By Jorge Casuso

March 23, 2016 -- Santa Monica College will celebrate the Spring 2016 issue of its biannual national literary arts journal with readings by an eclectic mix of contributors next month.

“Santa Monica Review Presents...”--a launch party/reading event--will be held at 5 p.m. Sunday, April 3 in The Edye at the SMC Performing Arts Center on Santa Monica Boulevard at 11th Street. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased through Brownpapertickets.com.

The event, said Andrew Tonkovich, the review's editor and host of the weekly radio show “Bibliocracy,” “is a terrific opportunity to hear serious contemporary writing read by its authors, many with national reputations, some at the beginnings of their careers.”

SMC creative writing instructor Jim Krusoe,an acclaimed local novelist and co-founder of the review, will introduce four current and recent contributors who will read from their work.

They are frequent contributor and SMC Creative Writing Workshop alum Kathleen MacKay; playwright and novelist Gary Amdahl, author of "The Daredevils," and Review stalwart Janice Shapiro, author of "Bummer and Other Stories," which features the tale of a housewife who breaks into her neighbors' homes to admire the pristine order of their belongings

Also reading from his work will be novelist and short story writer Mark Maxwell, author of the acclaimed 1998 novel "Nixoncarver," which imagines a walk along a California beach by former president Richard Nixon and acclaimed short story writer Raymond Carver.

The latest issue of Santa Monica presents a grab bag of short and long stories and essays by both new and frequent contributors to the journal.

Included in the journal are essays by Amdahl and Gary Soto, a poet and author of children and young adult fiction and new fiction by Shapiro and Diane Lefer, author of "Confessions of a Carnivore," a novel about an LA Zoo volunteer whose battle for animal rights leads to confrontations over human rights.

The Spring issue also offers two short meditative pieces by poet and travel essayist Charles Hood, the author of "South x South," about life in Antarctica and "Tonight Show comedy writer Andrew Nicholls' take on history.

In the issue, Sommer Schafer "tells a long, careful, sad story of unrelieved discontent, James Warner "does funny-smart archly," Jackson Bliss "constructs a wounded love story" and Kathleen MacKay "superimposes desire onto reality."

There is also short fiction by Juked magazine co-founders Ashley Farmer and Ryan Ridge, poet Elizabeth Wyatt and memoir writer Denise Reich.

On April 9 and 10, Santa Monica College and the Review will host a booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books that will offer complimentary copies of the magazine to visitors.

The Review is the only nationally distributed literary magazine published by a community college in the U.S., college officials said. Its pieces have appeared in the prestigious "Best American Short Stories series" and other anthologies.

Santa Monica Review is available for sale online and at the SMC Bookstore, Beyond Baroque in Venice, Skylight Books and other area booksellers. Copies are also available by mail and by subscription through Santa Monica Review, Santa Monica College, 1900 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica 90405.

The publication costs $7 per issue or $12 for the two issues each year.

Refreshments will be served at the event, and books will be available for purchase and author signing. There is abundant free parking on-site.

For more information, visit the Santa Monica Review website (www.smc.edu/sm_review) or call (714) 649-9051, and “Like” the magazine on Facebook.