Literary Stuff To Do in LA

New American Writing: Caryl Phillips

wed sep 29, 7:00PM | HAMMER readings

Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts, West Indies, and raised in England. His novel Dancing in the Dark won the 2006 PEN/ Beyond Margins Award, and an earlier novel, A Distant Shore, won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. His other awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His most recent book is In the Falling Snow. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and currently lives in New York.

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Stanley F. Chyet Poetry Reading

PETER COLE—THE DREAM OF THE POEM: HEBREW POETRY FROM MUSLIM AND CHRISTIAN SPAIN

Sunday, October 17, 2:00 p.m.

$5 General; Free to Skirball Members

Advance reservations recommended: Available on site at the Skirball, online at www.skirball.org, or by phone at (877) SCC-4TIX or (877) 722-4849

Hear prize-winning translator and poet Peter Cole as he reads from and discusses his acclaimed anthology, The Dream of the Poem, which won the National Jewish Book Award and the American Publisher Association’s award for the Book of the Year for 2007. Rich with humor and grace, Cole’s work recreates the world of medieval Spain, where Jewish artistic and intellectual communities flourished under Islamic rule. A book signing follows the program.

“[This] astonishing achievement is fully revealed for the first time in English.... [Peter Cole’s] versions are masterly.” —Eric Ormsby, The New York Times Book Review

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slake magazine

WED OCT 27, 7:00PM | HAMMER READINGS

SLAKE LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE

Moments of surprise, whimsy and unconventional truth burst from the pages of Slake: Los Angeles… the worldviews reach outside traditional journalism. —Los Angeles Times

Slake: Los Angeles is a new LA-centric quarterly that examines all things curious, fictional, poetic, political, and philosophical. Edited by former LA Weekly editors Laurie Ochoa and Joe Donnelly, Slake features work by local writers, artists, and photographers. The evening will celebrate Slake’s second issue with readings by House of Leaves authorMark Z. Danielewski, writer/comedian/actress Lauren Weedman (Date Night, Hung, The Daily Show), Ochoa,Donnelly, and other contributors to the publication. Organized by Benjamin Weissman.

ALL HAMMER PUBLIC PROGRAMS ARE FREE. Seating is on a first come, first served basis. Hammer members receive priority seating, subject to availability. Reservations not accepted, RSVPs not required.

Parking is available under the museum for $3 after 6:00pm.

Wet LA Writers Group starts Thursday! Upcoming Writers Group Schedule

Reminder! Our first and only 2010 West LA Writers group starts on Thursday. This is a great group for TV and screenwriters as well as fiction writers and poets. Read about our West LA Moderator: http://ow.ly/2HOO9

View the schedule for all our Los Angeles Writers Groups starting soon in Miracle Mile/Koreatown, Glassell Park / Glendale, our Advanced Poetry Workshop, and our South Bay Writers Group!

Submit Your One-Act Short Play

Deadline: 12/1/2010

2nd Annual One Act Festival

www.edgemarcenter.org

Acts on The Edge: 2nd Annual One Act Short Play Festival

Want to submit a one-act to Acts on The Edge 2011?

Edgemar Theatre Group will be accepting submissions for the 2011 Acts on The Edge from July 17-December 1, 2010. All submissions will be accepted through www.edgemarcenter.org/events. After your $5.00 submission fee is processed you will receive a confirmation email with all the details of where to submit your script(s).

Submission Guidelines

• Only unproduced works will be accepted. Plays that have had staged readings are eligible, it is preferred that this be the World premiere production of the work.
• Legal clearance of ALL materials not in the public domain are the full responsibility of the playwright.
• Length: 15 minutes maximum, no minimum.
• Production criteria include scripts requiring minimal technical support for a 65 seat theatre and cast of characters with an age range of 20-50. Sets should be minimal.
• Submission fee: $5.00 per script.
• Playwrights may make multiple submissions, each under a separate cover. Only one play per author will be chosen.
• Please include a title page with name, address, phone number and e-mail address. Please submit a synopsis and character breakdown.
• Playwright must provide in their submission a letter giving the Edgemar Theatre Group the right to produce the work free of all royalties as part of an evening of new works which will be presented in 2011. Please note in the statement that all material in the play is in the public within your right to provide performance clearance. By submitting permission is also given to pursue publication of all chosen one acts as part of an anthology collection.
• The volume of scripts submitted hampers our ability to comment individually on each work, so we do not offer criticism.

Deadline for submission: December 1, 2010.

A New Website Written in Rhyme

In the realm of cool websites, here is a fun one to explore and even help build. Everything is in rhyme. Enjoy reading rhymes about current events, literature, medical, and even consumer products! They are just starting out and would love rhyme lovers to become passionate contributors as per the rhyme they've sent us below:

Are you one who writes in Rhyme -

everyday or time to time.

There is a site that's just for you.

It's fun, it's free, and it's new.

How can we not post something someone sends us in rhyme? Exactly. We can't. Go check them out and help the web become a more metrical place.

