Los Feliz Writers: Shut Up and Write in Los Feliz at Sidewalk Grill – In-Person Event
Looking for some dedicated writing time? Come by our weekly neighborhood meetups:
Mondays @ 6:45 pm – 8 pm at Sidewalk Grill (NEW)
Wednesdays @ 6;45 – 8 pm at Bar Alcove & Bakery
All writers and all experience levels are welcome!
We’re starting a Shut Up and Write event on Mondays too, thanks to @jack_andcat.
Hosted by @literarypixie!
RSVP at link in bio.
Where: Sidewalk Grill
Date: Monday the 7th
Time: 6:45 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1727 N. Vermont Ave. #102, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: Instagram Page
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!
Where: Back to the Grind, Riverside
Date: Monday the 7th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Website: Facebook Page
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 7th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Zoom Online Event (see site)
Website: Beyond Baroque 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: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
La Crescenta Library Virtual Book Club: Keeper of Lost Children by via La Crescenta Library, LACL – Online Event
Join us for a weekly virtual discussion of Keeper of Lost Children by Sadeqa Johnson. Please contact Marta Wiggins at mwiggins@library.lacounty.gov for your link to join the discussion on Zoom. For Adults
This month we will discuss 1/5 of the book each week. See below for the breakdown of the weekly discussions:
September 1: Prologue & Chapters 1 – 11: Pages 1 – 117
September 8: Chapters 12 – 18: Pages 121 – 184
September 15: Chapters 19 – 34: Pages 186 – 283
September 22: Chapters: 35 – 46: Pages 287 – 359
September 29: Chapters: 47 – Epilogue: Pages 360 to the end of the book
Ethel Gathers, the proud wife of an American Officer, is living in Occupied Germany in the 1950s. After discovering a local orphanage filled with the abandoned mixed-race children of German women and Black American GIs feels compelled to help find these children homes. Philadelphia born Ozzie Phillips volunteers for the recently desegregated army in 1948, eager to make his mark in the world. While serving in Manheim, Germany, he meets a local woman, Jelka, and the two embark of a relationship that will impact their lives forever. In 1965 Maryland, Sophia Clark is given an opportunity to attend a prestigious all-white boarding school and escape her heartless parents. While at the school, she discovers a secret that upends her world and sends her on a quest to unravel her own identity.
Where: Virtual Program, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16886931#branch
Agoura Readers Book Club: Lady Tremaine at Agoura Hills Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser. Copies available at Customer Service. For adults.
Where: Agoura Hills Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 29901 Ladyface Ct., Agoura Hills, CA 91301
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16990809
Book Club for Adults: Making a Scene at Montebello Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for a discussion of Making a Scene, by Constance Wu. There are copies available at the Circulation Desk upon request. For Adults
Where: Montebello Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address: 1550 W. Beverly Blvd., Montebello, CA 90640
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16634685
James Ponti and Stewart Gibbs Together in Person & The Detective and the Spy at Children’s Book World – In-Person MG Event
The Sherlock Society goes undercover in the Miami street art scene to find an anonymous graffiti artist in this third book in the hilarious, New York Times bestselling Sherlock Society middle grade series from Edgar Award–winning author James Ponti!
Join James Ponti (Sherlock Society, City Spies) and Stuart Gibbs (Spy School, FunJungle) in person to hear about their writing, friendship, and long kept spy secrets. A book signing will follow for books purchased at CBW for the event.
Art Attack: Sherlock Society Book 3: The Sherlock Society goes undercover in the Miami street art scene to find an anonymous graffiti artist in this third book in the hilarious, New York Times bestselling Sherlock Society middle grade series from Edgar Award-winning author James Ponti! The Sherlock Society’s latest case is tracking down stealth graffiti artist Funky Munky—well-known for their artistic statements calling out local politicians—on behalf of a developer who wants them to create a mural for a new hotel. Their investigation leads Alex, Zoe, Lina, and Yadi deep into the very colorful south Florida art scene. But finding someone who doesn’t want to be found is challenging, and it doesn’t help that Miami Art Week is coming up, bringing lots of attention—and lots of new artists—to the area. The Sherlock Society’s best bet is an elaborate sting operation, which involves them picking up spray cans themselves. Can they trap their quarry without exposing themselves?
James Ponti is the New York Times bestselling author of four middle grade book series: The Sherlock Society following a group of young detectives; City Spies, about an unlikely squad of kids from around the world who form an elite MI6 Spy Team; the Edgar Award–winning Framed! series, about a pair of tweens who solve mysteries in Washington, DC; and the Dead City trilogy, about a secret society that polices the undead living beneath Manhattan. His books have appeared on more than fifteen different state award lists, and he is the founder of a writers group known as the Renegades of Middle Grade. James is also an Emmy–nominated television writer and producer who has worked for many networks including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, PBS, History, and Spike TV, as well as NBC Sports. He lives with his family in Orlando, Florida. You can learn more about him at JamesPonti.com.
Stuart Gibbs is the author of five New York Times bestselling series: Spy School, FunJungle, Moon Base Alpha, Charlie Thorne, and Once Upon a Tim—as well as the new nonfiction series Spy School Secret Files. He has written screenplays, worked on a whole bunch of animated films, developed TV shows, been a newspaper columnist, and researched capybaras. Stuart lives with his family in Los Angeles. You can learn more about what he’s up to at StuartGibbs.com.
See website for details and tickets.
Where: Children’s Book World
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 10580 ½ w. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Virtual Author Talk: Daniel Kraus & The Sixth Nik via Virtual Program, LACL – Online Zoom Event
Prepare to launch into the darkest depths of deep space! Join us online as we sit down with master storyteller Daniel Kraus, winner of the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, to celebrate the release of his breathtaking new novel, The Sixth Nik.
Deep into space, far past the triworld outposts, beyond range of the lethal trollbot internet, soars The Sickness: a ship woven from biomatter and capable of reacting to every need of its human crew. Sisilla, a nine-year-old cultist with a brain enhanced by arcane tech known as “niks,” has boarded to investigate the enigma of Fém—a plague-riddled planet that has abruptly gone rogue.
The mysterious crew includes a faceless assassin, a beautiful engineer jigsawed by plastic surgery, a peyote-addicted medic, and—most lethal of all—a rugged, NonModded captain with a score to settle with Sisilla. Other dangers abound. A hacked robot begins to believe Sisilla is its daughter. The Sickness itself is mutating, possibly even pregnant. And the secret of Fém is more horrific than anyone could have imagined. To survive, Sisilla will need to forsake her predetermined fate and embrace the unknown.
Register now to gain exclusive insight from one of the most visionary voices in modern fiction.
Daniel Kraus is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times bestselling writer of novels, TV, and film. His novel Angel Down was the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, a New York Times Top 10 Book of 2025, and a national bestseller. His novel Whalefall received a front-cover review in the New York Times Book Review, won the Alex Award, was an L.A. Times Book Prize Finalist, and was a Best Book of 2023 from NPR, the New York Times, Amazon, Chicago Tribune, and more.
With Guillermo del Toro, he co-authored The Shape of Water, based on the same idea the two created for the Oscar-winning film. Also with del Toro, Kraus co-authored Trollhunters, which was adapted into the Emmy-winning Netflix series. He co-wrote The Living Dead and Pay the Piper with legendary filmmaker George A. Romero. Kraus’s The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch was named one of Entertainment Weekly‘s Top 10 Books of the Year. Kraus has won the Bram Stoker Award, Scribe Award, two Odyssey Awards (for both Rotters and Scowler), and has appeared multiple times as Library Guild selections, and more.
Kraus’s work has been translated into over 25 languages. He lives with his partner in Chicago. Visit him at danielkraus.com.
Where: Virtual Program, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16914330
Poetry Open Mic via Westwood Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Share a poem you wrote or a poem you love. You are also welcome to just listen and enjoy.
To receive a Zoom link, contact wwood@lapl.org
Where: Westwood Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/poetry-open-mic
Book Discussion for Adults: Good Material at Sorensen Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us to read and discuss the fiction book Good Material by Dolly Alderton. For adults.
Jen has dumped Andy, and he’s handling the breakup in exactly the way all his friends and family might have expected: very, very badly. Crashing at his mother’s house and obsessively photographing his hairline, Andy embraces the rites and rituals of every breakup-the ill-advised decision to move onto a houseboat, the forced merriment of a lads’ night out, the accidental late-night text to the ex-all resulting in a never-ending shame spiral. Even as Andy tests the waters of a new relationship, he finds himself drawn back to Jen, revisiting old texts and emails, trying to figure out what truly went wrong.
Pick up a copy for checkout at the Customer Service Desk today, also available on Libby and Hoopla.
Where: Sorensen Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6934 Broadway Ave., Whittier, CA 90606
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17012706
World Cultures Reading Circle Book Discussion at Westchester – Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the World Cultures Reading Circle in the Community Room to discuss Sacrament: A Novel by Susan Straight. New members are welcome.
Where: Westchester – Loyola Village Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 7114 W. Manchester Ave., Kos Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.lapl.org/index%2Ephp/events/world-cultures-reading-circle-book-discussion-4
Catherine Michon, with W. Bruce Cameron, & I’m Still Here: A Cat’s Purpose Forever at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Catherine Michon, in conversation with W. Bruce Cameron, will discuss I’m Still Here: A Cat’s Purpose Forever.
A beautifully illustrated, comforting gift for anyone grieving a beloved cat—told in the clever, loving voice of an angel cat who gently reminds you that your bond is forever.
From the national best-selling author of I’m Still Here: A Dog’s Purpose Forever
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St., Suite 33, Santa Moncia, CA 90402
Website: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2026-09-08/cathryn-michon-I%27m-still-here-cats-purpose-forever
Activism Book Club: The Destruction of Palestine Is the Destruction of the Earth by Andreas Malm at Village Well Bookstore – 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 of how we can positively impact the community. We’re looking forward to building a community that’s more connected around our collective well-being.
Our selection for August is The Destruction of Palestine Is the Destruction of the Earth by Andreas Malm.
Malm unearths the shared roots of colonial adventurism in Palestine and fossil fueled warfare.
Israel’s pulverization of Gaza since October 7, 2023, is not only a humanitarian crisis, but an environmental catastrophe. Far from the first event of its kind, the devastation Israel has inflicted on Palestine since October 2023 has merely ushered in a new phase in a long history of colonization and extraction that reaches back to the nineteenth century. In this urgent pamphlet, Andreas Malm argues that a true understanding of the present crisis requires a longue durée analysis of Palestine’s subjugation to fossil empire. Returning to the British empire’s first use of steam-power in war, in which it destroyed the Palestinian city of Akka, Malm traces the development of Britain’s fossil empire and shows how this enduring commitment to fossil energy continues to drive Western support for the destruction of Palestine today.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Melissa Dalton-Bradford & How to Save a Democracy: The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Melissa Dalton-Bradford will discuss How to Save a Democracy: The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook
Dive deeper into the authoritarian leaders of yesterday and take practical steps today toward a better democratic society tomorrow, with past and present examples from around the world.
How do democracies die? We’re watching it happen in real time. Elected domestic and international leaders are undermining democratic institutions, weaponizing government agencies, and fueling dangerous polarization. Turn on the news—or scroll social media—and the result is everywhere: fear, anger, and a growing sense of helplessness as citizens wonder, I’m just one person—what can I possibly do?
More than simple analysis, How to Save Democracy: The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook empowers everyday citizens with practical, peaceful steps to turn anxiety into action and defend democratic institutions. Drawing on history, scholarly research, and her own experience working with refugees across Europe and Asia, Melissa Dalton-Bradford lays out core patterns in the authoritarian playbook, provides global examples of how these patterns have played out in history and modern day, and offers solutions for how citizens—as individuals and as groups—can take immediate action to reverse the erosion of democracy in their communities.
