Events Archives - Page 10 of 15

October 17, 2016October 6, 2023

Lit Crawl LA: A Night of literary happenings in North Hollywood

Lit Crawl Los Angeles NoHo Arts District

Clear your schedule for next Wednesday night! Lit Crawl LA returns Wed., Oct. 26, turning the North Hollywood Arts District into the hub of Literary LA with irreverent readings and other fun events happening in local dive bars, fancy theaters, and other interesting spots.

The night’s set up so that each of the three hours of the night, a dozen or so events happen concurrently, with a few minutes in between each hour to let crawlers get to their next event. All the events are free! Unfortunately as of this writing the Lit Crawl LA website hasn’t updated the schedule for the night. But the Facebook invites have gone out — so here are the three events I recommend you crawl to!

Round 1 at 7 pm: The Rejection Game at The Eclectic Wine Bar & Lounge, 5156 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood.

Okay — I picked this event mainly because I’m in it — and also because it should be a fun time! Organized by Women Who Submit — a lit org that encourages women to submit to lit journals more frequently and tenaciously — this reading will “celebrate the work that has been rejected time and again, but that we still believe in.”

Come hear me, Rachael Warecki, Tammy Delatorre, Ryane Nicole Granados, Stephanie Abraham, and Kate Maruyama. Poet Lauren Eggert-Crowe will host!

Round 2 at 8 pm: The Literary Dating Game at the Kahuna Tiki, 11026 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood.

One brave creative-nonfiction-writing bachelorette called Brandi Neal has agreed to let three brave souls compete for a chance to take her out on a date! Organized by PEN Center USA, the event promises a “stellar host, a stunning mistress of ceremonies, literary questions, some audience participation, and a Mai Tai or two.” I am pretty sure you’ll need to pay for your own mai tais, so prepare accordingly —

Round 3 at 9 pm: Truth in Fiction at MOD Pizza, 5300 Lankershim Blvd #103, North Hollywood.

This event’s a chance to get to hear some of the bigger names in the LA lit scene read. David Ulin, J. Ryan Stradal, Natashia Deon, Matthew Specktor — as well as James Sie, Robert Roman, and Julia Ingalls — will all give short readings. Take your books to get signed!

I’m guessing there’ll be an afterparty with drinks and nibbles and socializing after the third round, as there has been in previous years. Check the Lit Crawl LA website closer to date for details.

Earlier: 7 big annual literary events in Los Angeles to put on your calendar now

October 12, 2016October 6, 2023

11 reasons to attend the Tin House Winter Workshops

Thinking about a writer’s getaway this winter? Read on to see if the Tin House Winter Workshops — which I attended early this year — might be a good fit for you.

1. You need a vacation. A weekend away spent on a gorgeous beach sounded like a dream to me. And at $1300 for the hotel, all breakfasts, a five-course dinner, plus cocktail parties in the evenings — not to mention the actual writing program itself!! — the price felt alright (I realize opinions will differ on the reasonableness of the price).

2. You’d like to see the Oregon Coast. Once I got to the Tin House offices in Portland, I quickly met the other workshop participants — before we piled into a van and headed up up to Newport. There, we were dropped off at the hotel, located on a gorgeous 45-foot bluff overlooking the Pacific.

3. The idea of staying at a literary-themed hotel makes you happy. Each of the 21 rooms at the Sylvia Beach Hotel are individually themed around a famous author. I got the Dr. Seuss room! Most of the rooms are more — sedately decorated — if the bright yellow’s too much for you.

4. You want some feedback on your writing. Well before the workshops began, all the participants submitted a short story — then got copies of the stories of all the other writers in the workshop group. We read and wrote up a page or two of feedback for each of the stories — then arrived in Oregon ready to discuss the stories during the morning workshops.

5. You want to learn from writers you admire. I’d enjoyed Wells Tower’s short story collection Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned, and was psyched to be in his workshop, which met for about 3 hours each morning. It was great to hear Wells’s take on my story — as well as those of my fellow workshop members —

6. You like parties. Each night there was a social event of sorts, whether a multi-course dinner party plus book exchange, or a cocktail party at the nearby Hemingway House (owned by Tin House’s editor), or a karaoke fest at a nearby divebar that drew a strange and eclectic crowd.

