Author: Brian Dunlap

Brian Dunlap is a native Angeleño capturing the city’s stories hidden in plain sight. He’s the author of the chapbook Concrete Paradise (Finishing Line Press, 2018) and the winner of a Marvin Bell Memorial Poetry Prize from december magazine judged by former Los Ángeles Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez. He's also the Editor-in-Chief of Los Angeles Literature, an independent online magazine covering the Greater Los Ángeles literary community.
Literary Long Beach, Los Angeles Literary Events

Los Angeles Literature Events: 08/16/21 – 08/22/21

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

Jordan Ifueko & Redemptor Book Launch via Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person/ Outside Event

Celebrate an In-Person book launch for Redemptor, by Jordan Ifueko, the sequel to the New York Times bestseller Raybearer.

In this story Empress Redemptor sits on Aristar’s throne, but must appease the sinister spirits of the dead. Tarisai must now anoint a council of her own, coming into her full power. She must then descend into the Underworld, a sacrifice to end all future atrocities. She is determined to survive, but fears the pressure may consume her. Now she must decide to die for justice…or to live for it.

For health and safety reasons, this event will take place both inside and outside the store, per guidelines available at website.

NOTE: See Site for details and book purchase.

Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore

Date: Monday the16th             

Time: 5 pm

Address: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020

Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/redemptor

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Articles

Book Release: My Name is Romero

By Brian Dunlap

It was a hot, August Sunday in Boyle Heights. Mid-afternoon, Ceaser Chavez was quieter than usual. It might’ve been due to the Delta variant raging across the county. It might’ve also been due because it was Sunday, the only slow day in L.Á. Still, some stores were open like Boyle Heights Amor, a small store front selling natural medicine.

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Literary Long Beach, Los Angeles Literary Events

Los Angeles Literature Events: 08/09/21 – 08/15/21

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

Maggie Smith, with Victoria Chan, & Goldenrod via Skylight Bookstore – Online Event

Join us to hear author Maggie Smith, in conversation with award-winning poet Victoria Chang (Obit), discuss her new poetry book, Goldenrod.  

Award-winning poet Maggie Smith returns with a powerful collection that looks at parenthood, solitude, love and memory by taking unique looks at modern life to explore with empathy and honestly.

NOTE: See Site for details and registration.

Where: Skylight Bookstore

Date: Monday the 9th             

Time: 5:30 pm

Address: See Site

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-maggie-smith-discusses-goldenrod-victoria-chang   

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Articles

The Future of an L.Á. Arts Mentorship Organization: DSTL Arts

By Brian Dunlap

In 2012 poet Luis Antonio Pichardo founded the arts mentorship organization DSTL Arts. He had ambitious goals. From the start, he wanted to inspire, teach, and hire emerging artists from underserved communities. This idea was born at his house in Glassell Park. Northeast L.Á.

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Literary Long Beach, Los Angeles Literary Events

Los Angeles Literature Events: 08/02/21 – 08/08/21

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

Monday Art Block Writing Workshop via DSTL Arts –Contact DSTL for details

Join DSTL Arts for a new Monday Art Block Writing Workshop. This long-running series of writing workshops is about to resume, and details and registration will be available at site. Submissions are also underway for new publications.

NOTE: See Site for details and registration.

Where: DSTL Arts

Date: Monday the 2nd              

Time: 6:30 pm

Address: Registration available at site.

Website: https://www.dstlarts.org/calendar

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Interviews

Three Questions for Cherríe Moraga Regarding Her Memoir, “Native Country of the Heart”

By Daniel A. Olívas
FROM: LARB

Cherríe Moraga is an internationally recognized playwright, essayist, and poet who is best known as the co-editor of the groundbreaking feminist work This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Moraga is the author of several collections, including A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness and Loving in the War Years. Moraga has been recognized for her writing with the United States Artist Rockefeller Fellowship for Literature, the American Studies Association Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Lambda Foundation’s “Pioneer” award, among other honors.

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Los Angeles Literary Events

Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/26/21 – 08/01/21

Another busy week in the Los Ángeles literary community, with in-person and virtual events. In=person events are at local bookstores, Re/Arte in Boyle Heights, Sims Library of Poetry in South Central. etc. Some local writers reading this week: poet Daniel Jose Ruiz, Brendan Constantine, Tommy Domino, V. Kali, Hiram Sims, October BLU and more. Continue reading Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/26/21 – 08/01/21

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Articles, Los Angeles Literary Events

Two Idiots Peddling Poetry and Shout! the Open Mic Are Joining Forces

By Brian Dunlap

As more of the Los Ángeles literary community returns to in-person events, two long-running Orange County open mics, Two Idiots Peddling Poetry and Shout! the Open Mic, are joining forces, as Two Idiots said on Facebook, to “maintain an online reading.” They want to “continue to connect with our extended community beyond the borders of Southern California.”

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Interviews

Rosecrans Baldwin

By Sean Hooks
FROM: Full Stop

Author of articles and essays in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, GQ, Esquire, Salon, and Slate, Rosecrans Baldwin has published the novels You Lost Me There (2010) and The Last Kid Left (2017), and the nonfiction titles Paris, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down (2012) and his newest release Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles, published by MCD/FSG. It’s replete with cultists, wildfires, earthquake lore, working-class thespians, DIY survivalists, Border Angels, gamer collectives, labor trafficking survivors, and assorted Angelenos who could be said to be vagabonds (or wastrels). Despite reckoning with a litany of contemporary apocalypses, it remains a book levied with humor, including an inventive appropriation of Charles Bukowski’s character Henry Chinaski, an exposé of the lampoonable greed of investment trusts that view human suffering as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to “buy low,” and a hilarious depiction of a screenwriting team’s meeting with Hollywood producers gone awry.

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