration from Chihuahua, Mexico to Los Angeles. She is the author of the collection This Poem Might save You (me) and co-host of Que Me Cuentas (What Can You Tell Me), a Latin storytelling podcast.

Jean Pierre Rueda, born in San Jose, Costa Rica and based in Compton, CA is a poet and published author of Love Between Downpours, a bilingual poetry collection and finalist for the 2025 Juan Felipe Herrera Award. He co-hosts Poesia for the People, a bi-monthly, bilingual Open Mic in Downey, CA that connects local and touring Poets.

Featuring: @chabemucho, @virginiabulacio, and @poetatico, in partnership with @alegriapublishing, @calstatela_dean, @casatcalstatela, and @calstatelagsp!

Where: Farmers Market Triangle

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 12 pm – 2 pm

Address: 1500 Griffith Park Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026

Website: https://www.instagram.com

The Darkest Hour Book Club: The Ghostwriter at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us and discuss The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark. Copies available at the library. For adults.

Ghostwriter Olivia Dumont has spent her entire professional life hiding the fact that she is the only child of legendary horror author Vincent Taylor, famous not only for his novels but for being the prime suspect in the brutal slaying of his siblings. On the brink of financial ruin, Olivia reluctantly agrees to ghostwrite her father’s last book, not realizing she will be forced to reckon with the ghosts that live at the center of her family.

Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 2 pm – 3 pm

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

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14499568

Right to Write: Writing Workshop at Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen Event

Having trouble writing for school? The Right to Write is a peer writing program where reviewers will help you with your written work for school. You will receive feedback to bolster your writing skills in a positive environment that accepts errors. The Right to Write mission is to ensure that students believe in themselves as they become the best writers they can be.

10/7 – 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

10/9 – 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

11/6 – 4:30 p.m. to 5:30

11/13 – 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

12/4 – 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

12/9 – 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

12/11 – 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

12/16 – 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Where: Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Address: 21062 Devonshire St., Chatsworth, CA 91311

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

Banned Book Week Book Club: 1984 or Animal Farm at Vermont Square Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen Event

Teens, come celebrate Banned Book Week by reading 1984 or Animal Farm by Gorge Orwell. The theme of Banned Book Week 2025 is “Censorship is so 1984—Read for Your Rights.” Learn why Banned Book Week is held every year. Copies available at the reference desk. Also available as an eBook via hoopla and/or Libby.

Or: Read one of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2024:

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

(tie) The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

(tie) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

(tie) Looking for Alaska by John Green

(tie) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

(tie) Crank by Ellen Hopkins

(tie) Sold by Patricia McCormick

Flamer by Mike Curato

Where: Vermont Square Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 4 pm

Address: 1201 W. 48th. Street, Los Angeles, CA 90037

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/banned-book-week-book-club-censorship-so-1984-read-your-rights-0

Middle Grade Book Talk: Jennifer I. Holm & Outside at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person MG Event

Jennifer I. Holm will celebrate the launch of Outside.

Come meet Newberry Honor winner Jennifer L Holm for the release of her new book Outside! It is a chilling but heartfelt story of a girl being raised in a compound who doesn’t understand how isolated and unusual her life is…until she must encounter the outside world.

Jennifer L. Holm is a three-time Newbery Honor author and the bestselling author of multiple graphic novel series illustrated by her brother Matthew Holm. Jennifer is making a highly anticipated return to the middle grade novel following her previous work, The Fourteenth Goldfish.

Reserve your tickets on EVENTBRITE!

About the book:

A heartfelt story of a girl being raised in a compound who doesn’t understand how isolated and unusual her life is until she must encounter the outside world. Outside follows main character Razzi who has always been told: Don’t go Outside. It isn’t safe. There are people and creatures out there that will harm you. The walls of the Refuge will protect you from them. Razzi’s friend Ollie was curious about Outside and it led to his death. So, Razzi is trying to be on her best behavior. She is the oldest kid left, the one the younger kids look up to. She has to follow the rules. But Outside has a way of getting in, and Razzi, guided by a dog she has a strangely close connection with, wonders what it’s like to run free beyond the walls. If she steps away from everything she’s ever known…what will she find?

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Women and Books Book Club: The Dream Hotel at West Hollywood Library, LACL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event

Join the book club for a hybrid (in-person and online) discussion of The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami. For adults.

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

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

Co-sponsored by the City of West Hollywood Women’s Advisory Board, Women and Books Book Club meets on the first Tuesday of the month to discuss literary works by and focused on women.

Please contact the library to borrow a print copy of the book. eBook and eAudiobook are available through Libby app/OverDrive.

Summary provided by the publisher:

Sara has just landed at LAX, returning home from a conference abroad, when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration pull her aside and inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at imminent risk of harming the person she loves most: her husband. For his safety, she must be kept under observation for twenty-one days.

The agents transfer Sara to a retention center, where she is held with other dreamers, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from different crimes. With every deviation from the strict and ever-shifting rules of the facility, their stay is extended. Months pass and Sara seems no closer to release. Then one day, a new resident arrives, disrupting the order of the facility and leading Sara on a collision course with the very companies that have deprived her of her freedom.

Where: West Hollywood Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Address: 625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14318240

Feminist Book Club: On Our Best Behavior at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Participants will discuss On Our Best Behavior: The Price Women Pay to Be Good by Elise Loehnen.

Why do women equate self-denial with being good?

We congratulate ourselves when we resist the donut in the office breakroom. We celebrate our restraint when we hold back from sending an email in anger. We feel virtuous when we wake up at dawn to get a jump on the day. We put others’ needs ahead of our own and believe this makes us exemplary. In On Our Best Behavior, journalist Elise Loehnen explains that these impulses—often lauded as unselfish, distinctly feminine instincts—are actually ingrained in us by a culture that reaps the benefits, via an extraordinarily effective collection of mores known as the Seven Deadly Sins.

Since being codified by the Christian church in the fourth century, the Seven Deadly Sins—pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth—have exerted insidious power. Even today, in our largely secular, patriarchal society, they continue to circumscribe women’s behavior. For example, seeing sloth as sinful leads women to deny themselves rest; a fear of gluttony drives them to ignore their appetites; and an aversion to greed prevents them from negotiating for themselves and contributes to the 55 percent gender wealth gap.

In On Our Best Behavior, Loehnen reveals how we’ve been programmed to obey the rules represented by these sins and how doing so qualifies us as “good.” This probing analysis of contemporary culture and thoroughly researched history explains how women have internalized the patriarchy, and how they unwittingly reinforce it. By sharing her own story and the spiritual wisdom of other traditions, Loehnen shows how we can break free and discover the integrity and wholeness we seek.

Elise Loehnen is the host of Pulling the Thread. She has co-written twelve books, five of which were New York Times bestsellers. She was the chief content officer of goop, and she co-hosted The goop Podcast and The goop Lab on Netflix. Previously, she was the editorial projects director of Condé Nast Traveler. Elise lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two sons.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 6 pm

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

Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/feminist-book-club-our-best-behavior

Banned Books Read-In at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

We’ve teamed up with Libro.fm and Silent Book Club to host a #BannedBooksWeek Read-In on October 7th at 6 pm in protest of censorship. Join us as we read and take action to fight book bans!

Attendees will receive a free audiobook copy of Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books. Book bans are loud, but our voices are louder!

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

The Darkest Hour Virtual Book Club: The Ghostwriter at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – Online Event

We will discuss The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark. Copies available at the library. For adults.

Please email Adult/Teen Librarian, Katie McGaha, at kmcgaha@library.lacounty.gov for the virtual link.

Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Address: Online Event

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14499574

John Seabrook & The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event

John Seabrook will discuss The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty.

Free seating is limited. To reserve a seat, please purchase one copy of a book for one seat.

“Having left this material for his writer son, my father must have wanted the story told, even if he couldn’t bear to tell it himself.”

So begins the story of a forgotten American dynasty, a farming family from the bean fields of southern New Jersey that became wealthy and powerful aristocrats—only to implode in a storm of lies. The patriarch, C. F. Seabrook, was hailed as the “Henry Ford of Agriculture.” His son Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over what Life called “the biggest vegetable factory on earth.” But the carefully cultivated facade—glamorous outings by horse-drawn carriage, hidden wine cellars, and movie star girlfriends—hid dark secrets that led to the implosion of the family business. A compulsively readable story of class and privilege, betrayal, and revenge—three decades in the making—The Spinach King explores the author’s complicated family legacy and dark corners of the American Dream.

John Seabrook has been a staff writer at The New Yorker for more than three decades. He is the author of The Song Machine, Flash of Genius, Nobrow and other books. The film “Flash of Genius” was based on one of his stories. He and his family live in Brooklyn.

Where: Deisel (in the Courtyard)

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 6:30 pm

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

Website: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2025-10-07/john-seabrook-spinach-king-rise-and-fall-american-dynasty

Open Mic Readings Every Tuesday at the Aftermath Bar, Sherman Oaks – In-Person Event

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

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

Free event. 21+

Note: Please RSVP at site.

Where: The Aftermath Bar

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 7 pm – 10 pm

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

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Tara Punzone & Gene Stone Celebrate Vegana Italiana: Traditional Italian the Plant-Based Way: A Vegan Cookbook at Book Soup – In-Person Event

Tara Punzone and Gene Stone will discuss and sign Vegana Italiana: Traditional Italian the Plant-Based Way: A Vegan Cookbook.

Discover the delicious flavors of plant-based Italian cooking with more than 100 vegan recipes inspired by classic Italian dishes, from the owner and chef of Pura Vita.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2025-10-07/tara-punzone-vegana-italiana

Other Worlds Book Club at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event

OTHER WORLDS BOOK CLUB: Meets monthly, generally on the first Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm.

A new {pages} bookclub exploring the nooks and crannies of speculative fiction: fantasy, science fiction, alternative history, horror, and their intersections.

Facilitated by Leo Lukin

RSVP

Where: pages: a bookstore

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-10-07/other-worlds-book-club

Chris Kraus, with Carolina A. Miranda, & The Four Spent the Day Together at Poetic Research Bureau – In-Person Event

The Poetic Research Bureau and Skylight Books presents the book launch of a new novel by Chris Kraus, The Four Spent the Day Together, just out from Simon & Schuster. Following the reading Chris will be joined in conversation with Los Angeles writer Carolina A. Miranda.

On the Iron Range of northern Minnesota, at the end of the last decade, three teenagers shot and killed an older acquaintance after spending the day with him. In a cold, depressed town, on the fringes of the so-called “meth community,” the three young people were quickly arrested and imprisoned.

At the time of the murder, Catt Greene and her husband, Paul Garcia, are living nearby in a house they’d bought years earlier as a summer escape from Los Angeles. Locked into a period of personal turmoil, moving between LA and Minnesota—between the art world and the urban poverty of Paul’s addiction therapist jobs, the rural poverty of the icy, depressed Iron Range—Catt turns away from her own life and towards the murder case, which soon becomes an obsession. In her attempt to pierce through the brutality and despair surrounding the murder and to understand the teenagers’ lives, Catt is led back to the idiosyncratic, aspirational lives of her parents in the working-class Bronx and small-town, blue-collar Milford, Connecticut.

Written in three linked parts, The Four Spent the Day Together explores the tensions of unclaimed futures and unchosen circumstances in the age of social media, paralyzing interconnectedness, and the ever-widening gulf between the rich and poor.

Chris Kraus is a writer and critic. She studied acting and spent almost two decades making performances and experimental films in New York before moving to Los Angeles where she began writing. Her novels include Aliens & Anorexia, I Love Dick, Torpor, and Summer of Hate. She has published three books of cultural criticism: Video Green: Los Angeles Art and the Triumph of Nothingness, Where Art Belongs, and Social Practices. I Love Dick was adapted for television and her literary biography After Kathy Acker was published by Semiotext(e) and Penguin Press. A former Guggenheim Fellow, Kraus held the Mary Routt Chair of Writing at Scripps College in 2019 and was Writer-in-Residence at ArtCenter College between 2020–2024. She has written for various magazines and has been a coeditor of the independent press Semiotext(e) since 1990. Her work has been praised for its damning intelligence, vulnerability, and dazzling speed and has been translated into seventeen languages. She lives in Los Angeles.

Carolina A. Miranda is an independent culture writer based in Los Angeles covering visual culture, design, performance, books and digital life. Until 2024, she was a columnist at the Los Angeles Times, where she reported on a range of topics related to art and design. Her stories have appeared in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, Alta Journal, Artnews, the New York Review of Architecture and Fresh Air. She was the recipient of the 2017 Rabkin Prize in Visual Arts Journalism and a 2024 Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.

Where: Poetic Research Bureau

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 7 pm

Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057

Website: https://www.poeticresearch.com/events/chris-kraus-with-carolina-a-miranda

Book Event: Jaysea Lynn, with Liz Shipton, & For Whom the Belle Tolls at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event

Jaysea Lynn, in conversation with Liz Shipton, will discuss For Whom the Belle Tolls.

A book signing will follow the discussion.

RSVP: Ticketed event

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Date: Tuesday the 7^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

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

At Skylight: Chris Krauss, with Carolina Miranda, & The Four Spent the Day Together Off-site at 2220 Arts & Archives – In-Person Event

The Poetic Research Bureau and Skylight Books will present the book launch of a new novel by Chris Kraus, The Four Spent the Day Together, just out from Simon & Schuster. Following the reading Chris will be joined in conversation with Los Angeles writer Carolina A. Miranda.

Written in three linked parts, The Four Spent the Day Together explores the tensions of unclaimed futures and unchosen circumstances in the age of social media, paralyzing interconnectedness, and the ever-widening gulf between the rich and poor.

