Skirball Cultural Center Courses: Fall 2009 | Autobiography, Memoir, or Fiction

From their site:

Skirball Cultural Center - Courses: Fall 2009 | Autobiography, Memoir, or Fiction:

Autobiography, Memoir, or Fiction

Mondays, September 14-November 23 (no class September 28), 7:00-10:00 p.m. (10 sessions)

In a shared commitment to art education, the Skirball Cultural Center is pleased to partner with Otis College of Art and Design to bring art and writing classes to the Learning for Life program. Registration for this class occurs directly with Otis College; however, the class takes place at the Skirball.

In this dynamic writing workshop, students will uncover material for an autobiographical memoir or work of fiction from personal life experiences. The course urges students to move between the worlds of fiction and nonfiction to find their stories and voices. Through readings and workshop discussions, students will learn to mine their personal histories for subject matter and transform this raw material into a story. Students are taught the craft of writing, including how to invent and reinvent from memory, maintain perspective, render characters, construct dialogue, employ sensory detail and other strategies of description, and deal with issues of truth and integrity. Finished works may be a personal essay, a short story, a novella, or chapters of a memoir or novel.

Instructor: Martha Fuller has an MA in English literature from Claremont Graduate School, and earned her MFA in creative photography at California State University, Fullerton. Fuller is an exhibiting fine artist specializing in photography and artists' books. She has taught numerous courses in these subjects.

Poetry Reading, Valley Contermporary Poets Reading Series

September 20, 2009 at 3:00pm

This just in:

Valley Contemporary Poets Reading Series Presents:

Tony Barnstone
Kathleen Tyler

September 20, 2009
3:00 PM

Tarzana Community and Cultural Center
19130 Ventura Blvd, Tarzana CA 91356

Suggested donation $6.00

Tony Barnstone is The Albert Upton Professor of English Language and
Literature at Whittier College. His books of poems include The Golem of Los
Angeles (Red Hen Press, 2008, winner, Benjamin Saltman Award); Sad Jazz:
Sonnets (Sheep Meadow Press, 2005); and Impure: Poems by Tony Barnstone
(University Press of Florida, 1998), in addition to the chapbook Naked Magic
(Main Street Rag). He is also a distinguished translator of Chinese poetry
and literary prose and an editor of literary textbooks. Among his awards
are a fellowship from the NEA, a fellowship from the California Arts
Council, a Pushcart Prize in Poetry, and 1st place in in the 2008
Strokestown International Poetry Prize. His new book of poems, Tongue of
War: From Pearl Harbor to Nagasaki, won the John Ciardi Prize in Poetry, and
will be published by BKMK Press in 2009.


Kathleen Tyler lives in Los Angeles where she teaches English at a local
high school. Her publications include The Secret Box from Mayapple Press,
and My Florida from Backwaters Press. Her poems have appeared in numerous
journals including Visions International, Runes, Solo, Poetry Motel, Margie,
Seems, Cider Press Review, and others. She has been the featured reader at
many Southern California venues such as Beyond Baroque, Skylight Books,
Cobalt Café, World Stage, Venice Grind, and the Church in Ocean Park. A poem
from My Florida was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Most recently, a poem of
hers was a finalist in the 2009 dA Center for the Arts Prize.

Upcoming Readings

November 15, 2009 3pm

Imani Tolliver
Douglas Kearney

January 17, 2010 3pm

B.H. Fairchild
Suzanne Lummis

Vroman's Goodreads Book Swap

If you missed the Goodreads book swap at Book Soup, then why not check out the upcoming one at Vromans?
This just in:

Goodreads Bookswap
Saturday, October 17, 4pm - 6pm
Come join Goodreads and Vroman's for a book swap! Bring all your leftover summer reading or those books you thought you'd need for that class you didn't end up taking and leave with some great stuff to carry you through the fall. All leftover books will be donated to a local charity (http://www.upwardboundhouse.org).

There will be refreshments and plenty of room to mingle. This is a great chance to meet readers in your area and pick up something great to read, as well. This event will be held outside between Vroman’s and the Laemmle Theater.

For those in LA: Book Swap

Goodreads will be at Book Soup in West Hollywood for a book swap, plus the Kogi Taco Truck!

Ok, so let's get this straight. Books swapping. Hip bookstore. Good food. Donate leftover books to a local library? Sounds like the perfect event for readers and writers.

When: August 15th between 1 - 4 pm

From the Book Soup website :

Need something new to read?
Don't have the money to spend on a new book?
Would you rather spend your $$$ on a delicious taco?

Come to Book Soup on August 15th between
1 and 4pm - bring your well thumbed paperbacks and hardcovers + your appetite and participate in a GoodReads sponsored 'Book Swap'. Plus The Kogi Taco truck will be here selling their incredible food.

Free books and tacos!!!
Can you think of a better way to spend your afternoon?