Join us to discuss Monk and Robot: A Psalm for the Wild-Built a Prayer for the Crown-Sky by Becky Chambers.

Becky Chambers’ delightful, post-Utopian, Hugo Award-winning series gives us hope for the future.

It’s been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend.

One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of “what do people need?” is answered.

But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how.

They’re going to need to ask it a lot.

Becky Chambers’ series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?

This book includes both A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy in paperback for the first time!

Becky Chambers is a science fiction author based in Northern California. She is best known for her Hugo Award-winning Wayfarers series. Her books have also been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Locus Award, and the Women’s Prize for Fiction, among others.

Becky has a background in performing arts, and grew up in a family heavily involved in space science. She spends her free time playing video and tabletop games, keeping bees, and looking through her telescope. Having hopped around the world a bit, she’s now back in her home state, where she lives with her wife. She hopes to see Earth from orbit one day.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside

Date: Monday the 30^th

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-03-30/queer-book-club-monk-and-robot

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 30^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501

Website: https://www.facebook.com

Ticketed Event: Sadie Williams & Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing at Book Soup – In-Person Event

Sadie Williams will present and discuss 1ralph Steadman: And Another Thing.

The official catalogue for the Ralph Steadman: And Another Thing exhibition catalogue.

Produced to accompany the exhibition that will be touring the USA between 2024 and 2027, this book presents a comprehensive insight into the exhibition as well as delving into elements of Ralph’s deeper archive such as his music, relationship with Hunter S. Thompson and early life in North Wales.

With 207 pages, in full color, this is a perfect gift for your seasoned Steadman collector, and great asan introduction to anyone unfamiliar with this maestro’s work.

NOTE: See site for link and details.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Monday the 30^th

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2026-03-30/sadie-williams-presents-ralph-steadman

At Skylight: Kirsten King with Monika Kim, & A Good Person at Skylight Books – In-Person Event

Kirsten King, in conversation with Monika Kim, will present and discuss A Good Person.

Lillian and Henry have been enjoying each other’s company, particularly in bed. Even though Lillian’s best (and only) friend calls it a “situationship,” Lillian knows better. And she has a plan to lock Henry down. She’ll be the best, most accommodating version of herself until he falls in love with her. But when Henry blindsides Lillian with a breakup instead of a love declaration, Lillian is left with no choice but to exact revenge with a hex.

Lillian expects Henry to grovel and come crawling back to her. What she doesn’t anticipate is becoming a prime suspect in his murder case when he’s found dead.

Desperate to control the narrative, clear her name, and assume her rightful place as Henry’s mourning girlfriend, Lillian’s pursuit of the truth will throw her into a dangerous tailspin, which may just upend her life for good.

A deliciously addictive novel that explores our darkest, most human impulses, A Good Person heralds Kirsten King as a striking new voice in fiction.

Kirsten King is a novelist and screenwriter. Kirsten lived in Boston before relocating to Los Angeles, where she currently resides with her husband and two perfect cats. She has been published in Teen Vogue, BuzzFeed, Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post, Shouts & Murmurs, and more. Her feature film, Crush, debuted on Hulu in 2022 and she has also written for television shows like The Second Best Hospital In The Galaxy on Amazon Prime. A Good Person is her debut novel.

Monika Kim is the Sunday Times bestselling and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Eyes are the Best Part. Monika graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a B.A. in Communication. Since 2016, she has worked for an environmental agency based in Southern California, where she focuses on environmental justice and assisting underserved communities through outreach and youth education programs. Through her books, she seeks to raise awareness of the Asian American experience as well as of feminist issues. Monika is a second-generation Korean American living in Los Angeles. She learned about eating fish eyes and other Korean superstitions from her mother, who immigrated to California from Seoul in 1985.

RSVP

Where: Skylight Books

Date: Monday the 30^th

Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-kirsten-king-presents-good-person-w-monika-kim

Chris Jennings, with Jim Newton, & End of Days: Ruby Ridge, The Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America at Vroman’s – In-Person Event

Chris Jennnings, in conversation with Jim Newton, will discuss and sign End of Days: Ruby Ridge, The Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America.

On August 21, 1992, shots rang out while federal agents were surveilling a cabin in Boundary County, Idaho as part of an operation to arrest Randy Weaver—a reclusive, mountain-dwelling survivalist—for failure to appear in court on a gun charge. When Weaver finally surrendered to the authorities eleven days later, his wife, son, and dog lay dead, as did a US Marshal. Ever since, America has been trying to make sense of what happened on Ruby Ridge. Today, the question could not be more urgent, as the shock waves from Ruby Ridge have amplified and compounded, cracking the very foundations of our democracy.

In End of Days, Chris Jennings explains the significance of this historic siege by setting the story of the Weaver family within the long history of apocalyptic Christianity in the United States, illuminating the ways in which that faith has gradually transformed the nation. The strain of doomsday Christianity that gripped the Weavers, he shows, was grounded in a particular reading of biblical prophecy that can be traced back to the 1870s and up through the twentieth-century rise of Christian fundamentalism to the right-wing conspiracism that now defines American society and politics. The events at Ruby Ridge acted as an accelerant for this spreading worldview, and are essential to understanding the crisis that our nation confronts today.

RSVP

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Monday the 30^th

Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-03-30/chris-jennings

Monday Night Fiction Workshop with Raquel Baker at 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

Date: Monday the 31^st

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)

Website: https://beyondbaroque.org

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

Do you want to find creative inspiration and overcome writer’s block in a supportive and peaceful community setting? Are you interested in writing professionally or for personal growth and healing but unsure where to begin?

Come join acclaimed author and writing instructor Francesca Lia Block for a brief intro and 40 minutes of free writing on any topic without judgement. Afterwards, you will be able to share a bit about your process and ask Francesca questions about your writing.

Francesca Lia Block is the author of more than thirty books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association, and from the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, and PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY. Currently she teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, Pocket MFA, and numerous workshops across the country. Francesca also edits LIT ANGELS, a literary journal available on Substack. Her latest novel is House of Hearts now out in paperback. https://www.francescaliablock.com/

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 10 am – 11 am

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

NEW! Toddler Tuesdays: A Travelin’ Storytime – Session 1 at Montana Branch Library, SMPL – In-Person Kids Event

This fun and engaging weekly series of stories, songs, and rhymes travels to different library locations. Limited space; first come, first served. For ages walking – 3 years.

Where: Montana Branch Library, SMPL

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 10:30 am – 11 am

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

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

Virtual Book Club: Skylark by Paula McLain via La Crescenta Library, LACL – Online Event

Join us for the Virtual Book Club. In March we will be discussing ‘Skylark’ by Paula McLain in honor of Women’s History Month. For adults.

This historical novel tells the dual-timeline story of Alouette Voland, a lawyer imprisoned in 1664 Paris, and Kristof Larson, a medical student in 1939 Nazi-occupied Paria, highlighting themes of resistance and courage across centuries.

Please contact Marta Wiggins at mwiggins@library.lacounty.gov for your link to join.

Each week we will read and discuss 1/5 of the book. Please see the weekly discussion breakdown below.

Week 5: March 31: Chapters 76 – Epilogue — Pages 369 to the end of the book

Where: La Crescenta Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

Address: Online Zoom Event (see site)

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

NEW! Toddler Tuesdays: A Travelin’ Storytime – Session 2 at Montana Branch Library, SMPL – In-Person Kids Event

This fun and engaging weekly series of stories, songs, and rhymes travels to different library locations. Limited space; first come, first served. For ages walking – 3 years.

Where: Montana Branch Library SMPL

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 11:30 am – 12 pm

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

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

Suspense & Thriller Writing for Teens at Northridge Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Teen Event

Have you ever wanted to write a suspenseful story but weren’t sure how to? Join us alongside 826LA in writing a suspenseful and thrilling story!

826LA aims to build academic confidence, a creative voice and readiness for college through writing! This workshop is best for students in middle school and high school.

Where: Northridge Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 4 pm

Address: 9015 Darby Ave., Northridge, CA 91325

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/suspense-thriller-writing-teens

Zoom Book Club: A Woman of No Importance at Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event

Join us on the last Tuesday of the month for a lively discussion of our current selection.

Mar. 31: A Woman of No Importance, Sonia Purnel

RSVP:

Email venice@lapl.org for Zoom link.

Where: Venice – Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 5 pm

Address: Online Event

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

Lomita Book Club: Vampires of El Norte at Lomita Library, LACL – In-Person Event

This month we’ll explore Vampires of El Norte, by Isabel Cañas. This historical fiction book blends supernatural forces, the pangs lost love, and brutality of colonialism against the backdrop of 1840s Mexico. For adults.

When 13-year-old Magdalena “Nena” Serrano, the daughter of a wealthy Mexican rancher, and her childhood friend Néstor Duarte, a vaquero, are attacked, Nena is bitten by a mysterious creature that leaves her for dead while Néstor flees. They are reunited as adults amidst the Mexican-American War in order to confront a supernatural threat.

Limited copies of the book are available to check out at the library.

Where: Lomita Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Address: 24200 Narbonne Ave., Lomita, CA 90717

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/15830434

The Canyon Readers Collective Book Club: How Beautiful We Were at Topanga Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us for a discussion of How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue, a powerful, lyrical novel about a small African village fighting back against an American oil company that’s destroying their land and future. For adults.

Urgent, emotional, and unforgettable, it’s the story of resistance, community, and what it truly costs to seek justice.

Where: Topanga Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm

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

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/15881469

LGBTQ+ Book Club: Teeth at West Hollywood Library, LACL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event

Join us to read and discuss Teeth, by Kristin Arnett. For adults.

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

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

West Hollywood Library’s LGBTQ+ Book Club meets on the last Tuesday of the month to discuss literary works of relevance and interest to the LGBTQ+ community.

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

If she’s being honest, Sammie Lucas is scared of her son. Working from home in the close quarters of their Florida house, she lives with one wary eye peeled on Samson, a sullen, unknowable boy who resists her every attempt to bond with him. Uncertain in her own feelings about motherhood, she tries her best—driving, cleaning, cooking, prodding him to finish projects for school—while growing increasingly resentful of Monika, her confident but absent wife. As Samson grows from feral toddler to surly teenager, Sammie’s life begins to deteriorate into a mess of unruly behavior, and her struggle to create a picture-perfect queer family unravels. When her son’s hostility finally spills over into physical aggression, Sammie must confront her role in the mess—and the possibility that it will never be clean again.

Where: West Hollywood Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

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

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/15062545

Iacobani Book Club: Pride and Prejudice at Iocaboni Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us to read and discuss Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. For adults.

Copies of the book will be available at the customer service desk. This title is also available in e-book and e-audio formats through Libby and Hoopla.

Where: Angelo M. Iacaboni Library, LACL

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Address: 4990 Clark Ave., Lakewood, CA 90712

To RSVP, see website!

To become a member, see website!

