Here’s what co-editor D.A. Powell says: “Lo-Ball is committed to being a low-cost journal with a high quality of content. We look expensive, but we can be had cheap. ($4.99 per issue? We’re practically giving it away).

The journal is a traditional digest-sized literary magazine publishing the finest poetry, non-fiction and fiction from both established and emerging writers. How we do it? We hustle. We hit up our friends. We trade on our good looks. And we make it look like we spent a fortune (which, with our meager funds, is in fact true).

Lo-Ball is not supported nor condoned by any academic institution. Our total print run is less than the number of wings in a value bucket from the closest chicken franchise. Not because we want it to be some rare treat. But because we want it to be passed around and talked about. Our motto: ‘our reputation rests in your mouth.’ Help spread the word.” .

"Brilliantly assembled and introduced, this first anthology of Sierra Nevada writings stands as a landmark publication. Native Americans, explorers, missionaries, gold seekers, governors, mountain climbers, naturalists, environmentalists, essayists, and poets are all represented with their powerful descriptions and compelling insights into California's grand and glorious mountain range." --Gary F. Kurutz, bibliographer and curator of special collections, California State Library

"A remarkable anthology, taking the reader chronologically from the dawn of time when the Yokuts, Washo, and Maidus passed on their first memories of their respective worlds to environmental issues of today. This book belongs on every bookshelf of the best-of-the-best of Californiana." --W. R. Swagerty, Director, John Muir Center, University of the Pacific

A Sierra Nevada native and current resident, Gary Noy taught history at Sierra College from 1987 to the present. A graduate of UC Berkeley and CSU Sacramento, he is the founder and director of the Sierra College Center for Sierra Nevada Studies and coordinator of the college's Sierra Nevada Virtual Museum. He is the author of Distant Horizon: Documents from the 19th Century American West. Rick Heide has an M.A. in Latin American history from the University of London, and a B.A. in Latin American studies from UC Berkeley. He is the editor of Under the Fifth Sun. He was a member of the San Francisco Bay Area publishing community for over twenty-five years and now lives in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

This collection of tempting desserts inspired by those markets and the farmers who share their produce there satisfies the sustainable shopper's sweet tooth with more than 50 recipes for tarts, crisps, cupcakes, puddings, and more. Discover classics like Deep Dish Sour Cherry Pie and new interpretations like Tangerine-sicle Ice Cream. Featuring seasonality charts, 'farmer journal' tips, and dazzling color photography to teach and inspire, Farmers' Market Desserts is the perfect gift for bakers, lovers of local produce, and all who share in the delights of the farmers' market.

"Locavores and discriminating dessert lovers are sure to appreciate the latest from Schacht . . .[that] includes a helpful chart for identifying fruits, vegetables, local honey, and other produce at their best, as well as tips on the heritage of various breeds of citrus, ensuring dishes realize their full potential."--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

Jennie Schacht coauthored The Wine Lover's Dessert Cookbook. She lives in Oakland.

Architecture of the Novel derives from the many years Vandenburgh has spent teaching the craft of fiction writing. Her method points to the elemental nature of narrative: A story consists of its events, which are told in scenes. These scenes naturally place themselves along the arc of the story in an order that provides suspense and mystery, drawing characters toward the inevitability of their fictive destinies. Profoundly practical yet encouraging to writers at all levels, Architecture of the Novel offers the maps and mechanics to successfully guide writers toward the story that must be told.

Jane Vandenburgh is the author of the novels Failure to Zigzag and The Physics of Sunset and the memoir A Pocket History of Sex in the Twentieth Century. She lives in the Bay Area.

Meanwhile, Percy’s beloved grandson Robert, a premed student at Harvard, joins his visionary roommate in a series of environmental “actions” targeting the well-to-do; they begin as pranks but escalate insidiously, with dire consequences for Robert’s family and the people around them, including a Guatemalan gardener and a gay preschool teacher, whose lives intersect fatefully with those of the Darlings. With equal parts affection and satire, Julia Glass spins a powerful tale about the multi-generational loyalties, rivalries, and secrets of a family, inhabitants of a complacently prosperous world where no one is immune to unexpected change. Yet again, she plumbs the human heart brilliantly, dramatically, and movingly.

Julia Glass is the author of Three Junes, which won the National Book Award for Fiction, The Whole World Over, and I See You Everywhere. She lives with her family in Massachusetts.

“Heartbreaking tales of ordinary people lost between the extraordinary circumstances of history. Bitter and beautiful all at once.”—Sandra Cisneros

Angie Chau was born in Vietnam and currently lives in Berkeley. She earned an MFA in creative writing from the UC Davis. Her work has appeared in the Indiana Review, Santa Clara Review, Night Train, and the anthology Cheers to Muses. In 2009 she won the UC Davis Maurice Prize in Fiction.

Marcus brings both a personal and academic life-long interface with place, environment, and place. Iona Dreaming reaches out to a broad audience: people entering retirement, dealing with serious illnesses, gardeners, lovers of nature, architects and landscape architects, people who are becoming more heath conscious, women who have shared the social and cultural shifts she lived through—especially those coming of age in the 60’s—and all those who seek a more authentic life.

