Ronan Farrow, Emily Bazelon and Colson Whitehead Among L.A. Times Book Prize Finalists

By Margaret Wappler
FROM: L.A. Times

download (1)Ronan Farrow, Emily Bazelon, Attica Locke, Michael Connelly and Colson Whitehead are among the finalists for the 40th annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes announced Wednesday, with crime novelist Walter Mosley named as the winner of the 2019 Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement.

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Victoria Chang On The Self And Its Many Deaths

By Peter Mishler
FROM: Lit Hub

9781556595745_FC_700px-wide-resize-1For the next installation in our interview series with contemporary poets, Peter Mishler corresponded with Victoria Chang. Victoria Chang’s books include OBIT (April 2020), Barbie Chang, The Boss, Salvinia Molesta, and Circle. Her children’s picture book, Is Mommy?, was illustrated by Marla Frazee and published by Beach Lane Books/Simon & Schuster. It was named a New York Times Notable Book. Her middle grade novel Love, Love will be published by Sterling Publishing in 2020. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, the Poetry Society of America’s Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award, a Pushcart Prize, a MacDowell Colony Fellowship, and a Lannan Residency Fellowship. She lives in Los Angeles and is the program chair of Antioch’s Low-Residency MFA Program.

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Applications Starting For New Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate Program

By Staff Report
FROM: Signal Tribune

classic-close-up-draw-expensive-372748-900x675The new Long Beach Youth Poet Laureate (LBYPL) program is being formed by The Long Beach Public Library and the Arts Council for Long Beach in order to provide local kids with literary arts, civic engagement and performance opportunities.

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Los Angeles Literature Events 2/24/20 – 3/01/20

download (1)Father Gregory Boyle at Cal State University Los Angeles

Activist priest Father Greg Boyle will discuss his latest book, Barking at the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship. A book signing will follow the discussion. The Mind Matters Champion Award recipients will be announced during the event.

Where:  CSULA, Golden Eagle Ballrooms

Date: Monday the 24th

Time: 3 pm – 4:30 pm

Address: 5151 State University Dr., Los Angeles, CA 91711

Website: http://www.calstatela.edu/event/mind-matters-speaker-series-rev-gregory-j-boyle

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Love Is In The Air At Long Beach Airport Eith Customized Poems For Travelers

by Asia Morris
FROM: Long Beach Post

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Don’t be surprised if love is in the air when you’re traveling via Long Beach Airport on Valentine’s Day. Poet Brian Sonia-Wallace will be writing love poems—with the satisfying clack-clack-clack of an antique Remington typewriter—for Friday jet setters willing to share their love stories.

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Why Luis J. Rodriguez is Perpetually on the Run

By Patrick J. Kiger
FROM: L.A. Times

LuisMost mornings, poet, memoirist and essayist Luis J. Rodriguez gets up around 5 a.m. at his San Fernando Valley home, reads for a few minutes for inspiration and then quickly goes to his computer to start writing. “I read, and then it’s, hey, man, I’ve got to do something!” he says. “If I can get a couple of hours in the morning, then I’m happy.”

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Los Angeles Literature Events 2/10/20 – 2/16/20

Writers-Week-2020-320x320The 43rd Annual Writers Week Conference at UC Riverside (Day 1 of 5)

Join us for Day 1 of the 43rd Annual Writers Week at UCR, the longest-running, free literary event in California, featuring renowned authors of the day alongside those at the start of promising careers. Tom Lutz is Writers Week director.

All events are free and open to the public, and parking is free (permits available at the Kiosk).

12:30 pm: Tom Lutz is the author, most recently, of Born Slippy: A Novel. He is founding editor of Los Angeles Review of Books and a Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at UCR. His other work includes two books of travel essays, plus the cultural histories Crying and Doing Nothing, and the literary histories Cosmopolitan Vistas and American Nervousness, 1903.

1:30 pm: Norma Cantu (Steven Minot Lecture) is the author, most recently, of Cabanuelas: A Love Story and Meditacion Fronteriza: Poems of Life. She has published articles on a number of academic subjects as well as poetry and fiction. Her publications on border literature and other subjects have earned her an international reputation as a scholar and folklorist. Her award-winning Canicula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera chronicles her childhood experiences on the border. She edits the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo Cuture and Traditions book series at Texas A&M University Press.

3:00 pm: Jerry Stahl is a writer of memoir (Permanent Midnight, OG Dad), novels (Perv, I Fatty, Pain Killers, Happy Mutant Baby Pills, Bad Sex on Speed), television (Twin Peaks, Hemingway and Gellhorn, CSI, Maron, Escape at Dannemora), and film (Permanent Midnight, Bad Boys II, Urge, Chuck), and other works.

4:30 pm: Lisa Teasley (Steven Minot Lecturer) is the author of the acclaimed novels Heat Signature and Dive, and the award-winning story collection, Glow in the Dark. Her frequently anthologized essays, stories and poems have appeared widely and in mumerous journals. She is writer and presenter of the BBC TV documentary “High School Prom” and Senior Fiction Editor at LARB. She is also a painter, represented by Marie Baldwin Gallery.

7:00 pm: Walter Mosley – (LARB/ UCR Lifetime Achievement Award) is one of the most versatile and admires writers in America. He is the author of more than fifty books, including the recently released Elements of Fiction, a non-fiction book about the art of writing fiction, and the best-selling mystery series featuring “Easy Rawlins.” His work has been translated into 25 languages, and he is also writer and executive producer on the John Singleton FX show, Snowfall. He is a winner of numerous awards, and lives in New York City and Los Angeles.

Where: UC Riverside, CHASS Interdisciplinary Building, South-
Screening Room, INTS 1128

Date: Monday the 10th

Time: 12:30 pm – 5 pm & 7 pm – 8:30 pm

Address: 900 University Ave., Riverside, CA 92521

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

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Venice Beachhead Interview with Poet Matt Sedillo

By Mike Bravo
FROM: Venice Beachhead

venice-beach-news-glowMatt, thanks for your time I know you’re a busy dude. I’ve never done one before but congratulations on being my first interview. I’ve known you for about 5 years now maybe. I feel I know you pretty well. How would you summarize yourself and your artistry for those that don’t know you?

For those that don’t know me I’m a poet, I write political poetry a political poet. I write a lot about the important and contentious issues that are facing us in this time and age. On top of that I’m a Chicano poet and very proud of being part of that lineage as well. I write a lot about the struggle of the Chicano peopl and the struggles of all working class people in general. I also write about topics surrounding the fact that we’re living on a planet that’s being destroyed by the very wealthy.

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Los Angeles Literature Events 2/03/20 – 2/09/20

51rtU9SpehL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Tommy Davidson & Living Color: What’s Funny About Me at Barnes and Noble, The Grove at Farmers Market

Join us at Barnes and Noble, The Grove to hear actor and stand-up comic Tommy Davidson present and sign his book What’s Funny About Me, a revealing memoir about this 1990 start in the award-winning TV show In Living Color, a pioneering sketch comedy show. It featured a multi-racial cast of actors and dancers who spoke to an underrepresented new generation created by Hip Hop Nation.

NOTE: This is a wrist band event so check website for details.

Where: Barnes and Noble, The Grove at Farmers Market

Date: Monday the 3rd

Time: 7 pm                                   

Address: 189 The Grove Drive, Suite K 30, Los Angeles, CA 90036

Website: https://www.facebook.com/events/528361937889844/   or http://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062100856-0

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