John Freeman has hosted Alta's California Book Club since its founding in 2020. He is an executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf, and he edited Freeman's (2015–2023), a literary annual of new writing. His books include How to Read a Novelist and Dictionary of the Undoing, as well as the anthologies Tales of Two Americas, Tales of Two Planets, The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story, and Sacramento Noir. He is also the author of three poetry collections, Maps, The Park, and Wind, Trees. His work is translated into more than twenty languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. The former editor of Granta, he lives in New York.

Best LA-Centric Books of 2025 - LA TacoCalifornia Book Club Selection - Alta JournalPraise for California Rewritten:"There is a feeling to a John Freeman literary essay—and that feeling is awe and that feeling is fascination. In California Rewritten, Freeman writes with singular precision and intelligence about new California literature, animating that mysterious relationship that unfolds when a writer's imagination engages with place. In Freeman's hands, California is a literary mecca, and each essay a revelation. I can imagine a life of just reading these essays and revisiting the books described, each act nurtured by the other." —Ingrid Rojas Contreras, author of The Man Who Could Move Clouds"Trump fans beware, this book is filled with things your hero won't like: diversity, dissent, and a celebration of the most un-Trumpish of all states, California. John Freeman's crisp, incisive essays cast a wonderfully sensitive eye on a wide-ranging collection of people who've written about this state in novels, reportage, memoir, history, and more. Step aside, New York; the center of the American literary universe has moved here." —Adam Hochschild, author of American Midnight"Here is vindication of all that I have argued the last fifty years—that California has had and currently has the richest, the most literary tradition in the country, the most recent of which is so beautifully chronicled in this book. I know I'm not the only California writer to say, Thank you, John Freeman." —Greg Sarris, author of The Forgetters"What's most compelling about the work gathered here isn't what it has to tell us about our past, however recent, but what it has to say about the present and the future of California's restless and insurgent literature [...] At the book's heart is the necessary notion that literature is dynamic, living, that it changes and develops as we do, that it can show us who we are." —David L. Ulin, Alta Journal"If you want to learn more about how the story of California has been told and how it has changed over the years, you will find much to enjoy in this book." —Seattle Book Review"Freeman’s insightful essays mix anecdotes, California history, and illuminating insight." —Mike Sonksen, L.A. TACO"In putting together a collection of representative California writing, Freeman wanted to present a broader picture of the California experience by embracing prominent works from writers of color, including Walter Mosley, Tommy Orange, Maxine Hong Kingston and many others. His new book of essays serves as a handy field guide to the Golden State's current literary landscape—covering almost 50 books from living writers that capture the California experience, complete with an appendix listing 99 other quintessentially California titles from writers living and dead." —Lookout Santa Cruz"Extraordinarily well written. Freeman's California is admirably multicultural, like the state itself." —California Review of BooksPraise for Freeman's: California:"Captures the western state's complex history through the eyes of both new writers and established names . . . From every facet of the literary world, this cacophony of fresh and well-known writers with every award under their collective belts movingly interprets struggles and dreams in the Sunshine State." ―Shelf Awareness (starred review)"Tells the story of California in pieces, which is the only way it can be told . . . The point―or one of them―is that, in California, one must learn to persevere. In this collection, California in all its glorious complexity comes vividly to life." ―Kirkus Reviews"Illuminating . . . Perfect reading for our ever-accelerating times." ―NPR's Book Concierge"Freeman’s is fresh, provocative, engrossing" ―BBC.com"There's an illustrious new literary journal in town . . . [with] fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by new voices and literary heavyweights . . . alike." ―Vogue.comPraise for Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation, edited by John Freeman:"A brilliant anthology . . . There is so much excellent writing in the pages of Tales of Two Americas." —Salon"Each contribution stands out. Each voice is unique. The only common threads in the collection are theme and excellence . . . This anthology is spectacular and devastating and provocative." —Minneapolis Star Tribune"Masterful and affecting stories, essays, and poems by 36 writers profoundly attuned to the sources and implications of social rupture. These are sharply inquisitive and provocative works." —Booklist (starred review)

