Santa Monica College (SMC) announces the release of the Fall 2018 Thirtieth Anniversary issue of Santa Monica Review, SMC’s esteemed national literary arts journal. Published twice yearly, the Review showcases the work of established authors alongside emerging writers, with a focus on narratives of the West Coast, and is the only nationally distributed literary magazine published by a U.S. community college.
To celebrate the landmark issue, a launch party and Review author readings and other events will be held throughout the month of October at Santa Monica College and a number of other Southern California literary venues including Beyond Baroque, the Annenberg Beach House, Santa Monica Public Library, and UC Irvine.
The complete anniversary celebration lineup is:
- “Santa Monica Review Presents...” (Issue Launch Party)
5 p.m., Sunday, October 14 | The Edye at the SMC Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th Street (at Santa Monica Boulevard), Santa Monica.
Tickets: $10 (available on Brownpapertickets.com)
The launch party will open with a welcome by award-winning filmmaker (Miracle Mile) and short story writer Steve De Jarnatt, and will feature readings by four recent contributors to the magazine: Santa Monica Review founder Jim Krusoe (The Sleep Garden) and frequent contributors Vishwas Gaitonde, Dylan Landis (Normal People Don't Live Like This), and Richard Wirick (Kicking In).
Refreshments will be served, and books will be available for purchase and author signing. Abundant free parking available on premises.
- Santa Monica Review at Annenberg Community Beach House
Tuesday, October 9, at 6:30 p.m. | Annenberg Community Beach House(annenbergbeachhouse.com), 415 Pacific Coast Highway, Santa Monica. Free.
Review contributors read in a gorgeous public venue, presented by the Beach=Culture series, a program of the City of Santa Monica. Readings by short story master Stephen Cooper, David Ulin (The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time), Best American Short Storieswinner Steve De Jarnatt, and debut novelist Katya Apekina (The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish). Seating is on a first-arrival basis. Parking at the Annenberg’s lot is $3/hour.
- Santa Monica Review at Beyond Baroque
Sunday, October 21, at 7 p.m. | Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center (beyondbaroque.org), 681 Venice Boulevard, Venice.
Tickets: $10 at the door.
Venice’s landmark literary arts center welcomes Review editor Andrew Tonkovich and readers Molly Jackson, Dawna Kemper, JP Valliéres, and Yxta Maya Murray. Seating is on a first-arrival basis.
- Santa Monica Review at UC Irvine
Tuesday, October 23, at 5 p.m. | UC Irvine School of Humanities (illuminations.uci.edu), Humanities Gateway 1030, Irvine. Free.
Review editor Andrew Tonkovich and contributors to the magazine join a panel sponsored by UCI’s Illuminations series — “Campus Literary Magazines: An Enduring Commitment to Creativity and Community” — with representatives of six local literary journals, readings by literary magazine fansMichael Jaime-Becerra (This Time Tomorrow) and Michelle Latiolais (She). Refreshments and free copies of the magazine will be available. Seating is on a first-arrival basis. Parking is $10.
- Santa Monica Review at the Santa Monica Public Library (Montana Branch)
Saturday, October 27, 2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. | SMPL Montana Branch
1704 Montana Ave., Santa Monica 90401. Free.
Santa Monica Library's charming Montana Avenue branch hosts a reading by Rhoda Huffey (The Hallelujah Side) short story writer Brian Ingram, and frequent contributor and editor Lisa Alvarez.
The Thirtieth Anniversary Issue – edited by Andrew Tonkovich, who also hosts the weekly show“Bibliocracy” on KPFK (90.7 FM) – features 15 original pieces, including work from Review founder Jim Krusoe and frequent contributors Janice Shapiro (Bummer), Monona Wali (My Blue Skin Lover), Richard Wirick (Kicking In), and acclaimed John Fante biographer and story writer Stephen Cooper.
Late longtime friend of the journal Robley Wilson (After Paradise) shares a story of remembrance and loss. SoCal writer Linda Purdy delivers another elegant meditation, Diane Gurman takes a hilarious if instructively doomed middle-aged road trip, and SMC creative writing workshop student Molly Jacksoncrafts an eerie domestic drama.
Writers Casey Walker (Last Days in Shanghai) and Brian Ingram make their Review debuts, as does novelist Yxta Maya Murray (The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Kidnapped) with a multi-voiced fiction exploring creativity, motherhood, and their economic relationship.
The 200-page special expanded edition features long and short work and, for the first time, graphic storytelling. Combining interrogations of both reality and imagination, the stylistic range of this anniversary issue includes traditional, as well as experimental writing in a reliably eclectic and challenging literary mash-up in keeping with the iconoclastic magazine’s tradition as initiated by founder Jim Krusoe.
Santa Monica Review is available for sale online (www2.smc.edu/sm_review) and at the SMC Campus Store, Beyond Baroque in Venice, and other area booksellers. Copies are also available by mail and by subscription through Santa Monica Review, Santa Monica College, 1900 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica 90405.
The publication costs $7 per issue or $12 for the two issues each year. For more information, visit the Santa Monica Review website (www2.smc.edu/sm_review) or call 949-235-8193
Submitted by Grace Smith
