Los Angeles Literature Events: 03/14/22 – 03/20/22

Many Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

World Literature Book Club: Story Selections via Central Library, LAPL – Online Event

Join us for a spirited discussion of the world’s best short stories! All selections are from The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story (New York, 2021) ed. John Freeman. This month’s selections are:

March 14: The Hermit’s Story by Rick Bass (1998)

March 21: A Temporary Matter by Jhumpa Lahiri (1998)

NOTE: See site for event details and Zoom link.        

Where: West Valley Regional Branch Library, LAPL – Online event

Date: Monday the 14th

Time: 10 am

Address: LAPL – Online Event

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-literature-book-club-28

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 03/14/22 – 03/20/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 03/07/22 – 03/13/22

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

Book Club Bonanza: Women’s History Celebration via Central Library, LAPL – Online Teen Event

Join us to pick a book to read via Hoopla in celebration of Women’s History Month. We will pitch each other YA fiction, nonfiction or graphic novels, and return on March 14 for read-alikes on the book(s) we’ve chosen, and on March 21 for our book discussion.

NOTE: See site for event detail and to RSVP.        

Where: Central LIbrary, LAPL – Online event

Date: Monday the 7th

Time: 4:30 pm

Address: LAPL Online Event

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-bonanza-womens-history-celebration

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 03/07/22 – 03/13/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 02/28/22 – 03/06/22

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

Vroman’s Live Event: Local Author Day via Vroman’s Online Event

Join Vroman’s Live Local Author Day, featuring three authors and their new work.

Barbara Mossberg is the author of the book, Here for the Present. In this exuberant record of the author engaging audiences from California to Finland, you will find poems, stories, memoir, humor, elegies, celebrations, travel narratives, rollicking speeches, nature rapture, literary tributes, cooking instructions, and love songs, among other riches. In her company, experience moments “when the Universe will reveal itself … as something generous and good, some whiff of passing grace.”

Felicia Taylor E. is the author of Southern Spiced: A Brown Girl’s Tale, which weaves stories through narrative poetry of the author’s memories of her childhood in the 1970’s South. She writes of stories of self-identity in an honest and often humorous way.

Robert Vincent is the author of the children’s book, From the Pocket of an Overcoat. It tells the true story of his son’s black cat named Max, who was rescued by a homeless woman in Dallas. A portion of books sales will be donated to organizations that promote animal rescue and adoption.

NOTE: See site for RSVP, link, and event details.        

Where: Vroman’s Live – Online event

Date: Monday the 28th

Time: 6 pm

Address: Vroman’s – Online Event (see site)

Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/vromans-live-local-author-day-featuring-barbara-mossberg-felicia-taylor-e-and-robert-vincent  

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 02/28/22 – 03/06/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 02/14/22 – 02/20/22

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

45th Annual UCR Writers Week Festival via UC Riverside – Online Event

Join the 45th Annual UCR Writers Week Festival of Events: February 12 and 14-18, 2022. This series of events is online, free and open to the public, (captioned & ASL translated), and you may register at site link or on any session time listed there.

DAY 2 of 6, EVENTS:

Session 1: 3 pm PST:

Edgar Gomez is the author of High Risk Homosexual: A Memoir, which follows a touching and often hilarious spiral-like path to embracing his gay, Latinx identity against a culture of machismo. This is a crackling, witty and poignant debut.

Daniel Olivas is the author most recently of How to Date a Flying Mexican, New and Collected Stories (University of Nevada Press, 2022). He is the author of ten books and editor of two anthologies, as well as plays produced for the stage and readings by Playwrights’ Arena, Circle X Theatre Company, and The Road Theatre Company. He has written for many publications, including the New York Times, The Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, LARB, La Bloga, BOMB, and others

Steve Erickson is the author of ten novels, and has written two books about American politics and popular culture, Leap Year and American Nomad. He has also written for Esquire, Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, Salon, and other publications and journals. He was editor and co-founder of Black Clock literary journal, and is now film/TV critic for Los Angeles magazine and a Distinguished Professor at UC Riverside.