Rainy Drive - Photo for ekphrastic writing exercise

Rainy Drive - Photo for ekphrastic writing exercise
Originally uploaded by losangeleswritersgroup

We're posting photos on Flickr and on Picasa to use as ekphrastic writing exercises so we thought we'd post them here, too! Use this as inspiration to write, and share your experience with us in the comments, here, there, anywhere!

File Under: Things to do for Writers in Los Angeles

Saturday, July 17, 2010   
Open Mic Poetry Nite in Chinatown, Los Angeles, Art District   
http://lilibernard.com/Pages/Gigs/PoetryNiteJuly2010.html

Poetry/the Spoken Word   
"OPEN MIC POETRY NITE bringing the spoken word to the Chinatown Art District
FREE ADMISSION FOR ALL
No Entry Fee for Poets

Saturday, July 17, 2010, 6:00 pm - 9:30 pm

LILI BERNARD ART STUDIO
935 Chung King Road, Chinatown
Los Angeles, CA 90012
323-936-3607
www.LiliBernard.com

For a map, click here: http://lilibernard.com/Pages/StudioShowroom.html

Featured Poet: WILLIAM JACKSON III

Also Featuring live musical entertainment by RICHARD OMURA with CHARLIE BRAGG on guitar and vocals

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm - Sign in for Poets. First Come First Serve. Poets, plan on a five minute presentation, but feel free to bring ten minutes of material, in case time permits. Advisory: children may be present.

7:00 pm - 8:30 pm - Poetry Open Mic

8:45 pm - 9:30 pm - Live music by RICHARD OMURA

POETS: please send an email to theartist@lilibernard.com, if you plan on presenting so that we can get an idea of the attendance.

If you would like to be considered as a featured poet or musician in upcoming Open Mic Poetry Nites, please indicate so in your email. Include an attachment of the material you would like to present as a featured guest.

ARTWORK by HUGH O'MARA, JIM STARKS, JR., STAN ROSENTHAL, KEVIN T. WILLIAMS, BOB BRIGHT, RUFUS SANDERS AND LILI BERNARD will be on exhibit in the HABLA Underground (the basement gallery of Lili Bernard Art Studio).                               

Real Simple Magazine Creative Nonfiction Memoir Essay Contest

From Real Simple Magazine:

Deadline: 9/24/2010
realsimple.com/lifelessons
Creative Nonfiction / Memoir / Essay
Enter the Third Annual Real Simple Life Lessons Contest And You Could Win $3000

Finish this sentence: “I NEVER THOUGHT I’D...”
THEN TELL US WHY! Whether the experience was difficult, funny, easy, or bittersweet, share your lesson and you could win.

ONE WINNER WILL RECEIVE:
• $3,000
• Round-trip tickets for two to New York City, hotel accommodations for two nights, tickets to a Broadway play, and a lunch with Real Simple editors
• Publication in Real Simple Magazine

Contest entries should be typed, double-spaced, and a maximum of 1,500 words. No purchase necessary. Contest begins at 12:01 A.M. on June 1, 2010, and ends at 11:59 P.M. on September 24, 2010. Open to legal residents of the United States 19 or older at the time of entry. Void where prohibited by law. (All entries will not be returned.)

TO ENTER Send your typed, double-spaced submission (1,500 words maximum, preferably in a Microsoft Word attachment) by e-mail to lifelessons[at]realsimple.com.
For contest rules, visit realsimple.com/lifelessonscontest

Screamfest LA 2010 Call for Entries - Films and Screenplays

This just in from our friends at ScreamfestLA:

Screamfest LA 2010 call for entries
Deadline: August 15,2010
www.screamfestla.com
Horror

"A launching pad for burgeoning directors and screenwriters, Screamfest is dedicated to celebrating the often neglected and underappreciated horror genre. Formed in 2001, Screamfest is one of the leading festivals of its kind and many of the movies and moviemakers showcased here have found distribution...." -MOVIEMAKER MAGAZINE

Screamfest 2010 Call For Entries are now open for new feature length and short films and unproduced screenplays. Winning films receive the coveted golden skull designed by legendary Stan Winston. Winning screenplay receives $2,000 cash and Movie Magic Screenwriter. For more information or to download a submission form, go to www.screamfestla.com

Screamfest discovered the box office hit PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. Are you the next big thing?

"When all other festivals were rejecting PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, Screamfest was the first and only festival at the time that accepted us. We had a great premiere screening and got positive reviews as a result. Shortly after, we got the attention of CAA and many distributors. The rest, as they say, is history! But it all started at Srceamfest!" -Oren Peli

LA Literati - Ray Bradbury

"Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years."
-Ray Bradbury

Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was 13 years old. He is somewhat distantly related to the American Spalding family, owners of the famous Spalding sports equipment company. His central character Douglas Spaulding, from the novel Dandelion Wine was reportedly drawn from this heritage.

Bradbury was a reader and writer throughout his youth, spending much time in the Carnegie library in Waukegan, Illinois. He used this library as a setting for much of his novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, and depicted Waukegan as "Green Town" in some of his other semi-autobiographical novels — Dandelion Wine, Farewell Summer — as well as in many of his short stories.

