THE LATEST FROM ALTA
Don't miss this week's upcoming events and new stories.
ISSUE 35
Billionaires and Bison
American Prairie aims to build a 3.2-million-acre wildlife reserve in Montana. Ranchers say it threatens their way of life. Who gets to shape the American West?
27 min
Alta Journal ’s California Bestsellers List (May 14, 2026)
Discover California’s bestselling books this week, from Elizabeth Strout and Mac Barnett to buzzy new nonfiction and indie bookstore favorites.
Issue 35: We Love Book Clubs
A look inside Alta Journal’s Issue 35.
6 minLatest from the California Book Club
Join the West Coast literary conversation every month.
The Habit Jane Smiley Could Not Get Rid Of
From A Thousand Acres to Horse Heaven and her forthcoming novel Lidie, Jane Smiley reflects on racehorses, genre, and the restless curiosity that drives her fiction.
13 min
The California Novel No One Can Find
Collectors have been tracking an 1854 outlaw tale from gold rush San Francisco to the alleys of Mexico City—and beyond. We join the hunt.
29 minTHE MONDAY BOOK REVIEW
Sign-up for our weekly book review email.
How one #booktoker built a following around her favorite titles
5 minTHE WEEKLY ALTA NEWSLETTER
New stories from California and the West sent to your inbox every Thursday.
Looking Backward from the Future
Relevant to the real world as much as to the worlds it imagines, science fiction has always offered more than is expected.
The Latest
Riding the Alameda Corridor
Excerpt: ‘Mecca’
5 min
Butterfly’s Wings
7 min
Weekly Cartoon: Altatude #10 Issue 35
Event Recap: Dagoberto Gilb’s ‘The Flowers’
5 min
‘The Flowers’
3 min
California Bestsellers List (May 21, 2026)
5 min
Before the Myth, There was Yoko Ono
8 min
Elon Musk, OpenAI, and the Collapse of Effective Altruism
12 min
Announcing the Special Guest
5 min
The Sharp Lip of Knowledge
7 min
Sex and the City
7 min