BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Litseen - ECPv6.16.2//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Litseen X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://litseen.com X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Litseen REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20190310T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20191103T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20200308T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20201101T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20210314T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20211107T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20220313T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20221106T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20230312T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20231105T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20240310T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20241103T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231116T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20231116T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20231002T223746Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231002T223746Z UID:67298-1700161200-1700168400@litseen.com SUMMARY:Cocktails and Cookbooks with 'Forest Feast' Author\, Erin Gleeson DESCRIPTION:Join us for a fun evening with New York Times bestselling cookbook author\, photographer and artist behind the lifestyle brand The Forest Feast. \nIf we can’t go into the woods\, Erin Gleeson will bring the woods to us! In The Forest Feast book series Erin shares artful entertaining ideas\, style inspiration and simple\, vegetable-focused recipes illustrated by her own watercolors\, hand-lettering and photography. \nTo receive a free book\, register by October 31. \nPROGRAM: \n7:00-7:30 PM | Cocktails and light reception \n7:30-8:30 PM | Author presentation and audience Q&A \n8:30-9:00 PM | Book signing and holiday gift sales \nErin Gleeson is the New York Times bestselling cookbook author and artist behind the lifestyle brand The Forest Feast. After working in New York as a food photographer\, she left the city for a cabin in the woods which took her work in a whole new direction. Inspired by local California produce\, she has now created five vegetarian cookbooks and a line of products that showcase her unique blend of photography overlaid with watercolor illustrations and hand lettering. \n  \nErin’s goal is to inspire people to be creative at home\, to cook more with vegetables\, and to share meals together. She lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California with her husband Jon and their three kids. \n  \nErin’s latest book\, The Forest Feast Road Trip\, is about her culinary road trip through California. Her work has been featured in publications including The New York Times\, Huffington Post\, San Francisco Chronicle\, Food52\, O\, The Oprah Magazine\, InStyle\, MindBodyGreen and People Magazine. \n$25. \nhttp://www.paloaltojcc.org info@paloaltojcc.org 650-223-8700 URL:https://litseen.com/event/cocktails-and-cookbooks-with-forest-feast-author-erin-gleeson/ LOCATION:Freidenrich Conference Center (Bldg F) 4th Floor\, 3921 Fabian Way\, Palo Alto\, 94303 CATEGORIES:South Bay ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/2190_v0.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="The Oshman Family JCC":MAILTO:info@paloaltojcc.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211012T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211012T180000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210805T040422Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210805T040422Z UID:64960-1634058000-1634061600@litseen.com SUMMARY:Rick Riordan DESCRIPTION:TICKETS\n\n\n\n\nRICK RIORDAN IS BACK! \nJoin us online to hear Rick Riordan tell us all about his new action-packed underwater adventure\, Daughter of the Deep\, an exciting modern take on Jules Verne’s  20\,000 Leagues Under the Sea. We couldn’t be more excited. \n\n\n\n\nAna Dakkar is a freshman at Harding-Pencroft Academy\, a five-year high school that graduates the best marine scientists\, naval warriors\, navigators\, and underwater explorers in the world. Ana’s parents died while on a scientific expedition two years ago\, and the only family’s she’s got left is her older brother\, Dev\, also a student at HP. Ana’s freshman year culminates with the class’s weekend trial at sea\, the details of which have been kept secret. She only hopes she has what it’ll take to succeed. All her worries are blown out of the water when\, on the bus ride to the ship\, Ana and her schoolmates witness a terrible tragedy that will change the trajectory of their lives. \nBut wait\, there’s more. The professor accompanying them informs Ana that their rival school\, Land Institute\, and Harding-Pencroft have been fighting a cold war for a hundred and fifty years. Now that cold war has been turned up to a full broil\, and the freshman are in danger of becoming fish food. In a race against deadly enemies\, Ana will make amazing friends and astounding discoveries about her heritage as she puts her leadership skills to the test for the first time. \nGet ready to dive into Daughter of the Deep\, an undersea adventure full of Rick Riordan’s trademark humor\, fast-paced action\, and wide cast of characters.. \n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRick Riordan\, dubbed “storyteller of the gods” by Publishers Weekly\, is the author of five #1 New York Times best-selling middle grade series with millions of copies sold throughout the world: Percy Jackson and the Olympians\, The Heroes of Olympus\, and the Trials of Apollo\, based on Greek and Roman mythology; the Kane Chronicles\, based on Ancient Egyptian mythology; and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard\, based on Norse mythology. Rick collaborated with illustrator John Rocco on two #1 New York Times best-selling collections of Greek myths for the whole family: Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods and Percy Jackson’s Greek Heroes. Rick is also the publisher of an imprint at Disney-Hyperion\, Rick Riordan Presents\, dedicated to finding other authors of highly entertaining fiction based on world cultures and mythologies. \nDon’t wait – RSVP early to guarantee your spot in this webinar. Rick’s presentations are always the best. and sell out early. \nPlease note: Ticket includes a SIGNED copy of Daughter of the Deep and a commemorative t-shirt (while supplies last). T-shirts are one size: XL child/Small adult URL:https://litseen.com/event/rick-riordan-2/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/rick.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211007T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20211007T190000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210805T033716Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210805T033716Z UID:64938-1633629600-1633633200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Gary Paulsen\, How to Train Your Dad DESCRIPTION:Bookshop Santa Cruz is delighted to welcome acclaimed and bestselling author Gary Paulsen for a virtual event celebrating his new middle grade novel\, How to Train Your Dad. \nRegister for this free Crowdcast event by clicking here!\nThe featured book will be published on October 5th and is available for preorder below. \nFrom the legendary author of Hatchet\, a laugh-out-loud eco-friendly adventure about a boy\, his free-thinking dad\, and the puppy-training pamphlet that turns their summer upside down. \nTwelve-year-old Carl is fed up with his father’s single-minded pursuit of an off-the-grid existence. His dad may be brilliant\, but dumpster-diving for food\, scouring through trash for salvageable junk\, and wearing clothes fully sourced from garage sales is getting old. Increasingly worried about what schoolmates and a certain girl at his new school might think of his circumstances–and encouraged by his off-kilter best friend–Carl adopts the principles set forth in a randomly discovered puppy-training pamphlet to “retrain” his dad’s mindset . . . a crackpot experiment that produces some very unintentional results. \nThis is a fierce and funny novel about family\, green-living\, and untangling some of the ties that bind from middle-grade master Gary Paulsen. \nGary Paulsen is the winner of the ALA Margaret Edwards Award for his contribution to young adult literature\, and is a three-time Newbery Honor winner\, for Hatchet\, Dogsong\, and The Winter Room. His books have sold more than 35 million copies. He lives in New Mexico. URL:https://litseen.com/event/gary-paulsen-how-to-train-your-dad/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/gary-paulsen-750-copy.