Los Angeles Literary Events Cancelled
Due to my family contracting COVID, there is no list of weekly events.
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literary Events Cancelled”
Due to my family contracting COVID, there is no list of weekly events.
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literary Events Cancelled”
Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
45th Annual UCR Writers Week Festival via UC Riverside – Online Event
Join the 45th Annual UCR Writers Week Festival of Events: February 12 and 14-18, 2022. This series of events is online, free and open to the public, (captioned & ASL translated), and you may register at site link or on any session time listed there.
DAY 2 of 6, EVENTS:
Session 1: 3 pm PST:
Edgar Gomez is the author of High Risk Homosexual: A Memoir, which follows a touching and often hilarious spiral-like path to embracing his gay, Latinx identity against a culture of machismo. This is a crackling, witty and poignant debut.
Daniel Olivas is the author most recently of How to Date a Flying Mexican, New and Collected Stories (University of Nevada Press, 2022). He is the author of ten books and editor of two anthologies, as well as plays produced for the stage and readings by Playwrights’ Arena, Circle X Theatre Company, and The Road Theatre Company. He has written for many publications, including the New York Times, The Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, LARB, La Bloga, BOMB, and others
Steve Erickson is the author of ten novels, and has written two books about American politics and popular culture, Leap Year and American Nomad. He has also written for Esquire, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, Salon, and other publications and journals. He was editor and co-founder of Black Clock literary journal, and is now film/TV critic for Los Angeles magazine and a Distinguished Professor at UC Riverside.
Session 2: 5 pm PST:
Jamaica Heolimeleikatani Osorio is the author of Remembering Our Intimacies (University of Minnesota Press, 2021). She interlaces stories from her forebears with cultural artifacts from her own life to explore questions of cultural inheritance and the particular danger, as a Native woman, of relaxing into romantic love under colonial rule. Dr. Osorio is a Kanaka Maoli artist and scholar and an Assistant Professor of Indigenous and Native Hawaiian Politics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Elisa Washuta is the author most recently of White Magic (Tin House, 2022), long-listed for the PEN Open Book Award and the PEN/Jean Stein Award, a collection of intertwined essays about land, heartbreak, and colonization, about life without the escape hatch of intoxication, and about how she became a powerful witch. She interlaces stories from her forebears with cultural aspects of her own life to explore questions of cultural inheritance and the particular danger, as a Native woman, of relaxing into romantic love under colonial rule. She is a member of the Cowlitz Indian tribe and an assistant professor of creative writing at the Ohio State University.
Session 3: 6:30 pm PST
Anthony Cody is the author most recently of the 2021 American Book Award winning Borderland Apocrypha (Omnidawn, 2020). He has a lineage in both the Bracero Program and the Dust Bowl and his poetry has appeared widely. He has taught eco-poetry at Fresno State University, and read and led workshops across the country. He continues to run the Laureate Lab Studio with Juan Felipe Herrera at Fresno State, and serves as poetry editor for Noemi Press and a poetry editor for Omnidawn.
Carribean Fragoza is a passionate writer, journalist, and artist from South El Monte, and is the author most recently of the collection Eat the Mouth that Feeds You (City Lights), and is also co-editor of East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte. She is also founder and co-director of the South El Monte Art Posse (SEMAP), a multi-disciplinary arts collective.
Sesschu Foster taught composition and literature in East L.A. for over 20 years, and also taught at the University of Iowa, CalArts and UC Santa Cruz. His most recent books are City of the Future, poetry; World Ball Notebook, poetry; and Atomik Aztex, a novel. His has won numerous literary awards, including the Paterson Poetry Prize for City Terrace Field Manual. He is based in Alhambra, CA.
NOTE: See site for event link and details.
Where: UC Riverside Writers Week – Online Event
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 3 pm – 8 pm (Day 2 of 6)
Address: UC Riverside – Online (see site)
Website: https://writersweek.ucr.edu/schedule22
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 02/14/22 – 02/20/22”
Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
At Skylight: Daniel Alexander Jones & Omi Osun Joni L. Jones Present: Love Like Light & Particle and Wave at Skylight Bookstore – On-site Event
Daniel Alexander Jones in conversation with Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, will present the books: Love Like Light and Particle and Wave, respectively.
