TUJUNGA. On Sunday, April 8 at 5:00 p.m., the Friends of the
Sunland-Tujunga Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library presents a poetry
reading with Jim Natal and Elsa Frausto. The program begins with an open
reading.
Chicago native Jim Natal came to Los Angeles via Santa Fe. His first
full-collection of poetry, IN THE BEE TREES, was recently published. His
poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Paterson Literary Review, The
Yalobusha Review, Solo, Manzanita, Clay Palm Review, Spillway, Rattle,
rivertalk, Vol. No., Cider Press Review, Caesura, and Urban Spaghetti. His
work also appears in the award-winning anthology What Have You Lost?
(edited by Naomi Shihab Nye), as well as in Fresh Water and Beyond the
Valley of Contemporary Poets 1997. Natal has written three chapbooks: Oil
on Paper (2000) and Explaining Water With Water (1997), both published by
the Inevitable Press as part of the Laguna Poets Series, and The Landscape
From Behind (with Jamie O'Halloran), published by VCPress (1998). Natal won
the 1998 Ventura Poetry Festival Contest, was runner-up in the 1998
international Rosenberg Award competition, and, with Central Coast poet
Carla Martinez, was the winner of Spillway's 1997 Walt Whitman Call and
Response Poetry Contest. As a member of the Hyperpoets, he founded and
helped run the Rose Cafe weekly poetry series for three years. With
Jeanette Clough, he curates and hosts the Poet-X series at Barnes & Noble
in Santa Monica.
Tujunga resident Elsa Frausto was born in Argentina and raised in Oregon
and Los Angeles. Elsa has been active with the Sunland-Tujunga based
Chuparosa Writers for several years and states that her work as a poet and
translator includes a search for personal identity which has in turn led
her to an understanding of the "other." Her poems and translations (from
Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish) have appeared in La Opinion,
?migré Magazine, the Chuparosa Calendar, Indefinite Space and other
magazines, as well as in the book CUATRO POETAS DE LOS ANGELES/FOUR LOS
ANGELES POETS (Moradalsur Editores 1998.) From 1991-93 she was co-editor of
Lahoja, a Spanish language periodical based in Los Angeles.
The series continues in June with Amy Uyematsu and Richard Modiano.
The Friends of the Sunland-Tujunga Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library
is a private, non-profit organization that sponsors literary events and
provides financial and volunteer support to the Sunland-Tujunga Branch of
the Los Angeles Public Library. Its mission is to encourage children to
become life-long readers and library patrons. To donate books or volunteer,
call the Branch at (818) 352-4481.
This event is supported by Poets & Writers, Inc. through a grant it has
received from the James Irvine Foundation. Admission is free. The Branch
is located at 7771 Foothill Blvd., Tujunga. Parking is available and the
library is fully accessible to people who use wheelchairs. Call (818)
352-4481 for directions.
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Jamie O'Halloran
ohalloran@...