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210928T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210928T190000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210805T040725Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210805T040725Z UID:64965-1632852000-1632855600@litseen.com SUMMARY:Joanna Ho DESCRIPTION:RSVP\n\n\n\n\nThis is an online event \nJoin us to celebrate the launch of Joanna Ho’s beautiful new picture book\, Playing at the Border: A Story of Yo-Yo Ma\, a poignant picture book biography about the musician Yo-Yo Ma\, immigration\, and using music to build bridges \n\n\n\n\nJoanna Ho’s lyrical writing and Teresa Martinez’s vibrant art weave together to tell an inspiring story of Yo-Yo Ma\, who challenges conventions\, expectations\, and beliefs in order to build bridges to unite communities\, people\, and cultures. \nBefore Yo-Yo Ma became one of the most renowned and celebrated cellists\, he wanted to play the double bass. But it was too big for his four-year-old hands. Over time\, Ma honed his amazing talent\, and his music became a reflection of his own life between borders\, cultures\, disciplines\, and generations. \nSince then\, he has recorded over a hundred albums\, won nineteen Grammy Awards\, performed for eight American presidents\, and received the National Medal of the Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom\, just to name a few accomplishments. \nStaying true to himself\, Yo-Yo Ma performed at the US-Mexico border at the Rio Grande on April 13\, 2019\, as part of his multi-continent “Bach Project” tour to prove a point—through music\, we can build bridges rather than walls between different cultures. \nJoanna Ho is the author f the New York Times bestselling Eyes that Kiss in the Corners and  is passionate about anti-bias/anti-racism\, equity and inclusion in books and education. She has a Master’s in Educational Leadership from UC Berkeley and has worn many hats in education including: English teacher\, dean\, and a teacher professional development mastermind. She is currently the vice principal of a high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. Homemade chocolate chip cookies\, outdoor adventures\, and dance parties with her kids make Joanna’s eyes crinkle into crescent moons. \nJoin us and discover the pleasure of a timely and timeless story that honors immigrants and inspires action. “Everyone can benefit from Ho’s message of music bringing calm and peace to the world” Booklist URL:https://litseen.com/event/joanna-ho/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/JoannaHo_authorphoto1.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210923T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210923T190000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210805T035721Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210805T040138Z UID:64957-1632420000-1632423600@litseen.com SUMMARY:Max Chafkin on Thiel's Pursuit of Power DESCRIPTION:RSVP \n“Whether you admire him or fear him\, Peter Thiel’s influence has been undeniable. In this deeply reported and gripping biography\, Max Chafkin reveals the lessons behind Thiel’s rise. It offers essential insights for anyone who wants to understand what Silicon Valley’s global ascendance has wrought—and it’s a really great read.”—Charles Duhigg\, author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better \nFew have done more to shape Silicon Valley than Peter Thiel. The billionaire venture capitalist and entrepreneur has been a behind-the-scenes operator influencing countless aspects of the contemporary way of life\, from technologies we use daily to the delicate power dynamic between Silicon Valley\, Wall Street\, and Washington. Despite his power and the ubiquity of his projects\, no public figure is quite so mysterious. \nIn the first major biography of Peter Thiel\, Bloomberg reporter Max Chafkin traces the trajectory of the tech giant’s life and worldview\, including his upbringing as the child of immigrant parents\, his years at Stanford as a conservative thought leader\, the founding of PayPal and Palantir\, early investment in Facebook and SpaceX\, and his relationships with fellow tech titans Mark Zuckerberg\, Elon Musk\, and Eric Schmidt. The Contrarian shows the extent to which Thiel has spread his values to corridors of power far beyond Silicon Valley\, including funding the lawsuit that destroyed the blog Gawker and strenuously backing far-right political candidates—notably Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. \nIn conversation with Emily Chang\, the Emmy-award winning business journalist and a Bloomberg anchor you may recognize from her cameo appearances on HBO’s Silicon Valley\, Chafkin shares the insights from this deeply reported biography. Tune in for the eye-opening view of a business leader whose rise\, like the rise of Silicon Valley\, has proven both thrilling and fraught with controversy. How well do you know the leaders of the digital age? \n*We encourage you to join with a book or donation to support the production of this event and make it possible for us to continue bringing you great conversations. URL:https://litseen.com/event/max-chafkin-on-thiels-pursuit-of-power/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/KLFSMSqChafkinSept2021.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210922T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210922T190000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210805T034036Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210805T034036Z UID:64941-1632333600-1632337200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Jewell Parker Rhodes\, Paradise on Fire DESCRIPTION:FREE VIRTUAL EVENT: Bookshop welcomes award-winning and bestselling author Jewell Parker Rhodes for an online event celebrating her new book\, Paradise on Fire\, a powerful coming-of-age survival tale exploring issues of race\, class\, and climate change. Rhodes will be in-conversation with Samira Ahmed\, author of the new middle grade novel Amira & Hamza: The War to Save the Worlds. \nRegister for this free Crowdcast event by clicking here. \nParadise on Fire will be published on September 14th and Amira & Hamza: The War to Save the Worlds will be published on September 21st. Both books are available for preorder below. \nAddy is haunted by the tragic fire that killed her parents\, leaving her to be raised by her grandmother. Now\, years later\, Addy’s grandmother has enrolled her in a summer wilderness program. There\, Addy joins five other Black city kids—each with their own troubles—to spend a summer out west. \nDeep in the forest the kids learn new (and to them) strange skills: camping\, hiking\, rock climbing\, and how to start and safely put out campfires. Most important\, they learn to depend upon each other for companionship and survival. \nBut then comes a devastating forest fire… \nAddy is face-to-face with her destiny and haunting past. Developing her courage and resiliency against the raging fire\, it’s up to Addy to lead her friends to safety. Not all are saved. But remembering her origins and grandmother’s teachings\, she’s able to use street smarts\, wilderness skills\, and her spiritual intuition to survive. \nJewell Parker Rhodes is the author of Ninth Ward\, winner of a Coretta Scott King Honor; Sugar\, winner of the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award; and the New York Times-bestselling Ghost Boys; as well as Bayou Magic; Towers Falling; Black Brother\, Black Brother; and Paradise on Fire. She has written many award-novels for adults\, including\, Magic City\, a novel about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. Jewell is the Virginia G. Piper Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at Arizona State University. \nSamira Ahmed is the New York Times bestselling author of Love\, Hate\, & Other Filters and Internment. She was born in Bombay\, India\, and has lived in New York\, Chicago\, and Kauai\, where she spent a year searching for the perfect mango. She currently resides in the Midwest. Find her online at samiraahmed.com and on Twitter and Instagram @sam_aye_ahm. URL:https://litseen.com/event/jewell-parker-rhodes-paradise-on-fire/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/jewell-parker-rhodes-750-copy.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210908T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210908T200000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210805T034306Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210805T122616Z UID:64944-1631127600-1631131200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Sandra Cisneros\, Martita\, I Remember You DESCRIPTION:Bookshop Santa Cruz is delighted to welcome acclaimed and bestselling author Sandra Cisneros for a ticketed online event celebrating her new book\, Martita\, I Remember You / Martita\, te recuerdo. \nTickets for this special event will go on sale soon. \nA long-forgotten letter sets off a charged encounter with the past in this poignant and gorgeously told tale masterfully told by Sandra Cisneros\, the celebrated bestselling author of The House on Mango Street\, in a beautiful dual-language edition. \nAs a young woman\, Corina leaves her Mexican family in Chicago to pursue her dream of becoming a writer in the cafes of Paris. Instead\, she spends her brief time in the City of Light running out of money and lining up with other immigrants to call home from a broken pay phone. But her months of befriending panhandling artists in the subway\, sleeping on crowded attic floors\, and dancing the tango at underground parties are given a lasting glow by her intense friendships with Martita and Paola. Over the years the three women disperse to three continents\, falling out of touch and out of mind—until a letter unearthed in a closet brings Corina’s days in Paris back with breathtaking immediacy. \nTold with intimacy and searing tenderness\, this tribute to the life-changing power of youthful friendship is Cisneros at her vintage best\, in a beautiful dual-language edition. \nSandra Cisneros is a poet\, short story writer\, novelist\, essayist\, performer\, and artist whose work explores the lives of the working-class. Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction\, a MacArthur Fellowship\, several honorary doctorates\, and national and international book awards\, including Chicago’s Fifth Star Award\, the PEN America Literary Award\, and the National Medal of Arts. Most recently\, she received the Ford Foundation’s Art of Change Fellowship\, was recognized among the Frederick Douglass 200\, and won the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. In addition to her writing\, Cisneros has fostered the careers of many aspiring and emerging writers through two nonprofits she founded: the Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation. She is also the organizer of Los MacArturos\, Latino MacArthur fellows who are community activists. URL:https://litseen.com/event/sandra-cisneros-martita-i-remember-you/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/sandra-cisneros-750-copy.