Melissa Dalton-Bradford is an author, educator, and co-founder of two non-profits. A humanitarian and public speaker, Melissa has addressed UN affiliate conferences, university and international upper school forums, and international symposia drawing on her experiences in global parenting, refugee integration work, and anti-authoritarianism. Since January 2025, Melissa has applied her deep academic background, writing, speaking, and lived experience to connect history with current events to help people understand how democracies fall and how they can be rebuilt. Her online work has drawn hundreds of thousands of followers, inspiring a global movement that refuses the return of authoritarian rule. Her articles are published in journals, magazines, online sites, and anthologies. She is the author of Global Mom: A Memoir and On Loss and Living Onward. She can be found at MelissaDaltonBradford.substack.com and @MDGlobalMom on Instagram.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2026-09-08/melissa-dalton-bradford
Adult Book Group: Isola by Allegra Goodman at Once Upon a Time – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Participants will discuss Isola: A Novel by Allegra Goodman.
A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this “lushly painted” (People) historical epic of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam.
Heir to a fortune, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and gentility. Then she is orphaned, and her guardian—an enigmatic and volatile man—spends her inheritance and insists she accompany him on an expedition to New France. That journey takes an unexpected turn when Marguerite, accused of betrayal, is brutally punished and abandoned on a small island.
Once a child of privilege who dressed in gowns and laced pearls in her hair, Marguerite finds herself at the mercy of nature. As the weather turns, blanketing the island in ice, she discovers a faith she’d never before needed.
Inspired by the real life of a sixteenth-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.
Allegra Goodman is the author of seven novels, including the national bestseller Isola, which was a Reese’s Book Club pick; two short story collections; and a novel for young readers. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and elsewhere, and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Email Jessica@onceuponatime.com to request a Zoom invite.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: Once Upon a Time Event Page
Grace Krilanovich, with Aimee Bender, & Acid Green Velvet at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Grace Krilanovich, in conversation with Aimee Bender, will discuss Acid Green Velvet: A Novel.
In the late 19th century on the central California coast, two wayward young hoboes — Paulette and Kenneth — threaten to kill a menacing man who wronged them: Paulette’s father, Rodney Eligon.
A handful of years later, the town of Anzar has become the stomping grounds for all manner of cults, eccentrics, earth religions, and communal living. Presiding over the town from the luxe frivolity of their family manor, the Hasleys have ruled Anzar for generations. Their grip on the town is threatened by the rise of the working class, and their union with the itinerant population. Meanwhile, Paulette has taken up residence in the home of Johnny Hasley, a wealthy faux-socialist poseur, hoping to become his wife. Her plans are complicated by boot-prints in the garden signaling the arrival of Kenneth, who carries with him a dark secret that poses a grave threat to both of them.
In Anzar’s cracked mirror, Californian freakiness meets Victorian preoccupations with the domestic, pollution and filth, haunted houses, fringe societies, living death, spiritualism, vampiric women, and class parasites. Acid Green Velvet is a surreal powder keg of nihilism, fathers and their failures, manifest destiny, and American identity, penned in rapturous prose by the fiercest writer of her generation.
Grace Krilanovich is the author of The Orange Eats Creeps, a finalist for The Believer Book Award and the Indie Booksellers’ Choice Award in 2010 and reissued in 2025 for Two Dollar Radio’s New Classics series. Her work has appeared in Black Clock, The Rumpus, The Comics Journal, Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She was a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree in 2010. She lives in Los Angeles.
Aimee Bender is the author of six books of fiction, including most recently the novel The Butterfly Lampshade, longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Award, and earlier on, the short story collection Willful Creatures, which the Believer picked as one of the best of the year. She teaches creative writing at USC.
Where: Skylight
Date: Tuesday the 8th
Time: 7 pm
Address:1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/2026-09-08/grace-krilanovich-w-aimee-bender-acid-green-velvet
Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert & Guest Michael Anthony Ingram, Plus Open Reading – Online Zoom Event
The Virtual Cobalt Poets series happens via Zoom every Tuesday night Pacific Standard Time, hosted by poet Rick Lupert.
Each evening includes an open reading plus a featured reader. Sign up for the open reading when you join with Zoom.
Michael Anthony Ingram is a retired university professor. He’s also the Executive Director and Founder of the DC Poetry Project, Inc., and hosts the Quintessential Listening: Poetry Online Radio podcast. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Ingram’s work has been published in scholarly journals and other publications. He is committed to raising awareness about issues related to institutionalized racism. He lives in Washington DC.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday, the 1st
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: Cobalt Event Page
LiveTalks LA Presents: Jared Diamond, with Terrance McNally, & Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings: (When) Do Leaders Matter? at Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre at New Roads School – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Jared Diamond, in conversation with Terrance McNally, will discuss Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings: (When) Do Leaders Matter?.
From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, multimillion-copy bestselling classic Guns, Germs and Steel, a landmark study of leadership across politics, religion, business, and sports—seeking to decode how and why leaders matter.
Jared Diamond is the author of the international bestselling books Guns, Germs, and Steel (which has sold over seven million copies), Collapse, The Third Chimpanzee and The World Until Yesterday Upheaval. The many prizes that these books have won include the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction, Britain’s Science Book Prize (twice), Japan’s Cosmos Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He is a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Among his many awards are the US National Medal of Science, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, and election to the US National Academy of Sciences. He has published over 200 articles in Discover, Natural History, Nature, and Geo magazines, plus 400 articles in technical scientific journals.
Terrence McNally has hosted several talks on our stage. His podcast, Free Forum: A World That Just Might Work, can be found on all major podcast sites after running on radio for over 20 years at KPFK-fm. He was also host and producer of DISRUPTIVE, a Webby-award winning podcast series on cutting-edge science at Harvard University.
“Democracy is in crisis. At this critical point, we need leadership, not just from charismatic hucksters looking after their own interests, but from those with a vision for the future and moral clarity. But where do leaders come from how and when do they matter? We know surprisingly little on this question, but Jared Diamond’s erudite, engaging and thought-provoking book takes us a huge step forward toward understanding how circumstances and individual talents, determination and strategy make leaders that have the potential to change our world (hopefully for the better).”- Daron Acemoglu, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics and New York Times bestselling co-author of Why Nations Fail.
Can one person change the world?
In his acclaimed and influential books, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings, he studies leaders throughout time to answer the question: do the actions of individuals truly influence history? Or is humanity subject to larger historical, technological, cultural, geographical forces, far beyond the influence of individuals, no matter how powerful they may seem?.
Drawing on his deep study of the life and career of a diverse cast of leaders famous and obscure–from Botswana president Seretse Khama, to environmentalist Rachel Carson, to legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden–Diamond reveals how leadership effectiveness is determined by a range of complex interrelated factors. Understanding these successes and failures and the opportunities leaders did (or did not) seize illuminates the influence of today’s leaders and helps us to reflect on the value of our votes, our faith, our passions, and the people who happen to steer our ship.
With the same remarkable scope of Diamond’s classic bestsellers, Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings takes readers on a rich journey through the lives of humanity’s most well-known characters to reveal how time, place, and person can come together to change the course of history.
NOTE; Ticketed Event, see site for details.
Where: Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre at New Roads School
Date: Tuesday, the 8th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 3131 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: LiveTalks 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: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 9 am – 10 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Wilmington Book Club: Every Summer After at Wilmington Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us as we discuss Every Summer After by Carely Fortune, and receive your books for next month as well.
For questions, please contact klarson@lapl.org.
Where: Wilmington Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 1300 N. Avalon Blvd., Wilmington, CA 90744
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/wilmington-book-club-10
Mystery Book Club: The Golden Spoon at Sylmar Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us on the second Monday of every month for our mystery Book Club. We will discuss The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell and receive your books for next month as well.
Please email sylmar@lapl.org for details.
Where: Sylmar Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 2 am – 3 pm
Address: 14561 Polk St., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/mystery-book-club-32
Graphic Novel Club: Offside by Christina Diaz Gonzalez & Mari Costa at Once Upon a Time – In-Person Kids Event
Let’s marvel at this month’s pick: Offside by Christina Diaz Gonzalez and Mari Costa!
Humor! Adventure! Magic! Graphic novels have it all!
Celebrate our shared love of graphic novels and visual creativity! Iz and Mia host our ever-popular book club.
Best for ages 8+.
From the author of the bestselling graphic novel Invisible: A funny, feel-good middle grade graphic novel about friendship, rivalry, and belonging. Five very different students are supposed to be a team—but instead keep trying to tear each other down. Perfect for fans of The Tryout, The New Girl, and Swim Team.
This is a discussion based club. Participants should come prepared to share their thoughts about that meeting’s book choice.
Limited space. No drop-ins. Purchase of book from Once Upon A Time required for RSVP.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 4 pm – 4:45 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: Once Upon a Time Event Page
Malibu Library Book Club: The Correspondent at Malibu Library, LACL – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us to discuss The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. For adults.
Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. After receiving a letter from someone in her past, she realizes she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.
The Malibu Library Book Club is now available on Zoom. Participate from the comfort of home! Contact the librarian at cfischer@library.lacounty.gov or call 310.456.6438 to be added to Zoom participation.
Where: Malibu Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 23519 West Civic Center Way, Malibu, CA 90265
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17275084
The 2026–27 PARA/normal Borders Conversation Series: Conversation I: Josh Kun + Alex Rivera at Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts, Whittier College – In-Person Event
Music, film, media, and storytelling shape how histories are recorded, shared, and remembered. Cultural historian Josh Kun and filmmaker Alex Rivera explore the role of artistic practice in recovering overlooked histories, connecting communities, and imagining new futures across the U.S.–Mexico borderlands.
Josh Kun, Vice Provost for the Arts at USC and Professor in the USC Annenberg School for Communication, explores the intersections of music, race, migration, and cultural exchange. His scholarship demonstrates how music functions as a living archive, revealing the histories and communities that connect the Americas. A MacArthur Fellow, Kun’s work bridges academic research and public humanities through books, exhibitions, and collaborative cultural projects.
Alex Rivera is an award-winning filmmaker whose work examines migration, labor, surveillance, and technology through speculative cinema. Best known for Sleep Dealer and The Infiltrators, Rivera uses science fiction and documentary to challenge conventional narratives about borders and globalization. A MacArthur Fellow and Associate Professor at Arizona State University, his films imagine futures that illuminate the social realities of the present.
Where: Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts, Whittier College
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm
Address: 23519 West Civic Center Way, Malibu, CA 90265
Website: Eventbrite Page
Artesia Book Club: The Lions of Fifth Avenue at Artesia Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for a book discussion. The book for September is The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis.
Books are available for checkout at the library. Some titles are available as free downloadable eBooks or digital audiobooks from LA County Library at lacountylibrary.org.
All interested persons are welcome and invited to attend.
For adults
Where: Artesia Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 18801 Elaine Ave., Artesia, CA 90701
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17261033
The Classics Book Club: Out of Africa at Alondra Library, LACL – In- Person Event
Join us for our monthly The Classics Book Club. We will be discussing Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen. Copies of this title are available at the Circulation Desk. For ages 18 and up.
Where: Alondra Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 11949 Alondra Blvd., Norwalk, CA 90650
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17269184
Adult Book Club: Woman Hollering Creek at Littlerock Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with us as we discuss Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros. For adults.
Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories is a compelling collection of short stories that explores identity, culture, family, love, and the experiences of Mexican American women. Through vivid characters and lyrical storytelling, Sandra Cisneros examines the complexities of belonging, tradition, and finding one’s own voice.
Available at Littlerock Library or digitally with Libby or Hoopla on the LA County Library app or at lacountylibrary.org.
Where: Littlerock Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 35119 80th St. E., Littlerock, CA 93543
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17064485
Sci-Fi Fantasy Book Club: A Princess of Mars at Quartz Hill Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Copies will be available at the Customer Service Desk. For adults.
