Los Angeles

Abstract

WORLDLITERATURETODAY.ORG 5 photo : laura hernandez Notebook WALKING DOWN Hollywood Boulevard, it’s hard to imagine anything less than a frantic lifestyle for Los Angeles, but nestled amid the wannabe actors and elaborate movie sets are some surprising but altogether welcome literary gems. With the buoyant atmosphere and fastpaced , energetic vibe, it’s no wonder authors have flocked to this city for years. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished final novel, The Last Tycoon, was written here. Ray Bradbury typed up Fahrenheit 451 in the basement of the Powell Library at UCLA. Other authors have been influenced by the city’s rich culture : Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep is set against Hollywood Boulevard, and readers can match up the streets with presentday LA’s geography because Chandler was a stickler for details. The Day of the Locust, by Nathaniel West, highlights LA during the Great Depression. Another literary hot spot is Musso and Frank Grill, a restaurant that opened in 1919. William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway , Lillian Hellman, and Charles Bukowski were all frequent guests, and many even described this restaurant in their novels. LA is also home to the Los Angeles Review of Books and many small presses, including Kaya Press, which publishes poetry and prose from Asian and Pacific Islander diasporas. The Los Angeles Public Library’s central library branch features an impressive atrium and almost 6.5 million holdings. Flavorwire named it one of the most beautiful public libraries in the world. During my recent trip, I visited The Last Bookstore, located in downtown LA and featuring a trove of used books. Manuscripts weave across the walls on the main level, and the upstairs section encases a labyrinth of bargain books and whimsical displays, including a book tunnel, rainbow shelves with color-coordinated book spines, and a slew of “flying” books that greet you at the top of the stairs. There are many other independent stores, including Skylight Books, Book Soup, Hennessey & Ingalls, and Small World Books, which host literary events and author signings throughout the year. There’s always something literary going on around the city and something to please fans of any genre, such as Hollywood’s longest -running weekly poetry venue hosted by Da Poetry Lounge or the Griffith Park Storytelling series, which presents outdoor events in different locations around the park. One of the highlights of the year is the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this April. The twoday festival offers free admission and draws 150,000 people each year. Laura Hernandez is a former WLT intern who now lives in Brooklyn. An avid reader of youngadult literature, she spends her spare time writing, Instagramming, and searching for her next favorite food truck. city profile Los Angeles by Laura Hernandez WHAT TO READ ON THE BOULEVARD Parable of the Sower Octavia E. Butler Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster Mike Davis Play It as It Lays Joan Didion The Barbarian Nurseries Héctor Tobar Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology David L. Ulin, ed. The atrium at the Los Angeles Public Library’s central branch. ...