Bring a gently loved book or purchase one of your favorites at the store (at a super special 15% discount), and get ready to chat all things reading! Plus, enjoy complimentary snacks from our wonderful café, and purchase delicious drinks (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) at the bar.

This event is for members only! If you’re not yet a member, what are you waiting for? Sign up here and help keep us around for the long haul.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Website: https://villagewell.com

Made in NuYoRico & Salsa Crossings With Marisol Negrón and Cindy García at Central Library, LAPL – Online Event

Join authors Marisol Negrón and Cindy García for an online discussion on salsa music and dance, investigating the social, historic, and political forces that shape these arts.

Marisol Negrón is Associate Professor of American Studies and Latino Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the author of 2023’s Made in NuYoRico: Fania Records, Latin Music, & Salsa’s Nuyorican Meanings.

Cindy García is an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota, and the author 2013’s Salsa Crossings: Dancing Latinidad in Los Angeles.

RSVP:

Complete this form, or send an email to art@lapl.org for the meeting link.

Where: Central Library, LAPL

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: Online Event

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/made-nuyorico-and-salsa-crossings-marisol-negron-and-cindy-garcia

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 31^st

Time: 7 pm – 10 pm

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

Website: https://www.instagram.com

James Cahill, with Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, & The Violet Hour at Book Soup – In-Person Event

James Cahill, in conversation with Hunter Drohojowska-Philp, will present and discuss The Violet Hour.

A stylish, ambitious novel—touching on themes of power, money, and desire—that evokes the art world and all of its moral complexities.

Thomas Haller has achieved the kind of fame that most artists only dream of: shows in London and New York, paintings sold for a fortune. The vision he presents to the world is one of an untouchable genius at the top of his game. It is also a lie.

Between his ruthless new dealer and a property mogul obsessed with his work, the appetite for Thomas and his art is all-consuming. Who is the real Thomas Haller? His oldest friend and former dealer, Lorna, might once have known—before Thomas traded their early intimacy for international fame.

On the eve of his latest show, the luminaries of the art world gather. But the sudden death of a young man has put everyone on edge—and so begins a chain of events that will lead a group of friends back into the past to confront who they have become.

A story of deception, power-play, and longing, The Violet Hour exposes the unsettling underbelly of the art world, asking, who is granted admission to a world that seems to glitter and shimmer, and who is left outside, their faces pressed to the glass?

James Cahill has worked in the art world and academia for the past fifteen years. His debut novel, Tiepolo Blue, was shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award, and his writing has been published in Artforum, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The London Review of Books, The Spectator, The Times Literary Supplement, and The Daily Telegraph. James divides his time between London and Los Angeles.

Hunter Drohojowska-Philp has written extensively on modern and contemporary art often with an emphasis on Southern California. Her best-selling books include Rebels in Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s, and Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O’Keeffe. She co-produced and starred in the Emmy-winning KCET documentary “Duchamp Comes to Pasadena.” Currently, she writes for Wallpaper* and Alta among other publications. Her work can be found at http://www.HunterDrohojowska-Philp.com.

NOTE: See site for link and details.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2026-03-31/james-cahi

Book Talk Event: Mimi Nichter, with Rob Eshman, & Hostage: A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma, and Resilience at Chevalier’s Books – In-Person Event

Join us to hear Mimi Nichler, in conversation with Rob Eschman, discuss Hostage-: A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma, and Resilience.

Mimi Nichter, a cultural and medical anthropologist, public speaker, and a professor emerita of anthropology at the University of Arizona is the author of Hostage: A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma, and Resilience. Mimi’s story is not only compelling—her recounting of her experience is incredible—but she has an important message to convey about survival and resilience over trauma for all of us today.

Nichter shares her extraordinary personal story and a vital message about survival, healing, and resilience in the aftermath of trauma in her book Hostage: A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma and Resilience.

Mimi will be in conversation with: Rob Eshman, senior columnist at the Forward, America’s oldest and largest Jewish news media company. He is also the founding director of The Karsh Journalism Fellowship. You can find his weekly food writing at his Substack Foodaism.

Where: Chevalier’s Books

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2026-03-31/author-mimi-nichter-conversation-writer-rob-eshman

At Skylight: Lisa Lee, with Viet Thanh Nguyen, & American Han at Skylight Books – In-Person Event

Lisa Lee, in conversation with Viet Thanh Nguyen, will present and discuss American Han: A Novel.

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s, Jane Kim and her brother, Kevin, dutifully embodied the model minority myth as their parents demanded: both stellar tennis players and academically gifted, they worked hard to make their parents proud. Jane went on to law school. Kevin came close to becoming a professional tennis player.

But where they started is nowhere near where they have ended up: Jane has stopped going to her law school classes, and Kevin, now a policeman, has become increasingly distant. Their parents, each on their own path toward the elusive American Dream (their mother hell-bent on having the perfect house and the perfect family, their father obsessed with working his way up from one successful business to the next), don’t want to see the family unraveling. When Kevin goes missing, no one recognizes his absence as the warning sign it is until it erupts, forcing them all to come to terms with their past and present selves in a country that isn’t all it promised it would be.

Both deeply serious and wickedly funny, American Han is a profound story about striving and assimilation, difficult love, and family fidelity. A searing portrait that challenges assumptions about the immigrant experience, Lisa Lee’s debut introduces a powerful new voice on the literary landscape.

Lisa Lee is the recipient of the Marianne Russo Emerging Writer Award from the Key West Literary Seminar, an Emerging Writer Fellowship from the Center for Fiction, and a Pushcart Prize. She has received other fellowships and awards from Kundiman, Millay Arts, Hedgebrook, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Tin House, Jentel Artist Residency, and the Korea Foundation. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, VIDA, North American Review, Sycamore Review, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. Lee holds an MFA from the University of Houston and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Southern California. She lives in Los Angeles.

Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam and raised in America. He is the author of The Sympathizer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and soon to be an HBO Original Series; its sequel, The Committed; the short story collection The Refugees; the nonfiction book Nothing Ever Dies, a finalist for the National Book Award; and is the editor of an anthology of refugee writing, The Displaced. He is the Aerol Arnold Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California and a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur foundations. He lives in Los Angeles.

RSVP

Where: Skylight Books

Date: Tuesday the 31^st

Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-lisa-lee-presents-american-han-w-viet-thanh-nguyen

The Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert presents Tezozomoc – Online Zoom Event

Cobalt Poets Reading & Open Mic and host Rick Lupert welcomes featured poet Tezozomoc.

Tezozomoc is a Los Angeles Chicano Essayist, Poet and 2009 Oscar Nominated Activist, internationally published and has been published by Floricanto Press, Gashes!: Poems and Pain from the Halls of Injustice, a collection of poetry. He has also been published in the following journals: The Oddball Magazine, Spitpoetzine, and The Silver Stork.

Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event

Date: Tuesday, the 31^st

Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: Online event (see site)

Website: https://www.poetrysuperhighway.com

Da Poetry Lounge: Women & Femmes Night at COC – COMMUNITY OWNED CENTER 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 suggested donation. Pay what you can. Do NOT line up prior to 7:30 pm Free parking adjacent to the theater.

Masks are encouraged.

Where: COC – COMMUNITY OWNED CENTER, New Leimert Park Location

Date: Tuesday, the 31^st

Time: 9 pm – 11 pm (Doors at 8:15 pm)

Address: 4276 Crenshaw Blvd., Leimert Park, CA 90008

PARKING:

Street parking: Crenshaw and Degnan

Parking Lot: 3416 W 43rd St Leimert Park, Los Angeles, CA 90008

There will be some light bites but feel free to bring your own midnight snack. And even better, bring your open mic A game.

**bonus: used book poetry swap! Bring a beloved/annotated/spare poetry book to exchange with other folks!

Where: Sims Library of Poetry

Date: Tuesday, the 31^st – Wednesday, the 1^st

Time: 11 pm (Tue.) – 1 am (Wed.)

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

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

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

Do you want to find creative inspiration and overcome writer’s block in a supportive and peaceful community setting? Are you interested in writing professionally or for personal growth and healing but unsure where to begin?

Come join acclaimed author and writing instructor Francesca Lia Block MWF 9-10 am and TuTh 10 am for a brief intro, discussion of her highly-effective 12 Question method, and 40 minutes of free writing on any topic without judgment. Afterwards you will be able to share a bit about your process and ask Francesca brief questions about your writing.

Francesca Lia Block is the author of more than thirty books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association, and from the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, and PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY. Currently she teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, Pocket MFA, and numerous workshops across the country. Francesca also edits LIT ANGELS, a literary journal available on Substack. Her latest novel is House of Hearts now out in paperback. https://www.francescaliablock.com/

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Wednesday the 1^st

Time: 9 am – 10 am

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Afternoon Book Club: My Name is Emilia Del Valle at Westlake Village Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us as we discuss My Name is Emilia Del Valle by Isabelle Allende. For Adults.

 Where: Westlake Village Library,LACL

Date: Wednesday the 1^st

Time: 12 pm – 1 pm

Address: 31220 W. Oak Crest Dr., Westlake Village, CA 91361

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16148296

Book Club: Lady Clementine at Chatsworth Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event

Join us as we discuss Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict.

The ferocious story of the ambitious woman beside Winston Churchill.

It is the story of a partner who did not flinch through the sweeping darkness of war and who would not surrender either to expectations or to enemies. Join us for our popular book club.

RSVP:

If you need the Zoom link, please email sstamm@lapl.org.

Para ajustes razonables según la ley de ADA, llama al (213) 228-7430 al menos 72 horas antes del evento.

 Where: Chatworth Branch Library,LAPL

Date: Wednesday the 1^st

Time: 1:30 pm

Address: 21052 Devonshire Street, Chatsworth, CA 91311

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/chatsworth-library-book-club-lady-clementine

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 1^st

Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm

Address: On-air Event

We will be reading the following book:

April 1: The Last Plastic Straw by Dee Romito.

RSVP:

Please register here, and for more information email cquinn@lapl.org.

Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library,LAPL

Date: Wednesday the 1^st

Time: 4 pm

Address: Online Event

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/social-justice-book-club-kids

Classics Book Club for Adults: Siddhartha at East Los Angeles Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us for book club as we discuss Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. For adults.

This month we discuss Hermann Hesse’s classic novel of spiritual awakening, Siddhartha.

A young man, blessed with loving parents and a safe home in a world where want and neglect abound, leaves this haven in search of himself. He joins the Samanas, a band of wandering ascetics without possessions or earthly ties. His quest unfulfilled, he descends into a life of unbounded luxury and indulgence. Where is truth? Where will his soul find true ease? In denial? In decadence? Or in some truth far greater than himself, so simple, so close to him, yet so obvious that only clear eyes may see it?

Copies of the book will be available at the circulation desk. The program will take place in the Chicano Resource Center. Space is limited to ten participants, so pick up your copy soon!

