Los Angeles Literature Events 8/06/18 –8/12/18
Book Writers Group at Robertson 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 week, 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 constructive feedback.
Where: Robertson Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 6th
Time: 11 am
Address: 1719 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-writers-group
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 8/06/18 –8/12/18”
On the Books: Brian Dunlap
by Jefferson Beavers
From: Fresno State MFA Blog
When did you attend the Fresno State MFA program, and what genre did you study?
I attended Fresno State from 2010-2013 to study fiction.
What were your first thoughts when you learned that your poetry chapbook, Concrete Paradise, would be published?
Surprise and disbelief, because I’d only sent my manuscript out to four or five publishers in the six months since I began the submissions process. Plus, I thought it was ironic that my first book was a book of poems, considering I always wrote fiction and dreamed of publishing novels, and for most of my life had avoided poetry altogether.
An Interview With Poet Matt Sedillo
Matt Sedillo is a hard working poet. He’s read at universities around the country. He recently was named the first Literary Coordinator of dA Center. Check out this interview to see what his plans are for the dA Center. Continue reading An Interview With Poet Matt Sedillo
Naomi Hirahara’s Los Angeles
By Mike Sonksen
From: Los Angeles Review of Books
Editor’s note: Naomi Hirahara has been a pillar of the mystery community since she published her first Mas Arai novel in 2004. To commemorate her final Mas novel, I asked Mike Sonksen, a.k.a. Mike the Poet, bard and historian of contemporary Los Angeles, to go on a walk with Naomi and write a profile that would do her justice. It was a huge task, but I believe he succeeded.
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NAOMI HIRAHARA IS one of the most prolific Los Angeles writers of the last few decades. Best known for her Edgar Award–winning seven-book Mas Arai crime novel series, she has also authored several nonfiction titles on Southern California Japanese-American history. Her newest Mas Arai mystery title and the final one of the series, Hiroshima Boy, was just published by Prospect Park Books in March 2018, and in April her latest nonfiction title, Life After Manzanar, was published by Heyday.
Los Angeles Literature Events 7/30/18 –8/05/18
Mary McCoy & Camp So-and-So at El Sereno Branch Library – Teen Event
Please join us for our Summer Author series and meet author Mary McCoy, who will present Camp So-and-So. She is a talented writer of stories about Los Angeles’s notorious past, AND a librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library. You can meet her this summer at this event, and might be the lucky winner of a free copy of the book.
Where: El Sereno Branch Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 30th
Time: 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Address: 5226 S. Huntington Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90032
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/summer-author-meet-mary-mccoy
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Poetry Circus #5
by Brian Dunlap

Last Saturday was the 5th annual Poetry Circus and the first time I attended. I was an hour late, but the circus ran from 5 pm – 10 pm at the Merry-Go-Round at Griffith Park. 44 L.A. poets were scheduled to read over three rings. 44 L.A. poets with vastly different voices and stories to tell.
PoetryLA Interview With Sarah Thursday
From: Poetry.LA
The most recent interview by Poetry.LA. is of Long Beach Poet Sarah Thursday. She is also the founder/publisher of Sadie Girl Press, which she founded in 2014 to create “print form collections of poetry, art, and beyond,” as the presses website states. As self-declared “poetry advocate,” she hosts readings series, leads workshops, organizes literary events, and promotes poets by publishing their work in chapbooks, anthologies. Her most recent chapbook is Seventeen Poems Not About a Lover from Arroyo Seco Press.
Love is the Message
By Jason Toney
From: misterjt.com
I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW MUCH I LOVE LOS ANGELES.
— JONATHAN GOLD
We were standing in the non-fiction, cultural studies aisle of Book Star on Ventura Boulevard when a woman came around the corner and sternly said, “No laughing!” We blushed and then, she smiled.
“Sometimes when I do that, it’s to teenage couples that are smooching in the stacks,” she explained. I revealed that just before we had been looking at “adult books” like 101 Sex Positions and, yes, laughing like school children that were getting away with something.
Los Angeles Literature Events 7/23/18 –7/29/18
Courtney Fletcher & The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm at Arroyo Seco Regional Library – Kids Event
Please join us for our Summer Author series and meet illustrator Courtney Fletcher, who will present The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm. She is the talented illustrator of popular children’s picture books like The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm by LeVar Burton and Sun Kisses, Moon Hugs by Susan Schaefer Bernardo. You can meet her this summer at this event, and might be the lucky winner of a free copy of the book.
Where: Arroyo Seco Regional Library, LAPL
Date: Monday the 23rd
Time: 4 pm – 5 pm
Address: 6145 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042
Website: http://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/summer-author-meet-courtney-fletcher
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 7/23/18 –7/29/18”
Los Angeles Literature Events 7/16/18 –7/22/18
Regina Louise & Someone Has Led This Child to Believe at Vroman’s Bookstore
Author Regina Louise joins us to present, discuss and sign her new book, Someone Has Led This Child to Believe: A Memoir. This is the story on what happens after the events outlined in Somebody’s Someone, and covers her beleaguered adolescent years and her eventual departure for the system as she aged out and tired, against all odds, to pursue her dream of a college education. The story of her adult life culminates with her being reunited with the woman closet to her during her fragmented childhood—and whose long effort to adopt Louise finally came to fruition.
Where: Vroman’s Bookstore
Date: Monday the 16th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 7/16/18 –7/22/18”