Session 2: 5 pm PST:

Jamaica Heolimeleikatani Osorio is the author of Remembering Our Intimacies (University of Minnesota Press, 2021). She interlaces stories from her forebears with cultural artifacts from her own life to explore questions of cultural inheritance and the particular danger, as a Native woman, of relaxing into romantic love under colonial rule. Dr. Osorio is a Kanaka Maoli artist and scholar and an Assistant Professor of Indigenous and Native Hawaiian Politics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Elisa Washuta is the author most recently of White Magic (Tin House, 2022), long-listed for the PEN Open Book Award and the PEN/Jean Stein Award, a collection of intertwined essays about land, heartbreak, and colonization, about life without the escape hatch of intoxication, and about how she became a powerful witch. She interlaces stories from her forebears with cultural aspects of her own life to explore questions of cultural inheritance and the particular danger, as a Native woman, of relaxing into romantic love under colonial rule. She is a member of the Cowlitz Indian tribe and an assistant professor of creative writing at the Ohio State University.

Session 3: 6:30 pm PST

Anthony Cody is the author most recently of the 2021 American Book Award winning Borderland Apocrypha (Omnidawn, 2020). He has a lineage in both the Bracero Program and the Dust Bowl and his poetry has appeared widely. He has taught eco-poetry at Fresno State University, and read and led workshops across the country. He continues to run the Laureate Lab Studio with Juan Felipe Herrera at Fresno State, and serves as poetry editor for Noemi Press and a poetry editor for Omnidawn.

Carribean Fragoza is a passionate writer, journalist, and artist from South El Monte, and is the author most recently of the collection Eat the Mouth that Feeds You (City Lights), and is also co-editor of East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte. She is also founder and co-director of the South El Monte Art Posse (SEMAP), a multi-disciplinary arts collective.  

Sesschu Foster taught composition and literature in East L.A. for over 20 years, and also taught at the University of Iowa, CalArts and UC Santa Cruz. His most recent books are City of the Future, poetry; World Ball Notebook, poetry; and Atomik Aztex, a novel. His has won numerous literary awards, including the Paterson Poetry Prize for City Terrace Field Manual. He is based in Alhambra, CA.

NOTE: See site for event link and details. 

Where: UC Riverside Writers Week – Online Event

Date: Monday the 14th

Time: 3 pm – 8 pm (Day 2 of 6)

Address: UC Riverside – Online (see site)

Website: https://writersweek.ucr.edu/schedule22

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 02/14/22 – 02/20/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 02/07/22 – 02/13/22

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

At Skylight: Daniel Alexander Jones & Omi Osun Joni L. Jones Present: Love Like Light & Particle and Wave at Skylight Bookstore – On-site Event

Daniel Alexander Jones in conversation with Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, will present the books: Love Like Light and Particle and Wave, respectively.

Daniel Alexander Jones’ Love Like Light: Plays and Performance Texts (53rd Street Press) collects the author’s texts of Bel Canto, Black Light, Blood: Shock: Boogie, clayangels, Duat, Phoenix Fabrik, and The Book of Daniel into a shifting transformational body of work. Each play is a provocation to the possibility of a more just and loving world. It’s a reunion of the avant-guards of New York, Austin, and Minneapolis, among others, and includes an interview and essays by others.

Particle and Wave: A Conversation (53rd State Press) is a companion volume, and features a book-length conversation between Daniel Alexander Jones and poet, scholar, and activist Alexis Pauline Gumbs about Love Like Light, and the ways that love, like lights, suffuses everything and is the condition and power of change in the world.

Joni Osum Joni L. Jones is an artist/scholar/facilitator who employs black feminist aesthetics and theatrical jazz principles in her performance work, her pedagogy, and her facilitation. Her most recent book is Theatrical Jazz: Performance, Ase, and the Power for the Present Moment (Ohio State University Press). She is Professor Emerita from the African and African Diaspora Studies Department at the University of Texas, at Austin.

NOTE: See Site for book purchases, guidelines, and event details.         

Where: Skylight Bookstore – On-site Event

Date: Monday the 7th

Time: 7:30 pm

Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-daniel-alexander-jones-presents-love-light-particle-and-wave-omi-osun-joni-l-jones

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 02/07/22 – 02/13/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 01/24/22 – 01/30/22

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

Jami Attenberg, with Patricia Lockwood, & I Came All This Way to Meet You via Skylight Bookstore – Online Event

Jami Attenberg, in conversation with Patricia Lockwood (No One Is Talking About This), will present and discuss her new book, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home.

From New York Times bestselling author of urban culture Jami Attenberg (All This Could Be Yours, The Middlesteins) comes a dazzling memoir about unlocking and embracing her creativity—and how it saved her life. Always drawn to a life on the road, and often writing about her travels, the author began to reflect on her youthful experiences—the trauma, challenges, and risks taken. Throughout her journeys she refined her craft and learned to trust her gut and, ultimately, herself.

