Greater Los Angeles Writers Society at Venice Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
For many writers, creating a memoir or any novel is complex, a deeply personal process, and an emotional undertaking. Balancing events, relationships, and complications with reflection can make the task daunting task. Get to the heart of the story you want to tell and your purpose for telling it. Explore a narrative approach where the basics still matter: story and character arcs, POV, show not tell, and varied plot pacing. And once the manuscript is finished, then what?
Join GLAWS and award-winning author Amanda LaPera as she takes us through the challenges, pitfalls, and triumphs of writing, as well as the varied options for publication.
Where: Venice Branch Library
Date: Monday the 28th
Time: 2 pm – 5 pm
Address: 501 S. Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: https://www.lapl.org/index%2ephp/events/greater-los-angeles-writers-society-1
Queer Book Club: How We Names the Stars via Cellar Door Bookstore – Online Event
Participants will meet online to discuss the novel How We Named the Stars by author Andres N. Ordorica.
When Daniel de La Luna arrives as a scholarship student at an elite East Coast university, he bears the weight of his family’s hopes and dreams, and the burden of sharing his late uncle’s name. Daniel flounders at first—but then Sam, his roommate, changes everything. As their relationship evolves from brotherly banter to something more intimate, Daniel soon finds himself in love with a man who helps him see himself in a new light. But just as their relationship takes flight, Daniel is pulled away, first by Sam’s hesitation and then by a brutal turn of events that changes Daniel’s life forever.
As he grapples with profound loss, Daniel finds himself in his family’s ancestral homeland in México for the summer, finding joy in this setting even as he struggles to come to terms with what’s happened and faces a host of new questions: How does the person he is connect with this place his family comes from? How is his own story connected to his late uncle’s? And how might he reconcile the many parts of himself as he learns to move forward?
Equal parts tender and triumphant, Andrés N. Ordorica’s How We Named the Stars is a debut novel of love, heartache, redemption, and learning to honor the dead; a story of finding the strength to figure out who you are—and who you could be—if only the world would let you.
Andrés N. Ordorica is a queer Latinx poet, writer, and educator. Drawing on his family’s immigrant history and his own third culture upbringing, his writing maps the journey of diaspora and unpacks what it means to be from ni de aquí, ni de allá (neither here, nor there). He is the author of the poetry collection At Least This I Know and currently resides in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday the 28th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-09-28/queer-book-club-how-we-named-stars
Sherman Oaks Book Club: City of Thieves at Sherman Oaks Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Please join us for a conversation about City of Thieves, by David Benioff.
From the critically acclaimed author of The 25th Hour and When the Nines Roll Over and co-creator of the HBO series Game of Thrones, a captivating novel about war, courage, survival—and a remarkable friendship that ripples across a lifetime.
During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible.
By turns insightful and funny, thrilling, and terrifying, the New York Times bestseller City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men.
Where: Sherman Oaks Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 28th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: https://www.lapl.org/index%2ephp/events/sherman-oaks-book-club-city-thieves-david-benioff
Mar Vista Book Club: House Of Mirth at Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Please join us for a conversation about House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton.
Where: Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 28th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 12006 Venica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066
Website: Instagram Page
Ghosts Across Book Tour: Chris Vanjonack, Weston Morrow, & Lena Valencia at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join us for an evening of contemporary speculative fiction with debut authors Chris Vanjonack and Weston Morrow, plus special guest Lena Valencia!
The three authors will discuss their work and provide readings of their spooky and thoughtful poetry and prose.
Chris Vanjonack is a writer and educator from Denver, Colorado. A recipient of an AWP Intro Journals Award, his fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared or are forthcoming in One Story, Book of the Month Club’s Volume 0, Recommended Reading, Barrelhouse, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and he teaches creative writing at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop. Out of Body is his first book.
Weston Morrow is the author of Cloud Builder, winner of the 2025 National Poetry Series. His recent poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Boulevard, The Adroit Journal, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere. He holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an M.A. in English Literature from Central Washington University. A former print journalist, he teaches writing at The Ohio State University.
Lena Valencia is the author of the short story collection Mystery Lights (Tin House Books), which was longlisted for the Story Prize, named a Best Short Story Collection of 2024 by Electric Literature, and a Best Horror Book of 2024 by Esquire. Her fiction has appeared in BOMB, The Baffler, Electric Literature, Ninth Letter, Epiphany, and elsewhere. Her writing has been supported by the Elizabeth George Foundation and the Convent Arts Fellowship. She holds an MFA in fiction from The New School and is the director of educational programming at One Story. She lives in Los Angeles.
Out of Body is a wildly inventive collection of interconnected speculative stories—spanning the multiverse, demonic attachment, and life after death from an electrifying new voice in fiction.
An aimless ghost haunts his ex-girlfriend for evidence that she’s actually upset about his death.
A group of teens discovers a machine that purports to predict the best day of its users’ lives.
A young woman is horrified to discover that an aggressive stranger she met on a night of bar-hopping now manifests in every photo that is taken of her.
A drunken posse descends into the woods in search of clowns that have been terrorizing their small town.
Chris Vanjonack’s fiction is haunted not only by specters of death, but by the elusive questions of life, and above all, the wonder and horror of the infinite. Uncanny, surreal, and infectiously clever, the stories in this linked collection contain horrors great and small, fueled as much by the fantastic as by longing, dread, and all-too-human frailties.
Morbidly funny and brilliantly observed, Out of Body is an atmospheric, dead original feast for the senses.
Cloud Builder is a book that asks, what do we owe the dead? This is the question at the heart of Cloud Builder, in which Weston Morrow interrogates the burden of legacy and the ever-watchful gaze of our deceased loved ones. His search takes him from the landscapes of the late Romantics to the soccer fields and baseball diamonds of present-day Washington state, along the way reanimating figures from his own and our collective past.
These poems reawaken long-dead painters and musicians, collapsed bridges, derelict ferries, and dormant volcanoes, confronting him with his failure, at times, to ask what it is we owe the living. What do the dead want from us? Or, conversely, is it we who haunt “the past, who can’t stop turning back / for one last look”?
Mystery Lights is an electrifying new voice in contemporary fiction that illuminates the many forces that haunt us.
An influencer attempts to derail a viral TV marketing campaign with her violent cult following. A marriage between two ghost hunters is threatened when one of them loses her ability to see spirits. The lives of a famous painter in the twilight of her career and a teenage ufo enthusiast converge when a mysterious glowing orb appears in their small desert town. And a slasher-flick screenwriter looking for inspiration escapes a pack of wild dogs only to find herself locked in an SUV with a strange man beside her.
From the all-too-real horror of a sexual predator on a college campus to a lost sister transformed by cave-dwelling creatures, Lena Valencia’s debut story collection, Mystery Lights, grapples with terrors both familiar and fantastic.
Reserve your seat at website link!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Monday the 28th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
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 28th
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 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 3575 University Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Website: Facebook Page
Deena Helm, with Dahlia De La Vega, & Our Cult of Salt at Skylight – In-Person Event
Deena Helm, in conversation with Dahlia De La Vega, will discuss Our Cult of Salt.
In this lyrical debut, three generations of Palestinian women must put the haunting of their ancestral home to rest, before the secrets of the past drown them all. Our Cut of Salt is a powerful and intimate look at what it means to make a home, to lose it, and to return, only to find it irrevocably changed.
There is something haunting Nuhad’s childhood home in Haifa. Cats avoid its perimeter, strange noises come from within, and residents have mysteriously vanished without a trace. Although Nuhad has not returned to her home since the Nakba in 1948, she always held a place for the house in her heart.
And, in return, the house did the same for her.
After Nuhad passes away, her granddaughter, Marina, is determined to visit her grandmother’s home after a lifetime of being kept in the dark about her culture and family history. Marina’s mother, Haifa – named for the city that was lost to their family – reluctantly agrees to her trip, though she knows firsthand that some secrets are better left buried.
But the house is no longer a home. It is a painful, festering wound that infects everything it touches. The more Marina digs into her family’s past, the sicker she becomes. Despite Nuhad’s ghostly warnings, Haifa rushes to help her daughter.
As the three women converge in their ancestral home, they must put the haunting to rest before the secrets of the past drown them all.
Deena Helm is a mixed Palestinian-American author, and Our Cut of Salt is her debut novel. Her other works can be found in Fikra Magazine and So To Speak. She asks that you, the reader, do everything in your power to resist genocide and deepen your commitment to liberation for all.
Dahlia De La Vega is the LA-based content creator and interviewer behind ofpagesandprint on social media. She can be found moderating book events at bookstores and festivals; hosting her monthly book club, Musings of the Nine; and chatting about her favorite reads on Instagram.
RSVP
Where: Skylight
Date: Monday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/2026-09-28/deena-helm-w-dahlia-de-la-vega-our-cut-salt
Jon Else, with Diana Kormos Buchwald, & Frenchman Flat: The Rise And Fall of Atomic Bombs at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
John Else, in conversation with Diana Kormos Buchwald, will discuss Frenchman Flat: The Rise and Fall of Atomic Bombs.
The story of a single nuclear bomb’s deep origins, brief life during the Cold War, and lasting environmental and political legacies—as a fresh path to consider the entire sweep of the American nuclear enterprise. A grave reminder of the frightening truth about nuclear testing, as international norms waver.
As the US and Russia let one treaty after another falter and expire, this urgent book reminds us of the price of those tests. Frenchman Flat recounts the science, politics, and human experience of those who developed nuclear weapons, suffered the consequences, and fought for and against arms control between the 1940s and 1990s. The throughline of this vast, complex story is a 37-kiloton atomic bomb dubbed “Priscilla” that was exploded above a custom-built mini-civilization at Frenchman Flat, Nevada, in 1957. Jon Else uses Priscilla and the bombs that preceded and followed to highlight the terrifying ways we have stockpiled and tested nuclear weapons, how near and often we came to self-annihilation, how we managed to avoid it, and what we did to the planet and to our own bodies in the process, from wartime Los Alamos to the suspension of US and Soviet nuclear testing in 1992.
In the two decades after Hiroshima, a pair of dramatic stories unfolded alongside each other: the scramble to produce ever more powerful nuclear weapons, and the struggle to ban testing of those same weapons. The dramatic narrative takes in the physics of the megaton postwar bombs, the role of private industry, the near misses of the Cuban Missile Crisis and less well-known events, and the testimony of scientists, politicians, doctors, weapons developers, test-site workers, ranchers, and families downwind of test sites.
This powerful and persuasive book reminds us how we have—so far—prevented nuclear war by deterrence, diplomacy, and luck. It is for the moment a success story, and a warning.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Monday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-09-28/jon-else
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 28th
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 29th
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.
In Lost Children, 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 GI’s, Ethel feels compelled to help find these children homes.
This month we will discuss 1/5 of the book each week. See below for the breakdown of the weekly discussions:
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 29th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16886934
Bestsellers Book Talk: SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups at Stevenson Ranch Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Please join us and enjoy a lively book discussion on this Bestseller book selection: SNAFU: The Definitive Guide to History’s Greatest Screwups by Ed Helms. For adults.
History contains a plethora of insane screwups—otherwise known as SNAFUs. In other words, ‘Things are pretty screwed up, but aren’t they always?’ Spanning from the 1950s to the 2000s, Ed Helms steps in as unofficial history teacher for a deep dive into each decade’s craziest SNAFUs. From planting nukes on the moon to training felines as CIA spies to weaponizing the weather, this book will unpack the incredibly ironic decision-making and hilariously terrifying aftermath of America’s biggest mishaps.
Where: Stevenson Ranch Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 12 pm –1 pm
Address: 25950 The Old Rd, Stevenson Ranch, CA 91381
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17212294
Author Book Talk: Paul Richter & The Distance Between Our Names at Little Tokyo Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Please join us for a conversation with author Paul Richter about The Distance Between Our Names, and about the struggles of the early Japanese immigrants to America.
Where: Little Tokyo Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: 203 S. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/author-book-talk-distance-between-our-names
Visiting Writer Talk: Pete Hsu at Pasadena City College, Creveling Lounge – In-Person Event
“36 years ago, I took my first creative writing class. It was here at PCC, my hometown city college. There were 12 students in that class. We were optimists. The dream of the 90’s was still alive. We read Chekhov. I still think about “Misery” every time I write a new story. We wrote and workshopped two stories each. I wrote one story about a man being shot and killed by a stranger who turned out to be his long, lost son. Another was about a garbage collector in suburban Virginia who found a sack of money in the trash. I listened to jazz music as I wrote. I wanted to write a book like Rollins’ BLACK COFFEE BLUES. I daydreamed about coming back to PCC someday with my own story collection…”
Where: Pasadena City College, Creveling Lounge
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 1 pm – 2:30 pm
Address: 203 S. Los Angeles St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Website: Instagram Page
Zoom Club: A History of the World in Six Glasses via Venice Branch Library, LAPL – Online Event
Please join us the last Tuesday of the month for a lively discussion of our current selection.
Sep. 29: A History of the World in Six Glasses, Tom Standage.
Where: Venice Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: Online Zoom Event
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/zoom-book-club
Iacobani Book Talk: The Bean Trees at Angleo M. Iacobani Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Please join us or our monthly book club! This month we’ll be discussing The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. Copies of the book will be available at the customer service desk. This program is for adults.
You can check out an eBook or audiobook version of this title on Libby or Hoopla.
Where: Angleo M. Iacobani Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 6 pm –7 pm
Address: 4990 Clark Ave., Lakewood, CA 90712
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17061890
LGBTQ+ Book Club: Razorblade Tears at West Hollywood Library, LACL – In-Person & Online LGBTQIA+ Hybrid Event
Please join us or a hybrid (in-person and online) discussion of Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby. For adults.
This is a hybrid event and will be hosted in-person in the West Hollywood Library Community Meeting Room as well as on Zoom. Please register at the link below to receive the link to the meeting via email.
https://library-lacounty-gov.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pd-Goqz4uGNNbzVuW720zsRrGxTK1VeLG
West Hollywood Library’s LGBTQ+ Book Club meets on the last Tuesday of the month to discuss literary works of relevance and interest to the LGBTQ+ community.
Please contact the library to borrow a print copy of the book. eBook is available through Libby and downloadable audiobook is available through hoopla digital (no wait) and Libby.
