Literary Pixie

By Sammy Ginsberg

While so much LIFE has been happening, I have been taking small steps to make one of my dreams a reality, organizing the Los Feliz Writers Festival happening August 23rd and 24th in LA (aka just over a month!) with an amazing team of people [shoutout to Dawn, Helene, Molly, Phil, John, Brian, Celine, Ben, and the whole Los Feliz Neigborhood committee of Cultural Affairs and the whole council!!]

My love for festivals began the summer I graduated from high school, when I interned at the theatre arts festival the Hollywood Fringe. That summer was magical. I felt like the teen writer William in Almost Famous going on tour with a bad ass rock-band; all the adult theater kids I met were the coolest people I’d ever met and I idolized them.

Although, I myself wasn’t a theatre kid. I wanted to be, but was too shy and avoided drama; thus I was a literature and poetry nerd.

When I moved to Scotland to study English Lit and History at 18, I got deeply involved in StAnza Poetry Festival, the largest poetry festival in Europe! By my fourth year, I was on the planning committee serving as the Volunteer Manager and Student Press Coordinator, as well as paid to perform poetry in the lobby and hire student poets to perform. I loved it!! Such amazing poets and people from all over the world gathering to share and listen and appreciate each others authentic voices.

Ever summer while living in Scotland, I applied to work at the Edinburgh Book Festival. I got two interviews, but was always rejected.

After college in 2016, I moved back to LA where I worked at Red Hen Press, the Flintridge Bookstore, and helped a writer [Conrad Romo] in LA set up the Melrose Bellow Literature Festival. It was so fun! I helped write the grants, program the festival, organize volunteers, and promote the festival.

I started imagining setting up my own festival.

I had been working to pursue my literary dreams in LA and doing pretty well, but LA is a very expensive city and working a part-time minimum wage job, and two small stipends still relying on my parents’ healthcare – I was still barely surviving.

By my parents’ standard of financial stability, I was failing. Which they constantly brought up to me, encouraging me to find a full-time entry level job in publishing. After multiple interviews at small presses in LA where it was clear had like 3 paid staff, and a room of unpaid interns – there was no money in publishing, and so I decided I had to move to New York or London.

I applied for months until I was offered an internship in London at Midas PR who focused on art, books, and music! It sounded like the dream, and it kind of was (other than the $10 a day stipend I made). Doing PR for Harper Collins and Penguin, pitching to the Guardian, organizing and attending all kinds of fun launch parties!

I met some amazing people! I am attending the wedding of a friend I made there on Saturday.

I also on my weekends, started attending literature festivals for funsies and blogging about them [Hay Festival, Bloomsbury Day]. At the end of my internship, I was not offered a job as they did not have positions. Thankfully, I secured a job at the Bradford Literature Festival, as well as the bookstore at Selfridges.

I continued applying for full-time entry level PR/marketing jobs in publishing. Finally, in September of 2017, I started as a full time entry level marketing assistant at SAGE Publications.

I worked there until February of 2018, when thanks to a series of traumatic events, I had an epiphany – I wanted to be a secondary English Literature teacher and study the role of literature festivals and school programming in supporting the developing of literacy skills in the UK.

This was a long, convoluted journey from here with some plot twists. From my Literary March (aka the writing of How to Value Your Own Thoughts) to getting accepted to the teaching program at Masters at University of East London to deciding to do my teaching credential in Los Angeles instead to COVID and working as a teacher for LAUSD for four years with an very challenging workload to the Burnt Out Bitch.

While on medical leave for two months after some more traumatic events, I pitched the idea of the Los Feliz Literature Festival to the Cultural Affairs committee. Helene, the founder of Porchfest LA had been incredibly supportive, inviting me to tea at her house and coaching me through writing the proposal!

The committee loved the idea and approved. I started reaching out to people through the Skylight Bookclub I had joined, and connected with Dawn, a local author and Los Feliz activist, as well as Ryan her partner. She came on board as co-director!

I bought the website.

Then I had another epiphany. For my Masters, I had written about setting up a teen writers’ festival which has been done and well researched as very effective in developing writing skills and identity, and how that was my dream.

I started to think that Literature Festivals were actually oppressive. A top-down authoritarian structure of those who are published authors, and those who are not. Those who are experts, and those who are not. Those who speak, and those who listen. Those who lead, and those who follow. Those who teach, and those who study what is taught to them from books.

After my five years in teaching, trying to dismantle this dominating culture within the teaching of English Language Arts that I believe is why so few people love reading and writing – this elitist, gate-keeping of knowledge, of accessing both who is good enough to create literature (texts worthy of money, study, and cultural capital) and those who are good enough to read and appreciate it – fuck that!

Let’s change it to the Los Feliz Writers Festival – and so we did. That’s why the URL says Los Feliz Lit Fest, while the website and everything else says Los Feliz Writers Festival. Lol!

I should probably put that on the website somewhere! Haha!

And now, it’s here. Time to hear the voices of Los Feliz! Time to take back the neighborhood! Time to take back our power. Time to value our thoughts, and the thoughts of those who live near us rather than politicians and CEOS who live thousands of miles a way!!

I am so so excited to be putting this dream out into the world and having found a team of people who are supportive!

If you want to get involved, please do get in touch! Just email me at seeliterarypixie@gmail.com.

If you live in Los Feliz and are a writer, please message me! Would love to add you to our database and have you perform at our Voices of Los Feliz celebration.

If you know someone who lives in Los Feliz and is a writer, please share this festival with them!

If you live near Los Feliz, come join us! We have our celebration in partnership with the Barnsdall Art Gallery on August 23rd, and also a Literary Trivia event at Tabula Rasa hosted by Molly fucking Sanchez. It’s gonna be LIT. HAHA.

I’ll me sending more details and things, but wanted to say something since it’s coming up and also I am sooo EXCITED!!!

And also, I fly back to LA on Monday, and thus, need to start transitioning. 😛

Okay, need to leave for my Sola Road Trip! TBD.