‘Minding My People’s Business’: An Acclaimed Sudanese American Poet Makes a Home in L.A.
Safina Elhillo, a Sudanese American poet who now calls L.Á. home, has recently released her second poetry collection “Girls That Never Die.” Continue reading ‘Minding My People’s Business’: An Acclaimed Sudanese American Poet Makes a Home in L.A.
Book Soup, West Hollywood’s Storied Bookstore, Unionizes Amid a Larger Organizing Wave
Employees at Book Soup have unionized. Continue reading Book Soup, West Hollywood’s Storied Bookstore, Unionizes Amid a Larger Organizing Wave
Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/25/22 – 07/31/22
NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here
Quantum Book Club: Her Body and Other Parties at The Book Jewel Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join the Quantum Book Club to discuss the book, Her Body and Other Parties, by Carmen Maria Machado.
In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, guidelines, and details.
Where: The Book Jewel Bookstore
Date: Monday the 25th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045
Website: https://www.thebookjewel.com/quantum-book-club
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/25/22 – 07/31/22”
Column: Mike Davis Has Terminal Cancer. But His Big Worry is What is Happening to Our World
“[Mike Davis] equally hailed and hated for decrying the dark side of the region’s eternal boosterism — has battled cancer for the past five years.” Continue reading Column: Mike Davis Has Terminal Cancer. But His Big Worry is What is Happening to Our World
After a Pandemic Hiatus, L.A. Book Fair LitLit Will Return to Downtown
LitLit, the Little Literary Fair, returns July 30-31 to Hauser & Wirth in the Arts District. LITLIT offers local presses and literary arts organizations a two-day opportunity to share their perspectives, books, and goods with the public. Continue reading After a Pandemic Hiatus, L.A. Book Fair LitLit Will Return to Downtown
News Around the Community
News from around the Los Angeles literary community. Its poets and writers are always busy. Continue reading News Around the Community
Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/18/22 – 07/24/22
NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here
Philosophical Horror Book Club: RINGS (Rings Trilogy) at Cellar Door Bookstore – In-Person Event
Join the Philosophical Horror Book Club to discuss the book, RINGS (Rings trilogy), by Koji Suzuki.
A mysterious videotape warns that the viewer will die in one week unless a certain, unspecified act is performed. Exactly one week after watching the tape, four teenagers die one after another of heart failure.
Asakawa, a hardworking journalist, is intrigued by his niece’s inexplicable death. His investigation leads him from a metropolitan Tokyo teeming with modern society’s fears to a rural Japan–a mountain resort, a volcanic island, and a countryside clinic–haunted by the past. His attempt to solve the tape’s mystery before it’s too late–for everyone–assumes an increasingly deadly urgency. Ring is a chillingly told horror story, a masterfully suspenseful mystery, and post-modern trip.
The success of Koji Suzuki’s novel the Ring has led to manga, television and film adaptations in Japan, Korea, and the U.S.
NOTE: See site for RSVP, book purchase, guidelines, and details.
Where: Cellar Door Bookstore
Date: Monday the 18th
Time: 6 pm
Address: 5225 Canyon Crest Dr., Suite 30A, Riverside, CA 92507
Website: https://www.cellardoorbookstore.com/event/philosophical-horror-book-club-rings
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/18/22 – 07/24/22”
Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/11/22 – 07/17/22
NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here
Community Bridges: I Am, a civil rights-inspired workshop at Barnes & Noble Montclair – In-Person Event
As part of our “Community Bridges” workshop series, this 4th session will focus on the history and impact of the Chicano Movement, a movement inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, which advocated for equal rights and cultural pride among individuals of Latin American descent.
During this workshop, we’ll discuss the use of poetry in expressing the concept of “Chicanismo”, and how the poetry of Rudolfo “Corky” Gonzales empowered generations of artists and communities. Participants will be guided through the process of crafting an “I Am” poem influenced by the Civil Rights Era and the concept of self-pride and empowerment.
All participants are invited to submit their creations for consideration to our “Community Bridges” print anthology, a book featuring artworks inspired by the Civil Rights Era and its impact on our community today. Individuals whose work is published will receive a free copy of the anthology upon its release in late-Summer/early-Fall 2022.
To learn more about submission requirements, visit https://DSTLArts.org/creativeimpact.
NOTE: See site for details.
Where: DSTL Arts at BN-Montclair
Date: Monday the 11th
Time: 5 pm
Address: 5183 N. Montclair Plaza Lane, Montclair, CA 91763
Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-bridges-i-am-tickets-373450238717
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/11/22 – 07/17/22”
We Write Because We Must: Natashia Deon and Namrata Poddar Interviewed by Madhushree Ghosh
Two novelists discuss writing empowered women and against colonial expectations.
By: Madhushree Ghosh
FROM: Bomb
The women writers of color are producing spectacular work lately, almost as if the world—pandemic included—cannot control us anymore. Earlier this year, R. O. Kwon published the much anticipated list of 2022 women writers of color showing just how many of us are writing—and still writing. As I work toward the release of my own memoir, I am mesmerized by the brilliance of their work, but mostly, amazed at the camaraderie, support, and mutual cheering-on that’s pure, sincere, and exciting. The Lee and Low Diversity survey from 2019 notes that in America, only seven percent of published writers are South Asian, Asian or Native Hawaiian, and only five percent are Black, Afro-American, or Caribbean. Over seventy-five percent of published authors are white. That’s why we need to celebrate these two women of color whose journeys are so spectacular and most definitely worth our attention.
Continue reading “We Write Because We Must: Natashia Deon and Namrata Poddar Interviewed by Madhushree Ghosh”
Carolina Rivera Escamilla on Poetrunner
FROM: Blog Talk Radio
This week’s episode of Poetrunner features Carolina Rivera Escamilla—Educator, writer, actor, and documentarian—Born in El Salvador. Exiled in Canada in the mid 1980s. Organize events as a cultural promoter in Los Angeles since the 1990s. Has been published in Analecta Literary Arts Journal, Texas Austin University, Hostos Review CUNY University, Pen America/ Strange Cargo Anthology. Collateral Damage: Women Who Write About War Anthology, University of Virginia Press, as well as in the Migrant Anthology, Somewhere We Are Humans By HarperCollins press. The Broad Museum, among others. Her book of short stories, entitled …after… was published in 2015.World Stage Press.
Continue reading “Carolina Rivera Escamilla on Poetrunner”
Los Angeles Literature 