He attributes his lifelong habit of writing every day to an incident in 1932 when a carnival entertainer, Mr. Electrico, touched him on the nose with an electrified sword, made his hair stand on end, and shouted, "Live forever!" It was from then that Bradbury wanted to live forever and decided his career as an author in order to do what he was told: live forever. It was at that age that Bradbury first started to do magic. Magic was his first great love. If he had not discovered writing, he would have become a magician. We're happy he decided to chuck the rabbit and make words appear out of a hat instead.

His website, www.Raybradbury.com contains a complete list of Bradbury's titles and some excellent video interview footage of Bradbury taken in 2001.

LA Literati - Charles Bukowski

"You live in a town all your life, and you get to know every bitch on the street corner and half of them you have already messed around with. You've got the layout of the whole land. You have a picture of where you are.... Since I was raised in L.A., I've always had the geographical and spiritual feeling of being here. I've had time to learn this city. I can't see any other place than L.A."

Charles Bukowski was born as Heinrich Karl Bukowski in Germany.  His parents immigrated to America and eventually settled in South Los Angeles, CA in 1930.  He attended Los Angeles High School and then Los Angeles City College for two years taking courses in art, journalism & literature.

At 24, Bukowski's short story Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip was published in Story magazine. Two years later, another short story, 20 Tanks From Kasseldown, was published in Portfolio III's broadside collection. Failing to break into the literary world, Bukowski grew disillusioned with the publication process and quit writing for almost a decade, a time that he has referred to as a "ten-year-drunk." These "lost years" formed the basis for his later autobiographical chronicles, although the veracity of his accounts has been frequently called into question. During part of this period he continued living in Los Angeles, working at a pickle factory for a short time, but also spent some time roaming about the United States, working sporadically and staying in cheap rooming houses. In the early 1950s Bukowski took a job as a letter carrier with the U.S. Postal Service in Los Angeles, but resigned just before three years service.

By 1960 he had returned to the post office in Los Angeles, where he continued to work as a letter filing clerk for over a decade. In 1962 Bukowski was traumatised by the death of Jane Cooney Baker. She had been his first real romantic attachment. Bukowski turned his grief and devastation into a series of poems and stories lamenting her passing. Jane is considered to be the greatest love of his life and was the most important in a long series of 'Muses' who inspired his writing, according to biographers Jory Sherman, Souness, Brewer, and Harrison. In 1964, a daughter, Marina Louise Bukowski, was born to Bukowski and his then live-in girlfriend Frances Smith, whom he fondly referred to as a "white-haired hippy", "shack-job" and "old snaggle-tooth".

In 1969, he accepted an offer from Black Sparrow Press publisher John Martin and quit his post office job to dedicate himself to full-time writing. He was then 49 years old. As he explained in a letter at the time, "I have one of two choices — stay in the post office and go crazy ... or stay out here and play at writer and starve. I have decided to starve." Less than one month after leaving the postal service, he finished his first novel, Post Office (novel). As a measure of respect for Martin's financial support and faith in a then relatively unknown writer, Bukowski published almost all of his subsequent major work with Black Sparrow Press, although, an avid supporter of the small independent presses, he continued to submit poems and short stories to thousands of small presses until the time of his death.

His gravestone reads: "Don't Try", a phrase which Bukowski uses in one of his poems, advising aspiring writers and poets about inspiration and creativity. Bukowski explains the phrase in a 1963 letter to John William Corrington as follows:

Somebody at one of these places [...] asked me: "What do you do? How do you write, create?" You don't, I told them. You don't try. That's very important: not to try, either for Cadillacs, creation or immortality. You wait, and if nothing happens, you wait some more. It's like a bug high on the wall. You wait for it to come to you. When it gets close enough you reach out, slap out and kill it. Or if you like its looks you make a pet out of it."

Part 5 of 10: Ten Favorite Places to Write (in no particular order)

Nicole turned me on to a groovy place in Redondo Beach.  Catalina Coffee

Nicole said:

"It's a big coffee shop, plenty of parking -  cozy, eclectic furniture: couches, comfy chairs, tables, etc.  A fireplace, and even an area set off to the back that looks like a private home library that they use for private events sometimes."

Here's a list of the amenities.  I love that the library is an ALL mystery used book store (they have over 2,000 titles for sale).  Now, we just have to catch them up to the modern world of offering free WiFi (there is a PC there for internet access but they charge for it...)

Check it out:

Catalina Coffee

126 North Catalina Avenue

Redondo Beach, CA 90277

Map Here.

Part 6 of 10: Ten Favorite Places to Write (in no particular order)

I can't help it. I know it's cheesy - but I love Du-par's on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.  I love the comfy red vinyl booths, I love the formica table tops.  I love the pie.

No WiFi, but great coffee, breakfast all day, open 24 hours.  Seriously, how can you go wrong?  The last time I was in Du-par's I saw Percy Daggs III at the next table over.  Always something cool going on at Du-par's.

Du-par's Studio City

12036 Ventura Blvd.

Studio City, CA 

Map Here.