Chris Kraus is a writer and critic. She studied acting and spent almost two decades making performances and experimental films in New York before moving to Los Angeles where she began writing. Her novels include Aliens & Anorexia, I Love Dick, Torpor, and Summer of Hate. She has published three books of cultural criticism—Video Green: Los Angeles Art and the Triumph of Nothingness, Where Art Belongs, and Social Practices. I Love Dick was adapted for television and her literary biography After Kathy Acker was published by Semiotext(e) and Penguin Press. A former Guggenheim Fellow, Kraus held the Mary Routt Chair of Writing at Scripps College in 2019 and was Writer-in-Residence at ArtCenter College between 2020–2024. She has written for various magazines and has been a coeditor of the independent press Semiotext(e) since 1990. Her work has been praised for its damning intelligence, vulnerability, and dazzling speed and has been translated into seventeen languages. She lives in Los Angeles.

Carolina A. Miranda is an independent culture writer based in Los Angeles covering visual culture, design, performance, books, and digital life. Until 2024, she was a columnist at the Los Angeles Times, where she reported on a range of topics related to art and design. Her stories have appeared in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, Alta Journal, Artnews, the New York Review of Architecture and Fresh Air. She was the recipient of the 2017 Rabkin Prize in Visual Arts Journalism and a 2024 Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant.

Where: Skylight Off-site at 2220 Arts & Archives

Date: Tuesday, the 7^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/2220-arts-archives-chris-kraus-presents-four-spent-day-together-w-carolina-miranda

At Skylight: Jeff Chang & Water Mirror Echo + “They Call Us Bruce” Podcast Recording at Skylight – In-Person Event

Jeff Chang will discuss Water Mirror Echo.

A cultural biography, both sweeping and intimate, of the legend Bruce Lee, set against the extraordinary, untold story of the rise of Asian America—from the author of the award-winning classic Can’t Stop Won’t Stop and one of the finest culture observers of our era.

This event will also feature the 300th podcast recording for They Call us Bruce, information for which can be found below!

More than a half-century after his passing, Bruce Lee is as towering a figure to people around the world as ever. On his path to becoming a global icon, he popularized martial arts in the West, became a bridge to people and cultures from the East, and just as he was set to conquer Hollywood once and for all, he died of cerebral edema at age thirty-two. It’s no wonder that Bruce Lee’s legend has only bloomed in the decades since. Yet, in so many ways, the legend has eclipsed the man.

Forgotten is the stark reality of the baby boy born in segregated San Francisco, who spent his youth in war-ravaged, fight-crazy Hong Kong. Forgotten is the curious teenager who found his way back to America, where he embraced West Coast counterculture and meshed it with the Asian worldviews and philosophies that reared him. Forgotten is the man whose very presence broke barriers and helped shape the idea of what being an Asian in America is, at the very dawn of Asian America.

Water Mirror Echo—a title inspired by Bruce Lee’s own way of moving, being and responding to the world—is a page-turning and powerful reminder. At the helm is Jeff Chang, the award-winning author of Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, whose writing on culture, politics, the arts and music have made him one of the most acclaimed and distinctive voices of our time. In his hands, Bruce Lee’s story brims with authenticity.

Now, based on in-depth interviews with Lee’s closest intimates, thousands of newly available personal documents, and featuring dozens of gorgeous photographs from the family’s archive, Chang achieves the nearly impossible. He reveals the man behind the enduring iconography and stirringly shows Lee’s growing fame ushering in something that’s turned out to be even more enduring: the creation of Asian America.

Jeff Chang’s first book, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, was named one of the best American nonfiction books of the last quarter century. He has been a USA Ford Fellow in Literature and, among numerous other honors, has won the American Book Award and the Asian American Literary Award. Chang has written three other acclaimed bestsellers on American history and culture, music, and the arts. In May 2019, he and director Bao Nguyen created a four-episode digital series adaptation of his award-winning book We Gon’ Be Alright for PBS Indie Lens Storycast. Chang was featured in Nguyen’s ESPN Bruce Lee documentary, Be Water; the PBS series, Asian Americans; and Lisa Ling’s CNN series, This Is Life.

Jeff Yang has been observing, exploring, and writing about the Asian American community for over thirty years. He launched one of the first Asian American national magazines, A. Magazine, in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, and now writes for The Guardian and Washington Post and can be heard regularly as part of NPR’s culture critic panel on Pop Culture Happy Hour. Among his bestselling books are Jackie Chan’s bestselling memoirI Am Jackie Chan; Once Upon a Time in China; and Eastern Standard Time, and most recently the New York Times bestselling RISE (cowritten with Phil Yu and Philip Wang) and The Golden Screen: The Movies That Made Asian America. He’s currently writing a reimagined Monkey King graphic novel for the new prestige publisher The Lab and working with screen legend James Hong on Hong’s forthcoming memoir, due out from Simon & Schuster in 2026. His first movie as screenwriter, A Great Divide, can currently be seen on Amazon Video, and the first season of the food journey show he developed and sold along with his son, actor Hudson Yang, Crash Course Cuisine, can now be seen on Hulu and NatGeo. He lives in Los Angeles.

PHIL YU is an award-winning writer, speaker, and host best known as the founder/editor of the influential Asian American news and culture blog Angry Asian Man. Yu’s commentary, known for mixing humor with criticism, has been featured in major publications like The New York Times, National Public Radio, CNN, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, Entertainment Weekly and others. He is co-author, with Jeff Yang and Philip Wang, of the New York Times Best Seller book RISE: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now, and was the recipient of Peabody Awards’ 2022 Trailblazer Award. He is co-host of Squid Game: The Official Podcast for Netflix, and appears in the documentaries Beam Me Up Sulu, White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, The Claudia Kishi Club and Linsanity.

Hosted by Peabody Award-winning blogger behind the pioneering Angry Asian Man blog Phil Yu and acclaimed culture critic and New York Times bestselling author Jeff Yang, THEY CALL US BRUCE calls itself “an unfiltered conversation about what’s happening in Asian America.” Since 2017, the weekly podcast has covered everything from parenting to pop culture to politics, and brought on as guests a wide swath of notable Asian American personalities in entertainment, media, the arts, government, sports and business: Academy Award-winning actors and directors. Pulitzer Prize winning poets and playwrights. Bestselling authors and graphic novelists. Olympians and rock stars and Crazy Rich Asians and scream queens and jedi masters and superheroes. Plus some of the Asian American community’s most interesting, courageous and outspoken leaders: U.S. Congressmembers Ted Lieu, Grace Meng and Dave Min, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, political commentators like Asha Rangappa, Arun Venugopal, Simran Jeet Singh, Jose Antonio Vargas, and many, many others.

Where: Skylight

Date: Tuesday, the 7^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-jeff-chang-presents-water-mirror-echo-they-call-us-bruce-podcast-recording

The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert hosts Leonora Simonovis – Online Zoom Event

Cobalt Poets Reading & Open Mic and host Rick Lupert welcomes featured guest: Leonora Simonovis.

Leonora Simonovis is a Venezuelan American poet, educator, and scholar. She is the author of Study of the Raft (Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University, 2021), winner of the 2021 Colorado Prize for Poetry.

Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event

Date: Tuesday, the 7^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: Online event (see site)

Website: https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com

Special Event: Sandra Cisneros, in conversation with Luis J. Rodriguez and Alex Espinoza, at Tia Chucha’s Off-site at Mission College, Sylmar – In-Person Event

****SOLD OUT**** Join the waitlist for this event through the link bit.ly/tcsandra. Getting on the waitlist does not guarantee entry.

Join us for a very special night at Los Angeles Mission College! We will be hosting a special evening with Sandra Cisneros, in conversation with Luis J. Rodriguez and Alex Espinoza!

RSVP at bit.ly/tcsandra

Books will be for sale before and after event.

There will be a book signing after the event as well.

Please reach out to jackie@tiachucha.org with any questions.

Where: Mission College, Culinary Arts Institute Building

Date: Tuesday, the 7^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: 13356 Eldridge Ave., Sylmar, CA 91342

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Tuesday Night Café: Features & Open Mic at Tuesday Night Project, Aratani Courtyard/Union Center – In-Person & YouTube Hybrid Event

Tuesday Night Cafe is a flagship free public arts and performance series. Launched in 1999, TNC has since become one of the longest-running free arts series in Downtown LA and is the oldest Asian American mic series in the country.

The series runs on the 1st & 3rd Tuesday of each month, April through October, and features a curated program of multidisciplinary visual and performing art as well as an open mic section.

TWO MORE SHOWS OF THE 2025 SEASON. We’re out of summer and winding down—grab a few friends and sit in the courtyard under the new autumn moon as we enter fall. What does fall bring? Filipino American History Month! We’re recognizing October with our friends at This Filipino American Life!

Take Kare is returning to TNC to vibe and offer vibes. Members of the Los Angeles Arab Orchestra will be making their TNC debut! The writing and storytelling of Leesa Nomura is back in an animated short. After long long last, Alison De La Cruz is taking the TNC stage again. DJ Waxstyles will be holding it down. All free, open to the public.

FEATURING:

Karen Joyce is a musician.

Jojo is a Pinay musician. From the Bay to L.A.

Camille R is a Pinay musician.

Alison De La Cruz is a theater maker, community self-determination facilitator, gathering practitioner, cultural space keeper, poet, playwright and executive artivist leader.

Elizabeth J. Nomura (@leesanomura/@officialkatelyndo)

Los Angeles Arab Orchestra Members

COMMUNITY COLLABORATOR

@tfalpodcast

@waxstyles

Want to perform for our Open Mic? Make sure to sign up for our lottery by 6:40 pm, there will only be 3 spaces available, two performances per performer per season please! We may ask to review your content. Please read the rules at https://www.tuesdaynightproject.org/how-to-perform.

As a reminder, masking is required in our space, and we will have masks available on site. If you can’t join us in-person, we will continue to stream our shows on YouTube in our link in bio.

Where: Tuesday Night Café

Date: Tuesday, the 7^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles, CA 90012

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Da Poetry Lounge: Open Mic Night at Ora Café in Leimert Park – In-Person Event

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

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

Masks are encouraged.

Where: Ora Café

Date: Tuesday, the 7^th

Time: 9 pm – 11 pm

Address: 4331 Degnan Blvd., Leimert Park, CA 90008

Website: https://www.instagram.com/ or https://www.dapoetrylounge.com/

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

Come write with us!

Many people believe that morning writing practice is key to finding your voice, your story and, in this case, your community! At the Village Well!

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning at 8:30 AM come join acclaimed author and writing instructor Francesca Lia Block for a brief intro and 40 minutes of free writing on any topic without judgement. Afterwards, you will be able to share a bit about your process and ask Francesca questions about your writing.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

Time: 8:30 am – 9:30 am

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Mystery Book Club: Kemper Donovan &The Busy Body at West Valley Regional Branch, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join us for a discussion of the book The Busy Body by Kemper Donovan (who will be joining our meeting to talk about the book).

Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 am

Address: 19036 Vanowen St., Reseda, CA 91335

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

Wilmington Book Club: Gods of Jade and Shadow at Wilmington Branch, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join us for a discussion of the book Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

All are welcome.

RSVP:

Contact Kathleen Larson at klarson@lapl.org for more information.

Where: Wilmington Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

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

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/wilmington-book-club-18

Artesia Book Club: The Page Turner at Artesia Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us as we discuss The Page Turner by Viola Shipman. For adults.

Some titles are available as free downloadable eBooks or digital audiobooks from LA County Library at lacountylibrary.org.

All interested persons are welcome and invited to attend.

Where: Artesia Library, LACL

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

Time: 1 pm – 2 pm

Address: 18801 Elaine Ave., Artesia, CA 90701

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14693715

Celebrate Stories Without Borders, Art & Spoken Word: Reyna Grande Event at CSULA U-SU Theater – In-Person Event

Join us Tuesday 10/7 for Cal State LA’s Stories Without Borders Week, Art & Spoken Word, supporting undocumented students at Cal State LA.

Featured guest: Reyna Grande

Reyna Grande is an acclaimed author whose powerful memoirs, The Distance Between Us (Atria, 2012) and A Dream Called Home (Atria, 2018), illuminate the realities of undocumented childhood immigration from Mexico to the United States. Her work delves into themes of family separation, language trauma, and the pursuit of the American Dream

Where: CSULA U-SU Theater

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

Time: 2 pm – 4 pm

Address: 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90032

Website: https://www.instagram.com

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 8^th

Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm

Address: On-air Event (live)

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

Malibu Library Book Club: The Dream Hotel at Malibu Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us for a book discussion of The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami. For Adults.

Sara is arrested after an algorithm reviewing her dreams determines she is an imminent risk to her husband and must be kept under observation for twenty-one days. The Dream Hotel portrays a dystopian future of extreme surveillance.

Where: Malibu Library, LACL

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm

Address: 23519 West Civic Center Way, Malibu, CA 90265

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14499662

Creative Writing Workshop at Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join us for a free writer’s workshop presented by UCLA instructor Tony DuShane, screenwriter of the film Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk, based on his novel of the same name. This workshop is open to adults only.

Where: Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday, the 8^th

Time: 6 pm

Address: 1874 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/creative-writing-workshop-tony-dushane-12

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 8^th

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

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

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

Debut Novel Launch: Grady Chambers & Great Disasters at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Join us for the launch of Grady Chambers’ debut novel Great Disasters!

Grady will be joined by poet Austen Leah Rose to discuss this decades-spanning exploration of friendship, loneliness, addiction, war, and the American Dream.

“This is the story of how we became. I write those words but remain uncertain what they mean. Drinking was a part of it. But as much as it was drinking, it was Ryan’s love for Jana. And as much as it was Ryan’s love for Jana, it was equally the war.”

In the early 2000s in Chicago, six young men start high school. Though they’ve been friends since boyhood, their high school years set them on new paths: The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begin, along with the protests against them; Ryan falls in love but struggles to hold onto it; and he and the others learn to lose themselves in alcohol. With each passing year—as they enter college or the military, then the world beyond; form new relationships with partners and children; and navigate shifting loyalties to a changing country—the narrator feels the group breaking further apart and finds himself asking: What does it mean to move forward, both with and without one another?