Exploring themes of friendship, independence, class, and drive, this book is a story of finding one’s way home—emotionally, artistically, and physically—and an examination of art and individuality that will resonate with anyone determined to listen to their creativity.

NOTE: See Site for RSVP, book purchase, and event details.         

Where: Skylight Bookstore – Online Event

Date: Monday the 24th

Time: 6:30 pm

Address: Skylight – Online Crowdcast event (see site)

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/live-crowdcast-jami-attenberg-conversation-patricia-lockwood

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 01/24/22 – 01/30/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 01/17/22 – 01/23/22

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

King Day 2022 Celebration for Kids, Teens & Families at California African American Museum LA (CAAM) – On-site Event

Welcome back to CAAM to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day In person!

Our schedule for the day includes:

11:00 am -12:00 pm: King Study Group

Participate in this community reading and discussion about King’s1967 speech, “A Christmas Sermon on Peace.”

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm: Family Story Time

Librarians from the LA Public Library read beloved books about King and change including; Be a King: Dr Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and You by Carole Boston Weatherfield and Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem by Amanda Gorman, plus lead a fun family activity!

2:00 pm: Musical Performance by ICYOLA

Members of the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA) perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and a medley of classic spirituals and original compositions.

Drop in to enjoy open galleries and special programs offered throughout the day.

NOTE: See Site for RSVP, guidelines, and event details.         

Where: CAAM – On-site Event

Date: Monday the 17th

Time: 11 am – 5 pm

Address: 600 State Drive, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, CA 90037

Website: https://caamuseum.org/programs/kids-teens-and-families/king-day-2022

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 01/17/22 – 01/23/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 01/10/22 – 01/16/22

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

Tween Book Club & Escape from Mr. Lemoncillo’s Library via Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – Online Kids Event

Join the Tween Book Club for kids ages 9-12 to meet monthly and discuss and share books you’ve read and recommend. The titles are all available through Libby/Overdrive, or check out a copy from your local branch.

Our selection for January 10th is titled Escape from Mr. Lemoncillo’s Library, by Chris Grabenstein. This book asks the question:Can 12 twelve-year-olds escape form the most ridiculously brilliant library ever created?

NOTE: Contact Jennifer Murphy at jmurphy@lapl.org for Zoom link and event details.         

Where: Palms-Rancho Park Branch Library, LAPL – Zoom online

Date: Monday the 10th

Time: 4 pm

Address: LAPL – Online event

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/tween-book-club-0

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 01/10/22 – 01/16/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 11/29/21 – 12/05/21

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

Quantum Book Club & Laura Dean via The Book Jewel – In-person YA Event

Please join Quantum Book Club to discuss our November selection, the graphic novel Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, by Mariko Tamki & Rosemary Verero-O’Connell.

This is a sweet, spirited tale of young love that asks us to consider what happens when we ditch the toxic relationships we crave to embrace the healthy ones we need. This graphic novel won several awards for excellence.

NOTE: See site for book purchase & event details.         

Where: The Book Jewel – In-person Event

Date: Monday the 29th

Time: 6 pm – 7 pm

Address: 6259 W. 87th St., Los Angeles, CA 90045

Website: https://www.thebookjewel.com/events or https://www.facebook.com/BookJewelBookstore/photos/595324735216001

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 11/29/21 – 12/05/21”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 11/08/21 – 11/14/21

Many/Most Events Are Online/Virtual DUE TO CORONAVIRUS CONCERNS

Gina Shock, with Belinda Carlisle & James Duke Mason, & Made in Hollywood: All Access with the Go-Gos via Book Soup – Online Event

Join us to hear Go-Gos drummer Gina Shock, in conversation with Belinda Carlisle & James Duke Mason, present and discuss her book, Made in Hollywood: All Access with the Go-Gos.

The Go-Gos were the first all-female rock band to write their own songs, play their own instruments, and reach the top of the Billboard charts with their #1 album, Beauty and the Beat. Made in Hollywood is drummer Gina Shock’s personal account of the band, which includes a treasure trove of photos and memorabilia collected bver her 40-year career.

NOTE: See site for details.         

Where: Book Soup – Online Event

Date: Monday the 8th

Time: 3 pm

Address: Book Soup – Online Event

Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/gina-schock-conversation-belinda-carlisle-james-duke-mason-discusses-made-hollywood-all-access

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 11/08/21 – 11/14/21”