SoCal Authors in Conversation: Barret Baumgart, Kate Maruyama, & More!
SoCal Authors in Conversation: Barret Baumgart, Kate Maruyama, Mike Sonksen & Desiree Zamorano
In the PRS Library!
On June 26, as part of YesterdayLA, we welcome four Southern California authors to the library at the PRS to have a conversation about their works, Southern California, and so much more!
About Alterations and Kate Maruyama:
Alterations is Maruyama’s first historical, literary fiction novel, although she is the author of several critically acclaimed horror books and is inspired by the “Boston Marriage” of one of her aunts in New England. Set in 1940’s LA, the novel tells the story of Adrianna, a seamstress at Paramount’s costume department, who falls in love with a bit player named Rose, who returns their affections. For the most part, their affair goes unnoticed, but as Adriana’s career blossoms, society and life begin to interfere. Fast forward to 1998, Adriana’s granddaughter Laura leaves LA to move in with her grandma Adrianna in Baltimore and a newly orphaned 13 year old relative. In this compelling literary family drama, three lives twine together in the past and the present.
Kate is deeply connected in the LA literary community and is a well-known and award winning horror writer although this is her first book of historical fiction. She teaches at Cal State LA and is also the author of The Collective (Writ Large Press 2023), Bleak Houses (RDS Press), Halloween Beyond A Gentleman's Suit (Crystal Lake Publishing) and Harrowgate (47North.) Her novella Family Solstice (Omnium Gatherum) was named Best Fiction Book of 2021 by Rue Morgue Magazine.
About Desiree Zamorano and Dispossessed:
Dispossessed traces the life of Manuel, a boy who is separated from his parents during the mass expulsion of Mexican Americans and Mexican nationals in Los Angeles during the 1930s. Désirée Zamorano was born and raised in Lynwood, California, a small town nestled between Compton and Los Angeles
About Mike Sonksen:
Mike Sonksen aka Mike the PoeT is a 3rd-generation Angeleno. Poet, professor, journalist, historian and tour-guide, his latest book Letters to My City was published by Writ Large Press. He’s written for KCET, Wax Poetics, LA Taco, LA Review of Books, Boom and the Academy of American Poets. His poetry’s been featured on KCRW, KPCC & KPFK & Spectrum News. Sonksen teaches at Woodbury University. Follow him on Twitter @mikethepoetLA and IG @mikethepoetLA.
About Yuck and Barret Baumgart:
Yuck presents a fascinating and beautifully written new revisionist history of one of the most loathed and beloved objects on the planet, the Joshua Tree or Yucca brevifolia. It primarily focuses on the discovery, naming and attempted eradication of the Joshua Tree beginning in the late 1870’s. Once universally reviled, the Joshua Tree is now beloved with thousands of tourists visiting the national park named after this strange Yucca every year. This book excavates this unknown buried history against the ironic backdrop of the Joshua Tree today as some kind of ultra-hip signifier of authenticity. Baumgart is also the author of China Lake: A Journey into the Contradicted Heart of a Global Climate Catastrophe. His writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Vice, The Rumpus, and more. He lives in Los Angeles. He has written a previous book on China Lake, which won the 2016 Iowa Prize for Literary Nonfiction and delved into the history of this strange place that illuminates our worldwide climate emergency.