Where: East Los Angeles Library,LACL

Date: Wednesday the 1^st

Time: 4 pm – 5:30 pm

Address: 4837 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90022

Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16027771

Creative Writing Workshop With Tony DuShane 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 1^st

Time: 6 pm

Address: 1874 Hillhurst Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/creative-writing-workshop-tony-dushane-18

Be the Change: Social Justice Writing Workshop with James Coats – Online Zoom Event

Be the Change, a Social Justice Writing Workshop, is held every 1^st Wednesday of the month and led by poet and author James Coats.

Workshop is free: name your own price.

NOTE: See site for RSVP and details.

Where: Online Event

Date: Wednesday the 1^st

Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm

Address: Online Zoom Event Zoom ID: 826 5843 0669 Password: justice

Website: https://www.instagram.com

History Book Club: The Far Edges of the Known World at Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside – In-Person Event

Join us to discuss The Far Edges of the Known World: Life Beyond the Borders of Ancient Civilization by Owen Rees.

A revisionist history of the ancient world that shifts our focus from Athens and Rome to the long-ignored societies on the borders.

When Ovid was exiled from Rome to a border town on the Black Sea, he despaired at his bleak and barbarous new surroundings. Like many Greeks and Romans, Ovid thought the outer reaches of his world was where civilization ceased to exist. Our own fascination with the Greek and Roman world has for centuries followed this perspective, shrouding cultures at the far reaches of their influence in myth. But what was it like to live on the edges of these empires, on the boundaries of the known world?

In The Far Edges of the Known World, ancient historian Owen Rees draws on archaeological excavations to reveal these so-called borders as thriving multicultural spaces. This is where the boundaries of “civilized” and “barbarian” began to dissipate; where traditional rules didn’t always apply; where different cultures intermarried; and where nomadic tribes built their own cities. Transporting readers through historical spheres of influence, Rees journeys from the sandy caravan routes of Morocco to the freezing winters of the northern Black Sea, from the Red River valley of Vietnam to the rain-lashed forts south of Hadrian’s Wall. Beyond well-remembered figures like Cleopatra and Caesar, Rees introduces us to the everyday people who called the borderlands home. We meet an enterprising sex worker in Egypt’s Naucratis, gambling soldiers at Hadrian’s Wall in England, a Greco-Buddhist monk hailing from the Ganges, and more. As Rees shows, exchanges of trends, ideas, even religious practices were happening all over the world.

Owen Rees is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of Nottingham and holds a PhD in Ancient History from Manchester Metropolitan University. A founder and lead editor of historical fact-checking site badancient.com, he currently lives in Nottingham, UK.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside

Date: Wednesday the 1^st

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

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

Come through! And if you haven’t been to the Cerritos library, this would be the perfect reason to make it over. They have an aquarium too.

So come write with me!

Where: Cerritos Library

Date: Wednesday the 1^st

Time: 6 pm

Address: 18025 Bloomfield Ave., Cerritos, CA 90703

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Poetry Club: Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Join us for the newest book club at Village Well: The Poetry Club!

Each month, members will read the chosen poetry book and bring their favorite selections to share and discuss. Participation is free; just come with an open mind! Whether poetry is daunting or your passion, we’d love to have you!

Our selection for April is Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season by Forough Farrokhzad.

In the years since her tragic death in a car accident at age thirty-two in 1967, Forough Farrokhzad has become a poet as iconic and influential as Lorca or Akhmatova, celebrated as a pioneer of modernist Iranian literature and as a leading figure of contemporary world literature. Farrokhzad, as Elizabeth Gray writes in the preface, “remains a beacon to artists, especially women and marginalized artists, who seek freedom in all its forms.”

This thoughtfully curated, deftly translated selection of Farrokhzad’s poems includes work from her writing life, early to late. Readers will thoroughly treasure this expansive poet of the quotidian; of longing, loss, and desire; of classical reinvention; of lexical variation and sonic beauty; of terrifying wisdom, hope, and grief.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Wednesday the 1^st

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

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

We’re always on the side!

6:45 to 7pm getting settled.

7pm check in.

Write for an hour!

8ish check out!

All writers of all levels welcome!

WRITE | HANG | REPEAT

Where: Big Bar, The Alcove

Date: Wednesday the 1^st

Time: 6:45 pm – 8:15 pm

Address: 1929 Hillhurst Ave., Los Feliz, CA 90027

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Jo Kaplan, with Maria Alexander and David Scott Hay, & The Midnight Muse at Book Soup – In-Person Event

Jo Kaplan, in conversation with Maria Alexander and David Scott Hay, will discuss The Midnight Muse.

When a metal band’s lead singer vanishes in the woods, the mushrooms in the forest might know more than they’re letting on in this mycelium-metal horror novel from Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author Jo Kaplan.

The dead collect in low places. That’s what Brynn Werner, lead singer of metal band Queen Carrion, wrote in her notebook before she vanished while staying at a cabin in Oregon’s Umpqua National Forest.

A year later, on the anniversary of her disappearance, the rest of her bandmates visit the cabin to remember her and find a way to move on. But tensions arise over who should be their new singer and who is responsible for Brynn’s disappearance—tensions that boil over as they realize not all is as it seems at Trail Creek Cabin.

Strange entries in the guestbook write about visions of a pale form that moves through the trees, figures wearing gas masks lurk in the distance, and there’s a strange fungus growing from the wall of a tunnel in the cabin’s basement. Then they hear Brynn’s voice echo impossibly through the forest—and the pale form that emerges from the trees is her perfect likeness. Is it her ghost…or something else?

Brynn knew there was a secret in these woods. It’s why she chased her muse here to finish her masterpiece. The Midnight Muse is an alluring and grotesque dissection of self and fungus. Kaplan delivers an ominous spiral of psychological torment as the members of Queen Carrion slip into a more natural skin.

NOTE: See site for link and details.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Wednesday the 1^st

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2026-04-01/jo-kaplan-conversation-maria-alexander-and-david-scott-hay-discusses-signs

RECESS Open Mic: PUA Turns 8 at SIPA HQ, Palms Up Academy – In-Person Event

RECESS Open Mic is at SIPA HQ on Wednesdays.

Come celebrate 8 years of RECESS Mic! There wit be a roster of special performances this year in #HistoricFilipinotown.

Standard mic RSVP; rules and entry apply.

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.

Host: Lady Basco

NOTE: Only self-sign-ups are allowed.

20 slots available; 15 slots for dinner served; remaining slots for faculty.

See site for further details,

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

Where: SIPA HQ

Date: Wednesday, the 1^st

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.instagram.com

At Skylight: Luke Dumas. with Philip Fracassi, & Nothing Tastes as Good at Skylight Books – In-Person Event

Luke Dumas, In conversation with Philip Fracassi, will discuss Nothing Tastes as Good: A Novel.

Retail worker Emmett Truesdale has never fit the Southern California mold of six-pack, suntanned masculinity. Over three hundred pounds, he carries the weight of his childhood trauma and millennial ennui around his waist and in his soul. After trying every diet under the sun, he remains stuck—in his dead-end job, in love, and in his body.

Desperate for help, he enrolls in a clinical trial for a new weight loss product called Obexity. The treatment is as horrifying as the results are miraculous and as Emmett sheds pounds at superhuman speed, every part of his life improves overnight.

Unfortunately, Obexity comes with some killer side effects, including lost stretches of time and overwhelming cravings. Worse, people who were cruel to him have started disappearing and when the police warn of a cannibalistic killer on the loose, he fears that Obexity is turning him into a monster. But how can he give it up now that people are finally starting to treat him like he’s human?

Nerve-racking, sinister, and at times surreal, Nothing Tastes as Good is an unputdownable thriller that combines The Substance with the best of Stephen King and keeps you guessing until the final page.

Luke Dumas is the USA TODAY bestselling author of The Paleontologist and A History of Fear. He is the winner of the 2024 ITW Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original, and his work has been optioned for film and TV. He received his master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Edinburgh and has worked in nonprofit philanthropy for more than a decade. Luke was born and raised in San Diego, California, where he works for a biomedical research institute.

Philip Fracassi is the USA Today bestselling, Bram Stoker and British Fantasy Award nominated author of eight novels, including Sarafina, The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre, Gothic, Boys in the Valley, The Third Rule of Time Travel, and A Child Alone with Strangers. His award-winning story collections include Behold the Void, Beneath a Pale Sky, and No One is Safe! His work has been published in numerous languages, and his short fiction has been featured in dozens of magazines and anthologies, including Best Horror of the Year, Nightmare Magazine, Southwest Review, and Interzone.

RSVP

Where: Skylight Books

Date: Wednesday the 1^st:

Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-luke-dumas-presents-nothing-tastes-good-w-philip-fracassi

Hunky Dory Reading hosted by Mr. Omar King at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event

We shall be delivered on this divine April Fools!

Hosted by: Emma Lee Benson and Mr. Omar King.

See website link for details.

Where: Stories Books & Café

Date: Wednesday, the 1^st

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Website: https://storiesla.com/events/4873020260401

Ava Morgyn, with Dahlia De La Vega, & Only Spell Deep at Vroman’s, Pasadena – In-Person Event

Ava Motgyn, in conversation with Dahlia De La Vega, will discuss and sign Only Spell Deep.

Rebecca meets The Craft in this dark, atmospheric novel of one witch rediscovering her power while on the run from another willing to kill her for it.

From the USA Today bestselling author of The Bane Witch!

Judeth Cole has always had certain uncanny abilities. But when she arrived at Solidago, her grandfather’s estate by the sea, she was forced to keep them secret. There she lived a harsh life under his rule and the haunting legacy of her late grandmother, Aurelia. Until the fateful day she ignited a fire with her magic. It was the last time she saw her family alive.

Seventeen years later, she’s living in Seattle as Jude Clark, and failing at life, when she makes a last detour through her favorite bookstore, selecting a book to read as she waits to die. But when she pulls it from the shelf, an invitation to her for a clandestine midnight meeting slips out.

Jude is quickly swept up into a world of secrets and magic, discovering a circle of powerful new companions led by the mysterious, enigmatic Arla. The source of their magic, Arla tells her, is an entity, trapped and bound, that they call The Fathom. But Jude swiftly realizes Arla wants this power all to herself, and that she’s willing to kill for it.

Terrified, Jude turns to Levi, the handsome bookseller who’s seen her at her worst. With his help, she begins a research journey that leads her all the way back to Solidago, the house she swore to never return to. Now, the Fathom threatening to break free and Arla on the hunt, Jude must finally face her past to save her future.

Ava Morgyn’s Only Spell Deep is a novel that takes readers on a journey into a dark, glittering world of magic, a place where power should never be caged and misplaced trust can have deadly consequences.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Wednesday the1st

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-04-01/ava-morgyn

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

The Anansi Writers Workshop was founded in 1990 by Kamau Daáood, Akilah Oliver, Nafis Nabawi and Anthony Lyons. In 1993, Michael Datcher initiated the development of a three-part format for the workshop. Our tradition of a community workshop began in the late 1960s at the Watts Writers’ Workshop, where World Stage co-founder Kamau Daáood started his writing career. Hosted by Jessica Gallion aka “Yellawoman.”

