A Different Kind of Daughter at Chevalier’s

Author Maria Toorpakai tells of her harrowing journey to play the sport she knew was her destiny, first living as a boy and roaming the violent back alleys of Peshawar, and rising to become the number one female squash player in Pakistan. In A Different Kind of Daughter: The Girl Who Hid from the Taliban in Plain Site, Maria describes how squash went from being a salvation to a death sentence, and how she moved halfway across the globe to pursue her dream.

Where: Chevalier’s Books

Date: Monday the 9^nd  

Time: 7:15 pm

Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004

Website: http://www.chevaliersbooks.com

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 5/09/16 – 5/15/16”

From: Prairie Schooner

The Prairie Schooner Book Prize is now open! In honor of the 2016 Book Prize season, Book Prize Coordinator Katie Schmid Henson will interview authors about the process of constructing a manuscript and bringing it to publication. This week, Katie interviews brilliant poet and Prairie Schooner contributor Ashaki M. Jackson about grief rituals, submission rituals, and her two forthcoming chapbooks.

Continue reading “‘You will lose yourself’: the rituals of grief in the poetry of Ashaki M. Jackson”

Writing Our Future at ALOUD

Our third annual gathering of students from five Southland graduate writing programs—CalArts, Otis College, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, and USC—will read and share recent work and tune our ears to the future of language and writing.

These emerging writers include: Emily Ansara Baines, Bridget Chiao Clerkin, Emily Dorff, Alex Dupree, Howard Ho, Cecilia Latiolais, Niko Nelson, Benjamin S. Sneyd, Casey Taylor, and Jacqueline Young. RSVP to ensure seating. Check site for details and stand by policy.

Where: Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 2^nd  

Time: 7:15 pm

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

Website: http://www.http://lfla.org/event/writing-our-future/

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 5/02/16 – 5/08/16”

A COMMUNITY OF SELF-IDENTIFYING L.A. WOMYN WHO WRITE, RIGHT AND RITE. HEAR THEM READ. Continue reading Las Lunas Locas

ANTHOLOGY OF LOS ANGELES POETS. Continue reading At Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore

By Suset Laboy

From: Centro Voices

by Olga García Echeverría

From: La Bloga

Once a week, I venture south on the 110 towards San Pedro. My destination: Gulf Elementary School in Wilmington, California. My mission: creative writing workshops with 5th graders.

On the days I visit the 5th graders, I rise before the roosters crow. I sip on strong coffee in the shifting morning light. I pack energy snacks and a hearty lunch. It’s an hour-plus drive from my home to Wilmington. On some parts of the commute, traffic clears and I fly. On others, the highway’s arteries are clogged. I nudge forward like a slug, past downtown, the 10, the 105, the 405.

Continue reading “All That and a Bag of Poetry: Creative Writing with 5th Graders at Gulf Elementary”

Youth Poet Laureate Workshop at Memorial Branch, LAPL

Are you a poet or spoken word artist between the ages of 13 and 19?

In honor of National Poetry Month, the library is hosting workshops to help take your poetry to the next level and enter the Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate Contest (which offers the chance to win a book deal and more).

During this second workshop we will work on building your poetry portfolio and resume, along with instructions on entering the contest for those who are interested.

Where: Memorial Branch Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 25^th

Time: 4 pm – 5:30 pm

Address: 4625 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90019

Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/youth-poet-laureate-poetry-workshop-0

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 4/25/16 – 5/01/16”

By Joe Jiménez

From: Cultural Weekly

I heard once from the author Elaina Ellis that we are “poem-makers.” Making poems, yes, that speaks directly and with bright accent to the task of the collection Bird Float, Tree Song: dis•articulated poems by Los Angeles poets, edited by Terry Wolverton, a collaboration of poets exploring the exercises of “dis-articulation.”

By definition, the dis-articulationists’ task is “…to take apart a body, or rather a skeleton, to separate the joints.” Wolverton tells us, “I borrowed the term because I am taking apart bodies of writing—the passages of fevered writing— and separating them into their component parts of speech, nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.” Comprised of a sampling of exercises Wolverton completed with LA poets, the dis-articulation project demonstrates the process of engaging four writing prompts a partner gives, writing, then, with “fever,” taking the “fevered writing” and separating it into its parts (parts of speech), and then sharing these to allow newness to emerge in poem drafts.

Continue reading “REVIEW: BIRD FLOAT, TREE SONG: DIS•ARTICULATED POEMS BY LOS ANGELES POETS”