Experience a classic of sci-fi pulp fiction, first published in 1912! Civil War veteran John Carter is mysteriously transported to Mars. Captured by savage six-limbed aliens, he makes common cause with another prisoner, the beautiful princess Deja Thoris. Together, they lead swashbuckling adventures across the surface of the Red Planet.
Attendance is limited, and advance registration is required. Please register every individual in your party, including kids. This will be used to save your spots in the program. We cannot guarantee availability for any unregistered attendees.
Where: Quartz Hill Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 5040 W. Ave. M 2, Quartz Hill, CA 93536
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16993617
Spanish Book Club: La Casa de los espiritus/The House of the Spirits (Chapters 8-14) at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende.
La primera y más emblemática novela de Isabel Allende, La casa de los espíritus, cuenta la inolvidable saga de una poderosa familia latinoamericana marcada por el amor, la ambición, los secretos y el destino.
Con millones de lectores en todo el mundo, esta obra maestra de la literatura contemporánea inspiró la aclamada serie de ocho episodios de Prime Video y continúa cautivando a generaciones con su mezcla única de pasión, historia y realismo mágico.
El despótico patriarca Esteban Trueba ha construido con mano de hierro un imperio privado que empieza a tambalearse con el paso del tiempo y un entorno social explosivo. Finalmente, la decadencia personal del patriarca arrastrará a los Trueba a una dolorosa desintegración. Atrapados en unas dramáticas relaciones familiares, los personajes de esta poderosa novela encarnan las tensiones sociales y espirituales de una época que abarca gran parte del siglo XX.
Con impecable pulso narrativo y gran lucidez histórica, Isabel Allende ha creado un fresco en el que conviven lo cotidiano con lo maravilloso, el amor con la revolución y los ideales personales con la dura realidad política.
Isabel Allende’s first and most iconic novel, The House of the Spirits, tells the unforgettable saga of a powerful Latin American family shaped by love, ambition, secrets, and destiny.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6675 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, CA 92506
Rainbow Reads Book Club: A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek at Once Upon a Time – In-Person Teen Event
Let’s chat about this month’s pick: A Treachery of Swans by A.B. Poranek and celebrate all identities and stories.
Our Rainbow Reads Book Club celebrates diversity in Young Adult books as we read books featuring various identities and stories. This is a safe space welcome to teens of all identities and allies! Join Iz and Mia for our proud book club.
Reader expectations:
Best for ages 13 and up.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Where the Dark Stands Still comes an atmospheric romantasy based on Swan Lake, following Odile as her plan to restore magic to her enchanted kingdom gets disrupted by a murder mystery—forcing her to beg for help from the young woman whose identity she stole.
Can two girls—one enchanted, one the enchantress—save their kingdom and each other?
This is a discussion based club. Participants should come prepared to share their thoughts about that meeting’s book choice.
Limited space. No drop-ins. Purchase of book from Once Upon A Time required for RSVP.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: Once Upon a Time Event Page
Queer Joy Book Club: The Phoenix Keeper by S.A. MacLean at The Open Book Pasadena – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss The Phoenix Keeper and the author will join us for a special appearance.
Author S.A. MacLean will join us virtually to discuss her book The Phoenix Keeper.
RSVP required. Sign up in lInktree.
Where: The Open Book, Pasadena
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 300 E. Colorado Blvd. #161, Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: Instagram Page
Poetry Open Mic: Lisa Alvarez & Adolfo Guzman Lopez at Di Piazza’s Pizza – In-Person Event
Poetry at Di Piazza’s presents Lisa Alvarez and Adolfo Guzman Lopez as featured readers plus an Open Mic opportunity. Hosted by Tamara Madison.
Lisa Alvarez ’s poetry and prose have appeared in journals including About Place Journal, Air/Light, Anacapa Review, Citric Acid, Huizache, Santa Monica Review, and in anthologies such as Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-Short Stories from the United States and Latin America (Norton) and most recently, Rumors, Secrets and Lies: Poems about Pregnancy, Abortion and Choice (Anhinga Press) and Women in a Golden State (Gunpowder Press.) A professor of English at Irvine Valley College, in the summers, she co-directs the writers workshops at the Community of Writers in California’s High Sierra. Her debut collection, Some Final Beauty and other stories, was published in August 2025 by the University of Nevada Press’s New Oeste imprint.
Adolfo Guzman Lopez has been a reporter at LAist 89.3, the Los Angeles NPR affiliate since 2000. He reported and hosted Imperfect Paradise: The Forgotten Revolutionary, a true crime podcast looking into the death in 1994 of Chicano college activist Oscar Gomez. He has reported on L.A. politics, education, art, museums, and other topics. His stories have also aired and published nationally on NPR, The Washington Post, and other media. His awards include the LA Press Club’s “Radio Journalist of the Year.” He is the author of California Southern: writing from the road, 1992-2025, his first collection of prose and poetry.
Where: DiPiazza’s Pizza
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm (Sign-ups at 6 pm)
Address: 5205 Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA, 90804
Website: Facebook Page
Book Club: Love In A F*cked Up World at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Event
Whether you joined from the beginning or are just getting started, all are welcome to meet and discuss a new chapter every second Wednesday!
Support Underdog by purchasing your copy in-store or through Bookshop.org.
Wednesday, September 9: Chapter Five – What Are We Fighting About?
RSVP at website.
Where: Underdog Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 312 South Myrtle Avenue, Monrovia, CA, 91016
Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events/book-club-love-in-a-fcked-up-world-sep
Poetry Club: The Odyssey(s) at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join us for the newest book club at Village Well: The Poetry Club!
Each month, members will read the chosen poetry book and bring their favorite selections to share and discuss. Participation is free; just come with an open mind! Whether poetry is daunting or your passion, we’d love to have you!
Our selection for September is The Odyssey by Homer. Choose any translation, and we’ll discuss!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Wiseburn Library Book Club: Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books at Wiseburn Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for a book discussion and light refreshments! This month, read Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller. Copies of the books are available at the library. For ages 18+.
Refreshments generously provided by the Friends of the Hawthorne and Wiseburn Libraries.
“Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books, none of which she’s actually read. To replace the books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home. But Beverly’s daughter Lindsay sneaks in by night and secretly fills Lula Dean’s little free library with banned books wrapped in “wholesome” dust jackets. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways.”
Where: Wiseburn Library Book Club
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 6:45 pm – 7:45 pm
Address: 5335 W. 135th St., Hawthorne, CA 90250
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16955212
Los Feliz Writers: Shut Up and Write (2 sessions) in Los Feliz at Bar Alcove – In-Person Event
Looking for some dedicated writing time? Come by our weekly neighborhood meetups:
Mondays @ 6:45 pm – 8 pm at Sidewalk Grill (NEW)
Wednesdays @ 6:45 pm – 8 pm at Bar Alcove & Bakery
All writers and all experience levels are welcome!
We’re starting a Shut Up and Write event on Mondays too, thanks to @jack_andcat.
Hosted by @literarypixie!
RSVP at link in bio.
Where: Bar Alcove & Bakery
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 6:45 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1929 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: Instagram Page
Author Talk: Todd Marinovich and Lizzy Wright & Marinovich at Central Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the Los Angeles Public Library’s Art, Music, and Recreation Department for an online conversation with authors Todd Marinovich and Lizzy Wright, celebrating the recent release of their book, Marinovich: Outside the Lines in Football, Art, and Addiction.
Todd Marinovich, formerly a star quarterback at the University of Southern California, was selected in the first round of the NFL draft. He joined the Los Angeles Raiders and played from 1991 to 1993. Leaving football due to addiction, he returned to the sport in 1999 and earned Arena Football League All-Rookie Team honors in 2000. An ESPN Films documentary, The Marinovich Project, explored Todd’s unconventional life and rise to prominence. Todd openly shares his story to inspire others. A father, coach, and spiritual survivor, Todd resides in Hawaii.
Lizzy Wright is an award-winning author. Her second memoir, Marinovich, explores the turbulent life of Todd Marinovich. Dubbed America’s first test-tube athlete, the book reveals the tapestry of choices and sacrifices behind one of the most misunderstood athletes of his generation. A lifelong athlete and adventurer, Lizzy finds creative clarity in the ocean, where she contemplates character development and word choice in the surf lineup. She lives in Del Mar, California, with her husband, former NFL player Steve Wright.
Please complete form at website to RSVP. We will send the Zoom link by Tuesday, September 8, 2026.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, Ca 90071
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/author-talk-todd-marinovich-lizzy-wright
Author Event: Inventing the Page, with Tess Gerritsen, Meg Gardiner & Jordan Harper at the Skirball Cultural Center – In-Person Event
For Writers on Writing, go behind the scenes with three award-winning, best-selling authors. Tess Gerritsen, Meg Gardiner & Jordan Harper.
An evening with three bestselling crime writers and one unforgettable conversation. Moderated by Gary Phillips.
Tess Gerritsen is an internationally bestselling American novelist and retired physician best known for her medical and crime thrillers. A former medical doctor, she wrote her first novel in 1987, Call After Midnight, followed by 31 suspense novels over a 36 year career.
Her series of novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TNT television series “Rizzoli & Isles,” starring Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.
She is also a filmmaker. She and her son Josh produced a feature-length documentary, “Magnificent Beast,” about the ancient origins of the pig taboo. It aired on PBS channels around the country. Their previous film, “Island Zero”, was a feature-length horror movie that was released in 2018.
Meg Gardiner is a bestselling American thriller author, former lawyer, and three-time Jeopardy! champion who currently lives in Austin, Texas. She practiced law in Los Angeles and later taught writing and legal writing at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After moving with her family to England for her husband’s job, Gardiner began writing suspense novels. Her first novel, China Lake (2002), introduced her character Evan Delaney and won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback. She wrote the Evan Delaney series and the Jo Beckett forensic psychiatrist series. She co-authored Heat 2, a prequel and sequel novel to the classic 1995 film Heat, alongside director Michael Mann. The book debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. She served as the president of Mystery Writers of America for the 2019 and 2020 terms.
Jordan Harper was born and raised in Missouri (the Ozarks), growing up on a farm before starting his writing career. He is the Edgar Award-winning author of She Rides Shotgun and Love and Other Wounds, as well as the upcoming novels The Last King of California and Everybody Knows. He also writes for television, most recently writing and producing a pilot adaptation of L.A. Confidential and writing for Hightown on Starz.
Gary Phillips is an acclaimed American crime fiction writer, editor, graphic novel author, and community activist raised in South Central Los Angeles. He is well known known for his novel One Shot Harry and his latest novel is The Haul, a punchy sequel to the Warlord of Willow Ridge, a raucous, ripped-from-the-headlines heist novel.
NOTE: Ticketed event.
Where: Skirball Cultural Center
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 7 pm – 10 pm
Address: 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Website: Eventbrite Page
Jennifer Givhan, with Stefanie Leder, & The Sleeping Sisters at Skylight Books – In-Person Event
Jennifer Givhan, in conversation with Stephanie Leder, will discuss The Sleeping Sisters: A Novel.
A threatened mother and a relentless detective collide when a series of murders awaken something long buried in the New Mexican desert in this mesmerizing novel of literary horror.
A mother’s love is the oldest curse.
Fortuna Miércoles has finally moved her family to a better neighborhood across the Rio Grande, desperate to outrun the curse that’s stalked her bloodline since her greatest grandmother crossed the desert with a cactus thorn splitting her throat. But burying a family’s violent legacy—or her own haunting secret—isn’t so easy. Twenty years ago, girls and women vanished into the Albuquerque night, their bones later unearthed on the mesa. The so-called Reaper was never caught. Now, beneath the dormant volcanoes called the Sleeping Sisters, the killings have begun again, and they’ve called forth something in Fortuna that she has long fought to keep buried.