Daniel Alexander Jones’ Love Like Light: Plays and Performance Texts (53rd Street Press) collects the author’s texts of Bel Canto, Black Light, Blood: Shock: Boogie, clayangels, Duat, Phoenix Fabrik, and The Book of Daniel into a shifting transformational body of work. Each play is a provocation to the possibility of a more just and loving world. It’s a reunion of the avant-guards of New York, Austin, and Minneapolis, among others, and includes an interview and essays by others.
Particle and Wave: A Conversation (53rd State Press) is a companion volume, and features a book-length conversation between Daniel Alexander Jones and poet, scholar, and activist Alexis Pauline Gumbs about Love Like Light, and the ways that love, like lights, suffuses everything and is the condition and power of change in the world.
Joni Osum Joni L. Jones is an artist/scholar/facilitator who employs black feminist aesthetics and theatrical jazz principles in her performance work, her pedagogy, and her facilitation. Her most recent book is Theatrical Jazz: Performance, Ase, and the Power for the Present Moment (Ohio State University Press). She is Professor Emerita from the African and African Diaspora Studies Department at the University of Texas, at Austin.
NOTE: See Site for book purchases, guidelines, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore – On-site Event
Date: Monday the 7th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 02/07/22 – 02/13/22”
Wajahat Ali & Guests & Go Back to Where You Came From via Skylight Bookstore & Writers Bloc – Online Event
Wajahat Ali will present and discuss his book, Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American, with his special guests:
Maz Jobrani is a comedian/actor/author and is noted for his book I’m Not a Terrorist But I’ve Played One on TV.
Rabia Chaudry is an attorney, advocate, and author of The New York Times bestseller Adnan’s Story, about the wrongful conviction of Adnan Sayed.
Tonya Mosley, moderator, is an NPR journalist.
“Go back to where you came from, you terrorist!”
This is just one of the many warm, lovely, and helpful tips that Wajahat Ali and other children of immigrants receive on a daily basis. Go back where, exactly? Fremont, California, where he grew up, but is now an unaffordable place to live? Or Pakistan, the country his parents left behind a half-century ago?
Growing up living the suburban American dream, young Wajahat devoured comic books (devoid of brown superheroes) and fielded well-intentioned advice from uncles and aunties. (“Become a doctor!”) He had turmeric stains under his fingernails, was accident-prone, suffered from OCD, and wore Husky pants, but he was as American as his neighbors, with roots all over the world. Then, while Ali was studying at University of California, Berkeley, 9/11 happened. Muslims replaced communists as America’s enemy #1, and he became an accidental spokesman and ambassador of all ordinary, unthreatening things Muslim-y.
Now a middle-aged dad, Ali has become one of the foremost and funniest public intellectuals in America. In Go Back to Where You Came From, he tackles the dangers of Islamophobia, white supremacy, and chocolate hummus, peppering personal stories with astute insights into national security, immigration, and pop culture. In this refreshingly bold, hopeful, and uproarious memoir, Ali offers indispensable lessons for cultivating a more compassionate, inclusive, and delicious America.
Expect a lively discussion of racism, xenophobia, white supremacy, and good food.
NOTE: See Site for RSVP, book purchase, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore & Writers Bloc – Online Event
Date: Monday the 31st
Time: 6 pm
Address: Skylight – Online Event (see site)
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-books-and-writers-bloc-present-go-back-where-you-came-evening-wajahat-ali-and-others or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/go-back-to-where-you-came-from-an-evening-with-wajahat-ali-and-others-tickets-22559844000
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 01/31/22 – 02/06/22”
Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
Jami Attenberg, with Patricia Lockwood, & I Came All This Way to Meet You via Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Jami Attenberg, in conversation with Patricia Lockwood (No One Is Talking About This), will present and discuss her new book, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home.
From New York Times bestselling author of urban culture Jami Attenberg (All This Could Be Yours, The Middlesteins) comes a dazzling memoir about unlocking and embracing her creativity—and how it saved her life. Always drawn to a life on the road, and often writing about her travels, the author began to reflect on her youthful experiences—the trauma, challenges, and risks taken. Throughout her journeys she refined her craft and learned to trust her gut and, ultimately, herself.
