ABOUT THIS BOOK

A cartography of Hollywood and transformational wanderings, back in print

A daylight traipse through early-aughts Los Angeles, Hollywood Notebook encapsulates the powerful feelings and hopeful futures of twentysomething Wendy C. Ortiz. In this boundary-defying sister memoir to Bruja, Ortiz navigates internal maps as she traverses external palm-treed streets, moving through her youthful twenties and into the pensiveness of her thirties. Peering at what lies ahead while dipping her toes into the past, Ortiz shows us that there is no place like Hollywood to unearth the joys of success and the blows of mistakes—both realized and denied. An innovative and bold examination of the daytime roaming mind, Hollywood Notebook is a cartography of love, loss, and transformation in the face of a brilliant psyche in a vibrant city.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

WENDY C. ORTIZ is a writer of creative nonfiction who works in hybrid forms, essays, and memoir. She is the author of three books, all published by Northwestern University Press. Her writing has appeared in BOMB, Joyland, The New York Times, Pleiades, Fence, and many other journals. Ortiz is a therapist in private practice in Los Angeles.

REVIEWS

"What are our own truths? How many ways do we tell our stories? We list them, turn them into poetics, tell half-lies and then reveal them over and over as we meet our various selves on the page. Reading Ortiz’s Hollywood Notebook is an invitation to the writer– to make lists that sing truths and half-truths, to call them out as false, until we finally find our sister-twin.." —Winter Tangerine— -

"Wendy C. Ortiz is establishing herself as a powerful voice in the literary community... Readers who like their heroines scrappy and their prose lyrical will delight in Hollywood Notebook’s intimate descriptions of a restless mind at work." —LARB

“[S]uffused with the heritage of the city as a place for writers…Ortiz quietly observes the day-to-day life of the writer, the smell of food in the diners, the heat, the locales where writers hang out. An optimistic book that also reveals the hinterland and grain of a writing culture that goes back 100 years.” —The Guardian

“The entire project becomes nearly reminiscent of the self-musings of Maggie Nelson, if Nelson were consulting astrological charts rather than philosophy…Hollywood Notebook, then, is a sui generis gem, and one to take advantage of immediately. How often can we read a stranger’s journals so guiltlessly, and with such satisfaction? Ortiz inspires it — she’s laid herself bare, and in doing so dug deep in a way that so few memoirs can actually achieve.” —Jeva Lange, Electric Literature — -

"What are our own truths? How many ways do we tell our stories? We list them, turn them into poetics, tell half-lies and then reveal them over and over as we meet our various selves on the page. Reading Ortiz’s Hollywood Notebook is an invitation to the writer– to make lists that sing truths and half-truths, to call them out as false, until we finally find our sister-twin.." —Winter Tangerine— -

"Wendy C. Ortiz is establishing herself as a powerful voice in the literary community... Readers who like their heroines scrappy and their prose lyrical will delight in Hollywood Notebook’s intimate descriptions of a restless mind at work." —LARB

“[S]uffused with the heritage of the city as a place for writers…Ortiz quietly observes the day-to-day life of the writer, the smell of food in the diners, the heat, the locales where writers hang out. An optimistic book that also reveals the hinterland and grain of a writing culture that goes back 100 years.” —The Guardian

“The entire project becomes nearly reminiscent of the self-musings of Maggie Nelson, if Nelson were consulting astrological charts rather than philosophy…Hollywood Notebook, then, is a sui generis gem, and one to take advantage of immediately. How often can we read a stranger’s journals so guiltlessly, and with such satisfaction? Ortiz inspires it — she’s laid herself bare, and in doing so dug deep in a way that so few memoirs can actually achieve.” —Jeva Lange, Electric Literature — -

"Wendy C. Ortiz is establishing herself as a powerful voice in the literary community... Readers who like their heroines scrappy and their prose lyrical will delight in Hollywood Notebook’s intimate descriptions of a restless mind at work." —LARB

“[S]uffused with the heritage of the city as a place for writers…Ortiz quietly observes the day-to-day life of the writer, the smell of food in the diners, the heat, the locales where writers hang out. An optimistic book that also reveals the hinterland and grain of a writing culture that goes back 100 years.” —The Guardian

“The entire project becomes nearly reminiscent of the self-musings of Maggie Nelson, if Nelson were consulting astrological charts rather than philosophy…Hollywood Notebook, then, is a sui generis gem, and one to take advantage of immediately. How often can we read a stranger’s journals so guiltlessly, and with such satisfaction? Ortiz inspires it — she’s laid herself bare, and in doing so dug deep in a way that so few memoirs can actually achieve.” —Jeva Lange, Electric Literature

"What are our own truths? How many ways do we tell our stories? We list them, turn them into poetics, tell half-lies and then reveal them over and over as we meet our various selves on the page. Reading Ortiz’s Hollywood Notebook is an invitation to the writer– to make lists that sing truths and half-truths, to call them out as false, until we finally find our sister-twin.." —Winter Tangerine

"Wendy C. Ortiz is an essential chronicler of queer embodiment, dreams, and the ways that place and perspective create us. What a treasure to be gifted these bold and lyrical modern classics in updated form." —Melissa Febos, national bestselling author of Girlhood, Body Work, and The Dry Season

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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