Los Angeles Literature Events: 04/05/22 – 04/10/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Mac Barentt & Marla Frazee Present The Great Zapfino via Once Upon a Time Bookstore – Kids Zoom Event

Two bestselling and popular children’s book creators, author Mac Barnett and illustrator Marla Frazee will present their sweet, inspiring story, The Great Zapfino, for children ages 5 and up, about a runaway circus performer.

When The Great Zapfino climbs to the top of the circus platform, all eyes are on him, waiting for his incredible leap. But Zapfino is afraid of heights! He can’t take the pressure and flees, boards a plane, and runs away to start a new life. 

In the city, Zapfino starts work as an elevator operator in a tall building but soon learns you can never really outrun your fears. When disaster strikes, can Zapfino find the strength to be great?

NOTE: See site for RSVP, link and details. 

Where: Once Upon a Time Bookstore – Kids Event – Zoom Online

Date: Tuesday the 5th

Time: 5 pm

Address: Once Upon a Time Bookstore – Online Zoom Event (see site)

Website: https://www.shoponceuponatime.com/event/great-zapfino

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 04/05/22 – 04/10/22”

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: 01/31/22 – 02/06/22

Wajahat Ali & Guests & Go Back to Where You Came From via Skylight Bookstore & Writers Bloc – Online Event

Wajahat Ali will present and discuss his book, Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American, with his special guests:

Maz Jobrani is a comedian/actor/author and is noted for his book I’m Not a Terrorist But I’ve Played One on TV.

Rabia Chaudry is an attorney, advocate, and author of The New York Times bestseller Adnan’s Story, about the wrongful conviction of Adnan Sayed.

Tonya Mosley, moderator, is an NPR journalist.

“Go back to where you came from, you terrorist!”

This is just one of the many warm, lovely, and helpful tips that Wajahat Ali and other children of immigrants receive on a daily basis. Go back where, exactly? Fremont, California, where he grew up, but is now an unaffordable place to live? Or Pakistan, the country his parents left behind a half-century ago?

Growing up living the suburban American dream, young Wajahat devoured comic books (devoid of brown superheroes) and fielded well-intentioned advice from uncles and aunties. (“Become a doctor!”) He had turmeric stains under his fingernails, was accident-prone, suffered from OCD, and wore Husky pants, but he was as American as his neighbors, with roots all over the world. Then, while Ali was studying at University of California, Berkeley, 9/11 happened. Muslims replaced communists as America’s enemy #1, and he became an accidental spokesman and ambassador of all ordinary, unthreatening things Muslim-y.

Now a middle-aged dad, Ali has become one of the foremost and funniest public intellectuals in America. In Go Back to Where You Came From, he tackles the dangers of Islamophobia, white supremacy, and chocolate hummus, peppering personal stories with astute insights into national security, immigration, and pop culture. In this refreshingly bold, hopeful, and uproarious memoir, Ali offers indispensable lessons for cultivating a more compassionate, inclusive, and delicious America.

Expect a lively discussion of racism, xenophobia, white supremacy, and good food.

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

Where: Skylight Bookstore & Writers Bloc – Online Event

Date: Monday the 31st

Time: 6 pm

Address: Skylight – Online Event (see site)

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-books-and-writers-bloc-present-go-back-where-you-came-evening-wajahat-ali-and-others or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/go-back-to-where-you-came-from-an-evening-with-wajahat-ali-and-others-tickets-22559844000  

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 01/31/22 – 02/06/22”

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: 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”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/04/21 – 10/10/21

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

Author Talk with Hilma Wolitzer, & Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket via Central Library, LAPL – Online FB & YouTube Event

Join us to hear author Hilma Wolitzer present and discuss her latest novel, Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket.

Hilma Woiltzer has the gift of depicting ordinary life in extraordinary ways, and in this book she illustrates the relationship between the narrator and her husband through funny and insightful stories. Her stories and novels have been praised for illuminating the dark interiors of the American home.

NOTE: See Site for details.

Where: Central Library, LAPL – Online FB & YouTube Event

Date: Monday the 4th

Time: 4 pm – 5 pm

Address: Online (see site)

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/conversation-author-hilma-wolitzer

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/04/21 – 10/10/21”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/26/21 – 10/03/21

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

Sheetal Sheth, with Nazanin Boniadi, & Bravo Anjali! via Diesel Bookstore – Online Kids IG Live Event

Join us to hear author Sheetal,in conversation with Nazanin Boniadi, present and discuss her new children’s book, Bravo Anjali!

Playing the tuba comes naturally to Anjali. When the boys in her class give her a hard time for being better than them, she messes up on purpose. It’s her dream to win the upcoming music contest, so she will need a lesson in confidence to hit the right notes. This is an important story for to remind children to never dim their light.

NOTE: See Site for details and Eventbrite registration.

Where: Diesel Bookstore – Online IG Event

Date: Monday the 27th

Time: 12 pm – 1 pm PT

Address: Online (see site)

Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/virtual-event-monday-september-27th-1200-pm-sheetal-sheth-conversation-nazanin-boniadi

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/26/21 – 10/03/21”

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

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/20/21 – 09/26/21”

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

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/06/21 – 09/12/21”