In her new novel, Carol Edgarian re-creates the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
In The Committed, Viet Thanh Nguyen follows up on his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Sympathizer.
The North Beach icon who inspired countless writers and activists is memorialized by fans across the globe.
Alta Journal editors recommend the titles that best represent the poet’s talent and scope.
Annalee Newitz’s Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age suggests where we’re going by examining where we’ve been.
Katherine Seligman’s At the Edge of the Haight is a novel about San Francisco’s unhoused.
Karen Tei Yamashita’s Sansei and Sensibility channels Jane Austen through a contemporary lens.
A perfect festival of fairies, gnomes, and kings prompts a mother’s insecurity in this excerpt from Sarah Shun-lien Bynum’s Likes.
Don’t start your day without reading this must-sip morning scene from author Dinah Lenney.
In Love Is an Ex-Country, Randa Jarrar takes a look at America—and herself.
This work from leading Native American poet Linda Hogan appeared in Alta’s Winter 2021 issue.
Victoria Chang’s Obit, which was inspired by the death of her mother, frames grieving as a part of life.
Tod Goldberg finds grace and desperation in The Low Desert.
With Let Me Tell You What I Mean, Joan Didion ties up the loose ends of a literary life.
The Desert Notebooks author reveals why the Mojave is a great place to ask really big questions, namely: Why are we here?
The author’s memoir, Unforgetting, explores the connections between violence in El Salvador and the United States.
