Read along as we visit with those who make up Los Angeles’s storytelling supply chain: writers, publishers, and booksellers. Alta Journal’s books editor, David L. Ulin, breakfasts with Percival Everett, whose newly released James recasts Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Our California Book Club editor, Anita Felicelli, interviews Lisa See about her latest historical novel and the importance of library research. Meanwhile, John Freeman, our CBC host, speaks with Viet Thanh Nguyen, winner of a Pulitzer Prize, about the urgent need to write outside the boundaries of genre and expectation. You’ll be taken to the Huntington Library’s basement stacks, meet independent publishers, tour the bustling aisles of indie bookstores, and become entranced by 1970s L.A. and the Black hipsters who made their marks there in fiction and film. Together, these stories—with a poem by former L.A. poet laureate Luis J. Rodriguez—present a literary life rich with beauty, tumult, and humanity.•
For 40 years, Percival Everett has been reinventing American literature. His latest novel, James, offers an alternate take on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. By David L. Ulin • Photos by Dustin Snipes
By Percival Everett
An L.A. writer forms the unlikeliest of friendships in the bowels of the Huntington Library. By Victoria Patterson • Photos by Anne Fishbein
Circle of History
The popular author’s latest novel relies on research, imagination, and discovering untold stories. By Anita Felicelli • Photos by Dustin Snipes
EXCERPT: LADY TAN’S CIRCLE OF WOMEN
By Lisa See
Poetry: “The Eastside of All Eastsides”
By Luis J. Rodriguez
Four Los Angeles Presses Committed to Independent Literature
Viet Thanh Nguyen’s books and lectures liberate challenging perspectives from the confines of genre, expectation, and academia. By John Freeman • Photos by Dustin Snipes
EXCERPT: A MAN OF TWO FACES: A MEMOIR, A HISTORY, A MEMORIAL
By Viet Thanh Nguyen
Bohemian Black Life, Circa 1974
Alison Mills Newman’s reissued novel, Francisco, describes the awakening of her 19-year-old self with intimacy and searing vitality. By Lynell George • Photos by Melissa Golden
TE MOANA-NUI-A-KIWA: OCEAN MEMORY
By Tayi Tibble
ASK A CLERK! L.A.’S INDIE BOOKSELLERS TELL ALL
- Colin Hinckley, Seller at Village Well Books & Coffee, Culver City
- Lynn Aime, Seller at Diesel, a Bookstore, Santa Monica
- Amanda Barillas, Book department supervisor at Vroman’s, Pasadena
- Claire Beyke, Seller at Chevalier’s Books, Larchmont Village
- Valerie Lesser, Seller at Skylight Books, Los Feliz
- Mads Gobbo, Store manager at North Figueroa Bookshop, Highland Park
