Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/11/22 – 07/17/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Community Bridges: I Am, a civil rights-inspired workshop at Barnes & Noble Montclair – In-Person Event

As part of our “Community Bridges” workshop series, this 4th session will focus on the history and impact of the Chicano Movement, a movement inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, which advocated for equal rights and cultural pride among individuals of Latin American descent.

During this workshop, we’ll discuss the use of poetry in expressing the concept of “Chicanismo”, and how the poetry of Rudolfo “Corky” Gonzales empowered generations of artists and communities. Participants will be guided through the process of crafting an “I Am” poem influenced by the Civil Rights Era and the concept of self-pride and empowerment.

All participants are invited to submit their creations for consideration to our “Community Bridges” print anthology, a book featuring artworks inspired by the Civil Rights Era and its impact on our community today. Individuals whose work is published will receive a free copy of the anthology upon its release in late-Summer/early-Fall 2022.

To learn more about submission requirements, visit https://DSTLArts.org/creativeimpact.

NOTE: See site for details.

Where: DSTL Arts at BN-Montclair

Date: Monday the 11th

Time: 5 pm

Address: 5183 N. Montclair Plaza Lane, Montclair, CA 91763

Website: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-bridges-i-am-tickets-373450238717   

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/11/22 – 07/17/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 06/20/22 – 06/26/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Cleyvis Natera, with Steph Cha, & Neruda on the Park at Skylight Bookstore – In-Person Event

Cleyvis Natera, iin conversation with Steph Cha (Your House Will Pay), will discuss his new novel, Neruda on the Park, a beautifully layered portrait of family, friendship, and ambition. 

Neruda on the Park weaves a rich and vivid tapestry of community as well as the sacrifices we make to protect what we love most, announcing Cleyvis Natera as an electrifying new voice.

The Guerreros have lived in Nothar Park, a predominantly Dominican part of New York City, for twenty years. When demolition begins on a neighboring tenement, Eusebia, an elder of the community, takes matters into her own hands by devising an increasingly dangerous series of schemes to stop construction of the luxury condos. Meanwhile, Eusebia’s daughter, Luz, a rising associate at a top Manhattan law firm who strives to live the bougie lifestyle her parents worked hard to give her, becomes distracted by a sweltering romance with the handsome white developer at the company her mother so vehemently opposes.

As Luz’s father, Vladimir, secretly designs their retirement home in the Dominican Republic, mother and daughter collide, ramping up tensions in Nothar Park, racing toward a near-fatal climax.

NOTE: See site for tickets, link, and details.

Where: Skylight Bookstore

Date: Monday the 20th

Time: 7 pm – PST

Address: 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-cleyvis-natera-presents-neruda-park-steph-cha

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 06/20/22 – 06/26/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 06/06/22 – 06/12/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

World Literature Book Club via West Valley Regional Library, LAPL – Online Event

Join this Book Club for a spirited and engaging discussion of the world’s best short stories! All selections are from The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story (New York, 2021), ed. John Freeman. This month’s selections are:

  • June 6 – The Great Silence by Ted Chiang (2015)
  • June 13 – The Midnight Zone by Lauren Groff (2016)

This group meets every Monday morning (excluding holidays). 

NOTE: See site for Zoom link and details. 

Where: LAPL Online event

Date: Monday the 6th  

Time: 10 am

Address: Online Event (see site)

Website:  https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/world-literature-book-club-40

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 06/06/22 – 06/12/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 05/30/22 – 06/05/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Book Talks: Judith Freeman & MacArthur Park, with Barbara Feldon & Getting Smarter via Chevalier’s Bookstore – Online Event

Longtime friends Judith Freeman and Barbara Feldon will discuss their newest books, the novel MacArthur Park and the memoir Getting Smarter, respectively.

