By Geordie Stock Désirée Zamorano is a foodie, and in her short fiction, it shows. Her latest book, Amarisa’s Cooking Pot: Tales of Life in All its Wonders, is a hearty meal of a collection. Zamorano’s characters are overjoyed, furious, desperate, forlorn, pensive, and resolute. They populate the collection in magical fairy tales; cold, mean diatribes; and bittersweet introspective days…
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By Sandy Duchac If authors are meant to write what they know, Perrin Pring’s work as a park ranger provides a wealth of knowledge. As a law enforcement officer, Pring is required to patrol thousands of acres, investigating crimes, providing emergency aid, and navigating unforgiving terrain with little to no backup. The work demands adaptability, restraint, and a constant awareness…
Reviewed by Tommy Ebrahimi If there’s such a thing as a rock star in the study of ancient classics, Mary Beard deserves the title. Her book SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome is an approachable starting point for the Rome-curious, and she’s often tapped for cultural and historical commentary by television networks and publishers alike. Between her publicity bona fides…
By Pallas M. Gutierrez Emily Rapp Black does not shy away from the tough stuff. Her first memoir, Poster Child, explored her experience as a disabled person. The Still Point of the Turning World detailed her experience of losing her son Ronan to Tay-Sachs disease. As a result of that loss, many people over the years have told her, “I…
The Last Generation Press staff with their mentor and publisher, Chiwan Choi. Photo courtesy of Chiwan Choi. By Angelo A. Williams Last Generation Press began with a summer poetry class and quickly became something larger: a teen-run publishing project committed not only to young writers, but to the idea that publishing itself can be grassroots, communal, and ethical. Founded by…
By Dave Oei Having published over three dozen books, the first at eighteen, Shanora Williams is no stranger to writing across different genres. The New York Times bestselling author has penned paranormal and contemporary romances, thrillers, dark fantasy, and, as with the recently released Mayhem and the Mortal, romantasy. Red Tower Books, known for helping define the genre with the…
Reviewed by Tommy Ebrahimi The multiverse is a compelling, if embattled, narrative device. When executed well, stories that play with the multiverse invite audiences to consider the constantly changing permutations of narrative pieces as they skip across realities. The multiverse functions as whatever you need it to be, and it’s always out there: to be discovered, to be traversed, to…
By Charli Engelhorn Kali White VanBaale is the author of the novels The Space Between, The Good Divide, and The Monsters We Make, but at The Coachella Review she is also known as the author of the short story “Monkey Mountain,” published here in 2019. That story features in her debut story collection, Release of Information and Other Linked Stories, in…
Reviewed by Tommy Ebrahimi Colored People Time, the debut collection from writer-producer Manny Fidel, is an uneven read. Driven by Fidel’s personable and at times overly colloquial style, the assembled essays and criticism focus on time’s influence over identity. Essays about 9/11’s irrevocable shift in the author’s worldview, for example, appear alongside eulogies for the summer of 2016, the dying…
By Kevin T. Morales Fantasy is a cooperative challenge. It requires of both author and reader equally strong imagination. In Megan Jauregui Eccles’s debut novel, Sing the Night, magic is invoked by singing, and an intense competition to be the King’s mage takes place in L’Opera du Magician. There’s an inherent challenge in describing music in prose. As The Lovin’…
By Sophie Ann Hinkson Some authors have a magnetic pull—you keep returning to them, as if by fate. Megan Milks is one such writer, first gaining attention with the body-horror short story “Slug,” from their eponymous collection. Milks is also the author of the novel Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body and the recently released Mega Milk, all published by Feminist Press. Their books explore…
By Jessica Ribera For decades, Rider Strong has been known for his role as Shawn Hunter on the TV series Boy Meets World, and the podcast he makes with his co-star friends, Pod Meets World, is one of the most popular in America. But Strong has always been more than just “that guy from TV.” His new fiction podcast, The…