7. You love seafood. The seafood is fresh and delicious here! One evening we even got a chance to visit the best seafood restaurant in town — though the name now escapes me.

8. You’re curious about Tin House. I enjoyed getting to know the Tin House staff members who came along on the trip, sharing info about how the editorial process at Tin House works. One of the highlights of the weekend was Meg Storey’s talk about her work as an editor for Tin House books. She ran through the process for acquiring one Tin House book, from showing us the first pages of the initial manuscript she rejected, to the detailed editorial letter she wrote to the author about why the manuscript was rejected and how it could be improved, to the first pages of the much revised and finally accepted manuscript. It was really illuminating!

9. You like bookish freebies. My Tin House welcome tote came with an issue of Tin House plus a Tin House book.

10. You enjoy meeting other writers. The workshop group ran the gamut, from young women just out of MFA programs to older women retirees. Why did I just say women twice? Because in terms of gender, the workshop is not diverse. There was one brave guy in our cohort of about 20! I’ve noticed that writing workshops and programs in general tend to be women-heavy; I don’t know why that is but I would be curious to hear your theories.

In any case — I made some great new friends at this workshop, and though we’re scattered all over the country now, we keep in sporadic touch via Facebook and email — and cheer on each others’ literary successes.

11. You’d like to hang out in Portland. I’d actually never been to Portland before, so I tacked on a few extra days after the workshop to walk around Portland, visit Powell’s Books and hang out with Kevin Sampsell (above), and drink lots of good coffee.

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Interested in taking part in the workshops? This year, the fiction faculty members are Kevin Barry, T. Geronimo Johnson, and Michelle Wildgen — and I have to admit I’m not familiar with their work! If you’re thinking about applying to attend, I recommend reading each of the faculty members’ books, then asking to be placed in a workshop with the author whose work you feel most attuned to.

Tin House will run three different sessions in early 2017: Fiction from Jan. 20-23, creative nonfiction from Jan. 27-30, and poetry from March 3-6.Get your application in by Oct. 19 to be considered for a scholarship! The general application deadline is Nov. 7. Tin House also runs summer workshops, a longer, more in depth program with more people and more events — but applications for that program won’t be open for some months.

October 4, 2016October 6, 2023

Women Who Submit throws parties to empower women writers

Why do we still see more men publishing poems, stories and books than women? That simple question has a complex answer, but one part of the problem is that women make fewer and less frequent efforts to get published. Ask many a literary journal editor, and she will tell you that men, in general, send in submissions in far greater numbers than do women.

Why this is — is also a question with a complex answer. But one grassroots organization, Women Who Submit, has started answering it with a simple solution — by getting more women to submit more and more frequently to literary journals and other writing-related opportunities.

How does Women Who Submit do this? By throwing submission parties! At each of these events, women writers are encouraged to arrive, laptops in tow, to hang out and eat and drink and chat and have fun in real life — while also sending their work out to literary journals via the internet. Every time someone sends in a submission, the crowd cheers!

Each party is a little different. Some are held in people’s homes, and have the feeling of a cozy ladies potluck brunch. Others are held in bars, to the delight of writers who enjoy daydrinking. Yet others are organized in quiet community spaces — Those have tended to be the most productive spots for me.

Women Who Submit was founded in 2011 by three L.A. women — Alyss Dixson, Ashaki Jackson and Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo — as a response to the VIDA count, which shows in stark statistics just how many more men than women are seeing their name in print in literary journals.

Since then, WWS has formalized and organized and expanded. There are now parties organized across the US! Parties in L.A. happen on the second Saturday of the month — and I’ll be giving a talk at the next one on finding an agent! That WWS New Member Orientation and Submission Party happens Sat., Oct. 8 at Beyond Baroque in Venice. Hope to see you there!

To join WWS — or to find out about or start a party in your town, contact WWS. In the meantime, follow WWS’ blog, which has helpful posts demystifying the literary submission process, offering writerly encouragement, and celebrating the publication successes of its members.

Earlier: 5 important resources for women writers

Photos by Lauren Eggert-Crowe

September 20, 2016October 6, 2023

Vermin on the Mount: An irreverent reading series in LA and San Diego

A reading series should surprise you, challenge you, entertain you — maybe sometimes even offend you. And the Vermin on the Mount series has been doing that in SoCal for 12 years now, thanks to the series host Jim Ruland!