Detective Jeanette Palacio has spent decades promising justice to the ghosts of her murdered cousins—alongside the memory of the other women she couldn’t avenge. When a new body turns up in Fortuna’s backyard, both women are pulled into a dangerous, ancient plot. Are the Sleeping Sisters awakening—or has someone in Fortuna’s family set a trap?
Inspired by true events, The Sleeping Sisters begins as a taut mystery shot through with myth and a Chicana-Indigenous reimagining of the legend of the headless woman—but by its cataclysmic end has spiraled into a fevered, feral hymn to motherhood and a mesmerizing portrait of trauma and the monstrous bargains we make to protect those we love.
Jennifer Givhan is a Mexican American and Indigenous poet and novelist from the Southwestern desert and the recipient of poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and PEN/Rosenthal Emerging Voices. She holds a Master’s degree from California State University Fullerton and a master’s in Fine Arts from Warren Wilson College. Givhan is the author of five full-length poetry collections and the novels River Woman, River Demon, Jubilee, Trinity Sight, and Salt Bones. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her family.
Stefanie Leder is an author and TV writer/producer whose credits include the MTV teen dramedy Faking It, TBS comedy Men at Work, Netflix’s Boo, Bitch, and ABC Family comedy Melissa & Joey. She is a frequent guest lecturer on television writing at the UCR Low Residency MFA. Bilingual in English and Spanish, she spent a year abroad in Costa Rica, and has worked for a nonprofit on Fair Trade Coffee and anti-sweatshop campaigns. Love, Coffee, and Revolution is her first novel. You can also read her award-nominated short story, “Not a Dinner Party Person” in Eight Very Bad Nights; A Collection of Hanukkah Noir, or in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2025.
Where: Skylight
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 7 pm
Address:1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/2026-09-09/jennifer-givhan-w-stefanie-leder-sleeping-sisters
Kate Stayman-London, with Maurene Goo, & See You Next Tuesday at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Kate Stayman-London, in conversation with Maurene Goo, will discuss See You Next Tuesday.
In every election, they’re the issue.
Anya Katz is Type A and highly driven with unfaltering morals; she’s never met a group project she wouldn’t rather do all by herself. Gabe Hunt is a staggeringly handsome and charming golden boy who’ll do whatever it takes to win. At work on Democratic campaigns, Anya and Gabe fight about everything—but how long can they fight their undeniable attraction?
See You Next Tuesday follows Anya and Gabe through a decade of elections, from all-night phone banks and piles of greasy takeout to glitzy celebrity fundraisers and presidential debates. They say politics is the art of making change, but working in politics changes you—and Anya and Gabe navigate dizzying highs and devastating lows in their professional and personal lives as they evolve from enemies to grudgingly respectful colleagues to best friends to lovers…to bitter rivals.
With breakneck banter, sizzling chemistry, and clear-eyed optimism, See You Next Tuesday is an uplifting and addictive portrait of two lovers passionately working to make history—if only they can overcome their own.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 9th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-09-09/kate-stayman-london
Anansi Writers Workshop at The World Stage – In-Person Event
The Anansi Writers Workshop was founded in 1990 by Kamau Daáood, Akilah Oliver, Nafis Nabawi and Anthony Lyons. In 1993, Michael Datcher initiated the development of a three-part format for the workshop. Our tradition of a community workshop began in the late 1960s at the Watts Writers’ Workshop, where World Stage co-founder Kamau Daáood started his writing career. Hosted by Jessica Gallion aka “Yellawoman.”
- 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm — Formal workshop;
- 8:30 pm – 9:00 pm — TBA.
- 9:05 pm – 10:00 pm — Open mic.
Suggested: $10.00 Donation via PayPal: The World Stage Gallery.
NOTE: See site for further details and any change in the schedule. Contact on Instagram @ _yellawoman.
Where: The World Stage (use left rear entrance)
Date: Wednesday, the 9th
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: I Saw My Chance.
Where: Art Parlor
Date: Wednesday the 9th
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 Rooja Mohassessy 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.
Rooja Mohassessy is an Iranian-born poet and educator. Her debut poetry collection, When Your Sky Runs Into Mine, is an Elixir Press Award winner. Her poems and prose appear in Narrative Magazine, Nimrod, Southern Humanities Review, The Rumpus, and The Adroit Journal. Her work is anthologized in Colossus: Body and California Fire & Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology. Poetry media and podcasts that feature Rooja include NPR, The Hive Poetry Collective, and The Slowdown. She is a MacDowell Fellow and serves as a poetry editor for CALYX Journal. Rooja holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Pacific University.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Wednesday, the 9th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: Beyond Baroque Event Page
Poetry Reading & Open Mic by Two Idiots Peddling Poetry with Ben Trigg & Guest Monica Salazar at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Host Ben Trigg guest poet Monica Salazar to share his work
Monica Salazar is a Los Angeles Native and 4th generation Los Angeles Native and 4th generation Chicana with Native American Apache heritage born to parents who met in the Chicano Movement. She is not only a spoken word poet, but the author of a poetry book, Wisdom Looks Good on Her published with Alegría Publishing and the soon to be published For the Girls. She is a curator, a facilitator of self-love poetry and workshops; a business owner and founder of Typaway Poetry, creating custom on the spot poems using a vintage typewriter.
She has collaborated with many businesses and nonprofit organizations, as well as colleagues throughout Los Angeles county based on her demand poetry and workshops like Dominguez College, American Cancer Society, Nordstrom, Adidas, PACSUN, and Tiffany Co and featured on Spectrum TV. She has been featured for her spoken word throughout Los Angeles including Grand Performance Stage and Cheech Marine Museum to name a few. She has been awarded by the United States House of Representatives with a Certificate of Recognition applauding her achievements as a business owner and artist in service of her beloved Los Angeles Community.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday, the 9th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: Facebook Page
LiveTalks LA Presents: Liane Moriarty, with Rufi Thorpe, & Big Little Truths at The Writers Guild Theatre – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Liane Moriarty, in conversation with Rufi Thorpe, will discuss Big Little Truths.
In this highly anticipated sequel, Liane Moriarty examines the complexities of modern women’s lives, shining light on family dynamics and long-hidden truths with wit and compassion. Whether you’ve read Big Little Lies or not, this is the perfect novel for longtime fans and new readers alike.
Liane Moriarty is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Big Little Lies, Apples Never Fall, The Husband’s Secret, Truly Madly Guilty, and Here One Moment; the New York Times bestsellers Nine Perfect Strangers, What Alice Forgot, and The Last Anniversary; The Hypnotist’s Love Story; and Three Wishes. She lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and two children.
Rufi Thorpe is the author of four novels, most recently Margo’s Got Money Troubles which was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the Mark Twain Prize, and was adapted as an Emmy-nominated series on Apple TV. The Knockout Queen was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award and a Book of the Month pick, and her first novel The Girls from Corona del Mar was long-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the First Novel Prize. Her work has been translated into 18 languages. She received her MFA from the University of Virginia and now teaches at The Book Incubator, an online MFA alternative program.
The last time we saw the women of Big Little Lies—Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie—their children were five years old. If someone wasn’t invited to a birthday party, feelings were hurt. But ten years have passed and the kids are in high school, navigating all of the drama that accompanies teendom (goodbye playdates, hello drugs, sex, and alcohol).
When the high school principal receives a threatening package in the mail, word quickly spreads throughout the community and parents are in an uproar. But Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata, and Bonnie have other things to worry about. Celeste’s mother-in-law, Mary Louise, is behaving oddly—is it old-age forgetfulness and bluntness or something more sinister? Madeline is facing perhaps the biggest challenge of her life, Jane is at a dangerous fork in her marriage, Bonnie has realized there’s only so much solace in yoga. And Renata? Renata is living her best life—revenge is sweet.
When a stranger begins lurking around the school asking supposedly innocent questions, this tightly connected group of women must finally face the full repercussions of the big little truths they have and haven’t shared with their kids. Because the stakes are now much higher than not being invited to an ice-skating party—and the ice has never been thinner for any of them.
NOTE; Ticketed Event, see site for details.
Where: Writers Guild Theatre
Date: Wednesday, the 9th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 135 S. Doheny Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Website: LiveTalks Event Page
Lawndale Library Book Club: The Golden Spoon at Lawndale 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. September’s Pick: The Golden Spoon by Jessica Maxwell. For ages 18+.
Every summer for the past ten years, six awe-struck bakers have descended on the grounds of Grafton, the leafy and imposing Vermont estate that is not only the filming site for “Bake Week” but also the childhood home of the show’s famous host, celebrated baker Betsy Martin.
The author of numerous bestselling cookbooks and hailed as “America’s Grandmother,” Betsy Martin isn’t as warm off-screen as on, though no one needs to know that but her. She has always demanded perfection, and gotten it with a smile, but this year something is off. As the baking competition commences, things begin to go awry. At first, it’s merely sabotage—sugar replaced with salt, a burner turned to high—but when a body is discovered, everyone is a suspect.
Where: Lawndale Library, LACL
Date: Thursday the 10th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 14615 Burin Ave., Lawndale, CA 90260
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16729777
Mystery Book Club: Bluebird, Bluebird at Culver City Julian Dixon Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join Culver City Julian Dixon Library’s Mystery Book Club to discuss Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke. For adults.
“When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules—a fact that Darren Mathews, a Black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up Black in the Lone Star State, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home.
When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders—a Black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman—have stirred up a hornet’s nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes—and save himself in the process—before Lark’s long-simmering racial fault lines erupt.”
Where: Culver City Julian Dixon Library, LACL
Date: Thursday the 10th
Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 4975 Overland Ave., Culver City, CA 90230
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17073178
Teen Time Book Club: The Escape Game at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Teen Event
Set against a backdrop of crafts and snacks, Teen Time is Village Well’s newest and coolest book club! If you are 14-18 and love reading, join us the second Thursday of each month.
For our inaugural meeting, we’ll be discussing the twists and turns of The Escape Game by Marissa Meyer and Tamara Moss.
RSVP at website!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 10th
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Montana Branch Teen Book Group: The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa at Montana Branch, Santa Monica Public Library – In-Person Teen Event
Teens and tweens, discuss the first half of The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder, on September 10 and the second half of the book on September 24. For ages 12 – 17.
Where: Montana Branch, Santa Monica Library
Date: Thursday the 10th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 1704 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90403
Website: Santa Monica Public Library Event Page
Quick Read Club Event at Good Girl Books – In-Person Event
Join us to read a short story and then have a short discussion on it.
Where: Good Girl Books
Date: Thursday the 10th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 12444 Venice Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90066
Website: Instagram Page
Alexis Krasilovsky, with Yves Gore, & Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Alexis Krasilovsky, in conversation with Yves Gore, will discuss Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman.
Kate from Jules et Jim meets I Love Dick. A fiercely feminist novel cataloguing the innumerable obstacles encountered by young women in the 1970s and 1980s.
Ana Fried is a struggling filmmaker fighting to step out of her mother’s shadow. While researching the essence of Indian goddesses at Mount Abu for a film she was writing, a bout of malaria sends her back to her childhood suburban home. In her fever dreams, she relives her time at Yale during the early years of coeducation, where she first fought the many men who refused to take women artists seriously.
Ana’s filmmaking journey takes her from the high-stakes New York art scene to the gritty blues clubs of Memphis. Along the way, she navigates toxic relationships and “mentors” who try to control her talent.
Ana returns to Manhattan to finish her film, The Cyborg Goddess, and to stop playing it safe. Confronting the ghosts of her past, she determines to finally stop letting others define her and claim her own voice.
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman is a powerful #MeToo story from a different era, exposing the dark side of sexual liberation and the systems designed to keep women small and under control. This novel will inspire anyone who has ever dared to choose their art to live a true life of independence and personal empowerment.