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210819T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210819T190000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210805T035506Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210805T035506Z UID:64954-1629396000-1629399600@litseen.com SUMMARY:Nicole Stott with Kishore Hari DESCRIPTION:RSVP \n“Nicole’s wonderful book maps her extraordinary journey from Earth to space and back again. She teaches us how to see our world as the spaceship it really is\, and how important it is to take great care of the round blue vehicle in which we all ride.” \n— Peter Gabriel\, musician and humanitarian \nWhen NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott first saw the Earth from space\, she was filled with awe. Our shared home was a brilliant blue marble\, with a razor thin atmosphere protecting billions of people\, including everyone she loved. She realized that we are all bound together on this fragile planet. When she came back to earth\, she knew she had to share this vision to help protect it. \nIn conversation with Kishore Hari on October 19 for an event in our 2021 climate series\, Nicole shares awe-inspiring stories from both on the Earth’s surface and far\, far above it. She mines the experiences of environmental scientists\, advocates for clean water and climate action\, and leaders from all walks of life\, all while sharing her stories from spaceflight to create a roadmap to a better world. \nStott sees the real possibility of big\, sweeping change on Earth that could help us combat the world’s problems\, from the climate crisis to inequality. But to achieve change\, she says\, we can’t just be passive passengers. Every single one of us has to take up the responsibilities of a crewmember on a spaceflight as we turn our attention to protecting the imperiled planet. \nAt Kepler’s\, we feel starry-eyed to host this accomplished and inspiring author online for readers this Tuesday\, October 19! We recommend this conversation for all ages—so strap on your flight suit\, and join us for an amazing evening with Astronaut Nicole Stott. \n*We encourage you to join with a book or donation to support the production of this event and make it possible for us to continue bringing you great conversations. URL:https://litseen.com/event/nicole-stott-with-kishore-hari/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/KLFSMSqStottHariOct2021.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210812T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210812T200000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210805T034622Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210805T034622Z UID:64947-1628794800-1628798400@litseen.com SUMMARY:Omar El Akkad\, What Strange Paradise DESCRIPTION:Writer and journalist Omar El Akkad\, author of the acclaimed book American War\, will be in conversation with Lauren Markham about his new book What Strange Paradise\, a beautifully written and profoundly moving novel that brings the global refuge crisis down to the level of a child’s eyes.  “It is one thing to put a human face on a migrant crisis and another to do so in so compelling a way that a reader simply cannot put your book down.” —Gish Jen\, author of The Resisters \nRegister for this free Crowdcast event by clicking here! \nMore bodies have washed up on the shores of a small island. Another overfilled\, ill-equipped\, dilapidated ship has sunk under the weight of its too many passengers: Syrians\, Ethiopians\, Egyptians\, Lebanese\, Palestinians\, all of them desperate to escape untenable lives in their homelands. And only one has made the passage: nine-year-old Amir\, a Syrian boy who has the good fortune to fall into the hands not of the officials but of Vänna: a teenage girl\, native to the island\, who lives inside her own sense of homelessness in a place and among people she has come to disdain. And though she and the boy are complete strangers\, though they don’t speak a common language\, she determines to do whatever it takes to save him. \nIn alternating chapters\, we learn the story of the boy’s life and of how he came to be on the boat; and we follow the girl and boy as they make their way toward a vision of safety. But as the novel unfurls we begin to understand that this is not merely the story of two children finding their way through a hostile world\, it is the story of our collective moment in this time: of empathy and indifference\, of hope and despair—and of the way each of those things can blind us to reality\, or guide us to a better one. \n\nOMAR EL AKKAD is an author and a journalist. He has reported from Afghanistan\, Guantánamo Bay\, and many other locations around the world. His work earned Canada’s National Newspaper Award for Investigative Journalism and the Goff Penny Award for young journalists. His writing has appeared in The Guardian\, Le Monde\, Guernica\, GQ\, and many other newspapers and magazines. His debut novel\, American War\, is an international bestseller and has been translated into thirteen languages. It won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award\, the Oregon Book Award for fiction\, and the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize\, and has been nominated for more than ten other awards. It was listed as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times\, The Washington Post\, GQ\, NPR\, and Esquire\, and was selected by the BBC as one of 100 Novels That Shaped Our World. \nLAUREN MARKHAM is a writer based in California whose work has appeared in outlets such as Guernica\, Harper’s\, Lithub\, Best American Travel Writing\, The New Republic\, The New York Review of Books\, The New York Times Magazine\, and VQR\, where she is a contributing editor. Lauren is the author of The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life\, which was awarded the Northern California Book Award\, The California Book Award Silver Medal\, and the Ridenhour Prize. In addition to writing\, she works at a high school for newcomer youth in Oakland\, California that she helped found in 2007. URL:https://litseen.com/event/omar-el-akkad-what-strange-paradise/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/omar-el-akkad-750-copy.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210810T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210810T190000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210805T034928Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210805T034928Z UID:64950-1628618400-1628622000@litseen.com SUMMARY:Jessamyn Stanley\, Yoke DESCRIPTION:VIRTUAL EVENT: Bestselling author and staff favorite Jessamyn Stanley (Every Body Yoga) will join us online to discuss her new book\, Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance\, available to order below. Stanley will be in conversation with the amazing Nicole Steward of Love Ethic Yoga. \n“Beloved body-positive yogi Jessamyn Stanley speaks on the everyday trials of self-love and spiritual upkeep in Yoke\, her follow-up to Every Body Yoga\, which gained her a huge Internet following of those who resonate with her wellness-based practice. In this collection of uplifting\, honest\, wise\, and often funny essays\, Stanley navigates the spiritual\, sexual\, and racial intersections of her yoga-filled life.” —Juj\, Bookshop bookseller \nRegister for this free Crowdcast event here! \nFinding self-acceptance both on and off the mat. \nIn Sanskrit\, yoga means to “yoke.” To yoke mind and body\, movement and breath\, light and dark\, the good and the bad. This larger idea of “yoke” is what Jessamyn Stanley calls the yoga of the everyday–a yoga that is not just about perfecting your downward dog but about applying the hard lessons learned on the mat to the even harder daily project of living. \nIn a series of deeply honest\, funny autobiographical essays\, Jessamyn explores everything from imposter syndrome to cannabis to why it’s a full-time job loving yourself\, all through the lens of yoke. She calls out an American yoga complex that prefers debating the merits of cotton versus polyblend leggings rather than owning up to its overwhelming Whiteness. She questions why the Western take on yoga so often misses–or misuses–the tradition’s spiritual dimension. And reveals what she calls her own “whole-ass problematic” Growing up Baháí\, loving astrology\, learning to meditate\, finding prana in music. \nAnd in the end\, Jessamyn invites every reader to find the authentic spirit of yoke–linking that good and that bad\, that light and that dark. \nJessamyn Stanley is the author of Every Body Yoga and Yoke and an internationally acclaimed voice in wellness\, highly sought after for her insights on 21st-century yoga and intersectional identity. She is the founder of The Underbelly\, an inclusive wellness community and streaming app\, cohost of the podcast Dear Jessamyn\, and cofounder of We Go High\, a North Carolina based cannabis justice initiative. She is a regular contributor to SELF magazine and has been featured in the New York Times\, Vogue\, and Sports Illustrated. URL:https://litseen.com/event/jessamyn-stanley-yoke/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/jessamyn-stanley-yoke-750-copy.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210808T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210808T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210731T213435Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210731T213435Z UID:64670-1628447400-1628460000@litseen.com SUMMARY:San Jose Poetry Slam Zoom Slam feat Deonte Osayande! DESCRIPTION:Poetry Center San Jose presents The San Jose Poetry Slam Zoom Edition featuring Deonte Osayande\nCome join us for Poetry from the comfort of your own home.\nSunday August 8\nRoom opens at 6:30 pm (California time)\nSign up list will be open from 6:30 to 7pm\nSlam starts at 7\nWe are on Pacific Standard time\, that is 3 hours earlier than east coast time and 3 hours ahead of Hawaii.\nThis is a free event.\nHosted by Scorpiana Xlent\nCash prizes for 1st\, 2nd\, and 3rd place.