Community Not Competition: Q+A with Women Who Submit Editors
By Viva Padilla
FROM: Dryland
When it comes to submitting work to literary magazines for publication consideration, there are two strategies:
1. Submit everywhere and submit often.
2. Network with publishers and get solicited.
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The Novel That Shows Us How to Face Our Past to Change Our Future
Lessons for current activists and allies from Nina Revoyr’s 2003 literary crime novel “Southland”
By Vallarie Wallace
FROM: Electrict Literature
After several grueling hours of protesting against systemic injustice (no one can prepare you for long hours on your feet, long hours screaming for recognition of your humanity), we stood with our signs tucked safely under our arms as the organizer introduced some parting words. The speaker was an older Black man, the weariness of the movement evident in his face and in the way he leaned against a streetlamp for support. But his passion was clear in his speech as he declared that we were not the first to fight for our rights, and we will not be the last: he was protesting in the streets back in his early adulthood, the same way we were today. It was then that I looked at the faces of the people around me; some couldn’t be older than sixteen, and some as old as the speaker, or older. It was in the aftermath of being surrounded by these people, all aligned in our goal for the abolishment of the systemic injustices that cause Black oppression, that Nina Revoyr’s literary crime novel Southland came to mind.
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The Need For Racial Equality Hits the L.Á. Literary Community
By Brian Dunlap
The United States is now in the midst of its strongest push for racial equality since the Civil Rights era. Civil unity and protests sprung up instantly after George Floyd’s death at the hands of police last month in Minneapolis. The calls for police reform have been loud and wide, including calls for justice for Breonna Taylor who was killed by Louisville police as she slept.
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Los Angeles Literature Events 6/15/20 – 6/21/20
Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
Free Online Writing Class for All Ages with Writer Eric Kaplan
Join us for a free online writing event with writer Eric Kalan (Futurama, Big Bang Theory, etc.) for a “Learn to Write” class online. When this six-week class ends you will know how to tell a story and write a short script. It’s free to download and free to join.
Where: Online
Date: Monday the 15th
Time: 3 pm – 4 pm
Address: ZOOM
Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/1223428574716573/
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Like Bullets For Fascists: Q+A with Political Poet Matt Sedillo
By Viva Padilla
FROM: Dryland
Chicano revolutionary poet Matt Sedillo met up with Viva Padilla (proper masks were worn) in El Sereno this past weekend to catch up and talk about his newest poetry collection Mowing Leaves of Grass (published by FlowerSong Press). During this interview they drove around the Eastside. They came upon a squeaky clean Black Lives Matter/Defund the Police protest in Pasadena, boarded up and tagged “R.I.P. George Floyd” storefronts in the belly of high gentrification in Highland Park, and the homeless encampment at the Veteran’s Monument in El Sereno–a proper backdrop for the political insight Sedillo delivers like a gun-slinger in his book where American institutions rooted in white supremacy are dragged out by the hair and left on the side of the road to rot.
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Shouldering Through The Sunken Place
By Brian Dunlap
FROM: Beyond Baroque
Yesterday, Beyond Baroque, Los Angeles’ oldest literary venue, hosted numerous acclaimed scholars and artists for an outdoor community talk and vigil addressing racism & Police violence.
No Los Angeles Literature Events 6/08/20 – 6/14/20
By Brian Dunlap
Because life interceded, there will be no list of Los Ángeles literary events this week. Check out Facebook Events for any local virtual literary event to support your local literary community. However, this list of L.A. literary events will be back next week.
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Rich Ferguson , Los Angeles Spoken-Word Poet, Named California’s Beat Poet Laureate
The National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc. (NBPF), a not-for-profit organization founded in 2016, has selected Rich Ferguson to serve as the State of California Beat Poet Laureate for a two-year term from Sept. 2020 to Sept. 2022.
Los Angeles Poet Society Call For Submissions
By Brian Dunlap
During this time of social unrest, the country visibly upset over the continued killing of innocent black men and wemen at the hands of police, the Los Angeles Poet Society has issued a submissions call for social justice poems. On Facebook they announced:
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Los Angeles Literature Events 6/01/20 – 6/07/20
All Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS
Vroman’s Live: Stephen Haff & Kid Quixote at Crowdcast Online
Author Stephen Haff presents his book Kid Quixotes: A Group of Students, Their Teacher, and the One-Room School Where Everything Is Possible. The author is the founder of Still Waters in a Storm, which serves Spanish speaking immigrant children in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Where: Crowdcast Online event (Register in advance)
Date: Monday the 1st
Time: 6 pm
Address: Crowdcast Online
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Los Angeles Literature 