A land of dramatic landscapes and increasingly dynamic human developments, the Inland Empire is becoming much more than just "the area east of Los Angeles." As tract homes creep over desert areas once thought uninhabitable, the region--comprised of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties--is one of the fastest growing regions in America. Unique in its own history and a microcosm of America at large, it is a land of startling racial, socio-economic, and ideological diversity that has long produced innovative and passionate writing. Inlandia is a study of the journey of a people bound by geography yet striving for self-identity and artistic recognition, and of a land that is becoming both more prosperous and endangered. Over eighty writers are represented in the anthology, with material ranging from Indian stories and early explorers' narratives to pieces written by local emerging authors.--From publisher description.

The Silk the Moths Ignore animates the liminal, sometimes gothic, spaces of miscarriage, pregnancy, and early parenthood with exquisite defamiliarizing detail. Weaving together prose versets, sonnets, and short poems with titles like "Against Choking" and "To Acknowledge Damage," the collection sings, bleeds, and casts spells to "carry hope like a weight." As evidenced by the reception to Michelle Obama's Becoming, as well as recent writing by Chrissy Teigen and Meghan Markle, The Silk the Moths Ignore arrives at a moment when people finally seem willing to discuss miscarriage with an openness that has previously been taboo. Tate brings a fresh and embodied language of grief and song to a conversation still beset with platitude and euphemism. For the many people who have experienced loss, this book offers the peculiar comfort of an alien yet instantly recognizable landscape.

Rachelle Cruz's debut collection is beyond ready to burst itself open, and bleed. Savor these poems, suck the marrow from their bones. These are lovely, complex poems, "sweet and bitter as a plum," a braised heart, blood-warmed and wet. -Barbara Jane Reyes

Nightmares of war flood the waking memories of Nea Chhim, a 19-year-old survivor of the Cambodian Killing Fields. In this sequel to the acclaimed Dragon Chica, Nea, a struggling college student, decides she must confront the past. Without telling Ma, she hops on a cross-country bus in Nebraska to seek out her biological father in Southern California. Nea comes face to face with a man wounded by survivor’s guilt who refuses to acknowledge the family’s secrets. It is up to Nea to find the truth. Tiger Girl weaves together Cambodian folklore and its painful past with contemporary American life to create an unforgettable novel about love, war, and acceptance.

Micah Chatterton's beautifully orchestrated, deeply elegiac first book chronicles what it means to be "father of two sons who can never touch." Go To the Living plumbs the trajectories of grief, memory, and writing about these, with searing truthfulness; its language is alive with a creative spirit of fathering. -- Judy Z. Kronenfeld

This is not your ordinary short story collection. In his newest work, Daniel Chacón subverts expectation and bends the rules of reality to create stories that are intriguing, hilarious, and deeply rooted in Chicano culture. These stories explore the concept of a wall that reaches beyond our immediate thoughts of a towering physical structure. While Chacón aims to address the partition along the U.S.-Mexico border, he also uses these stories to work through the intangible walls that divide communities and individuals—particularly those who straddle multiple cultures in their daily lives. Set in El Paso and other Latinx-dominant urban spaces, Kafka in a Skirt is an immersive look into the myriad lives of the characters who inhabit these culturally diverse areas. Chacón masterfully weaves elements of the surreal and fantastic through a shining tapestry of fiction, creating moments of touching realism in contrast with scenes that are fascinatingly unfamiliar. Occasionally teasing the ghosts of Jorge Luis Borges and the Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik, this collection disregards boundaries and transports readers into a world merely parallel to our own. Kafka in a Skirt unravels the intricacies of culture, sexuality, love, and loneliness in a collection that shows the personal implications of barriers while remaining hopeful and bright.

The voluntary integration of Riverside's schools in 1965 is a local story of national significance told by Arthur L. Littleworth, elected chairman of the school board at that time. While his personal reflections form the core of No Easy Way: Integrating Riverside Schools - A Victory for Community, interviews with numerous community leaders - parents, teachers and students who participated in, and were affected by this struggle bring balance to his perspective. The book, edited by Dawn Hassett, is richly illustrated by maps, original messages, including one from Ronald Reagan to Arthur L. Littleworth, and numerous historic photographs, some never before published, including that of Lowell School after the fire.