Exploring the beauty, hope, and humor that can be found even in moments of deep loneliness and devastation, the author’s story moves between memories of high school and early adulthood to consider friendship, first love, patriotism, protest, addiction, and more. An exquisitely written, profoundly moving debut novel, Great Disasters is an intimate portrait of disasters big and small, personal and political—and the ways the two are intertwined—and the announcement of a stunning new voice in American fiction.

Grady Chambers is the author of the poetry collection North American Stadiums (Milkweed Editions, 2018), winner of the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. Grady was born and raised on the north side of Chicago, and lives in Philadelphia. His writing can be found in The Atlantic, The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, The Sun, and many other publications. Grady is a former Wallace Stegner Fellow and received his MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. More info at gradychambers.com.

Austen Lea Rose’s debut book of poems, Once, This Forest Belonged to a Storm, won the 2022 Juniper Prize from the University of Massachusetts Press. She has a PhD from the University of Southern California and received an MFA in poetry from Columbia University. Her poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, Narrative, Zyzzyva, AGNI, The Adroit Journal, 32 Poems, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. She was the winner of the Walter Sullivan Award from The Sewanee Review and a semi-finalist for the 92Y Discovery / Boston Review Poetry Contest. She has received fellowships from the Hedgebrook Writer-In-Residence Program, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Vermont Studio Center, and Bread Loaf. She is currently a Dornsife Fellow at the University of Southern California.

Reserve your tickets on EVENTBRITE and pre-order your copy of the book!

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Book Club: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store via Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event

Join us for an online, mostly fiction book club. We select book titles throughout the year.

NOTE: Confirm title at RSVP site.

RSVP:

Email pcoima@lapl.org to receive the Zoom link.

Where: Pacoima Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Wednesday, the 8^th

Time: 6:30 pm

Address: Online Event

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/pacoima-book-club

WeHo Reads Series: Four Voices of Transformation at West Hollywood Library – In-Person Event

Part of the WeHo Reads 2025 collection.

To achieve transformation, we must first imagine it. Four authors share visions of life, death, and sublime and horrific moments in between.

This event brings together poets and authors with queer and marginalized perspectives on the transformative power of literature. Featuring:

Gina Rae Duran, interdisciplinary artist, trauma-informed educator, and editor of The White Picket Fence: Stories of Individuality as Rebelliousness anthology, forthcoming from FlowerSong Press.

Carlos Allende, educator and author of Coffee, Shopping, Murder, Love and Love, or the Witches of Windward Circle.

Myriam Gurba, activist, and author of several books including Poppy State: A Labyrinth of Plants and a Story of Beginnings.

Dan López, editor and author of The Show House, named a Best Book of 2016 by Chicago Review of Books, and Part the Hawser, Limn the Sea.

West Hollywood City Poet Laureate Jen Cheng will open the event with the reading of a poem.

Free, RSVP Requested

Where: West Hollywood Library, Community Room

Date: Wednesday, the 8^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

Address: 625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weho-reads-voices-of-transformation-tickets-1636259870319

Wiseburn Library Book Club: The Thursday Murder Club at Wiseburn Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us for a book discussion and light refreshments! This month, read The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Copies of the books are available at the library. For ages 18+.

Refreshments generously provided by the Friends of the Hawthorne and Wiseburn Libraries.

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club. There’s Red Ron, the infamous former socialist firebrand, still causing trouble; gentle Joyce, widowed, pining for another resident, but surely not as innocent as she seems; Ibrahim, a former therapist who understands the darker side of human nature; and Elizabeth? Well, no one is quite sure who she really is, but she’s definitely not a woman to underestimate. When a local developer is found dead, the Thursday Murder Club suddenly find themselves in the middle of their first live case. The friends might be septuagenarians, but they are cleverer than most. Can our unorthodox but brilliant gang catch the killer before its too late?

Where: Wiseburn Library, LACL

Date: Wednesday, the 8^th

Time: 6:45 pm – 7:45 pm

Address: 5335 W. 135^th St., Hawthorne, CA 90250

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14578140

Banned Books Week: Adult Book Club: The Handmaid’s Tale at Littlerock Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Celebrate the freedom to read this Banned Books Week with Littlerock Library’s Adult Book Club! We will be diving into a widely challenged yet critically acclaimed novel: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. For adults.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a chilling dystopian novel set in the theocratic regime of Gilead, where women’s rights have been stripped away. Through the voice of Offred, a Handmaid assigned to bear children for the ruling class, Atwood explores themes of oppression, resistance, identity, and the power of storytelling.

Pick up a copy at Littlerock Library or use Libby for a digital version.

Where: Littlerock Library, LACL

Date: Wednesday, the 8^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: 35119 80^th St. E., Littlerock, CA 93543

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14499674

Ticketed: ML Rio, with Amanda Montell, & Hot Wax at Book Soup – In-Person Event

ML Rio, in conversation with Amanda Montell, will discuss Hot Wax: A Novel.

The new novel from the bestselling author of If We Were Villains and Graveyard Shift—a vivid and immersive tale of one woman’s reckless mission to make sense of the events that shattered her childhood and made her who she is.

Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning—one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come.

The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost forever: desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country—and drives her to a desperation all her own.

Drenched in knock-down drag-out rock and roll, Hot Wax is a raucous, breakneck ride to hell and back—where getting lost might be the only way to find yourself and save your soul.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2025-10-08/ml-rio-amanda-montell

Book Event: Kiri Callaghan, with Dahlia De La Vega, & The Heart Witch’s Guide to Magic & Murder at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event

Kiri Callaghan, in conversation with Dahlia De La Vega, will discuss The Heart Witch’s Guide to Magic & Murder.

A book signing will follow the discussion.

RSVP: Ticketed event

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

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

RECESS Open Mic is at SIPA HQ, Palms Up Academy – In-Person Event

RECESS Open Mic is at SIPA HQ on Wednesdays.

This dynamic open mic is the most accessible public program in the Palms Up Academy curriculum and manifests their mission statement in a physical (and digital) space.

Join them at the intersection of Historic Filipino town & The World: Search to Involve Pilipino Americans.

NOTE: See site for RSVP, cost, guidelines, and details.

Where: SIPA HQ

Date: Wednesday, the 8^th

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

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

Website: https://www.palmsupacademy.com

At Skylight: Melissa Lozada-Oliva & Beyond All Reasonable Doubt: Jesus Is Alive at Skylight – In-Person Event

Join is to hear Melissa Lozada-Oliva discuss Beyond All Reasonable Doubt: Jesus Is Alive: Stories.

From the author of Dreaming of You and Candelaria comes an ethereal and revelatory short story collection about faith, delusion, and the demons that can’t get enough of us.

A beheaded body interrupts a quinceañera. An obsession with her father’s bizarre video game shifts a lonely girl’s reality. A sentient tail sprouts from a hospital worker’s backside, throwing her romantic life into peril. And in the novella “Community Hole,” a recently cancelled musician flees New York and finds herself in a haunted punk house in Boston.

This collection, at once playful, grisly, and tender, presents a tapestry of women ailing for something to believe in–even if it hurts them. Using body horror, fabulism, and humor, Melissa Lozada-Oliva mines the pain and uncanniness of the modern world. Reveling in the fine line between disgust and desire, Beyond All Reasonable Doubt, Jesus is Alive! is for the sinner in us all.

Melissa Lozada-Oliva is a poet, novelist and screenwriter. A child of Guatemalan and Colombian immigrants, she is the author of peluda, Dreaming of You and Candelaria. Melissa’s work has appeared in Vulture, Harper’s Bazaar, BBC Mundo, Audible, The Yale Review, NPR, and more. She lives and teaches in New York City. She only prays on planes.

RSVP

Where: Skylight

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

Time: 7 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-melissa-lozada-oliva-presents-beyond-all-reasonable-doubt-jesus-alive

At UC Riverside: Sandra Cisneros in Conversation: Palabras y Poder at University Theatre – In-Person Event

Join is to hear Sandra Cisnereos, at UC Riverside in conversation with Alex Espinoza @ae_espinoza on October 8!

An evening with Sandra Cisneros, author of the beloved classic The House on Mango Street, and one of the most influential voices in Chicanx and American literature.

It’s free and open to the public, but seating is limited.

First come, first served!

Where: UC Riverside, University Theatre

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

Time: 7 pm (Doors at 6:30 pm)

Address: 900 University Ave, Riverside, CA 92521

Website: https://www.instagram.com

How to Write a Book: A Conversation with Jade Chang & Ann Friedman & What a Time to Be Alive: a Novel at Vroman‘s – In-Person Event

Jade Chang, in conversation with Ann Friedman, will discuss and sign What a Time to Be Alive: A Novel.

A deeply moving and often hilarious novel following a woman who becomes an internet folk hero in the most unexpected way, catapulting her into fame and influence just as she’s finally beginning to reckon with her complicated past.

Lola Treasure Gold can’t figure out her life. She’s broke, unemployed, and back in her childhood home, a crumbling cottage in the Hollywood Hills. Worse—unspeakably worse—one of her closest friends has just died. So nobody is more surprised than Lola when a jackpot falls in her lap: she stars in a Very Viral Video, opening a surprising path for her to become a self-help guru.

With the encouragement of her other best friend, Celi—still alive, thank god—Lola embraces the public interest in her perceived message. But is she a scammer or a sage? Just as Lola is telling others to be their own guiding lights, she can’t seem to find hers: she’s grieving; she’s accused of using the notoriety of her friend’s death to fuel her rise; and she’s full of questions about the fate of her mother, who came to America pregnant, fleeing China’s one-child policy, got deported when Lola was eight, and now has totally disappeared.

Driven by an exuberant, searching spirit, Jade Chang’s kaleidoscopic new novel is a deep examination of the ways we commodify belief, the power and precarity of fame, and the delicious terror of being truly seen. What a Time to Be Alive asks if we can look honestly at the world and still love it; the answer is a brilliant, resounding yes.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Wednesday, the 8^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-10-08/jade-chang

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 — Complicated Passions Launch;
9:05 pm – 10:00 pm — Open mic.

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

NOTE: See site for further details and any change in the schedule. Contact on Instagram @ _yellawoman

Where: The World Stage (use left rear entrance)

Date: Wednesday, the 8^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm

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

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Story Salon: Theme: Everything Was Great Except for That One Thing at Art Parlor in Valley Village – In-Person & Virtual Hybrid Event

Los Angeles’s longest running storytelling venue is now a hybrid event!

An alternative to stand-up clubs + self-conscious performance spaces

Story Salon challenges you all to tell stories in 90 seconds! Can you do it? If you can, join us!

Tickets can be purchased early with the link in bio or at storysalon.com

Theme: You All Are Perfect. Except For That One Thing.

Where: Art Parlor

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

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

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

Website: https://www.instagram.com

In Conversation with Walter Mosley: Gray Dawn & Easy Rawlins and Beyond at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Join legendary crime fiction author Walter Mosley for a conversation at the Wende Museum in celebration of his newest novel, Gray Dawn!

Walter will discuss his work, iconic characters, and influential career alongside novelist Gary Phillips. Don’t miss two of the biggest and best crime fiction authors working today in this historic venue!

About the participants:

Walter Mosley is one of America’s most celebrated writers. He was given the 2020 National Book Award’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, named a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, and honored with the Anisfield-Wolf Award, a Grammy, a PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award, the Robert Kirsch Award, numerous Edgars, and several NAACP Image Awards. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages. He has published fiction and nonfiction in The New Yorker, Playboy, and The Nation. As an executive producer, he adapted his novel The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey for AppleTV+. He co-wrote the adaptation of his novel The Man in My Basement to stream on Hulu, and he served as a writer and executive producer for FX’s Snowfall. He divides his time between Brooklyn and Santa Monica.

Gary Phillips has published novels, comics, novellas, short stories and edited or co-edited several anthologies, including the Anthony-winning The Obama Inheritance: Fifteen Stories of Conspiracy Noir. Almost thirty years after its publication, his debut, Violent Spring, was named one of the essential crime novels of Los Angeles. He was also a writer and co-producer on Snowfall, a show streaming on Hulu about crack and the CIA in 1980s South Central, where he grew up.

About Gray Dawn:

In this thrilling mystery from “master of craft and narrative” Walter Mosley (National Book Foundation), Detective Easy Rawlins has settled into the happy rhythm of his new life when a dark siren from his past returns and threatens to destroy the peace he’s fought for.

The name Easy Rawlins stirs excitement in the hearts of readers and fear in the hearts of his foes. His success has bought him a thriving detective agency, with its first female detective; a remote home, shared with children and pets and lovers, high atop the hills overlooking gritty Los Angeles; and more trouble, more problems, and more threat to those whom he loves. In other words, he’s still beset on all sides.

Several below-the-law powerbrokers plead with Easy to locate a mysterious, dangerous woman—Lutisha James, though she’s gone by another name that Easy will immediately recognize. 1970s Los Angeles is a transient city of delicate, violent balances, and Lutisha has disturbed that. She also has a secret that will upend Easy’s own life, painfully closer to home.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Wednesday the 8^th

Time: 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

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 8^th

Time: 8 pm – 10 pm

Address: Online event (see site)

Website: https://beyondbaroque.org

Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg and guest Eric Braman at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event

Host Ben Trigg and Two Idiots Peddling Poetry welcomes featured guest Eric Braman.

