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MY CALIFORNIA
Journeys by Great Writers

edited by Donna Wares

My California: Journeys by Great Writers is a collaboration between Angel City Press and CaliforniaAuthors.com.

All publishing proceeds benefit the California Arts Council, an agency which was forced to suspend school writing, arts education programs and other grants in 2003 because of state budget cutbacks. Since its publication, more than $65,000 from sale of this book has been donated to literary programs in California schools.

To make the project possible, all of the writers donated their work. Malloy Incorporated generously donated the first printing of the book. The CaliforniaAuthors.com editor and creative director and the team at Angel City Press — including the sales manager and representatives who work with Angel City Press — are also contributing their services and talents. Los Angeles publicist Jackie Green is donating her services, too.

In addition, world-renown artist David Hockney and the J. Paul Getty Museum have contributed use of Hockney’s "Pearblossom Hwy (11-18th April 1986 — second version)" on the cover. Read more about the cover here.

Read more about the authors and journalists featured in My California here.

Contributed essays:

  • Introduction — Pico Iyer (read it at CaliforniaAuthors.com)
  • The Big Valley — Mark Arax
  • Transients in Paradise — Aimee Liu
  • Showing Off the Owens — T. Jefferson Parker
  • The Distant Cataract About Which We Do Not Speak — Mary Mackey
  • Ode to CalTrans — Héctor Tobar
  • Montalvo, Myths and Dreams of Home — Thomas Steinbeck<>
  • The Last Little Beach Town — Edward Humes
  • Surfacing — Matt Warshaw
  • Bienvenidos a Newport Beach — Firoozeh Dumas
  • Cotton Candy Mirrors — devorah major
  • Berkeley — Michael Chabon
  • California Honky-tonk — Kathi Kamen Goldmark
  • 909 — Percival Everett
  • The Line — Rubén Martínez
  • Flirting with Urbanismo — Patt Morrison
  • Waters of Tranquility — Carolyn See
  • An Ordinary Place — D.J. Waldie
  • Almost Home — Gerald Haslam
  • My Little Saigon — Anh Do
  • The Nicest Person in San Francisco — Derek M. Powazek
  • The Un-California — Daniel Weintraub
  • Rocks in the Shape of Billy Martin — Deanne Stillman
  • How Many Angels — David Kipen
  • Centered — Veronique de Turenne
  • Returning After Fire — Chryss Yost
  • On Being a California Poet — Dana Gioia
MY CALIFORNIA cover image
click on cover to see larger version
 208 pages

ISBN-10 1-883318-43-2; $16.95; 6x9"; paperbound

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Excerpts

Kudos:
  • Lonely Planet's California (2006 ed.) lists My California as the first in a group of books to read "to get you in the mood for your trip... read this title which paints vivid pictures of the land and society you're about to visit." ... "an insightful collection of stories about the Golden State by 27 of its finest chroniclers."
  • We are very pleased that the cities of Santa Barbara, Sacramento and Whittier have joined Long Beach by including My California in their Community-wide Reads events.


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