From the Editors

Back in July, as we editors looked over the manuscript that would become Los Angeles Review Issue 6, we realized we had too much great material from too many wonderful writers to put everything between the covers of a single journal. No, we’re not going to switch to an online format, but we do want to share on the screen at least a taste of what you’ll find on paper.

We’d also like to give you a chance to become better acquainted with the superstars, the rising stars, and the previously undiscovered stars that fill the pages of Los Angeles Review. In the coming weeks you’ll see interviews, profiles, guest blogs, and podcasts featuring writers like Steve Almond, Lydia Davis, Alex Lemon, Wanda Coleman, Naseem Rahka, Michael Czyzniejewski, Martha Silano and more. We’d also like to give you a chance to get to know us–the current editors of Los Angeles Review.

When Red Hen Press Editor Kate Gale and Publisher Mark Cull created the journal, they imagined that the editorial staff would always consist of “journalists and bookstore people in LA.” Rather than a single editor or team year after year, Kate and Mark wanted to change things up so each issue of the Review would offer a different perspective on the West Coast literary landscape. They imagined a hybrid that would marry the resources of an independent publisher with the evolving aesthetic of successive academic editorial boards manned by creative writing students. They imagined a publication that remained solid, but edgy, with consistent quality and surprising choices. And most importantly, they wanted a journal that would give voice to the unheard voices in Southern California and beyond. In short, they wanted a publication that would reflect of the press as a whole, but in miniature.

However, as Kate Gale mentions in the forward to Issue 6, “that intellectual base”—made up of book reviewers and independent bookstore owners—“is a vanishing breed in this city.” Finding the manpower, or womanpower, to keep their concept viable proved problematic. So we, friends and supporters of the Red Hen vision, have gratefully stepped in to continue moving the Los Angeles Review forward–as imagined by the founding editors. We are graduates of the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts MFA program on Whidbey Island, Washington. We live in California, Oregon, Washington, and New Jersey. Some of us have spent formative years in LA; some have not. Some of us like traditional stories and forms; some prefer pieces that flout convention. Some of us are precise and organized; some keep buckets by the door to collect river rocks and other treasures. We are poets, teachers, freelancers, doctors, moms, and insatiable readers. In short, we reflect the literary landscape of the West Coast, but in miniature.

Thanks for taking time to visit our website. Check back often; we promise new content to surprise and delight. And don’t forget to click over to the Red Hen site—you’ll always find something happening. We’d love to hear what you think and what you’d like to see here. If you’re a writer, check out our submission guidelines and shoot us some poems or a piece of prose. We like surprise and delight, too!

Hope to see you back here soon.

Nancy Boutin, Managing Editor

Special thanks to Peter Davio for designing our beautiful new online home.