•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 the 29th at Book Soup)
• UCLA’s Hammer Museum: Thurs 6/9 7pm, Vendela Vida (most recently, The Lovers) along with Heidi Julavits (The Effect of Living Backwards)–both are co-founders of the journal The Believer
• New Short Fiction Series: Sun 6/12 7pm, a book release event presenting the debut story collection from Erica Bauermeister, Joy for Beginners
• Vroman’s Bookstore: Sat 6/11 5pm, Erica Bauermeister and her debut story collection Joy for Beginners (see New Short Fiction Series above); Thurs 6/23 7pm, an edgy pairing of Grace Krilanovich, whose The Orange Eats Creeps rescues Northwestern vampires from Twilight mushiness; and Wyatt Doyle and his story collection Stop Requested (“Bukowski without the nasty streak”)
• ALOUD at the Central Library: Thurs 6/16 7pm, Alina Simone and her tragic-comic journey through Indie Rock, with a decidedly punk Eastern European tilt
• Tongue & Groove: on Sat 6/18 8pm, a special show at a special location and special time–”Boyle Heights: The Other LA” featuring Luis Rodriguez, Xavi Moreno, David Kippen and others–Grand Performance Stage, 350 S. Grand Ave LA
• Word Theatre: Sun 6/19 5:30pm continues their ‘Lit by Lulu’ series with an evening of dramatic readings of short stories featuring performers like Amy Brenneman, and writers like Jane Smiley