In Razorblade Tears, Ike Randolph has been out of jail for fifteen years, with not so much as a speeding ticket in all that time. But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.
The last thing he expects to hear is that his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah’s white husband, Derek. Ike had never fully accepted his son but is devastated by his loss.
Derek’s father Buddy Lee was almost as ashamed of Derek for being gay as Derek was ashamed his father was a criminal. Buddy Lee still has contacts in the underworld, though, and he wants to know who killed his boy.
Ike and Buddy Lee, two ex-cons with little else in common other than a criminal past and a love for their dead sons, band together in their desperate desire for revenge. In their quest to do better for their sons in death than they did in life, hardened men Ike and Buddy Lee will confront their own prejudices about their sons and each other, as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.
Where: West Hollywood Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/16471878
Blockbuster Book Club: The Haunting Of Hill House at Clifton M. Brakensiek Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Please join us for our two-part book club for books that have made it to the screen! Ages 18+
This first session we will discuss the book The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. During the second session, Tuesday, October 27 from 5 pm – 7 pm, we will watch the film adaptation. This program is generously sponsored by the Friends of the Clifton M. Brakensiek Library.
Check with the circulation desk for copies of the book or request a copy online at Catalog.LACountyLibrary.org/.
Where: Clifton M. Brakensiek Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 9945 Flower St., Bellflower, CA 90706
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17261051
Lomita Book Club: Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant at Lomita Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Please join us for a discussion of Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast. This graphic novel memoir is about her time caring for her elderly parents in the last years of their lives, and the hard transitions that come with it. For adults.
Where: Lomita Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 24200 Narbonne Ave., Lomita, CA 90717
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17294501
Author Talk: Dr. Jonathan P. Higgins & Black Fat Femme at Octavia’s Bookshelf – In-Person Event
Join us on Tuesday September 29th at 6 pm as we welcome Doctor Jon Paul and Dr. James Simmons as they discuss Black. Fat. Femme. This is sure to be a conversation you won’t want to miss.
Dr. Jonathan P. Higgins, known as DoctorJonPaul, is an award-winning educator, media critic, author, and strategic communications leader whose work centers on race, gender, identity, and social justice in entertainment and education. With a doctorate in Leadership and Educational Justice (2015) and over 15 years of experience, they have taught at institutions like the University of Redlands, consulted for brands including Apple, Disney, and the NFL, and contributed to outlets such as NBC News, Vox, Essence, and Out Magazine. In 2025, Higgins published the critically acclaimed book Black Fat Femme: Revealing the Power of Visibly Queer Voices in Media and How to Love Yourself (Wiley) and serves as executive producer and co-host of the iHeartPodcast series Black Fat Femme. Using they/them pronouns and embracing the identity “They/Them/Tired,” Higgins is dedicated to amplifying queer Black voices and fostering joy, resilience, and self-love in marginalized communities.
Where: Octavia’s Bookshelf
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1353 North Hill Ave., Pasadena, CA 91104
Website: https://www.octaviasbookshelf.com/events/author-talk-dr-jonathan-p-higgins
Local Authors Meet-up at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us for an opportunity to connect, collaborate, and spend time in community. Whether you’re self-published and new to the industry, or have trade tales to share from your experience in indie or trad publishing – all writers are welcome here.
Our space is food, drink, and pet friendly, so feel free to bring your favorite refreshments and animal companions!
RSVP at website.
Where: Underdog Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 312 N. Myrtle Ave., Monrovia, CA 91016
Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events/local-authors-meetup-september
Book Club for Adults: A Ballad of Love and Glory at Lynwood Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us to discuss A Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande. Copies available at Customer Service. For adults.
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, we will read and discuss this epic historical romance about a Mexican woman & an Irish-American soldier who fall in love during the Mexican-American War. For Adults.
Where: Lynwood Library, LACL
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 11320 Bullis Rd., Lynwood, CA 90262
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17339325
Nik Sharma, with Bill Addison, & Fundamentals of Flavor at Diesel, A Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us to welcome Nik Sahrma, in conversation with Bill Addison, to discuss Fundamentals of Flavor: 100 Recipes for the Science of Better Cooking.
Acclaimed cookbook author, America’s Test Kitchen Editor in Residence, and molecular biologist Nik Sharma brings his deep scientific knowledge, delicious recipes, and stunning photography to home cooks with Fundamentals of Flavor. These 100 recipes deepen your understanding of how fire, earth, air, and water improve your kitchen techniques and the flavor of your meals.
Nik Sharma is the bestselling author of cookbooks celebrated for blending culinary science with deeply personal storytelling: Season, The Flavor Equation, and Veg-Table. A former molecular biologist, Sharma brings a unique lens to the kitchen, where flavor is both a feeling and a formula. He serves as Editor in Residence at America’s Test Kitchen, where he hosts the YouTube show Flavor Forward with Nik Sharma, is a co-host of the show In the Test Kitchen on Netflix, and is a cast member on the upcoming America’s Test Kitchen show on PBS. Sharma is the creator of the award-winning blog Nik Sharma Cooks (formerly A Brown Table), and his writing and photography have been featured in The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He lives in Los Angeles, California, where he’s always dreaming up his next recipe.
Bill Addison is a restaurant critic at the Los Angeles Times. He has spent nearly 25 years reviewing restaurants across the United States, including positions at the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and Atlanta magazine. From 2014 to 2018 he was the national critic for Eater, writing reviews, features, and guides—including his annual 38 Essential Restaurants in America—that covered dining culture in every corner of the country. He co-writes the Times’101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles guides and in 2025, after months of statewide research, he created the first-ever 101 Best Restaurants in California. Addison is the recipient of two James Beard Foundation awards (among 10 career-long nominations), among many other accolades.
Where: Diesel, A Bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 225 26th St. #33, Santa Monica, CA 90402
Writing Book Launch + Workshop: Write a Novel in 100 Days by Kim Purcell at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Celebrate the Los Angeles launch of Write a Novel in 100 Days: The Busy Writer’s Guide to Finishing Your Book Fast with award-winning author and writing instructor Kim Purcell.
Whether you’re just starting your first novel or looking for a fresh way to move forward, this fun, hands-on workshop will help you build compelling characters, uncover the heart of your story, and create a rough roadmap for your novel. Bring a notebook and pen as Kim leads you through engaging brainstorming exercises designed to get your creativity flowing. The session concludes with a Q&A, where you’ll have the chance to get personalized advice on your writing or revision challenges.
Admission is included with the purchase of Write a Novel in 100 Days, which you’ll receive at the event and can continue using long after the workshop as your daily guide to help you finish your novel.
Kim Purcell is the acclaimed author of Trafficked and This Is Not a Love Letter. A passionate teacher of novel writing for kids, teens, and adults, she has built an international company called Purcell Publishing, which helps writers of all ages discover their voices, complete their novels, and publish them. Kim was the first Curriculum Director of WriteGirl, the nationally recognized writing and mentoring organization for teen girls. Drawing on her years as a novelist and educator, she’s developed unique methods for guiding writers from the first spark of an idea to a finished manuscript.
Reserve your seat at website link!
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Ticketed Event: Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber & I Want to Be Famous at Book Soup Off-site at Harmony Gold – In-Person Event
Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber will discuss I Want to Be Famous.
A sharp, funny examination of fame in the digital era and what makes our hunger for it equally alluring and embarrassing—from the podcasters behind Who? Weekly
While being photographed in 1966, Warhol reportedly said, “Everyone wants to be famous.” (To which his photographer Nat Finkelstein responded, “Yeah, for about fifteen minutes, Andy.”) Warhol was right then, and he’s right now. Fifteen minutes be damned, all you need is the drive—or desperation—and a singular spark. But if you’re not careful, you’ll end up a Who.
Who is a Who? In I Want to Be Famous, Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber, the journalists behind the pop culture podcast Who? Weekly, distill celebrity into two categories—Whos and Thems—transcending the snarky, antiquated judgment of the “A-listers” to “D-listers.” If you come across an allegedly famous face you’ve never seen before and are compelled to utter “Who?”, well, there’s your answer. (Can you picture Rita Ora, Ava Max, or Hilaria Baldwin without googling them?) If the subject elicits something along the lines of, “Oh, Them,” there you’ve found the opposite (Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Tom Cruise). It’s the fundamental binary of fame.
And yet, as more Whos spawn, the path to Themdom narrows. We’ve entered an era where accessibility to fame is within everyone’s grasp, though only a select few can crack the algorithm and hold our ever-diminishing attention spans. Celebrities have taken desperate measures to stay relevant—from the makeup, supplements, and alcohol they peddle to the Notes app apologies they post—as the media who cover them compete with celebrities breaking their own news on social media and as PopCrave decides who “stuns” next.
Blending juicy pop culture history with the authors’ signature wit, I Want to Be Famous argues fame no longer means ubiquity and examines what the future holds for those seeking our collective attention.
Bobby Finger and Lindsey Weber are the hosts of Who? Weekly, the podcast that tells you everything you need to know about the celebrities you don’t. Finger is the author of Four Squares, The Old Place, and We Are Gathered Here Today. Weber is a freelance writer and editor who spends the majority of her free time at the beach in the Rockaways. They both live in Brooklyn, New York.
Ticketed through Eventbrite.
Where: Book Soup Off-site at Harmony Gold
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 7655 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046
Website: https://booksoup.com/event/i-want-be-famous
Nonfiction Book Club: The King and Queen of Malibu at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss The King and Queen of Malibu: The True Story of the Battle for Paradise by David K. Randall. Facilitated by Mark Polak,
Frederick and May Rindge, the unlikely couple whose love story propelled Malibu’s transformation from an untamed ranch in the middle of nowhere to a paradise seeded with movie stars, are at the heart of this story of American grit and determinism. He was a Harvard-trained confidant of presidents; she was a poor Midwestern farmer’s daughter raised to be suspicious of the seasons. Yet the bond between them would shape history.
The newly married couple reached Los Angeles in 1887 when it was still a frontier, and within a few years Frederick, the only heir to an immense Boston fortune, became one of the wealthiest men in the state. After his sudden death in 1905, May spent the next thirty years fighting off some of the most powerful men in the country—as well as fissures within her own family—to preserve Malibu as her private kingdom. Her struggle, one of the longest over land in California history, would culminate in a landmark Supreme Court decision and lead to the creation of the Pacific Coast Highway.
The King and Queen of Malibu traces the path of one family as the country around them swept off the last vestiges of the Civil War and moved into what we would recognize as the modern age. The story of Malibu ranges from the halls of Harvard to the Old West in New Mexico to the beginnings of San Francisco’s counter culture amid the Gilded Age, and culminates in the glamour of early Hollywood—all during the brief sliver of history in which the advent of railroads and the automobile traversed a beckoning American frontier and anything seemed possible.
David K. Randall is the New York Times best-selling author of four books, including Dreamland and Black Death at the Golden Gate. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. A senior reporter at Reuters, he lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2026-09-29/nonfiction-book-club
Re-scheduled: Guadalupe Rosales & East of the River at Skylight – In-Person Event
Guadalupe Rosales will present and discuss East of the River: A Memoir of Los Angeles Girlhood.
From acclaimed artist and Instagram star Guadalupe Rosales comes this “electrifying” (Los Angeles Times), visually stunning account of growing up in ’90s Los Angeles that weaves stories with snapshots and social media moments.
Guadalupe Rosales chronicles her Boyle Heights childhood and adolescence in East LA, finding joy and danger from Commerce Center to Whittier Boulevard. Her frank, intimate prose captures the freedom and fear pulsing through that time and how sisterhood helped her survive it.
After losing loved ones to violence and struggling with drugs and depression, Rosales moved across the country to New York City. A stack of starshots from her youth became a lifeline and eventually inspired her to create two Instagram archives while she was away from home: Veteranas and Rucas celebrates ’90s LA women, while Map Pointz focuses on the party crew scene. Thanks to her, they’re thriving online communities.
Now this beloved artist—whose work hangs in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and elsewhere—extends her project of collective memory by sharing her own story of adolescence in a treacherous time, finding herself as an artist far from home, coming to terms with her own queerness, and returning to her beloved Los Angeles transformed. Elegantly designed, the text is interspersed with photography, flyers, Rosales’s own artwork, and social media conversations.
An altar to a past era and a map to the future, this book is a reminder that memory, celebration, and community make us whole.
Guadalupe Rosales is a multidisciplinary artist and educator best known for her community-generated archival projects, “Veteranas and Rucas” and “Map Pointz,” found on social media. The archives explore ideas about how history and culture are framed and who does the framing. As a counterpoint, the archive celebrates, humanizes, and reflects the positive and honest attributes of shared culture. In her studio practice, Guadalupe works with sculpture, photography, video, sound, drawing, and community based projects and collaborations, and the archive.
RSVP
Where: Skylight
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/2026-09-29/rescheduled-guadalupe-rosales-east-river
Miriam Pawel, with William Deverell, & California Dreams: The Making and Remaking of the University of California at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Miriam Pawel, in conversation with William Deverell, will discuss California Dreams: The Making and Remaking of the University of California.
Pulitzer Prize winner Miriam Pawel’s epic history of one of the world’s elite public universities, its sweeping social impact, and hopeful lessons about endurance in troubled times.
Distinguished by its founding mission as an engine of upward mobility, the University of California-a constitutionally independent public trust-is a great American experiment that has persevered through fraught battles over access, funding, and leadership.
The University has been at the nexus of nearly every public policy debate and social movement since the Civil War, from women’s rights to student protests, from academic freedom to affirmative action, shaping policies that reverberate throughout the United States.
California Dreams narrates UC’s rise and resilience through the lens of those whose lives it has transformed—in particular, five pioneering graduates whose diverse paths underscore why the University remains, in the words of Berkeley graduate Joan Didion, “California’s best idea of itself.”
At a time of staggering inequality and uncertainty, as higher education faces unprecedented threats, that role has never been more crucial. Drawing on extensive research in ten archives and dozens of interviews, California Dreams weaves together the linked history of the school and state in all its drama, significance, and humanity; the result is a magisterial narrative of both a remarkable public institution of higher education, and also California itself.