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

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

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

Where: The World Stage (use left rear entrance)

Date: Wednesday, the 1^st

Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm

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

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Story Salon LA at Art Parlor, 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: TBA

Where: Art Parlor

Date: Wednesday the 1^st

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

Wednesday Night Poetry Workshop with Martin Jago 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.

Martin Jago is a British American poet based in Los Angeles. Author of Photofit (Pindrop Press, 2023) and a forthcoming chapbook, Black Plastic Blues (Finishing Line, 2026), his writing has appeared widely in literary magazines like Agenda, Acumen, The Moth, LIT Magazine, Presence, The Penn Review, The High Window, The Indianapolis Review, Tupelo Quarterly, and Sierra Nevada Review, among others. He holds a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford where he was an F.H. Pasby Prize finalist.

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

Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

Date: Wednesday, the 1^st

Time: 8 pm – 10 pm

Address: Online event (see site)

It’s a place to process what is going on together and support each other, as well as brainstorm how to meaningfully engage and support our communities.

Where: Big Bar, The Alcove

Date: Wednesday the 1^st (and May 6, June 3)

Time: 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Address: 1929 Hillhurst Ave., Los Feliz, CA 90027

Brendan Constantine‘s fifth collection of poetry is The Opposites Game (2026 Red Hen Press). His work has appeared in many standards including Poetry, The Nation, Best American Poetry, and Poem a Day. He currently teaches at the Windward School and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In addition, he regularly conducts workshops at hospitals, eldercare centers and the Midnight Mission in Downtown Los Angeles.

$5 cover fee, cash only

Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange

Date: Wednesday, the 1^st

Time: 8 pm – 10 pm

Do you want to find creative inspiration and overcome writer’s block in a supportive and peaceful community setting? Are you interested in writing professionally or for personal growth and healing but unsure where to begin?

Come join acclaimed author and writing instructor Francesca Lia Block MWF 9-10 am and TuTh 10 am for a brief intro, discussion of her highly-effective 12 Question method, and 40 minutes of free writing on any topic without judgment. Afterwards you will be able to share a bit about your process and ask Francesca brief questions about your writing.

Francesca Lia Block is the author of more than thirty books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association, and from the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, and PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY. Currently she teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, Pocket MFA, and numerous workshops across the country. Francesca also edits LIT ANGELS, a literary journal available on Substack. Her latest novel is House of Hearts now out in paperback. https://www.francescaliablock.com/

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Thursday the 2^nd

Time: 10 am – 11 am

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Book Club: Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting at Hermosa Beach Library, LACL – In-Person Event

Join us for. a lively discussion of Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley. Books are available for check out at the library. For adults.

Where: Hermosa Beach Library, LACL

Date: Thursday the 2^nd

Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 am

Smithsonian Valerie Neal will discuss On a Mission: The History of US Women Astronauts.

Sally Ride is household name as the first American woman in space, but scores of equally impressive women have left their mark in space. On a Mission tells the epic journeys of the women who made space for themselves in a male-dominated field.

Valerie Neal, emerita curator from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and expert on human spaceflight, interviewed many of the US women astronauts to bring their experiences to life. She offers a culturally insightful history of their achievements, the challenges they’ve faced, and their distinctive stories. Collectively, they’ve completed more than 100 space shuttle missions, and more than 30 long-duration stays on the International Space Station and Russian Space Station Mir, and they continue to prove themselves in present-day space exploration efforts.

 Where: Virtual Program, LACL

Date: Thursday the 2^nd

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

Address: Online Event

Where: Lake Los Angeles Library, LACL

Date: Thursday the 2^nd

Time: 1 pm – 2 pm

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

Peter Lechuga is a spoken word artist and teaching artist, who tries to build community through writing and the sharing of our stories and experiences, which strengthen us. He is the author of a debut poetry collection titled Myth Opportunities.

Where: Anaheim Central Library

Date: Thursday the 2^nd

Time: 4:30 pm – 6 pm (Sign-ups at 4:15 pm)

Address: 500 West Broadway, Anaheim, CA 92805

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Caricon Book Club at Exposition Park – Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

Caricon Book Club is a monthly literary gathering celebrating Caribbean literature and culture. Our members read and discuss one Caribbean book per month, with engaging discussions and author Q&A Sessions. We’re building the most engaged Caribbean literary community in Los Angeles.

Where: Exposition Park – Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Regional Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Thursday the 2^nd

Time: 5:30 pm – 7 pm

Address: 3900 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90062

First meeting: Foreword to page 92

Second meeting: From page 93 to 189

Third meeting: From page 190 to the end

The twenty-one authors featured in this collection do not proselytize, nor do they claim to have all the answers. Instead, they teach with vulnerability, raw truths, and open questions. This volume offers testimonies and personal narratives about war and fear; oblivion and memory; disease, grief, and boredom; nonhuman animals and plants; poverty and hyperabundance; consciousness and solipsism; the loss of literature and the work of art; pretense and respect.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Thursday the 2^nd

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

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

​RSVP at the link in bio to read your original work to your supportive community of peers. Signs up are in person and are first come, first served.

​Coffee, beer, and wine available for purchase until 9 pm, and burgers, fries, and other delicious offerings are available from 4-9 from @hamburgersnice

Ra Avis (she/her) is an artist and community builder. She is a 2025 Writing Freedom Fellow with Haymarket Books, and the award-winning blogger behind rarasaur.com. Ra’s storytelling blends personal memoir with systemic critique, always centering the tender stretch toward something more than survival alone. She is the founder of Kites Library, a free archive of resource-sharing minizines about prison, and a co-founding organizer of the Biggest Little Zine Fair.

Where: Good Time Burgers

Date: Thursday the 2^nd

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

Address: 1322 Coronado Ave., Long Beach, CA 90804

The events nights are March 26th and April 2nd, with both starting at 6:30.

In this hybrid talk and workshop, Nicola will share how she finds ideas, develops setting as character, and moves from a spark of inspiration to a finished novel. She’ll discuss practical strategies for getting unstuck, quieting self-doubt, building momentum, and creating a writing practice that actually works in real life.

You’ll leave with concrete tools for generating ideas, shaping scenes, and finally beginning (or returning to) the story you’ve been wanting to write.

During two sessions, we’ll also do a short, guided writing exercise designed to unlock fresh material and help you get started right away. There will be optional time for a few participants to share, but the focus is on inspiration, craft insight, and helping you go home ready to write.

Whether you’re a total beginner or a seasoned writer craving renewed energy, this is a welcoming, low-pressure space to reconnect with the joy and possibility of storytelling.

All levels welcome. Curiosity encouraged.

Date: Thursday the 2^nd

Time: 6:30 pm – 7”30 pm

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

In We’re Having Much More Fun Judith A. Peraino and Tom McEnaney celebrate the ways punks have built and documented their own misfit collectives since the mid-1970s, assembling alternative worlds of riotous music, art, fashion, and writing. This book ranges across the United States and over multiple generations, highlighting the diverse people who make punk happen. Over four hundred color images of rare flyers, photos, zines, letters, and more showcase the creative and political energy that has fueled punk from the start. New interviews and essays featuring Aaron Cometbus, Anna Joy Springer (Blatz, Gr’ups, and Cypher in the Snow), Fayette Hauser (on Tomata du Plenty), Ian MacKaye (Dischord Records and Fugazi), Jayne County, KK Barrett and Tommy Gear (the Screamers), Mart n Sorrondeguy (Los Crudos and Limp Wrist), Orlando Xavier (Special Forces and United Blood), Sylvia Reed (on Anya Phillips), and Victoria Ruiz (Downtown Boys)—as well as captions by additional artists, photographers, and fans—tell the stories behind the images, music, and scenes. Every page is an invitation from punk’s past and present to build your own future.

Judith A. Peraino is the author of Listening to the Sirens: Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig (University of California Press, 2005) and We’re Having Much More Fun: Punk Archives for the Present from CBGB to Gilman and Beyond (Cornell University Press, 2025) and has published articles on Blondie, PJ Harvey, Pussy Riot, and Lou Reed.

Tom McEnaney is the author of Acoustic Properties and has published articles on Spotify, This American Life, and David Lynch’s use of sound.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Thursday the 2^nd

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

In 1975 a young queer singer from Cleveland meets Nan Goldin and joins her in New York’s bombed-out downtown, where something unprecedented is brewing. At Max’s Kansas City and CBGBs, in derelict lofts and underground clubs, a generation of visionary women artists is rewriting the rules of creativity, sexuality, and power.

Adele Bertei didn’t just witness the No Wave explosion; she ignited it. As acetone organist for the Contortions and Brian Eno’s assistant, she was at the epicenter when punk collided with post-punk, when Lydia Lunch screamed her first songs, when Kathy Acker was penning her transgressive novels, when Kathryn Bigelow was making her first films.

No New York reveals the untold story of the boundary-pushing women who made No Wave possible: Nan Goldin capturing flash-lit portraits of gender fluidity, Barbara Kruger deconstructing media, Kiki Smith exploring the body’s mysteries, Lizzie Borden challenging cinema itself. While mainstream culture wallowed in sexism and homophobia, these artists created something fluid, fierce, and transgressive.

Alice Bag will present and discuss Violence Girl

Violence Girl is the memoir of Alicia Armendariz—better known as Alice Bag—frontwoman of The Bags and one of the earliest voices of the Los Angeles punk scene. Raised in East L.A. by Mexican-born parents and shaped by a turbulent, often violent home life, Armendariz crossed cultural and geographic boundaries to become part of the 1970s underground movement that transformed American music and youth culture.

From early performances at the Masque to appearances in Penelope Spheeris’ landmark film The Decline of Western Civilization, Alice Bag helped define the sound and spirit of West Coast punk. In this candid memoir, she traces her journey from barrio life and family trauma to feminist awakening, artistic community, and creative survival. The book documents not only the emergence of Los Angeles punk but also the experiences of women and Chicana artists within a male-dominated music scene.

Combining personal history with cultural documentation, Violence Girl explores themes of identity, resilience, music, and self-invention. Nearly one hundred photographs capture the era’s clubs, bands, and personalities, placing Armendariz’s story within the broader evolution of punk and alternative culture. The memoir stands as both a personal narrative and an important record of the early L.A. punk movement.

Adele Bertei is a renaissance artist whose fearless creativity has shaped underground culture for decades. Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1955, she moved to New York in 1977 and became a pivotal figure in the No Wave movement. An original member of the Contortions, included on the seminal No New York album produced by Brian Eno, Bertei also starred in underground films including Born In Flames by Lizzie Borden; opened for writers like William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Kathy Acker; and toured with the Bloods—America’s first openly queer all-girl band. She’s contributed vocals to recordings from Thomas Dolby to Whitney Houston, and to international hits like “Just a Mirage” and “Hyperactive!” Her books include Peter and the Wolves, Twist: Tales of a Queer Girlhood, and Universal Mother. She lives in Los Angeles.

