On Giving Tuesday, and throughout the year, here’s how to support the Los Angeles Times Community Fund and the newspaper’s literary and literacy programs.
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Civic engagement is the heart and soul of The Times’ literacy and literary programs. We share books and ideas, and spark a range of community discussions on the issues that Southern Californians care about most. We are making the newspaper more than something to read every morning — we are getting people talking. With us. With one another. With thought leaders and community leaders. We are creating something to experience — and something that brings us together.
Since the pandemic, The Times expanded this mission by offering many of the newsroom’s live journalism events free and virtual to make it easy for our readers to participate from home.
Now we need your help to keep going and growing.Please join us in 2023 by making a tax-deductible contribution to the Los Angeles Times Community Fund to support the newspaper’s signature literary and literacy programs. We want to make them accessible to more Southern California readers of all ages.
The Times has partnered with the California Community Foundation to sustain the popular Los Angeles Times Book Club and annual Book Prizes and ensure their future. That means your contributions to the fund are both vital and tax deductible.
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About the projects
(Lew, Jason)
Los Angeles Times Book Club: Our community book club began in 2019 to build on the Festival of Books and keep the conversations going year-round. We focus on stories relevant to Southern California and the West that illuminate and explain our unique landscape, culture and identity. Every month we share books and host conversations with authors, newsmakers and thought leaders to explore such topics as immigration, entertainment, food, travel, the environment, criminal justice, sports and social issues.
Previous book club guests include President Barack Obama; singer Julie Andrews; tennis champion Billie Jean King; Pulitzer Prize winners Viet Thanh Nguyen and Tracy Kidder; journalist Susan Orlean; actor George Takei; journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones; directors Ron Howard and Rodrigo Garcia; filmmaker Ava DuVernay; National Book Award winner Charles Yu; crime writer Michael Connelly; novelist Lisa See; former L.A. poet laureate Luis J. Rodriguez; naturalist Jane Goodall; author Ann Patchett; Homeboy Industries founder Gregory Boyle; singer and song writer Willie Nelson; historian Ibram X. Kendi and inaugural poet Amanda Gorman.
Poet Amanda Gorman joined book club readers at the 2022 Festival of Books at USC.
(Nick Agro / For The Times)
Your contributions will support and expand book club events, both in-person and virtual, to connect with more readers. Donations will support a wide range of community discussions, as well as the Book-Club-in-a-Box program that will provide books and discussion guides to students and others with limited resources. More info: bookclub@latimes.com.
Los Angeles Times Book Prizes: For four decades, the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes have recognized outstanding literary works published in fiction, history, poetry, biography, young adult literature, science and technology, science fiction and more. The book prizes are a vital and prestigious part of the annual Festival of Books, the nation’s largest book event, which returns to the USC campus April 23-24.
Through the years the book prizes have honored such literary luminaries as Joan Didion, Ray Bradbury, Maxine Hong Kingston, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Beverly Cleary, Christopher Isherwood, TC Boyle, LeVar Burton, James Patterson, Margaret Atwood and Ursula K. LeGuin. The 42nd annual book prizes were awarded April 22 at USC’s Bovard Auditorium.
(Los Angeles Times )
With community support, The Times will be able to continue the book prizes and present the top authors in any given year for free to the L.A. community at the book festival. More info: eventinfo@latimes.com.
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Become a Sponsor
Please consider a 2023 contribution. Contributors will be recognized at events and online. Meet some of our donors below!
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How to contribute
1. Go to the donation page for the Los Angeles Times Community Fund on the California Community Foundation website.
2. Select a project. Use the pulldown menu to designate your choice: Book Club or Book Prizes.
3. Make your tax-deductible contribution to help sustain these vital community literacy projects.
4. Thank you! Your name or organization will be featured online and at community events related to the project you support.
(Parisa Hajizadeh-Amini/ Los Angeles Times )
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More information
The Los Angeles Times Community Fund, which includes the Los Angeles Times Book Club and the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, is a component fund of the California Community Foundation- Communities Initiative Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity. Contributions to the California Community Foundation represent irrevocable gifts subject to the legal and fiduciary control of the foundation’s board of directors.
In the interest of full disclosure and transparency, please be aware that any contributions to these projects are solely in support of literary and literacy programs that further community discussion; contributions do not include any control or influence over the newspaper’s editorial operations.
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Our Supporters
Thank you to the readers who recently contributed to the Book Club and Book Prizes through the new Los Angeles Times Community Fund!
- Jacqueline Barab
- Jason Beecher
- Tim Boettcher
- Pauline Cheng
- Elizabeth du Fresne
- Shari Farris
- Marilyn Harris
- Lauren Hsiao
- Louise and Kenneth Izumi
- Jane LaPorte
- Robin B. Luby
- Sue Moore
- Mary Oliver
- Joan Schaffer
- George Stransk
- Lorrraine Wiener
- Kristine Williams
- Shari Wohlstattar
(Ana Venegas/For The Times)
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Our Partners
Book club partners this year include:
- Arizona State University at the California Center
- Autry Museum of the American West
- Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
- L.A. Times Studios and Short Docs
- Access Books
Wende Lee, of South Pasadena, takes a photo with chef Keith Corbin after a discussion of “California Soul” at the ASU California Center in the landmark Herald Examiner Building.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
We’re so grateful to our contributors and community partners for their support of the Times’ signature literary and literacy programs connecting readers with authors at live journalism events. Thank you for helping us build an amazing community forum, a welcoming and safe place to discuss the most pressing and important issues of our times.
(L-R) Maria La Ganga, Milo the basset hound and author Steph Cha at virtual book club night.
(Times staff)