• Introduction: Anywhere but HereI. Early MythsBad Indians, Deborah MirandaButcher's Crossing, John WilliamsHow Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston A Paradise Built in Hell, by Rebecca SolnitII. Arrivals & MigrationsDevil in a Blue Dress, by Walter Mosley A Place at the Nayarit, by Natalia MolinaThe Distance Between Us, Reyna Grande America Is Not the Heart, Elaine Castillo Solito, by Javier ZamoraIII. Building CitiesClark & Division, by Naomi Hirahara I Hotel, by Karen-Tei Yamashita Southland, by Nina ReyvorThere There, by Tommy Orange The Swimmers, by Julie OtsukaIV. Working the LandUnder the Feet of Jesus, by Helena Maria ViramontesThe Consequences, by Manuel MuñozV. Law & OrderBad Mexicans, by Kelly Lytle Hernandez The Dark Hours, by Michael Connelly Your House Will Pay, by Steph ChaVI. How We SoundThe Sellout, by Paul BeattyGordo, by Jaime CortezThe Gangster of Love, by Jessica HagedornLess, by Andrew Sean Greer Colored Television, by Danzy Senna VII. The State of PoetryOn City Lights at Ferlinghetti's 100thPostcolonial Love Poem, by Natalie DiazOn Ada LimonOn Gary SnyderOn Kay RyanVII. Exploding FantasiasInterior Chinatown, by Charles YuCitizen, by Claudia Rankine Voyage of the Sable Venus, Robin Coste Lewis Barbarian Days, by William FinneganVIII. The SuburbsHoly Land, by DJ WaldieMean, by Myriam GurbaElsewhere, California, by Dana JohnsonThe Barbarian Nurseries, by Héctor TobarIX. Digital Dys/UtopiasThe Gold Coast, by Kim Stanley RobinsonThe Every, by Dave EggersThe Candy House, by Jennifer Egan X. RupturesStay True, by Hua HsuTelephone, by Percival Everett Goodybe, Vitamin by Rachel KhongThe Wrong End of the Telescope, by Rabin Alameddine Gold Fame Citrus, by Claire Vaye WatkinsDead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn XII. Who is a Citizen?The Mars Room, by Rachel KushnerThe Other Americans, by Laila LalamiThe Backyard Bird Chronicles, by Amy Tan AcknowledgementsAppendixAbout the AuthorA Note on Type

John Freeman has hosted Alta's California Book Club since its founding in 2020. He is an executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf, and he edited Freeman's (2015–2023), a literary annual of new writing. His books include How to Read a Novelist and Dictionary of the Undoing, as well as the anthologies Tales of Two Americas, Tales of Two Planets, The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story, and Sacramento Noir. He is also the author of three poetry collections, Maps, The Park, and Wind, Trees. His work is translated into more than twenty languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. The former editor of Granta, he lives in New York.

Best LA-Centric Books of 2025 - LA TacoCalifornia Book Club Selection - Alta JournalPraise for California Rewritten:"There is a feeling to a John Freeman literary essay—and that feeling is awe and that feeling is fascination. In California Rewritten, Freeman writes with singular precision and intelligence about new California literature, animating that mysterious relationship that unfolds when a writer's imagination engages with place. In Freeman's hands, California is a literary mecca, and each essay a revelation. I can imagine a life of just reading these essays and revisiting the books described, each act nurtured by the other." —Ingrid Rojas Contreras, author of The Man Who Could Move Clouds"Trump fans beware, this book is filled with things your hero won't like: diversity, dissent, and a celebration of the most un-Trumpish of all states, California. John Freeman's crisp, incisive essays cast a wonderfully sensitive eye on a wide-ranging collection of people who've written about this state in novels, reportage, memoir, history, and more. Step aside, New York; the center of the American literary universe has moved here." —Adam Hochschild, author of American Midnight"Here is vindication of all that I have argued the last fifty years—that California has had and currently has the richest, the most literary tradition in the country, the most recent of which is so beautifully chronicled in this book. I know I'm not the only California writer to say, Thank you, John Freeman." —Greg Sarris, author of The Forgetters"What's most compelling about the work gathered here isn't what it has to tell us about our past, however recent, but what it has to say about the present and the future of California's restless and insurgent literature [...] At the book's heart is the necessary notion that literature is dynamic, living, that it changes and develops as we do, that it can show us who we are." —David L. Ulin, Alta Journal"If you want to learn more about how the story of California has been told and how it has changed over the years, you will find much to enjoy in this book." —Seattle Book Review"Freeman’s insightful essays mix anecdotes, California history, and illuminating insight." —Mike Sonksen, L.A. TACO"In putting together a collection of representative California writing, Freeman wanted to present a broader picture of the California experience by embracing prominent works from writers of color, including Walter Mosley, Tommy Orange, Maxine Hong Kingston and many others. His new book of essays serves as a handy field guide to the Golden State's current literary landscape—covering almost 50 books from living writers that capture the California experience, complete with an appendix listing 99 other quintessentially California titles from writers living and dead." —Lookout Santa Cruz"Extraordinarily well written. Freeman's California is admirably multicultural, like the state itself." —California Review of BooksPraise for Freeman's: California:"Captures the western state's complex history through the eyes of both new writers and established names . . . From every facet of the literary world, this cacophony of fresh and well-known writers with every award under their collective belts movingly interprets struggles and dreams in the Sunshine State." ―Shelf Awareness (starred review)"Tells the story of California in pieces, which is the only way it can be told . . . The point―or one of them―is that, in California, one must learn to persevere. In this collection, California in all its glorious complexity comes vividly to life." ―Kirkus Reviews"Illuminating . . . Perfect reading for our ever-accelerating times." ―NPR's Book Concierge"Freeman’s is fresh, provocative, engrossing" ―BBC.com"There's an illustrious new literary journal in town . . . [with] fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by new voices and literary heavyweights . . . alike." ―Vogue.comPraise for Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation, edited by John Freeman:"A brilliant anthology . . . There is so much excellent writing in the pages of Tales of Two Americas." —Salon"Each contribution stands out. Each voice is unique. The only common threads in the collection are theme and excellence . . . This anthology is spectacular and devastating and provocative." —Minneapolis Star Tribune"Masterful and affecting stories, essays, and poems by 36 writers profoundly attuned to the sources and implications of social rupture. These are sharply inquisitive and provocative works." —Booklist (starred review)

