By Pallas Gutierrez The last time The Coachella Review checked in with Daniel A. Olivas, we published a review of his short story collection My Chicano Heart, a work that we described as both experimental and expertly crafted, starkly realistic and deeply magical. In his latest work, Olivas takes the experiments further with his first play, Waiting for Godínez. Inspired…
By Breen Nolan Howling Women, the debut novel of Write or Die magazine senior editor Shelby Hinte, is a fierce story about friendship, revenge and the emotional scars that never fade. It’s also a book about violence, addiction and female rage. Sabine Haegan, Howling Women’s protagonist, is a woman on the run. She abandoned her crumbling life and marriage in…
By Breen Nolan The characters in Kyle Seibel’s debut short story collection Hey You Assholes (CLASH, 2025) are the freaks and weirdos of the world. They’re the everyday people struggling to figure it out. They’re doing the best they can. Whether Seibel’s writing about a someone experiencing an existential crisis inside of a Taco Bell kitchen, a dying father’s pursuit of pork…
Interviewed by Jessica Ribera This month marks the paperback release of Abby Geni’s second short story collection, The Body Farm. In the collection, Geni has created a laboratory for studying humanity’s relationship to the risks and weaknesses—but also incredible powers—of our bodies. The characters grapple with common yet serious challenges, from physical and mental illness to abuses and lost love.…
Interview by T.J. Tranchell Author John Palisano has worn many hats, among them musician, filmmaker, teacher, president of a writers’ organization, and fan of horror and sci-fi. His latest novel, Requiem, is a gothic-in-space following a crew as they visit an artificial moon, the Eden, designed to serve as a sort of cemetery. Grief, music, and the ever-present threat of…
By Breen Nolan I first met Emily May the summer of 2021 in a Zoom room. We were attending the Southampton Writers Conference and spent five days workshopping our essays with a small group of other writers. It was the height of the Delta variant and the West was burning; everything felt bleak. But May’s writing beckoned to something in…
By Breen Nolan Award-winning author Edgar Gomez is back with his second book Alligator Tears, an arresting memoir-in-essays that chronicles his experiences growing up in poverty with a single mother amidst the backdrop of touristy Florida. Gomez’s writing evinces a skillful analysis vital for examining one’s life on the page. Whether interrogating the systems hell-bent on silencing marginalized individuals or exploring the path to…
By Dave Oei Rachel Howzell Hall is entering brand new territory with her latest novel. After writing a book series featuring Detective Elouise Norton and ten other standalone crime and mystery novels, the two-time Los Angeles Times Book Award winner has published her first foray into the genre of romantasy with her new novel, The Last One. It features Kai,…