Alice Bag is a singer/songwriter, musician, author, artist, educator and feminist. Alice was the lead singer and co-founder of the Bags, one of the first bands to form during the initial wave of punk in Los Angeles. The Alice Bag Band was featured in the seminal documentary on punk rock, The Decline of Western Civilization. Alice went on to perform in other groundbreaking bands, including Castration Squad, Cholita, and Las Tres. She is the author of the critically acclaimed books Violence Girl which was hailed by OC Weekly as “a riveting autobiographical reflection from the former lead singer of The Bags, equal parts Chicana Lit and punk rock.” Her self-titled 2016 debut album received critical acclaim and was named one of the best albums of 2016 by AllMusic. Her second album, Blueprint, was named one of the Best Albums of 2018 by NPR and the Los Angeles Times. Bag’s 3rd album, Sister Dynamite, was released in April 2020 on In The Red Records during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Alice has recently joined forces with Kid Congo Powers for a new act called Juanita and Juan, with a new EP on In The Red Records debuting in Spring 2025. The lounge-inspired act is now on tour.

Where: Skylight Books

Date: Thursday the 2^nd

Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-adele-bertei-alice-bag-present-no-new-york-and-violence-girl

Coffee, Waffles + Poetry Open Mic with VOTH via Zoom – Online Zoom Event

Join VOTH for a Healing Session and open mic online via Zoom.

After a 3 year hibernation, the virtual show is back. A lot has happened and a lot has changed including the fundamental structure of this show.

FEATURES WANTED!

Let’s talk! Let’s laugh! Let’s heal together with love, magic, and truth.

Love and light.

Meeting ID: 588 521 5193; Passcode: 5683054448

Where: VOTH (voice of the harbor)

Date: Friday the 3^rd

Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm

Address: Online Zoom Event

Website: https://www.instagram.com

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

Do you want to find creative inspiration and overcome writer’s block in a supportive and peaceful community setting? Are you interested in writing professionally or for personal growth and healing but unsure where to begin?

Come join acclaimed author and writing instructor Francesca Lia Block MWF 9-10 am and TuTh 10 am for a brief intro, discussion of her highly-effective 12 Question method, and 40 minutes of free writing on any topic without judgment. Afterwards you will be able to share a bit about your process and ask Francesca brief questions about your writing.

Francesca Lia Block is the author of more than thirty books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association, and from the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, and PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY. Currently she teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, Pocket MFA, and numerous workshops across the country. Francesca also edits LIT ANGELS, a literary journal available on Substack. Her latest novel is House of Hearts now out in paperback. https://www.francescaliablock.com/

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Friday the 3^rd

Time: 9 am – 10 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

Date: Friday, the 3^rd

Time: 9:30 am

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 3^rd

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Emerson Ave. Community Garden Book Club: The Bandit Queens at The Book Jewel, Westchester – In-Person Event

Participants will discuss The Bandit Queens by author Parina Shroff.

Last Community Garden meeting at The Book Jewel before they transition to the garden months! Get your copy of Bandit Queens at The Book Jewel!

Where: The Book Jewel, Westchester

Date: Friday the 3^rd

Time: 5:30 pm

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

No registration necessary. All talents welcome! Sign-ups at the door.

Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore

Date: Friday the 3^rd

Time: 6 pm – 9 pm

Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd, Sylmar, CA 91342

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Author Visit: Tom Junod, with Jeff Gordiner, & How Big Was Lou? at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event

Join us for a conversation with Tom Junod, author of the new memoir In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man, and Jeff Gordinier, editor-at-large for Esquire.

Longtime friends Tom and Jeff will ask and answer provocative questions about fatherhood, manhood, and family secrets.

Reserve your seat on EVENTBRITE!

Tom Junod is senior writer for ESPN, where his work has won an Emmy and the Dan Jenkins Medal for Excellence in Sportswriting. He is a two-time winner of the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, and a winner of the James Beard Award for essay writing. Previously he was a staff writer at GQ and Esquire. The film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood was based on his article in Esquire. In The Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man, a memoir about his father, is his first book.

Jeff Gordinier grew up in the Pasadena area and spent 30 years contributing to magazines and newspapers in New York. His work has won a National Magazine Award, the James Beard Foundation’s M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award, and a prize for food writing from the New York Press Club. He has written about poetry, music, movies, and politics, although during the past decade or so he has specialized in covering food—as a reporter for The New York Times and then as the food & drinks editor of Esquire magazine. Gordinier is the author, most recently, of the 2019 book Hungry, a portrait of the Danish chef René Redzepi, and he has published (with co-editor Marc Weingarten) a collection of essays about women in music (2015’s Here She Comes Now). He also co-hosts a Los Angeles dinner series called Fun House. He lives within walking distance of Village Well.

From two-time National Magazine Award winner Tom Junod, a searching, brilliantly stylized memoir about a charismatic, philandering father who tried to mold his son in his image, the many secrets he hid, the son’s obsessive quest to uncover them, and ultimately, the true meaning of manhood.

Big Lou Junod dominated every room he entered. He worshipped the sun and the sea, his own bronzed body, Frank Sinatra, and beautiful women. He was a successful traveling handbag salesman who carried himself like a celebrity. He’d return from the road with stories of going to nightclubs where the stars. He had countless affairs and didn’t do much to hide them.

Lou could be cruel to Fran, his wife of fifty-nine years, but he loved his youngest son. Tom was a skin-and-bones, nervous boy, devoted to his mother, but Lou sought to turn him into a version of himself. He showered him with advice about how to dress (“A turtleneck is the most flattering thing a man can wear”), how to be an alpha male, and especially, how to attract and bed women. His parting speech when Tom went to college was: “Do yourself a favor and date a Jewish girl. They’re all nymphos.” When Tom started seeing his future wife, Janet, Lou’s efforts to entice Tom into his version of manhood accelerated on nights in New York, L.A., and Paris.

Tom wrestled with Lou’s imposing presence all his life. When one of Lou’s mistresses stood up at his funeral and announced, “Can we all…just agree…that this…was a man,” Tom set off to learn the facts of his father’s life, and why he was the way he was. The stunning secrets he uncovered—about his father, his father’s lovers, and deceptions going back generations—staggered Tom, but in the process allowed him, at last, to become his own man, by his own lights.

In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man is an intensely emotional detective story powered by a series of cascading revelations. The book is a triumph of bravura writing; it is a tale of a son reckoning with the consequences of his father’s life, and in the end, the story of the son’s redemption.

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Friday the 3^rd

Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://villagewell.com

Fresh Friday Open Mic with LA Poet Society & Sunday Jump Poets Celebrate Poetry Month at Senor Fish, Eagle Rock – In-Person Event

Join us at Senior Fish in Eagle Rock for an Open Mic, every first Thursday of the month!

Hosted by Jess Saravia.

We are excited to kick off National Poetry Month with our Fresh Friday Open Mic!

It’s such an honor to feature our friends and special guests, The Sunday Jump! @thesundayjump

We’re going to be featuring a crew from their collective, to bless the mic!

Eddy M. Gana @emg_oftheday: Eddy Gana is a poet and community organizer for the Filipino community in Los Angeles. Eddy and his wife, Stephanie Sajor, formed a spoken word group with two of their friends: Mark Maza and Susan Diep. The four members became known as, forWord.

Lilah Jeurgens aka Lady Jamalot of Tall Lady Cookies, your trans priestess bringing poems from beyond the khole.

Lourdes Marie Gan has been a poet most of her life.

Emdash @emdashsays is a writer, artist, and daughter of Chinese immigrants based in California.Focus: Her work centers on themes of healing, growth, and decolonization.

KP N/A

Osmani N/A

Where: Senor Fish, Eagle Rock

Date: Friday the 3^rd

Time: 7 pm – 10 pm

Address: 4803 Eagle Rock Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90041

Website: https://www.instagram.com

At Skylight: Mason Currey, with Ross Simonini, & Making Art and Making a Living at Skylight – In-Person Event

Mason Currey, in conversationwith Ross Simonini, will discuss Making Art and Making a Living: Adventures in Funding a Creative Life.

Daily Rituals author Mason Currey weaves together delightful, illuminating stories and reflections about how famous artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers throughout history have managed to successfully (or not) support a creative life.

Many of us are drawn to a life in the arts but daunted by how to balance that ambition with the very real need to pay rent and put food on the table. It is impossible to become an accomplished painter, composer, or novelist without spending time experimenting, making false starts, absorbing criticism, reading, talking, and moping about the house. All this time must be purchased, one way or another. Is the history of art and ideas just a history of rich kids?

The answer, of course, is no. William Carlos Williams was a family doctor. Franz Kafka was an insurance man, as were Charles Ives and Wallace Stevens. Grace Hartigan temped. James Joyce mooched off his brother; Christopher Isherwood ingratiated himself with a wealthy uncle. Virginia Woolf and Louisa May Alcott were determined to make their writing pay no matter what. And their material circumstances had an impact on all of their creative outputs.

From family money to jobs to colorful schemes, Mason Currey, author of the acclaimed Daily Rituals, explores both the well-worn and unlikely paths forward for the up-and-coming artist. Making Art and Making a Living is an entertaining and thought-provoking examination of the collision of creative ambitions with real-world necessities and of the messy, glorious, torturous compromises that gifted individuals have patched together when facing the eternal dilemma of an artistic life.

Mason Currey is the author of the Daily Rituals book (Daily Rituals: How Artists Work and Daily Rituals: Women at Work) featuring brief profiles of the day-to-day work habits of more than three hundred brilliant minds. He has worked as the managing editor of Metropolis, the executive editor of Print, and a senior editor at Core77, and his freelance writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Slate. Currey lives in Los Angeles and writes Subtle Maneuvers, a twice-monthly newsletter on the creative process.

Ross Simonini is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and musician. He has held solo presentations of his work at the Sharjah Biennial (UAE), Francois Ghebaly (NYC), anonymous gallery (NYC), Et Al (SF), SHRINE (LA), suns.works (Zurich), Shoot the Lobster (LU), and Human Resources (LA). His novel, The Book of Formation (2018, Melville House) chronicles the rise of a fictional philosophical movement. He releases music under his own name and his next album, Themes releases with Ulyssa records in June. He has performed at Performa, Andy Warhol Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum. He served as the interviews editor at The Believer from 2007 — 2020, where he is now a contributing editor. His essays and dialogues appear in the New York Times, The Paris Review, and many monographs. He has created podcasts for ArtReview, SFMOMA, and KCRW. As an adjunct professor, he has taught seminars on experimental process, writing, art, sound, and dialogue at Columbia University, CCA, Stanford, and UCLA.

