LA Times Festival of Books post

As usual, the book festival at UCLA was well worth shlepping to Westwood. I saw Diane di Prima read poems from Loba, one of my favorite books (though I don't feel I've nearly plumbed its depths). Di Prima read beautifully, to an unfortunately smallish audience. Nowadays she looks like an Italian grandmother (which, in fact, she is - a grandson of hers and Amiri Baraka's lives in Los Angeles), though I perpetually think of her as looking like this.

I also saw Anne Lamott read and do a Q&A (to a much larger audience). She read from her latest book - which I now am interested in reading (though I wasn't before, as I'm not particularly interested in the Christian faith...but her take on it is quite fascinating) and a bit from Bird by Bird. She has such a wonderful deadpan humor.

The readings were great, and I also loved seeing all the booths of booksellers and publishers, etc. I walked a ton, and now I'm experiencing that pleasurable lassitude I always feel after the book fair...

Here's an interview with Diane di Prima.

And here's a poem from Loba which she read today:

( It is still news to her... )