Centennial Book Club: Soldier’s Pay via Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL – Online Zoom Event
Join us for a Centennial Book Club discussion of Soldier’s Pay by William Faulkner, part of Los Angeles Public Library’s Central 100 celebration. Published in 1926, Soldiers’ Pay revolves around the return of a wounded aviator and his difficulties adjusting following the conclusion of the First World War.
Free copies are available at the front desk in limited supply. The Sun Valley Branch Book Club meet virtually. All are welcome to share or simply listen in a welcoming space.
Please email ebarrera@lapl.org for the Google Meet link.
Where: Sun Valley Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 13th
Time: 4:45 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/central-100-1926-book-club
Evening Book Club: The Spy Coast at Manhattan Beach Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Patrons can enjoy a facilitated discussion of fiction and nonfiction titles. A limited number of titles are available for attendees at the library. For adults.
July’s selection: The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen.
Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends―all retirees from the CIA―to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why.
Where: Manhattan Beach Library, LACL
Date: Monday the 13th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16088589
Queer & Ally Book Club at Chevalier’s Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us every second Monday for conversation, reflection, and community centered around books by Queer authors and LGBTQIAA+ themes.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Monday the 13th
Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2026-07-13/queer-ally-book-club
YA for Adults Book Club: Honeysuckle and Bone at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Honeysuckle and Bone by Trisha Tobias.
On the run from her own dark secrets, a teen girl becomes the nanny for a prestigious family on their Jamaican estate, where she quickly discovers even paradise may be haunted. Carina Marshall is looking to reinvent herself, and what better place to do it than Jamaica, her mother’s alluring homeland where she conveniently has access to an au pair gig for the wealthy and powerful Hall family. After months of being the target of vicious rumors and hate online, Carina might have found everything she wants at the luxurious Blackbead House: a world of mango trees, tropical breezes, and glamorous parties—and a place to disappear.
Once there, Carina finds herself settling right into her busy, but comfortable, new life. Yes, the family runs a tight ship, and yes, there is some tension between the Halls, but Carina is content flying under the radar and hanging out with her new friends—not least, the handsome and charming Aaron. But when inexplicable things start happening to her in the house, only getting worse each night, Carina realizes that someone, or something, is out to get her. Is it the Halls? The house itself? Or is her own past catching up with her? With Aaron’s help, she must figure out what is haunting her, and fast, before she’s forced out of Blackbead House for good.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday the 13th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd. Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-07-13/ya-adults-book-club-honeysuckle-and-bone
Love Language: a two-part workshop with Yesika Salgado via tothebloomworkshop@gmail.com – Online Zoom Event
MANGOS! offering one final online workshop before retiring facilitating for the summer / fall. let’s write some poems together!
Registration: $100
Where: tothebloomworkshop@gmail.com
Date: Monday the 13th and Monday the 20th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: Instagram Page
Roshan Sethi, with Lilly Singh & The Simp at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Join us to welcome Roshan Sethi, in conversation with Lilly Singh to discuss: The Simp: A Novel.
A razor-sharp novel about the rise and fall of an unemployed actor who lands the greatest role of his life when he’s hired as a personal assistant to an absurd Hollywood family.
Raj Ladlani is a morose and unemployable actor. He has reasons to believe he is spectacularly talented, a legend in every way but for the success. He leads an anonymous life in LA, working part time at a frozen yogurt store, fantasizing about stardom and clinging to the encouragement of his aging and kindly acting coach.
At his life’s nadir, Raj reads a job posting detailing a relentless, laughable parade of menial responsibilities for an organization blandly described as “Hollywood Family.”
The Simp tells the story of Raj’s momentous employment with the H Family and the destruction that follows. Jim H is a massive and macho director in a creative rut. Anna H might uncharitably be described as his much younger trophy wife, quietly and neurotically seeking out her own independent sense of purpose as a screenwriter. Raj’s work as their executive assistant becomes his new sense of soaring purpose. But he procured the job through a sea of lies.
The job itself is an absurdist walk through a landmine of affluent domestic chaos, identity politics, and petty Angeleno grievances. And things only get weirder when it turns out Anna H has been working on a secret project of her own—one that will change everything for Raj.
Roshan Sethi is a writer, director, and practicing oncologist. He is the cocreator of The Resident, which ran for six seasons on Fox. His directorial debut, 7 Days, won the Independent Spirit Award for best first feature. He subsequently directed World’s Best for Disney+ and cowrote the abortion drama Call Jane, which premiered at Sundance in 2022. His third film as a director, A Nice Indian Boy, recently premiered at SXSW to rave reviews. His next film, The Surgeon, starring Michelle Yeoh and Martin Freeman, is forthcoming. The Simp is his debut novel.
Lilly Singh is an award-winning entertainer, actress, producer, New York Times best-selling author, gender equality advocate, and President of Unicorn Island. A leading force in pop culture with a digital audience of over 40 million, she has pivoted her successful online career to the big and small screens.
Where: Skylight
Date: Monday the 13th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/2026-07-13/roshan-sethi-w-lilly-singh-simp
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 13th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Website: Facebook Page
Talya Jankovits, with Tabby Refael, & The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Join us to welcome Talya Jankovits, in conversation with Tabby Refael, to discuss The Very Unremarkable Life of Mrs. Etty Bloom.
In the insulated Hasidic community of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, tradition and cultural norms are as sacred as religion. Childhood friendships are cultivated to climb social ladders, matchmakers dictate futures, and young girls are primed for marriage and motherhood. So, when Etty Greenberger, a headstrong redhead and the only child of Holocaust survivors, commits one ugly and thoughtless act, she believes she has sabotaged her opportunity to secure a desirable match. Reluctantly, she agrees to marry Benji Bloom, a fishmonger’ s son far below her marital aspirations, becoming Mrs. Etty Bloom. With each passing year, Etty grows further from the life she had hoped for, filled with disappointment and delusions of grandeur. As she grapples with loss, grief, and the challenges of motherhood, she also discovers friendship, love, and joy in the most unexpected places. It may take a lifetime, but Etty Bloom finally learns that an unremarkable life can be remarkable after all.
Talya Jankovits is an award-winning Chicago-based writer with multiple magazine publications for her essays, fiction, and poetry. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. Her collection of poems, girl woman wife mother, received First Place in Contemporary Poetry in the 2024 Bookfest Awards.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2026-07-13/talya-jankovits
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 13th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)
Website: Free Workshop Page
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 14th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
The Darkest Hour Book Club: Her Last Breath at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss our June selection for discussion, Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams. Copies available at the library. For adults.
From the critically acclaimed author of No Exit and The Last Word comes a story of two friends who embark on an ill-fated caving expedition—and the dark truth of what happens deep underground.
Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 7th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct., Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16453074
Agoura Readers Book Club: Babel at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss Babel by R. F. Kuang. Copies available at Customer Service. For adults.
Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct., Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16567968
Book Club for Adults: Finding My Way at Montebello Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for a discussion about Finding My Way, by Malala Yousafzai. There are copies available at the Circulation Desk upon request. For Adults
Where: Montebello Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address:1550 W. Beverly Blvd., Montebello, CA 90640
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16634520
Author Talk: Karin Slaughter & North Fall Series via Virtual Program, LACL – Online Event
Join us online for a thrilling discussion with author Karin Slaughter as we chat about her North Falls series, consisting of We Are All Guilty Here, in which two teenage girls vanish in rural Georgia, and her upcoming sequel, The Secrets We Hide.
In The Secrets We Hide, Slaughter welcomes readers back to North Falls. A small town with big secrets.
1601 Iris Drive looks like any other house on the quiet, residential street. But rumors are rampant about the Vickery family, and what goes on behind closed doors.
When gunshots ring out, Sheriff Emmy Clifton and her sister, ex-federal agent Jude Archer, discover a devastating crime scene. Allison Vickery has been murdered in her own kitchen, and her teenage daughter is bleeding upstairs, left for dead.
Everyone thinks they know what happened. But secrets are buried everywhere in this small town.
And it’s up to Emmy Clifton to uncover the truth.
Register now to take part in the discussion, and for an exclusive sneak peek of The Secrets We Hide, coming out August 11, 2026.
Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular storytellers. She is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty-five novels, including the Edgar nominated Cop Town and standalone novels Pretty Girls and False Witness. An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. Pieces of Her, based on her novel, debuted at #1 worldwide on Netflix as an original series in 2022. Her bestselling thriller series, Will Trent, is now a television and streaming sensation in its 4th season. The Good Daughter has been adapted into a limited series starring Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy, and further projects are currently in development for film/TV. Karin Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, she lives in Atlanta.
Where: Virtual Program, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16704982
Poetry Open Mc via Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join us online on the second Tuesday of the month at 6 pm for Poetry Open Mic. Share a poem you wrote or a poem you love. You are also welcome to just listen and enjoy.
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/poetry-open-mic
Allspice Book Club: Flirting with Disaster at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Thank you to Victoria and Jade for leading the Diverse Romance Book Club for the last few years! Thank you for your hard work!! We are now calling this book club the Allspice Book Club, and we’d like to officially welcome the new book club leader, Lydia!!
Participants will discuss Flirting with Disaster: A Novel by Naina Kumar.
It’s been years since Meena separated from her husband, Nikhil, years since they first laid eyes on each other in their home state of Texas, years since they spontaneously wed in Las Vegas and she felt true happiness. Now a high-powered lawyer on Capitol Hill and ready to move on (at least, she thinks so) with another successful lawyer, Shake, Meena has returned to Texas. This time, finally to obtain a divorce.
But there’s one thing Meena didn’t account for: a hurricane forming in the Gulf, veering right toward them and giving them no choice but to hunker down in the home they had built together. Suddenly, she finds herself trapped amid gale-force winds and pelting rain with the man she once loved.
As they spend more time together, Meena begins to remember everything that drew her to Nikhil: his small-town charm, his thoughtful nature, his absurdly good looks. But being with Shake makes sense to her. He’s steady, ambitious, and wants exactly what she wants. So, she’ll stick to her plan, come hell or high water. But will her windswept heart make the right choice, once the eye passes over and the storm settles?
Naina Kumar is the bestselling author of Say You’ll Be Mine and Flirting With Disaster. She lives in Texas, close to her family, whose antics provide endless inspiration. When she’s not writing, she enjoys taking her rowdy rescue dog on walks, rewatching Gilmore Girls on a loop, and shopping at H-E-B.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd. Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-07-14/allspice-book-club-flirting-disaster
Being Zines Teens Workshop at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Teen Event
“Being Zine” is an art workshop by teens for teens.
Create your own zines! Free and open to anyone between the ages of 12-18!
The @reidgoreckifoundation provides all materials needed, so all you have to do is show up and create!
There is no prior experience, knowledge, or skills required to participate.
Teens are welcome to design their mini artwork however they see fit through collage, stamps, drawing, and more!
Where: Underdog Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 312 S. Myrtle Ave., Montrose, CA 91016
Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events/monthly-mutual-aid-pop-up-july
World Cultures Reading Circle Book Club: Old School Indian at Westchester – Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the World Cultures Reading Circle in the Community Room to discuss Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis. New members are welcome.
Where: Westchester – Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 7114 W. Manchester Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/world-cultures-reading-circle-book-discusion
Booked & Busy Book Club: The Original Daughter at Leland R. Weaver Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us this month for a facilitated discussion of The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei. For adults
Copies of the current title are available to check-out at the customer service desk while supplies last. The eBook and audiobook are available through Libby. New members are always welcome!
Where: Leland R. Weaver Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 4035 Tweedy Blvd., South Gate, CA 90280
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16812554
Author Talk: Robinne Lee, with Yvette Nicole Brown, & Crash Into Me: A Novel at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to welcome Robinne Lee, in conversation with Yvette Nicole Brown, to discuss Crash Into Me: A Novel.
In a complicated marriage and raising her children in Los Angeles’s toxic playground of privilege and power, Cecilia Chen is struggling to find her real self among the many labels assigned to her: wife, mother, artist, daughter.
Until the moment she crashes–literally–into the Anouk Ferrand. It’s been twenty years since she last encountered the enigmatic model on a photo shoot in Mexico.
And it’s this chance second meeting that will upend Cecilia’s life.
Seeing Anouk again forces Cecilia to revisit their brief time together and question where she truly fits in. Can the renewed intensity of her explosive physical and emotional entanglement with Anouk finally give her an answer?
In a sharply observed evolution from her blockbuster debut, The Idea of You, Robinne Lee delivers a completely new, propulsive story layered with desire, power, and identity.
Robinne Lee is the bestselling author of The Idea of You, which has been translated into two dozen languages and adapted into a record-breaking feature film for Amazon Studios. Lee is also an actress and producer with numerous credits in both television and film. A graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School, Lee has lived in New York and Los Angeles and now resides in Paris with her husband and two children.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 225 26th St. Suite #33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2026-07-14/robinne-lee-crash-me
Activism Book Club: Unbuild Walls at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join us for the newest addition to the Village Well Book Club family, the Activism Book Club!
