DIESEL, A Bookstore in Brentwood welcomes poet and essayist Piotr Florczyk to the store to discuss and sign his new book Los Angeles Sketchbook on Thursday, August 27th at 6:30pm. Joining him in conversation will be poet Kate Gale.

An excerpt from Los Angeles Sketchbook:

"Which is why it's time for me to move to the steps outside my front door, where I can enjoy the breeze that comes and goes as it wishes. Too bad houses in California have no basements, where it's always cooler; if they did, I would break into one now. It's so hot that I can't even hide in my bedroom, which is located on the second level of our apartment, and includes just one window, which is more like an arrowslit, that's how tiny and useless it is. Not only does it not let an adequate amount of fresh air in and what does blow inside is mostly dust and soot it hardly provides any daylight, forcing us to turn on the light even when sunshine reigns outside. To have to turn on the light during the day in sunny Southern California pretty much fits the definition of 'tragedy'."

Piotr Florczyk is a poet, essayist, and translator of six volumes of Polish poetry, including The Day He’s Gone: Poems 1990-2013 by Paweł Marcinkiewicz and The World Shared: Poems by Dariusz Sośnicki (co-translated with Boris Dralyuk). He lives in Santa Monica.

Kate Gale is the Managing Editor of Red Hen Press, Editor of the Los Angeles Review and President of the American Composers Forum, LA. She is the author of six books of poetry including The Goldilocks Zone and six librettos.