Thank you so much for attending Alta Live with Desert Oracle founder Ken Layne and Alta Journal managing editor Blaise Zerega. If you missed any part of our conversation, you can catch up right here.
Here are some notable quotes from Layne from the event:
- On the inspiration behind and focus of Desert Oracle: “In particular, on the mysteries and stranger stories and the sorta oddities and the very-hard-to-bottle feeling that you get when you are out in the middle of the American wilderness, the desert in particular, and we have so much of it in the Southwest because so much of it is public land.”
- On delivering the early issues of Desert Oracle: “Years ago, that was one of the things that seemed so romantic about it. You’d make your books, and then you get in the car and you go sell them. And I’ve got all these wonderful desert bookstores all over the Southwest, so that’s a tax write-off, right? I’m gonna go to Arches and Zion and go drink in Moab, and everything else, but if I sell 50 books at Back of Beyond in Moab, well, that’s a tax write-off.”
- On Joshua Tree as a representation of the desert: “Desert Oraclehas never been about Joshua Tree. I need to live sort of in civilization for things like post offices and internet and whatever, so this is a compromise. Once I retire for good, I will be 30 miles from the nearest town, which I can’t wait for.”
Check out these links to some of the topics brought up.
- Read Layne’s “An Ode to ‘Desert Oracle.’”
- Check out Alta’s Desert Issue.
- Join us for a party and a toast celebrating the Desert Issue on January 20 at Bookshop West Portal in San Francisco and on February 27 at Skylight Books in Los Angeles (featuring Ken Layne).
- Subscribe to Desert Oracle magazine and listen to the Desert Oracle radio show.
- Check out Alta’s local-bookstore guide, including eight picks in the desert and Sierra region.•
