Book news, Profiles

CSUDH Professor’s New Book Explores a Filipino Military Band’s Connection to U.S. Colonialism and Her Own Family History

CSUDH Assistant Professor of Asian-Pacific Studies Mary Talusan Lacanlale’s new book “Instruments of Empire: Filipino Musicians, Black Soldiers, and Military Band Music during U.S. Colonization of the Philippines,” combines academic writing with her family’s history. Continue reading CSUDH Professor’s New Book Explores a Filipino Military Band’s Connection to U.S. Colonialism and Her Own Family History

Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/18/21 – 10/24/21
L.A. Literary Happenings, Literary Long Beach, Los Angeles Literary Events

Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/18/21 – 10/24/21

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

Jonathan Franzen, with Mona Simpson, & Crossroads via Skylight Bookstore – Online Event

FSG presents acclaimed author Jonathan Franzen, in conversation with author Mona Simpson, to discuss and present his new novel Crossroads, in which the author again weds depth and vividness of character with breadth of social vision.

Crossroads begins on December 23,1971, where heavy weather is forecast for Chicago and Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church is about to break free of a joyless marriage. But his wife Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their three children are also in crisis, and all of the Hildebrandts seek a freedom that each of the others threaten to complicate. Franzen explores the history of two generations in a pivotal moment of moral crisis, with interwoven perspectives, on a single winter day, and conjures a world that resonates powerfully with our own.

NOTE: See site for tickets, book purchase & event details.         

Where: Skylight Bookstore – Online Event

Date: Monday the 18th

Time: 6 pm

Address: Online (see site)

Website: https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/fsg-skylight-books-present-jonathan-franzen-conversation-mona-simpson

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/18/21 – 10/24/21”
Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/11/21 – 10/17/21
L.A. Literary Happenings, Literary Long Beach, Los Angeles Literary Events

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”
SurvivalEye by Mare Heron Hake (Arroyo Seco Press)
Book Reviews

SurvivalEye by Mare Heron Hake (Arroyo Seco Press)

By John Brantingham
FROM: Tears in the Fence

For me, Mare Heron Hake’s SurvivalEye is a necessary book in this time of pain and uncertainty. There is a lot going on in Hake’s debut collection. She takes a close look at what is deadly and difficult in the world, but her poetry is filled with characteristics I personally admire above all else, hope and courage. There are any number of poets that show me how to proceed through the kind of chaos we face, Yusef Komunyakaa, Joy Harjo, Paul Kareem Tayyar, and Marge Piercy, and what I love about Hake is that she continues the ideals of these great writers and applies them to the problems of now. As I move with anxiety through my in-person teaching and worry about the health of myself, my family, and my students, Hake reminds me of how to do so with grace. She does it with hope and resilience and her collection gives us a model for courage.

Continue reading “SurvivalEye by Mare Heron Hake (Arroyo Seco Press)”
Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/04/21 – 10/10/21
L.A. Literary Happenings, Los Angeles Literary Events

Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/04/21 – 10/10/21

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

Author Talk with Hilma Wolitzer, & Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket via Central Library, LAPL – Online FB & YouTube Event

Join us to hear author Hilma Wolitzer present and discuss her latest novel, Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket.

Hilma Woiltzer has the gift of depicting ordinary life in extraordinary ways, and in this book she illustrates the relationship between the narrator and her husband through funny and insightful stories. Her stories and novels have been praised for illuminating the dark interiors of the American home.

NOTE: See Site for details.

Where: Central Library, LAPL – Online FB & YouTube Event

Date: Monday the 4th

Time: 4 pm – 5 pm

Address: Online (see site)

Website: https://www.lapl.org/whats-on/events/conversation-author-hilma-wolitzer

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 10/04/21 – 10/10/21”
Interview: The Heart of Lisbeth Coiman
Interviews

Interview: The Heart of Lisbeth Coiman

By Alissa Bird
FROM: The Coachella Review

For Lisbeth Coiman, poetry and literature are a lens through which we can better understand one another. Her distinct voice is the product of a life lived across three countries as a poet, educator, and cultural worker. In her latest poetry collection, Uprising/Alzamiento (Finishing Line Press, 2021), Coiman demands that we confront the humanitarian crisis facing her home country of Venezuela, a crisis born out of political and economic turmoil that has left the Venezuelan people without proper access to food, water, and medicine. This collection, written in both English and Spanish, bears witness to this devastating reality and asks some of the greatest questions facing humankind: How do we respond to human suffering? How are we complicit? At the heart of this unsparing and expansive collection is Coiman’s resonant voice, a voice that lingers long after reading.

Continue reading “Interview: The Heart of Lisbeth Coiman”
Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/26/21 – 10/03/21
L.A. Literary Happenings, Literary Long Beach, Los Angeles Literary Events

Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/26/21 – 10/03/21

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

Sheetal Sheth, with Nazanin Boniadi, & Bravo Anjali! via Diesel Bookstore – Online Kids IG Live Event

Join us to hear author Sheetal,in conversation with Nazanin Boniadi, present and discuss her new children’s book, Bravo Anjali!

Playing the tuba comes naturally to Anjali. When the boys in her class give her a hard time for being better than them, she messes up on purpose. It’s her dream to win the upcoming music contest, so she will need a lesson in confidence to hit the right notes. This is an important story for to remind children to never dim their light.

NOTE: See Site for details and Eventbrite registration.

Where: Diesel Bookstore – Online IG Event

Date: Monday the 27th

Time: 12 pm – 1 pm PT

Address: Online (see site)

Website: https://www.dieselbookstore.com/event/virtual-event-monday-september-27th-1200-pm-sheetal-sheth-conversation-nazanin-boniadi

Continue reading “Los Angeles Literature Events: 09/26/21 – 10/03/21”