Each month, we’ll dive into a book that informs and directs us about the state of the world, and how we can put what we learn into practice. We’ll have guest speakers, workshops, volunteer activities, and discussions on how we can positively impact the community. We’re looking forward to building a community that’s more connected around our collective well-being.
This July, we’ll discuss Unbuild Walls by Silky Shah.
Drawing from over twenty years of activism on local and national levels, this striking book offers an organizer’s perspective on the intersections of immigrant rights, racial justice, and prison abolition.
In the wake of post-9/11 xenophobia, Obama’s record-level deportations, Trump’s immigration policies, and the 2020 uprisings for racial justice, the US remains entrenched in a circular discourse regarding migrant justice. As organizer Silky Shah argues in Unbuild Walls, we must move beyond building nicer cages or advocating for comprehensive immigration reform. Our only hope for creating a liberated society for all, she insists, is abolition.
Unbuild Walls dives into US immigration policy and its relationship to mass incarceration, from the last forty years up to the present, showing how the prison-industrial complex and immigration enforcement are intertwined systems of repression. Incorporating historical and legal analyses, Shah’s personal experience as an organizer, as well as stories of people, campaigns, organizations, and localities that have resisted detention and deportation, Shah assesses the movement’s strategies, challenges, successes, and shortcomings. Featuring a foreword by Amna A. Akbar, Unbuild Walls is an expansive and radical intervention, bridging the gaps between movements for immigrant rights, racial justice, and prison abolition.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
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 14th
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm
Address: 14537 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
Website: Instagram Page
Justin Halpern, with Paul Scheer, & Get Lost at Chevalier’s – In-Person Event
Join us to hear Justin Halpern, in conversation with Paul Scheer, discuss Get Lost: A Novel.
From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Sh*t My Dad Says, a fast-paced and hilarious thriller about a young woman who reluctantly teams up with her deadbeat dad to find her missing mom.
When Lila Dixon gets a call that her mother has gone missing, she initially brushes it off—Mattie’s disappearances are a part of life, like earthquakes in their dusty California hometown. But this time the prime suspect is Lila’s larger-than-life father: the one-time baseball star, local hero, and fatal charmer John “Dix” Dixon.
Dix’s main accomplishment as a dad was finding new ways to disappoint his daughter, but even Lila knows he’s not behind this. And when they uncover a $250,000 deposit to Mattie’s bank account, and someone slips a threatening note under Lila’s motel door, they realize Mattie may be in real danger. Now they’re heading down a trail marked by unsavory Russian thugs, fat-cat farmers, and an unseen enemy who’s always a step ahead.
With crackling banter and characters that leap off the page, Get Lost is a thrilling and emotionally layered mystery, about fractured families, grudges that last a lifetime, and the unexpected ways we find our way back to the people we thought we’d lost for good.
Justin Halpern is a Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated Creator, Showrunner, Director, and Executive Producer through his and creative partner Patrick Schumacker’s company, Delicious Non-Sequitur Productions, which is currently under an overall deal with Warner Bros. Television. He is the Executive Producer and co-showrunner of the Emmy-winning hit series Abbott Elementary on ABC alongside Quinta Brunson and Patrick Schumacker. The series has been nominated for Best Comedy Series in both 2022 and 2024, among other honors. Justin is the author of New York Times bestselling book Sh*t My Dad Says and I Suck At Girls. Get Lost is his debut novel.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 133 Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2026-07-14/get-lost-author-justin-halpern
Adult Book Group: Bless Me Ultima at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person & Online Zoom Hybrid Event
Join our discussion of Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima.
Whether you loved it, hated it, or haven’t finished it, we want to see you at our Adult Book Club that has been going strong for 40+ years at America’s Oldest Children’s Bookstore!
The sensual and enchanting coming-of-age classic from the godfather of Chicano literature follows a young boy growing up in the llano (plains) of post-World War II New Mexico, and the generous curandera who introduces him to the sacred side of life.
Antonio Marez is six years old when the woman who helped usher him into the world comes to stay with his family in New Mexico. Venerated by some as a miracle-worker—and disparaged by others as a bruja—Ultima, a curandera, or healer, opens Tony’s eyes to the spiritual roots of his culture, and introduces him to a magical, if sometimes frightening, new world: a realm in which she operates as a shaman.
Suddenly, the ordinary challenges and triumphs of childhood become extraordinary. As Ultima shows Tony how to cure ailments, reverse curses, and restore peace to those who have lost it, he embarks on a singular quest, one in which he probes the family ties that bind and rend him, questions the Catholicism that shaped him, and explores the Spanish, Mexican, and Native American influences that informed not only his heritage, but his very sense of self. And at each life turn there is Ultima, who was there the day he was born … and will nurture the birth of his soul.
A rich and wondrous story that reveals universal truths about the human condition and celebrates the beauty of Chicano culture.
With a new foreword by author, playwright, and stage director Denise Chavez; a new afterword by award-winning journalist and author Carmela Padilla; and a new essay by Manuel Muñoz, a Macarthur Fellow and winner of the Joyce Carol Oates Prize.
Includes a Reading Group Guide.
Rudolfo Anaya is the bestselling author of the beloved Bless Me, Ultima, and one of the founding voices in modern Chicano literature. In 2016, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama. A former professor at the University of New Mexico, he won numerous literary awards, including the Premio Quinto Sol National Chicano literary award, the 2007 Notable New Mexican Award, and the PEN Center USA West Award for Fiction. Bless Me, Ultima was named a Great American Read by PBS, and has been adapted into a feature film, an opera, and several stage plays. Anaya was a lifelong champion of Chicano voices and devoted himself to supporting aspiring writers. He passed away on June 28, 2020.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: Once Upon a Time Event Page
Mystery Book Club at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Meets monthly, generally on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm.
We read new release mysteries. Book selection is done by email voting prior to each meeting so that the following month’s book will be available at the preceding month’s meeting.
Facilitated by Bobby Mccue
RSVP for further information.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2026-07-14/mystery-book-club
Book Event: Brittainy Cherry, with Anna Todd, & Karla & Ash at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Join Brittainy Cherry, in conversation with Anna Todd, to discuss her Chance Series and its third romance Karla & Ash.
Since her mother’s death a year ago, Karla East feels as though life has forgotten her. Every day passes in emptiness—until a quiet morning in the cemetery changes everything. There she meets him: the boy with the saddest eyes she’s ever seen. The boy whose silence speaks louder than words. In his grief, Karla recognizes a pain so similar to her own that it sparks something she thought she’d lost: hope. And for the first time in a long time, she wonders: Can two broken hearts create a new beginning? Is it truly possible to learn to live again when you believe you’ve lost everything?
A book signing will follow with the author and narrator. This ticketed event includes a paperback copy of the book.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA, 90232
Website: https://therippedbodice.com/upcoming-events
Book Event: Emily Doyle, with Claire Jia, & Please Don’t Touch the Body at Skylight – In-Person Event
Join Emily Doyle, in conversation with Claire Jia, to discuss Please Don’t Touch the Body: Stories.
By turns tender and irreverent, the 11 genre-bending stories in Please Don’t Touch the Body are thrillingly concerned with the devastation-and power-of being alive today.
In the collection’s first story, a Japanese woman finds healing in a secret life as a sex advice columnist after being fetishized by her white husband for decades. In the fourth story, Ronald Reagan is reincarnated as a puppy and must cope with being squeezed, dropped, and controlled by his young, queer owner. And in “Thank You No Thank You,” a young woman grapples with the rules she learned in her religious childhood, the freedoms of her new and more liberal life, and her actual desires as she vacations with her long-term boyfriend.
Together these inventive, emotionally rich stories reveal an incredible new vision and “a writer to watch” (Rita Chang-Eppig).
Emily Doyle has an MFA from UC Riverside. She has received awards including the Bread Loaf–Rona Jaffe Participant Scholarship and the Abraham Lincoln Polonsky Endowed Award and her work has appeared in The Sun, the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles.
Claire Jia’s debut novel Wanting was an NPR, Elle, Public Books and Chicago Sun-Times Best Book of 2025. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Modern Love column, The Rumpus, Reductress, and more. She writes for television and co-wrote the Peabody Award-winning interactive series We Are OFK. She hails from the suburbs of Chicago, but today she lives in Los Angeles with her friends.
Where: Skylight Books
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-emily-doyle-presents-please-dont-touch-body-w-claire-jia
Marisa Solis and Elizabeth Dougherty & The Complete Expert-to-Author Guide at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Marisa Solis and Elizabeth Dougherty will present and discuss The Complete Expert-to-Author Guide: Plan, Write and Publish Your Nonfiction Book.
Learn how to turn your expertise into a clear, compelling nonfiction book that reaches the people who need it most.
Whether you’re a consultant, coach, educator, healthcare provider, or entrepreneur, writing a book can expand your influence and help more people benefit from your ideas. The Complete Expert-to-Author Guide provides a practical, step-by-step roadmap for moving from concept to finished manuscript without getting stuck along the way.
Written by veteran editors and book coaches Marisa Solis and Elizabeth Dougherty, who have guided hundreds of nonfiction books from idea to publication, this hands-on guide walks you through every stage of the writing process with clarity and confidence.
RSVP at website link.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 14th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-07-14/marisa-solis-elizabeth-dougherty
Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert & Guest Christian Montealegre, plus Open Reading – Online Zoom Event
Cobalt Poets Reading & Open Mic and host Rick Lupert will welcome guest Christian Montealegre, plus an Open Reading online.
Christian Montealegre N/A
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday, the 14th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: Event Page
DiPiazza’s Open Mic at Di Piazza’s Pizza – In-Person Event
Open Mic Every Tuesday! Signups 8:30 pm, late-night happy hour, live music, pizza & cocktails.
Host: Tamara Madison
Features: TBA
Often follows Trivia Night at 6 pm for a full evening of fun.
No cover mentioned—come early to grab a spot!
Step up to the mic and shine!
Where: Di Piazza’s
Date: Tuesday, the 14th
Time: 8:30 pm
Address: 5205 Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA
Website: Eventbrite Page
Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic at ASTRO – Summer Residency in Arts District – In-Person Event
The nation’s largest weekly spoken word Open Mic event is 28 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. This summer is one of collaboration, through August 25, 2026.
About our sponsor: Humna Khan is the Founder and CEO of ASTRO, an advanced aerospace and manufacturing lab, and a lifelong engineer who has spent more than two decades building the systems and standards that power the modern space economy across NASA, SpaceX, and the U.S. Air Force/Space Force. She spent 13 years as a professor, helping train the next generation of builders and problem‑solvers, and somehow picked up five degrees from universities in the City of Angels along the way. Nearly twenty years ago, she started going to Da Poetry Lounge as a quiet face in the crowd who never got on the mic, but still felt seen. A longtime activist who speaks up about injustice and inequity, she’s honored to host DPL at her facility and help keep that kind of space alive in the city that raised her.
*Educational workshops and all programming outside of Tuesdays will continue in Leimert Park.*
$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. See website link for details.
Where: ASTRO Summer Residency, New ARTS DISTRCT Location
Date: Tuesday, the 14th
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm (Doors at 8:15 pm)
Address: 430 Colyton St., Arts District DTLA, CA
Website: Instagram Page
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: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 9 am – 10 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Coffee Time Book Club: Land: A Novel at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Meets monthly, generally on the third Wednesday of each month at 7:00 pm.
We read new release literary fiction. At each meeting we discuss and vote on what we will read and discuss for the following month.
Participants will discuss Land: A Novel by Maggie Farrell.
On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great Ordnance Survey project to map the whole of Ireland. The year is 1865, and in a country not long since ravaged and emptied by the Great Hunger, the task is not an easy one. Tomás, however, is determined that his maps will be a record of the disaster.
The British soldiers in charge are due to arrive any day, expecting the work to be completed, but Tomás is unexpectedly sent off course by an unsettling encounter in a copse. His life, and the lives of those of his family, will never be the same again. Liam is terrified by the sudden change in his taciturn father. What was it that caused such cracks to open in Tomás, and how is Liam, aged only ten, going to finish the mapping and get them both home?
Land is a novel about separation and reunion, tragedy and recovery, colonization and rebellion. It is a story of buried treasure, overlapping lives, ancient woodland, persistent ghosts, a particularly loyal dog, and how, when it comes to both land and history, nothing ever goes away. As spellbinding and varied as the landscape that inspired it, Land is, above all, a story of survival, for our times and for all time.
Maggie O’Farrell was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1972. Her novels include Hamnet (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Women’s Prize for Fiction), The Marriage Portrait, After You’d Gone, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, The Hand That First Held Mine (winner of the Costa Novel Award), and Instructions for a Heatwave. She has also written a memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death. She lives in Edinburgh.
Facilitated by Linda McLoughlin Figel
RSVP for further information.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2026-07-15/coffee-time-book-club
Book Club: Good Dirt at Washington Irving Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us in reading Good Dirt, by Charmine Wilkerson. Copies are available for check out in the branch or on your mobile device as an e-book/e-audiobook.