In celebration of the series’ 12th anniversary, I wrote my first story for Literary Hub: “The Reading Series that Wants Writers to Feel Like Rock Stars: Vermin on the Mount does things a little differently.”

Click over to find out all about the series: Its punk rock beginnings at a noir-ish bar in Chinatown, its expansion to San Diego, its embrace of the strange, the mundane, the controversial. Literary luminaries like Amelia Gray, Jami Attenberg, and Scott O’Connor all enthuse about what Vermin on the Mount did for their writing careers.

Jim Ruland and Siel Ju at Vermin on the Mount at Book Show, Highland Park, Los Angeles, Feb. 19, 2016

I too got to read for Vermin a while back — and love being an attendee too. Events happen every two to three months; watch the Vermin website to find out about the next one. See you there —

Vermin on the Mount reading series. Once every two to three months in Los Angeles (Book Show, 5503 N. Figueroa St.) and San Diego (3rdSpace, 4610 Park Blvd.).

Earlier:
Roar Shack: A Monthly Echo Park reading series with music and a Livewrite
Book Show: A Carnivalesque bookstore in Highland Park

September 9, 2016October 6, 2023

One weekend, two readings: Hear me at SoCal Poetry Festival and Roar Shack

Roar Shack reading series at 826LA in Los Angeles

Clear your calendar and come hang out with me at two readings this weekend!

First up: Southern California Poetry Festival happens all weekend at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. My reading with Red Hen Press happens tomorrow, Saturday, Sep. 10, at 2 pm. Would love to see you there! (More about the festival)

Secondly: The monthly reading series Roar Shack returns on Sunday, Sep. 11 at 4 pm. I’ll be reading fiction here — along with Natasha Deon, Seth Fischer, Rich Ferguson, and Toni Ann Johnson. (More about Roar Shack)

Both events are free and open to the public. Come say hello!

August 30, 2016October 6, 2023

Read Harder Book Club: For readers who don’t want to be told what to read

*Update, 7/24/17: Alas, the Read Harder Book Club is no longer.*

Love the idea of joining a book club, but hate not being able to pick your own book? Then try the Read Harder Book Club in Los Angeles. Here’s a group for the free-spirited reader. Everyone can read whatever she wants!

Organized by the lit site Book Riot, the Read Harder Book Club is simply a group that meets once a month to discuss books in general — what you’ve read lately, which books you loved or hated, et cetera. It’s a cool way to get introduced to new books you might never otherwise hear about — and to meet other local bibliophiles.

The club meets on the second floor of The Last Bookstore. Sadly, when I arrived for the August meeting a couple weeks ago, the men at the front desk had no idea what I was talking about though the event was on the bookstore calendar. One guy suggested I ask the information desk in the back; the guy there told me he thought it was upstairs. After making a full loop on that floor, I finally found the group seated around a table in the space right between where the bookstore ends and the art galleries begin. For your reference, it’s in the hallway-like room with the vibrant red crochet on the walls.

Six of us (attendees range from just three to a dozen, depending on the month) talked about all sorts of books for an hour, led by Sharifah Williams, a contributing editor to Book Riot who organizes the LA club. Attendees ran the gamut: young and old, horror addicts and literary fiction lovers. Several of the people there were making their way through the Read Harder Challenge, a list of 24 different types of books (e.g. “A book that takes place in Asia”) to read over the course of the year, intended to broaden one’s reading horizons. Among the books discussed that I’d actually read were The Girls, Queen of the Night, and Spent.

This book club often has a sponsor for the month. For August this was Kensington, who sent the club free copies of A Change of Heart — though of course no one is obligated to take or read the book (I didn’t take one).

The next Read Harder Book Club meeting in Los Angeles happens Sat., Sep. 17 at The Last Bookstore. For future meetings, check the events schedule on Book Riot. Read Harder Book Club meetings happen in a handful of other cities too, from Houston to Vancouver.

Read Harder Book Club — Los Angeles. The Last Bookstore. 453 S. Spring St., Los Angeles. Third Saturday of each month at 1 pm.

Top Photo by Sharifah Williams