Featuring great stories, in-depth reporting, beautiful photography, smart thinking — Alta is the magazine and website that bring you everything California.

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Look Past First Impressions

One Coyote • Coming of age during the 1990s in an Inland Empire suburb amid dogs, snakes, scorpions—and racism.

The Billion-Dollar Composer • For blockbuster films and video games, Pinar Toprak makes music that stirs emotions.

POETRY • Forrest Gander was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection Be With. Born in the Mojave Desert in Barstow, California, Gander resides in Petaluma.

HAVING HIS CAKE AND EATING IT, TOO • Wayne Thiebaud shook up the art world in 1962 with paintings that were joyous, confectionary, and uniquely Californian. Since then, he’s worked steadily, producing sought-after pieces noted for their originality and impact on American art. On the eve of his 100th birthday, the artist says he’s “trying to learn to paint” and put a smile on people’s faces.

Waiting to Call Home • The solitude and routines of one goatherd and his two dogs—plus 600 nannies and billies.

Painting the Trees and the Forests • A new field guide captures the majesty, history, and wonder of the Golden State’s woodlands. It also offers a road map to safeguarding their future.

Postcards from the Future • Kevin Kelly had a hand in creating the WELL, Wired, the Long Now clock, and other visionary projects. His new idea: one million people working together in real time. What they might accomplish is anyone’s guess, but it promises to be awesome.

NOIR

LAST CALL FOR GUMSHOES • FOR NEARLY 50 YEARS, A TIGHT-KNIT GROUP OF SAN FRANCISCO PRIVATE EYES—INTELLECTUAL, SWASHBUCKLING, ANTI-AUTHORITY LEFTIES—PRACTICED THEIR CRAFT IN THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH AND, HOPEFULLY, JUSTICE.

DEATH BECOMES THEM • THE RISE OF THE TRUE-CRIME PODCAST

THE JOURNEY OF THE ANTIHERO

THE PORT OF MISSING WOMEN RAYMOND CHANDLER • What is it about Philip Marlowe and female foils? A biographer reimagines his legacy.

THE PLAGUES STEPH CHA

WHEN FILMS WERE KINGS • BORN OF NOSTALGIA, CHINATOWN TODAY INSPIRES A NOSTALGIA OF ITS OWN: FOR A HOLLYWOOD DRIVEN BY CREATIVITY.

CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’ • A trio of neglected neo-noir films reveal the dark side of the California dream.

Prison Made Me a Screenwriter! • In the 1920s and 1930s, Ernest Granville Booth made a name for himself as a criminal and as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after writers.

SEARCHING a for a MARY AUSTIN • Life for the author of The Land of Little Rain was as hard as the inhospitable region she wrote about.

ALTA PICKS • Recommendations for the best of California and the West

THE BEST BAD THINGS • Reckoning with California’s ‘Hellacious’ History

Museum on the Edge • Thomas Campbell had been the head of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco for less than 18 months when COVID-19 struck. Then came a long-overdue reckoning with racism. His response: Launch the biggest, boldest, and most inclusive art exhibition in the city’s history.

Time Invents Us

POETRY

In a Galaxy Closer to Home

What’s Your Story?

ALTATUDE