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.
By Brian Dunlap
Dryland, a literary journal based in South Central Los Ángeles, is currently open to submissions. The deadline is March 4, 2019.
By Brian Dunlap
Vanessa Angélica Villarreal is the author of Beast Meridian (Noemi Press, 2017) a poetry collection that confronts and refutes the violence of erasure and assimilation, rooted in the borderlands of her birth. This violence and erasure is a physical space where “the speaker confronts her life in the eternal hallway of the subconscious,” as poet Sara Borjas says in her review of the book. For this confrontation and refutation Villarreal’s poetry collection was named, earlier this month, as a finalist for the 2019 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, which recognizes the work of a poet of promise with $10,000.
Continue reading “Vanessa Angélica Villarreal Is A Finalist”
By Brian Dunlap
The Tomorrow Prize for short science fiction is a competition by Los Angeles County high school students that inspires them to explore their present through speculating about their future and to excel in the art of storytelling.
The band’s founding member reflects on growing up Chicano & being an artist.
by Catalina Maria Johnson
From: Billboard
About 40 years ago, four musicians in a high school rock band decided to learn the Mexican standard “Las Mañanitas” to regale one of the band member’s moms on her birthday. Daunted by how difficult that proved to be — they had underestimated the complexity of their musical culture — the young East LA born-and-bred Chicanos decided to frame their Mexican roots music in rock ‘n’ roll and R&B grooves. And so, the iconic, multi-Grammy-winning band Los Lobos was born.
Continue reading “Los Lobos’ Louie Perez Talks Musical Memoir ‘Good Morning Aztlan’: Exclusive”
Mike Sonsken has been a fixture in the Los Angeles Literary community for two decades. He burst on the scene spitting spoken word verse late into the night, at many venues, events, and open mics, some that no longer exist. During the course of these two decades he’s traveled to Echo Park and Sylmar, Venice and the Eastside, Downtown and Torrance, and everywhere in-between, performing poems laced with the city’s stories and history, hosting open mics and readings, being a tour guide to its streets, teaching students poetry and encouraging them to explore who and what Los Ángeles is.
As 2018 draws to a close, it’s been another year of publishing success for Los Ángeles writers and the Los Angeles literary community. As the months went by, writers published novels, essay collections, poetry collections, edited anthologies or announced their books had been accepted for publication in 2019 and even 2020. Congratulations to all these scribes and for penning important works. Some of these books, such as Erica Ayón’s Orange Lady, which recounts the author’s experience as an immigrant growing up in South Central Los Angeles, where her family sold oranges on the street in order to survive, and Lynell George’s essay collection After/Image: Los Angeles Outside the Frame, focused on Los Angeles beneath-the-surface, both the past and the here-and-now, explores who and what L.A. is from different personal lived experiences. Showing how the political is personal.
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