North Hollywood Lit Crawl returns Wednesday

The North Hollywood-based Lit Crawl returns Wednesday with a packed one-evening schedule. More than 100 L.A.-based novelists, poets, memoirists and other writers will partcipate in dozens of events starting at 7 p.m., capped by a closing party at the Federal Bar.

One of the highlights of the night is the event called Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction. It will feature readings by actors-turned-(often hilarious)-writers: Annabelle Gurwitch, Stephen Tobolowsky, Richard Kramer and Peter Mehlman. It’s at the store Possch and begins at 7 p.m.

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For the Record
Oct. 22, 4:38 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said the name of a radio show was “The Dinner Party.” It is “The Dinner Party Download.”
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It’s not the only thing at 7 p.m. In fact, it’s one of 12.

There is a bit of madness built into the schedule. Readings, competitions and performances begin on the hour at 7, 8 and 9 p.m. at about a dozen venues. Audience members are invited to go to one and sit down, or hop from one to another.

The idea is that the venues will be close enough for revelers to travel from one to the next relatively painlessly. In San Francisco, home to this branded Lit Crawl, that’s easy enough to accomplish -- it’s a little harder in L.A., where most events will take place on or near a mile-long stretch of Lankershim Boulevard.

Events are free; food and drink will be on sale in many locations. The closing party, which begins at 10 p.m., requires RSVP -- and now has filled up to wait-list proportions.

Other highlights include:

8 p.m. L.A.-based literary magazine the Rattling Wall and San Francisco-based online journal the Rumpus present “A Scream Without a Mouth: Stories of Reaching Out” with stories by Antonia Crane, Jerry Stahl, Douglas Kearney, Wendy Ortiz, Jim Ruland, Corrie Greathouse, Kyle Sawyer and host Michelle Meyering.

Also at 8 p.m. Homeboy Industries stories of transformation with Dominique Frazier, Johnny Garcia, Janet Contreras and Andre Hollins.

9 p.m. Kent Woodyard, Summer Block Kumar, Lou Mathews and Davy Rothbart at a reading presented by the radio show “The Dinner Party Download” with the reading series Hot Dish; their stories will be paired with “a dish made especially for the event by Chef Mauro Rossi and his Art Institute of California Senior Culinary students.”

And we’d be remiss if we forgot to mention L.A. Times Book Critic David L. Ulin reading at an 8 p.m. event with Nina Revoyr, Michael Jaime Becerra, Maria Bustillos, Lynell George and Todd Edwards presented by the Los Angeles Review of Books and Flaunt magazine.

Twitter: @paperhaus