• Introduction: Anywhere but HereI. Early MythsBad Indians, Deborah MirandaButcher's Crossing, John WilliamsHow Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston A Paradise Built in Hell, by Rebecca SolnitII. Arrivals & MigrationsDevil in a Blue Dress, by Walter Mosley A Place at the Nayarit, by Natalia MolinaThe Distance Between Us, Reyna Grande America Is Not the Heart, Elaine Castillo Solito, by Javier ZamoraIII. Building CitiesClark & Division, by Naomi Hirahara I Hotel, by Karen-Tei Yamashita Southland, by Nina ReyvorThere There, by Tommy Orange The Swimmers, by Julie OtsukaIV. Working the LandUnder the Feet of Jesus, by Helena Maria ViramontesThe Consequences, by Manuel MuñozV. Law & OrderBad Mexicans, by Kelly Lytle Hernandez The Dark Hours, by Michael Connelly Your House Will Pay, by Steph ChaVI. How We SoundThe Sellout, by Paul BeattyGordo, by Jaime CortezThe Gangster of Love, by Jessica HagedornLess, by Andrew Sean Greer Colored Television, by Danzy Senna VII. The State of PoetryOn City Lights at Ferlinghetti's 100thPostcolonial Love Poem, by Natalie DiazOn Ada LimonOn Gary SnyderOn Kay RyanVII. Exploding FantasiasInterior Chinatown, by Charles YuCitizen, by Claudia Rankine Voyage of the Sable Venus, Robin Coste Lewis Barbarian Days, by William FinneganVIII. The SuburbsHoly Land, by DJ WaldieMean, by Myriam GurbaElsewhere, California, by Dana JohnsonThe Barbarian Nurseries, by Héctor TobarIX. Digital Dys/UtopiasThe Gold Coast, by Kim Stanley RobinsonThe Every, by Dave EggersThe Candy House, by Jennifer Egan X. RupturesStay True, by Hua HsuTelephone, by Percival Everett Goodybe, Vitamin by Rachel KhongThe Wrong End of the Telescope, by Rabin Alameddine Gold Fame Citrus, by Claire Vaye WatkinsDead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn XII. Who is a Citizen?The Mars Room, by Rachel KushnerThe Other Americans, by Laila LalamiThe Backyard Bird Chronicles, by Amy Tan AcknowledgementsAppendixAbout the AuthorA Note on Type

John Freeman has hosted Alta's California Book Club since its founding in 2020. He is an executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf, and he edited Freeman's (2015–2023), a literary annual of new writing. His books include How to Read a Novelist and Dictionary of the Undoing, as well as the anthologies Tales of Two Americas, Tales of Two Planets, The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story, and Sacramento Noir. He is also the author of three poetry collections, Maps, The Park, and Wind, Trees. His work is translated into more than twenty languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. The former editor of Granta, he lives in New York.