(Oh, and if you're looking for someplace to write near Tom's Miracle Mile group, there's one at the Farmer's Market too! 6333 W. 3rd Street @ Fairfax Map Here.)

Part 4 of 10: Ten Favorite Places to Write (in no particular order)

One of my all time favorite places is Eats (actual name is Los Feliz Coffee Shop) - it's located on Los Feliz Boulevard in what is considered to be Atwater Village.  Eats is tucked in next to a small nine-hole golf course.  There is a practice putting green just behind the parking lot for the restaurant so if you need to clear your head take along your putter and a few balls to practice your green game in between paragraphs.

No WiFi but lovely seating outside and plenty of indoor seating including the classic coffee shop counter.

3207 Los Feliz Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90039

Map Here. 

LA Literati - Christopher Isherwood

Christopher Isherwood was born in England.  In 1929, he moved to Germany (where he wrote, among other things, Goodbye to Berlin which was the basis for the Broadway musical and film, Cabaret).

He moved to the states in 1939 and eventually settled in Hollywood.  He met Gerald Heard, the mystic-historian who founded his own monastery at Trabuco Canyon that was eventually bequested to the Vedanta Society of Southern California. Through Heard, who was the first to discover Swami Prabhavananda and Vedanta, Isherwood joined an extraordinary band of mystic explorers that included Aldous Huxley, Bertrand Russell, Chris Wood (Heard's lifelong friend), John Yale and J. Krishnamurti. He embraced Vedanta, and, together with Swami Prabhavananda, produced several Hindu scriptural translations, Vedanta essays, the biography Ramakrishna and His Disciples, novels, plays and screenplays, all imbued with the themes and character of Vedanta and the Upanishadic quest.

A chance encounter in a Los Angeles bookstore with the fantasy writer Ray Bradbury led to a favorable review of The Martian Chronicles, which boosted Bradbury's career and helped to form a friendship between the two men.

Isherwood became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1946.  He began living with the photographer William (Bill) Caskey. In 1947 the two traveled to South America. Isherwood wrote the prose and Caskey provided the photographs for a 1949 book about their journey, The Condor and the Cows.

On Valentine's Day 1953, at the age of 48, he met teen-aged Don Bachardy among a group of friends on the beach at Santa Monica. Reports of Bachardy's age at the time vary, but Bachardy later said "at the time I was, probably, 16." Despite the age difference, this meeting began a partnership that, though interrupted by affairs and separations, continued until the end of Isherwood's life.  During the early months of their affair, Isherwood finished–and Bachardy typed–the novel he had been working on for some years, The World in the Evening (1954). Isherwood also taught a course on modern English literature at Los Angeles State College (now California State University, Los Angeles) for several years during the 1950s and early 1960s.

The more than 30-year age difference between Isherwood and Bachardy raised eyebrows at the time, with Bachardy, in his own words, "regarded as a sort of child prostitute" but the two became a well-known and well-established couple in Southern Californian society with many Hollywood friends.

Down There on a Visit, a novel published in 1962, comprised four related stories that overlap the period covered in his Berlin stories. In the opinion of many reviewers, Isherwood's finest achievement was his 1964 novel A Single Man, that depicted a day in the life of George, a middle-aged, gay Englishman who is a professor at a Los Angeles university.

Isherwood and Bachardy would live together until Isherwood's death in 1986 at the age of 81.

Beyond Baroque First Annual Poetry Contest

Beyond Baroque is one of the United States' leading independent Literary/Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to literary and cultural production, contact, interaction, and community building. Founded in 1968, it is based in the Old Town Hall in Venice, California, near the Pacific Ocean. It offers a program of readings, free workshops, publishing, bookstore, archiving, and education.  Like most art / cultural centers, Beyond Baroque is struggling to meet its financial obligations.

Toward that end, they are hosting a Poetry Contest - so yes, there is a fee, but there are cash prizes for the top 3 poets ($500, $250, $100) and the reader's fee will go back into keeping the doors open on this beloved center.  The final judge will be Tony Barnstone

CONTEST RULES
1. Submit up to three unpublished poems, 40line limit.
2. All themes and styles welcome.
3. Deadline Sept. 1st. 2010 (postmarked)
4. No ID on poems; poet's name, address, phone, e-mail address and poem titles on cover sheet.
5. Send entries, including $15 reading fee, to: 

Beyond Baroque Contest

681 Venice Blvd., 

Venice, CA 90291.

6. Checks payable to Beyond Baroque
7. No SASE. Poems not returned.

Note: A reading/reception will be held for the three cash winners and five top finalists at Beyond Baroque on Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010.

LAwritersgroup.com Member - 1st Place, Round 1 - NYCMidnight

WOO HOO!!! - A big shout out to LAwritersgroup.com member Brittany Klaus for winning FIRST PLACE in Round 1 of the NYCMidnight screenwriting contest.  The second round is this weekend and she has 24 hours to write a 15-page screenplay so let's send our writerly vibes her way!

ALSO!

