About / Press • Angels Flight • literary west

Underneath the massive redwood at the reborn Clifton’s downtown, you’re reminded that Los Angeles, when guided by good intentions and resources, is a city where people can create magic. On the renovated third floor, where Raymond Chandler held court and wrote his noir, you learn that shining a flash on the neon-red-lit, uneven brick walls reveals a hidden mural of luminous grassy hills, flowers and trees. And, yes, while real to the senses, the enormous, four-story tree is an elaborate set piece. The fake tree and the imaginative nature of the preserved cafeteria – which once served anyone, whether they could pay or not – perfectly capture a sense of L.A.’s storied history.

The faux tree, under which burlesque dancers romp risqué at night, provided the shade to birth an idea about a new journal of culture with a literary twist, one focused on L.A. and its environs, its history, architecture, arts, people and their stories. Angels Flight • literary west is for writers and readers intrigued by the city and drawn to – or even repelled by – its charms. Angels Flight will tell stories in unconventional ways – at length, in a flash, in a fragment – with passion and edge.

Our namesake, Angels Flight – the short-tracked, steep-grade funicular that lifted millions of riders up downtown’s once-treacherous hills – once grounded, and now in service again – stands as a flight of purpose and as a real and emotional connection to the city’s past.

Angels Flight • literary west is a new vehicle to explore uncharted stories of Los Angeles and beyond. – January 1, 2016, Clifton’s Republic

EDITORIAL BOARD

Executive Editor
Luivette Resto

Associate Editor
Danielle Broadway

Guest Fiction Editor
Noriko Nakada

Poetry Editor
Luivette Resto

Projects Editor
Lillian Ann Slugocki

COFOUNDERS

David Lott

Michele Raphael

ADVISORY BOARD

Shilpa Agarwal