\nRegister through Eventbrite:\nhttps://www.eventbrite.com/…/san-jose-poetry-slam-zoom…\nIf you have never been to a Poetry Slam before\, a poetry slam is a competition\, imagine spoken word poetry as an olympic sport. The rules are simple:1) Poets must use their own poems. 2) poet must use only one poem per round. 3) no musical accompianment. 4)no props. 5) there is a time limit of 3 minutes and 10 seconds. going over that will result in a time penalty.\nThis is a two round slam\, poets with the highest scores will move up to round two.\nYou can sign up to compete via the chatbox in the zoom room.\nIf you’re not competing\, we could use judges.\nOur feature will be Deonte Osayande!\nDeonte Osayande is a writer from Detroit\, Mi. His nonfiction and poetry have been nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology\, the Pushcart Prize and he’s had a book nominated for a Digital Book Award. He has represented Detroit at four National Poetry Slam competitions. He’s currently a professor of English at Wayne County Community College. His books include Class (Urban Farmhouse Press\, 2017)\, Circus (Brick Mantle Books\, 2018) and Civilian (Urban Farmhouse Press\, 2019). He also managed the Rustbelt Midwest Regional Poetry Slam and Festival for 2014 and 2018.\n\nTo order a copy of Deonte’s newest chapbook “Recipe For The Poet” https://www.finishinglinepress.com/…/recipe-for-the…/… URL:https://litseen.com/event/san-jose-poetry-slam-zoom-slam-feat-deonte-osayande/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/San-Jose-Poetry-Slam-Zoom-Slam-feat-Deonte-Osayande-.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210807T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210807T130000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210731T213608Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210731T213619Z UID:64673-1628334000-1628341200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Beautiful Black Books featuring Tolu Agbelusi! DESCRIPTION:Poetry Center San José presents its new program Beautiful Black Books featuring Tolu Agbelusi reading and in conversation with host Tshaka Campbell!\nTolu Agbelusi is the author of Locating Strongwoman (Jacaranda Books 2020). A Nigerian British poet\, playwright and educator\, her work has been published nationally and internationally. She was shortlisted for the 2018 White Review Poetry Prize and has performed widely including at Cheltenham Lit Festival\, Stanza International Poetry Festival\, Lagos International Poetry Festival & Poetry Africa. Founder of Home Sessions\, a poetry development program for Black poets\, she has created and led workshops at universities\, youth centres\, art organisations\, schools\, etc. For more information about her work\, visit www.ToluAgbelusi.com\nJoin Zoom Meeting\nhttps://us02web.zoom.us/j/81359770764…\nMeeting ID: 813 5977 0764\nPasscode: 376494\nOne tap mobile\n+16699009128\,\,81359770764#\,\,\,\,*376494# US (San Jose)\n+12532158782\,\,81359770764#\,\,\,\,*376494# US (Tacoma)\nDial by your location\n+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)\n+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)\n+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)\n+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)\n+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)\n+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)\nMeeting ID: 813 5977 0764\nPasscode: 376494\nFind your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbfzQeT6F0\nThis will be a recurring program featuring Black writers in conversation followed by a Q&A for an audience that will also include young writers of Santa Clara County and surrounding communities. Subjects of discussion will include sources of inspiration that were formative\, particularly the work of writers and poets.\nPoetry Center San José promotes and supports the literary arts in San José. Over the past four decades\, PCSJ has brought hundreds of exceptional writers from around the country to read from their works and\, in many cases\, to conduct workshops for local writers. PCSJ is a nonprofit organization established in 1978. Its base of operations is in the charming turn-of-the-century Victorian home where the renown poet Edwin Markham once lived\, now located in San Jose History Park. Since the Fall of 2000\, PCSJ has sponsored a series of readings by local poets throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Poetry Center San José is a member supported organization and is funded\, in part\, by grants from Applied Materials Foundation\, the City of San Jose’s Office of Cultural Affairs\, Poets & Writers\, Silicon Valley Community Foundation\, Silicon Valley Creates\, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara and the California Arts Council and generous giving from Anne & Mark’s Art Party. URL:https://litseen.com/event/beautiful-black-books-featuring-tolu-agbelusi/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Beautiful-Black-Books-featuring-Tolu-Agbelusi-.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210801T130000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210801T160000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210731T213839Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210731T213839Z UID:64676-1627822800-1627833600@litseen.com SUMMARY:Poets@Play! DESCRIPTION:After a long absence\, Poets@Play is returning! For those not familiar with it\, P@P is an informal writing group that meets at the Edwin Markham House at History Park\, which is operated by Poetry Center San José.\n\nWe plan to meet on the first Sunday afternoon of the month\, though there will be months when we do not meet\, or switch to another day. We take time to write and share whatever poetry we are working on. The option of coming to just listen is there also.\n\nWe are coming back with a cautious approach. We will be requiring masks for all attendees\, even those who have been fully vaccinated against SARS-Cov-2. Also we will be limiting this at first to only 7 attendees\, including the leader\, so that we can provide some level of social distancing. We will not be providing tea/coffee beverage service or snacks; you may bring your own if you wish.\n\nWe are making this by RSVP for now\, so that we can ensure the 7-person limit. The theme is open this time. You could choose to do some writing/revising about our pandemic experience of the past 16 months\, or select something else entirely.\n\nSunday\, August 1\, 2021\, 1 to 4 pm.\nPlease send a message to poetsatplay@pcsj.org if you would like to attend\, by Friday\, July 30. URL:https://litseen.com/event/poetsplay/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,In-person,South Bay ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Poets@Play.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210511T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210511T180000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210430T165007Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210430T165007Z UID:63773-1620756000-1620756000@litseen.com SUMMARY:This Is Now: Friendship in the Age of Loneliness DESCRIPTION:How do you make and keep friendships of a lifetime? Angie Coiro interviews Adam “Smiley” Poswolsky on Friendship in the Age of Loneliness. \n\n\nAbout this Virtual Event \n\n\nResearch has shown that people with close friends are happier\, healthier\, and live longer than people who lack strong social bonds. Despite this\, the average American hasn’t made a new friend in the past five years. \nWhy— when we are seemingly more connected than ever before— can it feel so difficult to create and maintain strong friendships? Why do we spend only four percent of our time with friends? \nMillennial workplace expert and friendship visionary Adam “Smiley” Poswolsky proposes a new solution for the mounting pressures of this modern life: focus on your friendships. \nIn an hour-long interview with journalist-in-residence Angie Coiro about Friendship in the Age of Loneliness\, this wonderful author offers practical habits and playful reminders on how to create meaningful connections\, make new friends\, and deepen relationships. Smiley will help you revisit your relationship with technology\, encourage you to prioritize real-world experiences\, send snail mail\, and really see your friends. In doing this\, he shares the key to a good life—a happier\, healthier\, longer\, richer life. URL:https://litseen.com/event/this-is-now-friendship-in-the-age-of-loneliness/ LOCATION:Kepler’s Books\, 1010 El Camino Real\, Menlo Park \, CA\, 94025\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/https___cdn.evbuc_.com_images_133100197_224845537920_1_original.