David Kipen at Review Launch March 31

Author Readings Celebrate Release of Santa Monica Review Spring 2019 Issue March 31

Launch Party Welcome by LA Literary Legend David Kipen; Review Will Also be at LA Times Festival of Books, April 13-14

SANTA MONICA, CA — Santa Monica College (SMC) announces the release of the spring 2019 issue of Santa Monica Review, SMC’s highly-regarded national literary arts journal. Published twice yearly, the Review showcases the work of established authors alongside emerging writers, with an emphasis on narratives of the West Coast. The Review is the only nationally distributed literary magazine published by a U.S. community college. A launch party will be held on Sunday, March 31, 2019, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in The Edye, located at the SMC Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica, CA 90401. Abundant free parking available on the premises.

Tickets are $10 and available at Brownpapertickets.com (search for “Santa Monica Review Presents . . .”). Refreshments will be served, and books will be available for purchase and author signing. The launch party will open with a welcome by the reviewer, editor, and LA literary arts booster David Kipen (Dear Los Angeles), with readings by journalist Erik Kongshaug, poet Kareem Tayyar, novelist Marilyn Manolakas, and short story writer Suzanne Greenberg.

The Review’s launch party, says Andrew Tonkovich, “invites longtime fans and subscribers, as well as new audiences, to one of the most supportive and celebratory, intimate, and reliably entertaining literary readings in Southern California. As we enter our fourth decade, I’m proud that SMC has maintained its commitment to the journal and its writers, supporting its presence at the LA Times Festival of Books and other community gatherings, distributing the magazine nationally, and sharing this great literary resource with other colleges, universities, and writing workshops.”

Tonkovich notes that many writers with work in the Review have developed projects that became books, including Vicki Forman (This Lovely Life: A Memoir of Premature Motherhood), Alisa Slaughter (Bad Habitats), and Gary Amdahl (Visigoth). Work by the Review’s contributors consistently appears in the annual Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories, and PEN/O. Henry anthologies, or as honorable mentions and notable stories or essays.

SMR at LA Times Festival of Books

Readers will also be able to meet the Santa Monica Review editor, contributors, and volunteer staff at the Santa Monica College/Santa Monica Review booth at the Los Angeles Times 2019 Festival of Books, on the campus of the University of Southern California, on Saturday and Sunday, April 13 and 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Spring 2019 Issue Highlights

The spring 2019 issue — edited by Tonkovich, who also hosts the weekly show “Bibliocracy” on KPFK (90.7 FM) — features 11 original pieces reflecting varieties of creative engagement in storytelling in both fiction and nonfiction. These include another installment in her novel-in-progress by Vicki Forman (This Lovely Life), as well as new work from past frequent contributors Gary Amdahl (The Intimidator Still Lives in Our Hearts), James Warner (All Her Father’s Guns), Suzanne Greenberg (Speed-Walk and Other Stories), and Geoff Wyss (How). Orange County teacher and editor Erik Rangno delivers a domestic dream-narrative, San Pedro journalist and essayist Erik Kongshaug meditates on his late father’s skyjacking, novelist Marilyn Manolakas offers a fictionalized telling of life in a famous Southern California cult, an award-winning poet and novelist Kareem Tayyar (The Prince of Orange County) combines imagination and reality in a tale of exile and arrival. First-time-in-print writer Matt Greene constructs a hilarious pitch-perfect satire, and Santa Monica College workshop veteran Erica Lansdown offers episodes in the life of a surfing girl who confronts the limits of love and the compromises of adulthood.

Cover art for the spring 2019 edition is by printmaker and psychoanalyst Carole Gelker.

Santa Monica Review was founded by editor, acclaimed novelist, and SMC creative writing instructor Jim Krusoe (Parsifal, The Sleep Garden) to showcase established authors and emerging writers. Over the past three decades, the Review has achieved a solid reputation as one of the West Coast's leading literary arts journals, and has presented experimental, thoughtful, and funny original writing — including essays and short stories by Gary Soto, Michelle Latiolais, David Ulin, Barry Gifford, Glen David Gold, and Victoria Patterson.

Santa Monica Review is available for purchase online 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 or call (949) 235-8193.

Santa Monica Review is a project of Santa Monica College, part of its mission to promote literacy and engagement with the literary arts in Southern California. Santa Monica College is a California Community College accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).