Eric Braman (they/them) is a poet, theatre maker, and public artist based in the Pacific Northwest. They are the author of Bury Me in Cherry Blossoms (Cirque Press) and have also been published by High Shelf Press, Moon Tide Press, Qu Literary Magazine, The Coachella Review, and more. Eric has performed and had plays produced on stages across the United States, including the premier of their autobiographical show To You / To Myself, which was an honorarium recipient at the 2022 Oregon Fringe Festival. They were the 2025 Writer-in-Residence with Fishtrap, featured poet at the 2024 Oregon Poetry Out Loud State Contest, and a featured artist in the 2024 Cultural Currents public art initiative in Eugene. Learn more at http://www.ericbraman.com.

$5 cover fee, cash only

Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange

Date: Wednesday, the 8^th

Time: 8 pm – 10 pm

Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA

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

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

Let Francesca help you with all aspects of your writing!

About the instructor:

Tuesdays & Thursdays @10AM | $15

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Thursday the 9^th

Time: 10 am – 11 am

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Lawndale Library Book Club: Lady Tan’s Circle of Women at Lawndale Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us for a discussion of Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See. For Adults.

Patrons can enjoy a facilitated discussion of fiction and nonfiction titles. A limited amount of titles are available for attendees at the library. October’s Pick: Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See. For adults.

Where: Lawndale Library, LACL

Date: Thursday the 9^th

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

Address: 14615 Burin Ave., Lawndale, CA 90260

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14716994

“Saved by a Story” Seniors Writing Group at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Come enjoy creativity and community in a nonjudgmental environment. Discover the bounty of stories that lies within!

Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Thursday the 9^th

Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm

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

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/saved-story-senior-writing-workshop-1

Mystery Book Club: The Night She Disappeared at Culver City Julian Dixon Library, LACL – Online Event

Join us to discuss The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell. For adults.

Summary provided by the publisher:

“On a beautiful summer night in a charming English suburb, a young woman and her boyfriend disappear after partying at the massive country estate of a new college friend. One year later, a writer moves into a cottage on the edge of the woods that border the same estate. Known locally as the Dark Place, the dense forest is the writer’s favorite area for long walks, and it’s on one such walk that she stumbles upon a mysterious note that simply reads, “DIG HERE.” Could this be a clue towards what has happened to the missing young couple? And what exactly is buried in this haunted ground?”

Where: Culver City Julian Dixon Library, LACL

Date: Thursday the 2^nd

Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm

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

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14435562

Poetry Workshop with Martin Jago at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

The Poetry Workshop invites new and seasoned poets to share new work and provide feedback, facilitated by British-American poet Martin Jago.   

This one and a half hour workshop is suitable for adults, and the group is limited to a maximum of 12 participants. 

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

RSVP:

Email eaglrk@lapl.org to reserve a place in the class.

Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Thursday the 9^th

Time: 6 pm

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

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/poetry-workshop-martin-jago-0

Diverse Romance Book Club: Delilah Green Doesn’t Care at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Participants will discuss Delilah Green Doesn’t Care (A Bright Falls Novel #1) by Ashley Herring Blake.

A clever and steamy queer romantic comedy about taking chances and accepting love—with all its complications—from the author of Astrid Parker Doesn’t Fail.

Delilah Green swore she would never go back to Bright Falls—nothing is there for her but memories of a lonely childhood where she was little more than a burden to her cold and distant stepfamily. Her life is in New York, with her photography career finally gaining steam and her bed never empty. Sure, it’s a different woman every night, but that’s just fine with her.

When Delilah’s estranged stepsister, Astrid, pressures her into photographing her wedding with a guilt trip and a five-figure check, Delilah finds herself back in the godforsaken town that she used to call home. She plans to breeze in and out, but then she sees Claire Sutherland, one of Astrid’s stuck-up besties, and decides that maybe there’s some fun (and a little retribution) to be had in Bright Falls, after all.

Ashley Herring Blake is the author of the young adult novels Suffer Love, How to Make a Wish, and Girl Made of Stars (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and the middle grade novels Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James, and Hazel Bly and the Deep Blue Sea (Little, Brown). You can find her on Twitter and Instagram at @ashleyhblake and on the web at ashleyherringblake.com. She lives in Georgia.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Thursday the 8^th

Time: 6 pm

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

Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/diverse-romance-book-club-delilah-green-doesnt-care

Cassandra Peterson & Elvira’s Cookbook form Hell at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event

Cassandra Peterson will be signing copies of Elvira’s Cookbook from Hell at Chevalier’s Books on Thursday, October 9 from 6 pm to 8 pm.

The signing will last for 2 hours; pre-purchase of the book is required and your copy will be available to pick up at the event. We will do our best to accommodate all attendees, but we encourage you to arrive when the line opens at 5:30 pm.

In an effort to meet-and-greet with as many of you as possible, Cassandra will not be taking photos, will not accept personalization requests, and will not sign memorabilia or other books.

We will be checking pre-registration at the door. Please pre-order your copy of the book here. Select “event pickup” at checkout.

Where: Chevalier’s

Date: Thursday the 8^th

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2025-10-09/elviras-cookbook-hell

Writer’s Block: Creative Writing and Meaningful Connection at Octavia’s Bookshelf – In-Person Event

If you would like to connect with other writers and have dedicated time for creative writing (poetry, short stories, novels, songs, screenplays, etc.), this is for you! We are holding space for writers to free-write, share and receive positive feedback, and make meaningful connections. All levels are welcome. This space is offered freely!

ABOUT THE FACILITATOR, ZAHIDA:

Zahida Sherman is a proud Seattle native and poet who made her way to Southern California by way of everywhere. Her previous writing has centered on culture, belonging, and wellness for Bustle, Healthline, Well and Good, Afropunk, and Blavity, among others.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: Octavia’s Bookshelf

Date: Thursday the 9^th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Address: 1353 North Hill Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104

Website: https://www.octaviasbookshelf.com/events/writers-block-creative-writing-meaningful-connection-hknp6-73e2s-4tydj-k6nns-ar2f7-wx6yy-wxjpj

Book Launch: Manuela Gomez Rhine, with Carla Sameth, & The Palm Tree Chronicles at The Pop Hop – In-Person Event

Author Manuela Gomez Rhine, in conversation with author/poet Carla Sameth, will discuss The Palm Tree Chronicles: A Los Angeles Love Story.

From the classic 1884 novel Ramona and its enduring impact on the region, to the Huntington Gardens, the erased Mexican neighborhood of Chavez Ravine, and finally the fight to save the South Central Farm, Gomez Rhine traces a legacy of Southern California land struggles—who gets to stay, and who is forced to leave—in the timeless search for home.

Books will be available for purchase for $15

Story Synopsis:

Fate brings Parker and Pomona together under the magic of a palm tree. Their new love carries them across Southern California landscapes past and present, from the historic Huntington Gardens to the erased Mexican neighborhood of Chavez Ravine. When Parker and Pomona arrive at the South Central Farm, a threatened oasis in the heart of Los Angeles, the two broken souls are swept into a movement fighting to save fertile land from development.

Manuela Gomez Rhine is the author of The Wild Chihuahuas of Mexico and Power of One: Pasadenans Shaping Our Community. Originally from Los Angeles, she lives in Oaxaca, Mexico, and writes at open_in_newMexicanista.com. @manuelamexicanista

Carla Rachel Sameth—Writer, Teacher, Mother—served as Altadena Co-Poet Laureate and is a Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. She is the author of three books: the full-length poetry collection Secondary Inspections, the chapbook What Is Left, and the memoir One Day on the Gold Line. @carlasameth

Where: The Pop Hop

Date: Thursday the 9^th

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

Address: 5002 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042

Website: https://withfriends.co/event

Tom Lutz Presents: Chagos Archipelagos and 1925: A Literary Encyclopedia at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event

Tom Lutz will present and discuss two books: Chagos Archipelagos and 1925: A Literary Encyclopedia.

Chagos Archipelagos:

Mónica has had enough of her life as a contract killer when she meets lonely wanderer Frank Baltimore in a stupidly expensive resort in Madagascar. A few hundred miles away, Alain has had more than enough of his solitary post on a tiny island in the middle of the Indian Ocean, and so when the mysterious Skye offers him a job, he says yes—he doesn’t know if she is CIA, Wagner, Darkwater, or a gangster, but he wants in. She takes him to Diego Garcia, the top-secret US military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean, for training. Things turn ugly and deadly when a man from Frank’s past turns up trying to break into the lucrative, secretive, already crowded world of paramilitary contractors. He, Monica, Alain, and Skye end up on his bad side and turn to each other for help.

1925: A Literary Encyclopedia:

The year 1925 was arguably the peak of literature’s centrality. There were more magazines, more journals, more reviews, more book news, and more book gossip than ever before or since. Literature’s rivals for cultural attention were on the rise—film was becoming a more significant part of people’s media diet, radio was just taking off, television technologies were advancing—but literature was still king. Even mediocre books got dozens of reviews, and the reviews were (most often) thoughtful and intellectually engaged. The belief that literary writing was an essential and consequential business was nearly universal. Modernist ferment continued to excite discussion while the pulp revolution in genre fiction—detective stories, science fiction, Westerns, romance—was booming. These popular books, even if sometimes condescended to, were also given thoughtful review attention.

Where: Diesel (in the Courtyard)

Date: Thursday the 9^th

Time: 6:30 pm

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

Website: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2025-10-09/tom-lutz-discusses-and-signs-chagos-archipelagos-and-1925-literary-encycolpedia

Special Author Event: Tom Sturges, with John Alexander Ireland, Jr., & Men Explained, Finally at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event

Join us to welcome Tom Sturges to celebrate the publication of his new book, Men Explained, Finally, at 6:30 pm on Thursday, October 9th. Tom will be joined in conversation by Lakers sportscaster John Alexander Ireland Jr.

Organized in three parts, Men Explained, Finally presents 45 essays, plus a few brief thoughts, on various topics related to Men (Part I), Men Compared to Women (Part 2), and Men and Women Getting Together (Part 3). At the book’s core are two simple facts: Men are much more like other men than they would probably like to admit, and Men are fourteen, forever.

While a lot of people (okay, women) find men to be childish, immature, and often unwilling to make the slightest effort to grow up, Tom argues that maybe that’s one of men’s superpowers. And when women recognize that men bluff and bluster, and cling to beliefs in fate, luck, heroism, and love at first sight, it makes men so much easier to understand, accept just as they are, and love.

Tom Sturges is a veteran music executive, author, mentor, educator, inventor, and public speaker. Over his more than thirty-five years in the music industry, he served as president of Chrysalis Music, EVP and Head of Creative for Universal Music Publishing Group, and VP/GM of Shaquille O’Neal’s TWIsM Records. He is the son of the Academy Award-winning writer/director Preston Sturges.

Tom has written five books, including the bestseller Parking Lot Rules and 75 Other Ideas for Raising Amazing Children, Grow the Tree You Got, Every Idea Is A Good Idea, and Preston Sturges: The Last Years of Hollywood’s First Writer-Director, a tribute to his father, coauthored with Nick Smedley, and A Good Divorce Begins Here. His latest book, Men Explained, Finally, is scheduled for release on October 7, 2025.

An often-recognized mentor in the Los Angeles area, Tom has provided guidance, leadership, and taught creativity to thousands of students in both LAUSD and MBUSD over the past twenty years. Additionally, he is the subject of the award-winning documentary film WITNESS TO A DREAM, which tells the story of Tom’s efforts to help 235 at-risk inner-city students from South Los Angeles graduate high school and enter four-year colleges. Using music, creativity, and live performances, the student choirs performed at over fifty events, including the Democratic Convention, the Governor’s Mentoring Partnership, and twice for President Barack Obama. Tom has received over fifty commendations from mayors, senators, governors, presidents, and other public officials for these efforts. Tom studied music composition and conducting at UC Davis, where he received his B.A., and continued his education at UCLA. He is the father of three sons.

John Alexander Ireland Jr. is an American sportscaster based in Southern California, who is currently the radio play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers. He also hosts (along with Steve Mason) a Monday-Friday sports talk show on KSPN-AM radio.

Previously, Ireland hosted shows at XTRA-AM in San Diego, KLAC-AM in Los Angeles, and nationally on the Fox Sports Radio network. From 1997 to 2000, Mason and Ireland hosted a live TV/Radio simulcast on the Fox Sports West cable network.

Admission is free, but we would appreciate you supporting the author and the store by purchasing his book through {pages}.

RSVP

Where: pages: a bookstore

Date: Thursday the 9^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

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

Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-10-09/special-author-event-tom-sturges

Thriller Book Launch: Charlene Wang, with Sophie Stava, & I’ll Follow You at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Join us for the launch of I’ll Follow You, the debut novel from author Charlene Wang.

Charlene will take us through the writing process, developing characters, twists and turns, and finally being chosen for Mindy’s Book Studio, in conversation with author Sophie Stava (Count My Lies).

Faith and her charismatic best friend, Kayla, always vowed to escape their trailer park together. After their social media persona, Hannah Primrose, goes viral, their fates seem more entwined than ever. But when Faith is accepted into prestigious Harkness College, she must decide whether to keep her promise to Kayla or learn to tell her own story.

By the time Faith arrives on campus, Kayla is no longer speaking with her. Struggling to fit in with her wealthy classmates, Faith reinvents herself, drawing the attention of her enigmatic art history professor. Then Kayla shows up outside her dormitory one night. I need to stay with you.

Having Kayla on campus is thrilling—and dangerous. Posing as a student, Kayla charms everyone she encounters, and soon enough they’re posting together again. Hannah Primrose, after all, is perfect for a place like Harkness. But as Faith risks her future for the persona she helped create, she begins to realize that Kayla is playing a deadly game…and it may be too late to regain control of the narrative.

Charlene Wang was born in Beijing and immigrated to the US when she was three. After graduating with B.A. in English from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, she worked as a litigator for six years. She now lives in Brooklyn, NY with her partner and their dog Winky.

