Mike Sonksen talks about playing the long game, lessons learned through the intersection of poetry, art and history and how to live the life of a poet in L.Á. Continue reading Playing the Long Game with Los Ángeles Literature
In Los Angeles Literature’s newest book review, burgeoning Southeast L.Á. writer, Gabriel Lopez, reviews the 2nd edition of “Letters to My City” by MIke Sonksen. “While this collection deepens a person’s knowledge of Los Ángeles history, more importantly it profoundly shifts their understanding and relationship to Local Time and Space..” Continue reading I Am Alive in Los Angeles – Identity and Local Time & Space in Mike Sonksen’s Letters to My City: 2nd Edition
On Saturday, MIke Sonksen released the second edition of his book “Letters To My City.” It was a night celebrating the city and it’s writers and artists. Continue reading Stories, Poems and Songs: A Literary Lounge by the L.Á. River
By Brian Dunlap
One of the last literary events of the year occurred Saturday at the Rissho Kosei-Kai Buddhist church in Boyle Heights. It was the release party for traci kato-kiriyama’s new book of poetry, micro essays and notes to self, Navigating With(out) Instruments. The event was hosted by the master mc himself, Mike Sonksen. This Buddhist church was where Sonksen married his wife Emi.
Continue reading “traci kato-kiriyama’s Book Release”
An interview with poet, L.Á. native, tour guide, journalist and professor, Mike Sonksen. Continue reading Interlitq’s Californian Poets Interview Series: Mike Sonksen, Poet, Performer, Journalist, and LA Tour Guide, interviewed by David Garyan
by Mike SonksenFROM: L.A. Taco If COVID-19 was good for anything, it’s for reading. When the March rain and quarantine came, I got the chance to read all the books I wanted. This book list centers around Los Angeles and overlaps with creative nonfiction, poetry, urbanism, California history, music, and cultural studies. Most of these books came out in 2020, but a few came out … Continue reading THE 2020 L.A. TACO BOOK GUIDE: 32 L.A.-CENTERED BOOKS TO READ, GIFT, AND GET INSPIRED ON
In Wanda Coleman’s National Book Award Winning poetry, she code switches in over 1,000 poems, as she wrote about the real Los Ángeles, becoming the UNofficial Poet Laureate of Los Áangeles. Continue reading Literary History: American Sonnets: PolyVocality and Code Switching With Wanda Coleman and Terrance Hayes
By Brian Dunlap
FROM: Lit Pub
The 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.
Continue reading “Los Ángeles at Ground Level: Letters To My City by Mike Sonksen”
By Steve Chiotakis
FROM: Greater L.A./KCRW
Southern California may not get the credit it deserves for its strong literary community and a great spoken word scene. However, poets Shonda Buchanan and Mike Sonksen tell Greater LA the poetry community could be the most diverse scene in the city of Los Angeles.
Continue reading “2 Local Poets: ‘The Spirit of Activism Has Always Been in LA Poetry’”
By Mike Sonksen
FROM: Entropy
Documenting 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.)
Los Angeles Literature 