Miriam Pawel is an award-winning reporter and editor who spent twenty-five years working for Newsday and the Los Angeles Times. She was recently an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow and a John Jacobs Fellow at the Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-09-29/miriam-pawel
Muse on Fire Open Mic: Philosophy at Wicked Wolf – In-Person Event
Muse on Fire Open Mic features Philosophy for a meet and greet and show.
Philosophy is a North Long Beach native and spoken word poet. He has seen the landscape of his beloved city change simultaneously with his craft. He has a reputation for being both charismatic and passionate.
Bring your talents, gifts, and artists to the Open Mic.
Where: Wicked Wolf
Date: Tuesday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 2332 Pacific Ave., Long Beach, CA 90806
Website: Instagram Page
Ruth Ozeki Reading & Conversation with Michelle N. Huang at Pomona College – In-Person Event
Award-winning novelist Ruth Ozeki visits Pomona College to read from her recent works—lauded by critics as “spellbinding,” “brilliant”, and “unforgettable”—and to share in conversation with Asian American literary scholar Michelle N. Huang.
The event, a presentation of the Claremont Colleges’ Intercollegiate Department of American Studies, Environmental Analysis Program and The Agave Review, in partnership with the English Department, the Gender and Women’s Studies Program and the Humanities Studio at Pomona College, is free and open to the public.
Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest. Bringing together issues of science, religion, environmental politics, and global pop culture, her books have been celebrated for their range and formal invention.
Her new book and first collection of short stories, The Typing Lady and Other Fictions, will be published by Viking in June 2026. The eleven stories explore childhood ambition, youthful desire, midlife reinvention, and the unsparing clarity of old age. Threaded through with the tactile ephemera of writing—typewriters, letters, manuscripts, and disappearing ink—the book celebrates the power of language and storytelling to cope with loss.
Michelle N. Huang, Associate Professor of English and Asian American Studies at Northwestern University, is the author of Racial Beings: Contemporary Experiments in New Materialisms (Duke, 2026). Her work also appears in Journal of Asian American Studies, American Literature, Contemporary Literature, and American Quarterly, among other venues. Her film essay, INHUMAN FIGURES: Robots, Clones, and Aliens can be viewed online at the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center website.
Where: Rose Hills Theatre, Pomona College
Date: Tuesday the 29st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 333 N. College Way, Claremont, CA 91711
Virtual Cobalt Series & Open Mic: Rick Lupert & Guest Amy Dougher-Solórzano, plus Open Reading – Online Zoom Event
Website: Pomona College Event
Cobalt Poets Reading & Open Mic and host Rick Lupert will welcome guest Amy Dougher-Solórzano, plus an Open Reading online.
Amy Dougher-Solórzano is a poet originally from Harrison, New Jersey. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Rutgers University-Newark, and a BS in chemical biology from Saint Joseph’s University. She was selected by the Fine Arts Work Center as a 24PearlStreet Scholar for Fall 2024. Her poems have appeared in New England Review and Rattle. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband Aleck.
Where: Cobalt Poets – Online Zoom Event
Date: Tuesday, the 29th
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: Online event (see site)
Website: Event Page
LiveTalks LA Presents: Ari Emanuel, with Kara Swisher, & Roll the Calls: A Memoir at Wilshire Ebell Theatre – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Ari Emanuel, in conversation with Kara Swisher, will discuss Roll the Calls: A Memoir.
One of Hollywood’s most accomplished, feared—and funny—dealmakers has some stuff he wants to get off his chest. A lifetime worth of stuff. And secrets. And stories. And it all makes for one hell of a ride, and one of the must-read books of the year.
Ari Emanuel has long been one of the most influential people in the world, but he’s also something of a mystery. Part of the reason is Emanuel’s job description. As Hollywood’s best-known super-agent—the inspiration for Ari Gold in the classic TV drama Entourage—he’s paid to speak for his A-list clients, not himself.
Now, for the first time, the agent, the mogul, the ferocious power broker, speaks for himself, about himself, and about the game of life—often at the top of his lungs. In Roll the Calls, his take-no-prisoners memoir, Emanuel tells the incredible stories behind the signings and firings, the triumphant mergers and nasty breakups, the hard-won victories and crushing mistakes.
With great comic zest, and in precise cinematic detail, he traces the arc of a classic rags-to-riches career, from suffering through severe dyslexia, to clerking in the mailroom of CAA, to striking out on his own with three fellow agents, launching a new talent agency that would go on to represent some of the most glittering names in show business, including Larry David, Quentin Tarantino, Denzel Washington, Billie Eilish, Martin Scorsese, and Oprah Winfrey. Along the way Emanuel was also raising four kids, fighting and reconciling with friends and colleagues, coping with a failing marriage, and struggling to find love again.
Shattering the mold of stodgy CEO memoirs, Roll the Calls is told in a punchy, telegraphic style, with disarming humility and ribald candor. It’s a fable about success and failure, about creativity and persistence, and a master class in how to ignore the haters, how to overcome withering self-doubt, and, at moments of profound crisis and despair, how to be a fearless advocate for your most vulnerable client: yourself.
Ari Emanuel leads TKO as executive chair and CEO and is executive chairman of WME Group, two companies that sit at the center of sports, entertainment, and culture. Since co-founding Endeavor in 1995, Emanuel has repeatedly transformed the business of entertainment—merging William Morris Agency and Endeavor to form global enterprise WME, acquiring IMG and UFC, and ultimately bringing WWE and UFC together to form the sports powerhouse TKO. Based in Beverly Hills, Emanuel continues to build across ventures that include the global events and experiences company MARI and the Las Vegas Raiders.
Kara Swisher is host of On with Kara Swisher and co-host of Pivot. She’s editor-at-large at New York Magazine and a CNN contributor, where she hosts the series Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever. She was the cofounder and editor-at-large of the technology website Recode and co-executive producer of the Code conference. Considered the top reporter in the tech game, Swisher has been reporting on the industry since the early 1990s. She is a former contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and has also worked for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. She’s the author of the New York Times–bestselling memoir Burn Book: A Tech Love Story (Simon & Schuster, 2024).
NOTE: Ticketed Event, see site for details.
Where: Wilshire Ebell Theatre
Date: Tuesday, the 29th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 4401 W. 8th St., Los Angeles, CA 90005
Website: LiveTalks Event Page
DiPiazza’s Open Mic at Di Piazza’s Pizza – In-Person Event
Open Mic Every Tuesday! Signups 8:30 pm, late-night happy hour, live music, pizza & cocktails.
Host: Tamara Madison
Features: TBA
Often follows Trivia Night at 6 pm for a full evening of fun.
No cover mentioned—come early to grab a spot!
Step up to the mic and shine!
Where: Di Piazza’s
Date: Tuesday, the 29th
Time: 8:30 pm
Address: 5205 Pacific Coast Hwy., Long Beach, CA
Website: Instagram Page
Da Poetry Lounge Open Mic: Women & Femmes Night at Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center – In-Person Event
The nation’s largest weekly spoken word Open Mic event is 28 years strong. DPL is a community space for every poet to be heard. They provide a platform to celebrate poetry while using it as the foundation for creativity, innovation, and expression across an array of media outlets.
Hosted by Yesika Salgado & Jasmine Williams.
$10 suggested donation. Pay what you can. Do NOT line up prior to 7:30 pm Free parking adjacent to the theater.
Masks are encouraged. See website link for details.
Where: The Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center
Date: Tuesday, the 29th
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm (Doors at 8:15 pm)
Address: 4305 Degnan Blvd. #101, Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.dapoetrylounge.com/events/woman-femme-night
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 30th
Time: 9 am – 10 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Iocabani Book Club: The Bean Trees at Angelo M. Iacobani Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us as we discuss The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. Copies of the book will be available at the customer service desk. This program is for adults.
You can check out an eBook or audiobook version of this title on Libby or Hoopla.
Where: Angelo M. Iacobani Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address: 4990 Clark Ave., Lakewood, CA 90712
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17061889
Book Club: The Women at El Monte Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for a facilitated discussion of The Women by Kristin Hannah. Copies of the book will be available at the customer service desk. This program is for adults.
Light refreshments will be served. Our Book Club meets on the last Wednesday of every month.
Where: El Monte Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 3224 Tyler Ave., El Monte, CA 91731
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17307044
Sci-Fi Book Club: The Time Machine at Van Nuys Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join our Science Fiction Book Club to discuss The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Copies of this novel are available at the library.
Synopsis: The Time Traveler embarks on a fantastic voyage through time to the distant future where the world is inhabited by two races: the Eloi and the Morlocks.
Where: Van Nuys Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 6250 Sylmar Ave., Van Nuys, CA 91401
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/sci-fi-book-club-time-machine-hg-wells
Creative Write Night at Lake View Terrace Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Do you write poetry, short stories or a screenplay? Bring your work into the library for creative support and inspiration from a community of writers.
Where: Lake View Terrace Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 12002 Osbourne St., Los Angeles, CA 91342
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/creative-write-night
Canyon Readers Collective: Lost Children Archive at Topanga Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us during Hispanic Heritage Month for a discussion of Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive, a powerful novel that explores family, migration, memory, and the stories of children seeking refuge at the U.S.-Mexico border. For adults.
Where: Topanga Library, LACL
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 122 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, CA 90290
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17284715
Presentation Night with Show & Tell at Underdog Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join us at Underdog Bookstore for our first Presentation Night with Show & Tell!
Indulge your desire to info dump and share your hyperfixations and special interests at our combo Presentation / Show & Tell night!
This event is 18+ only. All topics welcome but gen-AI content is not permitted.
5 minutes max per person – sign-up now to secure your spot. Walk-ins welcome as time allows.
RSVP at website.
Where: Underdog Bookstore
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 312 N. Myrtle Ave., Monrovia, CA 91016
Website: https://www.underdogbookstore.org/events/presentation-night
Sierra Club Book Club: Stuck at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Join host Nancy Barba for a discussion of Stuck, by Vonnie Applebaum.
A generation ago, Americans moved constantly—chasing opportunity, reinventing themselves, fleeing what wasn’t working. That restlessness was part of our national identity. So, what happened?
In Stuck, Atlantic senior editor Yoni Appelbaum makes a provocative and richly researched argument: that America’s great freeze—our plummeting rates of geographic mobility—isn’t just an economic footnote. It’s quietly reshaping our democracy, our communities, and our sense of what’s possible.
Whether you’re a renter priced out of your neighborhood, a homeowner watching your city change around you, or just someone who wonders why everything feels so gridlocked, this book will give you a new lens for understanding it.
Cutting through more than a century of mythmaking, Stuck tells a vivid, surprising story of the people and ideas that caused our economic and social sclerosis and lays out common-sense ways to get Americans moving again.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
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 30th
Time: 6:45 pm – 8 pm
Address: 1929 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: Instagram Page
Author Event: Doug Levy, with Brian Jenkins, & Hero Redefined at Central Library, LAPL – Online Event
Join the Los Angeles Public Library’s Art, Music, and Recreation Department for an online conversation with author Doug Levy, in conversation with moderator, former CNN correspondent and anchor Brian Jenkins, as we celebrate the recent release of his book, Hero Redefined: Profiles of Olympic Athletes Under the Radar.
The author’s talk will showcase the vision of award-winning sports journalist Doug Levy on what constitutes heroism. In his book, he shows that there is more than one path to greatness, chronicling extraordinary acts of resilience and personal sacrifice by “under the radar” athletes who left their own indelible marks on the spirit of the Olympic Games in quiet but heroic ways.
As the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles draw closer, Doug will preview different chapters of his book, each revealing a different face of heroism—immense resilience, strength of character, standing up for human rights, overcoming horrific medical and psychological setbacks, and a seemingly superhuman will to finish. Throughout, Levy celebrates the heroic human spirit and its relentless drive to carry the torch forward—both inside and outside of the Olympic Games.
NOTE: Please complete the form posted at website to RSVP. We will send the Zoom link by Tuesday, September 29, 2026.
Where: Central Library, LAPL
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Ticketed Event: Devon Rodriguez & Work in Progress: A Memoir at Book Soup Off-site at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles – In-Person Event
Devon Rodriguez will discuss Work in Progress: A Memoir.
The inspiring true story of the self-made, Bronx-born portraitist who overcame all odds to become the most followed artist on social media worldwide—featuring never-before-seen drawings of the people and places that made him who he is.
Devon Rodriguez talks to strangers: his subway sketches and person-on-the-street interviews have earned him millions of followers. His hyper realistic work demonstrates the power of portraiture to help us see ourselves and each other. He’s a new-school influencer with old-school talent.
Now, the celebrated Bronx-born artist turns his perspective inward. As a child, Rodriguez escaped into art to cope with devastating abuse. It sustained him, energized him and helped him stay out of trouble. This fascinating memoir is a twenty-first-century fable about a young man with a pencil, a phone, and a relentless drive to succeed.
Instead of following the conventional route to art world prestige, he saw opportunity online, experimenting with sharing his work in bite-sized TikTok videos that went viral, making him one of the top influencers of his generation. An entrepreneur who makes art accessible to everyday people, he’s succeeded without gallery representation or an MFA.
Devon has now sketched over a thousand people. With this book, he delivers his most precise and moving portrait yet: of himself. Frank, profound, and occasionally hilarious, Work in Progress is motivational magic for the digital age.
Devon Rodriguez is a Bronx-born portrait artist of Puerto Rican and Honduran descent. He rose to notoriety for drawing realistic portraits of commuters on the New York City subway system. He has also portrayed such luminaries as former President Biden, Oprah, and more. The most-followed visual artist on TikTok, he was a finalist in the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. His work has been featured in The New Yorker and The New York Times. He was named a 2025 Time100 Creator and a Forbes Top Creator the same year. He lives in New York City.
Ticketed through Eventbrite.
Where: Book Soup Off-site at Frist Congregational Church of Los Angeles
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 540 S. Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90020
Website: https://booksoup.com/event/2026-09-30/devon-rodriguez
Amy Fusselman, with Scott Broker, & Cloud Six at Chevalier’s – In-Person Event
Amy Fussleman, in conversation with Scott Broker, will discuss Cloud Six, a heartfelt, hilarious, and wildly original story about a married couple who wake up in the lowest tier of heaven and try to figure out where to go from there.