Sophie Stava’s passion for reading led her to study English Literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she received her B.A. Sophie’s debut novel, Count My Lies, is a Good Morning America Book Club pick and a Book of the Month main selection. A TV adaptation starring Lindsay Lohan and Shailene Woodley is in development at Hulu. Sophie currently resides in Southern California with her husband and two young children, where she is working on her next psychological thriller.

Get your seats on EVENTBRITE!

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Thursday the 9^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Danny Goldberg, with Jarl Mohn, & Liberals With Attitude: The Rodney King Beating and the Fight for the Soul of Los Angeles at Book Soup – In-Person Event

Danny Goldberg, in conversation with Jarl Mohn, will discuss and sign Liberals With Attitude: The Rodney King Beating and the Fight for the Soul of Los Angeles.

Liberals With Attitude documents the sixteen months in 1991-92 between the brutal beating of Rodney King by four police officers that was captured on a home video camera and the resignation of LAPD chief Daryl Gates. Gates was reviled by the local Black and civil liberties communities because of the pattern of racism and brutality in the department, and he was uniquely powerful because of the structure of the Los Angeles City Charter and the secret files he kept on local politicians.

The effort to get Gates to step down after thirteen years as chief and to amend the City Charter to prevent another unaccountable chief from amassing that much power was led by Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, a former LAPD officer and the first Black mayor of the city. To overcome Gates’s entrenched power, Bradley assembled a team that included future US secretary of state Warren Christopher, the local ACLU, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and activists who saw the struggle against Gates as an important chapter in the civil rights movement. Much of the local media, especially the Los Angeles Times, was supportive of Bradley’s agenda, as was the burgeoning “gangsta rap” culture of LA, much of which emerged in reaction to the LAPD.

Author Danny Goldberg was the chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California during those years and was personally acquainted with the leaders of the fight against Gates. He interviewed several dozen people who are still alive and got access to thousands of pages of documents among the papers of Stanley Sheinbaum, who was married to the heiress of the Warner Bros. film fortune. Sheinbaum was chosen by Mayor Bradley to be the president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, with the specific mission of getting Gates out of office. Goldberg’s insider saga demonstrates that cooperation between the political left and center is required to overcome white grievance and unaccountable power.

Jarl is President Emeritus of NPR having served as President and CEO from 2014 to 2019. His media and venture capital career has spanned over 50 years. He began his career as a disc jockey at age 15, moved on to programming, managing and owning radio stations. Mohn was EVP and General Manager of MTV/VH-1 from 1986 to 1990 and then Founder and CEO of E! Entertainment Television from 1990 to 1999. In 1999, he founded Liberty Digital, a publicly traded company that invested in online businesses and cable networks. He left to become an angel and seed stage venture capital investor for the next 13 years. He backed 67 companies including StubHub, Riot Games, Oxygen Media and FreshPet. In 2014 he took on a not-for-profit passion project moving to Washington DC to be President & CEO of NPR.

Jarl Mohn served on the board of trustees of KPCC Southern California Public Radio for more than a decade, including two years as chairman. He also spent over 12 years on the board of the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, including six years as its chair. Mohn served on the board of the EW Scripps Company and Scripps Networks for over 16 years until the sale to Discovery Networks. He also served as a director on the boards of XM Satellite Radio, Comscore, and as chairman of CNET. Jarl also manages The Mohn Family Foundation, a philanthropic entity that he and his wife, Pamela, created in 2000.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Thursday the 9^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2025-10-09/danny-goldberg

Trenches Full of Poets Reading Series & Open Mic: Rina Wakefield, Patricia Rice, Farah Abouzeid at Page Against the Machine – In-Person Event

Join us for the first Fall installment of the Trenches Full of Poets Reading Series, with featured readings by Rina Wakefield, Patricia Rice, Farah Abouzeid, plus an Open Mic.

Rina Wakefield is a spoken word poet, podcast producer, and a human rights & arts activist. She is currently a freelance reporter for 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵 and a collaborative member of Myrtle Tree Arts. She has written and produced for 𝘔𝘴. 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦.𝘤𝘰𝘮, and her articles have been featured in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘢 𝘉𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭, 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘳.𝘤𝘰𝘮, and 𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦. Her poetry has been featured in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵, the 𝘎𝘛𝘍𝘖 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺, and the literary journals 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘚𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦, and 𝘊𝘰𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘦. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature from Sacramento State University and is a Masters Degree candidate studying Library Science with a focus on Cultural Archives at San Jose State University.

Patricia Rice is a poet and storyteller who uses her gifts to bring awareness to traumatic experiences and promote healing. She studied Behavioral Science and Early Childhood Development at Cal State University Dominguez Hills and is an alumni of the Community Literature Initiative in Long Beach. Patricia is trained and certified as a Prison Facilitator, Domestic Violence Counselor, Sexual Assault Counselor, and in art therapy. Her first play, 𝘐𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘴 (2002), has been performed at theaters, churches, and conferences in various states and ran until 2011. Her poetry has been featured in 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦: 𝘈 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺, and her poetry book, 𝘐 𝘊𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴, is available from World Stage Press.

Farah Abouzeid (she/her) is a writer from Monterey, California. She studied Literature and Writing at UCSD, where her play, 𝘚𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘚𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦, was produced by the Undergraduate New Play Festival. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from CalArts in 2023. Her work has been published in 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘰𝘺 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘊𝘭𝘶𝘣, 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘔𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘦, 𝘍𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘦, 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘮, and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.

Taking its name from a Clash lyric, 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗳 𝗣𝗼𝗲𝘁𝘀 is a monthly poetry series created, curated, and hosted by Los Angeles-based poets and editors,𝗡𝗶𝗸𝗼𝗹𝗮𝗶 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗶𝗮 and𝗠𝗮𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗼 𝗔𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗼 with the goal of supporting a diverse array of published SoCal authors and the local independent bookstores that carry their works.

Where: Page Against the Machine

Date: Thursday the 9^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 2714 E. 4^th St., Long Beach, CA 90814

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

At Skylight: Joshua Clark Davis, with Elizabeth Hinton, & Police Against the Movement at Skylight – In-Person Event

Join is to hear Joshua Clark Davis, in conversation with Elizabeth Hinton, discuss Police Against the Movement.

A bold retelling of the 1960s civil rights struggle through its work against police violence—and a prehistory of both the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements that emerged half a century later

Police Against the Movement shatters one of the most pernicious myths about the 1960s: that the civil rights movement endured police violence without fighting it. Instead, as Joshua Clark Davis shows, activists from the Congress of Racial Equality and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee confronted police abuses head-on, staging sit-ins at precinct stations, picketing outside department headquarters, and blocking city streets to protest officer misdeeds. In return, organizers found themselves the targets of overwhelming political repression in the form of police surveillance, infiltration by undercover officers, and retaliatory prosecutions aimed at discrediting and derailing their movement.

The history of the civil rights era abounds with accounts of physical brutality by county sheriffs and tales of political intrigue and constitutional violations by FBI agents. Turning our attention to municipal officials in cities and towns across the US—North, South, East, and West—Davis reveals how local police bombarded civil rights organizers with an array of insidious weapons. More than just physical violence, these economic, legal, and reputational attacks were designed to project the illusion of color-blind law enforcement.

The civil rights struggle against police abuses is largely overlooked today, the victim of a willful campaign by local law enforcement to erase their record of repression. By placing activism against state violence at the center of the civil rights story, Police Against the Movement offers critical insight into the power of political resistance in the face of government attacks on protest.

Joshua Clark Davis is associate professor of history at the University of Baltimore. He is the author of From Head Shops to Whole Foods and the coeditor of Baltimore Revisited, and he has written for The Nation, Slate, Jacobin, and The Atlantic.

Elizabeth Hinton is Professor of History, African American Studies, and Law at Yale University. Her research focuses on the persistence of poverty, racial inequality, and urban violence in the 20th century United States and her writing has been published in Science, Nature, The American Historical Review, The Journal of American History, The Journal of Urban History, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, The Boston Review, The Nation, and Time.

She is the author of acclaimed and award-winning books From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America (Harvard University Press) and America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s (Liveright). With the late historian Manning Marable, she coedited The New Black History: Revisiting the Second Reconstruction (Palgrave Macmillan).

RSVP at website.

Where: Skylight

Date: Thursday the 9^th

Time: 7 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-joshua-clark-davis-presents-police-against-movement

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:

Come make some magic at the Village Well! All genres and levels are welcome!

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 8:30 am – 9:30 am

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Weekly Pajama Storytime at Once Upon a Time, Montrose – In-Person Kids & Family Event

Our most popular story time is ready to delight and dazzle! This is also the prime time to see Pippi Longstocking, our bookstore cat in action.

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

Free to attend.

NOTE: Free to attend.

Where: Once Upon a Time, Montrose

Date: Friday, the 10^th

Time: 9:30 am

Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020

Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/2025-10-10/weekly-pj-story-time

Bilingual Storytime at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Bilingual Storytime! Exposing your children to multiple languages is highly beneficial for their learning and development, and what better way to do it than through this fun activity where we will read a wonderful story in both English and Spanish.

¡Hora de cuentos bilingüe! Exponer a tus hjijos a varios idiomas es de gran beneficio para su aprendizaje y desarrollo, y qué mejor que hacerlo en esta divertida actividad en donde leeremos un maravilloso cuento en inglés y en español.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Special Author Luncheon: Clare Leslie Hall, with Laura Dave, & Broken Country at pages, Off-site at Petros Manhattan Beach – In-Person Event

Join us for a luncheon with New York Times Bestselling author Clare Leslie Hall celebrating the publication of her New York Times best selling novel, Broken Country on Friday, October 10th at 11:30 am at Petros in Manhattan Beach. Clare will be in conversation with long- time friend of the store and bestselling author of The Night W Lost Him, Laura Dave.

Tickets are $100 and include the luncheon at Petros and a signed copy of Broken Country.

A love triangle unearths dangerous, deadly secrets from the past in this thrilling tale.

“The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.”

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives.

For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.

Clare Leslie Hall is a novelist and journalist who lives in the wilds of Dorset, England, with her family. She’s the author of Broken Country, Pictures of Him, and Days You Were Mine.

Laura Dave is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including The Last Thing He Told Me and Eight Hundred Grapes. Her novels have been translated into thirty-eight languages, and six of them, including The Night We Lost Him, have been optioned for film and television. She resides in Santa Monica, California.

Where: pages Off-site at Petros Manhattan Beach

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 11:30 am – 1 pm

Address: 451 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2025-10-10/special-author-luncheon-clare-leslie-hall

Nonfiction Book Club at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Join us for the nonfiction book club. Participants will discuss The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels by Pamela Prickett.

RSVP:

Please email studio@lapl.org for participation details.

Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 12 pm

Address:12511 Moorpark Street, Studio City, CA 91604

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/current-events-nonfiction-book-club

Writing Gets Lonely: Open Writing Studio at Heavy Manners Library – In-Person Event

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!

Drop in and stay a while!

RSVP at Website (Pay What You Want Donation)

Where: Heavy Manners Library

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 1 pm – 3 pm

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

Website: https://heavymannerslibrary.com/events/writing-gets-lonely-open-writing-studio-10-10

Creative Writing Workshop at El Monte Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Unlock your imagination and bring your stories to life! Teens will explore character creation, vivid settings, and powerful dialogue through fun prompts and fast-paced activities. Materials provided. While supplies last. For ages, 13-17.

Whether you’re into fantasy, realism, or poetry, this space is all about finding your voice and having fun with words.

Where: El Monte Library, LACL

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 4 pm – 5 pm

Address: 3224 Tyler Ave., El Monte, CA 91731

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14727563

School of Life Book Club: Lonesome Dove at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event

Participants will discuss Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty.

Retired Texas Rangers Agustus Mc Crae and Woodrow Call undertake a perilous cattle drive to the untamed plains of Montana.

Pick up your copy of the Pulitzer Prize winning western classic Lonesome Dove in store, or order online through thebookjewel.com

Where: The Book Jewel

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 6 pm

Address: 6259 W. 87^th St., Westchester, CA 90045

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Self-Care Book Club: What It Takes to Heal at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Participants will discuss What It Takes to Heal: How Transforming Ourselves Can Change the World by Prentis Hemphill.

Hemphill weaves together stories from their own experience as a trauma survivor with clinical accounts and lessons learned from their time as a social movement architect. They ask, “What would it do to movements, to our society and culture, to have the principles of healing at the very center? And what does it do to have healing at the center of every structure and everything we create?”

In this life-affirming framework for the way forward, Hemphill shows us how to heal our bodies, minds, and souls—to develop the interpersonal skills necessary to break down the doors of disconnection and take the necessary risks to reshape our world toward justice.

Prentis Hemphill is a writer, embodiment facilitator, political organizer, and therapist. They are the founder and director of the Embodiment Institute and the Black Embodiment Initiative, and the host of the acclaimed podcast Finding Our Way. Their work and writing have appeared in The New York Times, HuffPost, You Are Your Best Thing (edited by Tarana Burke and Brené Brown), and Holding Change by adrienne maree brown.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 6 pm

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

Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/self-care-book-club-what-it-takes-heal

Open Mic Night Every Friday Night at The Den Café, Santa Ana – In-Person Event

See you NEXT WEEK for a night of local talent, food, coffee and cocktails at The Den Cafe. A stage that’s been a home for OC’s artist since 1999.

Sign-ups start at 5:30 with @rodharrison66.

Music starts at 6 pm

Spoken word and poetry are welcome!

Where: The Den Café

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 6 pm (Doors at 5:30 pm)

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

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Stephanie Covington, with Vanessa Carlisle, & Awaken Your Sexuality at Book Soup – In-Person Event

Stephanie Covington, PhD, LCSW, in conversation with Venessa Carlisle, PhD, will discussAwaken Your Sexuality: A Guide to Connection and Intimacy After Addiction and Trauma.

