Heather Scott Partington
Heather Scott Partington is a writer, teacher, and book critic. She is a regular contributor to Alta Journal and a board member of the National Book Critics Circle, where she serves as fiction chair. Her writing has appeared in publications such as the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in Elk Grove, California.
Through the Lens of Solastalgia
Critic Heather Scott Partington writes about Manjula Martin’s The Last Fire Season and the loss of Partington’s grandfather during the LNU Lightning Complex Fires.
Sitting with Ambiguity
Rebecca Solnit’s essay collection No Straight Road Takes You There praises the indirect and unquantifiable.
The Tortilla Curtain
T.C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain exposes California’s dark divide between liberal ideals and harsh realities for immigrants and the poor.
The Joy Luck Club
Explore how Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club bridges generations and cultures in San Francisco, highlighting immigrant roots and the power of storytelling.
Devil in a Blue Dress
Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress redefines noir, exposing racial tensions in postwar L.A. through the lens of detective fiction.
Fat City
Explore Leonard Gardner’s Fat City, a gritty portrait of California dreams fading in 1950s Stockton through two boxers’ struggles.
Mecca
Susan Straight’s Mecca explores fire, survival, and identity in California, following working-class lives amid natural and social upheaval.
Encroaching on Dreams
Laila Lalami’s The Dream Hotel may be speculative fiction, but it pushes us to look at our current tech reality.
‘The Consequences’: Giving Voice to Ghosts
In this newsletter, critic Heather Scott Partington writes about Manuel Muñoz’s Central Valley and her own.
Less Is Earnest
Reading Andrew Sean Greer’s novel Less, the February California Book Club selection, writers will be submerged in well-crafted, funny reflections of their own anxieties.
Mutual Aid
Kathryn Ma’s The Chinese Groove is a bildungsroman.
Inside Out
The characters in Manuel Muñoz’s The Consequences are hesitant to reveal too much.
The Apartment
Tess Gunty’s The Rabbit Hutch is a first novel of uncommon power.
Promised Land
In Mecca, Susan Straight shows us ourselves.
My Brilliant Friend
Judith Freeman’s MacArthur Park represents a homecoming—in more ways than one.
Ancient Voices of Children
In The Mysteries, Marisa Silver embodies the inner lives of two young girls.
The Girl in the Well
In Kathy Fiscus, William Deverell reconstructs an American tragedy.
The Day the Earth Stood Still
In her novel Vera, Carol Edgarian revisits the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.
Talking with Ben Ehrenreich
The Desert Notebooks author reveals why the Mojave is a great place to ask really big questions, namely: Why are we here?
Talking with Roberto Lovato
The author’s memoir, Unforgetting, explores the connections between violence in El Salvador and the United States.
Live Through This
In A Kingdom of Tender Colors, Seth Greenland recalls his cancer diagnosis and recovery with humor and grace.
Attica Locke Makes Her Movie Case
The mystery author explains why A Soldier’s Story is her favorite whodunit.
The Killer Inside Tod Goldberg
The author and Alta contributor picks Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me as his top noir classic.
Naomi Hirahara’s Favorite Noir Story
The Edgar Award–winning mystery writer takes a stab at a classic.
Gary Phillips’s Favorite Noir
The prolific novelist explains why, just like the beat of a great film score, he can’t shake Fast One.
Talking with Steve Erickson
The author of 2017’s Shadowbahn says that “right now history is outpacing the imagination” and “writing definitely needs to get bigger.”
Talking with Charlie Jane Anders
The author of The City in the Middle of the Night says her writing asks, “What does it mean to be a good person during horrible, unjust times?”
Talking with Sara Borjas
Talking with Alex Espinoza
Three Questions with Brian Evenson
Three Questions with Lawrence Wright
