The Free Black Women’s Library has arrived in Los Ángeles. They are the L.A. chapter of The Free Black Women’s Library, founded in Brooklyn in 2015 by Ola Ronke Akinmowo. The aim of this library is to provide “a free, feminist pop-up library and book swap with Black women writers at the center,” as their mission states.
Continue reading “The Free Black Women’s Library Comes To L.A.”
By Brian Dunlap
Lucy Jane Bledsoe’s The Evolution of Love, published by L.A. based Rare Bird Books, has been named a finalist for the 2019 Lambda Literary Awards in the category of Lesbian Fiction. Finalists will be celebrated and winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony and Gala the evening of Monday, June 3, 2019 in New York City.
By Brian Dunlap
Pasadena Native Naomi Hirahara and L.A. native Walter Mosley have both been nominated for a 2019 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, Hiroshima Boy, and Best Novel, Down The River Unto The Sea, respectively. For Hirahara it’s her second Edgar Award nomination, her first being for Snakeskin Shamisen, which won the 2007 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original. Mosely has been nominated twice before for Best Novel, in 1993 for White Butterfly and in 2013 for All I did Was Shoot My Man and was nominated for Best First Novel in 1991 for Devil in a Blue Dress.
Literary editor of of Los Ángeles based Harriet Tubman Press, Shonda Buchanan announced the release of her next book Black Indian: A Memoir, will be released by Wayne State Press in August. She is also an award-winning poet and educator. She is the author of Who’s Afraid of Black Indians? and Equipoise: Poems from Goddess Country and editor of two anthologies, Voices from Leimert Park and Voices from Leimert Park Redux.
Continue reading “Black Indian: A Memoir by Shonda Buchanan”
By Tracy Lehr
FROM: KEYT
Oxnard-born poet and writer Michele Serros left some of her prized possession to California State University, Channel Islands. They went on display on Valentine’s Day, her favorite holiday.
by ASTRID
FROM: LA Taco
Mangoes fill Yesika Salgado’s poetry in the same way Jacaranda trees blossom throughout her hometown in Silver Lake. She is a poet and activist emerging as the Sentimental Boss Bitch many have come to know and adore for gaslighting toxic masculinity on Instagram with heartfelt poems and screenshots.
Continue reading “Fall In Love With Yesika Salgado: Silver Lake’s Fat, Fly, Salvadoran Poet”
NOTE: This is the second book in Los Angeles Literature’s Black History Month series highlighting the L.A. literature written by black authors.
The story collection In The Not Quite Dark by Los Ángeles native Dana Johnson is about race, specifically blackness, gentrification, love and class in L.A. Many of these stories take place downtown and weave the city’s history into their narratives.
by Lynell George
FROM:
It doesn’t take much to envision a certain wide stretch of Los Angeles’ West Adams Boulevard in its early 20th century glory—when traffic floated by at a genteel pace and carefully spaced rows of stately homes peeked out from sumptuous gardens. Taken together, it embodied the sweet dream of the West.
Continue reading “A Storied Los Angeles Club for African American Women Looks to the Future”
By Brian Dunlap
The Pomona Valley Review (PVR) is now open for submissions for its 13th issue. Submitters will be contacted in July with decisions. PVR 13 is scheduled for an early August publication.
Continue reading “Pomona Valley Review Call For Submissions”
NOTE: In honor of Black History Month, Los Angeles Literature is highlighting the city’s literature written by black writers. They have all left an indelible mark on the city of Angels. In the first installment, Los Angeles Literature is highlighting If He Hollers Let Him Go by Chester Himes.
Los Angeles Literature 