Alexis Krasilovsky is a novelist, Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, award-winning filmmaker, and Professor Emerita at California State University, Northridge. Her forthcoming novel, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman (City Point Press; distributed by Simon & Schuster), fictionalizes her experiences as a member of Yale’s first undergraduate class of women and the making of her first film, End of the Art World, featuring Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. The film was recently restored with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation.
Her books include the poetry collection Watermelon Linguistics: New and Selected Poems, Great Adaptations: Screenwriting and Global Storytelling, and Women Behind the Camera. Retrospectives of her film and video work have been presented at the Whitney Museum and venues around the world, and she received a lifetime achievement award from the Gdańsk DocFilm Festival. She lives in Los Angeles.
Yves Gore is a performance artist and speculative fiction writer whose work explores themes on intimacy, mental afflictions and how to transcend social stigmas in order to live fuller lives. They have performed and exhibited in 17 countries, including at the Catacombs of Paris and Cologne’s St Ursula’s Golden Chamber, and is the main cast on Netflix’s feature Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste. Yves is the lead vocalist for alternative rock band FATAL CREATURES, and is currently completing their debut vampire novel, grappling with the existential dread of our times and the meaning of being human. Born on Borneo Island, the Land of the Headhunters, Yves grew up in Aotearoa New Zealand and lives in Los Angeles.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 10th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2026-09-10/alexis-krasilovsky-yves-gore
Assal Rad, with Alana Hadid, & Don’t Say Palestine at Skylight – In-Person Event
Assal Rad, in conversation with Alana Hadid, will discuss Don’t Say Palestine: How the Meida Manufactured Consent for Genocide,
A searing indictment of Western media that lays bare how the “free press,” long tasked with speaking truth to power, instead became a vital part of the machinery that enabled the genocide in Palestine.
If you’re not writing the truth about crimes against humanity, you’re culpable in them.
Activist and Middle East historian Assal Rad is known as the “headline fixer” for her powerful posts that illustrate how mainstream Western media’s coverage of the Gaza Genocide is filled with double standards. Israelis are described as “children” and “civilians,” while Palestinians are “people under 18” and “collateral damage”; Israelis are killed; Palestinians die. Even in the wake of the so-called ceasefire, major Western media continually obfuscates Israeli violence in Palestine: For example, the Associated Press reported that “Gaza’s living conditions worsen as strong winds and hypothermia kill 5.” No, Rad corrects: Gaza’s living conditions worsen as Israel blocks aid.
In Don’t Say Palestine, Rad reveals a pattern of dehumanizing language—in outlets from CNN and the AP to the BBC and The New York Times—so consistently employed throughout the Palestinian genocide that it amounts to a policy. Mainstream Western media consistently downplays Israeli responsibility, “others” Palestinians, and casts doubt on inviolable tenets of international law like the sanctity of hospitals and journalists in war zones. This groundbreaking, eye-opening exposé offers both a moral reckoning and an urgent call to action, mapping with devastating clarity the media’s complicity in whitewashing a human rights crisis.
Assal Rad is an activist, historian of the modern Middle East, and a fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC and DAWN. Her first book, The State of Resistance: Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek, The National Interest, The Independent, Foreign Policy, and other publications, and she has appeared as a commentator on BBC World, Al Jazeera, CNN, NPR, and elsewhere.
Alana Hadid is a fashion designer, model, activist, and film producer.
Where: Skylight
Date: Thursday the 10th
Time: 7 x
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/2026-09-10/assal-rad-w-alana-hadid-dont-say-palestine
Michelle Berenfeld & Lessons From a Lost Republic: What Ancient Rome Can Teach Us About This American Moment at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Michelle Berenfeld will present and discuss Lessons From a Lost Republic: What Ancient Rome Can Teach Us About This American Moment
A lively pocket history of the Roman Republic’s collapse—and its unsettling echoes in our own political moment.
Americans are obsessed with Rome. Billionaires and manosphere pundits wax on about its military might, its gladiators, its emperors, its greatness.
But we’re telling ourselves the wrong story.
In this sharp, eye-opening account, classics professor Michelle Berenfeld redirects our gaze. The Roman Empire isn’t the lesson—the Roman Republic is. Nearly five centuries of representative government, undone by forces that should sound familiar: wealth and power concentrated in the hands of elites, rampant political violence, endless expansionist wars, and a Senate that normalized emergency measures until it had nothing left to protect. One by one, aspiring strongmen seized what the Senate had surrendered, stretching the limits of their legal power, using the military against their own people, undermining elections, and killing their enemies—until one of them, Augustus, gained total control and became an emperor.
Berenfeld’s argument is both clarifying and urgent: Rome’s slide into autocracy was not inevitable—and neither is ours. Smart, spirited, and packed with revelatory detail, Lessons from a Lost Republic is a wake-up call two thousand years in the making, a reminder that the republic is ours to protect.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Thursday the 10th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-09-10/michelle-berenfeld
Consola del Túnel: A.R.D.O., Cascajo, Jasmine Morataya, Tori Gesualdo at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person & Online Hybrid YouTube Event
Beyond Baroque presents Consola del Túnel, an immersive activation of the Wanda Coleman Theater featuring spoken word, organic music, and installation art. The authors will present a mix of written works and improvisations from the label A.R.D.O. (algún resentimiento desconocido al odio), Nueoi Press, Salinas’ bilingual chapbook Dealer: poesía carcacha, and selected poems by Tori Gesualdo. Jasminne Morataya will be accompanied by musicians Chris McKelway and Joe Davancens.
A.R.D.O. (Algún Resentimiento Desconocido al Odio) is a creative studio and publishing label for art, poetry, photography, and recordings of organic music based in Los Angeles, California. A.R.D.O. shares messages of collectivism and autonomy, with an emphasis on analog production practices and processes.
Iván Salinas is a writer born in Ciudad de México and is Programs Manager at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center. He is the author of a bilingual poetry collection, Dealer: Poesía Carcacha published by There’s Only Peace in Death Press in 2026. He is the co-editor of Drifter Zine, based in the 818. His works have appeared in Revista Generación, The Acentos Review, Broken Lens Journal, Author Pop Ups, and The Ana.
Lupita Limón Corrales is a poet, artist, organizer, and language interpreter. She is a founding member of the Echo Park local of the Los Angeles Tenants Union. Her writing can be found in dozens of zines and handmade books; on Dublab and Lower Grand Radio; and in Protean Magazine, Longreads, Street Views, and Huizache. Her first full-length poetry book ESTA BOCA ES MIA was published by nueoi press in Spring 2024.
Tori Gesualdo is the author of the chapbook Smell the Smoke published by Sunflower Station Press. She is café manager, events coordinator, and bookseller at Stories Books & Café in Echo Park.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Thursday the 10th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: Beyond Baroque Event Page
LiveTalks LA Presents: Angela Duckworth, with Rainn Wilson, & Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best at Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre at New Roads School – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Angela Duckworth, in conversation with Rainn Wilson, will discuss Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best.
From the #1 bestselling author of Grit, a new book that reveals the hidden power of situations and how you can shape them to bring out your best.
In her first book, Duckworth showed that a common denominator of successful strivers is a blend of passion and perseverance she dubbed “grit.” This second book springs from her deepening realization that grit, while necessary, is sometimes not sufficient. How you situate yourself to meet a challenge can be crucial.
Her in-depth research reveals the enormous influence wielded by the objects within arm’s reach, your peers and mentors, and even your zip code. Though you’re often told to make the best of your situation, it is far, far better to make your situation better first.
In Situated, you’ll discover: Why your personality changes, sometimes dramatically, from one situation to another—and how you can harness that shift; The secret to conquering temptation without willpower; Why taking the less effortful path can feel like cheating but often solves a stubborn problem; How the company you keep shapes the person you become; The most effective ways to help others succeed
Highlighting four essential elements of successful situations, Duckworth shows how high performers like Taylor Swift, Michael Phelps, and Jerry Seinfeld create situations that make it easier to excel. And, with disarming honesty, she shares her own struggles with burnout and marriage—and how learning to change her situation, not herself, made all the difference. Whatever it is you want to achieve, there’s a situation that can make your journey easier.
It takes effort to make your situation your ally—but a little effort goes a long way…when you get situated
Angela Duckworth, PhD, is a psychologist, a MacArthur Fellow, and the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Duckworth’s TED talk is among the most viewed of all time. Her first book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance was a #1 New York Times bestseller and has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide. Her second book is called Situated: Find the People and Places That Bring Out Your Best.
Rainn Wilson is an Emmy Award nominated actor, best known for the role of Dwight Schrute in NBC’s The Office. He is the host of the Peacock docu-series Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss in which he travels the world in search of happiness. He is author of the New York Times bestselling Soulpancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions as well as his comedic memoir, The Bassoon King: My Life in Art, Faith and Idiocy. His most recent book is Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution. His diverse career includes television, movies, Broadway, unscripted series, animation, and podcasts.
Where: Ann and Jerry Moss Theatre at New Roads School
Date: Thursday the 10th
Time: 8 pm
Address: 3131 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website: LiveTalks 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 11th
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 11th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Non-Fiction Book Club: The Mesopotamian Riddle at Studio City Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us on the second Friday of every month for the nonfiction book club.
Upcoming meeting:
September (9/11): The Mesopotamian Riddle by Joshua Hammer
Where: Studio City Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Friday the 11th
Time: 12 pm – 1 pm
Address: 12511 Moorpark St., Studio City, CA 91604
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/nonfiction-book-club-0
School of Life Book Club: The Daughter of Time at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
Join us for the School of Life Book Club discussion of The Daughter of Time: A Novel by author Josephine Tey.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Friday the 11th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Westchester, CA 90045
Website: Instagram Page
Self-Care Book Club: I Eat the Stars at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss I Eat the Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World by Sarah Wilson.
In I Eat the Stars, Sarah Wilson delves into pressing questions. Drawing on many years of research and wisdom gained from more than 200 conversations with philosophers, poets, game theorists, and spiritual leaders, Wilson takes readers on an intimate journey as she lays out a path for living fully, meaningfully, and beautifully through these troubled times. Our predicament, she argues, is ultimately an urgent call to us all to relish what is valuable to us—to eat the stars—and to return to our humanity once again.
I Eat the Stars empowers readers to move beyond panic, doom, and despair. With her warm, incisively intelligent, wise, and down-to-earth voice, Wilson creates a space for readers to confront their fears and anxieties about an uncertain future, guiding them toward one rooted in truth, hope, justice, creativity, community, and to step up as “warriors” and meet the moment.
We are in what we were warned about for decades. But from a crisis comes stunning possibility.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Friday the 11th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6675 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, CA 92506
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-09-11/self-care-book-club-i-eat-stars
Eric LaRocca, with Brian Evenson, & We Turn Gruesome at Night at The Last Bookstore DTLA – In-Person Event
Join us for a conversation between two horror masters Eric LaRocca and Brian Evenson, for the release of the second installment of the nightmarish queer horror Burnt Sparrow Trilogy, We Turn Gruesome at Night, by Eric LaRocca.
Attendance is free, but reserve a seat for $10, a signed hardcover and seat for $32, or a seat and signed book bundle of LaRocca’s hardcovers or softcovers (limited # available).
Eric LaRocca (he/they) @eric_larocca is a 3x Bram Stoker Award® finalist and Splatterpunk Award winner. He was named by Esquire as one of the “Writers Shaping Horror’s Next Golden Age” and praised by Locus as “one of the strongest and most unique voices in contemporary horror fiction.” LaRocca’s notable works include Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Everything the Darkness Eats, and At Dark, I Become Loathsome. He currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts, with his partner.
Brian Evenson @bjornverenson is the author of two dozen books of fiction, most recently the story collection Good Night, Sleep Tight. His collection Song for the Unraveling of the World won the Shirley Jackson Award and the World Fantasy Award and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times’ Ray Bradbury Prize. His novel Last Days won the ALA-RUSA award for Best Horror Novel. He is the recipient of three O. Henry Prizes, a NEA fellowship, and a Guggenheim Award. His work has been translated into two dozen languages. He lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the California Institute of the Arts. A new novel, Phantom Limb, will be published in October of 2026.