Screamfest 2010 Call For Entries are now open for new feature length and short films and unproduced screenplays.  Winning films receive the coveted golden skull designed by legendary Stan Winston.  Winning screenplay receives $2,000 cash and Movie Magic Screenwriter. For more information or to download a submission form, go to www.screamfestla.com

Screamfest discovered the box office hit PARANORMAL ACTIVITY.  Are you the next big thing?

"A launching pad for burgeoning directors and screenwriters, Screamfest is dedicated to celebrating the often neglected and underappreciated horror genre.  Formed in 2001, Screamfest is one of the leading festivals of its kind and many of the movies and moviemakers showcased here have found distribution...." -MOVIEMAKER MAGAZINE

"When all other festivals were rejecting PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, Screamfest was the first and only festival at the time that accepted us.  We had a great premiere screening and got positive reviews as a result.  Shortly after, we got the attention of CAA and many distributors.  The rest, as they say, is history! But it all started at Srceamfest!" -Oren Peli

Your Hyphenate Brain – How Fiction Writers Can Play the Hollywood Game to Their Advantage

Today we're happy and excited to feature Zoë Green, a guest writer for LAwritersgroup.com!

Zoë Green has recently been hired to write projects for Rob Reiner and George Clooney and is currently writing a superhero(ine) movie for Stan Lee. To learn about writing for film/TV visit her site www.script-emergency.com

******

Picture the scene. A young woman emerges from film school, secures a literary agent and writes her first screenplay with the idea that she will sell it to Hollywood. It hits all the right notes – it’s a big budget sci-fi / fantasy extravaganza, and is hailed by all studio readers as a unique blend of character and ‘world building’. Compliments fly. High powered meetings ensue. But alas, no studio can actually buy it. The reason? The work is original and not based on an existing underlying intellectual property.

A number of years have passed. I (the young woman in question) have been lucky enough to build a screenwriting career from this original screenplay. It did the work of a good spec – it got me many meetings which led to much free ‘take’ work which led (eventually and often in anti linear fashion) to a number of TV and movie sales. But the cold hard truth remains that in today’s sputtering spec market an original screenplay will rarely sell unless it happens to be a commercial enough twist on a public domain concept to pique the interest of a studio. All those of you who want to see your own stories up there on screen may as well hang up your hats. But wait! There’s another way. Call it the double-edged sword. The buyers want original content to turn into movies. They are gasping for it – to the extent that producers rabidly comb short story websites, galley manuscripts, random tiny comic book imprints and blogs to find something, anything, with an existing built in audience, however tiny. So if you’re an aspiring screenwriter with a fictional bent, consider yourself as the progenitor of a multi-faceted creature ‘the idea’ and make sure that it exists in the right format for them to find. Come up with a high concept idea and get it published. Almost anywhere. And then make damn sure you have the screenwriting skills to insist that you get first pass at the script when they come clamoring to option it. It will serve you to have the screenplay version already written. They may well buy it from you and you could suddenly find yourself a card-carrying member of the WGA. You may even then be asked to write the tie-in movie novel in an interesting reversal of media. Result!

Remember this --- producers and studios have an endless devouring need for new material. So understand that a person who can strategically write both fiction and film may well be the only kind of person who can retain any kind of control over original ideas in this very precarious, ever shifting game.

Part 2 of 10: Ten Favorite Places to Write (in no particular order)

Our new South Bay writers group run by Nicole Criona starts tonight! To kick this new geographical age off, I thought I'd introduce you to a groovy place in her new neighborhood...

Java Man Coffee House is Hermosa Beach's oldest coffee house. It's housed in a 1920s bungalow! Java Man provides a variety of seating (in wonderful little niches and corners) that ranges from hard back chairs and tables to comfy couches and overstuffed chairs. They have a comprehensive breakfast and lunch menu and feature homemade soup! Of course, there is the all-important bonus of free WiFi!

The hours at Java Man would be a disadvantage (6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the weekends) but the same people own Ocean Diner just up the street, an old fashioned coffee shop in the best tradition of formica tables and counter seating (open until 9 p.m. every day except Sunday when it closes at 3 p.m.)

Map here for Java Man Coffee House (emphasis on "house")
157 Pier Avenue, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

Map here for Ocean Diner
959 Aviation Boulevard, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254

Rattle Poetry Prize - $5,000

We don't always promote contests but the Rattle Poetry Prize is worthy of a little blogpress.

There is a $18 reader's fee, but that $18 also buys you a year's subscription to the magazine and here's the real draw.....

First prize for a single poem is $5,000.  They also give honorable mention to ten others along with a $100 for each of them and all eleven poems are published in the winter edition of Rattle.

You can go here to read the email guidelines for submission (separate link for hardcopy submission).

"Written in California"

Join Pasadena's own Red Hen Press for an evening of poetry and art at the Pasadena Museum of California Art this Thursday, May 27th at 7:00 p.m.

Readings by California poets Eloise Klein Healy, Brendan Constantine, and Douglas Kearney.  Moderated by Andrea Scarpino.

Admission is FREE and the gallery will be open one hour prior to the event.

