About our founder
Storykeeper, Poet, Performance Artist, and Arts Advocate Linda Ravenswood
is a Los Angeles native and 7th generation California schoolteacher (e.g. LAUSD
educator family for two centuries, paternal grandmother Elementary School Principal, Baja California Sur)
Linda is a multi award winning, National Performance Poet and Literary advocate. A teacher since her undergraduate program at CalArts (CAP in public schools, Plaza de la Raza) she continues her family legacy of arts outreach, literacy, access, focus on diversity, and accountability to constituents across Southern California and The West. After nearly a decade of trying to move local government, she partnered with Mayor Ardashes Kassakhian, who helped her found The Poet Laureate Program in Glendale, California (2022).
Winner of an Oxford Prize in Poetry (2023) and the current Edwin Markham Prize in Poetry (2023) from Reed Magazine, the oldest literary magazine in California (selected by Poet Laureate of The United States, Juan Felipe Herrera), Linda has been published in nearly 100 books, anthologies, journals, online periodicals, and collaborative manifestos. Linda founded The Los Angeles Press in 2018 with a grant from Duda Holdings, USC and The Los Angeles Review of Books Publishing Symposium— to address the critical need for access in publishing opportunities for all. Her strategic plan includes 1. continuing to place art and literature in unexpected places, 2. to delight and inspire the public, 3. to widen the circle of empathy and inclusion for artists, writers, and storytellers from all walks of life, 4. to continue partnering with local, regional, and national organizations to create accessible, diverse, meaningful arts and literature programming, 5. to publish art and literature of exceptional merit, and 6. to address critical needs for arts advocacy for the constituents of Los Angeles and The West. #wipoc #lgbtqia+
Linda is on the Board of Directors of California Poetry in the Schools, is a Co founding member of Melrose Poetry Bureau, headquartered in West Hollywood, is a founding member of Project 1521, is winner of The California Writer’s Grant (2019), A Gloucestershire Prize in Poetry (2023), The Arthur Smith Prize in Poetry (2023), and is a 4 time Pushcart Prize nominee
Her frequent collaborators include Asylum Arts / the neighbourhood, Red Light Lit, The Poetry Society of New York, and The City of West Hollywood
Listen to her on KPFK 90.7 where she Co-hosts The Poets Cafe / Wednesdays at 2:00 p.m. PST or listen to the archive of fantastic poets and artists in conversation at KPFK.org
Her book Cantadora — Letters from California (2023) is out now from Eyewear London / Black Spring Press Group.
https://blackspringpressgroup.com/products/cantadora-letters-from-california
Her book — a poem is a house — from Madville Press is forthcoming in 2024. Order your copy here https://madvillepublishing.com/product/a-poem-is-a-house/ or at bookstores across the US
and come to the West Coast book launch at Skylight Books on 18 January 2024 (Eastside LA) and Beyond Baroque on 29 March 2024 (West LA) https://www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylight-linda-ravenswood-presents-poem-house-w-special-guests
She has an old personal website (web designer needed:)) at https://lindaravenswood.wixsite.com/lindaravenswood/about
Find her @thelosangelespress and @bespokepoets on Instagram
Associate Poetry Editor
Chelsea Rector was born and raised in Southern California. She has presented her poetry at venues such as The Poetic Research Bureau and Beyond Baroque in Los Angeles. She is an associate Poetry editor for the Los Angeles Press. In 2019 she co-edited and contributed to Cry List, published by Rebel Hands Press (RHP). Her forthcoming book On Being Mean will be published by Rebel Hands Press in the fall of 2022. In 2020 her work was included in the Hinchas Press anthology, X LA Poets. She is the co-founder of P/Sicho Street Theater Company whose critically acclaimed radio play series Beglitched is in its second season.In 2021, Chelsea moved to Owensboro, KY, where she lives & works as a faculty member in the Department of Art at Brescia University.
LINKS
Chelsea Rector: Poems / Rebel Hands Press: Cry List / Hinchas Press: X LA Poets
The Los Angeles Press 