LANGUAGE LESSON AND SURVEILLANCE BY ASHAKI M. JACKSON
BY KENJI LIU
From: Therumpus.net
A gifted poet and doctor of social psychology, Ashaki M. Jackson debuted two chapbooks in 2016, both remarkable for their delicate attention to language and conscience. Language Lesson involves the deeply personal process of grief after the loss of a close family member, and Surveillance a kind of communal grief (though no less personal) due to the ongoing police murders of black people.
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Los Angeles Literature Events 11/28/16 –12/04/16
Matt Coyle at Vroman’s Bookstore
Southern California author Matt Coyle discusses and signs his new book, Dark Fissures. Private investigator Rick Cahill fears the next knock on his door will be a cop holding a warrant for his arrest. For murder. La Jolla Chief of Police Tony Moretti is convinced Rick killed a missing person. Although no body has been found, all the evidence points to Rick
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Monday the 28th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Website: http://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/matt-coyle-discusses-and-signs-dark-fissures
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A New Literary Salon in Los Angeles: Angels Flight Literary Salon
From: L.A. Weekly
The launch of Angels Flight (not the funicular) is the grand blastoff of an ambitious literary salon series to be held at the venerable, quintessentially downtown Clifton’s Cafeteria. The night focuses on writings about Los Angeles history and how L.A. provokes change in our lives. Author and USC English professor Dana Johnson (Elsewhere, California: A Novel) and screenwriter-novelist David Kukoff (Children of the Canyon and the forthcoming Los Angeles in the 1970s: Weird Scenes in the Goldmine) read from their work, followed by a Q&A. Attention writers: You can share your own writing, completed and in-progress, on this ever-fascinating subject. Themed beverages and dining available.
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Los Angeles Literature Events 11/21/16 – 11/27/16
Writer’s Workshop at Baldwin Hill Branch Library
Writing a book and looking for feedback? Need deadlines to help you reach your writing goals? Then this is the group for you!
Each meeting, you should bring 5-10 double-spaced pages of writing to share with the group. Every member will have time to present their work and receive feedback.
Please call the information desk with any questions, and to RSVP: 323-733-1196.
Where: Baldwin Hills Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 21st
Time: 5 pm – 6:30 pm
Address: 2906 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90016
Website: http://lfla.org/event/writers-workshop Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 11/21/16 – 11/27/16”
National Book Award finalist Viet Thanh Nguyen speaks out on war, capitalism and Donald Trump
by Jeffrey Fleishman
From: Los Angeles Times
A sense of the other seeps through Viet Thanh Nguyen’s work, a place where war and memory play like discordant whispers, and defining one’s identity, especially for an immigrant or a refugee, can be as disquieting and elusive as chasing light through a prism.
A child of the Vietnam War who arrived in this country when he was 4, Nguyen is at once outsider and citizen, provocative terrain for a writer seeking to articulate and reconcile the opposing national narratives that have shaped his life. His first novel, “The Sympathizer,” which won a Pulitzer Prize this year, is set against American involvement in Vietnam, as told by a sly protagonist of multiple perspectives: “a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.”
Shining short fiction collections by Dana Johnson and Anne Raeff
by Ilana Masad
From: L.A. Times
The stories in Dana Johnson’s collection “In the Not Quite Dark” take place in and around Los Angeles, the historical Pacific Electric Building in downtown in particular. Characters across stories live there, either the victims of gentrification or the unapologetic gentrifying. In “Because That’s Just Easier,” yuppie parents try to teach their child that there is nothing she can do for the homeless of downtown. When the girl observes a man prone on the sidewalk, she wonders whether or not he’s alive. Her father kneels down and says, “If he’s not dead … then it’s harder.” The girl decides by the end of the story that the homeless man must be dead then, because — as the title states — that’s just easier.
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Los Angeles Literature Events 11/14/16 – 11/20/16
Tim Wu, with Madeleine Brand, at ALOUD Reading Series
Tim Wu, in conversation with KCRW’s Madeleine Brand, will discuss and sign his new book The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads, which explores the rise of firms whose business models are the mass capture of attention for resale to advertisers. Wu looks at the cognitive, social, and unimaginable ways that industries focusing on human attention are transforming our society and our personal lives.
Check website to confirm RSVPs and/or stand by status guidelines.
Where: Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 14th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 630 West 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: http://lfla.org/event/the-attention-merchants-the-epic-scramble-to-get-inside-our-heads/
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Los Angeles Literature Events 11/07/16 – 11/13/16
Alice Hoffman, with Lisa See, at Vroman’s Bookstore
Alice Hoffman, in conversation with author Lisa See, will discuss and sign her new novel Faithful, the story of a young woman survivor finding her way in the modern world. From the bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and The Dovekeepers, comes this soul-searching story of Shelby Richmond, an ordinary girl until an extraordinary tragedy changes her fate when her best friend’s future is destroyed in an accident, and Shelby walks away with the burden of guilt.
Join us to hear two favorite bestselling authors in conversation!
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Monday the 7th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 65 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
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Los Angeles Literature Events 10/31/16 – 11/06/16
Conchas Y Café Continues at Junipero Serra Library
DSTLarts and Junipero Serra Branch Library present Conchas Y Café, an adult creative writing workshop, offered every Monday, where you can work with local artists on the DIY art of writing poetry, drawing mini-comics, collaged instruction, self-publishing and making zines.
Where: Junipero Serra Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 31st
Time: 6 pm – 7:30
Address: 4607 S. Main St., Los Angeles, CA 90037
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/concha-y-cafe-talleres-de-escritura-creativa
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Los Angeles Literature Events 10/24/16 – 10/30/16
Libyan Author at ALOUD, Central Library
Hisham Matar, in conversation with Louise Steinman, will discuss and sign The Return Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between. When Matar was a university student in England, his father was one of the regime’s most prominent critics in exile. His earlier book, In the Country of Men, a chronicle of his journey home to his native Libya after the fall of Qaddafi in search of the truth behind his father’s disappearance and kidnapping, was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award. This book, The Return, weaves the intimacy of a memoir with the suspense of journalism, to offer a reflection on exile, art, family, and the history of a revolution.
See website to RSVP and ensure seating.
Where: Mark Taper Auditorium, Central Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 24th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 630 W. 5th St., Los Angeles, CA 90071
Website: http://www.http://lfla.org/event/the-return-fathers-sons-and-the-land-in-between/
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 10/24/16 – 10/30/16”
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