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210429T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210429T200000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210424T221216Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210424T221216Z UID:63584-1619722800-1619726400@litseen.com SUMMARY:Imani Cezanne reading and in conversation with Tshaka Campbell DESCRIPTION:Co-sponsored by The Center for Literary Arts of San José \nonline on Zoom Join here at the time of the event! \nor join be phone +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)\nMeeting ID: 831 7139 8605 Passcode: 674247 \nImani Cezanne is a Black writer\, performer and tamale connoisseur living in Oakland\, CA. In March she became the 2020 Woman of the World Poetry Slam Champion for the second time and in July of the same year she was named a 2020 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship finalist. As a two time Pushcart Prize Nominee\, Imani has forthcoming work in Nimrod\, Fugue\, Red Wheelbarrow\, Crab Creek Review\, and POETRY magazine. While all are welcome to enjoy her work\, Imani writes for Black people\, Black readers and is committed to the liberation of all oppressed people. \nImani is a recipient of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s 2020 Writer’s Corp Teaching Artist in Residence Grant\, a $40\,000 award granted every year for three years to create spoken word poetry programming for the youth of San Francisco. Throughout her teaching career\, Imani has taught Creative Writing and Spoken Word in over 40 middle and high schools across the country\, using both a short and long-term residency models. Each lesson is designed to fit the needs of the students\, the length of the residency and meet intended learning outcomes. Imani has also coached poetry slam teams at San Francisco State University\, Mills College\, American University and Georgetown University. She is currently a Teaching Artist with YouthSpeaks\, SFJAZZ\, The Museum of African Diaspora and Performing Arts Workshop. This event will be moderated by Tshaka Campbell. \nTshaka Campbell is a husband and father as well as accomplished artist and performer. His appears in print and national commercials and he conducts lectures and facilitates workshops in creative writing and poetry. He was voted one of the 25 people to know in San Francisco\, holds two Grand Slam titles and was a finalist for the 2020 Santa Clara Poet Laureate honor. Tshaka is an author of “STUFF – I will write more “\, “MUTED WHISPERS” and “TUNNEL VISION as well as collaborated on a number of musical projects in the House\, Jazz and Blues genres. His literary work has appeared in journals and reviews such as 2 Bridges Review\, Tribe Magazine and others. He currently resides in San Jose and continues to ask the world to “Listen Different.” \n\n\n  URL:https://litseen.com/event/imani-cezanne-reading-and-in-conversation-with-tshaka-campbell/ LOCATION:online\, CA\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Imani-Cezanne-400.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210415T170000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210415T180000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210415T051238Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210415T051238Z UID:63121-1618506000-1618509600@litseen.com SUMMARY:On the Couch with Kelly! An Evening with Kelly Corrigan DESCRIPTION:On The Couch With Kelly! An Evening of Connection and Conversation \nKelly Tells Us More! Don’t miss out on an amazing virtual experience benefiting Compass High School\, a school serving students with learning differences\, in San Mateo\, California.  Join the conversation with Kelly\, as she discusses the connections and relationships that are so vital to everyday life.  You’ll laugh\, you’ll cry\, you’ll commiserate with this New York Times bestselling author.  Kelly will share insights from her newly released book\, Hello World!  Be among the first to hear about it.  So grab a drink\, curl up on your couch\, and settle in for an intimate conversation\, all in support of Compass High School’s Scholarship Fund. \n$50-$500. \nhttps://compasshigh.org/fundraiser/ office@compasshigh.org 650-720-4248 URL:https://litseen.com/event/on-the-couch-with-kelly-an-evening-with-kelly-corrigan/ LOCATION:Virtual CATEGORIES:South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Kelly-Corrigan-4.15-Event-Graphic-1536x994-1.png ORGANIZER;CN="Compass High School":MAILTO:office@compasshigh.org END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210318T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210318T200000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210315T022343Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210315T022343Z UID:62935-1616094000-1616097600@litseen.com SUMMARY:CLA Presents: Laila Lalami DESCRIPTION:What does it mean to be American? In this starkly illuminating and impassioned book\, Pulitzer Prize­­–finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen\, using it as a starting point for her exploration of the rights\, liberties\, and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. Tapping into history\, politics\, and literature\, she elucidates how accidents of birth—such as national origin\, race\, and gender—that once determined the boundaries of Americanness still cast their shadows today.\nLalami poignantly illustrates how white supremacy survives through adaptation and legislation\, with the result that a caste system is maintained that keeps the modern equivalent of white male landowners at the top of the social hierarchy. Conditional citizens\, she argues\, are all the people with whom America embraces with one arm and pushes away with the other.\nBrilliantly argued and deeply personal\, Conditional Citizens weaves together Lalami’s own experiences with explorations of the place of nonwhites in the broader American culture.\nLaila Lalami was born in Rabat and educated in Morocco\, Great Britain\, and the United States. She the author of four novels\, including ‘The Moor’s Account’\, which won the American Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize\, and ‘The Other Americans’\, which was a Los Angeles Times bestseller and a finalist for the National Book Award. Her essays and criticism have appeared in The Nation\, Harper’s\, the Washington Post\, and the New York Times. She has received fellowships from the British Council\, the Fulbright Program\, and the Guggenheim Foundation and is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of California at Riverside. She lives in Los Angeles. URL:https://litseen.com/event/cla-presents-laila-lalami-2/ LOCATION:online CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Laila-Lalami.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210316T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210316T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210204T191239Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210204T191239Z UID:62034-1615921200-1615928400@litseen.com SUMMARY:VIRTUAL EVENT: Robbie Arnott\, The Rain Heron DESCRIPTION:VIRTUAL EVENT: Award-winning Australian author Robbie Arnott will discuss The Rain Heron\, his gripping new novel of myth\, environment\, adventure\, and an unlikely friendship.  \nRegistration for this free Crowdcast event will begin soon. \nRen lives alone on the remote frontier of a country devastated by a coup d’état. High on the forested slopes\, she survives by hunting\, farming\, trading\, and forgetting the contours of what was once a normal life. But her quiet stability is disrupted when an army unit\, led by a young female soldier\, comes to the mountains on government orders in search of a legendary creature called the rain heron—a mythical\, dangerous\, form-shifting bird with the ability to change the weather. Ren insists that the bird is simply a story\, yet the soldier will not be deterred\, forcing them both into a gruelling quest. \n\nThis is a free event. The book may be purchased below. \nYou can make a donation to help support Bookshop Santa Cruz here. Thank you! \n“Superb descriptions of nature and weather\, of human emotion and animal instinct\, by Australian novelist Arnott evoke a landscape that is both startlingly immediate and mysteriously otherworldly: the perfect setting for a tense narrative of eco-disaster and fragile endurance. At once an urgent thriller and an elegiac fable\, this mesmerizing tale is as lyrical as it is suspenseful.” ―Kirkus Reviews URL:https://litseen.com/event/virtual-event-robbie-arnott-the-rain-heron/ CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/rain-heron.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210306T100000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20210410T120000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20210301T014642Z LAST-MODIFIED:20210301T014714Z UID:62423-1615024800-1618056000@litseen.com SUMMARY:Using Invented and Foreign Languages as Tools for World Building: A Fiction Workshop with Rita Bullwinkel DESCRIPTION:A dynamic Fiction Workshop facilitated by author\, Rita Bullwinkel. This workshop will be held every Saturday 10 AM – 12 PM from Mar 6 – Apr 10.\n\nCLA WRITERS WORKSHOPS are open to individuals of all backgrounds–including those who are exploring creative writing for the first time–as well as aspiring writers who want to prepare their work for publication. Workshops are modeled on graduate-level creative writing courses\, and may include short in-class writing assignments to jumpstart the writing process\, as well as work outside of class that will entail reading the work of select published writers\, critiquing the work of other workshop participants\, and writing a piece to be workshopped by the class. Each participant will receive written comments from the instructor. Workshops are led by accomplished local authors\, including students and alumni of the San Jose State University Creative Writing Program.\nTuition $250 // Eventbrite\n\nCOURSE DESCRIPTION:\nOne of the big things that makes us\, as readers of fiction\, read on into a book is mystery and\, very often\, that mystery comes in the form of a word or idea we don’t yet understand. As a writer\, one way to rope your readers in is to deliberately use words that you know your audience might not understand\, and then\, through context\, teach your readers the meaning of those words. This is a tool used frequently in fantasy as well as literary writing. In this workshop we will explore several examples of this invaluable literary tool and learn how we can best deploy this strategy in our own fiction.\nRita Bullwinkel is the author of the story collection Belly Up\, which won the 2018 Believer Book Award. Bullwinkel’s writing has been published in Tin House\, The White Review\, Conjunctions\, BOMB\, Vice\, NOON\, and Guernica. She is a recipient of grants and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony\, Brown University\, Vanderbilt University\, Hawthornden Castle\, and The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Both her fiction and translation have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. She is an Editor at Large for McSweeney’s and a Contributing Editor for NOON. She lives in San Francisco and teaches at the California College of the Arts. URL:https://litseen.com/event/using-invented-and-foreign-languages-as-tools-for-world-building-a-fiction-workshop-with-rita-bullwinkel/ LOCATION:online CATEGORIES:Classes and Workshops,South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/142308044_4217588954936449_3219415922055430691_o.