Nasim Ghasemiyeh
Nasim Ghasemiyeh is an assistant editor at Alta Journal. She graduated with a degree in rhetoric from UC Berkeley.

The Honorable Narration of Children
Here are four books to read after Gordo, the December California Book Club selection, that utilize child characters and narrators to deepen their insights.

Best Sellers
An issue celebrating our favorite bookstores.

The Asteroid Hit and Miss List
With Hollywood-style timing, the next near miss is projected for the Fourth of July.

The Startup That Is Looking Up
One company is exploring the skyrocketing business of pizza delivery.

More Desert/Sierra Bookstores
Wonderland Books, Red Rock Books, Word After Word, and 5 more Desert/Sierra independent bookstores we love.

Deep into Didion
A closer look at Alta Journal’s spring 2022 issue.

Creating the Self in ‘The Argonauts’
In this week’s newsletter, we look at Maggie Nelson’s exploration of what it means to experience changes to body and self in her memoir.

Friends and Images: Constructing a Self
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum’s short story “Julia and Sunny” in Likes explores one couple’s intense idealization of another romantic relationship.

Top Literary Coverage from Alta Journal’s California Book Club
Marquee writers, including Paul Beatty, May-lee Chai, John Freeman, and Paul Yamazaki, contributed to an expansive collection of pieces about our 2021 California Book Club selections.

Alta Journal Fiction 2021
Short fiction by Carribean Fragoza, Vanessa Hua, Kailyn McCord, and Blaise Zerega livened the pages of Alta.

Five Polyphonic Films for After You Read ‘There There’
Like Tommy Orange’s novel, these are works that tell viewers separate stories before revealing their characters’ interconnectedness.

Saving Bookstores in the Age of Amazon
Booksellers Try to Imagine a Future For Themselves. Will Readers Buy It?

Shattering Form: Five Books to Read After ‘The Woman Warrior’
Like Kingston’s memoir, these five experimental, genre-bending books suggest that we are each made of many selves.

Alta Picks: Towering Assemblages
Get lost among found objects.

Stories: Death and the Female Body
Carribean Fragoza on the brilliance of decay.

Alta Picks: Back to Nature
See Yosemite through Ansel Adams’s eyes.

Alta Picks: Activist Installations
Provocative messages in a barren landscape.

Alta Picks: Public Works
This SoCal town’s murals are all sweet, never sour.

History: Battling Slavery in California
Julia Flynn Siler on researching trauma for The White Devil’s Daughters.

Recommended Films That Showcase the Social Impacts of Disaster
Here are five disaster films that explore some of the same questions raised in Rebecca Solnit’s A Paradise Built in Hell.

Alta Picks: Survive
A one-stop shop for taking on the great outdoors in style.

Alta Picks: Discover
Start the next gold rush with this mining kit.

Alta Picks: Shoes from Plastic Water Bottles
Rothy’s puts its best foot forward with machine-washable shoes made from recyclables.

Alta Picks: Skateboard-Scrap Bottle Opener
Crack open a beer in skateboarder style.

Alta Picks: The Pizza Box Goes Round
This Sonoma Valley company thinks outside the box.

Alta Picks: Bamboo Toilet Paper
Save the planet with every flush.

Ferlinghetti’s Light Shines On
The North Beach icon who inspired countless writers and activists is memorialized by fans across the globe.

Event Recap: Why Walter Mosley Writes
The author of Devil in a Blue Dress says his Easy Rawlins character represents “an aspect of Black consciousness.”