Event

California Housewife Noir

When we think of the classic writing of California, its men who come to mind: Steinbecks agricultural epics, the hardboiled detectives of Dashiell Hammett, Nathanial Wests male Miss Lonelyhearts. So what about the women? How do they fit into this dream of the New West; these noir California underworlds? In Run River by Joan Didion and Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain well explore two contemporary classics whose female protagonists offer a very different vision of 20th century California than we've come to expect...

Please join Literary Affairs' own Jessica Piazza along with Julie Robinson for this two-part series discussing California Housewife Noir.

All of these discussions begin at 10:30am at the Hotel Bel Air, and include a delicious continental breakfast. Space is limited so get your tickets today!

Thursday May 12: Run River by Joan Didion
Thursday June 16: Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain

Individual Events: $95
Series: $180

Jessica Piazza is the author of the two full-length poetry collections from Red Hen Press -- Interrobang (winner of the 2011 A Room of One's Own Foundation To the Lighthouse Poetry Prize and the 2013 Balcones Prize for Poetry) -- and Obliterations (co-written with Heather Aimee O'Neill), as well as the chapbook This is not a sky (Black Lawrence Press). Jessica curates the Poetry Has Value blog, where she and others explore the intersection of poetry, money and worth. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, she holds a Ph.D. in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California, where she teaches Writing & Rhetoric. She also teaches poetry in the MFA programs at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. She co-founded Bat City Review in Austin, TX, Gold Line Press in Los Angeles, CA and is currently the poetry editor for the Southern Pacific Review. She has been a facilitator with Literary Affairs for the last three years.