Monday 1/13: Write Club Los Angeles presents Chapter 21: Shit Ain’t Real? 3 rounds, 2 opposing writers, and this one features a special SF vs. LA rivalry as the producers of Write Club SF come down to do battle! Mikhail Blokh, Casey Childers, Pogo Saito, Kristina Wong, Steven Westdahl, and Sean Sweeney engage in “literature as bloodsport.” 7:00 p.m. at The Bootleg Theater. $5 – $20, pay what you can.
Tuesday 1/14: David Scheinbaum presents and signs Hip Hop: Portraits of an Urban Hymn. 7:00 p.m. at Book Soup.
Wednesday 1/15: Okey Ndibe presents and signs Foreign Gods, Inc. 7:00 p.m. at Book Soup.
The Moth presents “Beginnings.” Doors open at 7:00, show at 7:30 at Busby’s East. $8 at the door. 18+ event.
Thursday 1/16: PEN Center USA presents The Sugar Games! This is going to be a wild event. It’s L.A.’s first literary dessert competition, where the public (hey, that’s us!) is “asked to create homemade desserts inspired by books or literary figures—think Lord of the Pies or Ezra Poundcake.” The confections will be judged by Evan Kleiman (Culinary Merit) and Carolyn Kellogg (Literary Merit), who will award first, second, and third place prizes. Dessert registration begins at 6:30 p.m. at Angel City Brewery. $10 to submit a dessert, free to spectate.
Book Launch & Poetry Reading with Sabrina Dalla Valle and Christine Wertheim. 7:30 p.m. at The Last Bookstore.
Homo-Centric is L.A.’s monthly LBTQI literary reading event, hosted by Hank Henderson. 7:30 p.m. at Stories Books and Cafe.
Friday 1/17: Dan Thomas-Glass, Cassandra Gillig, and Nathaniel Otting read from their works of poetry. 7:00 p.m. at the Poetic Research Bureau.
James Greer, Franki Elliot, and Chris Terry read from their latest works. 7:30 p.m. at The Last Bookstore.
La Poesia Féstival Bilingual, hosted by Antonieta Villamil, who will translate Mark Lipman’s The Dirt of Dispair / Herrumbre de La Desesperanza. Bring a bilingual poem to share in the open reading. 8:00 p.m. at Beyond Baroque.
Saturday 1/18: Amy Spalding reads from Ink is Thicker than Water. 5:00 p.m. at Skylight Books.
Shades & Shadows is back with Shades & Shadows 3. L.A.’s only ongoing reading event dedicated solely to dark fantasy, science fiction, and horror, January’s lineup features Martin Lastrapes, Lilliam Rivera, Travis Sentell, Martin Pousson, Jace Daniel, and Benzon Ray Barbin reading from their own works of dark fiction. Hosted by Lauren Candia and Xach Fromson (hey, that’s me!). Doors at 8:00, show at 8:30 p.m. at the California Institute of AbnormalArts. $10 at the door, no presale.
ALOUD and Red Hen Press present A Tribute to Wanda Coleman. If you want to pay your respects to the late unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles, this is the place to go. With Terrance Hayes, Douglas Kearney, Stephen Kessler, Ron Koertge, Laurel Ann Bogen, Charles Harper Webb, Michael Datcher, Suzanne Lummis, Sesshu Foster, Jack and Adelle Foley, Will Alexander, Cecilia Woloch, Robin Coste Lewis, and Austin Straus. The event is full, but standby seating is always a possibility. 5:00 p.m. at the Los Angeles Central Library’s Mark Taper Auditorium.
Sunday 1/19: Tongue & Groove is back with their January lineup of readers! This month features Bonnie Nadzam, John Espinosa Nelson, Verónica Reyes, Tony Shea, and music by Izzy Cox. 6:00 p.m. at The Hotel Cafe.