Surprise, you’re dead! This hilarious and moving novel follows a couple forced into unthinkable challenges when, after dying in a plane crash, they find themselves in the lowest tier of heaven, filled with laughter and dread, fear and acceptance, and family bonds even death can’t break.
Following a catastrophic plane crash, married couple Mam and Bunko have found themselves in Cloud Six. It’s the newest, and lowest, tier of heaven, run by a slumlord demon named Widdershins who takes the form of an underwear model. With a rabbit skeleton as their guide, the pair do their best to remain hopeful and together in their quest: to navigate the strangest of places, to find help, and to catch even one glimpse of the teen daughter they left behind.
While Mam and Bunko try to accept their fate, Widdershins navigates workplace politics and tries to impress an ex-lover. And Amy, who appears in the book as our guide and scribe, grapples with how to tell an honest story with Satan breathing down her neck.
Amy Fusseman is the author of five books of nonfiction and fiction, including Idiophone (2018, Coffee House Press), which was nominated for the University of Iowa’s Krause Essay Prize and the Believer Book Award. Her most recent book, The Means, is her first novel and was praised by People magazine as “a fast-paced and funny send-up.” Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and many other outlets. She lives with her family in New York City.
Scott Broker is a queer writer, bookseller, and teacher based in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in New England Review, Guernica, Fence, Ecotone, and The Idaho Review, among other publications, and he has received fellowships from Tin House and Lambda Literary.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 7 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2026-09-30/author-amy-fusselman-cloud-six
LA TACO Presents LA Taco Magazine Volume 2, Issue 1 at Skylight – In-Person Event
Skylight is thrilled to present a launch event for LA TACO Magazine Volume 2 Issue 1!
48 pages of street-level journalism, art, and Los Angeles culture compiled and designed by Pulitzer-finalist Ivan Ehlers. Featuring powerful selections published by L.A. TACO and brand-new photography, interviews and short fiction.
Profiles: Lexis-Olivier Ray documents a man’s struggle to be freed while serving 44-years-to-life for a crime he claims he didn’t commit. Hadley Tomicki interviews famed Los Angeles street artist Robbie Conal about his legacy of public civil disobedience. Native artists, Mr. Wash’s community center, Black motorcycle clubs and more.
Reporting: Aisha Wallace-Palomares uncovers drastic measures taken by detainees inside a detention center to communicate with community organizers. “Less-Lethal” guns used by law enforcement, Kavanaugh Stops, and Octavia Butler’s Post-Apocalyptic L.A.
Essays: Izzy Ramirez presents the complexities of growing up gay in a macho Latino world. Javier Cabral delves into ethical considerations and harsh realities of restaurant culture.
Photography: Visual essays and interviews with photojournalists David Butow and Ariel Rucker. Featured photos by Erwin Recinos and Lexis-Olivier Ray.
Fiction: Lars Kenseth graces the absurd with humanity in this Kafkaesque portrayal of profound transformation.
Ivan Ehlers (L.A. TACO, The New Yorker) is a Pulitzer-finalist cartoonist, writer, and illustrator.
Lexis-Olivier Ray (Head of Investigations for L.A. TACO) is an award-winning investigative reporter known for his coverage of the criminal legal system and his courageous on-the-ground reporting at protests.
Ariel Rucker (Los Angeles Times) is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Los Angeles.
Lars Kenseth (The New Yorker) is a cartoonist, author and illustrator. His debut picture book, Call Me Moby, is available wherever books are sold.
Where: Skylight
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/2026-09-30/la-taco-presents-la-taco-magazine-volume-2-issue-1
Triptych: Reading Series with Shy Watson at Stories Books & Café – In-Person Event
Shy Watson hosts the Triptych Reading Series with featured guests TBA.
Where: Stories Books & Café
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://storiesla.com/events/4256220260930
Megan Mostyn-Brown, with Laura Beck, & California Dreams: The Need at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Megan Mostyn-Brown, in conversation with Laura Beck, will discuss The Need: A Novel.
Every family has its secrets. But in this electric, provocative, and dizzyingly fast-paced horror debut, some families have The Need.
The Need is a rare genetic disorder. Those who have it must consume human flesh or die. For some, The Need is power. For others, it is a curse.
Talia has been on the run with her two teenagers since the kids were babies, changing names and identities every time someone gets close to discovering her family’s tragic secret. Sam is her son, tormented by The Need, unable to stop giving in to his darkest desires, much to his mother’s chagrin. Rosie, his twin sister, who’s escaped her mom’s and brotherʼs genetic curse, is desperate for a life of normalcy—like a TikTok account, Homecoming, or a kiss with her mysterious new friend Naomi. But her brother keeps eating people and, frankly, itʼs ruining her life.
Vera, a former supermodel and member of New York City’s elite Armstrong family, lives a life of luxury, haute couture, and eating people. Yes, unlike Talia, the Armstrongs secretly pride themselves on their genetic abnormality. But beneath Veraʼs opulent lifestyle is a woman whoʼs ruthlessly haunted by a mistake from her past. It has corrupted her standing with the Armstrongs, ruined her relationship with her kids, and is slowly unraveling her sanity. Vera will do whatever it takes to correct it.
On the surface, these two families have nothing in common. But Talia is harboring a secret from the twins—one that will bring them crashing into the Armstrongs. And when the truth comes out, no one will ever be the same.
Megan Mostyn-Brown is a playwright and TV writer/producer whoʼs written for shows on Fox, Netflix, AMC, Amazon, and Paramount+. This is her first book. She lives in Los Angeles with her partner, Jordan, and her dog, Tuesday.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Wednesday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-09-30/megan-mostyn-brown
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 30th
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: TBA.
Where: Art Parlor
Date: Wednesday the 30th
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 30th
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 Victoria Lynne McCoy at The Ugly Mug – In-Person Event
Ben Trigg host Two Idiots Peddling Poetry, a weekly poetry reading held at the Ugly Mug in Orange, California. There is a $5 cover charge (cash only). The reading generally has one or two featured poets reading for 20-30 minutes each, plus an open mic. This week’s featured poet is Victoria Lynne McCoy.
Victoria Lynne McCoy is the author of the poetry collection, Wet Reckless, out now from independent feminist press, Riot in Your Throat (September 2026). She holds an MFA in Writing with a Poetry Concentration from Sarah Lawrence College, and a BA in The Power of Words: Creative Expression as a Catalyst for Change from the University of Redlands’ Johnston Center for Integrative Studies. Her work has appeared in Best New Poets, Blackbird, The Collagist, The Boiler, and The Paris-American, among others. You can find her in Pasadena, CA.
Where: The Ugly Mug, Orange
Date: Wednesday, the 30th
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm
Address: 261 N. Glassell St., Orange, CA 92866
Website: Facebook Page
Lit Angels: Morning Writing with Francesca Lia Block at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Do you want to find creative inspiration and overcome writer’s block in a supportive and peaceful community setting? Are you interested in writing professionally or for personal growth and healing but unsure where to begin?
Come join acclaimed author and writing instructor Francesca Lia Block 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: Thursday the 1st
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Book Club: The Berry Pickers at Hermosa Beach Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for a lively discussion of The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. Books are available for check-out at the library. For adults.
Where: Hermosa Beach Library, LACL
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 10:30 am – 11:30 pm
Address: 550 Pier Ave., Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17260428
Author Talk: Veronica Roth & The Sixth Faction via Virtual Program, LACL – Online Event
Join us for an online conversation with bestselling author Veronica Roth as we celebrate the enduring legacy of her Divergent series, and get an exclusive sneak peek into her highly anticipated upcoming novel, The Sixth Faction!
Fifteen years after readers first stepped into dystopian Chicago alongside Tris Prior, the Divergent universe continues to captivate readers with its unflinching exploration of identity, courage, and sacrifice. And in the alternate universe of The Sixth Faction, we revisit familiar characters in a completely new way…
Beatrice Prior stands on the brink of a decision every person in her world must make: five factions, five futures, five lives.
She has a plan: she’s going to make the bravest choice and leave Abnegation to join Dauntless, even though it means abandoning her family.
But when tragedy strikes at her choosing ceremony, everything changes—her world, her plans, even Beatrice herself.
Her decision will thrust her into the crosshairs of an underground rebellion, where a boy with secrets as dangerous as her own—a boy with only a number for a name—may be the only person she can trust.
One choice will change everything.
Register now for the chance to ask questions and get an exclusive sneak peek of The Sixth Faction–out on October 6, 2026!
Where: Virtual Program, LACL
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: Online Program (see site)
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17443854
Special Author Event: Annie Barrows & The Lost Three at Manhattan Beach Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for an event for middle grade readers on Thursday, October 1st at 4 pm with the New York Times bestselling author Annie Barrows to celebrate the release of The Lost Three!
You can purchase copies of Annie’s new book as well as books from her Ivy & Bean series to be delivered to the library on the day of the presentation. When checking out, please check the box for “pickup at the store” so you will not be charged for shipping. Books will also be sold, signed, and personalized at the event.
Everyone at the Ghost Guild knows how the afterlife is supposed to work. But something is amiss with the case of three siblings – Genie, Fenella, and Tillotson Maconochie – who are beginning their journey as ghosts in a highly irregular way. They haven’t even been issued their copy of the Ghostology, which would have helped them know how to stay out of trouble. It’s no wonder that they fall prey to the infamous swindler Serena Aster, and end up trapped in her mansion to do her evil bidding for eternity. When they discover that a young orphan is trapped with them, their desire to break free and find their greater ghostly purpose takes on new urgency. In this page-turning, beautifully illustrated yarn, perfect for fans of A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science readers will discover that at the end of their lives, the Maconochie siblings’ remarkable story is only just beginning.
Annie Barrows is the bestselling author of books for both children and adults, including the New York Times bestselling Ivy + Bean series and the adult bestselling novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. She invites you to visit her online anniebarrows.com or on Instagram.
Where: pages at Manhattan Beach Library, LACL
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 1320 Highland Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Open Mic Night at Anaheim Central Library – In-Person Event
Join us every first Thursday of the month from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. for Open Mic Night at the Anaheim Central Library. Poets, singers, songwriters, storytellers, writers, comedians, dancers, supporters, and listeners are welcome!
Each event includes a featured performance by a published poet or musician. Performer sign-ups begin at 4:15 p.m. The event is held in the multi-purpose room on the basement level. Hope to see you there!
Visit Anaheim.net/APLADA or call 714-765-1700 at least 72 hours in advance if ADA accommodations are needed.
Visite Anaheim.net/APLADA o llame al 714-765-1700 con al menos 72 horas de avance si necesita adaptaciones ADA.
Where: Anaheim Central Library
Date: Thursday the 24th
Time: 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 500 W. Broadway, Anaheim, CA 92805
Website: https://anaheim.libcal.com/event/15552905
Inlandia Presents: Let’s Talk About It: A Conversation on Mental Health in BIPOC Communities at Riverside Main Library – In-Person Event
Join us a lively conversation about issues in mental health in BIPOC communities and reading with mental health professionals and writers.
Moderated by: Alicia Forneret, PAUSE Founder
Panelists:
Emelia Oretega-Jara, LCSW, Corazon Counseling, provides culturally inclusive holistic counseling services. Her therapeutic approach incorporates various traditional Indigenous wisdom, and eastern wellness teachings along with evidence-based psychotherapy techniques such as CBT and EMDR.
Carlos Lamadrid, LCSW, 4 Winds Counseling, is Yaqui, Chiricahua Apache and Mexica. Lamadrid uses an eclectic approach that is trauma-informed, person-centered and integrative. They approach their work with sincerity, in a sacred manner and through an existential-humanistic lens. Offering Ketamine-Assisted Therapy, Preparation and Integration sessions.
Romaine Washington is a poet and edited 88 Unashamed Black Mental Health Stories: A Blacklandia Anthology. Washington’s poetry has been nominated for Best of the Net, and she is a twice-nominated Pushcart Prize poet.
Where: Riverside Main Library
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 5 pm – 7:30 pm
Address: 3900 Mission Inn Ave., Riverside, CA 92501
Website: Eventbrite Page
Allspice Book Club: Neon Gods at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Participants will discuss Neon Gods (Dark Olympus) by Katie Robert.
Society darling Persephone Dimitriou plans to flee the ultra-modern city of Olympus and start over far from the backstabbing politics of the Thirteen Houses. But all that’s ripped away when her mother ambushes her with an engagement to Zeus, the dangerous power behind their glittering city’s dark facade.
With no options left, Persephone flees to the forbidden undercity and makes a devil’s bargain with a man she once believed a myth…a man who awakens her to a world she never knew existed.
Hades has spent his life in the shadows, and he has no intention of stepping into the light. But when he finds that Persephone can offer a little slice of the revenge he’s spent years craving, it’s all the excuse he needs to help her—for a price. Yet every breathless night spent tangled together has given Hades a taste for Persephone, and he’ll go to war with Olympus itself to keep her close.
Katee Robert is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of spicy romance. Entertainment Weekly calls their writing “unspeakably hot.” Their books have sold over a million copies. They live in the Pacific Northwest with their husband, children, a cat who thinks he’s a dog, and two Great Danes who think they’re lap dogs.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 6 pm – 7 pm
Address: 6675 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, CA 92506
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-10-01/allspice-book-club-neon-gods
Fresh Grounds Open Mic: Book Tour: Chris Vanjonack & Weston Morrow at Recreational Coffee – In-Person Event
We’ve got a 🧛🏻♀️ SPECIAL 👻 SPOOKY 😱 EDITION 🎃 of Fresh Grounds Open Mic this Thursday, October 1st. We have our first double feature with Chris Vanjonack and Weston Morrow who are visiting town on their book tour. Both award-winning authors are releasing their debut collections this month and for their stop here in Long Beach, they wanted to do something special…
We are having a Cryptid Costume Contest! Dress as your favorite mystical creature for a chance to win our grand prize: copies of Chris Vanjonack’s short fiction collection Out of Body and Weston Morrow’s poetry collection Cloud Builder. Even if you don’t feel like dressing up, you as the audience will be able to pick your favorite and determine the winners.
What is a cryptid? Any being that is rumored to exist but can neither be confirmed nor denied.