Pasadena Museum of California Art

490 East Union Street

Pasadena CA 91101

www.pmcaonline.org

626-568-3665

Part 1 of 10: Ten Favorite Places to Write (in no particular order)

Our newest group run by Tom Rastrelli is in Mid-Wilshire, an area rife with coffee shops but not all of them are writer friendly or wifi ready.

Massimo's Mudspot not only provides free wifi but offers a variety of seating that includes the traditional table & hard back chair or a nice comfy couch to lounge on.  Their menu includes yummy sandwiches (some on house made bread) and salads.  And if you're not in the mood for coffee, you can try their homemade lavender lemonade.

Massimo's features local artists on their walls and encourages local groups/soloists to play on their music night.

The coffee shop also encourages its customers to get a little exercise and help make the world greener.  On the last Friday of the month, they offer 10% off to every customer who rides their bike to the coffee shop and they support that habit by putting their bike racks right outside a large picture window so you can keep an eye on your vehicle! (They're so green that on their contact page of their website, they tell you which bus lines to take to get to them...)

The hours at Massimo's would be a disadvantage (7 a.m. to 6 p.m.) but the same people own The Little Bar Lounge next door, a no muss, no fuss, no kitchen, east coast feel neighborhood bar.  If you're hungry, they'll provide you with a choice of delivery menus from the area so you can order in....

Massimo's Mudspot: 759 S. La Brea, Los Angeles, CA 90036 (corner of 8th & La Brea)

The Little Bar Lounge: 757 S. La Brea, Los Angeles, CA 90036

L.A. Literati

Wanda Coleman was born and raised in Watts.   She has been called the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles.  Prior to recognition as the poetic voice of Los Angeles, she had many jobs, the editorial coordinator of an arts newsletter (for the Studio Watts organization), a medical secretary, a journalist, a proofreader, a waitress, and a Peace Corps/Vista recruiter.  

What you may not know is that Coleman had a brief stint as a t.v. writer and won an Emmy award for her work as a staff writer on the NBC television soap opera Days of Our Lives (one of the very few soaps shot in Los Angeles) for the 1975-76 season. 

Coleman's poetry, which has won widespread praise from reviewers has also been sometimes deemed hard to swallow for its grim portrayals of the down-on-their-luck characters who populate Los Angeles's streets. 

Coleman's poems about love seethe with sexual and violent themes.  In the 80s she was incredibly prolific and produced new work at an astonishing rate—in addition to her many published works she accumulated a collection of over 4,500 rejection slips (so take heart).  Her poem "Today I Am a Homicide in the North of the City" is often reprinted as an example of the poet's drawn-from-the-streets subject matter.

Although the term hadn't yet been coined during the rise of Coleman's career, she was a forerunner to the "poetry slam" movement that invigorated African-American literary communities with live poetry contests in the 1990s and 2000s.

In 2003 and 2004, Coleman became the first literary fellow of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. Asked at about that time by the Poetry Society of America whether gender, sexual preference, or ethnicity figured more prominently than being an American in her self-identity as a poet, Coleman responded this way: "As a Usually Het Interracially Married Los Angeles-based African American Womonist Matrilinear Working Class Poor Pink/White Collar College Drop-out Baby Boomer Earth Mother and Closet Smoker Unmolested-by-her-father, I am unable to separate these and, as time progresses, resent having to fit into every niggling PC pigeon hole some retard trendoid academic with a grant or hidden agenda barfs up."

You can read more about her life and her work here.

Los Angeles Born Poet Reads at Beyond Baroque

Los Angeles has great readings going on all the time but LAwritersgroup.com is really excited about Diane Wakoski's appearance at Beyond Baroque this weekend because although she was born and raised in Whittier, CA, she is now based in Michigan and her reading appearances in Los Angeles are few and far between. 

Her latest book of poetry Diamond Dog, Anhinga Press 2010 is the first entirely new collection of her poems to come out since Argonaut Rose in 1998.

When I was getting my Masters at USC, I read Diane's Emerald Ice and it inspired me to track her down (something I had never done before) to speak with her about poetic sensibility and the use of a specific image I had noticed in her poetry.  It turned into a wonderful correspondence and I took from it a deeper understanding of personal poetic mythos.  You can read my article about our correspondence here.

Diane continues exploring and in her latest book combines poetic-mythos with science.  She will be reading at Beyond Baroque (map here) on Sunday, May 23 at 7:30 p.m.

Submission Fees

I have submitted to contests and understand that the submission fee is to pay the prize money - makes sense when a literary journal can barely keep itself afloat.  It seems that universities are no longer supporting their journals (a shame) and the writers keep them in business....

John Fox has a great entry on submission fees - read it here and understand the future of literary journals.

LAwritersgroup.com Favorite Places to Write (in no particular order)

One of our groups meets in Glassell Park so Silverlake is a hop, skip and single freeway exit away...

Silverlake Coffee Co. rocks! They boast a full coffee bar with super-friendly barristas and an impressive breakfast and lunch menu.  They also have a seemingly unending selection of teas.

