Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/13/21 – 09/19/21

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

Daniel Barban Levin, with Selina Fillinger, & Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir via Book Soup – Online Event

Join us to hear Danile Barban Levin, in conversation with actress and playwright Selina Fillinger, discuss his book, Slonim Woods 9: A Memoir.

In September 2010, a sophomore named Talia Ray asked her roommates at Sarah Lawrence College if her father could stay with them for a while. No one objected,

Talia’s father. Larry Ray, was just released from prison after three years for a custody dispute. He arrived from a communal house called Slonim Woods and stayed for the whole year.  Over time, the forceful and intense Ray convinced the young women he alone could help them “achieve clarity,” and eventually they moved to an apartment in Manhattan, beginning years of manipulation and abuse.

Danile Barban Levin was one of the original residents of Slonim Woods 9, and Ray coached him through a difficult break-up, slowly drawing him into his web. After two years of escalating physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, Daniel found the strength to break away.

In April 2019, a New York Magazine story, “The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence,” exposed Ray’s crimes to the world, and in February 2020 he was finally indicted on charges of extortion, sex trafficking, forced labor, and money laundering.

This brave, lyrical and redemptive memoir spans the two years Daniel Barban Levin spent in the grip of a megalomaniac, and reveals how a group of friends were led from a campus into a cult without the world even noticing.

NOTE: See Site for details and registration.

Where: Book Soup – Online Event

Date: Monday the 13th

Time: 6 pm

Address: Online (see site)

Website: https://www.booksoup.com/event/daniel-barban-levin-conversation-selina-fillinger-discusses-slonim-woods-9-memoir

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/13/21 – 09/19/21”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 08/30/21 – 09/05/21

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

Vroman’s Live: Local Author Day with David W. Reed & Lin Nelson Benedek via Vroman’s – Online Event

Join us to hear local authors David W. Reed & Lin Nelson Benedek discuss their new books: Uphill and into the Wind and Singing Lessons, respectively.

David W. Reed’s Uphill and into the Wind is set in 1973, when our nation was torn apart by the Vietnam War, and the massacre of unarmed students at Kent State. Disenchanted with his future, he author set out with two new friends to cross the United States with just their bicycles and cameras to truly see America. They get more than they bargained for, with menacing animals, extreme weather, and astonishing encounters. Through it all they are changed forever, in ways they did not expect, by their long journey into the unknown.

Lin Nelson Benedek’s Singing Lessons  is a poetic collection that is both  grand and intimate. Michelle Bitting calls it a “…sumptuous repast for ear and imagination as Benedek pulls us in close to her contemplated world of things and sings us through.”

NOTE: See Site for details and registration.

Where: Vroman’s – Online Event

Date: Monday the 30th             

Time: 6 pm

Address: Online (see site)

Website: https://www.vromansbookstore.com/event/vroman%E2%80%99s-live-presents-local-author-day-featuring-david-w-reed-lin-nelson-benedek-and-louise

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 08/30/21 – 09/05/21”