A consultant and freelance writer in the field of people-environment relations and environmental psychology, retired UC Berkeley Professor of Architecture and Landscape Architecture Clare Cooper Marcus has written several books on architecture and community. Professor Marcus has consulted for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington DC, San Francisco City Planning Deptartment, New Zealand Department of Public Works, the Canadian Housing Design Council, as well as private architecture and engineering firms.

Growing up in the small town of Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in the 70’s and 80’s, Linda believes that she is profoundly different from everyone else, including the members of her own family. “What I know about you, little girl, would break you in two” are the cruel, mysterious last words that Linda’s grandmother ever says to her. Now in her thirties, Linda looks back at her past when she navigated her way through life with the help of her great-uncle Harper, who loves her and loves to dance, and her best friend Kelly, with whom Linda exchanges almost daily letters. For as long as she can remember, Linda has experienced a secret sense—she can “taste” words, which have the power to disrupt, dismay, or delight. She falls for names and what they evoke: Canned peaches. Dill. Orange sherbet. Parsnip (to her great regret). But with crushes comes awareness. As with all bodies, Linda’s is a mystery to her, in this and in other ways. Even as Linda makes her way north to Yale and New York City, she still does not know the truth about her past.

Then, when a personal tragedy compels Linda to return to Boiling Springs, she gets to know a mother she never knew and uncovers a startling story of a life, a family. Revelation is when God tells us the truth. Confession is when we tell it to him. "Monique Truong creates a world so subtle, mysterious, moving and sensory that it heightens our consciousness of those qualities in our own. Bitter in the Mouth is the rare novel that makes one life story unique and universal at the same time."—Gloria Steinem

Monique Truong is author of the numerous award-winning The Book of Salt. Born in Saigon, she lives in New York City.

Claire, a composer and a new mother, comes to LA so her husband can follow his passion for writing television comedy. Suddenly the marriage—once a genuine 50/50 arrangement—changes, with Paul working long hours and Claire left at home with a baby whom she adores but has no idea how to care for. Lola, a fifty-two-year-old mother of five who is working in America to pay for her own children’s higher education back in the Philippines, becomes their nanny. Lola stabilizes the rocky household and soon other parents try to lure her away. What she sacrifices remains her own closely guarded secret.

In a novel at turns satirical and heartbreaking, where mothers’ modern ideas are given practical overhauls by nannies, we meet Lola’s vast network of fellow caregivers, each with her own story to tell. We see the upstairs competition for the best nanny and the downstairs competition for the best deal, and are forced to ask whether it is possible to buy love for our children and what that transaction costs us.

"Funny, smart, and filled with razor sharp observations about life and parenthood, Simpson’s latest is well worth the wait.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Mona Simpson is also author of Anywhere But Here, A Regular Guy, and Off Keck Road. She lives in Santa Monica.

@ Freight & Salvage, 8:00 p.m.:* Performer/recording artist Christine Lavin signs Cold Pizza for Breakfast: A Mem-wha?? (Tell Me Press, $21.95) before her show and during intermission. As one of the top folk musicians in the country, Christine Lavin has seen it all—and she still loves the music and the life she feels privileged to lead. Published in honor of her twenty-fifth anniversary as a full-time, independent touring musician, Cold Pizza for Breakfast is a memoir of road stories and adventures across the United States, Canada, and Australia. “I’ve changed a few names to spare hurt feelings,” Christine notes, “but all these stories are true. Hey, I have eight brothers and sisters—you think they’d let me make things up?”

Photographs and memorabilia from Christine’s fantastic voyage, song lyrics, an extensive appendix including an index and Christine’s list of her 1,000 favorite songs that she has played while guest-DJing in New York City—all this combines with Christine’s incomparable sense of humor to make Cold Pizza for Breakfast an irresistible read and an invaluable resource for anyone who is interested in how songs get made, how musicians learn, and the business of music. For more information on the show see www.freightandsalvage.org

*2020 Addison St.

"A thrillingly knowledgeable, insider’s odyssey into the world of fine wines—with the added value of a series of particularly lurid homicides, lots of suspense, and a cast of fascinating and well-drawn characters. ––Anthony Bourdain

"A rare and engrossing wonder dealing with the murderous grotesqueries of the wine world worn lightly in an atmosphere of homicide, sex and food. I don’t know anyone who knows more about wine than Peter Lewis, and I include France." ––Jim Harrison

Peter Lewis is a successful restaurateur and restaurant industry consultant. He has been a contributing editor for Virtuoso Travel & Life, for which he wrote the column “Wine Country Notebook.” He lives in Seattle.

*2949 College Ave.

The Invisible Mountain is a stunning exploration of the search for love and a poignant celebration of the fierce connection between mothers and daughters.

“A galloping saga. . . . Its ensemble of women and men [are] bent on living every moment as if on fire. . . . The kind of novel you stay up late to finish.” —The San Francisco Chronicle

Carolina De Robertis was raised in England, Switzerland, and California by Uruguayan parents. She is also the translator of the Chilean novella Bonsái by Alejandro Zambra. She lives in Oakland.