Because it's on a slight hill, it's built on levels with both an indoor and outdoor seating area so it's dog friendly with plenty of ashtrays for those of you who can't quite give up the "cancer sticks". (Both Nicole and I are ex-smokers so totally get it.)  Even better than the plentiful ashtrays though are the electrical sockets for your computer and the free wifi available. 

Indoor is softly lit during the day - no harsh glare on your screen or writing pad.  

Here's a big plus in Los Angeles (and Silverlake in particular) it has a big parking lot with plenty of free parking!

I think one of our members put it best when he said: "busy, but chill and no weirdos"

You can read more reviews here and check it out yourself at: 2388 Glendale Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90039

L.A. Literati

We hear a lot about New York writers and the history of places they wrote in and about so thought we'd begin a semi-regular series on the rich literary history of Los Angeles.

First of all, you can't write about Los Angeles writers without a big nod to Raymond Chandler.  He lived in L.A. from 1912 - 1946 and all but one of his novels was made into a movie. 

If you want to take a peek at his abode, you'd have to drive by 12216 Shetland Lane, Brentwood, CA.  His character, Philip Marlowe, lived elsewhere - in the cliffs above High Tower Drive in the Hollywood Heights.  You can go by and check out the high elevator tower that was described in the novels. (It's been used in countless movies - including 'Dead Again' in which Kenneth Branagh attempts an American accent while playing a modern detective).

Chandler renamed Los Angeles geography in his novels - e.g. Santa Monica Pier became The Bay City Pier; Malibu becomes Montemar Vista, and Silverlake becomes Gray Lake.  They are renamed but if you're familiar with the layout, the references are obvious.

Chandler had a love-hate relationship with Los Angeles - the physical descriptions were lovely and haunting, while the detective struggled to stay honest in a corrupt town.

I read a great non-fiction book recently called A Bright and Guilty Place by Richard Rayner that is a record of not only the criminal activity that built our city, but also a love letter to the writers who made her immortal.

Los Angeles is, and has been, home to great writers and tomorrow we'll begin to explore LAwritersgroup.com's 10 Favorite Place to Write (In No Particular Order)...

Submission Link

We shared this on our website but it is so chock-full of great places to submit that we had to post it to our blog!~

Poetry Events in May

Laura Copelin of Hen House Studios has updated their calendar - see below...

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FREE tunes and verse with local poet Ellyn Maybe and her Band along with many special guests, all throughout May. Come out and celebrate, hear a new sound and measure some meter!

*Thursday May 6th Poetry Rodeo at Pier 212 in Venice, Ellyn Maybe and her Band with special guests Lynne Bronstein and Jaimes Palacio at 7:30-10pm
*Thursday May 13th - Rodeo Break for Kabam Poetry Festival in Kingston, Arizona.
*Thursday May 20th Poetry Rodeo at Pier 212 in Venice, Ellyn Maybe and her Band with special guests Yvonne de La Vega and Rich Ferguson at 7:30-10pm
*Thursday May 27th Poetry Rodeo at Pier 212 in Venice, Ellyn Maybe and her Band with special guests Elena Karina Byrne and Brendan Constantine at 7:30-10pm

Let your writer's know that we've got a bunch of LA Poetry friends coming up and if they come out to the shows to talk to Ellyn and get in on the Rodeo! The music/poetry improv we've been doing with the guest poets has been really fun so far...

Four Fabulous Literary Magazine and Contest Online Resources

When it comes to finding the right print and online publications to send your fiction, poetry, and essays, the research, while still time consuming, is much easier than it used to be back in the pre-internet days.  There are some very useful resources out there.  The challenge is making sure you aren't spending all your time dinking around in the databases rather than finishing up those stories/poems/essays and sending them out!

Poets&Writers Magazine 
They have a fairly new but very useful online database where you can search for literary 'zines that is searchable by the newest listings, by genre (fiction, poetry, non-fiction), or by magazine title.  They tell you if the publication takes electronic submissions, simultaneous submissions, genre's published, and the magazine's reading period.  It looks like they currently have 495 listings in their database.

Writers Market Database
The old tried and true Writers Market books now give you online access to their bounty of literary resources.  They boast over 8,000 listings for "...book publishers, magazines, contests, literary agents, greeting card publishers, screenwriting markets, playwriting markets, conferences, newspapers, online publications, syndicates, and organizations."  For a low monthly fee (and also a tax write-off if you earn a living as a writer), you get access to a gigantic searchable database where you can create your own folders and save the listings you like, as well as keep track of your submissions.

Duotrope Digest
This database focuses on poetry and fiction publishers, and has nearly 3,000 searchable listings.  Some of the unique aspects of this database is its extensive genre category and sub-category breakdown, the database is searchable by payscale (Non-Paying, Token, Semi-Pro, Pro), but most useful of all is that they include real response times based on user feedback and experience, so you get a real feel for how long it will take a publication to respond.  That information is only as good as the users who report back, so if you use them, don't forget to go back and let them know the response time.

