Andrew Tonkovich, longtime editor of the West Coast literary arts journal the Santa Monica Review and founding editor of the online Orange County quarterly Citric Acid, joins Amy Dechary and me to preview the inaugural Laguna Beach LitFest. Andrew will moderate a lunchtime panel, Telling the California Story,and will lead a workshop entitled, Small Press Journals: Their Role in the Writer's Journey. Lisa Alvarez, Andrew's long-time publishing partner and wife (who could not make todays' show) will give the conference Key Note - Being a Literary Citizen.
Throughout this episode, Amy and Andrew dispense invaluable writing advise, highlight numerous online resources and journals, breakdown the key points of the Laguna Beach LitFest, and give a well-deserved shoutout to Chapman professor and author, Richard Bauch, who will be presented with a literary award at the a reception on January 9, 2026.
A co-founder and lead of the Laguna Beach-based nonprofit, the Third Street Writers, Amy Dechary spent most of her childhood in Connecticut until her dad's new job took her to four states in 8 years where books became constant friends. A graduate of the University of Virginia, she was staff writer for the Cavalier Daily, and went on to study publishing at the Radcliffe Publishing Course in Cambridge, MA. After a career including assistant to a literary agent in Washington, D.C., and a middle school English teacher, Amy returned to writing with her work appearing in OC Kids Magazine, the Laguna Beach Independent, Juste Milieu, and the Beach Reads anthology series.
In edition to his editiorial duties, Andrew hosts a weekly books show, Bibliocracy Radio, on Pacifica’s KPFK 90.7 FM in Southern California. He co-edited the landmark anthology Orange County: A Literary Field Guide with Lisa Alvarez and is the author of two collections, The Dairy of Anne Frank and More Wish Fulfillment in the Noughties and Keeping Tahoe Blue and Other Provocations. His short stories, book reviews, essays, and journalism have appeared in Ecotone, ZYZZYVA, Faultline, Solstice, Journal of the Plague Years, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. For many years he was a regular contributor to the OC Weekly.
