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.
Los Angeles Literary Events

Los Angeles Literature Events 6/04/18 –6/10/18

downloadStephen Gee & Los Angeles City Hall at Vroman’s Bookstore 

Author Stephen Gee joins us to present, discuss and sign his new book from Angel City Press, Los Angeles City Hall: An American Icon, one of our most enduring local landmarks. When it opened its doors in 1928, the new Los Angeles City hall was the tallest building in the city and more than half a million people lined the streets to celebrate its dedication. It was a bold symbol of the ambition of America and its people. This book also contains a forward by Eric Garcetti and photographs by Sandra Stojanovi.

Where: Vroman’s Bookstore

Date: Monday the 4th

Time: 7 pm

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

Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/stephen-gee-discusses-and-signs-los-angeles-city-hall-american-icon

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Interviews

Behind The Editor’s Desk: Vanessa Angélica Villarreal

by Women Who Submit

From: Women Who Submit

GLP_Header2222Vanessa Angélica Villarreal just signed on as nonfiction editor at LA’s own Gold Line Press. She’s an innovative poet who isn’t constrained by genre; her work is electrifying, form-melting, challenging.  I asked her about Gold Line’s upcoming chapbook contest and her work as an editor.

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Articles

Matt Sedillo, Creative Writing Workshops, LitFest Pasadena and Teaching Artists

by Brian Dunlap

cropped-lazinefest-webbanner1A lot has happened in Los Ángeles Literature in May. Writers were running workshops for the community and they all came together on the 19th and 20th in Pasadena’s Theater District for the 7th Annual LitFest Pasadena, celebrating local writers and presses. Plus, as many L.A. writers teach at local high schools, community colleges and universities and as the school year ends, they’ve been reflecting on the impact they’ve had on their students. One has been recognized for his teaching with an award.

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Los Angeles Literary Events

Los Angeles Literature Events 5/28/18 –6/03/18

downloadFree Memorial Holiday Monday at LACMA 

Visitors and families of all ages are invited to a FREE day at the museum, with bilingual tours, campus-wide exhibits, including Hidden Narratives exhibit and others, all open to the public, and live music with Soft Streak.

Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Date: Monday the 28th

Time: 11 am – 5 pm

Address: 5905 Wilshire Blvd., West Los Angeles, CA 90036

Website: http://www.lacma.org/event/target-free-holiday-monday-10

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Los Angeles Literary Events

Los Angeles Literature Events 5/21/18 –5/27/18

owen-toddTony Abbott & Mordicai Gerstein at Children’s Book World–Children’s Event  

Please join us to meet and hear from two authors receiving the Horace Mann Upstander Awards, given yearly to celebrate authors who publish fictional stories that encourage activism on the part of the protagonist. The authors will discuss their work, receive their awards from Antioch University Los Angeles, and the presentation will be followed by a Q&A and book signing. For ages: 10-adult.

The Summer of Owen Todd, by Tony Abbott is the winner of the Annual Book Award.  Mordicai Gerstein is the Lifetime Achievement Award winner for his commitment to activism, and particularly for his latest book, The Boy and the Whale.

Where: Children’s Book World

Date: Monday the 21st

Time: 6 pm

Address: 10580 ½ W. Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles, CA 90064

Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/dan-sheehan-and-daniel-abbott-discuss-and-sign-restless-souls-and-concrete

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Articles

My 12-Year Love Affair

by Erika Ayón

From: Women Who Submit

29262014_10155343381871127_4963239867677933568_nIt began 12 years ago, the concept for my poetry collection Orange Lady. It was 2006, that summer I had gone to VONA (Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation) in San Francisco, where I had taken a writing workshop with Chris Abani. At VONA, I connected with writers who also lived in Los Angeles, and upon my return, through them, I learned about Ruth Forman’s poetry workshops. It was in these workshops held at Ruth’s home in Los Angeles surrounded by willow trees and included Tai Chi lessons taught by her that the poetry collection came to me. Ruth always showed immense compassion toward our writing process and lovingly gave us permission to just write. That permission to just write sparked this emotional surge in me, and I wrote without care or judgment, with pure reckless abandonment. It was in these workshops that I began compiling the poems that would ultimately become part of my first poetry collection Orange Lady.

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Interviews

Develop Skills and Transcend Limits through the Arts: Meet Luis Antonio Pichardo

by Catherine Sturgeon

From: LAPL Blog

blog-post-cover-dtla-artsDSTL Arts is a nonprofit arts mentorship organization based in Los Angeles that “inspires, teaches, and hires emerging artists from underserved communities.” The acronym in DSTL Arts stands for Develop Skills and Transcend Limits through the Arts. Co-founded by Luis Antonio Pichardo and Jennifer Fuentes in late 2012, DSTL Arts began as Luis’ vision for empowering the next generation of working artists from underserved and underrepresented communities in the arts, serving, at first, only youth whom aspired to become working artists in spite of a lack of a support system in their immediate community, including their families.

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Los Angeles Literary Events

Los Angeles Literature Events 5/14/18 –5/20/18

downloadRestless Souls & The Concrete, Book Launch & Discussion at Book Soup 

Restless Souls, by Dan Sheehan & The Concrete, by Daniel Abbott, will be presented and discussed in conversation with Melissa X. Golebiowski of Literary Hub.

Restless Souls is a moving and darkly funny meditation on friendship, the emotional ravages of war, and the way our memories simultaneously comfort and restrict us from growing and moving on.

The Concrete is a striking literary debut that grapples with the effects of childhood trauma, lost dreams, human sexuality, and the difficulties of marriage.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Monday the 14th

Time: 7 pm

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

Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/dan-sheehan-and-daniel-abbott-discuss-and-sign-restless-souls-and-concrete

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Articles, Los Angeles Literary Events

Six-week poetry workshop welcomes poets of all ages

by MARIEL ROSSI DEVRIES

From: The Occidental 

COMMUNITYNEWS_PoetryWorkshop_NoraFujita-Yuhas5.jpg

The Center for the Arts Eagle Rock is hosting a poetry workshop with the theme of intergenerational poetry, which welcomes individuals of all ages, every Tuesday until May 22. Jessica M. Wilson, founder of the Los Angeles Poet Society — a community organization for art and literature based in the city since 2009 — is leading the workshop. Members of the public can sign up for the full six weeks at a fee of $60 or attend a single workshop for $10. Five people attended the first workshop on April 17 and discussed works by beat generation poet Allen Ginsberg, author of “Howl.”

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