Where: Washington Irving Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 12 pm
Address: 4117 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90018
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/book-club-10
Book Club: Beautiful World, Where Are You? at Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us for a lively discussion of the 2021 novel Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney.
If you are unable to attend in person, please email grnhls@lapl.org for a Zoom invite.
Where: Granada Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 1:30 pm – 3 pm
Address: 10640 Petit Ave., Granada Hills, CA 91344
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/book-club-beautiful-world-where-are-you
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 2nd Monday of the month on KPFK Los Angeles 90.7 FM.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: KPFK 90.7 FM
Date: Wednesday, the 15th
Time: 2 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: On-air Event
Website: https://www.kpfk.org/on-air/poets-cafe/
Book Club for Adults: A Gentleman in Moscow at San Gabriel Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for book club as we discuss A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Copies of this title are available at the Information Desk. For Adults.
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal. He is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances give him access to a much larger world of emotional discovery.
Where: San Gabriel Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 3 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 500 South Del Mar Ave., San Gabriel, CA 91776
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16122067
Middle Grade Book Clubat pages: a bookstore – In-Person MG Event
MIDDLE GRADE BOOK CLUB: Meets monthly, generally on the third Wednesday of each month at 4:30 pm.
We read new releases of middle grade fiction. Book selection is done by voting at each meeting for the following month’s meeting.
RSVP to amy@pagesabookstore.com.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2026-07-15/middle-grade-book-club
Book Club for Adults: Horse at San Fernando Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join our Book Club to discuss Horse: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks. Copies of the novel are available at the library. New members are always welcome! For adults.
A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history. Kentucky, 1850: An enslaved groom named Jarret, and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. New York City, 1954: Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance. Washington, DC, 2019: Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse. Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.
Where: San Fernando Library,LACL
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 217 N. Maclay Ave., San Fernando, CA 91340
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16568588
Special Author Event: Cliff Allman & The Joe at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to welcome local author Cliff Allman to present and discuss his new book The Joe.
Joe understands people.
As a trained psychologist, Joe has built a career on reading minds, predicting behavior, and uncovering what others try to hide. But when Joe is pulled into a shadow war between two powerful factions, understanding people becomes a matter of survival.
These secretive groups don’t just influence the world’s wealth—they control it. And now they’re locked in a silent battle over something more dangerous than money: antimatter, the most valuable substance on the planet. Caught in the middle, Joe is forced into a role that demands precision, detachment … and deadly action.
Hunter. Assassin. Weapon.
But in a world where nothing is as it seems, the balance of power can shift in an instant. And soon, Joe is no longer the one in control.
The Joe is a sharp, twist-laden thriller that bends expectations at every turn—where identity is fluid, power is absolute, and truth is the most dangerous illusion of all.
Cliff Allman, a longtime resident of Manhattan Beach, California, has been writing since a young age—his imagination never confined to a single genre or type of story. His work reflects a wide creative range, bringing together compelling characters, unexpected turns, and a natural instinct for storytelling.
He built a career in advertising at Sports Illustrated, during the glory days of big ideas and bigger stories—an experience that continues to shape the rhythm and energy of his writing. Along the way, raising a family, coaching from the sidelines, and pursuing passions like golf, fishing, and pickleball have all found their way into the fabric of his stories.
Cliff’s first two books were children’s titles, illustrated by his daughters, Claire and Sarah. During the early stages of the pandemic, he wrote and published his first full-length novel, the time-travel thriller The Parallel Lives of John Allen, drawing inspiration from places that have stayed with him—Montana, Martha’s Vineyard, and Chicago, where he was born and raised.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2026-07-15/special-author-event-cliff-allman
Creative Writing Workshop at Sherman Oaks Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Explore creative writing in a fun, supportive environment! Each session will include some combination of writing exercises, readings, discussion, and opportunities for sharing and feedback. Suggested homework will also be provided to keep you writing between sessions.
Writers are welcome to bring up to 500 words (about 2 typed double-spaced pages) to read aloud each session. Open to adults and teens ages 16+.
This is the 1st of 3 meetings.
Email katie.wright@lapl.org with any questions.
Where: Sherman Oaks Branch Library,LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 14345 Moorpark St., Sherman Oaks, CA 91423
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/creative-writing-workshop-9
Fiction Book Club at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us on the third Wednesday of every month for our long-running book club for adults!
Where: Studio City Branch Library,LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/fiction-book-club-1
Kathryn Stockett, with Gigi Levangie, & The Calamity Club at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to welcome Kathryn Stockett to discuss and sign The Calamity Club. Joining her in conversation will be Gigi Levangie.
Oxford, Mississippi, 1933.
Abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve, eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. Now one of the unadoptable “big girls” at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, she fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed.
Birdie Calhoun, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford to ask her socialite sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister’s seemingly charmed life is a tapestry of lies.
Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman running low on luck with little left to lose. When their fates—and Meg’s—converge, Charlie comes up with an audacious plan for them to take control of their lives. But in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife and women’s freedom is fragile, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences.
The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer—an epic testament to underestimated women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings. This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, heartfelt, and hilarious—the triumphant return of one of the most beloved storytellers of our time.
Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. Her first novel, The Help, has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. She lives in Mississippi and New York City.
Gigi Levangie is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning screenwriter whose sharp, satirical voice has captivated readers and viewers alike. She is the author of seven novels, including the Emmy Award–winning The Starter Wife, which became a hit miniseries starring Debra Messing. Her additional books include: Rescue Me, Maneater, Queen Takes King, Seven Deadlies, Fast and Loose, Been There, Married That. Levangie also co-wrote the hit film Stepmom, starring Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite #33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2026-07-15/kathryn-stockett-calamity-club
Writing for Pleasure Workshop with James E. Coats via Zoom – Online Event
Writing for Pleasure 2026!
This workshop series is designed to explore and integrate pleasure in our writing. How to center pleasure for ourselves and our reader to craft satisfying stories that will have our audience engaged and craving more. We will examine one new spicy attribute of focus each week and ways to use literary devices to pull out deep sensual emotions for the reader to connect with. The imaginative prompts will guide the generative experience allowing for playful, authentic and smoldering content. Novice and experienced writers are welcome in this safe supportive environment. This class is for 18 years or older and class size is limited to 10 participants.
When: Wednesday July 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th 2026 from 6 pm – 8 pm PDT
Event Location: Via Zoom
NOTE: See site to RSVP and to register: $200.
Where: mrlovingwords online
Date: Wednesday the 8th (through Wednesday the 29th), 4 wed mtgs.
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: Instagram Page
Los Feliz Writers: Shut Up and Write in Los Feliz at Big Bar, The Alcove – In-Person Event
GATHER | WRITE | REPEAT
Free weekly writing meetups open to anyone who wants to write! Every Wednesday we have our weekly @shutupwrite at @bigbaralcove.
Hosted by @literarypixie!
RSVP at link in bio.
Where: Big Bar, The Alcove (in the back)
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1929 Hillhurst Ave., Los Feliz, CA 90027
Website: Instagram Page
Book Launch: Robinne Lee & Crash into Me at Chevalier’s – In-Person Event
Join us for the launch of best-selling author Robinne Lee’s latest novel, Crash into Me.
In a complicated marriage and raising her children in Los Angeles’s toxic playground of privilege and power, Cecilia Chen is struggling to find her real self among the many labels assigned to her: wife, mother, artist, daughter.
Until the moment she crashes–literally–into the Anouk Ferrand. It’s been twenty years since she last encountered the enigmatic model on a photo shoot in Mexico.
And it’s this chance second meeting that will upend Cecilia’s life.
Seeing Anouk again forces Cecilia to revisit their brief time together and question where she truly fits in. Can the renewed intensity of her explosive physical and emotional entanglement with Anouk finally give her an answer?
In a sharply observed evolution from her blockbuster debut, The Idea of You, the author delivers a completely new, propulsive story layered with desire, power, and identity.
Robinne Lee is the bestselling author of The Idea of You, which has been translated into two dozen languages and adapted into a record-breaking feature film for Amazon Studios. Lee is also an actress and producer with numerous credits in both television and film. A graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School, Lee has lived in New York and Los Angeles and now resides in Paris with her husband and two children.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Wednesday, the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2026-07-15/book-launch-crash-me-robinne-lee
La Fleuria Presents: The Romance Supper Club: Lauren Oakie’s Tropesick at By Nature Studio – In-Person Event
Join us for The Romance Supper Club, hosted by La Feuria. We’re just a Tropesick fan account at this point! Join us for dinner & a book discussion on July 15th.
About Tropesick: In this lush, slow-burning romance, two childhood neighbors, connected by a shared tragedy, unexpectedly reunite to ghostwrite a love story for a reclusive author. Spending the summer at her secluded Hamptons estate, they soon discover that dozens of classic romance tropes, including the ones they’re crafting on page, are mysteriously playing out in real life.
RSVP at link in bio.
Where: The Fleuria at By Nature Studio
Date: Wednesday, the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 23437 S. Western Ave., Torrance, CA 90501
Website: Instagram Page
Memoir Book Club: Strangers by Belle Burden at Good Girl Books – In-Person Event
Join us for our first memoir book club! We’re discussing Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden and are very excited to hear everyone’s thoughts.
The book club is hosted by local writer @elizabeth.koppl! We still have copies of Strangers in store so come grab yours! The event is free, but we ask that you RSVP (link in bio) so we can get an accurate headcount.
Where: Good Girl Books
Date: Wednesday, the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 12444 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066
Website: Instagram Page
Book Event: Laura Marie Meyers, with Mallory Marlowe, & The Mash Up at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Join Laura Marie Meyers, in conversation with Mallory Marlowe, to discuss her debut The Mash Up.
A book signing will follow with the author and narrator. This ticketed event includes a hardcover copy of the book.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA, 90232
Website: https://therippedbodice.com/upcoming-events
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 15th
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: Instagram Page
Banned Books Club: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Event
Banned Books Club meets every third Wednesday at Underdog Bookstore to discuss a new banned or challenged book each month.
For those wishing to join virtually, a Zoom link will be shared with all attendees prior to the event.
Our June pick is: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – a novel by Mark Haddon about Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old boy with Asperger’s syndrome, who investigates the murder of his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, and uncovers secrets about his own family
You can pick up a copy in store or keep supporting Underdog by listening to the audiobook from our libro.fm or downloading the ebook from our bookshop.org.
RSVP at website – Suggested donation $5-20 or donate a gently used banned book.
NOTE: See site to RSVP.
Where: Underdog Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 312 S. Myrtle Ave., Monrovia, CA 91016
Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events/banned-books-club-june-czr7e
Fatima Asghar & Daughter of the Mountains: poems of heartbreak & homecoming at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Fatimah Asghar will present and discuss Daughter of the Mountains: poems of heartbreak & homecoming.
A tender, searching collection that breaks open notions of faith to ask how a daughter, alienated from kin, can find love and a home in the world, from the award-winning author of If They Come for Us and When We Were Sisters.
Exiled from ancestral homelands, how can one find a place for themself in the world? In this stunning sophomore collection, the acclaimed poet Fatimah Asghar unweaves residual grief to reckon with their relationship to Allah, long-estranged but deeply loved kin, the landscape of their ancestors, and love itself.
In meditative poems, Daughter of the Mountains grapples with multiple facets of fulfillment, betrayal, love, loss, and longing, illustrating how place, lineage, and environment inform the practice of spirituality and vice versa. With wisps of humor, imagery that is as beautiful as it is startling, and powerfully disruptive formal invention, this is an intimately lyrical and explosive collection.
RSVP at website link.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-07-15/fatimah-asghar
July Book Club: Whistler at Zibby’s – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss Whistler; A Novel by Anne Patchett, described by The New York Times as “a moving, luminous novel that reminds us of the sweetness and impermanence of life and the power of connection to defy time.”
RSVP at website link.
Where: Zibby’s
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1113 Montana Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: Eventbrite Page
Anansi Writers Workshop & Book Launch 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 15th
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4321 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: Instagram Page
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: My Walk on the Wild Side
Where: Art Parlor
Date: Wednesday the 15th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm (Doors at 7 pm)
Address: 5302 Laurel Canyon Blvd., Valley Village, CA 91607
Website: Instagram Page
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 15th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: Free Workshop Page
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg and guest poet Genie Nakano at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Host Ben Trigg welcomes Genie Nakano to read and discuss her work.
Genie Nakano is a poet, Qigong teacher, and former dancer whose work explores nature, aging, memory, family, and the small moments that connect us to one another. A Japanese American sansei, she has spent a lifetime studying movement, creativity, and mindfulness through the arts.
Her poetry and tanka have appeared in journals and anthologies in the United States and Japan. She currently teaches Gentle Qigong in Gardena, California, combining graceful movement, imagery, and joy for older adults.
Whether on the page or in the classroom, Genie seeks to inspire a sense of wonder, presence, and connection. She is delighted to be sharing her work at the Ugly Mug this evening.
