Made in L.A. Anthology Series

In Los Angeles, the only constant is change. Our lives go through cycles and rotations. We incorporate new ideas, people, workplaces, and patterns as we create the futures we have dreamed of since childhood. And so, the stories we tell are malleable and shifting, too. We seek out places to survey the world around us, to understand where we’ve come from, where we are, and where we’re going. In a sprawling, intricately patterned landscape shaped by the lives of millions, we find commonalities and differences, joy and sorrow, and moments of convergence.

In this anthology, the fifth Made in L.A. short-fiction collection, stories are told through lenses that focus on the aptitude of Angelenos to reinvent and reimagine, to take action for ourselves and for others. Angeleno storytellers understand that to seek truth in a continually shifting and evolving world requires constant readjustment of the prism through which we perceive modern society. To solve the failures and dilemmas of the past, present, and future, we must observe from every conceivable angle and vantage point.

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Frank’s dream has always been to write full time. He co-authored the biography of actress Vivian Vance, The Other Side of Ethel Mertz in 1998. He had every intention to keep writing, but when his life took a detour, his dream was put on hold. Many years later, he is finally back on the road he was meant to take and intends to stay on it. He now lives in Brooklyn with his husband, Ugo their dog, and Penelope, a cat who thinks she’s a dog.

Ryane Nicole Granados is a Los Angeles native whose writing finds its roots in her love of community and her belief that Black motherhood is an act of social justice. She is inspired to write stories of survival that magnify the marginalized while also unearthing the splendor of second chances. Recently named the 2021 Established Writer and Individual Arts Fellow by the California Arts Council, her work has been featured in various publications, including Pangyrus, The Manifest-Station, High Country News, The Atticus Review, and LA Parent Magazine. Her storytelling has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and showcased in KPCC’s live series Unheard LA.

Sarah Haufrect is a writer, communications director, and mental health advocate. She holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MFA from Otis College of Art and Design, where she started the novel from which her story “The Makeup Lesson” is an adapted excerpt. Since 2021, she has served on the board of directors for NAMI: WLA, the West Los Angeles affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Recently, she was a 2021-22 BookEnds fellow through Southampton Arts — Stony Brook University. Sarah lives in Culver City with her husband, their dog, and over 10,000 comic books.

J.P. Higgins, a denizen of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, writes fiction and poetry to pique interest and curiosity, to elicit surprise and delight. Higgins’s non-fiction interviews, business articles, and biographical sketches have appeared in both domestic and European magazines. His current project is a book-length biography of Isabelle Palms Buckley (1900-1986), the founder of The Buckley School where Higgins formerly served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees. He is a thirteen-year member of Independent Writers of Southern California (IWOSC). “Trouble Helping” is his second fiction piece to appear in the Made in L.A. anthology series.

Christina Hoag is the author of novels Law of the Jungle, The Blood Room, Girl on the Brink, and Skin of Tattoos, and co-authored Peace in the Hood: Working with Gang Members to End the Violence. A former journalist for the Miami Herald and Associated Press in Los Angeles, she reported from Latin America for major media including Time, Business Week, New York Times, Financial Times, and Houston Chronicle. Her short stories and essays have been published in numerous literary reviews, including Toasted Cheese, Lunch Ticket and Shooter, and have won several awards.

When Tiara Ito is not writing, she’s off somewhere thinking about it. Tiara lives, works, and writes from her home in Los Angeles, wrapped in her coziest blanket. With a background in Art and Design, she sees writing as a way to use words to paint on the page. She enjoys writing gripping tales about complex family relationships and the complicated emotions that remind us daily how human we are. She writes short stories and is experimenting with serial fiction while she completes her Creative Writing Certificate at UCLA Extension. Her story in this anthology is her first in the Made in L.A. series.

Catie Jarvis is an author of fiction, as well as a yoga instructor, a competitive gymnastics coach, an English and writing professor, a surfer, and a mom. She received her B.A. in writing from Ithaca College, and her MFA in creative writing from California College of the Arts. She grew up on a lake in northern New Jersey and now lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter Skywalker, and lots of surfboards. She finds the world to be a strange place and loves writing that examines the ambiguity of “reality.” Her debut novel, The Peacock Room, is available on Amazon. This is Catie’s second appearance in the Made in L.A. anthology series.

