Category: Literary Journals

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Sublevel and Westwind: Two more journals for Los Angeles writers

Just eight months ago I wrote about 12 literary journals for Los Angeles writers — and since then, I’ve discovered two more! Read, enjoy, and submit —

Sublevel. CalArts’s longtime lit magazine Black Clock folded a little while back, but in its place a newer, even edgier literary magazine has launched. Sublevel is “devoted to the nexus of literature, poetics, art, criticism, philosophy, culture, & politics,” and its editors “make no hard distinctions between creative and critical enterprise.”

In addition to (mostly experimental) writing, the zine includes conversations and art. The main issues go up online, but Sublevel also publishes a supplementary print edition — called B-Sides. The first issue was edited by Maggie Nelson and Janice Lee — but both of these CalArts faculty members are leaving the institution this year, Maggie heading to USC and Janice to Portland State University. It’s unclear who’ll head up the second issue. In the meantime, enjoy browsing the first —

Westwind UCLA journal of the arts

Westwind. Unbeknownst to me until two weeks ago, the English department at UCLA has been publishing Westwind, UCLA’s journal of the arts, for over 50 years now!

These days, Westwind publishes online issues in the fall and winter, along with an annual print issue in the spring that you can pick up from UCLA’s English department office — or read online too. The journal has a strong focus on UCLA specifically and the LA-area more broadly. Submissions — which will reopen in the fall — are open only to “UCLA students, faculty, alumni, and members of the greater Los Angeles community.” Send in your fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, art, and music then —

Earlier: 12 Literary journals for Los Angeles writers

Photo of Westwind courtesy of Westwind

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Angels Flight • literary west Salon: Cocktails, cafeteria food, and literary conversation

Get your favorite cafeteria food and drink your fancy cocktails too — while enjoying literary conversations. Come to the next Angels Flight • literary west Salon — where I’ll be chatting with fellow author Lilliam Rivera!

But first about the salon: Put together by local literary journal Angels Flight • literary west, these monthly events happen at Clifton’s Republic in the second-floor Ballroom — a lovely historic space with idiosyncratic decor, including a lion that looks over the proceedings! Each event brings together a pair of featured writers who read a bit and discuss their work in conversation. Below are Matthew Specktor and Tyler Malone who talked at the February event.

Matthew Specktor and Tyler Malone at Angels Flight Literary West salon

Afterwards, a handful of writers recently published in the journal give lively readings. Then, attendees mingle, eat, and drink — since after all, Clifton’s has a cafeteria and a handful of bars with fancy cocktails.

In case you’re not familiar with Angels Flight • literary west, this online zine seeks specifically to “explore uncharted stories of Los Angeles and beyond,” with a new issue coming out every six months.

Want to read at a future salon? Submit your work to the journal for consideration! Want to attend future salons? Follow AFLW’s Facebook page to find out about the events.


And please do come to the next event: Angels Flight • literary west Salon With Lilliam Rivera & Siel Ju. Themed “The Good, the Bad & the In-Between: Choices & Redemption,” the event will feature me and Lilliam in conversation, reading and discussing our new books — my Cake Time and her YA novel The Education of Margot Sanchez.

There’ll also be readings by Patrick O’Neil, CLS Ferguson, Chris Daley Tod Goldberg, and Stephanie Zhong.

I’ll have early copies of Cake Time for sale and hope to see you there —
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Earlier: 12 Literary journals for Los Angeles writers

Top photo by Grant Palmer

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8 tiny pieces in New Flash Fiction Review

NewFlashAre they micropoems or microstories? I’m not sure — but eight of my tiny little prose works are now up in the latest issue of New Flash Fiction Review! Here’s one to whet your appetite:

The Good Day

I braced hard but what I feared did not happen.
For that I am grateful.

Each one’s about ten words long, so they’ll be a quick read. Hope you enjoy them! Let me know what you think —

Thank you to Nin Andrews, guest editor for this prose poetry issue. I’ve been a huge fan of Nin’s work since I read Why They Grow Wings back in grad school, so to have her read and take my work was a real treat.

Image from New Flash Fiction Review

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My novel-in-stories Cake Time to be published by Red Hen Press

redhenpressI’m excited and honored to announce my novel-in-stories Cake Time won the Red Hen Fiction Manuscript Award!

The book will come out in spring 2017 if all goes according to plan.

Thank you to everyone who read, critiqued, and listened to the stories in this work the last few years — including Peter Steinberg, Edan Lepucki, Paul Mandelbaum, Chris Corning, Travis Koplow, Tanya Knox, Shilpa Argawal, Katherine Motoike, and Carolyn Peters for your valuable feedback and Lauren Eggert-Crowe, David Rocklin, and Zoë Ruiz for giving me opportunities to share pieces of Cake Time at readings.

I’m so grateful to have you all in my life! Looking forward to working with everyone at Red Hen Press! And thank you in advance to the future readers who will pick up Cake Time —

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Book review in Los Angeles Review: Not Dark Yet by Berit Ellingsen

BeritMy first publication of 2016 is a book review of Berit Ellingsen‘s post-apocalyptic novel, Not Dark Yet:

Bombs. Strikes. Hate crimes. Droughts. Every nightly news broadcast seems catastrophic enough to require a visceral reaction from us—but what should that reaction be, exactly? In Berit Ellingsen’s novel Not Dark Yet, Brandon, the introspective protagonist, finds himself teetering between two extreme responses: a complete withdrawal from society, and a violent push to revolutionize it.

Read the rest at the Los Angeles Review. You can also pick up a copy of Not Dark Yet at Two Dollar Radio, one of my favorite indie publishers!

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2 flash fiction pieces in The Los Angeles Review

Los Angeles Review Fall 2015

The Los Angeles Review‘s brand new fall 2015 issue is now out — and contains within its pages two of my flash fiction pieces! Here’s an excerpt from the first, “The Panel”:

We, the six closest friends of the couple, were called on to serve on the panel. Our task was to determine who was in the right, the wife or the husband. To aid us in our decision we received a twenty-minute recording of an argument between the two, which we listened to carefully three times over the four-hour deliberation period.

Read the rest of that — plus another piece called “Social Psychology” — by picking up a copy of The Los Angeles Review, Volume 18.

The issue also contains a short piece called “Delorean” by Bryan Hurt, one of my favorite writers and a friend from grad school. Also, don’t miss Ryan Habermeyer’s “A Cosmonaut’s Guide to Microgravitic Reproduction” — which combines space travel and sex and loneliness and madness.

Lastly: Come hear me read “The Panel” and more at The Los Angeles Review’s reading! That’ll happen Thursday, November 12, 7 pm at Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse, 1010 Foothill Blvd, La Canada Flintridge, Calif. You’ll also get to hear The Los Angeles Review’s own fiction editor, Sean Bernard, and contributor Anna K. Scotti.