$5 cover fee, cash only
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday, the 15th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: Facebook Page
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: Thursday the 16th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Your Author Series: Dan Santat & Don’t Trust Fish and A Fishboy Named…Sashimi. at Lincoln Heights Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Kids/Family Event
The Los Angeles Public Library is proud to present award-winning author/illustrator (and this year’s Summer with the Library artist) Dan Santat!
He will be discussing his writing and illustrating career, including his newest titles, Don’t Trust Fish and A Fishboy Named… Sashimi.
Thank you to the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, with generous support from the Lenore S. and Bernard A. Greenberg Fund.
Where: Lincoln Heights Branch Library,LAPL
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 10 am – 11 pm
Address: 2530 Workman St., Los Angeles, CA 90031
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/your-author-dan-santat-0
Author Talk: Reyna Grande & Migrant Heart: Essays about Things I Can’t Forget via Virtual Event, LACL – Online Event
Join us online to hear Reyna Grande discuss Migrant Heart: Essays about Things I Can’t Forget.
In her ambitious new memoir, Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can’t Forget, beloved bestselling author Reyna Grande illuminates the hidden cost of the American Dream and the complex journey of healing that follows survival.
What is the true power of stories? Can they heal the jagged edges of a traumatic childhood? Is the cost of telling the story worth the price of the cure?
With her signature blend of sophistication and raw honesty, Grande interrogates how living between two nations, two languages, and two identities has shaped the woman, mother, and writer she has become. Moving from the legacy of violence in her hometown of Iguala, Mexico, to a bittersweet family vacation in Europe spent reconciling her own impoverished past with her children’s world of abundance, she uncovers startling truths about the nature of survival.
Whether being racially profiled in the Arizona borderlands or finding unexpected wisdom from the slugs in her garden, Grande unflinchingly asks: How do we bridge the gap between who we were and who we have become? How do we turn pain into power? When memory threatens to define us, how can we use story to heal while still honoring our boundaries?
Register today for this virtual talk if you identify as a seeker, a dreamer, or “anyone who believes in the enduring, transformative power of finding one’s voice.”
Reyna Grande is an award-winning author, motivational speaker, and writing teacher. As a young girl, she crossed the US–Mexico border to join her family in Los Angeles, a harrowing journey chronicled in The Distance Between Us, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Her other books include the novels A Ballad of Love and Glory, Across a Hundred Mountains, and Dancing with Butterflies, the memoirs Migrant Heart, The Distance Between Us: Young Readers Edition, and A Dream Called Home, and the anthology Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings. She lives in Woodland, California, with her husband and two children. Visit ReynaGrande.com for more information.
Where: Virtual Program,LACL
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: Online Event (see site)
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16704987
Mystery Book Club: Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect at Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for an engaging discussion about whodunnits, thrillers, and crime fiction. We meet on the third Thursday of the month at 1:30 p.m. Copies are available at the reference desk and as e-books.
Jul. 16: Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect: A Wickedly Clever Whodunit Where Crime Writers Hunt a Killer Aboard a Murder Train by Benjamin Stevenson
Where: Palms – Rancho Park Branch Library,LAPL
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: 2920 Overland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/mystery-book-discussion-2
Write-In & Social Hour with Poet Laureate Natalie Sierra at Café con Libros Pomona – In-Person Event
Join us for an afternoon of creativity, community, and connection at Café Con Libros Press!
This Write-In event is hosted by Pomona Poet Laureate Natalie Sierra.
• 2 pm – 5 pm: Quiet writing hours – bring your laptop, notebook, or whatever you need to dive into your project.
• 5 pm – 6 pm: Social hour – meet fellow writers, chat about your work, and find inspiration in our creative community.
FREE EVENT! Snacks and drinks will be provided to keep the creative juices flowing.
Whether you’re working on a novel, poetry, or your next big idea, this is the perfect space to write, connect, and celebrate the writing process.
Spread the word and tag your writer friends! We can’t wait to see you there!
Where: Café con Libros Pomona
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 2 pm – 6 pm
Address: 280 W. 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: Instagram Page
Book Club for Adults: Fourteen Days at Chet Holifield Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for a discussion of Fourteen Days, a novel written by various authors and edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston. Pick up a copy at the information desk today! For adults.
Where: Chet Holifield Library,LAPL
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1060 S. Greenwood Ave, Montebello, CA 90640
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16730921
Ice Cream Social Graphic Novel Launch: Cristina Diaz Gonzalez & Offside at Once Upon a Time – In-Person Kids Event
Join us for a discussion with author Cristina Diaz Gonzalez about her graphic novel Offside.
The author will be helped by her team of author friends! Best for ages 8+. RSVP required in order to plan ice cream and pizza.
Special Guests Include:
Max Brallier (The Dark, Last Kids on Earth)
Alyson Gerber (The Liars Society)
Julie Buxbaum (Area 51 Files)
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: Once Upon a Time Event Page
Dual Author Launch: A Conversation About Cults: Sarah Flocken and Blair Glaser at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
Join us for A Conversation About Cults with authors Sarah Flocken and Blair Glaser.
How do smart, skeptical people get pulled into cults and near-cults? What is the line between true spiritual growth and harmful groupthink? The answer is more complex than we think and could contain some uncomfortable truths.
Authors Sarah Flocken and Blair Glaser will discuss their recent books that both touch on how easy it is to believe in something unquestioningly when your life is in transition. Flocken’s debut novel Be Well and Glaser’s memoir This Incredible Longing both focus on young women searching in high-control groups for the answer to one question: where do I belong?
Be sure to RSVP by clicking link at website!
Sarah Flocken is an author who writes unhinged fiction for the silently enraged. Be Well is her first novel. She is also a public relations professional, comedian, improviser, and pun contest host (yes, it’s a thing) with performance credits worldwide. Los Angeles will always hold a piece of her heart and blood pressure, but San Diego is the place she calls home.
Blair Glaser is a writer and leadership consultant whose essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Fortune, People, Longreads, Oldster, and others, as well as in literary magazines such as Brevity, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, In Short, and The Mantlepiece. She’s read stories live at events such as Writer’s Read, Generation Women, and The Woodstock Bookfest. She lives with her husband and dog-ter, Vanna White, in Venice Beach, CA. More can be found at http://www.blairglaser.com.
About Be Well:
Fresh out of college and faced with the Great Recession of 2009, Ann Ward takes increasingly desperate measures to avoid moving back home while being drawn into a maybe-cult. What could go wrong?
Summer 2009: Brand-new college graduate Ann Ward has sent out nearly three hundred job applications, but nobody will employ her. The last thing she wants to do is leave Los Angeles, return to her desert hometown, and live in the shadow of her fame-hungry televangelist father–and it’s starting to look like that’s her fate. Thankfully, Ann’s luck turns after a humiliating failed job interview, when she meets the magnetic founder of upscale holistic wellness collective Sagebrush. She’s quickly drawn deep into the privileged, demanding world of Sagebrush, inventing Anneliese – a dubious new persona – to fit in.
But when her funds run out and her lies blow up, Ann must choose between facing reality or doing whatever she has to do in order to get the future she wants. Be Well explores just how easy it is to believe in something unquestioningly–and lie to ourselves and others–when everything feels uncertain and the future isn’t guaranteed.
About This Incredible Longing:
This Incredible Longing: Finding My Self in a Near-Cult Experience is a memoir about devotion, discernment, and the complicated beauty of spiritual seeking.
Blair Glaser thoughtfully stepped onto a path promising peace and purpose when she found Siddha Yoga, a movement led by a charismatic Indian guru and shaped by a community that would later be called a high-control group. What she found there wasn’t exploitation: it was healing. Within the ashram’s structure, she discovered confidence, calm, and belonging she’d never known.
But when the guru returned to India, cracks began to show. Blair’s depression resurfaced. Hypocrisies emerged. A looming exposé of the heinous truths about Gurumayi and her teacher, her parents’ intervention, and a flicker of envy sparked by a Friends episode created a reckoning she could no longer ignore.
This Incredible Longing is a story about the willingness to seek, and how looking for oneself by idealizing another human is simultaneously thrilling and dangerous. It is a story of awakening without bitterness that explores the fine line between transformation and entrapment, and the strength it takes to walk away with both eyes open.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 5:30 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Pico Branch Book Event: Maurya Simon & The Blue Bridge at Pico Branch Library, SMPL – In-Person Event
Join us to hear SoCal poet Maurya Simon present a reading from her twelfth volume of poetry. The Blue Bridge holds space for the grief of human and environmental loss while celebrating the diversity and resilience of women, family, and nature.
Where: Pico Branch Library,SMPL
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 2201 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: Santa Monica Public Library Event Page
Montana Branch Book Group: Little Fires Everywhere at Montana Branch Library, SMPL – In-Person Event
Join us for a community-led, monthly book discussion group, which meets in person at 6 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month at the Montana Branch. This book group discusses a mix of fiction and nonfiction titles, often on topics chosen from current events.
July 16, 2026: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng,
Where: Montana Branch Library,SMPL
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 1704 Montana Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90403
Website: Santa Monica Public Library Event Page
Young Adult to New Adult Author Panel at Main Library, SMPL – In-Person Event
Bestselling authors Maurene Goo and Robin Benway discuss their transition from the young adult fiction category to the adult fiction market with their latest novels, One & Only and Royal Spin. A book sale and signing follow. Advance book sales are available online at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore. Books will also be on sale at the event.
Where: Main Library,SMPL
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Website: Santa Monica Public Library Event Page
Adaptation Book Club: Muppet Treasure Island (1996) Film Screening at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Film: Muppet Treasure Island (1996), dir. Brian Henson. Have Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island read before this film screening. The discussion on the book and the film will be the week after on July 24th at 6:00 pm!
A reworking of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale in which The Muppets take to the high seas in search of buried treasure. Starring Tim Curry as Long John Silver, AND THE MUPPETS!!!
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd. Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Phill Branch & Rasheed Newson at AFI Alumni Center – In-Person Event
Join us at AFI Conservatory for a conversation with Phill Branch, author of the new memoir The Double Dutch Fuss, and novelist Rasheed Newson, author of There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood!
For security purposes, RSVPs are required, so please RSVP at the website link.
Phill Branch is a writer, live performance storyteller, and regional Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. He is a 2025 recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council’s Creativity Grant and received the Council’s highest honor, the Individual Artist Award, for Theater (Solo Performance) in 2019. He was the GrandSLAM Champion of The Moth in D.C. in 2018 and has since traveled all over the country and overseas to tell stories with the organization. Branch was a 2014 Lambda Literary Nonfiction Emerging Voices Fellow and is the founder and Creative Director of Baltimore Story Fest, a showcase for live, personal storytelling. An alumnus of the American Film Institute, Branch has an MFA in Screenwriting. He earned his BA in Mass Media Arts at Hampton University and later returned as a professor in the English department to teach writing and develop the Film Studies program. Currently, Branch is a Resident Artist at the Howard County Center for the Arts in Maryland.
Rasheed Newson is the author of the national bestseller My Government Means to Kill Me, which was selected as a Lambda Literary finalist for Gay Fiction and was named one of the “100 Notable Books of 2022” by The New York Times. He is also a television drama writer, producer, and showrunner. He codeveloped Bel-Air and worked on The Chi, Animal Kingdom, and Narcos, among other drama series. Newson is a 2025–26 American Library in Paris Visiting Fellow. He currently lives with his husband and their two children in Pasadena.
Where: AFI Alumni Center, Conservatory Building
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2021 N. Western Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://shop.villagewell.com/events/5792820260716
Michael Levine, with Frank Mottek, & Authentic PR: How Transparency Can Transform Your Business at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Join us to welcome Michael Levine, in conversation with Frank Mottek, to discuss Authentic PR: How Transparency Can Transform Your Business.
In Authentic PR: How Transparency Can Transform Your Business, legendary publicist Michael Levine—author of the bestselling Guerrilla PR—shows why honesty, candor, and vulnerability are now the most powerful tools in the communications arsenal.
In an era when consumers can spot spin a mile away, authenticity isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a survival strategy.
From Fortune 500 companies to mom-and-pop shops, Levine illustrates how transparency builds trust, credibility, and long-term loyalty. Drawing on decades of experience and fresh case studies, he offers actionable techniques for business leaders, entrepreneurs, and professionals who want to elevate their brands without massive budgets.
Whether you’re looking to harness social media, earn meaningful press coverage, or connect with your customers in ways that matter, Authentic PR provides a blueprint for creating reputational advantage in a cynical age. This is public relations for today—fast, nimble, and, above all, authentic.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2026-07-16/michael-levine-authentic-pr
Book Launch: Joyce Maynard & In Wonderland at Chevalier’s – In-Person Event
Join us to welcome New York Times bestselling author Joyce Maynard to discuss In Wonderland, a propulsive and enthralling beautifully-written novel for your bookish summer heart—one that will have you turning pages long into the warm star-studded night.
A coming-of-age drama set in the 1980s, In Wonderland revolves around a young woman learning more about herself and far too much and too early about the complicated world during one fateful summer spent with a family at an elite Maine lake estate. This is a provocative and enrapturing story about secrets, the grasp for perfection, the ache to both belong and be loved, and what truly happens behind closed doors.
