The Fall 2009 issue of Santa Monica Review is available now.

Santa Monica College’s national literary arts journal, published twice yearly, showcases the literary voices of established authors and emerging writers. Founded by SMC English instructor Jim Krusoe (Iceland, Girl Factory, Erased), the Review has presented readers experimental, thoughtful, and funny works of fiction and nonfiction—including writing by well-known authors as Gary Amdahl, Alan Cheuse, Molly Giles, James Houston, Michelle Latiolais, Gary Soto, and Jervey Tervalon—during 20 years of publication, and has achieved a reputation as one of the West Coast’s leading journals. The magazine was recently honored with inclusion in the prestigious Best American Short Stories (2009) anthology, available now.

The Fall 2009 issue of Santa Monica Review, edited by Andrew Tonkovich, includes work by award-winning novelist and short story writer Peter LaSalle (Strange Sunlight, The Graves of Famous Writers), filmmaker Steve De Jarnatt (“Miracle Mile”) and San Francisco diarist Matthew Crain. Also featured are stories by SMC writing students Dawna Kemper and Nina Dutkevitch, both veterans of Jim Krusoe’s popular long-running fiction-writing workshop at the college.

Other contributors to the fall issue include first-time-in print short story writer Tracy Chait, novelist Gilad Elbom (Scream Queens of the Dead Sea) and UC Irvine creative writing alum Leila Mansouri.

Editor Tonkovich points to the Review as a place where high-quality longer work often finds a home, as exemplified in this issue with long short stories by contributors Blake Cass and Jack Garrett, both of whom have experience in writing for theater. “SMR has a reputation for printing longer fiction and nonfiction which might not show up in journals organized to make room for drawings, photos and poetry. We’ve tried to be a venue for careful, smart, longer stories and essays.” SMR has been celebrated for its commitment to filling this particular niche, occasionally even printing entire novellas.

Cover art for the Fall 2009 edition is by Bay Area photographer Alison McCreery.

Santa Monica Review is available for sale online at the SMC Bookstore as well as at Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center and Small World Books in Venice, and other local and national chain booksellers. Copies are also available by mail and by subscription through Santa Monica Review, Santa Monica College, 1900 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405.

For information on how to submit, see our guidelines page. No email submissions accepted.

Santa Monica Review • $7/issue • $12/year subscription

The Spring 2010 issue appears in April.

Complete contents of the Fall 2009 issue:

Dawna Kemper – Rondo
Gilad Elbom – Good Enough for God
Jack Garrett – Sunshine
Blake Cass – The Vanity of Harold Lee
Matthew Crain – Emphasis Mine
Leila Mansouri – The Sleeping
Tracy Chait – Outer Harbor
Nina Dutkevitch – “Nady”
Peter LaSalle – Two Literary Tales from Beyond the Crypt: The Death Mask of Machado de Assis and Found Fragment from the Report on the Cadaver Dogs of Northern Maine, 1962
Steve De Jarnatt – Chronicles of an Umbra Hound

Contributors:

Blake Cass is a playwright and short story writer. In his life he has been a house painter, valet, short-order cook, tele-salesman, half-hearted student, waiter, bar back, and general breaker of promises. He is currently living in Maine.

Tracy Chait is originally from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and now lives in Santa Monica. She received her M.A. from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. This is her first published story.

Matthew Crain was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, in 1962. He received an M.F.A. in Writing from Vermont College in 1993. His letters have appeared in a past issue of SMR. He lives in San Francisco and has published in Harper’s Magazine and Best American Short Stories 1998.

Steve De Jarnatt is trying to break OUT of show biz and be a full-time writer. He hails from the Pacific Northwest. His band, “Headcleaner,” nearly went gold on cassette by mistake in the ’80s. SMR published “Rubiaux Rising,” the first story he ever sent out, and he will always remain in their debt. (Proud editor’s note: “Rubiaux Rising” indeed appeared in the spring 2008 SMR and was also selected for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2009—A.T.)

Nina Dutkevitch is a student at Santa Monica College. She studies Creative Writing with Jim Krusoe and is currently at work on a novella.

Gilad Elbom is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, and the University of North Dakota. His first novel, Scream Queens of the Dead Sea, was published by Thunder’s Mouth Press in 2004. His new novel will be published as soon as he finds a powerhouse literary agent who believes in the commercial potential of self-referential fiction.

Jack Garrett recently moved back to Los Angeles after many years in Brooklyn, where he wrote for performance venues and theatre. His fiction has appeared in The New Orleans Review, Natural Bridge, Bald Ego, Eureka, and The Portland Review, and is forthcoming in Vulcan and Fugue. He is also an audiobooks narrator.

Dawna Kemper’s fiction has appeared in Colorado Review, The Florida Review, The Idaho Review, and Pearl, and new stories are forthcoming in Quarterly West and The Kenyon Review. Her work previously appeared in SMR in Fall 2005. She teaches at Santa Monica College, is an editorial assistant at SMR, and is working on a collection of short stories and a novel.

Peter LaSalle is the author of a novel, Strange Sunlight, and three short story collections: The Graves of Famous Writers, Hockey Sur Glace, and Tell Borges If You See Him. His work has been selected for a number of anthologies, including Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, Best American Fantasy, Best of the West, Sports Best Short Stories, and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. In 2005 he received the Award for Distinguished Prose from the Antioch Review. Previous work appears in SMR fall 1996, spring 1998, and fall 2006.

Leila Mansouri recently graduated from University of California, Irvine’s MFA program in fiction, where she was working on a collection of short stories called Cincinnatians. A Cincinnati native, she now lives in the Bay Area with her husband, Brandon, and their wall-eyed dog, Holly. She’s currently finishing up the short story collection and starting a novel.

Alison McCreery is a photographer living in San Francisco. She received a B.A. in Fine Art Photography from Cal State Northridge and has, after a ten-year marketing career, once again picked up her camera. The cover piece, “Chutes and Ladders,” is part of an ongoing project that looks at both the relics of a crumbling power structure and the opportunities in the current cultural moment.

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