Renowned experts in the fields of sex, sexuality, gender, addiction, and trauma deliver answers, hope, understanding, acceptance, peace and pleasure in this groundbreaking new work. Compassionate and comprehensive, filled with honest, moving, personal stories and examples, Awaken Your Sexuality addresses the complex intersections of trauma, addiction, and sexual healing with depth and sensitivity. Written by leaders in their field, this one-of-a-kind, non-judgmental guide unlocks the path to pleasure, intimacy, connection, and self-understanding.

Addiction, trauma, and shame can shatter your experience of intimacy and sexual joy. But healing is possible. As Elizabeth Gilbert says in her foreword, “Nobody is judged in these pages; everyone is welcomed, and everyone is understood.” Whether straight, queer, cis, trans, gender nonconforming or questioning, readers will discover inclusive and invaluable information.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2025-10-10/stephanie-covington

Book Talk: Walter Mosley & Gray Dawn Release & at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event

A number of below-the-law powerbrokers plead with Easy to locate a mysterious, dangerous woman—Lutisha James, though she’s gone by another name that Easy will immediately recognize. 1970s Los Angeles is a transient city of delicate, violent balances, and Lutisha has disturbed that. She also has a secret that will upend Easy’s own life, painfully closer to home.

Where: Chevalier’s

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2025-10-10/book-talk-walter-mosley-and-gray-dawn-book-release

An Evening of Poetry at Heavy Manners Library – In-Person Event

Join us for an evening of poetry featuring writers Jim Madigan, Victoria Loustalot, Lillian Doyle, Daryl Gussin, Hanna Pachman, and Matthew Sherling.

This reading will also include a fundraiser with tons of prizes to benefit Heavy Manners Library!

Jim Madigan has shaped a body of work that definitely says Revolution is a life lived ON purpose. James Madigan was born in Chicago, the eldest of twelve children. He began writing and publishing poetry in retirement after twenty-five years in public library administration.

Victoria Loustalot is an author and editor with twenty years of journalism, publishing, and digital media experience. She has been a founding member and senior manager of groundbreaking teams at Twitter, Condé Nast, and NBC. She is also an editor and ghost writer, with expertise in memoir, fiction, sociology, philosophy, and psychology manuscripts.

Lillian Doyle (she/they) is an artist and poet living in East Los Angeles. Lillian incorporates her poetry into zines and ambient music. Her work is self-reflective, ethereal, and inspired by the nature she grew up around.

Daryl Gussin is a writer and musician who has been awkwardly standing around at punk shows for the last twenty-something years. Thankfully at some point in his late teens he decided to become a little more productive, and has been working on zines, setting up shows, and playing in bands consecutively since then.

Hanna Pachman is a poet and filmmaker who uses writing as therapy to conquer objectification, health issues, and robot brains. Originally from Connecticut, she currently hosts a monthly poetry event, “Beatnik Cafe” and is an Assistant Editor for the poetry magazine, Gyroscope Review. Her poems appear in or are forthcoming in Fourth & Sycamore, Oddball Magazine and Aberration Labyrinth.

Matthew Sherling wrote the book of poems Bring Me My Absolute Surrender (Plain Wrap, 2014). More than from any class he took, he has learned from the internet, where he runs the blog CUTTY SPOT & the magazine Gesture. He hasn’t slept since 2004.

RSVP at Website (Pay What You Want Donation)

Where: Heavy Manners Library

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 7 pm

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

Website: https://heavymannerslibrary.com/events/an-evening-of-poetry-10-10

Swing Set Open Mic at Long Beach Forward – In-Person Event

Join us for poetry, music, community and storytelling.

An affirming, inclusive open mic for poets and storytellers of all kinds. Hosted by queer and trans people of color.

Celebrating 4 Years!✨ 

@swingsetopenmic is happening Friday, October 10th at @movelbforward 🙌🏾 Four years ago we began this amazing showcase for the community and it’s time to celebrate! 🥳🎊🎉

Calling all poets, musicians, comedians and storytellers—RSVP today! Perform or just come and enjoy the vibes 🙂‍↕️🎤

Masks are mandatory for this event.

More details at Eventbrite.

Where: Long Beach Forward

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 7 pm (Doors at 6:30 pm)

Address: 2217 E. 6^th St., Long Beach, CA 90814 (free parking)

Website: https://www.instagram.com or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/swing-set-open-mic-inclusive-qtpoc-led-community-event-tickets-1734892994649

At Skylight: John Freeman, with Hector Tobar, & California Revisited at Skylight – In-Person Event

Join us to hear John Freeman, in conversation with Hector Tobar, discuss California Revisited.

Dive into the revelatory worlds of California’s most exciting writers, and discover how their books uncover our history and can help us imagine our shared future.

Percival Everett, Rebecca Solnit, Tommy Orange, Michael Connelly, Julie Otsuka: As John Freeman writes in California Rewritten, “Literature of so many kinds and so many genres from so many different types of people—at the highest level—has been coming out of California and from Californians for decades now.” Freeman, one of the sharpest editors working today, has followed the evolution of California’s literary life since his teenage years in Sacramento. In over fifty essays inspired by his hosting of Alta Journal’s popular California Book Club, he offers an essential road map to California literature now. He shows us how the state’s most exciting writers can unlock our understanding of the past, and how they can deepen our imaginations as we confront the most pressing issues that face our society: labor and inequality, migration and citizenship, technology and its limits, changing landscapes and climate catastrophe. Incisive and compulsively readable, California Rewritten will be a source of empowering discovery for any book lover who cares about the Golden State.

John Freeman has hosted Alta’s California Book Club since its founding in 2020. He is an executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf, and he edited Freeman’s (2015-2023), a literary annual of new writing. His books include How to Read a Novelist and Dictionary of the Undoing, as well as the anthologies Tales of Two Americas, Tales of Two Planets, The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story, and Sacramento Noir. He is also the author of three poetry collections, Maps, The Park, and Wind, Trees. His work is translated into more than twenty languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. The former editor of Granta, he lives in New York.

Héctor Tobar is a Los Angeles-born author of six books, including, most recently, Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino,” winner of the Kirkus Prize and other honors. His nonfiction Deep Down Dark was a New York Times bestseller, and his novel The Barbarian Nurseries won the California Book Award. Tobar’s fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, and he earned his MFA in Creative Writing from UC Irvine, where he is currently a professor. At the Los Angeles Times he was a foreign correspondent and won a Pulitzer Prize. Tobar has been a Guggenheim fellow, an op-ed writer for the New York Times, and a contributor to The New Yorker. He is the son of Guatemalan immigrants.

Where: Skylight

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 7 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-john-freeman-presents-california-revisited-w-h%C3%A9ctor-tobar

Book Release: P.E. Moskowitz & Breaking Away at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event

From the “talented and impassioned writer” (San Francisco Chronicle) of How to Kill a City, a riveting journey that combines Drug Use for Grown-Ups with How to Do Nothing, as it explores our national mental health and drug use crises while also searching for answers as to how we can find a path to collective healing.

In Breaking Awake, Moskowitz takes us on a kaleidoscopic voyage through our country’s collective mental health collapse, and the drugs we take—from fentanyl to SSRIs, to ketamine to LSD and beyond—to cope with the gnawing bleakness of our present moment. In a cross-country tour of drug use—including the free heroin handed out on the streets of Vancouver, a mom in Chicago who has been on SSRIs since childhood and now can’t live without them, and ravers in Brooklyn taking drugs most people have never heard of to push the limits of human consciousness—Moskowitz questions whether drugs can spark liberation or simply quell the pain of modern life. Is it time to view drugs differently? And can drugs help us envision a better future?

P.E. Moskowitz is a writer born and raised in New York City. Their writing has appeared in New York magazine, GQ, The Nation, and many other places. They run a popular Substack newsletter about psychology, psychiatry, and culture called Mental Health. When they’re not writing, they’re probably playing tennis, chilling with friends across the city, or watching the Mets lose again. For more information, visit their website at Moskowitz.xyz.

Where: Stories Books & Café

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://storiesla.com/events

Shamelessly Bad Poetry Night at Underdog Bookstore, Monrovia – In-Person Event

Join us for Shamelessly Bad Poetry Night!

Knowingly bad poems, shamelessly spoken.

Dust off the old notebooks, dig through the archives, and get ready to read your absolute worst poetry. That snippet from High School you swore would never see the light of the day? A piece that’s been rejected from submissions more times than you can count? We want to hear it!

All are welcome for our first Shamelessly Bad Poetry Night!

No sign-ups needed, donations appreciated.

Where: Underdog Bookstore

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 312 South Myrtle Avenue, Monrovia, CA, 91016

Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events/shamelessly-bad-poetry-night

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

This all-inclusive event will create space for local artists of any medium to share their talents with the community. Come hang out, as an audience member, or a performer, and meet some talented locals!

Sign-ups for performers are at the door, day of, 30 minutes prior to the event. Sets are limited to 5-10 minutes. All performances must be family friendly. We will provide two microphones and two mic stands. Please bring any other equipment you will need. This event is free, no registration is required!

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Friday the 10^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Tom Lutz, with John Powers, & 1925: A Literary Encyclopedia at Vroman‘s – In-Person Event

Tom Lutz, in conversation with John Powers, will discuss 1925: A Literary Encyclopedia.

This encyclopedia was written as we approached the 100th anniversary of the annus mirabilis. In what follows, we can see the seeds of virtually every aspect of our cultural life, from art, literature, theater, and music to physics, philosophy, social science, and political discourse. The fear of environmental degradation, the corruption in our politics, the competing claims of utopianism and dystopia, the bitterly divided views on science, mass media, art, nature, justice, generations, community, freedom, sexuality, race, immigration: all can be seen in their budding or full-blown gore and glory in 1925. We have come far and not very far at all.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Friday, the 10^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-10-10/tom-lutz-conversation-john-powers-discusses-signs-1925-literary-encyclopedia

Altadena Poets Laureate: Fire and Ice Workshop with Tersa Mei Chuc at Altadena Main Library – In-Person Event

Participants in this Haibun Poetry Workshop led by Teresa Mei Chuc will reflect on their feelings and experiences after the recent fires in Altadena and the Palisades or on the Current ICE raids in L.A.

They also are invited to share their writings at the reading + open mic on October 14!

Where: Altadena Main Library

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 11 am – 1 pm

Address: 600 E. Mariposa St., Altadena, CA 91001

Website: https://www.instagram.com

1^st Annual Riverside Book Festival at Riverside Main Library – In-Person Event

Join us on October 11 for Riverside’s first annual book festival! It’s FREE and open to all.

Discover new books, listen to author panels, and experience activities for the whole family. Don’t miss out on Riverside’s first annual book festival!

Keynote Speaker Lee Herrick, California Poet Laureate

Main Stage Highlights:

Teens Poet Laureate Katies Xin, Bibinaz Namo & Bethel Albe

Truth in Memoir: Samantha Dunn, Cassandra Lane, Jerry Mathes

How Novels Are Born: Ron Arias & Carlos Cortes

Writing the Inland Empire: Alex Espinosa, Susan Striaght, & Tod Goldberg

Writing for Young People: Isabel Quintero, Nydia Armendia-Sanchez & Loris Lora

Children’s Stage: See schedule for details.

Check website for access details and bios.

Where: Riverside Main Library

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 11 am – 6 pm

Address: 3900 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, CA 92501

Website: https://riversidebookfestival.org/

Caffeinated Verse: Poetry Open Mic at Malibu Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join Malibu Poet Laureate Charlotte Ward to hear readings of original pieces written by local poets and bring a poem of your own to read during the open mic. For adults.

This event is part of the City’s free poetry workshops in partnership with Malibu Library, the Malibu Poet Laureate Committee, the Malibu Arts Commission, and the Friends of the Malibu Library, offering community members engaging, educational opportunities to find expression through poetry with a renowned local poet.

Where: Malibu Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 11 am

Address: 23519 West Civic Center Way, Malibu, CA 90265

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14499731

Book Club at Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Read the book and join our lively discussion!

October 11: Knife by Salman Rushdie

Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 11 am

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

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-3

Author P.E. Moskowitz & Breaking Awake at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Author and journalist P.E. Moskowitz will discuss their new book Breaking Awake: A Reporter’s Search for a New Life, And a New World, Through Drugs. Stories Books & Cafe will be on hand with copies for purchase that can be signed by the author.

P.E. Moskowitz has written for the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Guardian, and is the author of How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood, an exposé of the hidden power relationships in cities that ruin neighborhoods and the ways citizens can take them back.

Breaking Awake is a riveting journey from the author’s near-death experience and nervous breakdown through an intense process of self-rebuilding that included prescription and illicit drug use, which caused them to wonder: why are so many of us seeking out these types of interventions to deal with our daily reality? Moskowitz takes us on a kaleidoscopic voyage through our country’s collective mental health crisis and the drugs we use, from fentanyl to SSRIs, ketamine, LSD and beyond, to cope with the bleakness of our present moment.

Email eden@lapl.org for more information.

Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 11 am

Address: 2011 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/author-pe-moskowitz-discusses-breaking-awake

Storytime: Suzanne and Max Lang & Archibald and the Furry Dinosaurs at Once Upon a Time, Montrose – In-Person Kids & Family Event

The #1 New York Times bestselling creators of Grumpy Monkey, Suzanne and Max Lang, will be sharing their newest picture book, Archibald and the Furry Dinosaurs with a story time, Archibald dinosaur photo-op, and book signing. Best for ages 4+.

If you can’t make it to the event, you can order signed books in advance at website.

Suzanne Lang is the author of the New York Times bestselling Grumpy Monkey books as well as several other titles. When she’s not writing books, Suzanne writes for animation. When she’s not doing that, she hangs out with her very funny kids, feeds her many pets, and tries (but usually fails) to take a nap!

