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!~