Where: Skylight

Date: Friday the 3^rd

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-mason-currey-presents-making-art-and-making-living-w-ross-simonini

Feedbag Reading Series: Sarah Yanni, Julia Gibson, Marcus Clayton, Crystal AC Salas & John Christopher Nelson at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event

Join us for the Feedbag Reading Series at Stories Books & Café, featuring:

Sarah Yanni Is a Mexican-Egyptian writer in Los Angeles. Her poetry and prose have been published by Hinchas dé Poesia, Dum Dum Zine, DREGINALD, Metatron Press and others, and her chapbook ternura/tenderness was published last year by Bottlecap Press.

Julia Gibson received their PhD in Philosophy at Michigan State University, writing their dissertation on palliative and remembrance ethics for the dead and the dying of climate change.

Marcus Clayton taught English Composition at various Southern California Community colleges. Received a PhD from the University of Southern California’s program in Literature and Creative Writing. My studies focus on intersections between Latinx Literature, Black Literature, Decolonization, and Punk Rock. ¡PÓNK! is his first full-length book.

Crystal AC Salas is the author of the bilingual poetry chapbook Grief Logic, which was cowinner of the inaugural Alta California Prize from Gunpowder Press (2022). She has work in The Kenyon Review, Alta Journal, World Literature Today, and other publications.

John Christopher Nelson is a graduate of the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing, where he has served a variety of roles on the Stonecoast Review. He earned his BA in American Literature from UCLA, where he was executive editor of Westwind. His work is forthcoming in The New Guard and has appeared in Chiron Review, Able Muse, Indicia, Stone House: A Literary Anthology, The Matador Review, and Paper Tape Magazine.

Where: Stories Books & Café

Date: Friday the 3^rd

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

Sheldon Costa will discuss The Great Work: A Novel.

An alchemist and his teenage nephew hunt down a legend in this profound and unsettling speculative Western, for fans of Karen Russell and Victor LaValle.

Alone in a frontier town in the nineteenth-century Pacific Northwest, Gentle Montgomery is grieving his best friend. Liam was an alchemist, killed when he tried to capture a creature that shouldn’t exist: a giant salamander that drives men mad. When Gentle’s nephew, Kitt, arrives at his doorstep, the two set out together to track the monster down so they can use its blood in an alchemical formula that will bring Liam back to life.

It’s a hard and haunted journey. The salamander produces surreal nightmares and waking dreams of a blighted, burning future. And Gentle and Kitt soon find themselves pursued by a bloodthirsty hunter, a sadistic judge, and a doomsday cult, all of whom have their own plans for the river monster. Armed with nothing but Liam’s alchemical notebooks, they must not only find the salamander but learn to understand it—and the terrifying visions it causes—before it’s too late. And as Gentle struggles to comprehend this harrowing experience, it becomes clear that the Great Work of the alchemists may pale in comparison to the small work of human connection.

Sheldon Costa is an award-winning fiction writer who has been published in the Georgia Review, Conjunctions, Electric Literature, and other outlets. He holds an MFA from the Ohio State University and lives in rural Missouri with his wife and three cats. This is his debut novel.

Scott Brokerwill discuss The Disappointment: A Novel.

It’s the night before a much-needed vacation, and Jack—a former playwright mourning his failed career—catches his husband, Randy, packing his mother’s urn. They had agreed: no mother on this trip. Parents, living or otherwise, aren’t the ideal guests for romantic getaways. But Randy has been carrying his mother’s remains everywhere since her death, and he isn’t ready to let go now.

Despite its natural beauty and kitschy charm, the Oregon coast does not provide the respite the couple seeks. Instead, their surroundings and encounters with locals grow increasingly surreal as the days pass. An overly -dedicated Method actor, tantra-obsessed neighbors, and a child environmentalist who may be able to communicate with the dead are but a few of the characters whose presence exposes long-simmering tensions that threaten to undo Jack and Randy’s marriage—to say nothing of their hold on reality.

Told with sly, irreverent humor, and shot through with dark currents of envy and longing for something other than what one has, The Disappointment explores the mutual exhilaration and terror of being placed center stage in one’s own life.

Scott Broker is a queer writer, bookseller, and teacher based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in New England Review, Guernica, Fence, Ecotone, and The Idaho Review, among other publications, and he has received fellowships from Tin House and Lambda Literary.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Friday the 3^rd

Time: 7 pm – 9 pm

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

Curated by Carolina Rivera Escamilla, this panel brings together writers honoring the dignity for past and present human rights violations. “The weight of the words we carry” refers to the responsibility that accompanies the transmission of the principles of dignity acquired through community life, a responsibility bequeathed by those who have already died. The dead have not disappeared; rather, they have been imbued with eternal life through their preservation in our collective narratives. The present moment offers a glimpse of a future that was envisioned by the subjects of this study and for which they were willing to sacrifice their lives in order to avoid the current reality.

Featuring: Juana M. Ramos, Adriana Briff, Carolina Rivera Escamilla, Susana Marcelo, Margarita Drago, and Alicia Partnoy.

Margarita Drago is originally from Argentina. As an expolitical prisoner and writer she has represented Argentina in congresses in the United States, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Canada, Spain, and France. She has published six poetry books, and articles in newspapers and literary, educational, and human rights journals as well as articles on pedagogy of teaching children. Her study: Sister María de Jesús Tomelín (1579-1637), Conceptionist from Puebla de Los Ángeles: A Failed Construction of a Saint was published by Editorial Pliegos, Madrid, in 2019. Her book Memory Tracks: Fragments from Prison (1975-1980) which recounts her memories as an Argentinean political prisoner from 1975 to 1980, was declared of cultural interest by the Honorable Chambers of Deputies of the Republic of Argentina. Dr. Drago has been invited to national and international symposiums, conferences and congresses.

Alicia Partnoy: Poet, memoirist, scholar, and human rights activist Alicia Partnoy is the author, translator or editor of eleven books and a poetry chapbook. She is better known for The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival, which was evidence in the trials against the genocide perpetrators that terrorized Argentina in the 70’s. This literary account of her experience as a disappeared in her homeland was published in Spanish, English, French, and Bengali. Its theatre adaptation debuted in Nepal by One World Theatre, with Partnoy as a performer. Former co-editor of Chicana Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, Dr. Partnoy has been twice a Pushcart Foundation Writer’s Choice Selection (Tobias Wolff and Bobbie Ann Mason) and has been listed in the London Times as a best-seller. Her poems, testimonial texts, and scholarship have been widely published in the U.S.A and abroad. Her poetry collection, Flowering Fires/Fuegos florales, translated by Gail Wronsky, received the First Settlement House American Poetry Prize.

Poems from her Revenge of the Apple/Venganza de la manzana rode the Metro in New York, Dallas and Washington D.C, and were musicalized by Sweet Honey in the Rock. Alicia Partnoy served on the boards of directors of PEN West and Roadwork, and was Vice President of Amnesty International U.S.A. A professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Partnoy presides over Proyecto VOS-Voices of Survivors.

Juana M. Ramos (Santa Ana, El Salvador) is a professor of Spanish and literature at York College, City University of New York. She has participated in conferences, colloquia, and poetry festivals in Latin America, Spain, Rumania, and England. Her work includes six poetry collections, a book of short stories, essays, and memoirs. Her poems and stories have been published in numerous anthologies and literary magazines and have been translated into English, Portuguese, French, Greek, and Italian. In 2021, she received the Feliks Gross Award from City University of New York. Additionally, she was recognized by the Chifurnia Foundation as Poet of the Year 2023 in El Salvador, and in 2024, she was the honored poet at the 18th Hispanic/Latino Book Fair in NY, organized by The Hispanic/Latino Cultural Center of NY. She is also the director of the biannual literary magazine EntreTmas Revista Digital and co-producer and curator of the series Palabra-Imagen-Escena, which promotes literature produced in Spanish in NY.

Adriana Briff (Rosario, Argentina, 1963). Escritora, editora y acompañante terapéutica. Participó en Don’t cry for me America, antología de escritores argentinos en Estados Unidos, editada por Ars Communis (2020). En 2020 publicó en Revista Barullo de Rosario y varias contratapas en el diario Página 12 de la misma ciudad. En 2023 formó parte de la antología Latinos contra el Odio, editado por HispanicLA.com.Actualmente realiza trabajos de edición y coordina el segmento cultural del Fogón Virtual de Hispanicla en Los Ángeles. En 2025 publicó su libro Crónicas de los desayunos editado por Poetry Ambassador Press.

Susana Marcelo (ella) es profesora y escritora. Nació en El Salvador y se crió en Los Ángeles, California. Entre sus pasiones se encuentran la diáspora latine y centroamericana y la literatura. Su trabajo ha sido publicado en Virginia Quarterly Review, The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States (Tia Chucha press), la antología costarricense Escaleras Abajo (Perro Azul press) y otras publicaciones.

Susana Marcelo (she/her/ella) is a professor and writer. She was born in El Salvador and raised in Los Angeles. Her passions include the Central American/Latine diaspora and literature. Her work has been published in Virginia Quarterly Review, The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States (Tia Chucha press), the Costa Rican anthology Escaleras Abajo (Perro Azul press), and others.

Book signings to follow the reading.

Tickets at Eventbrite.

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

Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center

Date: Friday, the 3^rd

Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm (Doors at 7 pm)

Address: 681 Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90291

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/el-peso-de-las-palabras-que-llevamos-the-weight-of-the-words-we-carry-tickets-1983042164496

Semillas Open Mic Night at La Colmena, Santa Ana – In-Person Event

Greetings community! The second Semillas Open Mic will be held Friday, 4/3 at 7pm. Come share space in poetry and art. We are accepting donations of nonperishable foods or $3-5 for the community pantry. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Vengan a compartir este espacio de poesía con el espacio de palabra abierta. Estamos aceptando donaciones de $3-$5 o alimentos no perecedos. Nadie será negado por no tener fondos o donaciones.

We have two amazing features that will bless the mic!

Sammy Herrera is a Mexican-American educator, poet, spoken word artist, and zine queen. She has found her way back into poetry after a long hiatus, fully immersing herself in the community through, open mics, workshops, and poetry slams. She writes on topics such as feminism, racism, working with children, mental health, love, and heartbreak. Sammy is more often a lover than a fighter but will tackle heavy topics with grit and grace through poetry and performances. You can find samples of her work, upcoming events, shows, and digital zines on her website prettypetitepoems.com.