Max Lang has illustrated over twenty books, including all the titles in the Grumpy Monkey series. When he’s not making books, he makes films. He has co-directed several animated movies, including The Snail and the Whale, Zog, Room on the Broom, and The Gruffalo. He has received three BAFTAs, two Emmys, two Oscar nominations, and many other honors for his film work. In his spare time, he tries to make his kids laugh at dad jokes, and when he inevitably fails, he takes his dogs for a walk.

NOTE: Free to attend.

Where: Once Upon a Time, Montrose

Date: Saturday, the 11^th

Time: 9:30 am

Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020

Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/archibald-and-furry-dinosaurs

Creative Writing Workshop at Lakeview Terrace Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

What’s Your Story? Creative Writing can take you on a new exciting journey with your incredible imagination. Do you want to write short stories or publish essays? Are you writing a screenplay? Share your work in a supportive Writer’s Circle…or just listen. Writing prompts will be provided. This program has been designed for adults.

Where: Lake View Terrace Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 12 pm

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

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/creative-writing-workshop-4

AIRC Book Club: How We Go Home at Huntington Park Library, LACL – In-Person Event

October’s book club selection is How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America edited by Sara Sinclair.

Originally told in oral interviews in collaboration with Voice of Witness, a non-profit that amplifies the stories of those who are impacted by—and fighting injustice, these 12 narratives explore the life and histories of contemporary Indigenous peoples from the United States and Canada. This collection of stories focus on topics such as Water Protectors, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, family separation, and many other effects of colonization. We invite you to join us for a lively discussion in a relaxed setting with snacks.

Copies of the book are available for checkout at Huntington Park Library and may also be downloaded as an eBook or audiobook at LACountyLibrary.org

Light refreshments served courtesy of Friends of the Huntington Park Library.

For ages 18 and up.

Where: Huntington Park Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm

Address: 6518 Miles Ave., Huntington Park, CA 90255

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14568329

After Lunch Book Club for Adults: The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro at Huntington Park Library, LACL

For Hispanic Heritage Month, we will discuss the horror novel The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro. Copies made available at the Circulation Desk. For Adults

A woman is haunted by the Mexican folk demon La Llorona as she dives into her family history.

Where: Montebello Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 2 pm – 3 pm

Address: 1550 W. Beverly Blvd., Montebello, CA 90640

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14199487

Author Talk: Kristen W, Larson & This Is How You Know: How Science Happens at Huntington Park Library, LACL

Join author Kirsten W. Larson for an engaging, hands-on STEM experience inspired by her book, This Is How You Know: How Science Happens, illustrated by Cornelia Li (Little Brown Books for Young Readers). For ages 5 – 12 with parent or caregiver.

This interactive program introduces early elementary students to the scientific process—making observations, forming predictions, and adapting ideas with new evidence—through an engaging read-aloud and hands-on experiments.

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

Where: Quartz Hill Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm

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

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/14543358

Creative Writing Group at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Calling all writers of fiction, screenplays, poetry, etc. Get feedback on your writing in a fun, supportive environment! The Central Library Creative Writing Group meets every other Saturday for fellowship, feedback, and snacks. Meetings start out with a short writing prompt exercise, then writers are invited to share up to five pages of their work for feedback from the group. Whether you are just starting out or well on your way to glory, join us and banish (at least temporarily) those Lonely Writer Blues!

RSVP:

Please RSVP by emailing fiction@lapl.org.

Where: Central Library, LAPL, Meeting Room B

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 3 pm – 5 pm

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

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/creative-writing-group

Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Deep Critique Workshop with RA Ruadh via Zoom Event – Online Event

RA Ruadh leads a Deep Critique Writing Workshop via Zoom online. (Submit up to 3 poems totaling no more than 150 lines including the subject of or at least mentioning too or hot for Four Feathers Press online edition: Too Hot by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59 pm, October 24th)

Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.

Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry

Date: Saturday, the 11^th

Time: 3 pm – 5 pm

Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)

Website: https://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com

Nicholas Buccola & One Man’s Freedom: Goldwater, King, and the Struggle Over an American Ideal at Vroman’s – In-Person Event

Nicholas Buccola will present and discuss One Man’s Freedom: Goldwater, King, and the Struggle Over an American Ideal.

From the acclaimed author of The Fire Is upon Us, the dramatic untold story of Barry Goldwater and Martin Luther King Jr.’s decade-long clash over the meaning of freedom—and how their conflicting visions still divide American politics,

In the mid-1950s, Barry Goldwater and Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as the leaders of two diametrically opposed freedom movements that changed the course of American history—and still divide American politics. King mobilized civil rights activists under the banner of “freedom now,” insisting that true freedom would not be realized until all people—regardless of race—were empowered politically, economically, and socially. Goldwater rallied conservatives to the cause of “extremism in defense of liberty,” advocating radical individualism. In One Man’s Freedom, Nicholas Buccola tells the compelling story of Goldwater and King’s dramatic decade-long debate over the meaning of an all-important American ideal.

Part dual biography, part history, One Man’s Freedom traces the actions and words of Goldwater and King over a crucial and eventful decade, from their dizzying rise through 1964, which ended with Goldwater’s landslide defeat in the presidential election and King’s Nobel Peace Prize. The book chronicles why Goldwater and King, who never met in person, came to view each other as perhaps the greatest threat to freedom in America. It explains how their ideas of freedom could be so vastly different, yet both so deeply rooted in American history and their times. And it shows how their disagreement continues to shape and explain politics today, when the bitter divisions between Republicans and Democrats often come down to the question of what kind of freedom Americans want—the one defined by Goldwater or by King?

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 3 pm – 4 pm

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-10-04/nicholas-buccola

Building Self Confidence Through Children’s Lit: Brooke Thompson + Weshoyot at Bel Canto Books KUBO. Long Beach – In-Person Event

Bel Canto Books is delighted to host a conversation about building self-confidence through children’s lit with authors Brook Thompson (I LOVE SALMON AND LAMPREYS) and Weshoyot Alvitre (BRAVE).

Brook M. Thompson is a part of the Yurok and Karuk Tribes. She is a neurodivergent and Two-Spirit author with dyslexia. She has a BS in civil engineering from Portland State University and an MS in environmental engineering from Stanford University, and she will soon have a PhD in environmental studies from University of California, Santa Cruz, where she studies water, politics, restoration, and salmon. You can find out more about her at brookmthompson.com.

Weshoyot Alvitre is a Tongva and Scottish comic book artist and illustrator. She is the illustrator of the picture book At the Mountain’s Base (written by Traci Sorell), which received the 2020 American Indian Youth Literature Award, and of Living Ghosts & Mischievous Monsters: Chilling American Indian Stories (written by Dan SaSuWeh Jones), which was named a 2021 Kirkus Reviews Best Middle-Grade Anthology. She resides in Southern California with her husband and two children. Visit her online at weshoyot.com.

RSVP

Where: Bel Canto KUBO LB

Date: Saturday, the 11^th

Time: 4 pm – 5:30 pm

Address: 3976 Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90807

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-self-confidence-through-childrens-lit-brooke-thompson-weshoyot-tickets-1583052906859?aff=oddtdtcreator

Book Signing: Usolosopher & Diary of a Mad USO at Sims Library of Poetry – In-Person Event

Poet and underground Samoan orator Molimau Andrew Fatu, known as Usolosopher, will have a book signing event at the Sims Library of Poetry in Los Angeles.

Featuring guest poets:

Subject Matter N/A

Poet Astrid is a Salvadoran American poet from Southern California. She attended CSU Dominguez Hills where she joined the poetry club and slam team, For the Love of Writing (FLOW). A year later, she became the club president and slam team captain. Astrid is the author of Through the Soil in my Skin.

Vida Montez N/A

Open Mic limited to 10 People to sign up.

Food & Drinks available.

Where: Sims Library of Poetry

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 5 pm – 8 pm

Address: 2702 W Florence Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90043

Website: https://www.threads.com/@usolosopher/post

Book Reading: Natalie Sierra & Beyond the Grace of God: at Pandora Demise – In-Person Event

Pomona Poet Laureate, Natalie Sierra, reads from her new book Beyond the Grace of God: A Story of Desire, an erotic gothic horror story. Join us for a casual reading and Q&A featuring vampiric drink specials 🩸

Where: Pandora Demise

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

Address: 1012Mission St., Unit B, South Pasadena, CA 91030

Website: https://www.instagram.com

LPS Poetry Open Mic: Rick Lupertat The Book Jewel – In-Person Event

LPS Poetry Open Mic on Saturday, October 11 at 7 pm!

With special guest Rick Lupert, poet & founder of Poetry Super Highway. #LPS #Poetryopenmic #thebookjewel #poetrysuperhighway

Hosted by Joseph Paulson

Where: The Book Jewel

Date: Saturday the 11^th

Time: 7 pm

Address: 6259 W. 87^th St., Westchester, CA 90045

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Melrose Trading Post: L.A. Poet Society at Greenway Arts Alliance at Melrose Trading Post at Fairfax H.S. – In-Person Event

The Melrose Trading Post is a pioneering arts-based marketplace held every Sunday at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, CA with 275 local creative small business vendors, delicious food booths and local live music.

MTP was founded in 1997 with a mission to champion small businesses, art, and community. The market funds Greenway Arts Alliance’s arts education programming and provides employment and leadership development opportunities for students at Fairfax High School.

JOIN us in space R18 each Sunday, from 11 am – 5 pm.

All poems are donation-based, so you name your price.

NOTE: Check every Sunday for story time and reading events

Where: Melrose Trading Post, Greenway Main Stage at Fairfax HS

Date: Sunday, the 12^th

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

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

Website: https://www.instagram.com

OC Poetry SLAM: Slam Strategies Workshop – Online Virtual Event

Poetry Slam presents a Slam Strategies Workshop in collaboration with community partners. Please join acclaimed spoken word artists Ebony Stewart @gullyprincess (Houston, TX), Rudy Francisco @rudyfrancisco (San Diego, CA), Edwin Bodney @edwinbodney (Los Angeles, CA), & PAGES Matam (Washington D.C.), in a dynamic Masterclass on Poetry Slam Strategies. Blending personal and professional insight with historical context, this conversation explores how to compete effectively in today’s evolving slam scene. From archival wisdom to creating quantifiable, replicable approaches, participants will gain tools to sharpen performance, understand the sport’s legacy, and craft strategies that transcend trends—empowering poets to thrive in competition and carry slam forward into its next era.

Thank you to the Anaheim Poet Laureate Camille Hernandez @anaheimpoetlaureate for donating her zoom account for this event.

Please register via Eventbrite. A $10 donation is suggested for the event. Attending this workshop will earn you one OC Point for competition this season!

RSVP

Where: OC Poetry SLAM

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 11:30 am – 1:30 pm

Address: Online Event

Website: https://www.instagram.com/

OC Poet Laureate Office Hours with Gus Henandez at LibroMobile, Santa Ana – In-Person Event

Calling all writers and poets: OC Poet Laureate, Gustavo Hernández, is hosting office hours! Feel free to stop by! Can’t make it into LibroMobile? Need a zoom link? Email libromobile@gmail.com.

RSVP

Where: LibroMobile

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 12 pm – 2 pm

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

Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/oc-poet-laureate-office-hours-with-gustavo-hernandez-2025-10-12-12-00

Music Book Club: Alice Bag & Violence Girl at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event

Join the Music Book Club to discuss Alice Bag’s chronicle of adolescence and playing in the first-wave punk band, The Bags.

Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Hollywood Stage, A Chicana Punk Story is available in print, and as an ebook via hoopla.

Please read the book ahead of the meeting. You can join us in person or online; RSVP for more information.

Where: Central Library, LAPL, Art Department

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 1 pm – 2 pm

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

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/music-book-club-violence-girl-alice-bag

Book Event: Jen Hayes Lee & The Golden Hoops at Reparations Club – In-Person Event

Join Rep Club in celebrating The Golden Hoops with author Jen Hayes Lee.

Golden hoops are magic. That’s what Mommy says.

And Janey has always wanted her own pair of glowing golden hoops, just like the ones her mother wears.

Finally, the day comes when Janey gets her own. With her hoops, Janey can do anything. She feels like a million bucks! But when she gets home, Janey discovers that one of her hoops has gone missing.

Without her special hoops, can Janey find her magic again?

In this fun ode to the tradition of receiving a first pair of hoops, Janey experiences the beauty of inner magic and sisterhood—and learns just how far both can take her.

Jen Hayes Lee is an author, passionate content strategist, and marketing executive dedicated to creating culturally relevant and inclusive storytelling. She has stewarded media and fashion brands by fostering community and inspiring action through authentic connections. Recognized as one of the 40 Under 40 by her alma mater, Emory University, she attended Goizueta Business School and later earned an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business as a Consortium Academic Fellowship recipient. A proud New Orleanian, Jen now resides in South Orange, New Jersey, with her husband, Clyde, and their three sons, who have affectionately bestowed her with the title of Queen Mommy. The Golden Hoops is her debut picture book.

Where: Reparations Club

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 1 pm (Doors at 12:30 pm)

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

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-event-the-golden-hoops-w-jen-hayes-lee-tickets-1608341054389?aff=oddtdtcreator

Women Who Submit; Toni Ann Johnson & But Where’s Home? and Open Mic at The Pop Hop – In-Person Event

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP YET?

WWS Open Mic at @thepophop…final for the year!

Featuring Tony Ann Johnson @treeladytoniann & But Where’s Home?

Sunday, October 12th 2025 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

FREE!

Writers from Women who Submit will share their work and the community is invited to come listen. Bring a friend!

Hosted by Jesenia Chávez @chabemucho

Where: The Pop Hop

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 1 pm – 3 pm

Address: 5002 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Cellar Door Book Club: The Hacienda at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event

Participants will discuss The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas.

Mexican Gothic meets Rebecca in this debut supernatural suspense novel, set in the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence, about a remote house, a sinister haunting, and the woman pulled into their clutches.