As always, we are a live literary open mic focusing on original writing (no AI, no comedy, sorry!!). RSVP at the link in our bio. Sign-ups are first-come, first served in person beginning at 6 pm. Readings begin at 6:30 in the courtyard behind our tireless community collaborators at Recreational Coffee.
Chris Vanjonack’s fiction has appeared in One Story, Volume 0, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. His debut story collection, Out of Body, is forthcoming from HarperCollins on September 22nd.
Weston Morrow is the author of Cloud Builder, winner of the 2025 National Poetry Series. He teaches at The Ohio State University.
Where: Recreational Coffee
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm (Sign-ups at 6 pm)
Address: 237 Long Beach Blvd., Suite A, Long Beach, CA
Website: https://partiful.com/e/5WufbVYh2eLzDgf9QBjD
Climate Fiction Book Talk: Nina Schuyler, with Rosanna Xia, & Open the Floodgates at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Nina Schuyler, in conversation with Rosanna Xia, will discuss Open the Floodgates.
We are in a profound legal shift: from New Zealand to India to Ecuador, real-world laws have granted personhood to rivers. With a mix of magic and pathos, Open the Floodgates imagines this new reality with a new configuration of the human and other-than-human relationship.
In an unnamed California town, the River is granted personhood and has the right–-and urgent need–-to argue in court for its existence. But powerful, well-funded enemies are determined to keep the River exactly as it is: gunk-filled, toxic, a convenient dumping ground for waste. The story moves like water, entering the minds of the town’s people, pigeons, deer, dogs, cats, the trees, the River’s home, and the River itself. When the River moves, the text winds its way along the page, mimicking water. When the River is ultimately jailed, the town faces a reckoning: what do we owe the River? And the River must answer in turn: what, if anything, does it owe humans?
Nina Schuyler’s collection, In This Ravishing World, won the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Literary Award, the W.S. Porter Prize, the Prism Prize for Climate Literature, and was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award. Her novel, Afterword, was selected as one of San Francisco’s One City One Book Program. She lives in Northern California.
Rosanna Xia’s nonfiction book, California Against the Sea, won the PEN/E.O. Award for Literary Science Writing, the California Book Award, Golden Poppy Award Winner for Nonfiction, and was selected as a 2024 Great Read from Great Places by the Library of Congress. Xia is an environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times and a documentary filmmaker of Out of Plain Sight. She lives in Los Angeles.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 6:30 pm – 8 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd., #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, with Catherine Hardwicke, & Heavy Cream at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, in conversation with Catherine Hardwicke, will discuss Heavy Cream: A Novel
Sixteen-year-old Geraldine is left to navigate New York’s high society after her mother disappears, falling under the influence of three women each seeking to form her in their image.
Growing up on the road, it has always been the two of them, locked in dysfunction. Homeschooled, Gerry hasn’t learned much math. Instead, her mother has taught her how to spend the day at a motel’s swimming pool without being a guest or how to dodge paying extra for the chicken on a Caesar salad.
Gerry learns how to pass and adapt, but when she is abandoned in the city, Gerry finds herself in the care of three very different women, each intent on shaping her into competing and incompatible selves. First, there is her mother’s old college friend Bonnie, who lives in a world of country clubs and chintzy domesticity. Then there is Nell, her mother’s estranged sister and a successful artist who insists on ambition and self-invention. And finally, Finley, an old-money socialite who ushers Gerry into a rarefied world of Manhattan privilege.
A coming-of-age novel that explores unconventional forms of motherhood and caretaking, Sarah Blakley-Cartwright’s new novel is both a charming comedy of manners and a deeply probing look at the complexities of love, mental illness, and inheritance, and one young woman’s eccentric path to selfhood.
Sarah Blakley-Cartwright is the author of Alice Sadie Celine and Red Riding Hood, a #1 New York Times bestseller published worldwide in thirty-eight editions and fifteen languages. She is the editor of Hauser & Wirth’s The Artist’s Library for Ursula magazine and an associate editor at A Public Space.
Catherine Hardwicke’s first film as a director was the critically-acclaimed coming-of-age drama Thirteen, which she co-wrote with Nikki Reed, who was 13 yrs old at the time. It won numerous awards in global film festivals, including the Director’s Award at Sundance, Golden Globe nominations for Holly Hunter and Evan Rachel Wood, an Indie Spirit Award for Nikki Reed (actress and co-writer), and an Academy Award nomination for Hunter. Hardwicke has since then become best known as the director of Twilight, which turbo-charged the careers of Kristin Stewart and Robert Pattinson and launched the blockbuster $3.3 billion franchise.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 8818 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90069
Romana: Poetry & Songs by Naty Hernández at The Pop Hop Co Op – In-Person Event
Naty Hernández presents Romana: Poetry & Songs, an intimate evening of original songs and bold poetry exploring love, desire, and heartbreak, presented by Colombian singer-songwriter and poet Naty Hernández.
Naty Hernández is a Latin GRAMMY-nominated songwriter and Berklee alumna. Romana is her self-published poetry book and musical project.
Free admission · Book signing after the performance.
Where: The Pop Hop
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7 pm – 8 pm
Address: 5002 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: Instagram Page
Benjamin Moser, with Laila Lalami, & Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History at Skylight – In-Person Event
A sweeping and revelatory history of the hidden tradition of Jewish thinkers who opposed Zionism, from Pulitzer Prize winner Benjamin Moser.
In Anti-Zionism: A Jewish History, Benjamin Moser uncovers a suppressed tradition that has shaped Jewish thought for generations. Through a cast of artists, rabbis, poets, lawyers, activists, journalists, and politicians—from Europe and Africa and Asia and Latin America—Moser traces a lineage of Jewish dissenters who confronted Zionism’s moral and political stakes—often at devastating personal cost, including censorship, exile, and death.
Their lives form a sweeping, global narrative that dismantles a powerful myth: that anti-Zionism is synonymous with antisemitism. Spanning continents and centuries, these voices—people from the right and the left, Reform and Orthodox, Ashkenazic and Sephardic, men and women, gay and straight—differ sharply in belief and background, yet converge on a shared warning about the consequences of a nationalist project built on exclusion. What emerges is not only a rediscovered tradition of Jewish moral thought, but a startling reappraisal of Zionism itself.
Moser’s work restores the full scale and depth of Jewish ethical imagination, affirming that Judaism is older and larger than any single political project. Lucid, unsparing, and deeply humane, Anti-Zionism cements Moser’s place as one of our foremost Jewish writers and presents a framework through which this history—and its meanings—will be understood for years to come.
Benjamin Moser is the author of Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book of 2009. For his work bringing Clarice Lispector to international prominence, he received Brazil’s first State Prize for Cultural Diplomacy. Sontag: Her Life and Work won the Pulitzer Prize in 2020, and The Upside-Down World: Meetings with the Dutch Masters appeared in 2023. He completed the present book at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.
Laila Lalami is the author of six books, including The Moor’s Account, which won the American Book Award, the Arab-American Book Award, and the Hurston / Wright Legacy Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; The Other Americans, which won the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction; and The Dream Hotel, which was a national bestseller, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize, and was a finalist for the Edgar Award. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages. Her essays have appeared in The Nation, Harper’s, the Guardian, and the New York Times Magazine, among other publications. She has been awarded fellowships from the British Council, the Fulbright Program, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. Currently, she is Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside. She lives in Los Angeles.
Where: Skylight
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/2026-10-01/benjamin-moser-w-laila-lalami-anti-zionism-jewish-history
Anthology Readings: Thirty Cabins at Skylight Off-site at Bar Henry – In-Person Event
Thirty Cabins brings together some of contemporary fiction’s brightest voices to reimagine a century-old book of vacation cabin blueprints. Inside, you’ll find 30 vacation cabins, each with its own short story. Plus, a comic!
Contributors include LA based writers Tom Comita, Rachel Khong, Kim Samek, Claire Stanford, and Lena Valencia, as well as Hilary Leichter, Ed Park, Kate Folk, and many others.
Kim Samek is the O. Henry Prize-winning and Pushcart Prize-winning author of the debut story collection I Am the Ghost Here (The Dial Press, 2026), named a most anticipated book by Lit Hub, The Seattle Times, The LA Times, and others. It was also named a best debut of the 2026 by Debutiful (so far). Her stories can be found in Zyzzyva, Story, The Threepenny Review, Guernica, and elsewhere. She works as a TV writer and producer, with credits including WordGirl and Catfish and others, and her writing has been nominated for an Emmy Award. A native of Seattle, she studied Creative Writing and German Literature at Stanford University. She lives in Los Angeles.
Claire Stanford is the author of the novel Happy for You, which was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and awarded the 2023 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize. She lives in Los Angeles, where she is an assistant professor of creative writing at Loyola Marymount University. She also teaches in the low-residency MFA program at the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe.
Lena Valencia is the author of the short story collection Mystery Lights (Tin House Books). Her fiction has appeared in BOMB, The Baffler, Electric Literature, Ninth Letter, Epiphany, the anthology Tiny Nightmares, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in fiction from The New School and is the director of educational programming at One Story. She lives in Los Angeles.
Rachel Khong is the author of the novels Goodbye, Vitamin and Real Americans, and the short story collection My Dear You. She teaches writing in a collective called The Dream Side.
Tom Comitta is the author of The Nature Book and People’s Choice Literature: The Most Wanted & Unwanted Novels. They live in Los Angeles.
Where: Skylight Off-site at Bar Henry
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1228 W Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/2026-10-01/bar-henry-thirty-cabins
LiveTalks LA Presents: Malcome Gladwell, with Larry Wilmore, & The American Way of Killing: The Invention of an Epidemic at Robert Frost Auditorium – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Malcome Galdwell, in conversation with Larry Wilmore, will discuss The American Way of Killing: The Invention of an Epidemic.
Malcolm Gladwell returns with his most urgent book yet: a provocative investigation of America’s epidemic of gun violence.
The United States has far more homicides than any of its peers around the world. Why?
In this groundbreaking book, Malcolm Gladwell explores the American “peculiarity”―how the world’s wealthiest country came to suffer from a problem typically only seen in the world’s poorest countries.
Drawing on original interviews, archival and social science research, and his trademark insight, Gladwell approaches the American paradox through a series of stories. What can we learn from the miracle of a young gunshot victim in Washington, D.C.? How have the legal troubles of a seventeenth-century English knight influenced American attempts at gun control? Why would a European police chief be baffled by the graduation ceremony at any American police academy?
In a sweeping narrative, Gladwell travels from a shooting range in North Carolina, to the South Side of Chicago, to an old plantation house in Alabama, painting a picture of a country that does not understand its most pressing social problem, and as result, does not understand how to fix it.
Malcolm Gladwell is the author of eight New York Times bestsellers: The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, David and Goliath*, Talking to Strangers*, The Bomber Mafia*, and Revenge of the Tipping Point*. He is also the cofounder of Pushkin Industries, an audio-content company that produces Revisionist History, among other podcasts and audiobooks. He was born in England, raised in Canada, and lives outside New York with his family and a cat named Biggie Smalls. (*Gladwell appeared on the Live Talks Los Angeles stage for these titles and also has interviewed Michael Lewis, Ziggy Marley and David Goldhill for us)
Larry Wilmore has been a television producer, actor, comedian, and writer for more than 25 years. For several years, he hosted Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air on The Ringer Podcast Network. Film and TV credit include: Jerry and Margo Go Large, Reasonable Doubt, Amend: The Fight for America, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore on Comedy Central; Insecure, Black-ish, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, In Living Color, The Office and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He also served as creator, writer, and executive producer of The Bernie Mac Show, which earned him a 2002 Emmy Award for “Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series” and a 2001 Peabody Award.
NOTE: Ticketed Event, see site for details.
Where: Robert Frost Auditorium
Date: Thursday, the 1st
Time: 8 pm
Address: 4401 Elena St., Culver City, CA 90230
Website: LiveTalks Event Page
Unquiet: A Night of Creative Resistance at The Glendale Room – In-Person Event
A night of poetry and art that confronts, resists silence, and reimagines the world. (Every 1st Thursday).
UNQUIET: A Night of Creative Resistance is a gathering for poets, artists, and anyone drawn to the kind of work that pushes against the world as it is. This evening brings together voices and visions that challenge, disrupt, reimagine, and insist on something more – through poetry, visual art, and open mic expression.
This is a space for language that shakes loose what’s stuck, imagery that cuts through the noise, and creative work that won’t sit down. If you’ve felt the urge to speak, make, resist, or remake – this night is meant for you.
The Night:
* 4–5 featured poets
* Open mic slots available at the end
* Unlimited visual art displays—bring pieces that provoke, hold space, disrupt, or soothe * A room full of people who believe art is one of our greatest powers Contributors are invited to explore any of the following themes—or bring something entirely their own:
* Voice, silence, and what breaks through
* Imagination as rebellion
* Disobedience
* Community, care, and survival
* Rage and reclamation – Surveillance
* Liberation – Art as weapon / art as refuge
* Memory, history, and rewriting the narrative
* Loss and legacy
* Identity and intersectional study.
These themes should be seen as prompts, not limits. If your work pushes, questions, agitates, or dreams, it belongs here.
Why “Unquiet”? Because staying quiet has never protected us. Because creativity has always found cracks in the system. Because imagination is a political act. And because poetry and art become powerful when they refuse to shrink.
**Lineup subject to change** Late Arrivals will be turned away 20 minutes after scheduled event start. No Refunds or Exchanges.
FREE 90 minute parking at adjacent City Parking Structure
$8 For Non-Performers /// $5 To Perform For Open Mic Slot.
Where: The Glendale Room
Date: Thursday the 1st
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm (Doors at 7:30 pm)
Address: 127 N. Artsakh Ave., Glendale, CA 91206
Website: Eventbrite Page
Lit Angels: Morning Writing with Francesca Lia Block at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
Do you want to find creative inspiration and overcome writer’s block in a supportive and peaceful community setting? Are you interested in writing professionally or for personal growth and healing but unsure where to begin?
Come join acclaimed author and writing instructor Francesca Lia Block for a brief intro and 40 minutes of free writing on any topic without judgement. Afterwards, you will be able to share a bit about your process and ask Francesca questions about your writing.
