Los Angeles Literature Events 2/29/16 – 3/6/16
Laila Lalami and Natashia Deon at Chevalier’s
This event is part of the Emerging Voices Author Evening Series to benefit PEN Center’s Freedom to Write Programs. Free to PEN Center USA members. Tickets available to the public.
Laila Lalami is the author of the novels: Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award; Secret Son, which was on the Orange Prize longlist; and The Moor’s Account, which won the American Book Award, the Arab American Book Award, and was on the Man Booker Prize longlist.
Natsha Deon is a Los Angeles attorney, writer and law professor. Her debut novel Grace, is due out June 2016 with Counterpoint Press. Deon is the creator of the reading series Dirty Laundry Lit and has been awarded fellowships and residencies at Yale, Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, Prague’s Creative Writing Program among others, including the PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellowship program.
Where: Chevalier’s Books
Date: Monday the 29th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 126 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004
Website: http://chevaliersbooks.com/ or http://penusa.org/author-evenings
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 2/29/16 – 3/6/16”
Palmetto Mornings: 2/16/16 Erin Aubry Kaplan – Author, “I Heart Obama”
Los Angeles journalist Erin Aubry Kaplan has 
just released her second book “I Heart Obama,” on February 9. The following is about the book:
In his nearly two terms as president, Barack Obama has solidified his status as something black people haven’t had for fifty years: a folk hero. The 1960s delivered Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, forever twinned as larger-than-life outsiders and truth tellers who took on racism and died in the process. Obama is different: Not an outsider but president, head of the most powerful state in the world; a centrist Democrat, not the face of a movement. Yet he is every bit a folk hero, doing battle with the beast of a system created to keep people like him on the margins. He is unique among presidents and entirely unique among black people, who never expected to have a president so soon.
Continue reading “Palmetto Mornings: 2/16/16 Erin Aubry Kaplan – Author, “I Heart Obama””
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalists
Saturday, April 9, 2016Bovard Auditorium, USC campus
Since 1980, the LA Times Book Prizes have honored the previous year’s best books and their authors. This year’s ceremony — the 36th annual — will be held at Bovard Auditorium on the USC campus.
2015 Innovator’s Award Winner
James Patterson
James Patterson has left a singular mark on the literary community through his writing for adults and young people, as well as through his efforts to make books and reading a national priority. His support of libraries, independent bookstores, booksellers, teachers and students is unsurpassed with millions of dollars in grants and scholarships going toward encouraging Americans to read and supporting those who foster reading. A feature film based on his bestselling Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life series is set for release this fall.
2015 Robert Kirsch Award Winner
Juan Felipe Herrera
Juan Felipe Herrera’s literary contributions include poetry, prose, young adult novels and children’s literature, and his work in all artistic forms highlights a life dedicated to giving voice to those who are not always heard.
A New Literary Journal With an Eye on Topanga Canyon
A new literary journal 
has surfaced in Los Ángeles. It’s called S-Curves and hails from the community tucked into the Santa Monica Mountains. The community one passes as they make the drive along State Route 27 as one heads to the Malibu coast from The Valley.
Topanga is still known as an artiest colony as it became known during the 60s with the likes of Neil Young and Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys having lived there for a time. Once again it’s a community proving the creative juices are literary too. As Faith Currant, editor of S-Curves says of her magazine, “The focus of the journal is on featuring the literary community of the canyon, but while we do give priority to Topanga writers, we are open to submissions from LA writers/artists based outside of Topanga as well.” If you anyone wants to know the kind of literature that is being penned in the community of Topanga, this magazine is a good place to start.
Continue reading “A New Literary Journal With an Eye on Topanga Canyon”
Los Angeles Literature Events 2/22/16 – 2/28/16
Ethan Canin at Book Soup
Ethan Canin discusses and signs his new novel, A Doubter’s Almanac. Ethan Canin, the bestselling author of America America and The Palace Thief, here explores the nature of genius, rivalry, ambition, and love among multiple generations of a gifted family. A Doubter’s Almanac is the story of how the flame of genius both lights and scorches every generation it touches, and is a suspenseful and deeply moving novel spanning seven decades, as it moves from California to Princeton to the Midwest to New York. (Random House)
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday the 22nd
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/ethan-canin-discusses-and-signs-doubter%E2%80%99s-almanac
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 2/22/16 – 2/28/16”
The History of Black Poetry in Los Angeles
Saturday night, black Los Angeles poets gathered to celebrate at Beyond Baroque in Venice. Pam Ward, S. Pearl Sharp, V Kali and others came together to celebrate the history of black L.A. poets.
The theme of the night, as stated by Pam Ward, was that if no one is documenting our history, then we need to document it ourselves. As she explained at the outset, when she did some research on black L.A. poetry she didn’t find much. There were gaps, she knew, in the historical record.
The readings kicked off by documenting other, older contemporary and historic black poets. Each poet read a poem or two, starting with S. Pearl Sharp, channeling Ruby Dee, as she read Dee’s “Calling All Women.” With the same sass and attitude that appropriately captured the no-nonsense sassy strength of Dee’s call to action for all women to stand up for themselves, she displayed the strength of the words and message, kicking off he night in roaring fashion.
Continue reading “The History of Black Poetry in Los Angeles”
A visit to the Floating Library in Echo Park Lake
by Carolyn Kellogg
From: The Los Angeles Times
On this sunny Friday, unseasonably gorgeous even for Los Angeles, I headed to Echo Park Lake to visit the new Floating Library. You don’t need a card to borrow books from the Floating Library, but you do have to reach it.
You can only get there by boat — a pedal boat, specifically — which luckily you may rent at the Echo Park boathouse.
Designed by Minnesota artist Sarah Peters and set loose in the Great Lakes region during the recent summers, the Floating Library is making its first visit to the West Coast. It’s a raft filled with art books and zines, presented by the Machine Project gallery as part of the L.A. Art Book Fair.
Continue reading “A visit to the Floating Library in Echo Park Lake”
Great Literary Event
Book Launch Reading in Pasadena Backyard
by Michael Sedano
From: Labloga.com
The spate of heavy rain exhausted itself and overnight the weather turned Southern California gorgeous. And since it looked like Spring had sprung early and was here to stay, people planned outdoor events, like the publication party for Jésus Salvador Treviño’s Return to Arroyo Grande.
As the day for the gathering of friends and readers approached, Pasadena skies clouded and rain threatened to wash out the reading and move it indoors. The hosts, Barbara and Michael Sedano, were bummed because Plan B, moving indoors, would challenge space and seating plans.
Los Angeles Literature Events 2/15/16 – 2/21/16
Maylis De Kerangal at Book Soup
Join author Maylis Kerangal, to hear her discuss and sign The Heart, in conversation with Beatrice Mousli, professor of French & Francophone Literatures at USC. Translation provided by Lucille Toth, a teacher of French at Scripps College.
The Heart takes place over the twenty-four hours surrounding a fatal accident and a resulting heart transplant as life is taken from a young man and given to a young woman close to death. Kerangal’s The Heart has mesmerized readers in France, where it has been hailed a breakthrough work of a new literary star. (Farrar Straus & Giroux)
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday, the 15th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Website: http://www..booksoup.com/event/maylis-de-kerangal-presents-and-signs-heart
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 2/15/16 – 2/21/16”