Jacob “Jake” Teran is a proud Chicano living in the San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles. Jake is a 2nd generation Chicano who was born in Montebello, Los Angeles, east of Los Angeles. His first three short stories were published on an online literary journal, Somos en Escrito, called “A Quiet Night on the Boulevard,” “Niños del Sol,” “No Soy Cholo,” and several other poems in online journals and magazines. He is a Pushcart Prize Nominee for his, “No Soy Cholo,” and a Journal Xinachtli Poetry Award recipient for his poems, “Hijo del Sol” and “Two Generations, One Raza.” Jacob has presented at various universities to share poetry, writing workshops, and discussions on indigeneity and culture to empower student identities through spoken word and poetry. His debut novella, The Calling, was published by Daxson.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: La Colmena, Santa Ana

Date: Friday, the 3^rd

Time: 7:30 pm

Address: 1901 W. Walnut St., Santa Ana, CA 90027

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Ticketed Event: Writers Bloc Presents: Cory Booker & STAND at Book Soup Off-site at Writers Guild Theater – In-Person Event

Join U.S. Senator Cory Booker for a timely and hopeful conversation about our shared American ideals.

Centered around his new book, STAND, Senator Booker will share stirring personal reflections and powerful stories of leadership that will challenge us to reclaim our national story and work together to redeem the American dream.

STAND shows that our principles are not luxuries; they are vital, strategic keys to our survival and success. By wielding these tools, we can reclaim our sense of common cause and change the course of our country’s history.

In STAND, Senator Booker offers inspiring and actionable insights for Americans from all walks of life.

Senator Cory Booker is the senior United States Senator from New Jersey. He served as mayor of Newark before becoming New Jersey’s first Black senator and only the fourth popularly elected Black senator in US history.

Pre-signed copies of STAND will be available for purchase at the event.

Moderator to be announced.

Limited parking onsite. We recommend rideshares and carpooling. Please allow time to find parking.

*Did you know that you can make a fully tax-deductible donation?

As a nonprofit organization, Writers Bloc Presents relies on support from people like you. Help us to remain a strong community as we continue to celebrate literature by authors we love, and explore critical contemporary issues. Please donate.

Where: Writers Guild Theater

Date: Friday the 3^rd

Time: 7:30 pm

Address: 135 S. Doheny Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90211

Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2026-04-03/senator-cory-booker

Neuro Dive Open Mic Night at The Clubhouse – In-Person Event

Calling all neurodivergent poets, comedians, and storytellers!

Join us at our next open mic at The Clubhouse on Friday 4/3 at 8pm with our host, Mr. Chai Tea (@mr.chai_tea)!

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: The Clubhouse

Date: Friday, the 3^rd

Time: 8 pm

Address: 1607 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027

Website: https://www.instagram.com

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

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

Featured guests: TBA

Tickets at Eventbrite.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center

Date: Friday, the 3^rd

Time: 8 pm – 12 am

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

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

Third Fridays Rapp Saloon Reading Series & Open Mic with host Elena Secota at Rapp Saloon, Santa Monica – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event

Third Fridays at Rapp Saloon: Open Mic & Featured Readers, will be this week, and is offered every 1^st Friday of the month.

First Friday: Cynthia Alessandra Briano

Second Friday: Russell Greene

Third Friday: Elena Secota

Fourth Friday: Jim Bolt

Fifth Friday: James Evert Jones

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

Our featured guest poets and artists this month TBA.

NOTE: See site or flyer for details.

Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA

Date: Friday, the 3^rd

Time: 8 pm – 11 pm

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

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

Western Edge Writers at Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event

Writers and aspiring writers, please join us for a group that supports writing endeavors of all genres: fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and memoir.

Where: Eagle Rock Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 10 am

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

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/western-edge-writers

گروه کتابخوانی فارسی در کتابخانه وست ولی Persian Book Club at West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event

:کتاب خود ا به اشتراک بگذارید

کتابی را که خواندید به دیگران هم معرفی کنید

تحلیل کتاب/ بحث و گفتگوی دوستانه

RSVP:

تماس بگیرید roya.rahimi@lapl.org برای اطلاعات بیشتر با ایمیل

Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 11 am – 1 pm

Address: 19036 Vanowen St., Reseda, CA 91335

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

Drag Story Hour at West Hollywood Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids Event

Join us for a fun drag storytime with the fabulous Queen Angelina reading stories that promote diversity and inclusion! Co-sponsored by the City of West Hollywood through WeHo Arts. For children of all ages.

Where: West Hollywood Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 11 am – 12 pm

Looking for a place to connect with fellow writers and grow your craft? Join Writers Supporting Writers! For adults.

Writers Supporting Writers is a monthly library writing group that meets on the first Saturday of every month for writing exercises, thoughtful discussions of attendees’ works in progress, and engaging analysis of published works. We offer an inclusive and supportive environment for writers of every background and experience level to create, share, and grow.

Where: West Hollywood Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 12 pm – 2 pm

Participants will discuss Super Boba Café (Book 1)by Nidhi Chanani.

First in a series, Nidhi Chanani’s Super Boba Café is a sweet and magical middle-grade, full-color graphic novel about a secret teashop, an earthquake-causing monster, and an unforgettable summer.

In the fog-laden hills of San Francisco sits a sleepy independent boba café. Run by Jing Li and guarded by her kitty, Bao, it comfortably fades into the background. But inside the boba café, there’s a secret. Jing is the keeper of the monster of San Francisco. Each day she prepares one giant boba for nine hours to feed it.

When Jing’s granddaughter, Aria, comes to stay with her for the summer, she makes it her mission to turn the café around. Aria is quickly aided by Bao, who gives birth to eight perfect kittens.

Aria spreads the news of the boba cat café on social media and overnight it is overrun with excited customers. Each day Nainai Li (Grandma Li) finds reasons to close the café, but the demand only increases.

When she opens, the hill monster is left hungry and small earthquakes begin to plague the city. When Aria secretly follows her nainai to the hill monster’s cave, she isn’t sure what awaits. Will Aria be able to reason with the monster, or will she become its new favorite meal? Or might she disturb its underground existence and cause the Big One?

Nidhi Chanani is a freelance illustrator, cartoonist, and writer. Born in Calcutta and raised in California, she creates because it makes her happy—with the hope that it can make others happy too. Her debut graphic novel, Pashmina, received starred reviews from School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, was a JLG Selection, a YALSA Top Ten Great Graphic Novel for Teens, and was reviewed in the New York Times, among other honors. She has a number of other comics and picture books out in the world, including Binny’s Diwali, Jukebox, and What Will My Story Be? Chanani draws and dreams every day with her family in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 1 pm – 2 pm

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

Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-04-04/kids-graphic-novel-book-club-super-boba-cafe-book-1

Jefferson Park Artbook & Zine Fair at Jefferson – Vassie D. Wright Memorial Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids & Teens Event

Join us at the library for the third Jefferson Park Zine Festival! Discover a vibrant mix of local independent artists, zines, workshops, games, giveaways, and more. The event will feature an art-making activity led by The Museum of Contemporary Art, inspired by a work from its permanent collection. Able ARTS Work will present a zine library and distribute zine-making kits. Featured partners include Greetings from South Central, Ruckus Roots, and Street Poets. All ages welcome.

Where: Jefferson – Vassie D. Wright Memorial Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 1:30 pm – 4:30 pm

Address: 2211 W. Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90018

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/jefferson-park-artbook-and-zine-fair

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

James by Percival Everett is a re-imagining of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of the enslaved man, Jim. Jim escapes after learning he’ll be sold, joining Huck Finn on a Mississippi River journey to freedom while reclaiming his own identity as a resourceful, intelligent man, not a simple caricature. The novel details Jim’s harrowing escape, his cunning linguistic skills (using dialect around whites, standard English when alone), and his determination to free his family, subverting the original narrative by centering Jim’s agency, intelligence, and humanity.

Where: Will & Ariel Durant Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 2 pm

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

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/james-percival-everett

Storytime with Coretta Scott King Honor-Winning Illustrator Raissa Figueroa at Cellar Door Bookstore, Riverside – In-Person Event

If you’re a curious kid, a kid who likes to learn, a kid who likes adventure, you can’t miss this storytime! Raissa will read from the books she illustrated and wrote, and you can even ask her questions about her art and writing! She’ll also sign copies of books you’ve purchased from us.

Raissa Figueroa, also known as Rizzyfig, was born on the San Diego Naval Base to Puerto Rican-Colombian parents. A lifelong doodler she eventually went on to earn a B.S. in Communication Design at CSU Monterey Bay after leaving her nursing studies behind at UC Irvine. She never left her love of art behind though, and went on a self-taught illustration journey while working full-time as a graphic designer. She now gets to illustrate books for a living. Her vibrant, textured art appears in books such as the Oona series, We Wait for the Sun, which won her a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor, Real To Me, Like So, and many more! Her work has been featured twice in the Society of Illustrators Original Art Show. Raissa blends digital and traditional media to create inclusive, imaginative worlds. She still feels like a kid at heart, loves hiking Southern California’s trails, boba, and hanging with her cat, Phoebe.

Where: Cellar Door Bookstore

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 2 pm – 3 pm

Join us for a youth-led open mic event celebrating the voices, histories, and cultural roots of diverse communities in Los Angeles. Be part of storytelling that honors identity, uplifts resilience, and reminds every person that their story deserves to be heard. Whether you want to share a poem, a memory, a song, or simply listen, your voice belongs here. Sign up to take the mic and add your story to our collective narrative.

Each performer gets 5-8 minutes to share their work. Our room is equipped with a basic sound system and a microphone. This event is free and open to all ages; however, we kindly request that the content be suitable for a general audience. Join us to share your voice or simply enjoy an afternoon of community and creativity. We can’t wait to hear what you’ve got!

RSVP:

RSVP by emailing bldhls@lapl.org or calling (323) 733-1196.

Where: Baldwin Hills Branch Library, LACL

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 3 pm – 5 pm

Address: 2906 S. La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90016

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/your-story-important-too-open-mic-event

Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Poetry Writing Workshop led by DKC – Online Zoom Event

Join us for a Poetry Writing Workshop led by DKC. (Submit up to 3 poems totaling no more than 150 lines including the subject of or at least mentioning fish for Four Feathers Press online edition: FISH by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59pm, April 17th)

Don Kingfisher Campbell hosts and curates these events.

Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry Online

Date: Saturday, the 4^th

Time: 3 pm – 4:30 pm

Address: Online Zoom Event

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

Book Celebration: Khiara M. Bridges, Dr. Whitney N. Laster Pirtle, & Expecting Inequity at Bel Canto Books – In-Person Event

Bel Canto Books is delighted to host a conversation with Khiara M. Bridges to discuss Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans.

The author’s conversation partner will be Dr. Whitney N. Laster Pirtle, the co-author of Black Feminist Sociology.

Khiara M. Bridges is a professor of law at UC Berkeley School of Law. She is a nationally recognized expert on the intersection of race, class, and reproductive rights. Her scholarship has appeared in the most influential law reviews in the country, including the flagship law journals at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and UC Berkeley, among many others. She is also the author of three books: Reproducing Race: An Ethnography of Pregnancy as a Site of Racialization (2011), The Poverty of Privacy Rights (2017), and Critical Race Theory: A Primer (2019). Her fourth book, Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans, will be released in March 2026. Bridges graduated as valedictorian from Spelman College, receiving her degree in three years. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her Ph.D., with distinction, from Columbia University’s Department of Anthropology. She speaks fluent Spanish and basic Arabic, and she is a classically-trained ballet dancer who danced professionally in New York City for twenty years before moving to the Bay Area.