Judith Freeman is a novelist and non-fiction writer whose most recent novel, MacArthur Park, is set in Los Angeles and the rural West. Friends Jolene and Verna share complicated ties that have crystallized over time. Beginning when they were girls discovering their needs and desires, their ongoing stories have been inextricably linked. But when Verna marries Vincent, Jolene’s ex-husband, their paths may have finally, permanently diverged. Now, on a trip to their hometown in Utah, they are forced to confront both the truths and falsehoods of their memories of each other and of their early friendship.

Barbara Feldon is best known as “Agent 99” on the 1960’s TV series, Get Smart. She is the author of Living Alone and Loving it! and various essays. Her memoir Getting Smarter relates her dramatic and sometimes zany adventures with a glamorous Frenchman, her initiation into show business, and the fun of working in Hollywood.

NOTE: See site for tickets, guidelines, and details. 

Where: Chevalier’s Bookstore

Date: Monday the 30th  

Time: 4 pm

Address: Online Event (see site)

Website:  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VJDEnKimRl6AwuRjBHEuYA

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 05/30/22 – 06/05/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 05/09/22 – 05/15/22

NOTE: There Are Both Online and Virtual Events Listed Here

Book Club Bonanza: Let’s Celebrate Asian Pacific Voices via Central Library, LAPL – Online Teen Event

Teens may join our librarians online as they share books for teens that celebrate Asian Pacific voices in YA literature and celebrate and join the Big Read.

The Best We Could Do, by author Thi Bui, is an illustrated graphic noel portraying one family’s poignant journey from war-torn Vietnam to America and will resonate with all who hope for a better future while longing for a simpler past.

The book club discussion itself will be held on Monday, May 23rd, but we will also host a read-alikes discussion on May 9th.

Watch past episodes on YouTube for more book recommendations.

NOTE: See site for RSVP & event details. 

Where: Central Library, LAPL

Date: Monday the 9th

Time: 4:30 pm

Address: LAPL – Online (see site)

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-bonanza-lets-celebrate-asian-pacific-voices

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 05/09/22 – 05/15/22”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/25/21 – 10/31/21

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

Book Club Bonanza: Horror & Suspense Edition & Book Discussion via Central Library, LAPL – Online Teen Event

Join LAPL for the Teen Book Club Bonanza: Horror & Suspense Edition.

Two books will be discussed at his meeting:

Eat, Brains, Love by Jeff Hart is a laugh-out-loud funny, surprisingly romantic, zombie road trip novel filled with heart, and guts.

Locke & Key V. 1 (Issues 1-6) by Joe Hill is an American comic book series, with illustrations by Gabriel Rodriguez.

Please email teens@lapl.org from your school email address at least one hour before the program to request the link.

NOTE: See site for event details.         

Where: Central Library, LAPL – Online Teen Event

Date: Monday the 25th

Time: 4:30 pm

Address: LAPL (see site)

Website: https://lapl.org/whats-on/events/book-club-bonanza-horror-and-suspense-edition  

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/25/21 – 10/31/21”

Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/11/21 – 10/17/21

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

Dennis Cooper & I Wished via Skylight Bookstore – Online Event

Dennis Cooper will present I Wished, in which the author writes about George Miles, love, loss, addiction, suicide, and how fiction can capture these things, and how it also fails to capture them. .

I Wished is the author’s first novel in ten years, and it revisits the George Miles Cycle of acclaimed novels and the inspiration for the Cycle (Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide, and Period). This is his masterwork, and is his most raw, personal, and haunted book of all.

NOTE: See site for book purchase & event details.         

Where: Skylight Bookstore – Online Event

Date: Monday the 11th

Time: 12 pm

Address: Online (see site)

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/11/21 – 10/17/21”

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: 09/13/21 – 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: 07/26/21 – 08/01/21

Another busy week in the Los Ángeles literary community, with in-person and virtual events. In=person events are at local bookstores, Re/Arte in Boyle Heights, Sims Library of Poetry in South Central. etc. Some local writers reading this week: poet Daniel Jose Ruiz, Brendan Constantine, Tommy Domino, V. Kali, Hiram Sims, October BLU and more. Continue reading Los Angeles Literature Events: 07/26/21 – 08/01/21