“Wonder Valley,” the third novel from author Ivy Pochoda, begins with a classic Los Angeles tableau: a chase on the 101, complete with a police helicopter, camera-toting news crews and spectators recording the spectacle on their smartphones.
Continue reading “‘Wonder Valley’ is an L.A. Thriller That Refuses to Let Readers Look Away”
Poetry Party by Cadence Collective at Fox Coffee House
Come to hear the 2nd Monday Poetry Party hosted by Cadence Collective, and hosted by poets Murray Thomas & Sarah Thursday. This site features poets who have lived, gone to school, worked or regularly been a part of Long Beach, and it always begins with an Open Mic, followed by featured readers of the month.
Where: Fox Coffee House
Date: Monday the 13th
Time: 7 pm – 9:30 pm
Address: 437 W. Willow St., Long Beach, CA 90808
Website: http://www.meetup.com/CoffeeHouseWritersGroupLongBeach/events/zgjjllywpbrb/
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 11/13/17 –11/19/17”
By Jason McGahan From: LA Weekly Other Books, Comics and Zines offers an exquisitely curated selection of new and used books with an anarcho-queer-feminist–third world–radical-indigenist edge. The sparely decorated, spacious store, sandwiched unassumingly between an El Pollo Loco and a Mexican craft-leather shop, offers bare cement floors, bare white walls, bare light bulbs and unobtrusive, comfortable chairs and sofas for reading. Books are cerebral up front, transgressive … Continue reading BEST NEW BOOKSTORE Other Books, Comics and Zines
Book of Wonders at Book Soup
Come to hear author Douglas Trevor discuss and sign his book, Book of Wonders. This book is a collection of nine stories, and explores unsettling and comic situations in which people lose their bearings, reinvent themselves, or resolve—sometimes haplessly—to make sense of their lives. We are reminded not only of the struggle to connect, but also of what the most unlikely of people may realize they share.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday the 6th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/douglas-trevor-discusses-and-signs-book-wonders
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 11/06/17 –11/12/17”
The novelist seemed to go from unknown to MacArthur genius in two years. In truth, it took decades.
by Joe Fassler
From: Electric Literature
This month, the novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen was awarded one of the most prestigious honors a writer can receive: the MacArthur “genius” grant, given to artists, thinkers, and public intellectuals whose ideas have culture-altering potential. This, in itself, should surprise no one. Nguyen writes with arresting moral and intellectual force, often about people scarred and uprooted by conflict. As the MacArthur Foundation put it in its citation, Nguyen’s demonstrated a unique gift for exploring how depictions of the Vietnam War “often fail to capture the full humanity and inhumanity, the sacrifices and savagery, of participants on opposing sides.”
Continue reading “The Secret to Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Overnight Success”
“One outpost of authenticity in Venice, however, is the renowned Beyond Baroque literary arts center, now gearing up for its 50th anniversary.” Continue reading Beyond Baroque: 50 Years of Literary Life in Venice, California
Steven J. Ross at Chevalier’s Bookstore
Please join us to hear Steven J. Ross, son of Holocaust survivors, author and professor of history at USC, discussing and signing his new book, Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America, in conversation with the host and producer of “Start Making Sense,” The Nation’s weekly podcast Jon Wiener (How We Forgot the Cold War: A Historical Journey Across America). The book examines how the Nazis plotted to sabotage the nation’s military installations, propaganda and communications along the Pacific Coast
Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore
Date: Monday the 30th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: https://www.chevaliersbooks.com/hitler-in-la
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 10/30/17 –11/05/17”
Through the literary soundscapes created by a new generation of Chicana authors such as Estella Gonzalez, Verónica Reyes, and Raquel Gutiérrez, the 1980s becomes an important site for hearing new Chicana voices, stories, histories, representations, in particular of Chicana lesbians. Continue reading “Oh how so East L.A.”: The Sound of 80s Flashbacks in Chicana Literature
by Erin Michaela Sweeney
From: Terrain.org
Napa, California–based artist known for multimedia installations, public art, photography, printmaking, and sculpture, Lewis deSoto revisits Southern California’s Inland Empire, where he lived the first half of his life. From his creative toolbox, deSoto grabs an old standby—his photographic lens—to articulate the 21st century present of the Inland Empire. He overlays the visuals with written filters of his narrative past to produce Empire: Photographs and Essays.
Though the subtitle lists photographs before essays, his personal history gives the volume its geographical structure and soul. He shares vivid memories, granting readers a chance to visit times and places, even certain mental spaces, of his Inland Empire universe from 1954 to 1981.
Continue reading “REVIEW: THE INLAND EMPIRE IN PHOTOGRAPHS AND ESSAYS”
South of Pico Art Talk at California African American Museum
Please join us to hear In Conversation: Kellie Jones, esteemed author, curator and associate professor at Columbia University, discussing and signing her new book, South of Pico, in conversation with CAAM deputy director and chief curator Naima J. Keith. The book examines how artists in the 1960s and 1970s in LA’s black communities created a vibrant, productive and engaged arts scene, and speaks to the dislocation of migration, the city’s urban renewal, and restrictions on black mobility. This event is presented in conjunction with Art + Practice.
Note: This is a FREE ticketed event and you must RSVP through Eventbrite link at website.
Where: California African American Museum (CAAM)
Date: Monday the 23rd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 401 W. 43rd Place, Los Angeles, CA 90008
Website: https://caamuseum.org/programs/current/in-conversation-kellie-jones-and-naima-j-keith
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 10/23/17 –10/29/17”
Los Angeles Literature 