Jovon C. Johnson was born and raised in Compton, California. Educated at San Diego State University, Oregon State University, and Antioch University Los Angeles, where he received an MFA in Creative Writing. He is a Kimbilio Fellow and the author of a poetry collection, Keep Striving. He assisted in the creation of the Kuumba Journal at San Diego State University. His work has appeared in SoMa Literary Review, Caesura Journal and Elsewhere Lit. He is an avid outdoorsman who spends most of his time getting lost in nature.

Laura McGhee, a Canadian transplant, is an alumna of The Second City Theater and has a B.A. in French Literature — which has been super marketable. She has written several award-winning plays, which have been performed on CBC Radio, at the Just 4 Laughs Festival, and in venues in Halifax, Orlando, Minneapolis, Vancouver, New York, and L.A. Her television-writing career includes programs on CBC, CTV, and The Comedy Network. She has been nominated for a Gemini Award and a Canadian Comedy Award twice. She is also a certified airline transport pilot and a flight instructor. Her popular web series — “Lady Pilot” — explores the literal and figurative ups and downs of flying. And her first novel, The Lineholder, is based on her experiences as an airline pilot. Follow her somewhat ridiculous life at www.lady-pilot.com.

Karter Mycroft is an author, editor, musician, and fisheries scientist from Los Angeles. Karter writes on the beach by asking the dead fish for ideas. You can find them on Twitter @kartermycroft or online at kartermycroft.com.

Noriko Nakada is a multi-racial Asian American who creates fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art to capture the hidden stories she has been told not to talk about. Publications include her memoir series: Through Eyes Like Mine, Overdue Apologies, and I Tried. Through Eyes Like Mine was shortlisted for the 2040 Book Award. Excerpts, essays, fiction, and poetry have appeared in Catapult, Meridian, Kartika, Hippocampus, and Linden Avenue. She is a member of the leadership team for Women Who Submit, an organization empowering women and non-binary writers to submit their work for publication.

Mary Anne Perez lives in Long Beach, California. She was chosen as a 2020 Writing By Writers Fellow and was long-listed in the Autumn 2021 Reflex Fiction competition. Her work has appeared in Reflex Fiction, Shark Reef, Manifest-Station, the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, and Long Beach Press-Telegram. She has read her work at the Billie Jean King Main Library and for the Womxn’s Write Inn collective. She is writing a memoir about her family’s service in World War II and a fairytale about a brown girl who climbs apricot trees and inherits a shawl knitted through the generations.

Thea Pueschel is a writer that is equal parts technical and literary, a multi-media artist, yoga teacher, hypnotherapist, blog managing editor for Women Who Submit, a facilitator for Shut Up & Write, a California Arts Council Panelist 2022, and a Dorland Arts Colony Resident. Thea’s published works can be found in Short Edítion, Perhappened, and the WWS Gathering Anthology, among others.

Chicana feminist and former rodeo queen, Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera (she/her) writes so the desert landscape of her childhood can be heard as loudly as the urban chaos of her adulthood. She is obsessed with food. A former high school teacher, she earned an MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles and is a PhD candidate at USC. Her fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, and featured in Best Small Fictions 2022. Her YA novel, Breaking Pattern, is forthcoming with Inlandia Books. She’s a Macondista and works for literary equity through Women Who Submit. Find out more at http://tishareichle.com/

Ryan Shoemaker’s debut story collection, Beyond the Lights, is available through No Record Press. T.C. Boyle called it a collection that “moves effortlessly from brilliant comedic pieces to stories of deep emotional resonance.” Ryan’s fiction has appeared in Gulf Stream, Santa Monica Review, Booth, and Juked, among others. Find him at RyanShoemaker.net.

Hazel Kight Witham is a mother, teacher, slam poetry coach, and writer who was made in Los Angeles and still calls it home. She has published work in The Sun, Bellevue Literary Review, Integrated Schools, Mutha Magazine, Cultural Weekly, Rising Phoenix Review, and other journals. She is a proud public school teacher in LAUSD and was a 2020 finalist for California Teacher of the Year. Since November 2008, she has shepherded more than two thousand students through National Novel Writing Month.

Aatif Rashid is the author of the novel Portrait of Sebastian Khan (2019). He has published short stories in The Massachusetts Review, Arcturus, Barrelhouse, Triangle House Review, and X-R-A-Y, among other places, and nonfiction in The Kenyon Review, Lit Hub, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. He served as a story editor for Vol. 5.