Francesca Lia Block is the author of more than thirty books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories, and poetry, and has written screenplay adaptations of her work. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association, and from the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, and PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY. Currently she teaches creative writing at UCLA Extension, Antioch University, Pocket MFA, and numerous workshops across the country. Francesca also edits LIT ANGELS, a literary journal available on Substack. Her latest novel is House of Hearts now out in paperback. https://www.francescaliablock.com/
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 9 am – 10 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Weekly Pajama Storytime at Once Upon a Time, Montrose – In-Person Kids & Family Event
Our most popular story time is ready to delight and dazzle! This is also the prime time to see Pippi Longstocking, our bookstore cat in action.
There is a large FREE parking lot off Florencita Dr. as well as metered parking along Honolulu Ave. and Montrose Ave.
Free to attend.
NOTE: Free to attend.
Where: Once Upon a Time
Date: Friday, the 2nd
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 2nd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
4th Annual Long Beach Poetry Festival (Day 1 of 3) at Long Beach Shakespeare Company, Helen Borges Theatre – In-Person Event
The 4th Annual Long beach Poetry Festival is curated by Linda Ravenswood and produced by Holly Leveque.
Day 1 of the Long Beach Festival features:
Bookstore opens at 6 pm.
Linda Ravenswood and Typewriter Performance Poetry from 6:30 – 8:30 pm.
Supporting First Friday Art Walk on Atlantic Avenue.
Where: Long Beach Shakespeare Company, Helen Borges Theatre
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 6 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 4250 Atlantic Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90807
Website: Instagram Page
Tia Chucha’s Open Mic Night at Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore – In-Person Event
Our next Open Mic Night will be a spooky one! Join us and @mountainsofmam on Friday October 2 from 6 pm – 9 pm.
All talents welcome, sign-ups at the door!
Where: Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 6 pm – 9 pm
Address: 12677 Glenoaks Blvd., Sylmar, CA 91342
Website: Instagram Page
People’s Mic & Trenches Full of Poets Presents: Future Over Fascism! – Fall of Freedom 2026 at Avenue 50 Studio – In-Person Event
Join us! People’s Mic & Trenches Full of Poets are pleased to convene Future Over Fascism for the Fall of Freedom national arts action. Future over Fascism is a resounding “No!” No police state! No criminalization of dissent! No imperialist aggression! No ethnic cleansing! No White ethnostate! It’s an even louder “Yes!” Yes to human difference, dignity and thriving! Yes to the free flow of ideas! Yes to world citizenship! Yes to durable peace! Yes to economies grounded in respect for the planet and the human place in it. Liberation. In our lifetime. Without compromise. Poetry/ music/ visuals/ hopefully dance/ really good food & bev. $5 donation (no one turned away, eva). Proceeds to benefit Avenue 50 Studio.
Participating poets (alphabetically): Hammoudi Ahmad, Iris De Anda, Yusef Doucet, Dyanna Dyann, Maestro Gamin, Nikolai Garcia, Darryl Gussin, Christian Lozada, Cecilia Martinez-Gil, Mauricio Moreno, Walela Nehanda, Tichina Ward-Pratt, Albert Starr, Bri Stokes, Tasha Thomas.
Where: Avenue 50 Studio
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 3714 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90065
Website: https://avenue50studio.org/event/fall-of-freedom-2026-with-the-peoples-mic
Ticketed: Taylor Tomlinson & Actually, Nevermind at Barnes & Noble at The Grove at Farmers Market – In-Person Event
Join Barnes & Noble – The Grove at Farmers Market on October 2, 2026, at 7 pm as we welcome stand-up comedian, writer, and television host Taylor Tomlinson to sign her first release, Actually, Nevermind.
In these sharply observed, uproariously funny, and moving original essays, Taylor Tomlinson leads readers through a tour of her brain and her shifting opinions about everything from love and relationships, mental health and therapy, religion and sex, food and body image, being the eldest daughter and the only woman in late-night TV, to ghosts, morning people, and more.
To make this event safe and enjoyable for all attendees, please read the guidelines at website ahead of buying a ticket, so you know what to expect on the day. To avoid disappointment, we must stress that there will be no access to the event for non-ticketholders.
Where: Barnes & Noble at The Grove
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 189 The Grove Dr., Suite K30, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Website: Eventbrite Page
Sina Grace & Game On and Renaissance of Raven at Skylight – In-Person Event
Sina Grace will present and discuss: Game On (All-American Persian #1) and Renaissance of Raven.
Game On (All-American Persian #1} by Sina Grace is a graphic novel.
Being an all-american boy means a few things: hanging out with the cool kids, looking the part, and of course, staying up to date on all the newest video games. Too bad life has other plans in book one of this hilarious and poignant middle grade series debut about friends, family, culture.
Sasan has middle school figured out: cool friends, decent grades, and enough of an allowance to hang out on the weekends. The only thing that seems to trip him up is balancing his mom’s culture with his goal to be just like everyone else. When all the other boys start playing the latest video game, Sasan realizes his hold on fitting in is slipping right through his fingers. Determined to not stand out for the wrong reasons, Sasan goes to his mom. She’s happy to help but she wants something in return: Sasan has to do the one thing he’s been avoiding for years—learn Farsi.
Renaissance of Raven by Sina Grace et al is from hit digital webcomics platform DC GO! It’s a fantasy adventure starring fan-favorite Teen Titan, Raven, like you’ve never seen her before! On the anniversary of her mother’s death, Raven encounters a mysterious young girl who sends her centuries into the past to the forgotten kingdom of Galonia. Embroiled in a civil war between covens that could decide the very fate of magic itself, Raven must battle demons both literal and personal as she travels through haunted forests, enchanted dells, and ogre mountains to save the day…and find out how her mother had a hand in Galonia’s history!
Sina Grace is a GLAAD Media Award-nominated writer and artist known for his groundbreaking run on the bestselling Iceman series at Marvel and his Superman young adult graphic novel, Superman: The Harvests of Youth at DC. Sina’s entry to comics was as an editor on The Walking Dead comic book series but his love for writing shown through as he began his career as an author. From panels to podcasts, and even the occasional drag show, Sina has made a name for himself.
Where: Skylight
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://skylightbooks.com/event/2026-10-02/sina-grace-w-sina-grace-game-renaissance-raven
Vroman’s & Tepito Coffee Present: Leslie Priscilla, with Julissa Arce, & Chancla: Healing Our Families, Ourselves, and Our Culture Through Nonviolent Parenting at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Leslie Priscilla, in conversation with Julissa Arce, will discuss Chancla: Healing Our Families, Ourselves, and Our Culture Through Nonviolent Parenting.
In Chancla, educator and Latinx Parenting founder, Leslie Priscilla, invites readers, parents, and the Latinx community on a transformative journey away from cycles of fear, shame, and corporal punishment. With warmth and deep cultural insight, Priscilla explores the historical legacies attached to Chancla while offering a path forward rooted in connection, self-reflection, and ancestral healing. Chancla is the nonviolent parenting practice that celebrates Latinx cultura, while teaching its readers—and their Mamis, Papis, Tias, and Tios—how to heal from generational violence.
Blending personal storytelling, historical context, and actionable tools, Chancla helps readers not only nurture their children, but their wounded inner child. Readers will see themselves in these pages, because ultimately Chancla encourages them to unlearn what they’ve inherited and make space for what they deserve: homes full of love, safety, and respect.
Leslie Priscilla is a first-generation mother to three bicultural children. She identifies as both Mexican-American and a Detribalized Indigenous mujer. Priscilla shares her medicine by offering coaching, workshops, support, and advocacy for Latinx/Chicanx families locally, nationally, and internationally both in-person and online via the Latinx Parenting organization. She founded this bilingual organization and movement intentionally rooted in children’s rights, social and racial justice, the individual and collective practice of nonviolence and reparenting, intergenerational and ancestral healing, cultural sustenance, and the active decolonization of oppressive practices in our families. Priscilla currently lives in Santa Ana.
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Friday the 2nd
Time: 7 pm – 9 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-10-02/leslie-priscilla
A Night of Poetry in Translation: Mariano Zaro and Blas Falconer at Beyond Baroque – In-Person & Live Online YouTube Hybrid Event
Join us to celebrate the book-length poem, Padre Tierra (Artepoetica Press), by Mariano Zaro, translated from the Spanish by Blas Falconer. A bilingual edition that moves between the rooms of a childhood home in rural Northern Spain and the body of a father becoming, by degrees, the land itself. The poets will be reading excerpts from the book in The Wanda Coleman Theater followed by a reception and book signings.
Mariano Zaro is the author of six poetry collections, including Padre Tierra (Olifante 2019, Zaragoza, Spain), a book-length poem inspired by the author’s own relationship with his father, a farmer, and the rugged landscape of his home in Northern Spain. Zaro earned a Master’s in Literature from the University of Zaragoza (Spain) and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Granada (Spain). He is a professor of Spanish at Rio Hondo Community College in Whittier, California.
Blas Falconer is the author of three poetry collections, including Forgive the Body, This Failure (Four Way Books 2018). He is a poetry editor at The Los Angeles Review and teaches in the MFA program at San Diego State University.
NOTE: See site for further details, tickets, and information.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Friday, the 2nd
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm (Doors at 7 pm)
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: Beyond Baroque Event Page
SWAAM Spoken Word Art & Music Event at Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center – In-Person Event
SWAAM Spoken Word Art & Music is offered every 1st & 3rd Friday of the month and hosted by Loranzo Frank.
Featured guests: TBA
Tickets at Eventbrite.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center
Date: Friday, the 2nd
Time: 8 pm – 12 am
Address: 4305 Degnan Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://www.depoet.info/swaam
Rapp Saloon Reading Series: First Fridays Open Mic with host Cynthia Alessandra Briano at Rapp Saloon, Santa Monica – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
First Fridays at Rapp Saloon is celebrating 10 years and has an Open Mic & Featured Readers every 1st Friday of the month.
First Friday: Cynthia Alessandra Briano, Host
This is a hybrid event, live in-person while offering a Zoom option for our performers and guests.
NOTE: See site or flyer for details.
Where: Rapp Saloon at HISUA
Date: Friday, the 2nd
Time: 8 pm – 11 pm
Address: 1436 2nd St., Santa Monica, CA 90402
Website: Instagram Page
Soapbox Sessions at Untamed Spirits – In-Person Event
Untamed Spirits presents Soapbox Sessions, a poetry and open mic talent night featuring poets Felipe J. Garcia and Ray Carroll, with guitar accompaniment by Sleevelaboom. It’s a stacked line up.
Felipe J. Garcia (@felipe.garcia.j) is a writer, poet, and teacher residing in Los Angeles, CA. In his debut novel, In France, he challenges the notions of the status quo by living a life far from “ordinary.” Drawing on his experiences in France and traveling across Europe, Garcia’s avant-garde work stands out through personal connections and devotion to his readers.
Ray Carroll (@poetsarethenewpopstars) is a “writer” as in: novelist, music journalist, lyricist, serial diarist, and snail mail enthusiast based in Los Angeles.
Free entry! Friendly reminder that the first hour (9 pm – 10 pm) is a dedicated open mic where all talents are welcome.
Where: Untamed Spirits
Date: Friday, October 2nd
Time: 9 pm – 11 pm
Address: 3715 W. Evans St., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: Instagram Page
Special Storytime: Barney Saltzberg & A Not-So-Scarey-Story at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Join us to welcome Barney Saltzberg for a celebration of his new picture book A Not-So-Scary Story! Join us for Saturday Storytime at 9:30 am on October 3rd for a not-so-scary morning of stories and songs!
The two mice from A Delicious Story are back, exploring the thrills and chills of a scary story in this delightful light-hearted read-aloud picture book sequel—perfect for ages 3-6 at Halloween.
Barney Saltzberg reunites the two mouse pals in this charming follow-up to A Delicious Story. With witty back and forth between the mice–and a cameo from one particular colorful creature. Parents and children will laugh out loud at this new and exciting (but not-so-scary!) story within a story.
Barney Saltzberg is the author of more than 50 books for children, including the best-selling Touch and Feel Kisses series, Beautiful Oops!, My Book of Beautiful Oops!, and Hippo Park’s A Delicious Story. Additionally, he’s recorded four albums of songs for children. His books have won numerous awards, including NAPPA Gold Awards, and received multiple starred reviews. Most recently, Melinda Gates chose Beautiful Oops! as one of her top three books every child should read.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 9:30 am
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2026-10-03/special-story-time-barney-saltzberg
3rd Annual Burbank Book Festival at Buena Vista Branch Library – In-Person Event
Enjoy local authors, illustrators, vendors, food trucks, and more!
The Burbank Book Festival is a one-day celebration of books, authors, and the power of stories to bring people together. Join us on Saturday, October 3, 2026, from 10 am to 4 pm at Buena Vista Branch Library for this free, community-focused event featuring local and visiting authors, book signings, panels, vendors, and opportunities for readers of all ages to discover new stories and connect with the people who create them. Come celebrate diverse voices, a lifelong love of reading, and Burbank’s vibrant literary community!
SEE SCHEDULE LINK FOR ALL AUTHORS AND EVENTS
Panels include:
Panel: Turning Research into Great Reading
10:15 am – 11:15 am
Community Room
What does it take to transform years of research into a book readers can’t put down? Join a panel of acclaimed nonfiction authors as they discuss uncovering fascinating stories, navigating archives and interviews, and crafting compelling narratives that bring real people, events, and ideas to life. Whether exploring history, science, memoir, or current events, these writers will share how they turn facts into unforgettable reading.
Moderator: Jonathan P. Higgins, ED.D. | Black Fat Femme: Revealing the Power of Visibly Queer Voices in Media and How to Love Yourself
Anne Soon Choi | L.A. Coroner: Thomas Noguchi and Death in Hollywood
Darby Saxbe | Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men’s Lives
Raziq Rauf | This is Running: A Celebration of the World of Running, Exploring the Culture, History, Brands, Races and People Behind It
Signing: Children’s & Middle Grade Authors
10:30 am – 11:30 am
Middle Grade Authors
Author Read Aloud
11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Story Time Room
There’s nothing quite like hearing a story come to life through an author’s own voice. Join us for an enchanting hour as beloved picture book authors share their books by reading aloud to children of all ages—and we do mean ALL ages.
