Alta Editors

A longtime tennis fan reveals how times have changed at a famed 52-year-old tennis tournament.

A Los Angeles mom recounts her family’s infamous bout with head lice.

Skip the standard gadgets and golf shirts. From gritty Los Angeles noir to timeless Western epics, here is the ultimate Alta reading list for the dad who values a great page-turner.

From Mojave mysteries and sober wine-country detours to the cultural wonders of Highway 99, these routes bypass the standard postcard to reveal the true soul of the Golden State with a literary twist.

Photographer Carolyn Fong and artists Zoe Matthiessen and Melinda Beck received accolades for their work in the magazine.

Ten picks for mom from Alta’s pages and store: California novels, mother-daughter memoirs, and one beautifully made book of poems for the reader who keeps her shelves curated.

Thinking of writing a short story? The next great American novel? Here are five books praised by novices and prize-winning authors alike.

An Alta Journal reader remembers the Chicano rock movement of the 1960s.

From noir to oral history to visionary speculative fiction, this year’s standout titles reveal the stories shaping life in the West and beyond.

Alta Journal ’s monthly conversations feature great authors talking about their great work—think Viet Thanh Nguyen, Manjula Martin, and Ada Limón. Here are brief clips from their absorbing conversations to whet your appetite for more.

Remembering Los Angeles’s Mad men era.

It’s no picnic to get to the Airport in the Sky.

Alta Journal ’s editorial team is honored at the San Francisco Press Club’s 2025 Journalism Awards.

When it comes to the cost of a bottle of wine, the proof is in the taste, not the total.

A tech-industry veteran confirms AI’s East Coast start.

From the Amazon and the Caribbean to the Himalayas and Florida, these five works—fiction and nonfiction—show Matthiessen at his fiercest and most humane.

Highlights from our Monday Book Review newsletter.

Highlights from our Monday Book Review newsletter.

The impossible task of selecting the top 25 California novels.

Of the 25 books Alta Journal selected as definitive Golden State titles, these eight have already been California Book Club picks.

Book collectors take note: first editions of some of our 25 picks cost a pretty penny.

Some of California's most famous authors were regulars at these three spots.

How did Alta Journal come up with our list of 25 Books That's Define California? Read on.

These California booksellers are always happy to help you find the right book—including their picks for favorite Golden State titles.

Several of the titles that made Alta's '25 Books That Define California' list were made into major motion pictures—including these four.

Five Los Angeles photographers capture their city during the fires.

Titles by Dave Eggers, Laila Lalami, Danzy Senna, Tobias Wolff, and Gary Snyder are among those highlighted in these thoughtful essays.

Whether catching up with comedians, slurping meat Jell-O, or honoring punk rock in Las Vegas, this year’s Alta Weekly Newsletter contributors went there.

This year’s Weekend Reads had everything from mountains and forests to auteurs and science fiction predictions.

From bears and whales to fine art and YouTube sensations, this year’s top Alta Live episodes included a lot of fascinating information, a few surprises, and one Oscar nominee who was slightly distracted by a football match.

From love and heartbreak to taco trucks and the Golden State Warriors, this past year’s poetic offerings span topics as diverse as Alta’s poet contributors.

This year, our illustrators visualized industrialism, crime scenes, virtual worlds, and more. Take a peek at these eye-catching images from the pages of Alta.

Stories about New Age grifters, pioneer life, and YouTube stars drew readers from all over the world this year.

Our photographers went to the sea, the desert, Vietnam, and Los Angeles to capture intriguing scenes and subjects this year.

Our readers had questions about Disneyland, “California sobriety,” and Cybertrucks. Our columnists, Stacey Grenrock Woods and Gustavo Arellano had answers—lots of ’em.

Unwind with this collection of short stories from writers Dagoberto Gilb, Sylvia Brownrigg, and Lisa Teasley.

This year’s top reviews included titles by Danzy Senna, Rachel Kushner, Nisi Shawl, and more.

Author Rachel Khong, special guest Mimi Lok, and California Book Club host John Freeman gathered to discuss memory, friendship, time, and Khong’s novel Goodbye, Vitamin, the December selection.

Print, web, newsletters, and the California Book Club were all singled out by the Los Angeles Press Club judges.

A reader from Cottonwood, California, feels moved to share her cult connection.

We’re launching a newsletter about what’s happening at Getty’s PST Art festival.

The Association of Illustrators names the Alta Journal contributor the Professional Overall winner in its global illustration competition.

Think you’ve solved Alta Journal’s word scrables? Check your answers here.

How well do you know our California Book Club selections? Test your knowledge with word scrambles of some of the books and authors featured at our monthly virtual gathering.

Valerie Lesser, seller at Skylight Books, Los Feliz, reveals her favorite book about Los Angeles.

Mads Gobbo, store manager at North Figueroa Bookshop, Highland Park, encourages customers to go old-school.

Claire Beyke, seller at Chevalier’s Books, Larchmont Village, enjoys her regular celebrity shoppers.

Amanda Barillas, book department supervisor at Vroman’s Bookstore, Pasadena, makes a a few unusual recommendations.

Colin Hinckley, seller at Village Well Books & Coffee, Culver City, reveals his favorite underrated book.

Lynn Aime, seller at Diesel, a Bookstore, Santa Monica, shares a surprising customer moment.

Pop quiz! Test your Los Angeles Storytellers knowledge (and check your Alta Journal article information retention.)

Pop quiz! Test your Baja knowledge (and check your Alta Journal article information retention.)

Each winter, hundreds of gray whales stop at Baja’s Laguna San Ignacio to give birth—and invite humans to meet their calves.

This year’s book reviews, featuring titles by authors like Claire Dederer, Héctor Tobar, and Sly Stone, highlighted the diversity of fiction and nonfiction that originates in California and the West.

The only “favorites” our editors have are the stories that you see published in Alta—but when pressed to pick a handful of highlights for the end of the year, they deemed these selections from writers including Ishmael Reed, Rachel Howzell Hall, and Lynell George worthy of a second satisfying read.

Titles by Andrew Sean Greer, Isabel Allende, Percival Everett, Hua Hsu, and Jennifer Egan are among those highlighted in these eye-opening essays.

Poems by Tayi Tibble, Matthew Zapruder, Ishmael Reed, James Cagney, and others graced the pages of Alta this year.

Witty Altatude comics by Kate Isenberg, Paul Noth, Jim Shoenbill, Lynn Hsu, Kaamran Hafeez, Achaz von Hardenberg, Asher Perlman, David Ostow, Ken Levine, and Ellis Rosen left us in stitches this year.

Considering that Alta was named a National Magazine Awards finalist last year for the fiction we published, we worked hard—with incredibly talented writers—to keep up the killer quality of the short stories featured in the pages of the magazine. These reads live up to the hype.

Folksy singer-songwriters, faux populists, real punks, wannabe Angelenos, and a scrappy Bay Area baseball team were on the minds of Alta Newsletter writers this year.

In our third year, Alta Journal’s (now award-winning!) weekly interview series welcomed guests such as Jane Smiley, Doug Peacock, and professor Peter Alagona.

Alta illustrators transform the written words of our magazine into art—and their process is usually a pretty fascinating one. We rounded up Victor Juhasz, Anita Kunz, Hokyoung Kim, and more to share their favorite work from this year.

Scott Baxter, Alejandro Cegarra, Penni Gladstone, and more of Alta’s contributing photographers helped make the past year one of the most visually exciting for Alta’s readers.