Research Guides: Writer-in-Residence at Pasadena City College: Francesca Lia Block (2014)

About the Writer

Francesca Lia Block is the author of more than twenty-five books of fiction, non-fiction, short stories and poetry. She received the Spectrum Award, the Phoenix Award, the ALA Rainbow Award and the 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as other citations from the American Library Association and from the New York Times Book Review, School Library Journal, and Publisher's Weekly.

Her work has been translated into Italian, French, German Japanese, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Portuguese. Francesca has also published stories, poems, essays and interviews in The Los Angeles Times, The L.A. Review of Books, Spin, Nylon, Black Clock, and Rattle among others. In addition to writing, she teaches fiction workshops at UCLA Extension, Antioch, Marilyn's Writing Pad and privately in Los Angeles where she was born, raised and currently still lives.

(source: F rancescaLiaBlock.com)

Discussion Questions

Francesca Lia Block is the quintessential L.A. writer. How does Los Angeles figure as a character in her books? How is L.A. defined by her voice and stories?
Block has a deep interest in world mythologies, angels, archetypes. Discuss how she juxtaposes these elements with the distinct post-modern world she explores.
Block focuses on disenfranchised characters and the exploration of their separation from the normed world, whether it be socioeconomic, age, or sexual identity. What view of “alternative” cultures is Block exploring?
Discuss Block’s lyrical voice, her diction and love of the poetic. What kind of mood does this create in her books?

Contributed by Kathy Kottaras, PCC English Division

Francesca Lia Block

Photo by Nicolas Sage Photography

Recommended Web Sites

Francesca Lia Block
Author's website, including links to new works and a personal blog.
HarperCollins Publishers
Links to more works by Francesca Lia Block.
Francesca Lia Block on Facebook

Articles and Interviews

Articles with the PCC logo are held in PCC Library's research databases and require a LancerPoint Username and Password for off-campus access.

Books in the PCC Library

PCC Library is home to many of Francesca Lia Block's works. Check one out with your Lancer ID today!

Beyond the Pale Motel by Francesca Lia Block
Call Number: PS3552.L617 B49 2014
Publication Date: 2014
"In this terrifying and intensely erotic novel, Francesca Lia Block explores the dangers of modern living, loving and dying with lyrical edge and sensational attitude"
Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books by Francesca Lia Block
Call Number: PB 8633 (2nd Floor, Paperbacks)
"Presents five novels of life in modern Los Angeles, where Weetzie Bat and her friends and family interact with ghosts from their past and with each other as they search for love, connection, and acceptance."
The Elementals by Francesca Lia Block
Call Number: PS3552.L617 E44 2012 (2nd Floor)
"The Elementals is on one level an intriguing coming-of-age novel about a young woman, Ariel, facing the challenges of her first years away at college in Berkeley, California, while her mother battles cancer at home in Los Angeles. The book takes on deeper, stranger meanings when we realize that Ariel is haunted by the disappearance of her best friend, Jeni, who vanished without a trace a few years before."
Guarding the Moon: A Mother's First Year by Francesca Lia Block
Call Number: PS3552.L617 Z467 2003 (2nd Floor)
"Acclaimed author Francesca Lia Block's meditation on the anxieties and elations of her first year as a mother are lovingly told in this treasure of a book. This is a love story -- from mother to daughter -- that reminds us that the deepest kind of love makes us vulnerable, joyous, triumphant, and new."
Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block
Call Number: PS3552.L617 L68 2014 (2nd Floor, Textbooks)
"Seventeen-year-old Penelope (Pen) has lost everything-her home, her parents, and her ten-year-old brother. Like a female Odysseus in search of home, she navigates a dark world full of strange creatures, gathers companions and loses them, finds love and loses it, and faces her mortal enemy."
Missing Angel Juan by Francesca Lia Block
Call Number: PB 8101 (2nd Floor, Paperbacks)
"Witch Baby follows Angel Juan to New York City and meets the ghost of her almost grandfather Charlie Bat."
Quakeland by Francesca Lia Block
Call Number: PS3552.L617 Q35 2008 (2nd Floor)
Publication Date: 2008
Available in print or as ebook.
After enduring from afar a seemingly endless series of outside worldwide disasters--including 9/11 and the Asian tsunami--while living in earthquake-prone Los Angeles, a bereft Katrina experiences deep inner longings for some sense of permanence, meaning, and intimacy. In this intertwining series of emotionally charged stories, wistful characters weave together a dance of joy and sorrow, gain and loss, harmony and dissonance.