Best LA-Centric Books of 2025 - LA TacoCalifornia Book Club Selection - Alta JournalPraise for California Rewritten:"There is a feeling to a John Freeman literary essay—and that feeling is awe and that feeling is fascination. In California Rewritten, Freeman writes with singular precision and intelligence about new California literature, animating that mysterious relationship that unfolds when a writer's imagination engages with place. In Freeman's hands, California is a literary mecca, and each essay a revelation. I can imagine a life of just reading these essays and revisiting the books described, each act nurtured by the other." —Ingrid Rojas Contreras, author of The Man Who Could Move Clouds"Trump fans beware, this book is filled with things your hero won't like: diversity, dissent, and a celebration of the most un-Trumpish of all states, California. John Freeman's crisp, incisive essays cast a wonderfully sensitive eye on a wide-ranging collection of people who've written about this state in novels, reportage, memoir, history, and more. Step aside, New York; the center of the American literary universe has moved here." —Adam Hochschild, author of American Midnight"Here is vindication of all that I have argued the last fifty years—that California has had and currently has the richest, the most literary tradition in the country, the most recent of which is so beautifully chronicled in this book. I know I'm not the only California writer to say, Thank you, John Freeman." —Greg Sarris, author of The Forgetters"What's most compelling about the work gathered here isn't what it has to tell us about our past, however recent, but what it has to say about the present and the future of California's restless and insurgent literature [...] At the book's heart is the necessary notion that literature is dynamic, living, that it changes and develops as we do, that it can show us who we are." —David L. Ulin, Alta Journal"If you want to learn more about how the story of California has been told and how it has changed over the years, you will find much to enjoy in this book." —Seattle Book Review"Freeman’s insightful essays mix anecdotes, California history, and illuminating insight." —Mike Sonksen, L.A. TACO"In putting together a collection of representative California writing, Freeman wanted to present a broader picture of the California experience by embracing prominent works from writers of color, including Walter Mosley, Tommy Orange, Maxine Hong Kingston and many others. His new book of essays serves as a handy field guide to the Golden State's current literary landscape—covering almost 50 books from living writers that capture the California experience, complete with an appendix listing 99 other quintessentially California titles from writers living and dead." —Lookout Santa Cruz"Extraordinarily well written. Freeman's California is admirably multicultural, like the state itself." —California Review of BooksPraise for Freeman's: California:"Captures the western state's complex history through the eyes of both new writers and established names . . . From every facet of the literary world, this cacophony of fresh and well-known writers with every award under their collective belts movingly interprets struggles and dreams in the Sunshine State." ―Shelf Awareness (starred review)"Tells the story of California in pieces, which is the only way it can be told . . . The point―or one of them―is that, in California, one must learn to persevere. In this collection, California in all its glorious complexity comes vividly to life." ―Kirkus Reviews"Illuminating . . . Perfect reading for our ever-accelerating times." ―NPR's Book Concierge"Freeman’s is fresh, provocative, engrossing" ―BBC.com"There's an illustrious new literary journal in town . . . [with] fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by new voices and literary heavyweights . . . alike." ―Vogue.comPraise for Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation, edited by John Freeman:"A brilliant anthology . . . There is so much excellent writing in the pages of Tales of Two Americas." —Salon"Each contribution stands out. Each voice is unique. The only common threads in the collection are theme and excellence . . . This anthology is spectacular and devastating and provocative." —Minneapolis Star Tribune"Masterful and affecting stories, essays, and poems by 36 writers profoundly attuned to the sources and implications of social rupture. These are sharply inquisitive and provocative works." —Booklist (starred review)

• Introduction: Anywhere but HereI. Early MythsBad Indians, Deborah MirandaButcher's Crossing, John WilliamsHow Much of These Hills Is Gold, C Pam Zhang Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston A Paradise Built in Hell, by Rebecca SolnitII. Arrivals & MigrationsDevil in a Blue Dress, by Walter Mosley A Place at the Nayarit, by Natalia MolinaThe Distance Between Us, Reyna Grande America Is Not the Heart, Elaine Castillo Solito, by Javier ZamoraIII. Building CitiesClark & Division, by Naomi Hirahara I Hotel, by Karen-Tei Yamashita Southland, by Nina ReyvorThere There, by Tommy Orange The Swimmers, by Julie OtsukaIV. Working the LandUnder the Feet of Jesus, by Helena Maria ViramontesThe Consequences, by Manuel MuñozV. Law & OrderBad Mexicans, by Kelly Lytle Hernandez The Dark Hours, by Michael Connelly Your House Will Pay, by Steph ChaVI. How We SoundThe Sellout, by Paul BeattyGordo, by Jaime CortezThe Gangster of Love, by Jessica HagedornLess, by Andrew Sean Greer Colored Television, by Danzy Senna VII. The State of PoetryOn City Lights at Ferlinghetti's 100thPostcolonial Love Poem, by Natalie DiazOn Ada LimonOn Gary SnyderOn Kay RyanVII. Exploding FantasiasInterior Chinatown, by Charles YuCitizen, by Claudia Rankine Voyage of the Sable Venus, Robin Coste Lewis Barbarian Days, by William FinneganVIII. The SuburbsHoly Land, by DJ WaldieMean, by Myriam GurbaElsewhere, California, by Dana JohnsonThe Barbarian Nurseries, by Héctor TobarIX. Digital Dys/UtopiasThe Gold Coast, by Kim Stanley RobinsonThe Every, by Dave EggersThe Candy House, by Jennifer Egan X. RupturesStay True, by Hua HsuTelephone, by Percival Everett Goodybe, Vitamin by Rachel KhongThe Wrong End of the Telescope, by Rabin Alameddine Gold Fame Citrus, by Claire Vaye WatkinsDead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn XII. Who is a Citizen?The Mars Room, by Rachel KushnerThe Other Americans, by Laila LalamiThe Backyard Bird Chronicles, by Amy Tan AcknowledgementsAppendixAbout the AuthorA Note on Type