During the overthrow of the Mexican government, Beatriz’s father was executed and her home destroyed. When handsome Don Rodolfo Solórzano proposes, Beatriz ignores the rumors surrounding his first wife’s sudden demise, choosing instead to seize the security that his estate in the countryside provides. She will have her own home again, no matter the cost.

But Hacienda San Isidro is not the sanctuary she imagined.

When Rodolfo returns to work in the capital, visions and voices invade Beatriz’s sleep. The weight of invisible eyes follows her every move. Rodolfo’s sister, Juana, scoffs at Beatriz’s fears—but why does she refuse to enter the house at night? Why does the cook burn copal incense at the edge of the kitchen and mark the doorway with strange symbols? What really happened to the first Doña Solórzano?

Beatriz only knows two things for certain: Something is wrong with the hacienda. And no one there will save her.

Desperate for help, she clings to the young priest, Padre Andrés, as an ally. No ordinary priest, Andrés will have to rely on his skills as a witch to fight off the malevolent presence haunting the hacienda and protect the woman for whom he feels a powerful, forbidden attraction. But even he might not be enough to battle the darkness.

Far from a refuge, San Isidro may be Beatriz’s doom.

Isabel Cañas is a Mexican-American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, and Turkey, among other places, she has settled (for now) in New York City. She holds a doctorate in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 2 pm – 3 pm

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

Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/cellar-door-book-club-hacienda

Indigenous Peoples Day Storytime: Brook M. Thompson & I Love Salmon and Lampreys at Once Upon a Time, Montrose – In-Person Event

Join us for a storytime event with Brook M. Thompson & I Love Salmon and Lampreys.

Author-scientist Brook M. Thompson shares the Native-led movement for environmental justice along the Klamath River in Northern California. Brook will read her picture book to the audience and then be available to sign books. Best for ages 4+.

Their campaign was a success—in August 2024, the last dam came down and this book celebrates the power of collective action, Native culture, and ecological stewardship.

Where: Once Upon a Time

Date: Sunday, the 12^th

Time: 2 pm

Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020

Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/indigenous-peoples-day-i-love-salmon-lampreys

Barbara Roberts, with Sasha Anawalt, & The Metamorphosis of Bunny Baxter at Vroman’s – In-Person Event

Join us to hear Barbara Roberts, in conversation with Sasha Anawalt, discuss The Metamorphosis of Bunny Baxter.

Bunny Baxter thinks nothing could be worse than starting seventh grade at a school where she knows no one. But after her first day, she realizes things can actually get much worse.

If Bunny Baxter were an insect, she’d have so many ways to slip through seventh grade unnoticed. But she’s tall instead of tiny, has flaming red Medusa hair instead of camouflage, and she suffers from social anxiety, which makes it hard to be part of a swarm. Worst of all, she’s been redistricted to a new middle school away from her best friend who she could always hide behind when her anxiety got the best of her.

The first day at E.D. Britt Middle School does not go well. She soon discovers that it isn’t that hard to get in trouble—don’t turn in your homework, walk around the track instead of run in P.E., pretend you deliberately hit someone with a badminton birdie. What isn’t so easy for Bunny is realizing she now has a reputation as a troublemaker. And even more confusing, when it looks like her plan to get expelled might work, she’s no longer sure what to do.

The Metamorphosis of Bunny Baxter is a heartfelt coming of age story about an insect-loving girl who is learning to grow into herself—quirks and all.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Sunday, the 12^th

Time: 2 pm – 3 pm

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2025-10-12/barbara-roberts

Judith Orloff & The Highly Sensitive Rabbit at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event

Judith Orloff will discuss and sign The Highly Sensitive Rabbit.

A highly sensitive rabbit learns lessons of kindness and self-care from other desert animals.

Aurora is a highly sensitive rabbit. She worries about the natural world and the other animals around her. When a flash flood destroys her family’s burrow, Aurora must accept her sensitive nature and learn how to thrive by using breathing techniques, taking time alone, and setting boundaries. Eventually, she comes to understand that she can connect with others and enjoy the beauty of the world while embracing who she is.

Based on Dr. Judith Orloff’s teachings about thriving as an empath, this picture book offers easy-to-learn coping and communication skills through a beautifully written and illustrated story. It also includes a nonfiction section at the back that teaches about plants and animals native to the Sonoran Desert.

Judith Orloff, MD is a New York Times bestselling author, a psychiatrist, and an empath. She is the author of the children’s book The Highly Sensitive Rabbit, which is about a caring cottontail who was shamed for her sensitivities but then learns to embrace them. Dr. Orloff’s other books include The Genius of Empathy, The Empath’s Survival Guide, and Thriving as an Empath. Dr. Orloff also specializes in treating highly sensitive people in her medical practice. Dr. Orloff’s work has been featured on The Today Show, CNN, Oprah Magazine, the New York Times, and USA Today. Dr. Orloff has spoken at Google-LA and TEDx.

Where: Deisel

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 3 pm

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

Website: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2025-10-12/judith-orloff-highly-sensitive-rabbit

Book Launch: Chip Jacobs & Later Days at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event

Join Rare Bird author Chip Jacobs for the launch of his new book LATER DAYS!

In an evocative follow-up to his Los Angeles Times bestselling Arroyo, Chip Jacobs returns with a gripping tale of brotherhood, recklessness, and footloose souls in the anything goes of late-seventies Southern California.

As their elite, all-boys prep school turns coed, transforming from suburban Lord of the Flies to gender-roiled soap-opera, two unlikely friends—Luke Burnett and Denny Drummond—alternate rescuing each other from self-destruction amid troubled home lives. Eager to maximize their era as invincible seniors at Stone Canyon Prep, they and their pals commandeer Bob’s Big Boy, explore the secret world beneath Caltech, stumble into a possibly-supernatural lab animal, and grapple with near-ODs at a playoff game. Just as our heroes manage to graduate, their bond

Twenty years later, Luke is a high-powered journalist with a nosediving career, while Denny, a visionary software engineer, is socked by a terminal diagnosis. Desperate to make amends for that coyote shot, Denny guilts his estranged friend into helping him, all climaxing with a Hail Mary bid to demystify mortality, with an assist from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, while reconnecting with what matters most.

Where: North Figueroa Bookshop

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 3 pm – 5 pm

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

Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-f4d31b17-8d21-49da-a158-3b83797b815f

Poetry Reading: Voices of Ancestors: Steven Reigns, Mariano Zaro, Jose Enrigue Medina & Jen Cheng at Fan Girl Café – In-Person Event

LGBTQ+ History Month is just around the corner! Mark your calendars to save the date on this special event featuring new books and award-winning poets:

Steven Reigns is a Los Angeles-based poet and educator and was appointed the first Poet Laureate of West Hollywood. Alongside over a dozen chapbooks, he has published the collections Inheritance and Your Dead Body is My Welcome Mat. His new release is Outliving Michael, a memoir in poetry of his friendship with Michael Church, who died of AIDS in 2000.

Mariano Zaro is the author of six books of poetry: Decoding Sparrows (What Books, Los Angeles), Padre Tierra (Olifante, Zaragoza, Spain), Tres letras/Three Letters (Walrus, Barcelona), The House of Mae Rim/La casa de Mae Rim (Carayan Press, San Francisco), Poems of Erosion/Poemas de la erosión (Carayan Press, San Francisco) and Where From/Desde Donde (Bay Books). His poems have been included in the anthologies Monster Verse (Penguin Random House), Wide Awake (Beyond Baroque), The Coiled Serpent (Tía Chucha Press) and in several magazines in Spain, Mexico, and the United States. Most recently, Buda en llamas/Buddha in Flames, his Spanish translation of Tony Barnstone’s selected poems, has been published in Mexico by El Tucán de Virginia.

José Enrique Medina received his BA in English from Cornell University. When he is not writing for fun, he is playing with his chickens, bunnies, and piglets on his farm. His collection of short stories Haunt Me, opens a door between the worlds of the living and the lost.

Jen Cheng is the current Poet Laureate of West Hollywood, author of a poetry collection Braided Spaces, and a 2023 California Arts Council Fellow. She is a multidisciplinary artist who blends East-West cultural influences in a new form, Feng Shui Poetry. She has taught writing workshops of Feng Shui Poetry with Tin House, UCLA Extension, public libraries, and private venues like teahouses and coworking spaces. Jen is a life-long teacher, teaching subjects as varied as improv theatre, chemistry, music theory, and mind-body wellness. As a poetry and writing teacher, her style is to stoke curiosity, hold space for generative writing, and create positive and supportive discussions. Jen is the founder and facilitator of Palabras Literary Salon, a BIPOC-centered series. With stories for tween audiences, mystery detective fans, and queer love, Jen is a cross-pollinator and community curator.

Get your books signed and win a grand prize with our raffle at Voices of Ancestors poetry reading at 🌸Fan Girl Cafe🌸@fangirlcafe.

Free RSVP requested to get a raffle tix bit.ly/lgbtqpoetry1012

Where: Fan Girl Café

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm

Address: 8157 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90046

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Celebrating California Rewritten with John Freeman + Venita Blackburn at Bel Canto Books KUBO. Long Beach – In-Person Event

Bel Canto Books Bel Canto Books is delighted to celebrate the book launch of California Rewritten by John Freeman, in conversation with Venita Blackburn at KUBO LB.

John Freeman has hosted Alta‘s California Book Club since its founding in 2020. He is an executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf, and he edited Freeman’s (2015–2023). His books include How to Read a Novelist and Dictionary of the Undoing, as well the poetry collections, Maps, The Park, and Wind, Trees. His work is translated into more than twenty languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. The former editor of Granta, he lives in New York.

Works by Venita Blackburn have appeared in the New Yorker, NY Times, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, Story Magazine, the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Paris Review, and others. Among various honors, she received the Prairie Schooner book prize for fiction, which resulted in the publication of her collected stories, Black Jesus and Other Superheroes, in 2017. Blackburn’s second collection of stories is How to Wrestle a Girl, 2021, finalist for a Lambda Literary Prize and was a NYTimes editor’s choice. Her highly acclaimed debut novel, Dead in Long Beach, California, is about the mania of grief, all of human history and a lesbian assassin at the end of the world. She is the founder and president of Live, Write, an organization devoted to offering free creative writing workshops for communities lacking access to professional instruction: livewriteworkshop.com. Her home town is Compton, California, and she is an Associate Professor of creative writing at California State University, Fresno.

RSVP

Where: Bel Canto KUBO LB

Date: Sunday, the 12^th

Time: 5 pm – 7 pm

Address: 3976 Atlantic Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90807

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-california-rewritten-with-john-freeman-venita-blackburn-tickets-1583080559569?aff=oddtdtcreator

Second Sunday Poetry Series: Suzanne Lummis & Ron Koertge at The Studio Theatre at St. Denis Building – In-Person Event

Alex M. Frankel hosts Second Sunday Poetry Series and this month features:

Suzanne Lummis’ fourth collection, Crime Wave, will be published by Giant Claw, imprint of What Books, Fall 2025. She’s the editor of the new anthology Poetry Goes to the Movies and poetry editor of the new literary journal out of Los Angeles, Headwind, debuting later this fall. She received her MA from CSU Fresno during its golden era (yes, even Fresno had one) and studied with Philip Levine, one of the most influential poetry teachers of that era. She’s sometimes referred to as a Fresno Poet, more often a Los Angeles Poet, and, because she was born and raised on the northern end, occasionally a California Poet. She’s commonly referred to as a Noir poet. On the strength of other explorations, she appears in anthologies of poems of the American West.

Ron Koertge is the current poet laureate of South Pasadena, Ca. Widely published and anthologized, he has grants from the NEA and the California Arts Council as well as two poems in Best American Poetry and an actual Pushcart Prize. Steve Kowit says that Ron’s poems are “…deliciously smart and entertaining.”

Where: The Studio Theatre at St. Denis Building

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 5 pm – 7 pm

Address: 3433 Cahuenga Blvd West, Los Angeles 90068

(Near Universal Studios)

Website: https://www.secondsundaypoetry.com/

Lead Boldly: Billionaire Robert Smith, with Tavis Smiley, at The Miracle Theater, Inglewood – In-Person Event

Billionaire Robert Smith, in conversation with Tavis Smiley, will dive into Robert Smith new book, LEAD BOLDLY: The Seven Principles Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hosted by Malik Books.

A resource for leaders and aspiring leaders, Lead Boldly pairs seven of MLK JR’s most impactful speeches with insights from Robert F. Smith about why Dr. King’s visionary ideas are so important for leaders to understand and apply today. The book features an introduction written by Dr. King’s daughter Rev. Dr. Bernice King, and the book has been endorsed by Serena Williams, Rev. Al Sharpton, Darren Walker, and more.

RSVP & Tickets at Website link.

Where: The Miracle Theater, with Malik Books

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 6 pm

Address: 226 S. Market St., Inglewood, CA

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/events-at-malik-books-262409 or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lead-boldly-billionaire-robert-smith-in-conversation-with-tavis-smiley-tickets-1530652405549?aff=odcleoeventsincollection

October Fantasy Book Club: Carmilla at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event

October Fantasy Book Club is led by bookseller Grace. It reads widely across the romance genre focusing on ghosts, other worlds and the paranormal.

Participants will discuss Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.

Everyone is welcome.

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm

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

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

PoeTik LA Readingat Private Residence, Silver Lake – In-Person Event

PoeTik LA is a monthly open mic held every 2^nd Sunday of the month in Silver Lake.

Everyone is welcome.

Where: PoeTik LA

Date: Sunday the 12^th

Time: 8 pm

Address: 2930 Hyperion., Silver Lake, CA 90027

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Los Angeles Literature

Online magazine covering L.A.'s vast literary community.

Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/06/25 – 10/12/25

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