Panel: Why We Still Need Happy Endings
11:45 am – 12:45 pm
Community Room
Even as trends come and go, readers continue to return to stories that promise happily ever afters. Join a panel of beloved romance authors as they explore the enduring appeal of romance novels, the comfort and hope they offer readers, and how the genre continues to evolve. From changing trends in publishing to expanding representation and fresh perspectives on love, this conversation will celebrate why happy endings still matter.
Signing: YA & Non-Fiction Authors
11:45 am – 12:45 pm
Authors’ Row
YA Authors
Non-fiction Authors
Signing: Romance Authors
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Authors’ Row
Panel: From Idea to Novel: The Writing Journey
1:15 pm – 2:15 pm
Community Room
Every novel begins with a single idea—but how does it become a finished book? Join a panel of celebrated fiction authors as they discuss the creative process, from the spark of inspiration and developing memorable characters to overcoming challenges and bringing a story to life. Whether you’re an aspiring writer or simply curious about how your favorite novels are made, this conversation offers a behind-the-scenes look at the journey from first draft to finished book.
Moderator: Adele Griffin | The Favor
Gary Phillips | The Haul
Mansi Shah | Saving Face
Naomi Hirahara | Crown City
Signing: Fiction Authors
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Authors’ Row
Panel: Books That Reflect Our Communities
2:45 pm – 3:45 pm
Community Room
Stories have the power to help us better understand ourselves and one another. Join a panel of accomplished authors as they discuss the importance of creating books that reflect the richness of our communities, the value of authentic perspectives, and how literature can foster empathy, connection, and a greater appreciation for the many experiences that shape our world.
Moderator: Emily Barth Isler | Three Pieces of Broken Glass
Abdi Nazemian | Exquisite Things
Gretchen Schreiber | All The Stars Align
Sherri L. Smith | The Year The Corgis Saved Christmas
Where: Buena Vista Branch Library
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 10 am – 4 pm
Address: 300 N. Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91505
Website: https://www.burbankbookfestival.com/schedule-2026
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 3rd
Time: 10 am – 11 am
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Book Club: A Long Petal of the Sea at Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join the discussion of the Isabel Allende novel A Long Petal of the Sea.
Where: Los Feliz Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 1874 Hillhurst Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/book-club-15
گروه کتابخوانی فارسی در کتابخانه وست ولی Persian Book Club at West Valley Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
About the Event
:کتاب خود ا به اشتراک بگذارید
کتابی را که خواندید به دیگران هم معرفی کنید
تحلیل کتاب/ بحث و گفتگوی دوستانه
Where: West Valley Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 11 am – 1 pm
Address: 19036 Vanowen St., Reseda, CA 91335
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/grwh-ktabkhwany-farsy-dr-ktabkhanh-wst-wly-persian-book-club
Drag Story Hour at West Hollywood Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for a fun drag storytime with the fabulous Miss Barbie-Q reading stories that promote diversity and inclusion! Co-sponsored by the City of West Hollywood through WeHo Arts. For children of all ages.
Where: West Hollywood Library, LACL
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17220918
Pasadena Conservatory of Music Presents Musical Storytime: The Bats on the Bus by Alison Jackson at Vroman’s – In-Person Kids Event
The Pasadena Conservatory hosts a special musical storytime featuring The Bats on the Bus by Alison Jackson. Caregivers and children ages 3-9 enjoy a story paired with musical accompaniment, interactive musical play, and a mini-concert featuring PCM students!
A school bus full of monsters can’t wait to celebrate Halloween in this spooktacular picture book adaptation of a classic nursery rhyme.
When Halloween tricksters gather after dusk, they sing “The Wheels on the Bus” in order to cause a fright. Featuring a cast of silly monsters who aren’t quite what they seem—including witches who scream where’s my broom!, ghosts who shout boo!, and skeleton bones that go clankety clank!—this spooky-fun reimagining of the beloved nursery rhyme will have little ones squealing with delight as they chant all around the town!
Where: Vroman’s
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 11:30 am
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Writers Supporting Writers at West Hollywood Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Looking for a place to connect with fellow writers and grow your craft? Join Writers Supporting Writers! For adults.
Writers Supporting Writers is a monthly library writing group that meets on the first Saturday of every month for writing exercises, thoughtful discussions of attendees’ works in progress, and engaging analysis of published works. We offer an inclusive and supportive environment for writers of every background and experience level to create, share, and grow.
Beverages provided by the Friends of the West Hollywood Library.
Where: West Hollywood Library, LACL
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Address: 625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17100769
Author Event: Lisa Moore Raméee & More Trouble Than It’s Worth at Children’s Book World – In-Person Kids/Family Event
Join award-winning author, Lisa Moore Ramée, for a fun afternoon book talk for her new book, More Trouble Than It’s Worth, the companion to her award-winning book, A Good Kind of Trouble.
This story is a heartfelt and powerful sequel about coming of age, social justice, and the trials of friendship and competition, in which Shayla will learn the true definition of “personal best.”
Where: Children’s Book World
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Address: 10580 1/2 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064
Kids Graphic Novel Book Club: A Blood Moon (Snowlands #1) at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Kids/Family Event
Join participants to discuss A Blood Moon (Snowlands #1) by Mort Meroz, Collin Fogel.
Feba, an orphaned wolf cub, is believed to be cursed. Her rare white fur is said to be a bad omen. When a mysterious creature starts killing members of Feba’s pack one by one, all eyes fall on her. She has no choice but to run away, forced to roam the perilous Snowlands all on her own.
Until she meets Usha, a fiercely independent leopard, and Batu, a bumbling wildcat, each with their own secrets and reasons for wandering the Snowlands. Together, they form an unlikely trio, bound by fate. As these uneasy allies cross the frosty wilderness, they’ll uncover a widespread danger in the mountains that threatens to destroy everything.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 1 pm – 2 pm
Address: 6675 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, CA 92506
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-10-03/kids-graphic-novel-book-club-snowlands
Mystery Book Club at West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL – In-Person Event
Join us for a discussion of this month’s book selection. Contact branch for details at westla@lapl.org or 310-575-8323.
Where: West Los Angeles Regional Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm
Address: 11360 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025
Website: https://www.lapl.org/events/mystery-book-club-21
Book Club for Adults: Last One Out at Live Oak Library, LACL – In-Person Event
Join us for a discussion of our latest selection, Last One Out by Jane Harper. Copies of the book will be available at the Customer Service Desk.
Synopsis:
After years of scorning those who left the Ridge behind as it fell into ruin, Ro never imagined she’d become one of them. But everything changed when she lost her son. Five years ago, Sam vanished while visiting during a break from college, leaving behind a rental car with his belongings inside. Sam had loved Carralon Ridge, and had been working on an oral history of the town to preserve its legacy before it vanished altogether. It wasn’t long after his disappearance that the rest of the family began to crumble away too. But when Ro returns to Carralon Ridge to be with her husband and daughter on the anniversary of Sam’s disappearance, she begins to suspect that something important was overlooked in his case. Because while nothing can stop Carralon Ridge from dying, someone seems to want to make sure that its secrets die with it.
Where: Live Oak Library, LACL
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 2 pm – 3:30 pm
Address: 22 W. Live Oak Ave., Arcadia, CA 91007
Website: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17201329
L.A. Book Launch: Inlandia Anthology: 88 Unashamed Black Mental Health Stories at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Canter – In-Person & Online Hybrid Event
Join us for a poetry event highlighting resilience and mental health journeys within the Black community with contributors of 88 Unashamed Black Mental Health Stories. Published by Inlandia Institute’s Blacklandia, the evening features readings by anthology editor Romaine Washington, and contributors: Brandon Allen, Akilah Brown, James Coats, Nicole J. Evans, and Justin C. Key.
Brandon Allen is founder and CEO of Youth Writer’s Camp, Inc., a San Bernardino nonprofit using creative expression to build emotional resilience in young people. A poet, 3x TEDx speaker, and published author of This Little Boy, he also serves as a campus pastor and founder of Poetically Adorned Apparel.
Akilah Brown is an award-winning professor, blogger, and multi-genre storyteller who was a 2023 writing fellow for the Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency and a past scholarship recipient for the Rocaberti Writers’ Retreat. Originally from Bladensburg, MD, she now lives and writes in Los Angeles, CA.
James Coats is an award-winning author, poet, and educator from Southern California. As a creative change agent, he believes the arts can inspire positive change in the world. You can find him attending poetry readings throughout California. His newest poetry collection is Midnight & Mad Dreams. He is a 2023 Poetry Pushcart Prize nominee.
Nicole J. Evans (she/her) a Black woman from Los Angeles. She writes poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Eldest daughter, Black sheep, vision alchemist, generational curse breaker, dream catcher, tale weaver, aspiring griot, latent gardener, inherent inherited beautician, poet by heart, writer by revelation, and singer of her own songs.
Justin C. Key is a practicing psychiatrist and a speculative fiction writer. He is the author of the short story collection The World Wasn’t Ready for You, and his stories have appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, Lightspeed, and on Tor.com. His debut sci-fi novel, The Hospital at the End of the World, is out now from HarperCollins.
Romaine Washington is the editor of 88 Unashamed Black Mental Health Stories and These Black Bodies Are… She has two published poetry books, is a twice Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, and has presented her work on NPR and CBS. Visit her at romainewashington.com.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 2 pm – 4 pm (Doors at 1:30 pm)
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: Beyond Baroque Event Page
4th Annual Long Beach Poetry Festival (Day 2 of 3) at Long Beach Shakespeare Company, Helen Borges Theatre – In-Person Event
The 4th Annual Long beach Poetry Festival is curated by Linda Ravenswood and produced by Holly Leveque.
Day 2 of the Long Beach Festival features:
Bookstore opens at 2 pm.
Live Poetry from 3 pm – 5:30 pm.
Poets & Performers:
Brendan Constantine
Anna Homler & Jeff Schwartz
Seth Origatano
Phillip T. Nails
Hank Henxerson
Joy Eiser
Darren de Leon
Sara Harris Ben Ari
Karla Lamb
Daniel Yaryan
Elena Secota
Don Campbell
Victoria McCoy
Ben Trigg
Deborah Edler Brown
Matt Sedillo
Ellen Lyn Weber
Anna Goodman Herrick
David Romero
Performance Art & Live Music from 5:30 pm – 6 pm.
Where: Long Beach Shakespeare Company, Helen Borges Theatre
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 2 pm – 6 pm
Address: 4250 Atlantic Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90807
Website: Instagram Page
Saturday Afternoon Poetry: Poetry Writing Workshop by DKC – Online Zoom Event
Join us online for a Poetry Writing Workshop with DKC (Submit up to 3 poems totaling no more than 150 lines including the subject of or at least mentioning bite for Four Feathers Press online edition: BITE by emailing donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59 pm, October 16th).
All events are curated by Don Kingfisher Campbell.
Where: Saturday Afternoon Poetry, Online
Date: Saturday, the 3rd
Time: 3 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: Online SAP Zoom Event
Website: https://saturdayafternoonpoetry.blogspot.com/
Community in Conversation: America and Iran, Part 3 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 3: Fall the third session. Please join us on Saturday, October 3rd at 4 pm.
About 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 3rd
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 6675 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, CA 92506
Website: https://cellardoorbookstore.com/event/2026-10-03/community-conversation-america-and-iran-part-3
Special Author Event: Carrie Talick & The Alibi Club at pages: a bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Join us to welcome Carrie Talick, celebrating her newest book, The Alibi Club on Saturday, October 3rd at 5 pm.
The Alibi Club is a blind date that turns into calamity in this charming story that’s Materialists meets Anxious People.
We hosted Carrie for her previous book Beware the Mermaids, and are super excited to host her again for her newest novel.
Single, female, forty-one. Forensic psychologist Jamie Frisco’s bio reads more like victim data than stellar online dating fodder, and she’s on the verge of becoming a forever-spinster. Then her mother threatens to leave her out of her will unless Jamie brings a suitable date to her wedding. Enter matchmaker Lorna Gray, who invites Jamie to a blind date night—Dinner for Six.
Recently paroled antiquities thief Cliff Weston is desperate to change but needs a loan to start his new security business. Looking to schmooze his benefactor by passing as a family man, he accepts Lorna Gray’s invitation to Dinner for Six.
As Dinner for Six commences, Jamie, Cliff and four other unlikely singles are digging into their main course when bombs knock out the power, throwing everything into chaos.
After the smoke clears, a SWAT team arrives and a lockdown ensues, trapping them together. As the night goes on, sparks fly between Cliff and Jamie. Meanwhile, the biggest heist in Manhattan Beach history goes down, and someone at the table might be behind it all.
Carrie Talick writes novels where friendship is the real deal, love is complicated, and bad decisions are highly entertaining. Author of Dinner for Six and Beware the Mermaids, she mixes hilarity with heart, with a dash of chaos and a whole lot of honesty. She is also an award-winning copywriter who wrote the script for the 2019 Hyundai Super Bowl spot “Elevator” which starred Jason Bateman as a friendly docent to Hell. Michigan-born, L.A.-based; she spends her time writing, listening to vinyl with her husband, watching reality TV with her daughter, and catering to the whims of her rescue dog.
Where: pages: a bookstore
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 5 pm – 6 pm
Address: 904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
Website: https://pagesabookstore.com/event/2026-10-03/special-author-event-carrie-talick
Pondwater Society Reading Event: Micah Bournes at Private Residence – In-Person Event
Join us to welcome featured guest Micah Bournes to present his work.
“The very last show of The California Nights Tour😭. What a beautiful summer full of poetry and reasons to keep living. Come hang with me at PondWater Society for the grand finale. Shout out to @baines.joanne for having me.”
Joanna Baines hosts this monthly event.
Where: Pondwater Society
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 5 pm
Address: 16504 Masline St., Covina, CA 91722
Website: Instagram Page
The Latinxorcists: Noche de Terror at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center – In-Person Event
A Night of Horror Films presented by The LatinXorcists in collaboration with Beyond Baroque
The LatinXorcists present a special evening of horror cinema at Beyond Baroque featuring nine short films by Latinx filmmakers based in Los Angeles. Bringing together emerging and independent voices in horror, the program explores the genre through urban folklore in Latinx communities, true-crime-inspired stories, and encounters with creatures and spirits of the afterlife. The evening includes screenings, a special performance, followed by conversations with the cast, directors, and writers moderated by LatinXorcists founder Jose Vicente Chavez and Beyond Baroque Programs Manager, Iván Salinas.