Frances believes she’s found a ticket to paradise when a wealthy couple hires her for the summer as their mother’s helper at their lakefront summer home in Maine. The vintage wooden boats, days at the country club, a shiny new bicycle and a tennis racquet―suddenly Frances has everything her modest childhood lacked. Best of all, she gets to spend the summer with Forrest Emerson, her father’s charismatic childhood friend who escaped their neighborhood when he married into money.
But below the glittering surface of Lake Catherine, nothing is what it seems. When Forrest’s wife Regina pulls Frances into her private obsession, the girl finds herself witness to the intimate secrets of adult lives. As the summer heat builds, so do the tensions within Wonderland’s walls. By Labor Day, a death will shatter the seemingly perfect family, leaving Frances to question everything she thought she knew about privilege, power, and the price of belonging.
Joyce Maynard is the New York Times bestselling author of thirteen previous novels and five books of nonfiction, as well as the syndicated column “Domestic Affairs.” Her memoir, At Home in the World, has been translated into eighteen languages. Her novels To Die For and Labor Day were both adapted for film. She is a fellow of MacDowell and Yaddo artists’ residencies.
When not running her hotel/retreat center, Casa Paloma, in Guatemala―where she mentors women in the telling of their stories―she makes her home in Northern California and in the state of New Hampshire.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2026-07-16/wonderland-author-joyce-maynard
All Women’s Open Mic Night at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Village Well is partnering with local trauma-healing poet Kate Burns to provide a platform for female poets, musicians, storytellers, and comedians. While all are welcome to attend, this is an event that aims to amplify women’s voices only.
Acts are limited to 3-5 minutes in length. Sign-ups begin at 6:30 pm and conclude at 7:00 pm!
Also, please note that not all material may be considered “family-friendly” so please use discretion when deciding whether or not to bring children.
Get your tickets at website!.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Shannon Alego, with Jennifer Pastiloff, & The Power in Our Hands at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Shannon Alego, in conversation with Jennifer Pastiloff, will present and discuss The Power in Our Hands: Liberate Yourself From Attachment to Technology.
Who will you become when you put down your phone and pick up your life?
The average smartphone user spends the equivalent of 61 to 80 days per year on their device. Smartphones have become the fifth limb of the human body as they move with us from the bathroom to the waiting room to the kitchen sink to the bed. But we aren’t just physically attached to our phones; we’re emotionally attached as well.
New research reveals how individuals with insecure attachment styles (anxious or avoidant) are more likely to develop a problematic or compulsive relationship with their smartphone. But all of us—regardless of our attachment style—are turning to our phones more and more to soothe and distract us, which numbs our empathy, diminishes the quality of our relationships, and drains the part of our brain required for creative focus. The more time we spend on our screens, the less time we spend engaging in our life with our own two hands. The good news is that we can course-correct by reclaiming the embodied and ensouled wisdom that our recent ancestors knew well. But digital detoxes are not enough. We need both personal and collective action to recover from the tsunami of digital distraction we now face.
In The Power in Your Hands, psychotherapist and meditation teacher Shannon Algeo invites readers to reckon with their attachment to technology through understanding the connections between compulsive smartphone behavior and their unique attachment style in relationships. He guides readers on a journey of reconnection to their inner child’s needs for artistry, self-expression, and real human relationships. Through psychologically supported “rituals of remembering”, readers will rewire their neuropsychology and reclaim their creativity so they can move from the despair of digitization to the fulfillment of re-humanization.
NOTE: See site to RSVP.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-07-16/shannon-algeo
Rabbit Hole Nonfiction Reading Club: Here Where We Live Is Our Country at Skylight – In-Person Event
An in-person book club meeting at Skylight Books on the third Thursday of every month at 7:30 p.m., focusing on new political, current events, and history non-fiction titles. No need to sign up for the subscription program in order to attend the meetings, though book group members might find the subscription particularly convenient. Book group participants get 15% off their next book group book!
If you’d like to get on the listserv and receive book club updates from us, email rene@skylightbooks.com.
To participate in the book group, just read the book and show up at the meeting! No RSVP required.
Participants in the book club will discuss Here Where We Live Is Our Country by Molly Crabapple.
Where: Skylight
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm
Address: 1818 N Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/rhrc
Reading Event: Beyond Certainty: Poetry as Prismatic Inquiry, with Guests at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Readings from recent collections by Ed Schad, Eve Wood, and David Starkey. Organized by DoppelHouse Press.
In a time dominated by fractured realities, uncertainty, and polarizing discourse, how can poetry subvert historical inquiry? How might witnessing the historical in poetry bring us closer in communities toward finding common ground?
This event reunites three Southern California poets at Beyond Baroque—Eve Wood, Ed Schad and David Starkey—for readings and conversation about how they approach the reframing of events through question-and-answer, multi-vocal or multi-temporal epistolary constructions, and by subverting assumptions.
Prismatic inquiries, poetic trespassing, and surreal logic lead to invented or deflected answers suspended in time and space. Un/knowing is the destination, with arrival marked by understanding.
After the program in The Wanda Coleman Theater, join us for author signings and reception with light refreshments.
David Starkey served as Santa Barbara’s 2009-2011 Poet Laureate. Emeritus Professor and the Founding Director of the Creative Writing Program at Santa Barbara City College, he is currently Co-editor of Anacapa Review and The California Review of Books, and Publisher and Co-editor of Gunpowder Press. More than 500 of his poems have appeared in literary journals such as American Scholar, Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner and Southern Review, and his most recent books of poetry are You, Caravaggio (Pine Row Press, 2024), The Moon Shall Not Give Her Light (Vine Leaves Press, 2025) and Tell Me Why (BlazeVOX, 2025). His textbook, Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2022), is in its fourth edition.
Ed Schad is Curator and Publications Manager at The Broad in Los Angeles. He has curated and written publications for large, traveling surveys of the work of Robert Therrien, Mickalene Thomas, William Kentridge, Takashi Murakami, and Shirin Neshat. In 2021, he became a fellow of The Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities at USC, and his first collection of poetry—Letters Apart, a collaboration with the painter Liat Yossifor—was published in Spring, 2023 by DoppleHouse Press. His poems and essays have been widely published, including in the L.A. Review of Books, The Brooklyn Rail, Gulf Coast, Blue Collar Review, The Blue Moon Review, The Nonconformist, and The Broken Plate. New poems are forthcoming in Camas and Sonora Review.
Eve Wood is a Los Angeles-based writer, artist and art critic. Her writing and poetry has been widely published in magazines and literary journals such as The New Republic, Best American Poetry 1997, The Denver Quarterly, North American Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Santa Monica Review, Poetry, The Seattle Review, and many others. She holds a BFA and MFA (1992, 1994) from California Institute of the Arts and an MFA from UC Irvine (1996) in creative writing. She is the recipient of a Jacob Javits Fellowship and a California Community Foundation Fellowship. She is the author and/or illustrator of eight collections of poetry and chapbooks.
NOTE: See site to RSVP.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm (Doors at 7 pm)
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: Eventbrite Page
Poetry Diet Open Mic at The Living Room, DTLA – In-Person Event
An intimate open mic night for poets, storytellers, and lovers of the spoken word.
Poetry Diet Mic Night is a weekly open mic, every Thursday, dedicated to language, rhythm, and truth-telling. Set inside The Living Room DTLA, this night creates space for poets, writers, and creatives to share their work in an intimate, supportive atmosphere.
Whether you’re stepping to the mic or just soaking it all in, expect thoughtful performances, real energy, and a room that listens.
Hosted by: Kerm (Jonathan Kermah)
Music by: DJ Stardust
🎤 Open mic sign-ups available
🕯️ Intimate lounge setting
🍸 Bar open
Come listen. Come speak. Come feel.
Where: The Living Room, DTLA
Date: Thursday the 16th
Time: 8:30 pm – 10:30 pm
Address: 1014 S. Main St., Los Angeles, CA (Door 123)
Website: Instagram Page
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: Friday the 17th
Time: 9 am – 10 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
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 17th
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: Once Upon a Time Event Page
Bilingual Storytime at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Bilingual Storytime! Exposing your children to multiple languages is highly beneficial for their learning and development, and what better way to do it than through this fun activity where we will read a wonderful story in both English and Spanish.
¡Hora de cuentos bilingüe! Exponer a tus hjijos a varios idiomas es de gran beneficio para su aprendizaje y desarrollo, y qué mejor que hacerlo en esta divertida actividad en donde leeremos un maravilloso cuento en inglés y en español.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Special Author Event: Gordon Korman & Sleepless at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Kids/Family Event
Welcome all to our Sleepless Slumber Party in celebration of Gordon Korman’s latest book, Sleepless! There will be popcorn, decorate-your-own cupcakes, and Gordon Korman! There will be no sleep involved! Pajamas optional! The event will be held on July 17th at 5 pm in the pages courtyard.
SLEEPLESS features light science fiction touches and a coming-of-age story to get to the heart of what happens when kids have access to all 24 hours in a day.
A purchased copy of Sleepless is required to stand in the signing line at the event. Any books purchased in the store on the day of the event will also be signed, but only two additional books brought from home can be signed. We hope you enjoy celebrating Gordon Korman’s newest release!
Gordon Korman is the beloved author of over one hundred novels for young readers, including hilarious middle-grade classics such as the Macdonald Hall series, I Want to Go Home, and Slacker. Born in Montreal, Quebec, Gordon grew up in Thornhill, Ontario, and now lives in New York with his family. Visit him online at http://www.gordonkorman.com.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: Instagram Page
Mystery Book Club: Death at the Sign of the Rook at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Death at the Sign of the Rook: A Jackson Brody Book (Jackson Brodie Series #6) by Kate Atkinson.
Welcome to Rook Hall. The stage is set. The players are ready. By night’s end, a murderer will be revealed.
Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off a bad case of mid-life malaise when he is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town, and the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting.
But Jackson soon uncovers a string of unsolved art thefts that lead him down a dizzying spiral of disguise and deceit to Burton Makepeace, a formerly magnificent estate now partially converted into a hotel hosting Murder Mystery weekends.
As paying guests, impecunious aristocrats and old friends collide, we are treated to Atkinson’s most charming and fiendishly clever mystery yet, one that pays homage to the masters of the genre—from Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers to the modern era of Knives Out and Only Murders in the Building.
Brilliantly inventive, with all of Atkinson’s signature wit, wordplay, and narrative brio, Death at the Sign of the Rook may be Jackson Brodie’s most outrageous and memorable case yet.
Kate Atkinson is one of the world’s foremost novelists whose most recent novel was the critically acclaimed Shrines of Gaiety, set in the aftermath of the First World War. She won the Whitbread Book of the Year prize with her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Her three critically lauded and prize- winning novels set around the Second World War are Life After Life, a worldwide bestseller, A God in Ruins (both winners of the Costa Novel Award) and Transcription. Her bestselling literary crime novels featuring former detective Jackson Brodie became a BBC television series starring Jason Isaacs. Kate Atkinson was awarded an MBE in 2011 and is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd. Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-07-17/mystery-book-club-death-sign-rook
Long Beach Poetry Slam: Clash of the Titans II at The Edison Theatre – In-Person Event
The Long Beach Poetry Slam: Clash of the Titans II is curated and hosted by Maestro DeSean and Tommy Domino.
This is a live, high-energy spoken word competition featuring emerging and established poets performing original work before a live audience.
The event combines: performance, competition, and community storytelling. Audience members serve as judges, creating an interactive and memorable cultural experience. is a live, high-energy spoken word competition featuring emerging and established poets performing original work before a live audience.
Ticketed event: see link in bio.
Where: Edison Theatre
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 6 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 213 E. Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: Eventbrite Page
Monthly Open Mic at Alana’s Coffee Roasters – In-Person Event
Join Us For Our Monthly Open Mic!
Open to everyone and free to attend!
Come show off your talents, practice your skills, and connect with fellow artists and creatives.
Free to attend and $5 to perform, free for teens.
Info For Performers
Musicians can play up to two songs, aim for around five minutes of stage time, give or take.
Groups performing together only need to buy one ticket. Buying a ticket for each band member does not grant you more stage time.
Five minute performance time for comics and poets
If you’re bringing a guitar, we have a cable jack for you to plug into.
If your guitar is electric, we recommend bringing your own amp.
If you’re using a backing track, we have an aux for you to plug your phone into.
We also have an acoustic guitar that’s available for you to use! Courtesy of Orangewood Guitars 🙂
If you have any other questions, email us!
Where: Alana’s Coffee Roasters
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm
Address: 12511 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90066
Website: Eventbrite Page
Kim Narby, with Jen Winston, & Saturn Returning at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Join us to welcome Kim Narby, in conversation with Jen Winston, to discuss and sign Saturn Returning.
A smoldering, soul-splitting debut that tracks three friends through the celestial chaos of adulthood, love, and queer identity.