Exploring themes of friendship, independence, class, and drive, this book is a story of finding one’s way home—emotionally, artistically, and physically—and an examination of art and individuality that will resonate with anyone determined to listen to their creativity.
NOTE: See Site for RSVP, book purchase, and event details.
Where: Skylight Bookstore – Online Event
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 6:30 pm
Address: Skylight – Online Crowdcast event (see site)
Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-jami-attenberg-conversation-patricia-lockwood
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 01/24/22 – 01/30/22”
Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
King Day 2022 Celebration for Kids, Teens & Families at California African American Museum LA (CAAM) – On-site Event
Welcome back to CAAM to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day In person!
Our schedule for the day includes:
11:00 am -12:00 pm: King Study Group
Participate in this community reading and discussion about King’s1967 speech, “A Christmas Sermon on Peace.”
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm: Family Story Time
Librarians from the LA Public Library read beloved books about King and change including; Be a King: Dr Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and You by Carole Boston Weatherfield and Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem by Amanda Gorman, plus lead a fun family activity!
2:00 pm: Musical Performance by ICYOLA
Members of the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA) perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and a medley of classic spirituals and original compositions.
Drop in to enjoy open galleries and special programs offered throughout the day.
NOTE: See Site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.
Where: CAAM – On-site Event
Date: Monday the 17th
Time: 11 am – 5 pm
Address: 600 State Drive, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, CA 90037
Website: https://caamuseum.org/programs/kids-teens-and-families/king-day-2022
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 01/17/22 – 01/23/22”
Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
Tween Book Club & Escape from Mr. Lemoncillo’s Library via Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – Online Kids Event
Join the Tween Book Club for kids ages 9-12 to meet monthly and discuss and share books you’ve read and recommend. The titles are all available through Libby/Overdrive, or check out a copy from your local branch.
Our selection for January 10th is titled Escape from Mr. Lemoncillo’s Library, by Chris Grabenstein. This book asks the question:Can 12 twelve-year-olds escape form the most ridiculously brilliant library ever created?
NOTE: Contact Jennifer Murphy at jmurphy@lapl.org for Zoom link and event details.
Where: Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – Zoom online
Date: Monday the 10th
Time: 4 pm
Address: LAPL – Online event
Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/tween-book-club-0
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 01/10/22 – 01/16/22”
Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
Monday Night Fiction Workshop at Beyond Baroque – Zoom Online
This free Monday Night Fiction Workshop led by Raquel Baker is a community writing workshop in which participants are asked to bring copies of 2-3 pages of fiction to read, and to use for critique and discussion. Registration is required.
Raquel Baker earned a PhD in English Literary Studies from the University of Iowa and an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College. She is currently Assistant Professor of Postcolonial Studies and Transnational Literatures at CSU Channel Islands. She also has published poetry and non-fiction, and done readings with the Ventura Poetry Project.
Where: Beyond Baroque – Online event (tickets at Eventbrite)
Date: Monday the 3rd
Time: 7:30 pm – 10 pm
Address: Zoom Online
Website: https://beyondbaroque.org/free_workshops.html or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monday-night-fiction-workshop-tickets-23556712661
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 01/03/22 – 01/09/22”
By Brian Dunlap
One of the last literary events of the year occurred Saturday at the Rissho Kosei-Kai Buddhist church in Boyle Heights. It was the release party for traci kato-kiriyama’s new book of poetry, micro essays and notes to self, Navigating With(out) Instruments. The event was hosted by the master mc himself, Mike Sonksen. This Buddhist church was where Sonksen married his wife Emi.
Continue reading “traci kato-kiriyama’s Book Release”
As Christmas and New Years fast approach, the Los Ángeles literary community grows silent. There are very few readings, or other literary events of any kind. One of the few is the Crowdcast event, Hannah Kozak, in conversation with Aline Smithson, discusses He Threw The Last Punch Too Hard, hosted by Book Soup on the 28th at 6pm. The link is: https://www.booksoup.com/event/hannah-kozak
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events Lists for 12/20/21 – 12/26/21 and 12/27/21 – 1/2/22, Cancelled”