Writing the Golden State: The New Literary Terrain of California

by Carribean Fragoza, Romeo Guzmán, Samine Joudat

A collection of literary essays about California from some of the state’s most established, and most exciting upcoming writers.

Writing the Golden The New Literary Terrain of California explores California through twenty-five essays that look beyond the clichés of the “California Dream,” portraying a state that is deviant and recalcitrant, proud and humble, joyful and communal. It is a California that reclaims the beauty of the unwanted, the quotidian, and the out-of-place. Constantly in search of “the spirit of a place” Writing the Golden State pries into the themes of familial genealogy, migration, land and housing, and national belonging and identity.?Collectively, the essays demonstrate how individuals and towns have weathered some of the social, political, and economic changes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

192 pages, Hardcover

Published August 20, 2024

Reviews

[Sherrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful illustrated set of short personal essays about California that avoid the usual topics and famous places. The volume includes the voices of immigrants learning to love a new home, and long time residents who have watched things changed but are still fascinated by their native state. There are stories about Black Los Angeles neighborhods and gentrification, Latino kids enjoying punk rock in the Inland Empire, Asian Americans living in the lily white suburbs, the unique mix of ethnicities in the country's biggest port of San Pedro, and so much more. My only gripe is that I wish it was longer!