Daniel A. Olivas: Our Stories Are Important
FROM: Roanoke Review
Daniel A. Olivas is the author of nine books and editor of two anthologies. His latest books are The King of Lighting Fixtures: Stories (University of Arizona Press, 2017) and Crossing the Border: Collected Poems (Pact Press, 2017). Widely anthologized, Olivas has written for many publications, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Guardian, and BOMB. His writing has appeared in many literary journals, including PANK, Fairy Tale Review, MacGuffin, New Madrid, and The Prairie Schooner Blog. He shares blogging duties at La Bloga, which is dedicated to Chicanx and Latinx literature.
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Pizza Girl, Jean Kyoung Frazier’s explosive debut novel, everything changes on a Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. Our nameless narrator is eighteen, pregnant, and feeling adrift as she stumbles through her days as a Los Angeles pizza delivery driver, all the while grieving the death of her alcoholic father and avoiding the smothering ministrations of her loving mother and boyfriend. When a suburban housewife named Jenny Hauser calls in with a peculiar order for a pepperoni and pickle pizza, Pizza Girl’s collision with Jenny sends her tailspinning into a psychosexual obsession with dangerous consequences.
Genevieve Kaplan: I met Michelle Brittan Rosado’s poems when she read from her just-released chapbook, Theory on Falling into a Reef (Anhinga Press, 2016), and I remember being so captivated by her work, which is precise, narrative, and moving as well as inventive and musical. Michelle’s poems tend to feel very located in our shared landscape of California, they make keen observations, and they speak to directly readers. When her full-length book, Why Can’t It Be Tenderness, was selected by Aimee Nezhukumatathil for the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry and published by University of Wisconsin Press, of course I wanted to talk with her more about it! Happily, Michelle, the PR poetry judge this year, agreed to offer insights into her poetic process and attentions. Read on:
When it comes to submitting work to literary magazines for publication consideration, there are two strategies: 
Chicano revolutionary poet Matt Sedillo met up with Viva Padilla (proper masks were worn) in El Sereno this past weekend to catch up and talk about his newest poetry collection Mowing Leaves of Grass (published by 
It was approximately 7:00pm on February 27th, 2020 when I sat down with poet Luivette Resto in the small courtyard of Woodbury University’s campus library, empty and silent in the late-night hour. As a slight chill settled in the air, we chatted to the soothing patter of the courtyard fountain, occasionally pausing our conversation as we listened to the droning roar of an airplane flying overhead, courtesy of the nearby Burbank airport. Illuminated by the soft yellow glow of the lights strung above us, we talked about Luivette’s work, her inspiration, goals, and her commitment to living an “unapologetic” life.
Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Cardenas.
Los Ángeles native Amanda Gorman, the U.S.’s inaugural youth poet laureate, is offering Americans some words of inspiration to help get through this stressful time. Her words, like all poetry, helps people understand the world around them, to help contextualize and organize discordant aspects of our lives. Former Poet Laureate of Los Ángeles Luis J. Rodriguez says, “Her poetry draws on deep ideas, images, stories and concerns. She exudes confidence in her voice, her presentation and in the social issues she considers paramount.”
Los Angeles Literature 