Dr. Whitney N. Laster Pirtle is an Associate Professor of in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA. Dr. Pirtle is trained as a critical race sociologist with interdisciplinary subject area expertise in race, racism, and anti-Blackness, and health disparities and health equity. She is the co-editor of Black Feminist Sociology, with Zakiya Luna.

Kindly RSVP so we can plan accordingly.

Where: Bel Canto KUBO LB

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm

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

Reading & Conversation Event: The Weight of the Words We Carry at The Last Bookstore, North Hollywood – In-Person Event

Carolina Rivera Escamilla hosts the featured readers and conversations titled The Weight of the Words We Carry.

Juana M. Ramos is a Spanish and literature professor at York College, CUNY, originally from Santa Ana, El Salvador. She has participated in various international literary events across Latin America, the U.S., and Europe.

Adriana Briff is an author and creative professional associated with the book Crónicas de Los Desayunos (Poetry Ambassadors Press, 2025

Susana Marcelo is a lecturer at CSUN and LAVC. Her publications include The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States, In-Flight Literary Magazine, and Virginia Quarterly. She is also the creative director of La Ceiba: The Undergraduate Journal of Central American Studies. Her work has been published in The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the United States (Tia Chucha, 2017), In-flight Literary Magazine, and the Northridge Review.

Alicia Partnoy is an author, human rights activist, and a survivor. Her book The Little School. Tales of Disappearance and Survival, was used as evidence in the trials against the genocide perpetrators in Argentina.In June 2007, a collection of her poems appeared in the second issue of the avant-garde Hebrew poetry and criticism magazine Daka rendered by Eran Tzelgov.

Margarita Drago has published six poetry books, and articles in newspapers and literary, educational, and human rights journals as well as articles on pedagogy of teaching children. Her study: Sister María de Jesús Tomelín (1579-1637), Conceptionist from Puebla de Los Ángeles: A Failed Construction of a Saint was published by Editorial Pliegos, Madrid, in 2019. Her book Memory Tracks: Fragments from Prison (1975-1980) which recounts her memories as an Argentinean political prisoner from 1975 to 1980, was declared of cultural interest by the Honorable Chambers of Deputies of the Republic of Argentina. Dr. Drago has been invited to national and international symposiums, conferences ,and congresses.

Carolina Rivera Escamilla is a writer, actor, and documentarian based in Los Angeles, California. Born in El Salvador, she studied theater arts and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied Spanish Literature. Her new collection of poems, In a Corner of Your Country, along with the Spanish edition, En Una Esquina de tu Pais. The result of almost twenty years of work, much of this poetry is intentionally written for theatrical performance. As Escamilla says, “In these poems, I explore the feeling of space and time, the burden of memory in the neither here nor there, as linked to displacement, exile, and emigration, with women and children as protagonists.”

Where: The Last Bookstore, North Hollywood

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm

Address:4427 Lankershim Blvd,, North Hollywood, CA 91602

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Woody Brown, with Mona Simpson, & Upward Bound: A Novel at Vroman’s – In-Person Event

Woody Brown, in conversation with Mona Simpson, will discuss Upward Bound: A Novel.

Upward Bound is not a place anyone dreams of spending their days. The dreary adult daycare center for Los Angeles’s disabled community is, for many of its clients and staff, a place of last resort. This includes Carlos, a young aide who lost his mother as a boy and now works there alongside his beloved sister, Mariana; Jorge, the gentle nonspeaking giant whom Carlos seeks to befriend (and prevent from escaping); Tom, a beautiful young man with cerebral palsy who pines for Ann, the summer lifeguard at the center’s pool who feels out of her depth. Then there’s Dave, Upward Bound’s director, who came to L.A. to pursue an acting career but now channels his passion into staging an overly ambitious holiday show starring the center’s irrepressible clients. Framing these intertwined narratives—and connecting them in surprising, shattering ways—is the riveting and sometimes ironic testimony of Walter, a recent community college graduate who, after a family tragedy, must return to the company of his disabled peers.

In Upward Bound, Woody Brown has created an indelible, authentic, and profoundly moving group portrait of autism and other disabilities, all illuminated by his empathy, sly sense of humor, and enormous gifts as a novelist. With remarkable sophistication, insight, and creativity, Brown depicts a community too-often invisible in literature and society. Filled with characters you won’t soon forget, Upward Bound will inspire and touch you, teaching you as much about yourself as the tender, miraculous world behind the center’s doors.

In 2022, Woody Brown became the first nonspeaking autistic graduate of UCLA, where he received the English department’s top writing honors. Brown completed his MFA in creative writing at Columbia University in 2024. He lives in Los Angeles. He is the author of Upward Bound: A Novel.

Mona Simpson is an acclaimed American novelist and literature professor at UCLA and Bard College, best known for her debut novel Anywhere But Here (1986). She is a Whiting Award and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, known for exploring complex family dynamics, notably in works like The Lost Father and Off Keck Road.

Where: Vroman’s

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm

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

For three decades following World War II, the Great Lakes overtook Europe as the epicenter of global economic strength. The region was the beating heart of the world economy, possessing all the power and prestige Silicon Valley does today. And no ship represented the apex of the American Century better than the 729-foot-long Edmund Fitzgerald—the biggest, best, and most profitable ship on the Lakes.

But on November 10, 1975, as the “storm of the century” threw 100 mile-per-hour winds and 50-foot waves on Lake Superior, the Mighty Fitz found itself at the worst possible place, at the worst possible time. When she sank, she took all 29 men onboard down with her, leaving the tragedy shrouded in mystery for a half century.

In The Gales of November, award-winning journalist John U. Bacon presents the definitive account of the disaster, drawing on more than100 interviews with the families, friends, and former crewmates of those lost. Bacon explores the vital role Great Lakes shipping played in America’s economic boom, the uncommon lives the sailors led, the sinking’s most likely causes, and the heartbreaking aftermath for those left behind—”the wives, the sons, and the daughters,” as Gordon Lightfoot sang in his unforgettable ballad.

Focused on those directly affected by the tragedy, The Gales of November is both an emotional tribute to the lives lost and a propulsive, page-turning narrative history of America’s most-mourned maritime disaster.

John U. Bacon has authored fourteen books on sports, business, health, and history, the last seven of which are critically acclaimed national bestsellers, including five New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Ann Arbor and northern Michigan with his wife and son.

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

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

Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2026-04-04/special-author-event-john-u-bacon

Monthly Open Mic Night at LibroMobile, Santa Ana – In-Person Event

Join us every 1st Saturday of the month, 6–8pm for our community open mic hosted by Santa Ana’s own Reggie Peralta!

A Santa Ana native, Reggie Peralta has many interests but they usually lead him back to writing. He has contributed book and film criticism for LibroMobile and The Grindhouse Cinema Database, political editorials for the Libertarian Party of Orange County’s blog, and publishes short stories and poetry on Substack at Reggie The Writer. In 2023, his short story “The Katzenjammer Crisis” was published in Santa Ana Literary Association’s Zoo-Fi: an Anthology of Zoological Fiction. While his writing spans many genres and subjects, his general sensibility can be summed up as “funny, but somehow also kinda sad.”

Whether you’re a poet, musician, storyteller, or just here to listen, this space is for you. Step up to the mic or come support local voices!

🎥 All open mics are live streamed on IG. Recordings are posted immediately after the event on our IG page.

Where: LibroMobile

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 6 pm – 8 pm

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

Website: https://www.instagram.com

Griot Café Open Mic Night at Shades of Afrika, Long Beach – In-Person Event

Join us every 1st Saturday of the month, inside Shades of Afrika for the Griot Café Open Mic, with Tommy Domino and featured guests.

Open Mic, spoken word, poetry, and music by DJ PW

Featured guest: Conney Williams

Conney Wiliams is a Los Angeles-based poet, actor and performance artist and the author most recently of The Distance of Observation (World Stage Press).

$10 cash only

Where: Shades of Afrika, Long Beach

Date: Saturday the 4^th

Time: 8 pm (Doors at 7:30 pm)

Address: 1001 E. 4^th St., Long Beach, CA 90802

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 for Poetry on Demand in space R18 each Sunday, from 11 am – 5 pm

Monika Salazar, Sandy Shakes & Cynthia A. Briano at the Mic at 2:25 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 5^th

Time: 10 am – 5 pm (market); 12 pm – 5 pm (poets on demand)

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

Website: https://instagram.com

Pop-up Mini Market with Spinboy Coffee & La Caminante Community Closet at LibroMobile, Santa Ana – In-Person Event

What’s a Pop-Up Mini Market? It’s an opportunity to collab with vendors we love & vibe with—plus you’ll get to sip on coffee, shop books, records & La Caminante Community Closet!

RSVP

Where: LibroMoblie

Date: Sunday, the 5^th

Time: 10 am – 12:30 pm

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

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/this-is-a-rep-club-book-club-registration-1982739536327?aff=oddtdtcreator

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

Do you want to find creative inspiration and overcome writer’s block in a supportive and peaceful community setting? Are you interested in writing professionally or for personal growth and healing but unsure where to begin?

Come join acclaimed author and writing instructor Francesca Lia Block MWF 9-10 am and TuTh 10 am for a brief intro, discussion of her highly-effective 12 Question method, and 40 minutes of free writing on any topic without judgment. Afterwards you will be able to share a bit about your process and ask Francesca brief questions about your writing.

Francesca Lia Block is the author of more than thirty books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association, and from the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, and PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY. Currently she teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, Pocket MFA, and numerous workshops across the country. Francesca also edits LIT ANGELS, a literary journal available on Substack. Her latest novel is House of Hearts now out in paperback. https://www.francescaliablock.com/

Where: Village Well Books & Coffee

Date: Sunday the 5^th

Time: 10 am – 11 am

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

Website: https://shop.villagewell.com

Writers Group at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event

First Sunday of every month.

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

Where: North Figueroa Bookshop

Date: Sunday the 5^th

Time: 5 pm – 7 pm

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

Website: https://northfigbookshop.com/event/#calendar-8a0f87f6-17d6-4f10-9815-04df4c8251ba-event-mabtzxoz-1775433600000

April Queer Romance Book Club: The Prospects at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event

Bookseller Elizabeth leads our Queer Romance Book Club. Meets on the 1^st Sunday of the month at 7:15 pm.

Participants will discuss The Prospects: A Novel by K.T. Hoffman.

No membership is necessary, but RSVP is required.

Where: The Ripped Bodice

Date: Sunday the 5^th

Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm

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

Where: The Glendale Room

Date: Sunday the 5^th

Time: 8:30 pm

Address: 127 N. Artsakh Ave. Glendale, CA 91206

Website: https://www.instagram.com