Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/20/21 – 09/26/21
Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
Stuart Neville & The House of Ashes via Vroman’s – Online Event
Join us to hear author Stuart Neville, present and discuss his novel, The House of Ashes, a chilling and gorgeous portrait of violence and resilience, told in two voices.
Sara Keane’s husband, Damien, has uprooted them from England and moved them to his native Northern Ireland for a “fresh start” in the wake of her nervous breakdown. Sara, who knows no one in Northern Ireland, is jobless, carless, friendless–all but a prisoner in her own house. When a blood-soaked old woman beats on the door, insisting the house is hers before being bundled back to her care facility, Sara begins to understand the house has a terrible history her husband never intended for her to discover. As the two women form a bond over shared traumas, Sara finds the strength to stand up to her abuser and Mary–silent for decades–is ready to tell her story.
NOTE: See Site for details and registration.
Where: Vroman’s – Online Event
Date: Monday the 20th
Time: 1 pm
Address: Online (see site)
Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/upcoming-events
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Beyond Baroque Announces Amanda Gorman Future Voices Poetry Fund
Venice-based Literary Arts Center to Provide $10,000 in Contest and Scholarship Money to Youth Poets
FROM: Send2Press Newswire
VENICE, Calif., Sept. 14, 2021 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Beyond Baroque, one of the nation’s leading independent Literary Arts Centers, has announced the Amanda Gorman Future Voices Poetry Fund. The fund, named in honor of Beyond Baroque alumna and U.S. Presidential Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman, will provide $10,000 to young poets of color.
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After COVID Lockdowns, an Essential L.A. Community Reemerges: The Poets
By Jireh Deng
FROM: L.A. Times
The sun was setting into the haze, birds circling above an outdoor stage set up in a private residence at the top of Montecito Heights, as poets read of heartache and survival to an audience seated on hay bales.
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Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/13/21 – 09/19/21
Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
Daniel Barban Levin, with Selina Fillinger, & Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir via Book Soup – Online Event
Join us to hear Danile Barban Levin, in conversation with actress and playwright Selina Fillinger, discuss his book, Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir.
In September 2010, a sophomore named Talia Ray asked her roommates at Sarah Lawrence College if her father could stay with them for a while. No one objected,
Talia’s father. Larry Ray, was just released from prison after three years for a custody dispute. He arrived from a communal house called Slonim Woods and stayed for the whole year. Over time, the forceful and intense Ray convinced the young women he alone could help them “achieve clarity,” and eventually they moved to an apartment in Manhattan, beginning years of manipulation and abuse.
Danile Barban Levin was one of the original residents of Slonim Woods 9, and Ray coached him through a difficult break-up, slowly drawing him into his web. After two years of escalating physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, Daniel found the strength to break away.
In April 2019, a New York Magazine story, “The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence,” exposed Ray’s crimes to the world, and in February 2020 he was finally indicted on charges of extortion, sex trafficking, forced labor, and money laundering.
This brave, lyrical and redemptive memoir spans the two years Daniel Barban Levin spent in the grip of a megalomaniac, and reveals how a group of friends were led from a campus into a cult without the world even noticing.
NOTE: See Site for details and registration.
Where: Book Soup – Online Event
Date: Monday the 13th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online (see site)
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Chola Salvation
Earlier this year Arte Publico published Estella Gonzalez’s debut story collection Chole Salvation. These stories center the lives of Mexican Americans, mostly in East Los Ángeles, by complicating common tropes and conceptions.
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Orange County’s First-Ever Pair of Poet Laureates Make Their Debut
By Gabriel San Román
FROM: Los Angeles Times OC
Above the din of cumbias and a nearby vegan food fest, Dr. Natalie J. Graham’s poetic cadence soothed the crowd that gathered last month in downtown Santa Ana to hear her read. Seated in front of LibroMobile’s garage entrance, she began with works of other poets before turning to poems of her own.
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Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/06/21 – 09/12/21
Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
Shannon Hale & LeUyen Pham & Friends Forever at Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Join us to meet children’s authors Shannon Haleand and LeUyen Pham, as they present their book, Friends Forever.
Shannon Haleand is the New York Times best-selling author of over thirty children’s and young adult novels, including graphic novel memoirs Real Friends and Best Friends, and multiple award winners The Goose Girl, Book of a Thousand Days, and Newbery Honor recipient Princess Academy.
LeUyen Pham is a children’s book illustrator and author. She has illustrated and written more than 80 books. In 2020, she won a Caldecott Honor for her illustrations in the book Bear Came Along.
This is a meet and greet event to sign books and visit with fans of all ages. Graphic novel readers will enjoy the third book in the Friendship series, and picture book readers will be thrilled with the cuteness of Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn.
NOTE: See site for details and guidelines for this event.
Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore – In-Person Kids Event
Date: Monday the 6th
Time: 11 am
Where: 2207 Honolulu Ave., Montrose, CA 91020
Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/friends-forever
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Zapote Tree By Alejandro Morales
FROM: La Bloga
Alejandro Morales debut collection, Zapote Tree, includes 34 poems reflecting upon childhood, family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, historical figures, mythical beings, metaphysical entities, serpents, ghosts, heroes, villains, and the dispossessed. Weighty topics, like autocracy, racial injustice, and artificial intelligence, mix with good-humored, witty portraits of his wine-drinking dog, overachievers, and slacker repairmen. Zapote Tree‘s pathos and gritty depictions of social outcasts are balanced by Morales’ joyful celebrations of loyalty, love, and resilience.
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Los Angeles Literature Events: 08/30/21 – 09/05/21
Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
Vroman’s Live: Local Author Day with David W. Reed & Lin Nelson Benedek via Vroman’s – Online Event
Join us to hear local authors David W. Reed & Lin Nelson Benedek discuss their new books: Uphill and into the Wind and Singing Lessons, respectively.
David W. Reed’s Uphill and into the Wind is set in 1973, when our nation was torn apart by the Vietnam War, and the massacre of unarmed students at Kent State. Disenchanted with his future, he author set out with two new friends to cross the United States with just their bicycles and cameras to truly see America. They get more than they bargained for, with menacing animals, extreme weather, and astonishing encounters. Through it all they are changed forever, in ways they did not expect, by their long journey into the unknown.
Lin Nelson Benedek’s Singing Lessons is a poetic collection that is both grand and intimate. Michelle Bitting calls it a “…sumptuous repast for ear and imagination as Benedek pulls us in close to her contemplated world of things and sings us through.”
NOTE: See Site for details and registration.
Where: Vroman’s – Online Event
Date: Monday the 30th
Time: 6 pm
Address: Online (see site)
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Tongva Writers Today: The Past, Present, and Future are Unfolding Simultaneously
By Christopher Soto
FROM: LARB
TONGVA PEOPLE HAVE LIVED in the Los Angeles Basin since time immemorial. As someone raised in the outskirts of Los Angeles, I knew very little about Tongva history or culture until my mid-20s, even though I had to study California history in the public schools here. The first Tongva person whose name I learned was Toypurina. I read about her online, while browsing articles about settler colonialism and histories of Indigenous resistance in Southern California. Since then, I have come to recognize her face in murals and on a poster inside one of my favorite venues — the Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice. Toypurina was born in 1760 and is best known for leading a rebellion against colonization by Spanish missionaries.
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Los Angeles Literature 