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201112T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20201112T190000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20201026T191700Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201026T191700Z UID:60485-1605207600-1605207600@litseen.com SUMMARY:Ling Ma DESCRIPTION:THE EVENT: \nThe Center for Literary Arts is pleased to present Ling Ma\, author of Severance\, on Thursday\, November 12\, 2020 at 7PM. ​ \nThe event discussion will be moderated by Jiayang Fan. \nJiayang Fan became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 2016. Her reporting on China\, American politics\, and culture has appeared in the magazine and on newyorker.com since 2010. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMaybe it’s the end of the world\, but not for Candace Chen\, a millennial\, first-generation American and office drone meandering her way into adulthood in Ling Ma’s offbeat\, wryly funny\, apocalyptic satire\, Severance. \n\nCandace Chen\, self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower\, is so devoted to routine that she barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies halt operations. The subways squeak to a halt. Her bosses enlist her as part of a dwindling skeleton crew with a big end-date payoff. Soon entirely alone\, still unfevered\, she photographs the eerie\, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost. \n\nA send-up and takedown of the rituals\, routines\, and missed opportunities of contemporary life\, Ling Ma’s Severance is a moving family story\, a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale\, and a hilarious\, deadpan satire. Most important\, it’s a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive. \n\n\nTHE BOOK: \n\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \nTHE AUTHOR: \n\n\nLing Ma received her MFA from Cornell University. Prior to graduate school she worked as a journalist and editor. Her writing has appeared in Granta\, Vice\, Playboy\, Chicago Reader\, Ninth Letter and elsewhere. A chapter of Severance received the 2015 Graywolf SLS Prize. She lives in Chicago. URL:https://litseen.com/event/ling-ma/ CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/image.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200519T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200519T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20200207T233804Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200207T233804Z UID:55715-1589914800-1589922000@litseen.com SUMMARY:Jennifer Ackerman\, The Bird Way at Bookshop Santa Cruz DESCRIPTION:This is an advanced event listing. Please check back for updated information\, or sign up for our events emails. \nThis free event will take place at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Chairs for open seating are usually set up about an hour before the event begins. If you have any ADA accommodation requests\, please email info@bookshopsantacruz.com by May 17th. \n\nFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds\, a radical investigation into the bird way of being\, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds — how they live and how they think. \n“There is the mammal way and there is the bird way.” This is one scientist’s pithy distinction between mammal brains and bird brains: two ways to make a highly intelligent mind. But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring\, and lately\, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors they have\, for years\, dismissed as anomalies or mysteries. What they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives\, how they communicate\, forage\, court\, breed\, survive. They’re also revealing the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities\, abilities we once considered uniquely our own–deception\, manipulation\, cheating\, kidnapping\, infanticide\, but also\, ingenious communication between species\, cooperation\, collaboration\, altruism\, culture\, and play. \nSome of these extraordinary behaviors are biological conundrums that seem to push the edges of–well–birdness: A mother bird that kills her own infant sons\, and another that selflessly tends to the young of other birds as if they were her own. Young birds that devote themselves to feeding their siblings and others so competitive they’ll stab their nestmates to death. Birds that give gifts and birds that steal\, birds that dance or drum\, that paint their creations or paint themselves\, birds that build walls of sound to keep out intruders and birds that summon playmates with a special call–and may hold the secret to our own penchant for playfulness and the evolution of laughter. \nDrawing on personal observations\, the latest science\, and her bird-related travel around the world\, from the tropical rainforests of eastern Australia and the remote woodlands of northern Japan\, to the rolling hills of lower Austria and the islands of Alaska’s Kachemak Bay\, Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect\, in plumage\, form\, song\, flight\, lifestyle\, niche\, and behavior\, birds vary. It’s what we love about them. As E.O Wilson once said\, when you have seen one bird\, you have not seen them all. \nJennifer Ackerman has been writing about science and nature for three decades. She is the author of eight books\, including The Genius of Birds\, which has been translated into twenty languages and the forthcoming The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk\, Work\, Play\, Parent\, and Think. Her articles and essays have appeared in Scientific American\, National Geographic\, The New York Times\, and many other publications\, Ackerman is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Nonfiction\, a Bunting Fellowship\, and a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. URL:https://litseen.com/event/jennifer-ackerman-the-bird-way-at-bookshop-santa-cruz/ LOCATION:Bookshop Santa Cruz\, 1520 Pacific Ave\, Santa Cruz \, CA\, 95060\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200512T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200512T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20200207T233540Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200207T233540Z UID:55712-1589311800-1589317200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Poetry Santa Cruz: Francesca Bell and Len Anderson DESCRIPTION:Join Poetry Santa Cruz at Bookshop Santa Cruz for a poetry reading featuring local poets and authors. This month’s event will feature Francesca Bell and Len Anderson. \nPoetry Santa Cruz is dedicated to nurturing the poetry community and bringing poetry to the larger community in Santa Cruz County. They present poetry readings at Bookshop Santa Cruz and other locations in Santa Cruz County\, and the Poet/Speak open reading. They also provide free information on other poetry-related events in the area. Poetry Santa Cruz is grateful for the support of its members and donors\, especially a most generous bequest from co-founder and former board member Tillie Washburn Shaw. URL:https://litseen.com/event/poetry-santa-cruz-francesca-bell-and-len-anderson/ LOCATION:Bookshop Santa Cruz\, 1520 Pacific Ave\, Santa Cruz \, CA\, 95060\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200506T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200506T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20200207T233219Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200207T233219Z UID:55709-1588791600-1588798800@litseen.com SUMMARY:C Pam Zhang\, How Much of These Hills is Gold at Bookshop Santa Cruz DESCRIPTION:This is an advanced event listing. Please check back for updated information\, or sign up for our events emails. \nThis free event will take place at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Chairs for open seating are usually set up about an hour before the event begins. If you have any ADA accommodation requests\, please email info@bookshopsantacruz.com by May 4th. \nAn electric debut novel set against the twilight of the American gold rush\, two siblings are on the run in an unforgiving landscape–trying not just to survive but to find a home. \nBa dies in the night; Ma is already gone. Newly orphaned children of immigrants\, Lucy and Sam are suddenly alone in a land that refutes their existence. Fleeing the threats of their western mining town\, they set off to bury their father in the only way that will set them free from their past. Along the way\, they encounter giant buffalo bones\, tiger paw prints\, and the specters of a ravaged landscape as well as family secrets\, sibling rivalry\, and glimpses of a different kind of future. \nBoth epic and intimate\, blending Chinese symbolism and re-imagined history with fiercely original language and storytelling\, How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a haunting adventure story\, an unforgettable sibling story\, and the announcement of a stunning new voice in literature. On a broad level\, it explores race in an expanding country and the question of where immigrants are allowed to belong. But page by page\, it’s about the memories that bind and divide families\, and the yearning for home. \nBorn in Beijing but mostly an artifact of the United States\, C Pam Zhang has lived in thirteen cities across four countries and is still looking for home. She’s been awarded support from Tin House\, Bread Loaf\, Aspen Words and elsewhere\, and currently lives in San Francisco. \n“[An] extraordinary debut. . . Gorgeously written and fearlessly imagined\, Zhang’s awe-inspiring novel introduces two indelible characters whose odyssey is as good as the gold they seek.” —Publishers Weekly\, starred review \n“C Pam Zhang’s debut is ferocious\, dark and gleaming\, a book erupting out of the interstices between myth and dream\, between longing and belonging. How Much of These Hills Is Gold tells us that stories–like people\, like the rough and stunning landscape of California itself–are constantly in the process of being made\, broken\, and finally remade into something tender and new.” –Lauren Groff\, New York Times-bestselling author of Fates and Furies \n“A haunting\, riveting and truly remarkable debut. Zhang writes with the clear-eyed lucidity of ancient myth-makers whose eyes are attuned to the vicissitudes of nature and humanity.”