Alta Journal is a writer’s magazine. Our commitment to understanding life in California and the West extends to publishing short fiction distinguished by spirited writing, a strong sense of place, and creative storytelling in every issue. In 2025, we were pleased to present wholly original fiction—combined with artwork from award-winning illustrator Victor Juhasz—that reflects and honors the diversity of the West.
“Once Upon a Time in the Land of Children,” by Jane Vandenburgh
Longtime novelist and memoirist Jane Vandenburgh upends the conventions of a fairy tale to narrate the calamitous experiences of Miss Vandenburgh (an alter ego, perhaps?) while teaching language arts at Saint Anonymous, a Catholic middle school in Silicon Valley. The author’s inventions of, say, the “Time Period of Those with Low Self-Esteem,” the “Era of ADHD,” and the “Time Period of Money’s Becoming Truly Stupid” are in the same vein as “in that time” fairy tale tropes, but tweaked to meet the moment of today. After Miss Vandenburgh eschews the Bible and triumphantly teaches Treasure Island to her students, they honor her with an act of civil disobedience. The kids become a “flash mob and go up and down the aisles of a megastore, buying nothing.” Miss Vandenburgh is let go, and her exploits become the stuff of legend, myths embellished with each telling, something for the students to believe in.
“Renaissance, MT,” by Bridget Quinn
This story is Bridget Quinn’s first published work of fiction. The narrator is a young girl in 1970s Montana who emulates and venerates an older brother, James, for his skills as a painter and his ambition to leave their small town. His talents, however, attract scorn and ridicule from his peers and seven other siblings, who are more interested in sports, music, and fishing. Quinn’s writing is understated throughout, calling to mind Norman Maclean. Yet, it is her Chekhovian ending—an emotional disemboweling—with James’s unfinished painting of an “unearthly handsome” and athletic character that will haunt the reader.
“Cookie,” by Peter Orner
Prize-winning author Peter Orner masterfully weaves together his family history and the death of Hollywood starlet Karyn “Cookie” Kupcinet in this slice of fiction that appears in his novel The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter. Orner’s narrator is a novelist who travels to Los Angeles to investigate the circumstances of Cookie’s demise. Was it a suicide? An unsolved homicide? The answer Orner provides is another one entirely.
“Former Colleagues, Nothing More,” by Maceo Montoya
Maceo Montoya’s short story addresses #MeToo revelations rippling through the university where the narrator is a professor. In Montoya’s hands, the account of a sexual relationship between an instructor and a student becomes more emotionally charged when the narrator realizes that he once worked with the culprit and has much more in common with him than many people know. A chance encounter leads the narrator to reach out to his disgraced colleague for a beer. At a local bar, their meeting spirals toward violence, and afterward, the narrator is as damaged as the accused professor.•
Blaise Zerega is Alta Journal's editorial director. His journalism has appeared in Conde Nast Portfolio (deputy editor and part of founding team), WIRED (managing editor), the New Yorker, Forbes, and other publications. Additionally, he was the editor of Red Herring magazine, once the bible of Silicon Valley. Throughout his career, he has helped lead teams small and large to numerous honors, including multiple National Magazine Awards. He attended the United States Military Academy and New York University and received a Michener Fellowship for fiction from the Texas Center for Writers.