Where: The Last Bookstore DTLA
Date: Friday the 11th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013
Website: Instagram Page
Jordan Tannahill, with Annapyrna Sriram, & The Living Realm at Skylight – In-Person Event
Jordan Tannahill, in conversation with Annapyrna Sriram, will discuss The Living Realm.
While cruising one evening by Teufelssee, a small glacial lake in the Grunewald forest on the edge of Berlin, a man spots a handsome stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance to his former lover. Only, Lukas died nearly thirty years ago. Yet the man cannot shake the feeling that it was really Lukas he saw. As the man spends a long, hot summer by the lake, he continues to encounter Lukas, and then other lost lovers as well. As he attempts to make sense of the strange occurrences and learns more of Teufelssee, he finds himself venturing deeper into the mystery of the forest, leading him to question not just his sanity but the nature of time itself.
Written with the lyricism and erudition that have made Jordan Tannahill an internationally celebrated playwright, The Living Realm is a moving, dreamlike novel and an elegy to the ways our lives become entangled with history, the natural world, and those we love.
Jordan Tannahill is a playwright and novelist. His debut novel, Liminal, received France’s 2021 Prix des Jeunes Libraires. His second novel, The Listeners, was short-listed for the 2021 Giller Prize and adapted into a limited series for the BBC. His most recent play, Prince Faggot, ran off-Broadway for seven months in 2025. He has twice won Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, and his work has been presented at venues including the Young Vic Theatre and Sadler’s Wells in London, the Kitchen and Lincoln Center in New York City, and the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. He lives in New York City with his husband.
Annapurna Sriram grew up in Nashville, Tennessee and a lot of her early artistic influences were informed by the unchaperoned movie rentals she found at the local public library. Annapurna received a BFA in Acting from Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts. Annapurna spent many years working in New York both on stage and in television and film. Her most cherished previous work includes Jesse Eisenberg’s The Spoils, Wallace Shawn’s Evening at the Talkhouse, the television shows I Think You Should Leave and Billions and the feature film Feral. Fucktoys premiered at SXSW and won the Special Jury award and was nominated for a Spirit Award for “Someone to Watch”.
Where: Skylight
Date: Friday the 11th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/2026-09-11/jordan-tannahill-w-annapurna-sriram-living-realm
Open Mic Night at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
This all-inclusive event will create space for local artists of any medium to share their talents with the community. Come hang out, as an audience member, or a performer, and meet some talented locals! Sign-ups for performers are at the door, day of, 30 minutes prior to the event. Sets are limited to 5 minutes. All performances must be family friendly. We will provide two microphones and two mic stands. Please bring any other equipment you will need. This event is free, no registration is required!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday the 11th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
3rd Annual East Los Book Festival at East Los Angeles Civic Center – In-Person Event
The 3rd Annual East Los Book Festival is facilitated by the Goddess Mercado and held at the East Los Angeles Civic Center on Saturday September 12 from 10 am – 4 pm.
Celebrating voices, stories, and legacy.
Main stage authors; book signings, live readings; vendor marketplace; kids stage.
Many panel events of authors and performers will be featured, plus many exhibitors will be tabling and presenting their merchandise and services for attendees to access.
See website link for details of scheduling, including:
10:30 am: Latino Legends Panel: Hosted by Gustavo Arellano, with Lorna Dee Cervantes and Herbert Siguenza.
12:00 pm: Featured Author Spotlight: Hosted by Obed Silva, with Viet Thanh Nguyen, Adriana Martinez, and Mike Madrid.
Plus, many more special events.
Where: East Los Angeles College (ELAC)
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 10 am – 4 pm
Address: 4801 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles, CA 90022
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: Saturday the 12th
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Graphic Novel Celebration: Dan Santat & Sashimi at Once Upon a Time – In-Person Kids Event
Get silly with the second book in Dan Santat’s new graphic novel series, Sashimi and the Field Trip of Doom! Dan will share a bit about the story and the do a live drawing. After the presentation he will be available to sign books. Best for ages 6+.
If you can’t make it to the event, you can order signed books in advance at website.
Dan Santat has published over 100 books for children. His most notable works include A First Time for Everything (A National Book Award winner), The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend (Caldecott Medal winner), All the Hulk Feels (Eisner Award Winner), Are We There Yet? (#1 New York Times bestseller), and After the Fall (New York Times bestseller). His artwork is also featured in the bestselling series The Misfts by Lisa Yee, Detective Duck by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver, and Dav Pilkey’s Ricky Ricotta. Dan lives in Southern California with his wife, two kids, and many, many pets.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 11 am
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: Once Upon a Time Event Page
Classics Book Group: The Ambassadors via Santa Monica Library – Online Zoom Event
This community-led, monthly book discussion group typically meets virtually at 11 a.m. on the second Saturday of the month. This book group discusses classic fiction titles. To register, email library@santamonica.gov.
The titles include:
September 12, 2026: The Ambassadors by Henry James.
Where: Santa Monica Library
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 11 am
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: Santa Monica Library Event Page
Storytime: Sandra Equihua & Hola, Lola! To the Bodega at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
Join us for an appearance by Sandra Equihua for her book Hola, Lola! To the Bodega: Un libro bilingue de primeras palabras.
A bilingual picture book from the Emmy Award-winning creator of El Tigre, featuring a spunky girl on a mission at the local bodega for her grandfather’s birthday. With over 100 first words in English and Spanish!
Un libro bilingüe, de la creadora de la serie El Tigre: las aventuras de Manny Rivera, y ganadora de un premio Emmy, protagonizado por una niña alegre con una misión en la bodega para el cumpleaños de su abuelito. ¡Con más de 100 primeras palabras en inglés y español!
It’s Abuelito’s birthday, and Lola must go to the neighborhood bodega to get a candle for his cake! But there’s just so much at the store that catches Lola’s eye, from the fresh fruits and vegetables to the delicious sandwiches at the deli counter—not to mention the sweet breads and paletas.
Little ones will lose themselves in the aisles along with Lola as she delves into all areas of the bodega. English and Spanish labels introduce young readers to all the common foods and items found at the grocery store.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 11 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-09-12/sandra-equihua
Writing Workshop & Book Signing: Israel Montoya & Monarchs in the Wind at Fullerton Public Library – In-Person Event
Join local Fullerton author, Israel Moya, as he leads a writing workshop on how to write your first book!
Stay after to get a copy of Monarchs in the Wind signed by the author! Books will be available for purchase at the event.
For adults and teens 13+. No registration required.
Where: Fullerton Public Library, Conference Center Room
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 11:30 am – 1 pm
Address: 353 W. Commonwealth Ave., Fullerton CA 92832
Website: Instagram Page
Linda J. Albertano Book Launch at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Canter – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us for this momentous occasion as we celebrate 6 books at once, all on the life and legacy of the late Linda J. Albertano. Readings and celebrations of Linda’s poetic works will be given by Frank Lutz, alongside long-time friends of Linda, Venice, and Beyond Baroque, Suzanne Lummis, Laurel Ann Bogen, Susan Hayden, and S.A. Griffin. Stay for free drawings, refreshments, a video of Linda’s life, and the opportunity to win a Linda J. Albertano book.
Suzanne Lummis is a poet and writer whose book, Open 24 Hours, received the 2013 Blue Lynx Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Hudson Review, The Antioch Review, and California Poetry from the Gold Rush to the Present, and she is editor of the anthology Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond. She is a recipient of Beyond Baroque’s George Drury Smith Award and the UCLA Extension Outstanding Instructor Award in Creative Writing.
Laurel Ann Bogen is a MPW, award-winning poet and author of 11 books, including an anthology of her work Psychosis in the Produce Department: New and Selected Poems 1975-2015 (Red Hen Press, 2015). Ms. Bogen’s work has been included in California Poetry from the Gold Rush to the Present, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, Stand-Up Poetry, and Spot Literary Magazine. She received the UCLA Extension Outstanding Instructor Award in Creative Writing.
Susan Hayden is a multigenre writer. She is the author of Now You Are a Missing Person, a memoir in poems, stories and fragments, published by Moon Tide Press. It was a Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie Book of 2024, after having received the Kirkus Star. She is the creator, curator and producer of Library Girl, a monthly literary series. Originating in 2009 at Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica, CA, the show celebrates the written word and features some of the boldest voices in Los Angeles: poets, essayists, novelists, playwrights and musicians.
S.A. Griffin published and edited (Sic) Vice & Verse, MEAT. Editorial staff for Shattersheet and The Moment. Co-founder H.I.P. (Hollywood Institute of Poetics) and WWWRN (World Wide Word Radio Network) Blog Talk Radio. Poem on the billboard at the corner of Hillhurst, Vermont and Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, CA, August 2002, protesting the U.S. rise to the ultimate invasion of Iraq in March 2004. Created and toured with The Poetry Bomb in 2010, a five week 11,000 mile tour to inspire and create civil disagreements. Toured the U.S. and Canada with performance poetry groups The Lost Tribe (1985-1992), The Carma Bums (1989-2009) and White Trash Apocalypse (1995-1997). He was a member of the advisory and curatorial boards of Beyond Baroque for several years and produced hundreds of readings in and around Los Angeles and across the nation.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 2 pm – 5 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: Eventbrite Page
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Deep Critique Workshop – Online Zoom Event
Join us online for a Deep Critique Workshop with DKC. (Submit up to 3 poems totaling no more than 150 lines including the subject of or at least mentioning remote for Four Feathers Press online edition: REMOTE by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59 pm, September 18th).
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry, Online
Date: Saturday, the 12th
Time: 3 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: Online SAP Zoom Event
Website: https://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Community in Conversation: America and Iran, Part 2, by John Ghazvinian at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Our Community in Conversations are about examining issues facing us with the depth and respect necessary to understand a complicated world. Sometimes it seems we can’t keep up with all that happens, but rather than judge on the bits of information thrown at us through media, we continue to probe more deeply. If you’ve been to previous Community in Conversations, you’ll have met Jasmine whose thoughtful examinations of the books we’ve read led me to ask her to lead this one. We have embarrassedly watched our country treat Iranian athletes with such malice, we have seen reminders of the 1979 hostage crisis, but have you been reminded of the CIA engineered coup against Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq? We have much to learn! I look forward to exploring this rich history with you over the next few months. We will be talking about Part 2: Summer the second session. Please join us on Saturday, September 12th at 4:00 pm.
America and Iran: In this rich, fascinating history, John Ghazvinian traces the complex story of the relations between these two nations back to the Persian Empire of the eighteenth century—the subject of great admiration by Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams—and an America seen by Iranians as an ideal to emulate for their own government. The Iranian-born, Oxford-educated historian leads us through the four seasons of U.S.–Iran relations: the spring of mutual fascination; the summer of early interactions; the autumn of close strategic ties; and the long, dark winter of mutual hatred. Ghazvinian makes clear where, how, and when it all went wrong. America and Iran shows why two countries that once had such heartfelt admiration for each other became such committed enemies—and why it didn’t have to turn out this way.
Buy your copy from Cellar Door Bookstore in-store, or online by adding it to your cart below. We’ll see you at the conversation!
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 6675 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, CA 92506
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-09-12/community-conversation-america-and-iran-part-2
Book Launch & Signing: Maria Oka & Wish on a Willow at One Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Event
Once Upon A Time is thrilled to welcome debut local author Maria Oka and her new book Wish on a Willow. Maria will share the magic of trees in her new illustrated chapter book, answer questions from the audience, and then be available to sign books. Best for ages 8+.
If you can’t make it to the event, you can order signed books in advance at website.