–Chigozie Obioma\, author of Booker Prize finalist An Orchestra of Minorities \n“A ravishingly written revisionist story of the making of the West\, C Pam Zhang’s debut is pure gold.” –Emma Donoghue\, author of Room URL:https://litseen.com/event/c-pam-zhang-how-much-of-these-hills-is-gold-at-bookshop-santa-cruz/ LOCATION:Bookshop Santa Cruz\, 1520 Pacific Ave\, Santa Cruz \, CA\, 95060\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200504T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200504T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20200207T232537Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200207T232537Z UID:55706-1588618800-1588626000@litseen.com SUMMARY:Ottessa Moshfegh\, Death in Her Hands at Bookshop Santa Cruz DESCRIPTION:From one of our most ceaselessly provocative literary talents\, a novel of haunting metaphysical suspense about an elderly widow whose life is upturned when she finds a cryptic note on a walk in the woods that ultimately makes her question everything about her new home. \nWhile on her normal daily walk with her dog in the nearby forest woods\, our protagonist comes across a note\, handwritten and carefully pinned to the ground with a frame of stones. Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body. Our narrator is deeply shaken; she has no idea what to make of this. She is new to this area\, having moved here from her longtime home after the death of her husband\, and she knows very few people. And she’s a little shaky even on her best days. Her brooding about this note quickly grows into a full-blown obsession\, and she begins to devote herself to exploring the possibilities of her conjectures about who this woman was and how she met her fate. Her suppositions begin to find echoes in the real world\, and with mounting excitement and dread\, the fog of mystery starts to form into a concrete and menacing shape. But as we follow her in her investigation\, strange dissonances start to accrue\, and our faith in her grip on reality weakens\, until finally\, just as she seems to be facing some of the darkness in her own past with her late husband\, we are forced to face the prospect that there is either a more innocent explanation for all this or a much more sinister one–one that strikes closer to home. \nA triumphant blend of horror\, suspense\, and pitch-black comedy\, Death in Her Hands asks us to consider how the stories we tell ourselves both guide us closer to the truth and keep us at bay from it. Once again\, we are in the hands of a narrator whose unreliability is well earned\, only this time the stakes have never been higher. \nOttessa Moshfegh is the author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation\, a New York Times bestseller; Homesick for Another World\, a New York Times Book Review notable book of the year; Eileen\, which was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize\, and won the PEN/Hemingway Award for debut fiction; and McGlue\, which won the Fence Modern Prize in Prose and the Believer Book Award. Her stories have earned her a Pushcart Prize\, an O. Henry Award\, the Plimpton Prize\, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. URL:https://litseen.com/event/ottessa-moshfegh-death-in-her-hands-at-bookshop-santa-cruz/ LOCATION:Bookshop Santa Cruz\, 1520 Pacific Ave\, Santa Cruz \, CA\, 95060\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200421T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200421T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20200204T030802Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200204T030802Z UID:55509-1587497400-1587502800@litseen.com SUMMARY:Veronica Roth with Charlie Jane Anders DESCRIPTION:Maybe you’re already familiar with Veronica Roth because you or someone you know reads her wildly popular YA\, including the #1 New York Times best-selling Divergent series. The talented and internationally known bestseller whose books have graced the silver screen visits in April with one of our favorite locals\, fantasy icon Charlie Jane Anders\, for something completely different. \nWhether you’re already a fan or a first-timer\, you’re going to love this. \nRoth visits to share a new fast-paced fantasy novel for adults that turns her razor-sharp wit on a strange trope in the genre: the fact that so many grown adults in fantasy stories rely on literal kids to save the world. Luke Skywalker\, Buffy Summers\, Greta Thunberg… no pressure\, kiddo! \nWhat happens to those kids? Chosen Ones follows the story of fated young heroes after they’re done saving the world\, and have to deal with the aftermath. Edgy\, riveting\, fun\, and a little dark… did you think the Harry Potter epilogue fell flat? This is the book you need. \nPart thriller\, fantasy and sci-fi\, Roth’s novel is the perfect read for people who know the fantasy genre “chosen ones” trope by heart\, and has already earned the glowing praise of readers like Blake Crouch and Diana Gabaldon. Meet the author and read it before everyone else on April 21st at Kepler’s. \n “This dark\, complex novel rocked my heart and left me with a renewed sense that saving the world is a job that never ends… You’ll never look at fantasy heroes the same way again.” —Charlie Jane Anders\, Hugo & Nebula Award winning author of The City in the Middle of the Night. \nIf you are a guest attending this event and require disability or comfort accommodations\, please contact events@keplers.org at your earliest possible convenience\, with at least two weeks’ notice for CART or ASL translation services. Please include the name and ticket type through which your seats were reserved\, the number of guests attending\, and complete information about the accommodations needed\, along with a contact number at which you can be reached. \nPhoto of Veronica Roth by Nelson Fitch. Photo of Charlie Jane Anders by Sarah Deragon\, Portraits to the People URL:https://litseen.com/event/veronica-roth-with-charlie-jane-anders/ LOCATION:Kepler’s Books\, 1010 El Camino Real\, Menlo Park \, CA\, 94025\, United States CATEGORIES:South Bay ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image-40.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200415T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200415T200000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20200204T033110Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200204T033110Z UID:55515-1586973600-1586980800@litseen.com SUMMARY:Roshani Chokshi: Aru Shah and the End of Time DESCRIPTION: Rick Riordan Presents (dedicated to providing entertaining middle grade fiction based on various world mythologies) with Aru Shah and the End of Time\, written by best-selling author Roshani Chokshi. It delves into Hindu mythology and is described as a mix of Riordan’s own Percy Jackson series and the Sailor Moon franchise. It’s an imaginative novel that puts girl power and diverse protagonists front and center. . \n“Have you ever read a book and thought\, Wow\, I wish I’d written that!?” said Riordan in the foreword. “For me\, Aru Shah and the End of Time is one of those books”. “It has everything I like: humor\, action\, great characters\, and\, of course\, awesome mythology!.” \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRoshani will be chatting about Aru Shah and the Tree of Life\, the third book in the Hindu-based\, best-selling Pandava series\, in which Aru and her cohorts\, Mini\, Brynne\, and Aiden—and now a pair of twins—each search the Otherworld for Kalpavriksha\, the wish-granting tree. \nWar between the devas and the demons is imminent\, and the Otherworld is on high alert. Fourteen-year-old Aru Shah and her friends are sent on a mission to rescue two “targets\,” one of whom is about to utter a prophecy that could mean the difference between victory and defeat. Turns out the targets\, a pair of twins\, are the newest Pandava sisters\, though the prophecy says that one sister is not true. When the Pandavas fail to prevent the prophecy from reaching the Sleeper’s ears\, the heavenly attendants ask them to step aside. Aru believes that the only way to put the shine back on their brand is to find the Kalpavriksha\, the wish-granting tree that came out of the Ocean of Milk when it was churned. If she can reach it before the Sleeper\, perhaps he can turn everything around with one wish. Careful what you wish for\, Aru . . . \nRoshani Chokshi is the author of the instant New York Times best-selling books in the Pandava series\, Aru Shah and the End of Time\, and its sequel\, Aru Shah and the Song of Death. She also wrote the New York Times best-selling YA books The Star-Touched Queen and The Gilded Wolves. She studied fairy tales in college\, and she has a pet luck dragon that looks suspiciously like a Great Pyrenees dog. The Pandava novels were inspired by the stories her grandmother told her as well as Roshani’s all-consuming love for Sailor Moon. URL:https://litseen.com/event/roshani-chokshi-aru-shah-and-the-end-of-time/ LOCATION:Kepler’s Books\, 1010 El Camino Real\, Menlo Park \, CA\, 94025\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image-42.