First block features:
Mariposa directed by Austin Saya — 13:05
Horned directed by Jerrod D. Brito— 4:00
The Ravine directed by Federico Gonzales — 11:00
The screenings will be followed by a conversation with filmmakers about independent filmmaking and musical scores moderated by Jose Vicente Chavez, along with a special performance.
Second block features:
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
The Dropoff directed by Ricardo Martinez— 12:00
Bestias de la muerte direceted by Sandra Powers — 8:00
Milo directed by Ryan Ross — 12:00
Followed by Q&A with the filmmakers, moderated by Jose Vicente Chavez.
Third block features:
Vivir directed by Gerardo Maravilla — 9:00
Emily #7 directed by Robert Flowers— 4:43
The Tongue directed by Jose Vicente Chavez — 34:09
The evening concludes with a Writers Room Q&A moderated by Beyond Baroque Programs Manager, Iván Salinas, bringing horror screenwriters to discuss their work, inspirations, and creative process.
About The LatinXorcists
The Latinxorcists are a collective of Latinx horror and genre screenwriters reclaiming overlooked stories and amplifying cultural voices in film.
Where: Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center
Date: Saturday the 3rd
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Address: 681 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90291
Website: Eventbrite Page
PoetikLA: Community Art & Poetry at Sanctuary Venice – In-Person Event
Join us. PoetikLA is back—and this time, we’re lighting up the west side with a brand‑new chapter of our movement.
PoetikLA presents: Life After Breath
@sanctuaryvenice Venice Beach
A fresh space, a fresh vibe, and the same electric energy that has defined PoetikLA for nearly five years. This isn’t just a show—it’s a community ritual, a creative ignition, a night built for voices ready to rise.
Whether you’re a seasoned poet with years on the mic or stepping up for the very first time, our stage is yours. We want to hear you—your story, your rhythm, your breath.
Who We Are
PoetikLA is a charitable, community‑driven poetry collective founded in January 2021. For almost five years, we’ve hosted monthly shows that uplift voices from every corner of Los Angeles—from teens discovering poetry for the first time to national slam champions refining their craft.
Every month, we donate to a different charitable organization, keeping our mission rooted in giving back. This month we will be donating to the Ben free project. @benfreeproject Our stage is radically inclusive: all races, genders, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic backgrounds are welcome and celebrated. If you have something to say, we want to hear it.
This is our first show at Flow Life Sanctuary, and we’re ready to make it unforgettable. Come be part of the energy, the community, the life after breath.
$15 at the door
$10 if you’re performing (because your voice is part of the show)
To perform, DM us on Instagram at @PoetikLA.
Each performer gets 3 minutes to shake the room.
Where: Sanctuary Venice
Date: Saturday, the 3rd
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 2536 Lincoln Blvd., Venice, CA 90291
Website: Instagram Page
The Griot Café: Open Mic Night & Birthday Celebration at Shades of Afrika – In-Person Event
Join us every First Saturday of the month for The Griot Café Open Mic Night, hosted by Tommy Domino.
Featuring: A Kold Piece Birthday Celebration
A Kold Piece is a local educator, spoken word artist, host of the Slanguage Poetry Show Open Mic and author of The Weather Report.
Music vibes by DJ PW.
$10 cash only
Where: Shades of Afrika
Date: Saturday, the 3rd
Time: 8 pm – 10 pm (Doors at 7:30 pm)
Address: 1001 E. 4th St., Long Beach, CA 90802
Website: Instagram Page
Spinboy Coffee with Soul 333 at LibroMobile – In-Person Event
Support local independent businesses, bring your friends & family, buy some books, drink some coffee & let’s chat it up!
Every 1st Sunday of the month.
RSVP
Where: LibroMobile
Date: Saturday, the 4th
Time: 9 am – 1 pm
Address: 1150 S. Bristol St. A3, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Website: https://www.libromobile.com/event-details/spinboy-coffee-with-soul-333
Cleo Hooman, Sí Sabo Kids, and In-Store Reading with Mike Alfaro at Chevalier’s – In-Person Event
To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, Chevalier’s Books is partnering with Cleo&Hooman, Sí Sabo Kids, and author Mike Alfaro for an exclusive in-store reading for LA kiddos. This event is free.
Join Mike as he reads from his bilingual book series, Sí Sabo Kids, which teaches children the building blocks of Spanish through fun and engaging games and readings. The morning promises to be fun-filled and educational for your little one as they expand their understanding of Spanish and make some new friends along the way.
In addition to the reading, Cleo&Hooman will be on-site raffling off tees and accessories from their Little Hoomans Collection of children’s clothing.
Titles in the series include My Big Bilingual Book of First Words, How Do You Roll Your R’s?, and What Does Ñ Sound Like? Books will be available for purchase.
Mike Alfaro is a best-selling comedy writer and creative director with more than a decade of experience creating award-winning bilingual content. His past work includes multiple Super Bowl spots, the launch of Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Tacos, and the viral Instagram account @MillennialLoteria (now a #1 Best Seller on Amazon). He is a proud immigrant and member of the LIMA Coalition, which seeks to elevate and increase Latinx representation in U.S. media and entertainment. He has been profiled by The New York Times, BBC America, Los Angeles Magazine, Univision, the Huffington Post, and Telemundo.
Where: Chevalier’s
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 11 am – 11:45 am
Address: 133 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://chevaliersbooks.com/event/2026-10-04/cleohooman-and-si-sabo-kids-sunday-storytime
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 4th
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 4th
Time: 11 am – 12 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
Zine-Making at Village Well Books & Coffee – In-Person Event
All ages are invited to participate in this open studio time dedicated to zine-making.
A zine is pronounced [zeen], and it is short for “magazine.” These handmade books can be easily reproduced using a copy machine and distributed to your community. Rooted in countercultural movements to spread info for social good, zines are low-budget and low-tech ways to spread your message.
Where: Village Well Books & Coffee
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 12 pm – 2 pm
Address: 9900 Culver Blvd. #1B, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Event Page
4th Annual Long Beach Poetry Festival (Day 3 of 3) at Long Beach Shakespeare Company, Helen Borges Theatre – In-Person Event
The 4th Annual Long beach Poetry Festival is curated by Linda Ravenswood and produced by Holly Leveque.
Day 3 of the Long Beach Festival features:
Bookstore opens at 2 pm.
Live Poetry, Performance Art & Live Music from 3 pm – 5:30 pm.
Poets & Performers:
Terence Le Clere
Lynne Thompson
Christina Cha
Melanie Zoey Weinstein
Nelson Gary
Richard Modiano
K.R. Morrison
Yago Cura
Bernadette McComish
Tongo Eisen Martin
S.A. Griffin
Veronica Jauregui
The Youth Poets
Raines
Legends Among Us at 8 pm:
Nancy Woo
Maestro DeSean
Holly Leveque
Brian Sonia-Wallace
Where: Long Beach Shakespeare Company, Helen Borges Theatre
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 2 pm – 9 pm
Address: 4250 Atlantic Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90807
Website: Instagram Page
Ticketed: Writers Bloc Presents: WSJ Reporter Evan Gershkovich, with Ben Rhodes, & This Cursed Beautiful Land at Book Soup Off-site at The Writers Guild Theater – In-Person Event
Evan Gershkovich, in conversation with Ben Rhodes, will discuss This Cursed Beautiful Land at The Writers Guild Theater.
While working as a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal in 2023, Evan Gershkovich was arrested by Russian authorities and ultimately sentenced to 16 years in prison on false charges of spying. While the U.S. and Western governments condemned the sham conviction and advocated for his release, Evan found himself in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison—a very human pawn in a geopolitical chess match.
The first American journalist to be arrested and convicted for espionage by Russia since the end of the Cold War, Evan’s story made global headlines and would culminate in a massive, multi-country prisoner swap that captivated observers around the world. In his memoir, This Cursed Beautiful Land, Evan brings readers inside his nearly 500 days in Russian prisons and the blockbuster, multi-country prisoner swap that freed him; but he also offers a glimpse inside the perils and contradictions of a country in the midst of autocracy, a misunderstood land and people, marked at once by stunning beauty and a haunting history.
In conversation with Ben Rhodes, who served as President Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications. Ben is the bestselling author of several books, including the recently released All We Say: The Battle for American Identity: A History in 15 Speeches. Ben is also the co-host of Crooked Media’s sensational podcast, Pod Save the World.
Limited third-party paid parking structure available next door. We recommend rideshares and carpooling. Please allow time to find parking and to leave the parking structure.
RSVP
Where: Book Soup at Writers Guild Theater
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 3 pm
Address: 135 S. Doheny Dr., Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Website: Eventbrite Page
Book Soup Presents: Benny Blanco & F*ck Failure at Book Soup – In-Person Event
Benny Blanco signs his latest book F*ck Failure in-store at Book Soup!
From Grammy Award-winning producer, artist, actor, and New York Times bestselling author Benny Blanco comes a book that teaches you how to achieve your wildest dreams by seizing the most powerful opportunity you’ll ever be handed: failure.
You want success? You gotta fail better. I fail constantly—small everyday failures and massive failures that last for years. I’ve learned a few tricks along the way, and all of them have to do with turning f*cking up into an artform. My superpower as a producer is helping people tap into the success that’s already inside of them.
F*ck Failure gives you the non-shortcut shortcuts to success. If you let it, this book can change your life. Soon enough, failure will start to feel good. And once you realize that failure is freedom, you’ll never look back.
RSVP
Where: Book Soup
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 4 pm – 5:30 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: Eventbrite Page
Ticketed: Jenine Pastores and Josh Jackson & The Adventures of Tubby Nugget: Big Robot Invasion #2 at Vroman’s – In-Person Event
Blast off into the second story of this charming graphic novel series with social media sensation Tubby Nugget!
Ever since Tubby Nugget escaped his planet and arrived on Earth, he couldn’t be happier to call it home.
But his peaceful life is suddenly interrupted when a tiny robot named J.O.H.N crash-lands his spaceship right into Josh and Jenine’s kitchen. His mission: to bring Tubby back to Nuggetville and force him to turn golden once and for all. Can Tubby convince the robot to let him stay, or will he have to say goodbye to his friends forever?
Whether you’re a longtime fan of Tubby Nugget or new to his adventures, this graphic novel promises to be a nugget of joy in your reading collection. Grab your favorite snack and get ready to embark on an extraordinary adventure with Tubby Nugget!
This is an offsite ticketed event at Pasadena Presbyterian Church with three ticket options.
– General Admission + 1 copy of The Adventures of Tubby Nugget: Big Robot Invasion #2
– 2 General Admissions + 1 copy of The Adventures of Tubby Nugget: Big Robot Invasion #2
– 3 General Admissions + 1 copy of The Adventures of Tubby Nugget: Big Robot Invasion #2
There is also an add-on available of The Adventures of Tubby Nugget: Escape From Nuggetville #1 to purchase with your ticket.
Books will be handed out at check-in.
Where: Vroman’s Off-site at Pasadena Presbyterian Church
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 4 pm
Address: 585 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: https://vromansbookstore.com/event/2026-10-04/jenine-pastores-josh-jackson
Writers Group at North Figueroa Bookshop – In-Person Event
First Sunday of every month!
Bring paper and a pen, bring your laptop, bring a prompt to share, bring a project to work on or just come prepared to free write among other writers, and perhaps exchange projects and feedback!
Where: North Figueroa Bookshop
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 6040 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Sunday Jump Open Mic at Pilipino Workers Center – In-Person Event
First Sunday of every month!
October features David Ira.
We invite everyone to join us at the Pilipino Workers Center in Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles! On October 4th from 5 pm – 7 pm, we’ll be celebrating with performances, good vibes, and of course Filipino American History Month.
You definitely won’t want to miss it! Open mic sign-ups start at 4:30 pm and will be a lottery based system to ensure fair chances for all. 🙌
Our theme this season is: Heat Rising. 🔥⬆️=
Heat is a powerful form of energy, vital for survival. It is supplied from the sun, the stove for a home-cooked meal, the hugs we give each other, redistributed through touch and connection. It is light, warmth, and care in times of turmoil. It can be found in the fire ignited within ourselves. Fire can burst into chaos, a symbol for uprisings and revolution, but also renewal. It rises and inspires change. It can also burn out and in the aftermath, allow growth and new life to emerge.
💥For the month of October, the focus is Volcanic. Volcanic activity is widely known for being explosive, but it first starts off with an intense heat deep inside the earth melting rock into magma, creating pressure and trapping gasses that ultimately crack the crust and erupt out as lava. Connecting it to our theme, heat rises just as we will rise, like in our own selves, we will break through systemic barriers and bring about change in this world.
David Ira (@davidiramusic) is a Filipino-American hip-hop artist rooted in both San Diego and Cebu City. Spending his high school years in the Philippines deeply shaped his worldview, influencing the stories he tells and the sounds he chooses in his music. Driven by a passion for cultural storytelling, David creates immersive records that transport listeners through the worlds that inspired him—an experience that sets him apart within the genre.
@fanhslosangeles, community spotlight
@ayat.eats, food & drink
@essenceplanner, merch
@emg_oftheday, resident host
@courtneyegenes, guest sound selection
#SundayJump #Season14
Where: Pilipino Workers Center
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 5 pm – 7 pm (Sign-ups at 4:30 pm)
Address: 153 Glendale Blvd, Floor 1., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Website:
Queer Romance LA Book Club: All of Us Murderers at The Ripped Bodice – In-Person Event
Bookseller Elizabeth leads our queer romance book club.
Book for October: All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles.
We meet at 7:15 pm on the first Sunday in the store!
No membership is necessary, but RSVP is required.
Where: The Ripped Bodice
Date: Sunday the 4th
Time: 7:15 pm – 8:30 pm
Address: 3806 Main Street, Culver City, CA 90232
Website: Eventbrite Page
