Book News From Natashia Deón
by Brian Dunlap
Recently, L.A. novelist Natashia Deón announced she sold her second book “The Perishing,” to Counterpoint Press. She reacted to the news on Facebook by saying, “So doggone grateful. Glory!”
by Brian Dunlap
Recently, L.A. novelist Natashia Deón announced she sold her second book “The Perishing,” to Counterpoint Press. She reacted to the news on Facebook by saying, “So doggone grateful. Glory!”
The city and Southland’s free books-and-authors festival returns for its 7th year with two days of panels, discussions, readings, workshops, performances, and literary activities. Over 150 authors and special guest speakers will appear in over 50 events from the afternoon into the late evening. LitFest Pasadena is held throughout the historic Pasadena Playhouse District at Vroman’s Bookstore, the Pasadena Playhouse, and other local establishments.
Saturday & Sunday, May 19 & 20, 2018
1:00pm to 10:00pm
Pasadena’s Playhouse District
FREE
David Neiwert and Alt-America at Book Soup
We welcome author David Neiwert to present his new book, Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump, the story of the remarkable resurgence of right-wing extremists in the United States. These extremists have been growing steadily in number and influence since the 1990s, and found fresh life after 9/11. Author and journalist Neiwert provides a deeply researched, authoritative report on the growth of fascism and far-right terrorism in this crucial book.
Where: Book Soup
Date: Monday the 26th
Time: 7 pm
Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 2/26/18 –3/04/18”
The Two Day Literary Festival Includes Dozens of Readings, Panels, and Literary Performances and Features Over 150 Authors at Venues Across the Pasadena Playhouse District
Pasadena, CA (February 21, 2018) –

Save the date for the 7th annual LitFest Pasadena coming up on May 19 and 20, 2018. LitFest Pasadena treats Southern California audiences to an exciting and thought provoking weekend full of diverse literary readings, panels, performances, and activities for all ages and interests. It’s held at venues and on sidewalks throughout the Pasadena Playhouse District.
Continue reading “LitFest Pasadena Comes to the Pasadena Playhouse District May 19 to 20, 2018”
William Glassley and A Wilder Time at the Last Bookstore
Join us as William Glassley presents his new book, A Wilder Time: Notes from a Geologist at the Edge of the Greenland Ice, and learn about the mysteries and lessons embedded in wilderness above the Arctic Circle. This book recounts the experiences of the author and two Danish colleagues while conducting research in one of the world’s most extensive wilderness terrains. It gives new perspective on our place in Nature, the value of wilderness, and how climate change is affecting that landscape.
William Glassley is a geologist at UC Davis, and an emeritus researcher at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is the author of over seventy research articles and a textbook on geothermal energy. This is his first book for a general audience.
Where: The Last Bookstore
Date: Monday the 19th
Time: 7:30 pm
Address: 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA 90013 (main entrance around the corner on 5th St.)
Website: http://lastbookstorela.com/#events or https://www.facebook.com/events/143760606278876/
Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events 2/19/18 –2/25/18”
As 2017 comes to a close, a lot of local writers have published in literary journals and magazines. They even published plenty of books. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, mystery novels, literary noveles, poetry of place, among others, It was definitely a year of publishing success in the Los Ángeles literary community. Here is what and where they published. Continue reading Los Ángeles Writers Publish in 2017
By Janet Fitch
From: The Los Angeles Times
My new novel debuts on the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, which is also the historical moment of the book. It didn’t take me quite 100 years to write “The Revolution of Marina M.,” but 11 years was long enough.
The novelist seemed to go from unknown to MacArthur genius in two years. In truth, it took decades.
by Joe Fassler
From: Electric Literature
This month, the novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen was awarded one of the most prestigious honors a writer can receive: the MacArthur “genius” grant, given to artists, thinkers, and public intellectuals whose ideas have culture-altering potential. This, in itself, should surprise no one. Nguyen writes with arresting moral and intellectual force, often about people scarred and uprooted by conflict. As the MacArthur Foundation put it in its citation, Nguyen’s demonstrated a unique gift for exploring how depictions of the Vietnam War “often fail to capture the full humanity and inhumanity, the sacrifices and savagery, of participants on opposing sides.”
Continue reading “The Secret to Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Overnight Success”
by Agatha French
From: Los Angeles Times

There was a time when Ben Loory lived at night.
That’s how he puts it, as if night isn’t a stretch of empty hours to endure, but a place to enter, to discover whole worlds inside. After dark, the grocery stores are empty and the streets are quiet and still. The city at night is a city through the looking glass, perfect for writing, as Loory does, short stories so imaginative — and yet so perplexingly familiar — they could have formed in a dream.
Continue reading “How L.A. Writer Ben Loory Came to Write His Odd, Beloved Fables”