Since 2002, CaliforniaAuthors.com has offered news and notes from a ringside seat on the nation’s largest book market. Along the way, we’ve built some nice resources: a growing and varied library of book excerpts and original essays by California writers; a directory where readers can find California authors and authors can tell the world about their work; and listings pointing readers to independent bookstores, west coast publishers, media, literary events, organizations and more. We teamed with Angel City Press to co-publish the remarkable My California anthology, which benefits the California Arts Council and has raised nearly $100,000 for school writing programs.

Our continuing goal: be useful. Our motivation: CaliforniaAuthors.com is a labor of love!

CaliforniaAuthors.com reaches new readers every day. They stop by to take in the California bookscape, its stories and its best storytellers. Our regular readership includes publishers, literary agents, authors, journalists, professors, teachers, librarians, students, booksellers, and book lovers in general.

Here’s what some of our readers have to say about us:

“Far from the established publishing houses of the Big Apple, a rich literary tradition thrives under California’s blue skies and near the crashing Pacific surf. The West Coast’s finest writers are featured on this literary hub, along with resources for readers interested in Left Coast writing. Yes, people really do read in LA…” – Yahoo names CaliforniaAuthors.com as Pick of the Day.

“You have the most amazing web site. I truly love everything I read. What a resource for me as a bookseller. I just wish Texas had a web site like yours and I’d be in the pink!” — Kathy L. Patrick, founder of the Pulpwood Queens book club

“I find myself returning to your website again and again — it’s a really fabulous resource. I love how you are giving the literature of California the respect and attention it deserves.” — Gayle Brandeis, author

“Well-crafted site devoted to California authors, a site I’d be telling you about even if it hadn’t published one of my excerpts. Trust me, you’ll dig it.” — Bob Baker, Newsthinking.com

“California Authors is a smart little website on a mission to steal some limelight from the writers on that other coast.” — Derek Powazek

“The wonderfully rich website by Donna Wares and Kate Cohen” — Kevin Roderick, LAObserved

“People are reading you!” — Aimee Liu, author and former PEN USA West President

“Just recently came across a site for California writers called, appropriately enough, CaliforniaAuthors.com. Great stuff here…. I’ll be a regular visitor to this well-done site.” — J.D. Lasica’s New Media Musings

“Increasingly essential” – David Kipen in the San Francisco Chronicle

“Love your site.” — David Boyne, writersmonthly.com

“Another TEV favorite” – Mark Sarvas, The Elegant Variation

“I’m a big fan of the site and I also wanted to thank you for providing a much needed forum in our very literary city.” — C. Max Magee, The Millions

“I check this site every day because it has a mix of gossip – who is getting published, which bookstores are closing (or opening), who is reading where – as well as excerpts from books about California. There are author interviews and links to West Coast publishers and independent bookstores. It has a compendium of vital books about the history and culture of California.” — Frances Dinkelspiel, Ghost Word

We are CaliforniaAuthors.com

Donna Wares, editor/writer. Donna is the editor of the best-selling My California anthology and author of Great Escapes: Southern California. She also is co-author, with Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Rick Rickman, of The Wonder Years (2009).

Kate Cohen, designer/web producer/writer. An artist, designer and writer, Kate has been creating interactive products and publications for twenty years.

Val Cohen, web engineer. Val has been designing and implementing publishing systems since the mid-1980s.

Contact us

We love to hear from you! Let us know what is happening in your corner of the bookscape. But please forgive us — we receive so many notes and inquiries each day that we cannot give each one a personal answer. We read each one and we thank you for keeping in touch!

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