Los Angeles Literature Events 5/21/18 –5/27/18

Tony Abbott & Mordicai Gerstein at Children’s Book World–Children’s Event  

Please join us to meet and hear from two authors receiving the Horace Mann Upstander Awards, given yearly to celebrate authors who publish fictional stories that encourage activism on the part of the protagonist. The authors will discuss their work, receive their awards from Antioch University Los Angeles, and the presentation will be followed by a Q&A and book signing. For ages: 10-adult.

The Summer of Owen Todd, by Tony Abbott is the winner of the Annual Book Award.  Mordicai Gerstein is the Lifetime Achievement Award winner for his commitment to activism, and particularly for his latest book, The Boy and the Whale.

Where: Children’s Book World

Date: Monday the 21^st

Time: 6 pm

Address: 10580 ½ W. Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles, CA 90064

Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/dan-sheehan-and-daniel-abbott-discuss-and-sign-restless-souls-and-concrete

Advertisements

My 12-Year Love Affair

by Erika Ayón

From: Women Who Submit

It began 12 years ago, the concept for my poetry collection Orange Lady. It was 2006, that summer I had gone to VONA (Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation) in San Francisco, where I had taken a writing workshop with Chris Abani. At VONA, I connected with writers who also lived in Los Angeles, and upon my return, through them, I learned about Ruth Forman’s poetry workshops. It was in these workshops held at Ruth’s home in Los Angeles surrounded by willow trees and included Tai Chi lessons taught by her that the poetry collection came to me. Ruth always showed immense compassion toward our writing process and lovingly gave us permission to just write. That permission to just write sparked this emotional surge in me, and I wrote without care or judgment, with pure reckless abandonment. It was in these workshops that I began compiling the poems that would ultimately become part of my first poetry collection Orange Lady.

Develop Skills and Transcend Limits through the Arts: Meet Luis Antonio Pichardo

by Catherine Sturgeon

From: LAPL Blog

DSTL Arts is a nonprofit arts mentorship organization based in Los Angeles that “inspires, teaches, and hires emerging artists from underserved communities.” The acronym in DSTL Arts stands for Develop Skills and Transcend Limits through the Arts. Co-founded by Luis Antonio Pichardo and Jennifer Fuentes in late 2012, DSTL Arts began as Luis’ vision for empowering the next generation of working artists from underserved and underrepresented communities in the arts, serving, at first, only youth whom aspired to become working artists in spite of a lack of a support system in their immediate community, including their families.

Los Angeles Literature Events 5/14/18 –5/20/18

Restless Souls & The Concrete, Book Launch & Discussion at Book Soup 

Restless Souls, by Dan Sheehan & The Concrete, by Daniel Abbott, will be presented and discussed in conversation with Melissa X. Golebiowski of Literary Hub.

Restless Souls is a moving and darkly funny meditation on friendship, the emotional ravages of war, and the way our memories simultaneously comfort and restrict us from growing and moving on.

The Concrete is a striking literary debut that grapples with the effects of childhood trauma, lost dreams, human sexuality, and the difficulties of marriage.

Where: Book Soup

Date: Monday the 14^th

Time: 7 pm

Address: 8818 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069

Website: http://www.booksoup.com/event/dan-sheehan-and-daniel-abbott-discuss-and-sign-restless-souls-and-concrete

Six-week poetry workshop welcomes poets of all ages

by MARIEL ROSSI DEVRIES

From: The Occidental 

The Center for the Arts Eagle Rock is hosting a poetry workshop with the theme of intergenerational poetry, which welcomes individuals of all ages, every Tuesday until May 22. Jessica M. Wilson, founder of the Los Angeles Poet Society — a community organization for art and literature based in the city since 2009 — is leading the workshop. Members of the public can sign up for the full six weeks at a fee of $60 or attend a single workshop for $10. Five people attended the first workshop on April 17 and discussed works by beat generation poet Allen Ginsberg, author of “Howl.”

FRANCESCA LIA BLOCK IS A LOT MORE THAN WEETZIE BAT

THE BELOVED WRITER ON DEFYING EXPECTATIONS AND TRYING NEW THINGS

By Zan Romanoff

From: Lithub

I can’t help myself: I dress up to go see her. It’s 9 am on a Thursday morning when I leave my house, 50-some degrees in Los Angeles and so windy that palm trees are curved and swaying, my car trembling with exertion on the freeway.

Los Angeles Literature Events 5/07/18 –5/13/18

The House of Broken Angels at Evening Book Club Discussion at Pages Bookstore 

This month we are discussing Luis Alberto Urrea’s new book, The House of Broken Angels, at our Evening Book Club event. From this Pulitzer Prize finalist we discover a powerful and unforgettable portrait of one Mexican American Family and the American Dream. In his final days, beloved and ailing patriarch Miguel Angel de la Cruz has summoned his entire clan for one last legendary birthday party. But just before the date, his 100-year old mother dies herself, leading a farewell double-header in a single weekend. Among the guests is Big Angel’s half-brother, known as Little Angel, half gringo, who has not actually shared their life, although they have shared a father. This complex family reminds us of what it means to be first generation and live two lives across one border.

Where: Pages Bookstore

Date: Monday the 7^th

Time: 7 pm – 8 pm

Address: 9904 Manhattan Ave., Manhattan Beach, CA 90266

Website: http://www.pagesabookstore.com/event/evening-book-club-discussion