Join Chevalier’s Books for its Monthly Literary Series, November 5th on Larchmont Boulevard

Please join Chevalier’s Books for its monthly Literary Series on November 5th, 2015 at 7:00 p.m.

Prepare for an evening of compelling stories and captivating poetry. Hosted by authors Rich Ferguson and Stephanie Barbé Hammer, the latest installment of Chevalier’s monthly Literary Series is sure to be a memorable event you won’t want to miss. Join Chevalier’s in welcoming the incredibly talented Amy Uyematsu, Marci Vogel, Steve Abee, and Wendy C. Ortiz for November. Chevalier’s will also be opening the stage to the audience, so if you have any writing you’d like to showcase, you are definitely encouraged to take part in the open mic sessions!

Amy Uyematsu is a sansei poet and teacher from Los Angeles. She has four published collections: The Yellow Door (Red Hen Press, 2015), Stone Bow Prayer (Copper Canyon Press, 2005), Nights of Fire, Nights of Rain (Story Line Press, 1998) and 30 Miles from J-Town (Story Line Press, 1992). Her first book won the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize and was runner-up in the Poetry Society of America’s 1993 Norma Ferber First Book Award. Amy was also co-editor of the widely used anthology, Roots: An Asian American Reader (UCLA, 1971). Recently retired, she taught high school math for 32 years at Grant, Granada Hills, and Venice High Schools.

Marci Vogel is the author of At the Border of Wilshire & Nobody, winner of the 2015 Howling Bird Press Poetry Prize. A native of Los Angeles, Vogel is a Provost’s Fellow in the PhD program in creative writing and literature at USC. Her poetry, translations, and essays appear in a variety of journals, including FIELD, ZYZZYVA, Poet Lore, Plume, Jacket2, and Drunken Boat. Vogel served as 2013-2014 poetry editor of Gold Line Press and has taught writing and literature in the honors program at USC and at Santa Monica College.

Steve Abee is the author of the novel Johnny Future, The Bus: Cosmic Ejaculations of the Daily Mind in Transit, and a collection of short stories and poems King Planet, plus a number of poetry chapbooks, most notably Die for Love and Vision to Los Angeles. He was born in Santa Monica, California and began writing after high school when he held a job as an orderly at St. John’s Hospital. Says Abee, “I saw the fragility and blessedness of lives and started to come apart in the wonderment of it all.” He holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree from Antioch University, Los Angeles and teaches American Literature in Downtown Los Angeles. He lives in the El Sereno with his wife and two kids.

Wendy C. Ortiz is the author of Excavation: A Memoir, Hollywood Notebook, and the forthcoming Bruja (2016). Her work has appeared in The New York Times, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Hazlitt, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and The Nervous Breakdown, among other places.

Chevalier’s writing prompt for this month is: “The storm over the Rockies” (from Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Tijuana Book of the Dead). If you are inspired to write a poem or flash-fiction piece based upon this prompt, be sure to bring it along with you. Or if you’re feeling uninspired, get your creativity flowing with some free performances!