Los Angeles Literature Events Lists for 12/20/21 – 12/26/21 and 12/27/21 – 1/2/22, Cancelled

As Christmas and New Years fast approach, the Los Ángeles literary community grows silent. There are very few readings, or other literary events of any kind. One of the few is the Crowdcast event, Hannah Kozak, in conversation with Aline Smithson, discusses He Threw The Last Punch Too Hard, hosted by Book Soup on the 28th at 6pm. The link is: https://www.booksoup.com/event/hannah-kozak

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No List of Weekly Events

After a a year like no other which saw the Los Ángeles literary community move online, 2020 has come to an end. This holiday week between Christmas and New Years, the literary community takes a vacation. Events run to barely a trickle. As such, there will be no list of weekly events this week. Next week the list of event will return with the new year.

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Los Ángeles Writers Publish in 2019

By Brian Dunlap As 2019 comes to a close, it’s clear that Los Ángeles writers explore a diverse range of topics, themes, and ideas. As the months went by, writers published novels, essay collections, poetry collections/chapbooks or announced their books had been accepted for publication in 2020. Their writing ranged from exploration of children lost too soon, to a celebration Los Ángeles, to the love … Continue reading Los Ángeles Writers Publish in 2019

David Ulin on the Rapidly Changing Landscape of  Los Angeles

The Former LA Times Book Critic in Conversation with Paul Holdengraber

By Lit Hub
FROM: Lit Hub

los-angeles-echo-parkIn this episode of A Phone Call With Paul, Paul Holdengraber speaks with David Ulin, writer, and former book critic of the Los Angeles Times, about the dramatic changes in Los Angeles, the literature of the city, and his work on Joan Didion.

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Los Ángeles at Ground Level: Letters To My City by Mike Sonksen

By Brian Dunlap
FROM: Lit Pub

downloadThe poet Mike Sonksen knows more about Los Ángeles than almost anyone. It began when he was a kid, his father and both grandfathers introducing him to the sprawling city by taking him on destination drives. Due to his father’s love of architecture, having, “taught me about…Frank Lloyd Write from an early age,” Sonksen “had a natural interest in maps and geography.” Those drives fostered that interest, dipping in and out of distinctly planned and inhabited neighborhoods that made up the patchwork quilt of, not only the city, but Los Ángeles County.

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Listing Literary Los Angeles: Part 1

By Mike Sonksen
FROM: Entropy

IMG_4267Documenting literary Los Angeles is my lifelong project. It started early in my childhood. I grew up going to bookstores across Los Angeles. From the early 1980s, I remember my dad driving us to the Bodhi Tree on Melrose. I remember going to Acres of Books in Long Beach and many other Used Bookstores now long gone. Most of them have been gone so long that I cannot even remember their names. (I still go to the Iliad in North Hollywood.)

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Voices From Leimert Park and Voices From Leimert Park Redux

By Brian Dunlap

downloadNOTE: This is the third book in Los Angeles Literature’s Black History Month series highlighting the L.A. literature written by black authors.

There are two poetry anthologies that capture the black literary talent from the headquarters of black creativity in Los Ángeles, The World Stage in Leimert Park. The anthologies, Voices from Leimert Park and Voices from Leimert Park Redux, were published 11 years apart in 2006 and in 2017. They both capture the stories, ideas and perspectives of black Los Ángeles and beyond in a myriad of poetic forms and angles.

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In The Not Quite Dark

31179356NOTE: This is the second book in Los Angeles Literature’s Black History Month series highlighting the L.A. literature written by black authors.

The story collection In The Not Quite Dark by Los Ángeles native Dana Johnson is about race, specifically blackness, gentrification, love and class in L.A. Many of these stories take place downtown and weave the city’s history into their narratives.

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