Lit_Scribbler

A light calendar as most literary venues scale back for the month: Thurs 8/4 7pm, John Burnham Schwartz comes to town with his novel Northwest Corner, which revisits many of the characters from his earlier bestseller Reservation Road – at Book Soup in West Hollywood. Fri 8/5 7pm-10pm, the Highland Park art gallery and performance space Public Fiction presents the debut issue of a new literary journal of the same name, featuring some good names like Trinie Dalton ( Wide-Eyed ). The... Read Full Story

In a relatively light month, too much going on at Los Feliz’s Skylight Books to capture fully but here goes: Wed 7/6 7:30pm, LA Times columnist Meghan Daum moderates a panel of local luminaries (among them Seth Green, Leslie Schwartz and Diana Wagman) on the intersections and differences between fiction and narrative non-fiction; Thurs 7/7 7:30pm, El Monte’s own Toni Margarita Plummer and her debut story collection The Bolero of Andi Rowe; Fri 7/8 7pm, a launch party for the second issue of... Read Full Story

• Skylight Books : Sun 6/12 5pm, the always engaging Steve Almond with a handful of his self-published books, including This Won’t Take But a Minute, Honey , which includes some excellent thoughts on the craft of writing; Fri 6/17 7:30pm, Jesus Angel Garcia with Badbadbad, intriguingly described by Kyle Minor as “the disinherited love child of Philip Roth and Flannery O’Connor”; Thurs 6/23 7:30, readings from LA’s newest literary journal The Rattling Wall (if you miss them here, catch them on... Read Full Story

Even serious readers, when they see a movie coming up that’s based on a work of fiction, face the dilemma: Do I read the book first, or do I just go out and see the movie? In the case of the new Will Ferrell movie “Everything Must Go,” there’s no dilemma, no excuse–it’s based on a very short story by Raymond Carver that takes all of a few minutes to read. So honor Short Story Month by reading “Why Don’t You Dance?” If this is your first exposure to Carver, and you like it, check out the... Read Full Story

Another packed month: Skylight Books : Thurs 5/5 7:30pm, Geoff Dyer (sometimes fiction writer but mainly essayist–his book on jazz, But Beautiful, is an all-time favorite) with a new essay collection, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition; Thurs 5/12 7:30pm, Patrick deWitt with his novel The Sisters Brothers, a reworking of the Western some are comparing to Charles Portis; Sat 5/14 5pm, new readings from West Coast litmag ZYZZYVA, and a chance to meet new editor Laura Cogan, who takes... Read Full Story

Who says so? Dan Wickett, and that’s good enough for me. There are months for just about everything, it seems. Since 1996, April has been National Poetry Month. As the 2009 edition of National Poetry Month wound down, Dan decided to step forward and declare May Short Story Month. Dan is a tireless literary enthusiast, founder of the Emerging Writers Network, and now co-director of Dzanc Books–which under its own name and various imprints does as much as anyone on the current literary scene... Read Full Story

A packed month so let’s go: Skylight Books : Mon 4/4 7:30pm, Michelle Latiolais with her new story collection Widow; Tues 4/5 7:30pm, much-loved author, teacher and Santa Monica Review founder Jim Krusoe and his new novel Toward You, published by Tin House; Fri 4/15 7:30pm, Blake Butler and Justin Taylor with their novels There Is No Year and The Gospel of Anarchy ; Sat 4/16 5pm, a release party for David Foster Wallace’s posthumous novel The Pale King Book Soup : Mon 4/11 7pm, Alexi... Read Full Story

Last year Failbetter –one of the best online literary journals out there, and whose name derives from the great Samuel Beckett quote–ran a novella contest that was won by Lou Mathews, a friend/teacher/mentor of mine. The winning entry, The Irish Sextet , has been published in installments over the last few months. Now the complete work is available online. One of the stories (I won’t prejudice you by saying which) has already inspired me to overhaul the ending to one of my own stories. It’s a... Read Full Story

I haven’t posted one of these in over a year and will try to be better about that. Some interesting theme issues with deadlines coming up soon, and one contest of note: Tin House has three themed issues coming up, two with April 1 deadlines: ‘The Ecstatic’ will be their Fall 2011 issue, and ‘Beauty’ their Winter 2011 issue; and for their Spring 2012 issue (deadline Oct 1), ‘Weird Science’–click the link for more details. Make , a very interesting magazine out of Chicago, has a ‘Neither... Read Full Story

At Skylight Books in Los Feliz: Thurs 3/3 7:30pm , local author Nina Revoyr with her new novel Wingshooters (getting good reviews, with comparisons to To Kill a Mockingbird ); Sat 3/5 5pm, readings from the latest anthology from  WriteGirl , which does great work helping teen girls develop their writing voice; Thurs 3/17 7:30pm, Andrew Foster Altshul and his novel about a reality show gone horribly wrong, Deus Ex Machina The March show of The New Short Fiction Series (LA’s longest-running... Read Full Story