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Special Section: Los Angeles Storytellers
INTRODUCTION
A dream factory for literature.
American Diction
For 40 years, Percival Everett has been reinventing American literature. His latest novel, James, offers an alternate take on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. By David L. Ulin • Photos by Dustin Snipes
EXCERPT: JAMES
By Percival Everett
Basement Buddies
An L.A. writer forms the unlikeliest of friendships in the bowels of the Huntington Library. By Victoria Patterson • Photos by Anne Fishbein
Circle of History
The popular author’s latest novel relies on research, imagination, and discovering untold stories. By Anita Felicelli • Photos by Dustin Snipes
EXCERPT: LADY TAN’S CIRCLE OF WOMEN
By Lisa See
Poetry: “The Eastside of All Eastsides”
By Luis J. Rodriguez
Alta Picks: Socal Revolution
Four Los Angeles Presses Committed to Independent Literature
The Action of Ideas
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s books and lectures liberate challenging perspectives from the confines of genre, expectation, and academia. By John Freeman • Photos by Dustin Snipes
EXCERPT: A MAN OF TWO FACES: A MEMOIR, A HISTORY, A MEMORIAL
By Viet Thanh Nguyen
Bohemian Black Life, Circa 1974
Alison Mills Newman’s reissued novel, Francisco, describes the awakening of her 19-year-old self with intimacy and searing vitality. By Lynell George • Photos by Melissa Golden
TE MOANA-NUI-A-KIWA: OCEAN MEMORY
By Tayi Tibble
ASK A CLERK! L.A.’S INDIE BOOKSELLERS TELL ALL
- Colin Hinckley, Seller at Village Well Books & Coffee, Culver City
- Lynn Aime, Seller at Diesel, a Bookstore, Santa Monica
- Amanda Barillas, Book department supervisor at Vroman’s, Pasadena
- Claire Beyke, Seller at Chevalier’s Books, Larchmont Village
- Valerie Lesser, Seller at Skylight Books, Los Feliz
- Mads Gobbo, Store manager at North Figueroa Bookshop, Highland Park
Feature
The Art of Participation
Lee Mingwei hopes that people will never be the same—in a good way—after interacting with his latest exhibition. By Jessica Zack
FALLING IN AND OUT OF LOVE WITH SIERRA ON-LINE
Roberta Williams’s pioneering PC games ignited the author’s dreams of designing her own. But like many other girls, she was discouraged from entering a field involving math and technology. By Joy Lanzendorfer • Illustrations by Chris Sickels/Red Nose Studio
Will Success Spoil Pioneertown?
A tiny outpost in the Mojave has become ground zero for a battle between lifestyle influencers and desert lifers. By Stacey Grenrock Woods • Photos by Matthew Smith
THE ARTIST AS WORDSMITH
The Ed Ruscha retrospective at LACMA—Now Then—takes on big questions about the passage of time and the march of civilization. By Hunter Drohojowska-Philp
John Coplans’s Artforum
The trailblazing publication left behind San Francisco’s provincialism to help establish the Los Angeles scene before decamping for the brighter lights of New York. Incisive criticism, the championing of pop art, and distinctive square covers are just a tiny part of this cofounder’s legacy. By Joe Fyfe
The Problem Is Industrialism
The industrial system is a pseudo-organism, and its survival entails the exclusion, and so finally the destruction, of social and natural systems. By Wendell Berry • Illustrations by Matt Mahurin
Dispatches
The Old Man and the Sea
At 42, I decided to learn how to surf. What could go wrong? By Santi Elijah Holley • Photos by Tod Seelie
From Rigs to Reefs
Aging oil platforms off the California coast are home to millions of sea creatures. What to do with these structures? By Katharine Gammon • Photos by Spencer Lowell
RECONSIDERING THE RATTLESNAKE
Scientists are pushing back on long-held misconceptions about one of the West’s most emblematic creatures. By Robert Ito
REEL REPTILES
Five movies starring rattlers. By Robert Ito
Books
Why I Write: Blood, Exile, Longing, Obstinate Memory
By Jessica Hagedorn
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS: The Gangster of Love
By David L. Ulin
Why I Write: Turn Off the Calculating Mind!
By Gary Snyder
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS: RIPRAP AND COLD MOUNTAIN POEMS AND THE PRACTICE OF THE WILD
By David L. Ulin
Why I Write: For Other Chepitos Around the World
By Javier Zamora
WHY YOU SHOULD READ THIS: SOLITO
By David L. Ulin
The Latin Lover’s Affair with Verse
On-screen, Rudolph Valentino delivered liquid poetry. On paper, not so much. By Kathleen Rooney • Illustration by Anita Kunz
Culture
Poetry: “May Gray”
By Jia-Rui Cook
Fiction: “Chinese School”
By Sylvia Brownrigg • Illustrations by Victor Juhasz
Every Issue
Publisher’s Note: Culture of Creativity
By Will Hearst
Crossword: CURL UP WITH A BOOK
By Rebecca Goldstein and Rafael Musa