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200414T080000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200414T170000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20200207T232113Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200207T232113Z UID:55701-1586851200-1586883600@litseen.com SUMMARY:Poetry Santa Cruz: Molly Fisk\, Fire and Rain at Bookshop Santa Cruz DESCRIPTION:Join Poetry Santa Cruz at Bookshop Santa Cruz for a poetry reading featuring local poets and authors. This month’s event will feature Molly Fisk\, editor of a new anthology of recent topical poetry by Californian authors titled “Fire and Rain”\, as well as several of the book’s poets. \nPoetry Santa Cruz is dedicated to nurturing the poetry community and bringing poetry to the larger community in Santa Cruz County. They present poetry readings at Bookshop Santa Cruz and other locations in Santa Cruz County\, and the Poet/Speak open reading. They also provide free information on other poetry-related events in the area. Poetry Santa Cruz is grateful for the support of its members and donors\, especially a most generous bequest from co-founder and former board member Tillie Washburn Shaw. URL:https://litseen.com/event/poetry-santa-cruz-molly-fisk-fire-and-rain-at-bookshop-santa-cruz/ LOCATION:Bookshop Santa Cruz\, 1520 Pacific Ave\, Santa Cruz \, CA\, 95060\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/poetry-santa-cruz-750-copy_0_1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200411T150000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200411T150000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20200410T220854Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200410T220854Z UID:56663-1586617200-1586617200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Virtual Poetry Reading DESCRIPTION:Poets Tess Taylor and Judy Halebsky read from their new collections–in a graveyard! Click here to watch the video of this reading. \n \n\n\n\nAbout Tess Taylor’s Rift Zone and Last West\nRift Zone\, Taylor’s much-anticipated third book traces literal and metaphoric fault lines–rifts between past and present\, childhood and adulthood\, what is and what was. Circling Taylor’s hometown–an ordinary California suburb lying along the Hayward fault–these poems unearth strata that include a Spanish land grant\, a bloody land grab\, gun violence\, valley girls\, strip malls\, redwood trees\, and the painful history of Japanese internment. \nTaylor’s ambitious and masterful poems read her home state’s historic violence against our world’s current unsteadinesses–mass eviction\, housing crises\, deportation\, inequality. They also ponder what it means to try to bring up children along these rifts. What emerges is a powerful core sample of America at the brink–an American elegy equally tuned to maternal and to geologic time. At once sorrowful and furious\, tender and fierce\, Rift Zone is startlingly observant\, relentlessly curious–a fearsome tremor of a book. \nIn Last West\, poet Tess Taylor follows Dorothea Lange’s winding paths across California during the Great Depression and in its immediate aftermath. On these journeys\, Lange photographed migrant laborers\, Dust Bowl refugees\, tent cities and Japanese American internment camps. Taylor’s hybrid text collages lyric and oral histories against Lange’s own journals and notebook fragments\, framing the ways social and ecological injustices of the past rhyme eerily with those of the present. The result is a stunning meditation on movement\, landscape and place. \n“Scintillatingly rendered by Taylor as conversation\, meditation\, road trip\, and vivid documentary account\, Last West tracks the not-so-distant past into the erupting present\, taking on as many poetic forms as there are California topographies.” -Forrest Gander\, Chancellor of the American Academy of Poets and winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry \nAbout Judy Halebsky’s Spring and a Thousand Years\nFinalist\, 2020 Miller Williams Poetry Prize\nA translator’s notebook\, an almanac\, an ecological history\, Judy Halebsky’s Spring and a Thousand Years (Unabridged) moves between multiple intersections and sign systems connected in a long glossary poem that serves as the book’s guide to what is lost\, erased\, or disrupted in transition both from experience to written word and from one language\, location\, and time period to another. \nWriters Li Bai\, Matsuo Bashō\, Sei Shōnagon\, and Du Fu make frequent appearances in centuries ranging from the eighth to the twenty-first\, and appear in conversation with Grace Paley\, Donald Hall\, and Halebsky herself\, as the poet explores subjects ranging from work and marriage to environmental destruction. Asking what would happen if these poets—not just their work—appeared in California\, the poems slip between different geographies\, syntaxes\, times\, and cultural frameworks. \nThe role of the literary translator is to bring text from one language into another\, working to at once shift and retain the context of the original—from one alphabet to another\, one point in time to another. These are poems in homage to translation; they rely on concepts that can bridge time and space\, and as a result are as likely to find meaning in donuts or Zumba as they are to find it in the ocean. Spring and a Thousand Years (Unabridged) finds reasons for hope not in how the world should be\, but in how it has always been. URL:https://litseen.com/event/virtual-poetry-reading/ CATEGORIES:South Bay,Virtual ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image-3.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200411T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200411T170000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20200216T053051Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200216T053051Z UID:55918-1586613600-1586624400@litseen.com SUMMARY:Dana Gioia and Phillis Levin DESCRIPTION:Dana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed poet and writer. Former California Poet laureate and Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts\, Gioia was born in Los Angeles of Italian and Mexican descent. The first person in his family to attend college\, he received a B.A. and M.B.A. from Stanford and an M.A. from Harvard in Comparative Literature. For fifteen years he worked as a businessman before quitting at forty-one to become a full-time writer. \nGioia has published five full-length collections of verse\, most recently 99 Poems: New & Selected (2016)\, which won the Poets’ Prize as the best new book of the year. His third collection\, Interrogations at Noon (2001)\, was awarded the American Book Award. His controversial book of essays\, Can Poetry Matter? (1992)\, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award. \nPhillis Levin is a poet\, essayist\, and editor. Her newest book\, Mr. Memory & Other Poems (Penguin Books\, 2016)\, was selected by Library Journal as one of the Top Picks in poetry for spring 2016 and was a finalist for The Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She is the author of four other poetry collections\, Temples and Fields (University of Georgia Press\, 1988)\, The Afterimage (Copper Beech Press\, 1995)\, Mercury (Penguin\, 2001)\, and May Day (Penguin\, 2008)\, and is the editor of The Penguin Book of the Sonnet: 500 Years of a Classic Tradition in English (2001). \nHer honors include the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award\, a Fulbright Scholar Award to Slovenia\, the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship\, a Bogliasco Fellowship\, and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. URL:https://litseen.com/event/dana-gioia-and-phillis-levin/ LOCATION:Mill Valley Public Library\, 375 Throckmorton Ave\, Mill Valley \, CA\, 94941\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image-62.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200407T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20200407T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T154015 CREATED:20200207T231553Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200207T231553Z UID:55696-1586286000-1586293200@litseen.com SUMMARY:Ellen Bass\, Indigo at Bookshop Santa Cruz DESCRIPTION:Indigo merges elegy and praise poem in an exploration of life’s complex grey areas. Whether her subject is oysters\, high heels\, a pork chop\, a beloved dog\, or a wife’s return to health\, Bass pulls us in with exquisite immediacy. Her lush and precisely observed descriptions allow us to feel the sheer primal pleasure of being alive in our own “succulent skin\,” the pleasure of the gifts of hunger\, desire\, touch. In this book\, joy meets regret\, devotion meets dependence\, and most importantly\, the poet so in love with life and living begins to look for the point where the price of aging overwhelms the rewards of staying alive. Bass is relentless in her advocacy for the little pleasures all around her. Her gaze is both expansive and hyperfocused\, celebrating (and eulogizing) each gift as it is given and taken\, while also taking stock of the larger arc. She draws the lines between generations\, both remembering her parents’ lives and deaths and watching her own children grow into the space that she will leave behind. Indigo shows us the beauty of this cycle\, while also documenting the deeply human urge to resist change and hang on to the life we have\, even as it attempts to slip away. \nEllen Bass is co-author of the best-selling The Courage to Heal\, which has sold more than one million copies and has been translated into nine languages. She has also published several volumes of poetry\, including The Human Line\, and her poems have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies\, including The Atlantic Monthly\, The New Yorker\, and The New Republic. A Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets\, she lives in Santa Cruz\, and teaches in the MFA program at Pacific University. \nThis free event will take place at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Chairs for open seating are usually set up about an hour before the event begins. If you have any ADA accommodation requests\, please email info@bookshopsantacruz.com by April 18th. URL:https://litseen.com/event/ellen-bass-indigo-at-bookshop-santa-cruz/ LOCATION:Bookshop Santa Cruz\, 1520 Pacific Ave\, Santa Cruz \, CA\, 95060\, United States CATEGORIES:Free,South Bay ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://litseen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/indigo-ellen-bass-750-copy.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR