The Curiosity of Chapbooks

Join five LA writers at the Campo de Cahuenga Museum in a discussion and reading exploring the unique art form of the chapbook. Whether fiction, poetry, or nonfiction, the chapbook offers a distinct means to share curiosities with an audience. Between short readings, the authors will discuss writing, process, and “what are” and “why” writers create chapbooks. The reading and discussion will be followed by a Q&A at the end. Authors will be available for book sales and signing after the reading and discussion.

Featured Authors:

Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera (she/her) is a Chicana Feminist and former Rodeo Queen, writes so the desert landscape of her childhood can be heard as loudly as the urban chaos of her adulthood. A former high school teacher, she earned an MFA at Antioch University and a PhD at USC. Her short stories have been anthologized and nominated for awards. She is the author of a YA novel, Breaking Pattern and a prose chapbook, Stories All Our Own. She is a Macondista and works for literary equity through Women Who Submit.

IG: @writertish | Press IG: @bottlecappress

Romaine Washington’s poetry is grounded in the personal experience of place and relationships; she has been nominated for Best of the Net and she is a twice-nominated Pushcart Prize poet. She is the editor of These Black Bodies Are… A Blacklandia Anthology, and two poetry books, Purgatory Has an Address and Sirens in Her Belly. She has presented her poetry in many programs, including Inside Socal CBS2/KCSL9, NPR, and KPFK. An educator for over 22 years, she is a writing coach and workshop facilitator for Inlandia.

Website: www.romainewashington.com | IG: @poetromaine

Aruni Wijesinghe is a project manager, ESL teacher, former sous chef and occasional belly dance instructor. She is a multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee with work published in Spillway, Cultural Daily, Redshift, a moon of one’s own, The Journal of Radical Wonder, MacQueen’s Quinterly, and elsewhere. Her published collections include 2 Revere Place, The Litany of Missing and Bedside Manners, The Undulating Line and God is a river running down my palm.

IG: @aruniwrites | Twitter: @aruniwrites |Website: www.aruniwrites.com

Lisa Eve Cheby, poet, librarian, and daughter of Hungarian immigrants, has been published in journals and anthologies including TAB: Journal of Poetics and Poetry, Santa Ana River Review, Exposition Review, So To Speak, Ruminate, Gathering, Drawn to Marvel, and Coiled Serpent. Her three chapbooks are available from Strikethrough Press. Lisa has been a writer in Residence at SAFTA’s Firefly Farms and Dorland Mountain Arts. She has been a participant in the Las Dos Brujas, Tin House, and Marge Piercy writing workshops, and is a member of Women Who Submit. Lisa holds an MFA from Antioch and an MLIS from San Jose State University.

Website: http://lisacheby.wordpress.com | IG: @lichee13

Lauren Eggert-Crowe is the author of four poetry chapbooks, including Bitches of the Drought, which was selected as runner-up in Sundress Publications Chapbook Competition, In The Songbird Laboratory, The Exhibit, and Rungs, collaboratively written with Margaret Bashaar.

Her essays, book reviews, and interviews have appeared in Salon, The Rumpus, The Millions, The Nervous Breakdown, Midnight Breakfast, Luna Luna, Angels Flight Literary West, and L.A. Review of Books. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in Sugar House Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Hobart, Black Warrior Review, and Sixth Finch, among others. She has been awarded residencies at Dorland Mountain Arts and Ragdale.

She serves on the leadership team for.

Ig: @dazzlecamouflage

We hope to see you there! Reception with light snacks & beverages to follow. Books will be available for sale.

This event is supported in part by Poets & Writers.

Host or Publisher Los Angeles Department of Recreation & Parks