Maria Oka believes that all trees have magic in them, especially willows. In addition to reading and writing, she loves summer beach days, dance parties, and eating ice cream in any weather. She grew up in Holly, Michigan, and São Paulo, Brazil, as one of seven kids. Maria completed her undergrad at BYU and holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from VCFA. She lives with her husband and their four daughters in Los Angeles.
This is a gentle, contemporary story that both turns the pages as it warms the heart. Well-developed characters and situations that ring true make this a stand out debut for fans of the Penderwicks and Firefly Summer. Oka is an author to watch!
For ages 8+.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: Once Upon a Time Event Page
Book Launch: Dejo Olajode & Your Next Play at Octavia’s Bookshop – In-Person Event
We are excited to host @dejiolajide_ on Saturday September 12th at 5:00 pm as he discusses his new book, Your Next Play.
For many athletes, the transition out of sports is one of the most overlooked and emotionally complex seasons of life. Through eight practical plays, Deji walks you through the mindset shifts, habits, faith foundations, and principles necessary to win in life.
We look forward to seeing you at the shop!
Where: Octavia’s Bookshelf
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 1361 North Hill Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104
Website: Instagram Page
California Nights: a summer evening of poetry & story with Micah Bournes at Moonwater Farm – In-Person Event
Final 3 shows😭. What a summer. Thankfully I’m forever down for shows, so just message me if you wanna host an event even after the tour officially stops.
Micah Bournes, in addition to performing poetry and music, he speaks and teaches on creative writing, pursuing justice, and the way of Jesus. In partnership with World Relief and The Justice Conference, Micah has been able to share his passions and gifts worldwide. Plus, growing up in Long Beach in the ‘90s, Micah was raised under the influence of hip hop.
Where: Moonwater Farm
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 5:30 pm
Address: 544 W. Raymond St., Compton, CA 90220
Website: Instagram Page
L.A. Book Launch: Wolf Cut by Anna Journey at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person Event
Join us to celebrate the book launch of Wolf Cut by Anna Journey, with guest readers David St. John, and Allison Benis White,
Wolf Cut gathers nearly twenty years of work by Anna Journey. From her early work’s baroque lyricism tinged with the southern gothic to her capacious later poems’ signature meditative charisma, Journey reminds us that mystery and imagination are the luminous thresholds through which our reckonings must pass.
Anna Journey is the author of the poetry collections Wolf Cut: New & Selected Poems, The Judas Ear, The Atheist Wore Goat Silk, and Vulgar Remedies, all from Louisiana State University Press, and If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting, which was selected by Thomas Lux for the National Poetry Series and published by the University of Georgia Press. She’s also published the essay collection, An Arrangement of Skin, with Counterpoint Press. Her poems appear in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Poetry, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. She’s an associate professor of English at the University of Southern California.
Allison Benis White is the author of five collections of poetry, including A Magnificent Loneliness, winner of the LA Times Book Prize, Please Bury Me in This, winner of the Rilke Prize, and Small Porcelain Head, selected by Claudia Rankine for the Levis Prize, and named a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the California Book Award. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, Pushcart Prize XLI & XLVII: Best of the Small Presses, and elsewhere. She has received honors and awards from the Poetry Society of America, the San Francisco Foundation, the Academy of American Poets, and Poets & Writers magazine. She is a professor in the Department of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside.
David St. John is the author of numerous books of poetry, including The Face: A Novella in Verse, Prism, and Study for the World’s Body: New and Selected Poems, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the co-editor of American Hybrid: A Norton Anthology of New Poetry. He edited The Selected Levis and The Darkening Trapeze: Last Poems by Larry Levis. He teaches at the University of Southern California and lives in Los Angeles.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm (Doors at 5:30 pm)
Address: 681 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: Eventbrite Page
Bad B*tch Book Club: Flower Arranging Workshop at Good Girl Book – In-Person Event
Women-owned indie bookstore in Mar Vista, on the west side of LA✨
☕️ Cafe coming in the fall
⏰ Tues – Sun, 10 – 6
📧Contact us: info@goodgirlbooks.com
Where: Good Girl Books
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 12444 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90066
Website: Instagram Page
Joshua Frank, with Dean Wareham, & Bad Energy at Page Against the Machine – In-Person Event
Join us for an in-store event with author and journalist Joshua Frank discussing and signing his latest book, Bad Energy: The AI Hucksters, Rogue Lithium Extractors, and Wind Industrialists Who Are Selling Off Our Future, just published by Haymarket Books. He will be joined in conversation by musician and author Dean Wareham.
Green energy and renewables are heralded as the only way to mitigate our ever-worsening ecological crisis, but is that the whole story? In Bad Energy, Joshua Frank argues that the green energy transition is driven not by an effort to save the planet but by profit incentives. We must stop burning fossil fuels if we have any hope of saving the planet, but the significant, haphazard expansion of green energy in recent years—from large solar projects to wind energy to mining for renewables—has destroyed communities and ecosystems. And worse, renewables simply cannot match our ever-expanding demand for energy, driven in no small part by the rapid proliferation of data centers in the world’s wealthiest nations.
Taking readers from copper mines in Montana and Bolivia to wind farms in Wyoming to the geopolitical battle over deep-sea mining in the South Pacific, 𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘌𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘺 offers a stark assessment of the costs of the rush for renewables and the demand for endless growth. As Frank makes clear, we cannot consume our way out of climate chaos. What we need instead is rejection of the capitalist interests driving planetary collapse and a radical vision for a truly sustainable future.
Joshua Frank is an award-winning California-based journalist and coeditor of the political magazine CounterPunch. He is the author of Atomic Days: the Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America, The Big Heat: Earth on the Brink (CounterPunch, 2018). His work regularly appears in TomDispatch, The Nation, Earth Island Journal, and other outlets.
Dean Warsham is a musician, actor, author, and founder of the bands Galaxie 500 and Luna. His most recent album, That’s the Price of Loving Me, was released in 2025. His memoir, Black Postcards: A Rock & Roll Romance, was published by Penguin Books in 2009.
The event is free and open to the public, no tickets or reservations required!
Where: Page Against the Machine
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 2714 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90814
Website: Facebook Page
Palestine Solidarity & Book Launch Event: Assal Rad & Don’t Say Palestine at Scribble – In-Person Event
Scholar and author Assal Rad will present and discuss Don’t Say Palestine How the Media Manufactured Consent for Genocide.
Join us for a night of solidarity, music, poetry, book reading, and Q&A. Suggested donation of $15. All proceeds to support Palestine and Lebanon.
Find more info on Instagram @reynstormm_
Donations may be sent to @ReynReyn1 on Venmo
This is an all ages event.
Presented by Scribble.
Where: Scribble
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: 5541 York Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90042
Literacy Day Open Mic with Birmingham Charter Choir Students at The Open Book Topanga – In-Person Event
Join us for our Open Mic Night on Saturday, September 12th, at 7 pm, accompanied by songs from Birmingham Community Charter High School Choir (@bcchschoir)!
Mention BCCHS at the register and 20% of your purchase will go directly to the choir. 💙🎼
Come for the music, stay for the books, and help us lift their voices even higher. Apply via the link in our Linktree!📚💯
Where: The Open Book Topanga
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 6320 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Suite 1680, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
Website: Instagram Page
The Tapestry Open Mic at Cafe con Libros Press, Pomona – In-Person Event
Join is every second Saturday for the Tapestry Open Mic. This month features Lilah Juergens and is hosted by Consuelo.
Lilah Juergens is a Los Angeles based poet, a chef, a musician, a trans priestess, and community activist. Her work gravitates toward love, heartbreak, trauma, mental illness, and how it was all her mother’s fault.
Where: Café con Libros Press, Pomona
Date: Saturday the 12th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 280 W. 2nd St., Pomona, CA 91766
Website: Instagram Page
Typewriter Poets On Demand with L.A. Poet Society at Melrose Trading Post – In-Person Event
Poets with L.A. Poet Society participate in providing typewritten poetry on demand for customers each Sunday at Melrose Trading Post.
No cover. Donations appreciated.
Where: Melrose Trading Post
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 11 am – 5 pm (times and stage may vary)
Address: 7850 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046
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: Sunday the 13th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
The Writers Coffeehouse at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
The Writers Coffeehouse is open to everyone. The Coffeehouse is a bunch of writers sitting around talking about writing…with coffee. No agenda, just chatting about the latest trends in the industry, the craft of writing, markets, pitching and selling, conquering frustration, defeating writers block, and all of the good things that come from the community of writers. No previous publishing experience necessary. The Writers Coffeehouse attracts everyone, from absolute beginners to award-winners and bestsellers.
The Coffeehouse is hosted by Lisa Diane Kastner, founder of Running Wild Publishing.
Lisa Diane Kastner is the Founder of Running Wild, LLC, a content creation, distribution, and licensing company. Featured in FORBES and several other publications, she’s been named to multiple “Best of’s. A writer and editor for more than twenty years, she has identified talent like the multimillion selling, global phenomenon Jamie Ford’s Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Reuben “Tihi” Hayslett’s Dark Corners which was named one of the best of the year by Kirkus Reviews, and Shay Galloway’s completely groundbreaking The Valley of Sage and Juniper, among many others.
She has been mentored by such legends as the National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prizewinner Percival Everett; multiaward winning and NYTimes bestseller Jonathan Maberry; and multi-award winning and NYTimes bestseller Jackie Mitchard.
Lisa began Running Wild with the belief that we can change the world through story. A noted author in her own right, Lisa was a Drexel Scholar, obtained her BS from Drexel University, her MBA from Pennsylvania State University, and her MFA from Fairfield University.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 12 pm – 3 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Book Launch: Janet Wertman & What Love E’er Meant at The Book Jewel – In-Person Event
Join us for the launch of Janet Wertman’s book two of her Regina series and the second novel in her Tudor trilogy, What Love E’er Meant. This story is centered on the young Elizabeth Tudor’s struggle to balance love, power, duty and desire, and the cost of choosing crown over heart.
Where: The Book Jewel
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Westchester, CA 90045
Website: Instagram Page
Cellar Door Book Club: Fire Exit at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Fire Exit: A Novel by Morgan Talty.
From the award-winning author of Night of the Living Rez, comes a masterful and unforgettable story of family, legacy, bloodlines, culture, and inheritance, and what, if anything, we owe one another.
From the porch of his home, Charles Lamosway has watched the life he might have had unfold across the river on Maine’s Penobscot Reservation. He caught brief moments of his neighbor Elizabeth’s life―from the day she came home from the hospital to her early twenties. But there’s something deeper and more dangerous than the river that divides him from her and the rest of the tribal community. It’s the secret that Elizabeth is his daughter, a secret Charles is no longer willing to keep.
Now, it’s been weeks since he’s seen Elizabeth, and Charles is worried. As he attempts to hold on to and care for what he can―his home and property; his alcoholic and bighearted friend Bobby; and his mother, Louise, who is slipping deeper into dementia―he becomes increasingly haunted by his past. Forced to confront a lost childhood on the reservation, a love affair cut short, and the death of his beloved stepfather, Fredrick, Charles contends with questions he’s long been afraid to ask. Is his secret about Elizabeth his to share? And would his daughter want to know the truth, even if it could cost her everything she’s ever known?
Morgan Talty is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation. His debut short story collection, Night of the Living Rez, won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the New England Book Award, the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Honor, and was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, and The Story Prize. His writing has appeared in The Georgia Review, Granta, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Narrative, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. Talty is an assistant professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and Contemporary Literature at the University of Maine, Orono, and he is on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing as well as the Institute of American Indian Arts. He lives in Levant, Maine.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 2 pm – 3 pm
Address: 6675 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, CA 92506
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-09-13/cellar-door-book-club-fire-exit
Brave and Buggy Storytime: Alan Barillaro & Today We’ll Be Eaten at Once Upon a Time – In-Person Kids Event
Take a trip down the river with dragonfly and ladybug in the picture book Today We’ll Be Eaten by Alan Barillaro. For the event, he will read his story, do a drawing demo, and then be available to sign books. Best for ages 4+.
