\u201cLos Feliz is super artsy and filled with writers. It\u2019s fun to organize one in the neighborhood,\u201d says Ginsberg.<\/p>\n
Ginsberg is weary of the well-trodden conversations about the New York literary scene, steeped in endless mythology. We may not have the New Yorker or the Paris Review, but we have each other: \u201cThere are 40 million people who live in L.A. County. I\u2019m like, \u2018We don\u2019t need New York. We have people.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Willa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789271081_236_.jpeg\")
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Willa Lane writes in a notebook at the closing Los Feliz Writers Festival event that featured journaling and meditation in Barnsdall Art Park.<\/p>\n
(Samahra Litte )<\/p>\n
That scrappy DIY quality can make Los Angeles\u2019 literary community feel mysterious, even to the people living in it. A San Fernando Valley native, Ginsberg knows there\u2019s plenty happening around the city \u2014 you just have to know where to look.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things going on, but you have to be in the know,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s happening in someone\u2019s living room because it costs so much money to book a venue.\u201d<\/p>\n
In late August, Ginsberg organized the second annual Los Feliz Writer Festival, a sprawling collection of readings, workshops, parties and other literary miscellany. \u201cLast year we did it, and it went really well,\u201d she says. \u201cThis year, it\u2019s even bigger and crazier and magical.\u201d<\/p>\n
The festival is, in some ways, an extension of the community Ginsberg has been quietly building all year. Since October, she\u2019s hosted a weekly \u201cShut Up & Write\u201d at Los Feliz watering hole the Big Bar at Alcove. \u201cWe have dinner and then write next to each other quietly,\u201d says Ginsberg. \u201cYou can see each other every week, and it\u2019s a natural, slow way to get to know people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Los Feliz Writer Festival kicked off with Poets Are the New Popstars, a reading-meets-house-party at a private home in Los Feliz. Over the course of the festival\u2019s 13 events, writers could attend personal essay workshops, receive tarot readings, and celebrate the 100th birthdays of Frank O\u2019Hara, Allen Ginsberg and Harper Lee at East Hollywood bar Tabula Rasa. \u201cI made these limited-edition official after-party zines with a poem and quote from the authors,\u201d says Ginsberg.<\/p>\n
![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789271081_845_.jpeg\")
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Alex Moreno reads from her poetry collection \u201cSticky Time\u201d at Poets Are the New Popstars.<\/p>\n
(Toby Shapiro)<\/p>\n
Ginsberg imagines the literary scene as a collaborative project. \u201cFor me, this is kind of like hipster \u2018Dungeons & Dragons.\u2019 I\u2019m playing with my friends,\u201d she says of the festival, which she plans to organize annually. In the future, the festival hopes to include more diverse voices. \u201cIn the second year, we\u2019re trying to open up the conversation,\u201d she says. \u201cWe, too, believe that L.A. is for everyone and want it to be a writers festival for everyone.\u201d <\/p>\n