by Scott Bradfield

From: Los Angeles Times

Steve Erickson was post-millennial long before the millennium ever got here. Like those of a Southern California Ballard or Beckett, his novels are filled with a wide variety of end of time-like calamities, both personal and political:  suicide cults, alternate-history Hitlers, urban conflagrations, unpredictable weather storms and — most terrifying of all — the endlessly recurring (and continually unbelievable) presidential election cycle. Over several decades of feverish literary production (his first novel, the absorbingly recursive “Days Between Stations,” was published in 1985), he has written consistently and obsessively about people seeking a way out of their own cultural history. Sometimes they’re successful; sometimes they’re not. But one way or another, as soon as they wake up the next morning, they’re lost.

Continue reading “Review America is disintegrating, reality is fracturing, all to a classic soundtrack in Steve Erickson’s ‘Shadowbahn’”

Stephen Kinzer at Vroman’s Bookstore

Join us as author Stephen Kinzer discusses and signs The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of the American Empire. The bestselling author of Overthrow and The Brothers brings to life the forgotten political debate that set America’s interventionist course in the world for the twentieth century and beyond. Kinzer examines the period when Americans first found their country able to dominate faraway lands, and the brilliant debates that followed this change. The words of the titans who faced off in this epic confrontation are amazingly current, and every argument in the world grows from this one. It all starts here.

Where: Vroman’s Bookstore

Date: Monday the 13^th                      

Time: 7 pm

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

Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/stephen-kinzer-discusses-and-signs-true-flag-theodore-roosevelt-mark-twain-and-birth-american

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 2/13/17 –2/19/17”

By Jack Grapes

From: Cultural Weekly

When Chiwan Choi first walked into my class over 25 years ago, he was a 17-year old teenager, quiet and introspective. The writers in my Method Writing class were all adults, well into their 30s, and many even older. Some had already written books, novels, poems, plays, screenplays even (what a concept in Hollywood!), and were all excellent writers. Chiwan snuggled into a nondescript spot on the couch, scrunched between a guy who planned to win the Nobel Prize and a gray-haired woman who had already won one. I don’t think either one planned to learn new tricks, despite Method Writing’s array of linguistic tricks and literary constructs. Everyone in the room, I’m sure, were thinking to themselves, should I read my story about incest or abuse or sexual escapades in front of this 17-year old boy who seemed so innocent and naive.

Continue reading “Chiwan Choi: The Fire This Time”

Author Talk at Mar Vista Branch Library–Children’s Event

Join us as author Gretchen Woelfle discusses her new book Answering the Cry for Freedom: Stories of African Americans and the American Revolution. Learn about some lesser known figures of America’s past, and then participate in a craft making silhouette figures after the program.

The event is geared for ages 7 and up, and is part of African American Heritage Month.

Where: Mar Vista Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 6^th                        

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm

Address: 12006 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066

Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/author-talk-qa-answering-cry-freedom

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 2/06/17 –2/12/17”

Zine-Making Workshops at Central Library–Teen Event

The Teen’Scape program invites you back to work on the DIY art of writing poetry, drawing mini-comics, collaged illustration, self-publishing, and making zines.

Where: Central Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 30^th                     

Time: 4 pm – 6 pm

Address: 630 W. 5^th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071

Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/zine-making-workshops-0

Coyote America at ALOUD Reading Series, Central Library

With a brilliant blend of environmental and natural history, Dan Flores’ Coyote America traces the five-million-year-long biological story of an animal that has become the “wolf” in our backyards. Illuminating this legendary creature, Flores will be joined onstage for a conversation with playwright and chronicler of urban wildlife Melissa Cooper, and actor Laura Innes, who will also perform an excerpt from her play, New York City Coyote Existential.

Where: Central Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 30^th

Time: 7 pm

Address: 630 West 5^th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071

Website:   http://lfla.org/event/coyote-america/

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 1/30/17 –2/05/17”

The Return of Writ Large Press’s 90/90. 90 readings in 90 days. I’ll be there. Will you? Continue reading Coming this Summer to the Los Angeles Literary Community

Writers Workshop at Baldwin Hills Library

Writing a book and looking for feedback? Need deadlines to help you reach your writing goals? Then this is group for you!

Each meeting you should bring 5-10 pages of double-spaced pages of writing to share with the group. Every person will have time to share their work with the group and receive constructive feedback.

Please call the information desk at the branch with any questions and to RSVP: (323) 733-1196.

Where: Baldwin Hills Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 23^rd                     

Time: 11 am – 12:30 pm

Address: 2906 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016

Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/writers-workshop-0

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 1/23/17 –1/29/17”

by Mike Sonksen

As the American presidency transitions from Barack Obama to Donald Trump, there are countless questions emerging. I have heard many of them first hand over the last two months as an 11^th and 12^th grade English teacher. Most of my students are from South Los Angeles, Inglewood, Hawthorne, and the South Bay and they are very curious to see what Trump is going to be doing about immigration, health care, freedom of speech, and everything else. Though my students and much of the school faculty seemed to be distraught by the election results, I have recently seen signs of hope in both my student’s response to Trump, and in a slew of literary, theatrical, and musical events across Los Angeles promoting resistance and creative expression. The legions of students and creative individuals using this time to protest and dream up an alternative reality they would like to see is a reminder that not only will America survive Trump, but eventually, after his reign is over, better days will arrive because most American people do not support racism, sexism, and other similar policies that Trump has espoused in his rise to power.

Continue reading “Is Hope Alive in the Age of Trump? Poets and Writers Creating a New Vision”

by Agatha French

From: L.A. Times

One of Los Angeles’ oldest used bookstores, Alias Books, will close March 14 after 58 years in business.

Owner Brian Paeper took over from original owner Ken Hyre in 2002. The two struck up a friendship when Paeper, who was considering leaving Los Angeles, went to Alias to sell his own books. He ended up staying in Los Angeles — and at Alias, where he apprenticed in the new and antiquarian book trade before taking over the store — for good.

Continue reading “Alias Books in West L.A., Which Opened in 1959, is Closing”

by Michael Sedano

From: La Bloga

At my fifth birthday party, an older kid named Johnny Roque scratched something on the stucco wall of the garage. I could read the letters but didn’t know what they meant. Johnny explained that c/s meant “you don’t mess with this.” I took a rock and scratched across the letters, at which point the little pachuco picked up an empty nickel deposit bottle and clunked me on the head with it. I tearfully realized he was serious about not messing with placas protected by C/S.

That lesson lurked at the back of my mind when I returned to the United States from Korea in 1970. That was when I learned that in my absence a magazine called Con Safos had gained popularity. I was delighted to learn C/S was a sterling exemplar of community-based media featuring raza arts and letters. C/S had stories, essays, drawings, photographs, and cartoons. Amidst all the good stuff—and there was a montón of good stuff–one cartoon stood out, Arnie and Porfi.

Continue reading “Con Safos Is Semi-Back”