CRWROPPS Listserve
This hidden treasure email list is operated generously by Allison Joseph of http://www.poetryresourcepage.com who is also a poet, editor, and college professor.   She runs it through yahoo groups and sends anywhere from 2 - 12 emails a day with different kinds of contest calls for entries, calls for submissions of all kinds, and even job openings at the professor level for colleges around the country in the creative writing field.  She doesn't filter out certain kinds of announcements (say if you wanted only poetry-related contests or calls for submission) so you have to wade through the emails yourself every day, but it's worth it.  One of the charming things about her list is that when she takes a break, she lets you know.

Call for Submissions : Unpublishable Fiction

Have a story you love that no one else seems to? The Incongruous Quarterly is looking for money-themed unpublishable fiction. From their site:

The Incongruous Quarterly is looking for submissions of unpublishable fiction and poetry for its inaugural issue. The deadline for submissions is June 4, 2010.

Unpublishable writing is misfit writing. Stories or poems that have been previously rejected; writing that is too long or too short, too strange or too normal, too much or too little. The Incongruous Quarterly is a home for work that has no other home.

The theme for fiction submissions is MONEY.
www.incongruousquarterly.com

Poetry Events in April

Laura Copelin of Hen House Studios has some wonderful events coming up in Los Angeles to honor National Poetry Month.  She sent us a wonderful announcement and we're sharing it verbatim below...

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We want your writers to come out and celebrate National Poetry Month, hear a new sound and measure some meter! FREE tunes and verse with local poet Ellyn Maybe and her Band along with many special guests, all throughout April. We'll be groovin' all over town, dates and locations include:

*Tuesday April 13th at the Talking Stick in Venice opening for the Danny Moynahan Trio at 7pm

*Thursday April 15th is her residency, Poetry Rodeo Thursday's at Pier 212 Cafe in Venice, Ellyn Maybe and her Band with special guests JD Glasscock and Bren Petrakos at 7:30-10pm

*Thursday April 22nd Poetry Rodeo at Pier 212 in Venice, Ellyn Maybe and her Band with special guests Matthew Mars and Luke Salazar at 7:30-10pm

*Saturday April 24th Ellyn and her Band are at the LA Times Bookfair on the Poetry Stage at 5:15pm

*Thursday April 29th Poetry Rodeo at Pier 212 in Venice, Ellyn Maybe and her Band with special guests Steve Abee and Steve Miller at 7:30-10pm

They're all free and open to the public. Thanks and LOVE LOVE the blog...I'll link you to some of Ellyn's new video's if you'd like to hear some of her recent work -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw9muKkwsS4 and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mjf1EuJ37w&feature=related

Where exactly in Los Angeles do we hold our writers groups?

We currently hold our writers groups in three locations:

• Our Glassell Park 8-Week Writers Group is for writers who want to join a writers group who are coming from or work near Glendale, Burbank, Pasadena, Los Feliz, East Los Angeles, Atwater Village, Hollywood, Silverlake, the the Southwest and Northwest San Fernando Valley (Encino, Woodland Hills, Reseda, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood) and surrounding areas. Map

• Our Miracle Mile 8-Week Writers Group is good for writers coming from or who work near West Hollywood, Hollywood, West Los Angeles, Miracle Mile/Fairfax District, Century City, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Hancock Park, Fairfax District, SoFax, Santa Monica, and surrounding areas. Map

• Our South Bay 8-Week Writers Group is good for writers interested in creative writing who are coming from or work near Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Playa Del Rey, Marina Del Ray, Palos Verdes, Torrance, San Pedro, Lawndale, Long Beach and surrounding areas. Map

We currently have two groups scheduled:

• Our Miracle Mile 8-Week Writers Group, starting on May 5th, 2010, from 7:30pm - 10:00pm
• Our South Bay 8-Week Writers Group, starting on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 from 7:30pm - 10:00pm

Our Glassell Park group just started but we will have another one scheduled soon!

LAwritersgroup.com has been running writers groups throughout Los Angeles since 2003. We run several writers groups / writing workshops throughout the Los Angeles area that are open to writers of all levels and kinds, with an aim toward getting words on the page and providing a safe place for writers to create new work and exchange feedback on works in progress. View our current Writing Workshop / Writers Group Meeting Schedule and or read about our group Moderators.

Whether you write novels, screenplays, essays, songs poetry, journal entries, children's books or whatever, you are welcome in our groups regardless of experience. Our groups are about creating new work and soliciting critique from your peers if you so wish.

If you have any questions about our groups, please email us at lawritersgroup(at)gmail.com. Replace (at) with @.

Writers Group Starts April 1st - No Joke

Hey all you wonderful writing peeps, this is just a reminder that Sanora has a new writers group starting on Thursday, April 1st.

So if you live in Glendale, Los Feliz, anywhere on the Eastside of Hollywood or LA, or out the Alta Dena/Pasadena/La Canada way, this group is for you!

In fact, Sanora's groups are fabulous and creatively inspirational so even if you don't live in those areas, her group is truly worth the drive. It's a Thursday, man, so you can do the drive, because driving home is no problem traffic-wise after group and then you just have to make it through Friday and voila! the weekend is there, ready for you to channel all that creative inspiration you got from Sanora's group and finish up those stories or poems or essays or scenes you wrote on Thursday....