Jordan Caleb is a freshman at McCallen College when she meets Trace. From the moment the confident, tattooed Trace compliments Jordan’s Alanis Morissette T-shirt, their friendship feels fated and electrically charged. When the two friends meet mercurial transfer student Silvia, she catches Trace’s eye. Their instant attraction eclipses the nascent pull between Jordan and Trace, forming a messy constellation among the three women.
Over the course of a decade, their orbits send them to opposite coasts: Jordan builds a life in New York City, while Trace and Silvia get engaged in Seattle, yet the three remain linked by the gravitational pull of the past. As they approach thirty and the apogee of their Saturn return, their bond splinters when Trace calls Jordan with a shocking revelation, exposing a web of heartache, secrets, and unspoken desires.
Saturn Returning charts the complex paths of human connection and queer friendship, questioning how we define ourselves against the relationships that have shaped our lives.
Jen Winston (she/they) is a writer and bisexual whose work focuses on sex, queerness, and the millennial condition. They are the author of the critically-acclaimed book GREEDY, which was named a Lambda Literary finalist in 2022. Publishers’ Weekly called Jen a “writer to watch” and BuzzFeed named GREEDY a Best LGBTQ+ book, calling it “more insightful about identity than any book this year.” Jen is also the co-host of the reading series Empty Trash, wherein writers share unpublished work from the depths of their hard drives.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Book Event: Clare Osongo, with Joss Richard, & Unfinished Business at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Join Clare Osongo, in conversation with Joss Richard, to discuss her adult debut Unfinished Business.
A few months ago, Ruby Ocampo’s mother, Adela, died at her desk at work. Now, lost and driven by a misplaced sense of obligation, Ruby’s taken a job at the megacorporation where Adela worked for decades—and, to her horror, she discovers her mother’s ghost is trapped in the company Slack. In order to give her mom a chance at the afterlife, Ruby must address her shortcomings one by one—and reevaluate her inherited ideas about love, work, and what’s truly important along the way.
A book signing will follow with the author and narrator. This ticketed event includes a hardcover copy of the book.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA, 90232
Website: https://therippedbodice.com/upcoming-events
At Skylight: Paul Tremblay, with Sarah Langan, & Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep at Skylight – In-Person Event
Paul Tremblay, in conversation with Sarah Langan, will discuss Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep.
Philip K. Dick meets the Coen Brothers in this genre-bending near-future tech nightmare that is as bitingly funny as it is horrifically believable from the New York Times bestselling author of Horror Movie.
Meet Julia Flang, a twenty-something former semi-professional gamer, living with her retired uncle, and working two jobs she doesn’t like. Out of the blue, her estranged mother, a CFO for one of the world’s largest tech companies, offers her a temp job with a payday Julia can’t refuse. One sham interview later, she’s offered the job: to chaperone a man in a vegetative state—one with proprietary AI implanted in his head—from California to the East Coast.
To sum up in Julia’s own words: “You want me to remote control this dead dude across the country.” In a word, yes. But he’s not dead dead.
Meet a middle-aged man who wakes within a disorienting hellscape filled with monstrous grotesqueries. Worse than the fluid, morphing reality in which he’s trapped, he has no memory of who he is. He certainly doesn’t remember getting the rabbit tattoo on his arm. He only knows that he must find a certain person. Who? He can’t remember.
Using a cell phone modeled after a video game controller, Julia fumblingly navigates the man she calls “Bernie” from the company campus and onto planes and through one of the largest airports in America. All the while, the man endures an ever-changing and worsening nightmare that offers clues as to who he was—and who he must track down. And as their two lives intertwine, Julia and Bernie become unlikely allies and fugitives on a collision course with reality.
Dead but Dreaming of Electric Sheep is a heady, horrific genre-bender from one of the most groundbreaking voices in fiction today.
Paul Tremblay is the multiple award-winning, critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of eight previous novels (Horror Movie, The Pallbearers Club, Survivor Song, The Cabin at the End of the World, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, A Head Full of Ghosts, No Sleep Till Wonderland, and The Little Sleep); a middle-grade novel, Another; and two short fiction collections (The Beast You Are and Growing Things). He lives outside of Boston with his family.
Sarah Langan is a three-time Stoker Award winner who’s novels have made best of the year lists at NPR, Newsweek, The Irish Times, AARP, and PW. She has an MFA from Columbia University, an MS in Environmental Health Science/ Toxicology from NYU, and lives in Los Angeles with her family. Her sixth novel TRAD WIFE is out in September.
NOTE: See site to RSVP.
Where: Skylight
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 1818 N Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/2026-07-17/paul-tremblay-w-sarah-langan-dead-dreaming-electric-sheep
Feedbag Reading Series at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Join us for the Feedbag Reading Series, featuring:
Venya Gushchin is a USC assistant professor of Russian and Russophone poetry, focusing on the unexamined legacies of modernist culture(s) in the post-Stalinist era. is a working translator (primarily Russian to English) and writes original poetry in English. He is currently working with the Russian-language Kalmyk poet Dordzhi Dzhaldzhireev, and his translation of Dzhaldzhireev’s debut collection, Beyond Salvation, is forthcoming from World Poetry Books in spring 2027.
Hayden M. Knight writes stories about deafness, disability, queerness, and otherness which have appeared in Sycamore Review, Passengers Journal, The Coil, Sensitive Content Magazine, and elsewhere. He was One Story’s 2025 Adina Talve-Goodman Fellow. Originally from Indiana, he is living in Los Angeles and writing his first novel.
Stephanie Leke is a writer, singer, and filmmaker based in Los Angeles.
Julian Delacruz is a poet, resume coach, and writing instructor, and his poetry has been published in numerous journals.
Payton A. Davis is the author of Every Song and a Skylark: Poetry and Prose by Payton Davis.
Where: Stories Books & Cafe
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events
Open Mic Night at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Event
Let’s showcase and celebrate the creative talents of our local community, including poetry, music, and more!
While walk-in sign-ups are welcome on the night, if you’d like to be listed as a featured performer and guarantee your spot, you can apply here.
Suggested donation $5-20 or donate a gently used book by an LGBTQIA+, BIPOC or Disabled author.
NOTE: See site to RSVP.
Where: Underdog Bookstore
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 312 S. Myrtle Ave., Monrovia, CA 91016
Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events/open-mic-july
Michael Elia, with Howard Franklin, & Bender’s L.A. at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Michael Elias, in conversation with Howard Frankin, will discuss and sign Bender’s L.A.
In the coke-dusted canyons and deal-making rooms of 1970s Los Angeles, Bender’s L.A. follows writer David Bender as he sets out to remake his life – romantically, professionally, and spiritually – after his wife walks out in Puerto Vallarta with a single sentence and a suitcase.
While the Vietnam War casts its shadow, Bender runs afoul of Nixon’s FBI, plays tennis with fugitive Abbie Hoffman, arms himself against a homicidal producer, and goes back in time to fall in love with a young Marilyn Monroe. Bender weaves through a world of players, radicals, writers and artists including a woman suspiciously like Eve Babitz.
Haunted by his New York past and guided by his Sun Tzu-quoting agent Neil Navitz, Bender begins to wonder whether success has cost him the things that mattered – or whether he ever truly possessed them.
With a comic edge, Elias offers a bitter-sweet meditation on love, memory, and the moral compromise of the Hollywood illusion machine and the misfits it often mangles along the way. In this tragicomedy of nostalgia and recovery, Bender prevails.
RSVP at website link.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-07-17/michael-elias
A Night of Blues & Poetry: M.L. Liebler and Special Guests at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
M.L. Liebler reads from his latest memoir, accompanied by the LA Coyote Monk Poetry Band and special guest Bonnie Murray Tamblyn.
Detroit poet M.L. Liebler celebrates the release ofHound Dog: A Poet’s Memoir of a Revolutionary Poetwith a reading from his new memoir. Liebler will be joined by the LA Coyote Monk Poetry Band for a live set featuring Willie Aron, Pat Thomas, Dave & Carolyn Soyars.
The evening also features a special performance by acclaimed Los Angeles singer-songwriter Bonnie Murray Tamblyn, bringing together folk, blues, and storytelling.
M. L. Liebler is an internationally known Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist. He is the author of 20 books, and he is St. Clair Shores’ (his hometown) first Poet Laureate. Liebler has taught English and Labor Studies at Wayne State University since 1980, and he is the founding director of both The National Writer’s Voice Project in Detroit and the Springfed Arts: Metro Detroit Writers. He currently directs The Detroit Writers Guild. He received The Barnes & Noble Poets & Writers for Writers Award. His groundbreaking working-class literary anthology from The Coffee House Press (Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams) and 3 other books have won Michigan Library Notable Book Awards. He is a Fulbright Specialist, a Murray Jackson Creative Scholar and recently received a Distinguished Faculty Award at Wayne State. His new memoir Hound Dog: A Poets Memoir of Rock, Revolution and Redemption was just released in 2026 from The University of Wisconsin Press. He directs the Humanities Commons at WSU. http://www.mlliebler.com.
NOTE: See site to RSVP.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 7:30 pm (Doors at 7 pm)
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: Eventbrite Page
Sumarr Reading Series at Poetic Research Bureau – In-Person Event
Sumarr, a seasonal reading series curated and hosted by Diana Arterian, begins its next season with this exciting lineup.
Óscar Moisés Díaz is a poet, artist, film and art curator, and translator who has exhibited work worldwide. They were the 2020–2021 Inaugural Curatorial Fellow at the Poetry Project. Their translations of Fabrizio Quemé appear widely, and they are one of the translators of the forthcoming anthology of the poet Alfonso Kijadurías (Kalina Press). They were the inaugural Editor of Poetry in Translation at Fence and currently serve in the same capacity at The Offing.
Elizabeth Hall is a writer and editor based in Los Angeles. She is the author of the books, Season of the Rat, and I Have Devoted My Life to the Clitoris, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist. She reviews new books for Full Stop.
Preeti Vangani is a poet & writer from Bombay based in San Francisco. She is the author of the poetry collections, Mother Tongue Apologize (2019) and Fifty Mothers (River River Books, 2026). Her work has appeared in AGNI, The Georgia Review, Gulf Coast, Prairie Schooner among other places. Her debut short story won the 2021 Pen/Dau Emerging Writers Prize. Vangani has been a resident at UCross, Djerassi and Ragdale. She has received artist grants from San Francisco Arts Commission and YBCA, and is a 2026-27 Steinbeck fellow. She holds an MFA in Writing from University of San Francisco and teaches in the program.
heidi andrea restrepo rhodes is a queer, non-binary, crip/disabled, brown, writer, artist, scholar, educator, cultural worker and creature of the Colombian diaspora. They are a professor of queer, feminist, and disability studies and poetry co-editor at Apogee Journal. Their previously published works include: The Inheritance of Haunting, Ephemeral, Afterlives of Discovery: Speculative Geographies in the Settler Colonial Imaginary, Medusita, and Wayward Creatures. Their poetry and creative non-fiction have been published in American Poetry Review, The Normal School, Michigan Quarterly Review, Alocasia, Poetry, and Waxwing, among other places. They live in Tongva lands in southern California.
Julia Metzler is a highly sought-after classical singer, concert soloist, and session singer. Raised in a musical family that also runs the Metzler Violin Shop, her musical training began at an early age as a violinist. Known for her versatility and large vocal range, Ms. Metzler regularly performs both soprano and mezzo-soprano repertoire, from Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro to the title role in Madama Butterfly, and both the mezzo and soprano solos in Verdi’s Requiem. As a roster member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Ms. Metzler can frequently be heard performing at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.
Where: Poetic Research Bureau
Date: Friday the 17th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm (Doors at 7 pm)
Address: 2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Website: https://www.poeticresearch.com/events/sumarr-reading-series-5
Word Up(Stairs) Spoken Word Night at Arts Tower Coffee – In-Person Event
Join us at Arts Tower Coffee for a night of Spoken Word & Music. DJ Hymnal & Mixmaster Wolf will be spinning records as well as kicking live poetry. Marcus Gray will be breaking down the physics of hip hop and Blazhia Parker & Adrian Starr will be ripping electric verses for your ear circuit. Hosted & curated by Mike the PoeT who will be sharing a few new poems from his forthcoming book, Traces, Places, Faces.
Located on the 9th floor above The Last Bookstore in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, Arts Tower Coffee is a creative sanctuary where expertly crafted coffee, quality matcha, and fresh sandwiches are served in an inspiring, art-filled space. Designed for gathering, working, and enjoying the everyday, our café blends a culture of care with a vibrant creative atmosphere. Come listen in!
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Arts Tower Coffee
Date: Friday, the 17th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Suite 900, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: Instagram Page
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 Lorenzo Frank.
Featured guests: TBA
Tickets at Eventbrite.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center
Date: Friday, the 17th
Time: 8 pm – 12 am
Address: 4305 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.depoet.info/swaam
Rapp Saloon Reading Series: Third Fridays Open Mic with host Elena Secota at Rapp Saloon, Santa Monica – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Third Fridays at Rapp Saloon is celebrating its 15 Year Anniversary and has an Open Mic & Featured Readers every 3rd Friday of the month.
