GuerrillaReads No. 53: Abu Zubair

Posted on October 29, 2011 | Leave a comment

In 1971, the region then called “East Pakistan” fought a bloody liberation war with “West Pakistan” that led to creation of the independent nation of Bangladesh. Abu Zubair lived through that civil war, and he writes about it in his new novel, The Silent and the Lost. Zubair was recently awarded the  US-Asia Business Forum’s Community Support Award for support of the community through historic writing.

Zubair read from his book at the 10th annual West Hollywood Book Fair.

It’s a first here on GR: a guerrilla reading about guerrillas.

More about Zubair and his work on his website.

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GuerrillaReads No. 52: Jeanne Córdova

Posted on October 24, 2011 | Leave a comment

Jeanne Córdova is a proud troublemaker with a storied history. She’s been an activist nun, human rights editor for the L.A. Free Press, and political organizer. Her newest book, When We Were Outlaws: a Memoir of Love & Revolution, tells her personal story in the context of the struggle for gay rights and women’s liberation in the 1970s.

Learn more about Córdova – writer, activist, publisher and Latina – on her website.

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GuerrillaReads No. 51: Occupy Poetry!

Posted on October 23, 2011 | 4 Comments

I dropped by Occupy LA again today, this time with a few gallons of water and a copy of my book, The Streetwise Cycle, to donate. The guy at the library told me that poetry and plays are the most popular items getting checked out. Which is great news! That’s definitely not what they’re pushing at the big box corporate bookstores.

While I was there, the library organized a poetry reading. Some folks read works by famous poets, while others read or performed their own work. Two of them were kind enough to do guerrilla readings of their own poems on camera.

First up, Courtney Klink.

I thought these lines from her poem were particularly timely:

Liliana is singing a sparkling revolution
It’s too bad no one’s listening.

Next is Tina Xu:

My favorite lines:

I can’t get by one day without wanting to burst
So teach me, will you,
Teach me to shine on like you.

GuerrillaReads would love to post more work from Occupy writers! Send us your video, or drop me a line.

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GuerrillaReads No. 50: Steven Paul Leiva

Posted on October 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Live from the West Hollywood Book Fair, it’s Steven Paul Leiva with a guerrilla reading from his first contact novel, Traveling in Space (Blüroof Press). Leiva is a writer and producer who knows more than just a little about Hollywood and Ray Bradbury.

Writing about writing in a recent blog post, Leiva said,

Good writers do not channel in from some higher plain, they are simply human creatures who have a talent for expression and a talent, as Noel Coward would have said, to amuse. Brilliant writers combine those talents with a talent to reveal truths—or, at least, very interesting questions—about the human condition.

More about Leiva on his blog and Facebook.

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GuerrillaReads No. 49: L.M. Quinn

Posted on October 17, 2011 | Leave a comment

L.M. Quinn‘s short story, The Red Lipstick, appears in the Latino young adult mystery anthology You Don’t Have a Clue. Kirkus Reviews said of the book,

Along with scary tales of murder, attempted murder and kidnapping, less violent crimes solved by young detectives include stolen auto parts, santitos (religious figurines) and costume jewelry—along with an encounter with possible ghosts and a vision of the enraged Aztec goddess Coyolxauhqui rising up over Venice Beach.

Quinn did a guerrilla reading from The Red Lipstick at the Tia Chucha’s 6th Annual Celebrating Words Festival.

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GuerrillaReads No. 48: Cecil Castellucci at Occupy LA

Posted on October 16, 2011 | 1 Comment

Author Cecil Castellucci (aka @MissCecil) stopped by Occupy LA with GuerrillaReads yesterday and read from her young adult novel, Rose Sees Red. It’s set in 1982, and in this scene, Rose and her friends stumble upon the largest demonstration against nuclear arms in American history.

Castellucci has written YA novels, graphic novels, short stories, an opera libretto and more. She once told Bookslut in an interview

I think that everybody can live creatively and I don’t see any difference between say, math and ballet. I think someone can even make something traditionally not “arty,” like being a business person, a kind of art form.

More about Castellucci on her website. You can also find her on Twitter and Facebook.

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GuerrillaReads No. 47: Bronwyn Mauldin at Occupy LA

Posted on October 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

We went down to Occupy LA yesterday to engage in some literary solidarity of the guerrilla sort. Here I am reading from my book, The Streetwise Cycle. It’s a short story collection about one of the 99%, a homeless man living in Los Angeles. In this story, he meets an unemployed financial analyst on the verge of losing everything.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out all these writers who have signed onto the Occupy Writers statement of support.

Music: The Streetwise Cycle, written and performed by Fascinoma.

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