Ajay Orona
Ajay Orona is an associate editor at Alta Journal. He earned a master’s degree from USC Annenberg’s School of Journalism in 2021 and was honored with an Outstanding Specialized Journalism (The Arts) Scholar Award. His writing has appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books, Ampersand, and GeekOut.
Don’t Call Him Gay Ulysses
In this newsletter, we introduce Less, the February California Book Club selection, which offers the gift of defamiliarization.
Vision As Moral Act
The art of knowing oneself in Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Gold Coast.
A Time to Buy
An obsession with James Bond leads to another obsession: divers.
A Cacophony of Conjecture
Julie Otsuka’s The Swimmers, the September California Book Club pick, reveals the limits of language and plays with the range of possibilities for other timelines.
Blaze of Glory: The Fate of the International Space Station
Amid global tensions and the expansion of privatized space travel, the ISS may soon fall back to Earth.
Getting Away from It All
Take a $5 million three-day getaway to outer space’s hottest hotel.
Songs of the Stars
Explore a universe of space-themed music with Alta Journal’s Spotify playlist.
What to Read on Mars
Tesla founder Elon Musk packs a literary punch.
Have Space Agent, Will Travel
An archaic career makes a very modern comeback.
Sins of the Ancestors
After you finish Steph Cha’s Your House Will Pay, our June CBC selection, check out these four titles that also reveal the unrelenting power of a family’s past.
The Sleuth Connection
A former LAPD detective reveals the realities of police work and private investigation.
A Rat-Filled Casino
Drowsy apes and exorbitant prices were just the beginning. NFTs are stealing the spotlight and upending the art world. Their next trick: unlocking the metaverse.
Stay Awhile, Mr. Hughes
Four of Langston Hughes’s poems are in conversation with Natalie Diaz’s Postcolonial Love Poem.
Welcome to The New Hollywood
Peek inside Alta Journal’s Winter 2022 issue.
Street Fight
Boyle Heights’ DoorDash-sponsored murals and the backlash against fnnch’s honey bears reveal the polarizing rifts in the California guerrilla art community.
The Authentic Southern California of ‘The Barbarian Nurseries’
Four works that depict how the many live in SoCal.
Resilience Through Storytelling in ‘There There’
Certain insights from Tommy Orange’s debut novel about Urban Indians in Oakland resound across stories of the Armenian genocide as well.
Talking with Pete Galindo
The resurgence of street murals is exciting, but their popularity may come at a steep price.