Third Friday: Elena Secota, Host
This is a hybrid event, live in-person while offering a Zoom option for our performers and guests.
Featured guest poets and artists this month:
Toti O’Brien is a self-employed artist, musician, dancer, and writer. If something is peculiar about me, is that I have pursued those disciplines all at once, never letting go of any, and making my living from a combination of those different activities. She has published four books of poetry and three of prose in English, and I have worked with other authors on collaborative projects. She writes about others through reviews, essays and interviews and enjoys highlighting the work of other poets and visual artists.
Surprise Guests
Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA
Date: Friday, the 17th
Time: 8:30 pm – 11 pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: Facebook Page
Between Drafts Story Lab at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for the new Between Drafts Story Lab at Underdog Bookstore!
This lab is designed for writers looking for manuscript feedback that is grounded, honest, and respectful.
How does it work?
Writers will bring in up to 1,500 words of their work for feedback. Each writer will receive a 30-minute slot that includes a reading, silent reflection, open discussion, and response time.
There are four submission slots available, with others welcome to critique, provide feedback, and enjoy the creative talents of our local writing community.
Sign-up now!
NOTE: See site to RSVP.
Where: Underdog Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 10 am – 12:30 pm
Address: 312 S. Myrtle Ave., Monrovia, CA 91016
Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events/between-drafts-4jjb4
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: Saturday the 18th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
WPL Zine Fest at Whittier Central Library – In-Person Event
Zine Fest is back at Whittier Public Library! Join us for our second annual celebration of creativity, community, and all things DIY. Best of all?? IT’S FREE!
We’re celebrating International Zine Month with hands-on workshops, creative stations, and activities for all ages. Whether you’re brand new to zines or a seasoned zinester, there’s something for everyone!
🧵 ADULTS: kick off the day at 10:30 AM in the MakerSpace with a video game-inspired needlepoint workshop (and take home a needlepoint zine!). Spots are limited. Sign up at the Central Adult Reference Desk.
🎨 ALL AGES: top by the Community Room for live screen printing with Colors in LA @colorsinla and customize your own FREE pencil pouch. Don’t forget to swing by the mini button-making station too!
✂️ ALL AGES: Make your own zine with the help of Eori Tokunaga @eoritokunaga and Marie Harlan @_marieharlan. And bring your zines to trade while you’re at it!
Where: Whittier Central Library
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 10:30 am – 2:30 pm
Address: 7344 Washington Ave., Whittier, CA 90232
Website: Whittier Library Event Page
Middle School Book Club: Rebellion 1776 at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join our discussion of Rebellion 1776, by Laurie Halse Anderson. For ages 11 – 14.
In honor of the United States’ 250th birthday, this historical fiction middle grade adventure is about a girl struggling to survive amid a smallpox epidemic, the public’s fear of inoculation, and the seething Revolutionary War.
Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct., Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16603845
Storytime & Craft: Monisha Bajaj and Amber Ren & A Year of Kites at Once Upon a Time – In-Person Kids Event
Join us to hear author Monisha Bajaj and illustrator Amber Ren present and discuss A Year of Kites.
Fly a kite and celebrate traditions around the world with the picture book A Year of Kites. Author Monisha Bajaj and illustrator Amber Ren will read their book and then lead attendees through a simple kite craft. After the presentation they will be available to sign books. Best for ages 4+.
Monisha Bajaj is Professor of International and Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco, USA and Visiting Professor at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. She is the author of Schooling for Social Change: The Rise and Impact of Human Rights Education in India (Bloomsbury 2012).
Amber Ren is a New York Times bestselling illustrator and a visual development artist in the animation industry. She earned her BFA in Character Animation at the California Institute of the Arts. Amber’s work is inspired by her love for folk art, nostalgia, inclusion, and her childhood spent in China. She is the illustrator of Because, Looking for a Jumbie, Night Market Rescue, and more.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Saturday, the 18th
Time: 11 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: Once Upon a Time Event Page
Teen Event: Ink Against the Machine (AI) at Billie Jean King Library – In-Person Event
Join us for a discussion on the Impacts of AI titled Ink Against the Machine, plus a Youth Creative Success Panel.
How do you feel about AI? Can it exist without causing Harm?
Sponsored by Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate Program.
Where: Billie Jean King Main Library
Date: Saturday, the 18th
Time: 12 pm – 4 pm
Address: 200 W. Broadway, Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: Long Beach Library Event Page
Angel City Press Book Launch Party: Sam Quinones, with Gustavo Arellano, & Our Lady of the Angels at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for the book launch party for Sam Quinones’ first book of photojournalism, Our Lady of the Angels: The Virgin of Guadalupe on the Walls of Los Angeles, from Angel City Press at Los Angeles Public Library. We are excited to have Gustavo Arellano, who wrote the introduction, discuss the book with Sam. On storefronts, alleyways, and street corners across the city, murals of the Virgin of Guadalupe grace the walls of Los Angeles in a tapestry of faith, identity, and culture. Our Lady of the Angels captures the sacred and everyday presence of Guadalupe murals across the city, offering a poignant lens into the cultural heartbeat of L.A. neighborhoods. Each image is a testament to community, artistry, and devotion—a visual pilgrimage through urban altars where spirituality meets street art. Whether you’re drawn to religious iconography, Latino culture, or the layered stories of L.A. itself, this collection invites you to see the city anew—through the lens of its most beloved saint.
Sam Quinones is a Los Angeles-based independent journalist who worked for 10 years in Mexico (1994-2004), where he wrote the first two of his four books of narrative nonfiction. In 2004, he returned to Los Angeles, where he worked for another 10 years as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Our Lady of the Angels is his first book of photojournalism.
Gustavo Arellano is the author of many books about Mexican-American and especially Los Angeles culture and food. He is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and former editor of the OC Weekly.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: 2011 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Storytime with Lisa Johnston Hancock & Santiago and Great Bear at Bel Canto KUBO – In-Person Kids Event
Join us to hear Lisa Johnston Hancock present and discuss Santiago and Great Bear.
Lisa Johnston Hancock was an art teacher for many years, teaching both kids and adults before she became a full time illustrator and author. In her spare time, she hosts a You Tube channel with a focus on art education. Lisa also write musings on her new Substack page, The Curious Illustrator. When she is not making art, you can find her stargazing, hiking, reading, tinkering with her bass guitar or relaxing outside, watching the hummingbirds and bees pollinate the garden. Lisa has felt a connection to the natural world for as long as she can remember. As a child, she has fond memories of exploring her family’s farm by day and looking for Ursa Major by night. Today, Lisa loves pointing out the constellations to her children when they are far away from city lights. Santiago and Great Bear is Lisa’s debut picture book as both an illustrator and author. Originally from Mobile, Alabama, Lisa now calls the Los Angeles area home, where she lives with her family.
Where: Bel Canto KUBO LB
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: 3976 Atlantic Ave., Long Beach, CA 90807
Website: Withfriends Page
Disability Pride Author Panel at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us in celebrating Disability Pride Month with an author panel featuring: Sarah Glasco, Calial McCarty, Emily B. Rose and K. Andrew Turner, moderated by Underdog president Kealie Mardell-Carrera.
We will also be offering a free collage crafting activity in-store and streaming the panel live on Instagram at 3 pm.
Check out our panelists books and their favorite recommendations at website link.
NOTE: See site to RSVP.
Where: Underdog Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 2 pm – 5 pm
Address: 312 S. Myrtle Ave., Monrovia, CA 91016
Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events/disability-pride-author-panel-1
Book Signing: Dr. Ina J. Creekbaum & A Framework for Getting Back to What Is Real at The Untold Story Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for a book signing and conversation with Dr. Ina J. Creekbaum for her book A Framework for Getting Back to What Is Real.
Join the conversation!
NOTE: See site to RSVP.
Where: Untold Story Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 301 N. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim, CA 92805
Website: Instagram Page
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: FOUR FEATHERS PRESS WANTS TO PUBLISH YOUR POETRY – Online Zoom Event
FOUR FEATHERS PRESS ONLINE EDITION: BURST
Send up to three poems on the subject of or at least mentioning the word burst, totaling up to 150 lines in length, in the body of an email message or attached in a Microsoft Word file to donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59 pm PST on July 17th. No PDF’s please. Color artwork is also desired. Please send in JPG form. No late submissions accepted. Poets and artists published in Four Feathers Press Online Edition: Burst will be published online and invited to read at the Saturday Afternoon Poetry Zoom meeting on Saturday, July 18th between 3 and 4:30 pm PST.
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry, Online
Date: Saturday, the 18th
Time: 3 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: https://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Book Event: Sarah Wang, with Kate Wolf, & New Skin: A Novel at Edendale Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us to hear author Sarah Wang, in conversation with Kate Wolf, to discuss Wang’s acclaimed novel New Skin.
New Skin tells the scalding, darkly humorous story of a mother and daughter trapped in a toxic cycle of love and resentment, plastic surgery addiction, and the false promise of the American Dream. When Linli Feng returns home to care for her estranged mother after another botched procedure, she is drawn into the dangerous world of black-market beauty treatments and exploitative reality television, forcing both women to confront the damage that obsession and survival have inflicted on their lives. New Skin is available from the Los Angeles Public Library as a print book and as an e-audiobook.
Sarah Wang has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s Bazaar, The Nation, and the London Review of Books. Wang is a MacDowell Fellow, a Center for Fiction Emerging Writer Fellow, the winner of a Barbara Deming Award, and a finalist for the Nelson Algren Award. She teaches creative writing at Barnard College.
Kate Wolf is a writer and one of the founding editors of the Los Angeles Review of Books, where she’s currently editor at large and co-host and producer of its weekly podcast, the LARB Radio Hour. Her work has appeared in exhibition catalogs, anthologies, and publications including Bidoun, Bookforum, Art in America, Momus, The Nation, n+1, and Frieze, and co-programs a micro-cinema in Highland Park called Veggie Cloud. She recently completed her first novel.
Where: Edendale Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 3;30 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 2011 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/author-sarah-wang-discusses-her-novel-new-skin-conversation-kate-wolf
Before the Ban Book Club: Harbor Me at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson.
Jacqueline Woodson’s first middle-grade novel since National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming celebrates the healing that can occur when a group of students share their stories.
It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat—by themselves, with no adults to listen in. There, in the room they soon dub the ARTT Room (short for “A Room to Talk”), they discover it’s safe to talk about what’s bothering them—everything from Esteban’s father’s deportation and Haley’s father’s incarceration to Amari’s fears of racial profiling and Ashton’s adjustment to his changing family fortunes. When the six are together, they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives.
Jacqueline Woodson (www.jacquelinewoodson.com) is the recipient of a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children’s Literature Legacy Award. She was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and in 2015, she was named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. She received the 2014 National Book Award for her New York Times bestselling memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, which was also a recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, the NAACP Image Award, and a Sibert Honor. She wrote the adult books Red at the Bone, a New York Times bestseller, and Another Brooklyn, a 2016 National Book Award finalist.Addams Children’s Book Award. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 3:30 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd. Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-07-18/ban-book-club-harbor-me
TICKETED: Writers Bloc Presents: Brian Tyler Cohen & The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post Trump World at JAMS Performing Arts Center – In-Person Event
Republicans throw around their power. Democrats, when they did have it, didn’t use it then–and they’re not using it now, argues Brian Tyler Cohen. And if Democrats gain influence in 2026 and beyond, how should they use it? What policies should Dems implement? What will tomorrow look like? Brian’s new book, The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post Trump World, spells out what Democrats must do to make a bold agenda transform America.
Democrats line up to appear on Brian Tyler Cohen’s enormously popular podcast and YouTube series, No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen. Millions of people watch his show and subscribe to his Substack. Many many millions. Broadcast and cable news outlets crave his audience numbers. The reason for his popularity? He guides his guests–electeds, other journalists, and cultural figures–in conversations designed to reveal their take on what’s going on at this moment in American politics.
In addition to hosting one of the most influential and widely respected shows, Brian is a bestselling author. The Day After: How to Wield Power in a Post Trump World is not just a takedown of both Republicans and Democrats who now hold office. It’s about power. It’s about how Democrats can and must use it to reshape our country, not just back to what it was before 2024, but better than it was.
Moderator to be announced.
Metered and street parking nearby We recommend rideshares and carpooling. Please allow time to find parking.
Where: JAMS Performing Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 2425 16th St., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2026-07-18/writers-bloc-presents-brian-tyler-cohen-discusses-day-after
Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Club: Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1 at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1 by Martha Wells.
On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is (and to watch its favorite show in its downtime.)
But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.
Then, In Artificial Condition Murderbot teams up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), and together, they infiltrate the mining facility where Murderbot went rogue to try to understand its past.
What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks.
Martha Wells has written many novels, including the New York Times and USA Today-bestselling Murderbot Diaries series, which has won multiple Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards, and was adapted into an Apple Original TV series. Other titles include Witch King, City of Bones, The Wizard Hunters, Wheel of the Infinite, the Books of the Raksura series (beginning with The Cloud Roads and ending with The Harbors of the Sun), and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer, as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, and nonfiction.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd. Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-07-18/sci-fi-fantasy-book-club-murderbot-diaries-vol-1
Local Author Mixer at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
Mark your calendar! July 18th! Our Summer Local Author Mixer.
