Santa Monica College (SMC) has announced the release of the fall 2019 issue of Santa Monica Review, its 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, an issue launch party featuring Review author readings will be held at Santa Monica College. The party — “Santa Monica Review Presents...” — will be held at 5 p.m. on Sunday, October 27, in The Edye at the SMC Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th Street (at Santa Monica Boulevard), Santa Monica.
Tickets for the launch party — available through Brownpapertickets.com (search “Santa Monica Review Presents…”— cost $10. Refreshments will be served, and books will be available for purchase and author signing. Abundant free parking available on premises.
The celebration will be introduced by editor and anthologist Susan LaTempa (Paperback LA), and feature readings by four recent contributors to the magazine: short story writers Abby Walthausen and Catherine Sustana, recent JuxtaProse Fiction Prize award winner Jaime Campbell, and critic and novelist Yxta Maya Murray (Locas).
The latest issue of Santa Monica Review — edited by Andrew Tonkovich, also host of the weekly show “Bibliocracy” on KPFK (90.7 FM) — features 14 original pieces, with work from first-time and returning contributors, most writing in Southern California and the West. Political irony and humor, meditations on art and family, and a surprising if welcome number of love stories inform the contents of what longtime editor Tonkovich calls an especially rich, powerful edition of the magazine.
Orange County writer Jaime Campbell conflates natural and human crises in a story of perverse redemption. Also from OC, Denise Heyt McEvoy sends up YouTubeculture by way of marital devotion. UC Irvine MFA Ross Green examines modern romance in public, with unflinching self-consciousness and wit. PhD candidate Daniel Uncapher cleverly deconstructs time, place, language, and politics in a hilarious critique of genre fiction.
Longtime friend of the journal Michael Cadnum (Earthquake Murder) delivers more absurdist literary violence, and SMR stalwart Andrew Nicholls — veteran TV writer and playwright — blends humor and obsession. Mona Leigh Rose, flash-fiction award-winner, offers self-reflective feminist cultural satire. Critic and fiction writer Yxta Maya Murray constructs an algorithm of action and responsibility to address the problem of art and the Self. Gregory Spatz (Half as Happy) confronts mortality, momentum, and memory.
Novelist (Inland Empire) and short story writer (Salton Sea) George McCormick dramatizes slowly, elegantly, and authentically lives of skateboarding, filmmaking, and youthful ideals. Laura Glen Louis (Talking in the Dark) considers the resonance in a singular family meditation practice with roots. Poet, naturalist, and fiction innovatorCharles Hood (Partially Excited States) reports from Morocco on animal-watching, autism, and anti-social wildlife adventurers. Catherine Sustana writes a dog story in Country-Western socio-political vernacular. Abby Walthausen does class privilege, childcare, and motherhood in LA.
Editor Tonkovich calls the writing in this issue solid and mature. “It’s genre-boundless, always smart, and gorgeous writing,” he says, “whether in long, poetic lines or economical and vividly urgent plot-smart and purposefully contrived shorter stories. After two decades of considering manuscripts for publication, I’m especially impressed with how easy it is to identify the obvious stand-outs, the must-read and must-publish work.”
Cover art for the fall 2019 edition is by celebrated Puerto Rican graphic artist and filmmaker Poli Marichal.
The Review’s launch party, says Tonkovich, “is the most intense, low-cost, welcoming literary salon in town, offering easy entrée into SoCal lit culture at a fun venue.”
Cover art for the fall 2019 issue is by celebrated Puerto Rican graphic artist and filmmaker Poli Marichal.
Santa Monica Review is available for sale online (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 (smc.edu/sm_review) or call 949-235-8193.
Submitted by Grace Smith, SMC Public Information Officer