If you can’t make it to the event, you can order signed books in advance at website.
Alan Barillaro is the Academy Award-winning writer and director of the animated short film Piper and has been supervising animator on many other popular theatrical releases, including The Incredibles, WALL-E, and Brave. He has been honored with an ASIFA-Hollywood Award and an ICFF Award for Outstanding Career and is the author of the illustrated middle grade novels Where the Water Takes Us and Bunns Rabbit. This is his picture book debut. Originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario, he now lives in California with his three children.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 2 pm
Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: Once Upon a Time Event Page
Palabras Literary Salon: Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera & Breaking Pattern – In-Person Event
Jen Cheng hosts and curates the Palabras Literary Salon at Studious Collective in Chinatown, featuring author Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera discussing her novel Breaking Pattern.
You’re invited to join us for this dynamic conversation featuring Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera and a guest reader circle of 12 BIPOC-identified poets + writers. This is a community-building event.
The theme “courage” challenges us in this way as described by our featured author: Summoning courage means we are willing to set our fears aside, use our available resources, and face demands.
Our guest reader circle for this edition highlights Latine authors in early celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. We are honored to have award-winning poets and writers as part of this circle, as well as emerging artists. Guest readers:
Pat Alderete, Lili Flores, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Ryane Nicole Granados, José Enrique Medina, M. Anne Kala’i, Alex Cho, Mylo Lam, José Rios, Jalen Jones, Benin Lemus, Genesis Perez, and Jen Cheng.
RSVP: Drop-ins welcome.
Where: Studious Collective
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 418 Bamboo Lane, Los Angeles, CA 90012, Chinatown
Website: Instagram Page
Kevin Dettmar, with Simon Reynolds, & Punk in Pieces: Punk Rock, Post-Punk, New Wave, and the Five Years That Changed Pop Music Forever at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Kevin Dettmar, in conversation with Simon Reynolds, will discuss Punk in Pieces: Punk Rock, Post-Punk, New Wave, and the Five Years That Changed Pop Music Forever.
Once upon a time—November 26, 1976, to be precise—a band named the Sex Pistols kicked their way into cultural consciousness with “Anarchy in the U.K.” It was the public launch of punk rock, raucous music with a snarling in-your-face attitude, aggressive style, and a riotous political sensibility that came, saw, and conquered.
Fifty years later, the question remains: What the hell was that?
Punk in 50 Pieces retells the story of punk’s cultural earthquake. Kevin Dettmar traces the evolution of this rock ‘n’ roll revolution, revealing how classic early punk (The Ramones, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop) gave birth to both post-punk (Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Gang of Four) and New Wave (Talking Heads, Blondie, Devo).
Standing beside classic works such as Please Kill Me, Lipstick Traces, Rip It Up and Start Again, and England’s Dreaming, Punk in 50 Pieces paints a vivid portrait of an era, a sound, and the artists and attitude that made it unforgettable. It’s the perfect introduction for a new generation of rebels without a cause and a master playlist for die-hards who may no longer be slam-dancing in the mosh pit but have never forgotten the music.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2026-09-13/kevin-dettmar
Dia de a Independencia: Mexican Poetry Night at The Untold Story Bookstore, Anaheim – In-Person Event
Stay tuned for more information and the guest line-up for this event coming soon: Mexican Poetry Night.
Where: The Untold Story Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 3 pm – 6 pm
Address: 301 N. Anaheim Blvd., Anaheim, CA 92805
Website: Instagram Page
Marie Miranda Cruz, with Dahlia De La Vega, & A Boy Called Hero at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids & Family Event
Marie Miranda Cruz, in conversation with Dahlia De La Vega, will discuss A Boy Called Hero.
A time-travel adventure story about finding ways to make a difference, connect with others, and be true to yourself no matter where (or when) you are.
Twelve-year-old Hero Del Rosario isn’t happy about staying with his grandfather in the Philippines while the rest of his family takes a trip back to the States. He’s always been the overlooked one, the one who gets left behind, the one who—despite his name—is nothing special. But when he’s transported more than a century into the past, he suddenly has bigger problems.
It’s 1892, and the Philippines is controlled by Spain. Hero doesn’t know how he got here or how to get home. Luckily, he meets two kids his age—his great-great-grandfather, Teo, and Teo’s twin sister, Olivia—who takes Hero under their wing.
Hero’s ancestors are secretly resisting the oppressive colonial government and working for Philippine independence. Their current mission: distributing copies of a banned book that promotes revolutionary ideas. Soon, Hero is drawn into this work…and discovers that he may be able to live up to his name after all.
As the Spanish authorities close in, Hero must act fast to save his family and the seeds of revolution―without losing his chance to return to his own time.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101-2116
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-09-13/marie-miranda-cruz
Author Appearance: Jennifer Dickinson, with Victoria Rocha, & Maggie’s Big Break – In-Person Kids & Family Event
Jennifer Dickinson, in conversation with Victoria Rocha, will discuss Maggie’s Big Break, for Ages 8-12.
Maggie Pierson is an aspiring actress starting sixth grade at a new school with her best friend, Francesca. They dream about trying out for the school’s fall play, but they’re not the only ones looking to audition. Valentine, an experienced actress, has her eye set on the play’s lead role. Francesca falls under the spell of Valentine, a know-it-all who teases Maggie about her stutter. Maggie’s disability has never held her back from performing before, but faced with new insecurities and her best friend’s abandonment, quitting seems like Maggie’s best choice.
How will Maggie find the courage to pursue her big acting dreams?
Where: Flintridge Bookstore
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 4 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 858 Foothill Blvd., La Cañada Flintridge, CA, 91011
Sarah Longwll, with Jon Favreau, & How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time at Chevalier’s Books
Sarah Longwell, in conversation with Jon Favreau, will discuss How to Eat an Elephant: One Voter at a Time.
Chevalier’s Books is thrilled to host Sarah Longwell, CEO and Publisher of The Bulwark, and Jon Favreau, co-founder of Crooked Media and co-host of Pod Save America, for a timely conversation about the state of American politics today.
Centered around Langwell’s new book, HOW TO EAT AN ELEPHANT: One Voter at a Time, Jon and Sarah will discuss the lessons she’s learned and stories from her own unlikely journey from a lesbian Republican operative to the vanguard of the anti-MAGA movement.
In HOW TO EAT AN ELEPHANT, Longwell employs her trademark bluntness and humor to explain exactly how we got here and, more importantly, what we must build next to save America from authoritarianism.
HOW TO EAT AN ELEPHANT shows that we desperately need a plan for pulling America back from the brink, one that’s designed to appeal to the most important but overlooked people in the country: the voters themselves.
Sarah Longwell is CEO and Publisher of The Bulwark, one of the largest and fastest-growing independent media companies in the country, with millions of subscribers across all platforms. She is also the host of The Focus Group podcast, in which listeners hear directly from voters in Sarah’s focus groups. She has decades of experience leading some of the nation’s highest-visibility targeted persuasion campaigns and is a nationally recognized leader in qualitative research into how voters are feeling about the state of the country. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her family and is a graduate of Kenyon College.
Jon Favreau is a co-founder of Crooked Media and co-host of Pod Save America, a popular political podcast with over 1 billion downloads. He’s also host of Offline with Jon Favreau, The Wilderness, and co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Democracy or Else. Prior to founding Crooked Media, Jon was Barack Obama’s head speechwriter from 2005 to 2013. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Emily, their sons Charlie and Teddy, and their dog Leo.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 133 N Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2026-09-13/sarah-longwell-how-eat-elephant-one-voter-time
Second Sunday Poetry Series & Open Mic at The Studio Theatre at St. Denis Building
Host Alex M. Frankel hosts this poetry series and open mic event every 2nd Sunday of the month. Great poets perform their work, sell and sign books, plus mingle with audience members and open mic participants.
NOTE: Check website to verify and for updates on the featured poet(s) for this date.
Where: The Studio Theatre at St. Denis Building
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 3433 Cahuenga Blvd West, Los Angeles 90068 (Near Universal Studios)
Website: https://www.secondsundaypoetry.com/
Library Girl: A Tribute to Lucinda Williams at Ruskin Group Theatre – In-Person Event
Library Girl Presents: I Am Waiting For Your Essence — A Tribute to Lucinda Williams in Words and Music.
Co-curated by Susan Hayden with Steve Hochman. Featuring: music by Natalie Ford Brown with Doug Tibbles, Lisa Finnie with John McDuffie + Dylan Thomas, Claire Holley, and Rick Shea. (Also featuring an online-only appearance by The Prickly Pair).
Readings by John Perrin Flynn, Steve Hochman, José Enrique Medina, Chris Morris, Patty Seyburn, and Tanya White.
Sunday night JULY 12th at 7 pm at (the new) Ruskin Group Theatre, 2800 Airport Ave, Santa Monica 90405. Admission: $20. Get your tickets now! Here’s the link: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?ticketing=rgt. Library Girl is in its 17th year. Created and Produced by Susan Hayden. All box office proceeds donated to Ruskin Theatre.
Where: Ruskin Group Theatre
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 2800 Airport Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90405
Website: Facebook Page
Fantasy Romance LA Book Club: Blood & Brujas at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Bookseller Grace leads our fantasy and paranormal romance book club.
Fantasy and paranormal romance book club meets on the 2nd Sunday of the month at 7:15 pm. If witches, vampires, ghosts, and other worlds are your jam, please join us!
Everyone is welcome. No membership is necessary, but RSVP is required.
Book for September: Blood and Brujas (Fate of the Acna #1) by Mikayla D. Hornedo.
From the moment Dayanara could wield a blade, she’s been used as a weapon for Caldera, a kingdom of fierce brujas. Whenever her mother, the all-powerful Acna, points her in the direction to kill, Dayanara follows.
After centuries of war against the vampire kingdom at their border, her mother offers their king Dayanara’s hand in marriage as a truce. Their agreement is bound by magic, and Dayanara must decide if she wants to kill the king, seduce the king, or embrace the union.
On the bright side, the marriage is set to make her the next Acna, granting her all the power that comes with the role. Depending on how much the Goddess Naom gifts her, it could be enough to regain control of her life. Or maybe everything will crumble beyond repair.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 13th
Time: 7:15 pm
Address: 3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: https://therippedbodice.com/event/2026-09-13/fantasy-romance-la-book-club-sept-2026
Los Angeles Literature 
Hi!Thank you so much for being so very supportive of Library Girl. It means everything to me.Wanted to let you know the show you posted was from a couple months back.The new one is on the Ruskin website, here is the link: https://app.arts-people.com/?show=310767 All my best to you ❤
| Library Girl: A Tribute to Lucinda Williams at Ruskin Group Theatre – In-Person Event |
| Library Girl Presents: I Am Waiting For Your Essence — A Tribute to Lucinda Williams in Words and Music. |
| Co-curated by Susan Hayden with Steve Hochman. Featuring: music by Natalie Ford Brown with Doug Tibbles, Lisa Finnie with John McDuffie + Dylan Thomas, Claire Holley, and Rick Shea. (Also featuring an online-only appearance by The Prickly Pair). |
| Readings by John Perrin Flynn, Steve Hochman, José Enrique Medina, Chris Morris, Patty Seyburn, and Tanya White. |
| Sunday night JULY 12th at 7 pm at (the new) Ruskin Group Theatre, 2800 Airport Ave, Santa Monica 90405. Admission: $20. Get your tickets now! Here’s the link: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?ticketing=rgt. Library Girl is in its 17th year. Created and Produced by Susan Hayden. All box office proceeds donated to Ruskin Theatre. |
| Where: Ruskin Group Theatre |
| Date: Sunday the 13th |
| Time: 7 pm – 9 pm |
| Address: 2800 Airport Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90405 |
| Website: Facebook Page |
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