Join us in store to listen, meet, & network with amazing authors across genres! From action filled dramas and adventures, autobiographies, to poetry!
This month we are joined by authors: Christopher Stanton, Aïcha Gabriella, Paloma Blue, Brian Simpson, Vanessa Bronson, and Ophelia Wo.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Westchester, CA 90045
Website: Instagram Page
Author Conversation with Dr. Evelyn Carter & Was That Racist? at Casita Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for a conversation with Dr. Evelyn Carter about her book Was That Racist? and around raising children in the current social environment @evelynrcarter. This event is family-friendly and open to all parents, caregivers, and educators with questions on how to raise anti-racist kids.
Where: Casita Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 272 Redondo Ave., Long Beach, CA 90803
Website: Instagram Page
Meg Elison in Conversation & Founding Fathers at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
There’s no better time than right now for a novel that satirizes our country’s Founding Fathers, drags the right-wing billionaire class, and tackles just how wrong our move towards technocracy could potentially go. Meg Elison has given us all of that—and more—in her upcoming book, Foundling Fathers (out June 23rd). Join us on Saturday, July 18th at 6:00 pm to meet Foundling Fathers author Meg Elison, who will be in-conversation with Phoenix Alexander, Jay Kayand Doris Klein Science Fiction Librarian at UC Riverside.
An extremist cabal secretly clone our Founding Fathers and raises them at a plantation on an isolated island. Young man Benjamin Franklin finds a smartphone in what should be the year 1750 and takes his technological discovery to his brothers, Thomas, John, and George. The idyllic life is far too dull for young men. The boys have been chafing at the restrictions upon them (especially Tom, who has impregnated yet another of the servants). And their de facto father John Hancock is complaining to the Society that it’s well past the time to tell the boys where they come from and what they must do. Unfortunately for their keepers, the young men now have a phone…and many other notions.
Meg Elison is an author and essayist. She writes science fiction and horror, as well as feminist essays and cultural criticism. She has been published in McSweeney’s, Slate, Fangoria, Fantasy, and Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, and many other places. Her debut novel, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, won the 2014 Philip K. Dick Award. Her novelette, “The Pill” won the 2021 Locus Award. She is a Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Awards finalist. She has been an Otherwise Award honoree twice. Her YA debut, Find Layla was published in fall 2020 by Skyscape. It was named one of Vanity Fair’s Best 15 Books of 2020. Her parasocial thriller, Number One Fan, was published in August 2022 by Mira Books. Her forthcoming satire Foundling Fathers will be published by Tachyon in 2026. Elison is a high school dropout and a graduate of UC Berkeley. She lives in the Berkshires.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd. Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/foundlingfathers
Get Lit Players Tea Party at Get Lit TBA – In-Person Event
Check out our upcoming events, including our Lit Tea Party where we pair teas with literature and candle scents.
And don’t miss our Unicorn Story Hour and Game Night both happening THIS WEEKEND!
Tickets $45; limited space; RSVP
Where: Get Lit Books & Things
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Address TBA
Website: Instagram Page
19th Annual Laughtears.com Events & Info 2026 at Beyond Baroque at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Visit THE SUZY WILLIAMS YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH4UmJ2G9vU AND https://suzywilliams.bandcamp.com/
Join us to hear Video clips from past shows:
The Tavern https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reR_RTsFD5E
Dog – Lawrence Ferlinghetti https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61IjPDSFl2A
Finnegan’s Wake song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oUCyQwNJpk
C J Cronner’s LIT SHOW review: http://www.blogtownbycjgronner.com
THE LIT SHOW has featured the likes of J.D. Salinger – see video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyMKVLBqse4
NOTE: See site for details and tickets.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 18th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm (Doors at 6:30 pm)
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: https://laughtears.com/
Obsidian Tongues Open Mic at Lopez Urban Farm, Pomona – In-Person Event
Join host Ceasar K. Avelar every third Saturday of the month for Obsidian Tongues Open Mic and featured guests.
Join us for poetry, spoken word, prose, music, community.
See site for details.
Where: Lopez Urban Farm, Pomona
Date: Saturday, the 18th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9 pm
Address: 1034 W. Mission Blvd., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: Instagram Page
Bookish Trivia Night: Summerween (Horror) Edition at The Open Book, Woodland Hills – In-Person Event
Wishing October vibes were year round? Well look no further…join us, if you dare, for our Book-ish Trivia Night: Summerween Edition!!! Why wait until October to celebrate all things horror when we can celebrate it now? We’ve got some great questions in store for you because we’ve left no crumbs on the plate! From movies and television shows…to books and video games…and even cartoons and children’s programming, THIS is one trivia event you don’t want to miss!
RSVP VIA LINKTREE.
Where: The Open Book. Woodland Hills
Date: Saturday, the 18th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 6320 Topanga Canyon Blvd, Suite #1680, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Website: Instagram Page
Long Beach Book Worms at Padekwa Coffee & Create – In-Person Event
Join us for Reading with Coffee and support local business.
Where: Padekwa Coffee
Date: Sunday the 19th
Time: 9 am – 11 am
Address: 5841 Bellflower Blvd., Lakewood, CA 90713
Website: Instagram Page
Middle Grade Book Club: Restart at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person MG Event
Join us for the newest Village Well book club, the Middle Grade Book Club! RSVP for your spot below!
Once a month, we’ll meet and explore some of the best middle-grade books out there. We’ll chat about the characters, themes, favorite scenes, and whatever else happens to interest us about the chosen title. There’s never pressure to participate in the discussion. All meetings conclude with either a writing activity or craft. We’d like you to read the book before the meeting, but if you didn’t get to finish, please still come by (although we’re going to spoil the ending!).
Our selection for July is Restart by Gordon Korman.
This book is the amazing New York Times bestseller about what you can do when life gives you a second chance.
Chase’s memory just went out the window.
Chase doesn’t remember falling off the roof. He doesn’t remember hitting his head. He doesn’t, in fact, remember anything. He wakes up in a hospital room and suddenly must learn his whole life all over again, starting with his own name.
He knows he’s Chase. But who is Chase? When he gets back to school, he sees that different kids have very different reactions to his return.
Some kids treat him like a hero. Some kids are clearly afraid of him.
One girl in particular is so angry with him that she pours her frozen yogurt on his head the first chance she gets.
Pretty soon, it’s not only a question of who Chase is—it’s a question of who he was…and who he’s going to be.
From the #1 bestselling author of Swindle and Slacker, Restart is the spectacular story of a kid with a messy past who must figure out what it means to get a clean start.
Local author Heather Alexander is our facilitator and has written more than 90 books for kids. Her nonfiction has been recognized as Amazon Best Book, National Science Teachers Association Best STEM Book, Parent’s Choice Award selections and the winner of the June Franklin Naylor Award. She was the editor of R.L. Stine’s mega-popular, bestselling Goosebumps and Fear Street series, among many, many others.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 19th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
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: Sunday the 19th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Brunch Babes & Books Book Club: Mexican Gothic at Café con Libros, Pomona – In-Person Event
Join participants to discuss Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
RSVP early via text to Elizabeth: 310-626-2115
Where: Café con Libros, Pomona
Date: Sunday the 19th
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Address: 280 W. 2nd St., Pomona, CA,
Website: Instagram Page
Pluto’s Presents: Annual One Day Writers Retre at at Junior High – In-Person Event
Join us for a one-day writing retreat for writers at all levels, from beginners to pros.
Poetry Workshop with Priscilla Nash;
Wellness Workshop with Holly Alvarado;
Screenwriting Workshop with Sarah Halle Corey;
Creative Writing Workshop with poetrypeace.la;
Creative Writing & Workshop & Embodiment Workshop with @arielleestoria
$40 (discounted prices available for those in need)
See site for further info.
Where: Junior High
Date: Sunday the 19th
Time: 12 pm – 8 pm
Address: 603 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 91204
Website: Instagram Page
OC Poet Laureate Office Hours at LibroMobile Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join OC Poet Laureate Gustavo Hernandez for Office Hours once a month at LibroMobile. Available either in-person or virtually.
RSVP
Where: LibroMobile Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 19th
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol St., A3, Santa Ana, CA, 92704
Kids Story Hour at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Kids Event
Join us every Sunday at 12 pm for Kids Story Hour.
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Sunday the 19th
Time: 12 pm – 1 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figuroa St., Los Angeles, CA, 90042
Zine Making Event at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
All ages are invited to participate in this open studio time dedicated to zine-making.
A zine is pronounced [zeen], and it is short for “magazine.” These handmade books can be easily reproduced using a copy machine and distributed to your community. Rooted in countercultural movements to spread info for social good, zines are low-budget and low-tech ways to spread your message.
We encourage you to stop by Village Well every Sunday in July to celebrate International Zine Month! Bring your big ideas, browse our zine collection for sale, and create a zine of your own.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 19th
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Bucket List Book Club: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead: A Novel by Olga Tokarczuk.
In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind.
A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?
Olga Tokarczuk has won the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Man Book International Prize, among many other honors. She is the author of a dozen works of fiction, two collections of essays, and a children’s book; her work has been translated into fifty languages.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 19th
Time: 3 pm – 5 pm
Address: 473 E. Alessandro Blvd. Suite B, Riverside, CA 92508
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/events
Elena Montez, with Alexandra Lyon Perelman, Ed.D., & Wishbones at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to welcome Elena Montez to the store to discuss and sign Wishbones. Joining her in conversation will be Alexandra Lyon Perelman, Ed.D.
Wishbones is a hybrid memoir-in-verse that blends poetry, prose, and photography to explore what it means to grow up Costa Rican-American between two cultures, two languages, and two versions of home. In this intimate coming-of-age collection, Elena Montes reconstructs a childhood shaped by family separation, sibling loss, and her father’s struggle with alcoholism.
Structured through a nonlinear, memoir-driven form, the book traces her journey from adolescence into adulthood as she grapples with identity, love, friendship, and the complicated inheritance of culture from an immigrant parent. When language itself begins to slip away, what remains? Montes examines the experience of losing fluency in Spanish while trying to preserve a connection to the father and heritage tied to it.
Blending lyrical poetry with candid prose and striking photographs, Wishbones captures both the dramatic ruptures and the quiet, formative moments that shape belonging. Throughout the collection, Montes navigates the tension between family loyalty and self-preservation, connection, and distance, asking: how do we reclaim a culture tied to complicated love? How do we rebuild memory when the past resists coherence?
Tender, unflinching, and formally inventive, Wishbones will resonate with readers of hybrid memoir, Latinx literature, and coming-of-age narratives exploring addiction, grief, identity, and the enduring search for home.
The final poem in the collection received the Andrea K. Wilson Award for Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 19th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Ste. #33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2026-07-19/elena-montes-wishbones
Local Author Day: Esma Ali, Paul J. Ramirez, Kimberly Lee at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Esma Ali, Paul J. Ramirez, and Kimberly Lee will present and discuss their books at Local Author Day at Vroman’s.
Esma Ali presents Was Jesus A Narcissist?: A Muslim’s Defense of Jesus!
Paul J. Ramirez presents The Fatherless Life: Letters From an Abandoned Playground
Growing pains, adversity, love, sadness, and joy. A broken father preparing his children for the future without him by writing them personal letters from the now abandoned playground they used to play on. A book all should read Please note that purchasing the hardcover helps Paul with his auto-immune treatments. The softcover is at the lowest price possible.
Kimberly Lee presents Have You Seen Him
What if everything you believed about yourself was totally wrong?
For David Byrdsong, life is a series of daily obligations. An attorney, he lacks both ambition and the ability to commit to a long-term relationship with his girlfriend, Gayle. Abandoned by his family at an airport when he was eleven, he learned to blunt his feelings, despite his subsequent adoption by a loving couple.
Until one day, when David discovers his own face in a missing child ad. Suddenly driven to uncover the truth about his past, he is forced to tap into his inner strength as he encounters corporate conspiracies, murdered bystanders, and distressing suspicions about the only family he’s ever really trusted. David enlists Gayle’s help—and the help of an unlikely stranger with secrets of his own—as he attempts to find his true family, whoever they are.
Thrilling, exploratory, and propulsive, Have You Seen Him is a story of lost identity, dangerous secrets, and a deeply personal pursuit of the truth.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Sunday the 19th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-07-19/local-author-day
Focus on Craft Book Club: Just Friends at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Join participants to discuss Just Friends: A Novel by Haley Pham.
Focus on Craft book club meets at 7:15 pm on the third Sunday in the main store! It focuses on examining popular romance novels from a writer’s viewpoint. Everyone is welcome; you don’t have to be a writer!
No membership is necessary, but RSVP is recommended.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 12th
Time: 7:15 pm
Address: 3806 Main St., Culver City, CA, 90232
Website: https://therippedbodice.com/event/2026-07-12/fantasy-romance-book-club-la
Los Angeles Literature 