In bounds the beanie-clad, human bumper car that is Robert Lang. The bag slung over his shoulder is on par with his stature – sizeable, with his office in an opposite way. Jam packed floor-to-ceiling with books, journals and miniature antiques, the space is conducive to coziness and feels anything but large.
Lang, a third-year masters student at San Diego State University, is no stranger to bumping elbows, most notably with change. Just consider the newest challenge he’s taken on; spearheading the creation of “West Coast Review,” the newest “baby” belonging to SDSU Press.
As the Managing Editor for the “West Coast Review,” it’s only fitting that he pulls a hand-bound book from the reserves of his aforementioned giant satchel. While it’s typical that a managing editor oversees production from start to finish, Lang’s case is rather atypical. Not only is he building this new journal from scratch, his hope is to “set a new precedent.”
Change is afoot on the second floor of the Arts & Letters building, where SDSU Press is headquartered. Unbeknownst to many, these offices act as a tiny publishing house for SDSU’s own journals and imprints. The publishing industry is a beast to digest at face value, but Lang summarizes that, “The work of the press is to promote people here who are trying to get published.”
What might it take to get published in the “West Coast Review?”
West Coast sensibility. Give them bold. Give them sexy. Lang wants “art not typically hung in museums” and prose that “speaks to the idea that the West Coast is different.” A NorCal native himself, Lang attests, “You can’t live in California for a long time without it having some impact on your outlook on life and the way you write.”
This spirit is shown through the direction he wants to steer the inaugural issue of “West Coast Review.” SDSU Press has historically always had two literary journals, with “Poetry International” dedicated to poetry and “Fiction International” reserved for fiction.
While the new journal “West Coast Review” is just getting started, it comes from a long history. “Fiction International” was founded by Joe David Bellamy in 1973 at St. Lawrence University in New York before making its way to San Diego State in 1982. The journal was all about formal innovation and social activism, but now that it’s dissolved, it leaves behind a legacy packed with conventions.
Lang wants to take that legacy and flip it on its head.
With a mixture of awe, whimsy and passion, Lang holds true to the California dream. “There’s almost a…belief in change that comes with the West Coast,” he says, with such quiet conviction that I feel myself inspired anew.
Maybe it’s people like Lang himself who give California that fantastical glow. Those who have a vision for their projects and dream big. While “the presses are still warming up,” Lang someday sees his labor of love “on the shelves of Barnes & Noble…and anywhere you pick up journals.” I have no doubt he would physically bind the copies himself in order to make this possible.
Or maybe it’s the artists like Hannah Thorsell, whose work we can expect to see in the inaugural issue of “West Coast Review,” which successfully merges boundaries of visual and written art. Perhaps it’s those whose positive belief is riddled with osmosis, like Professor William Nericcio, a member of the “West Coast Review” Board of Editors and regular source of inspiration for SDSU English students.
Maybe it’s simply the sunshine.
Whatever sources the spirit of the West Coast, Lang is looking to chronicle the ways in which artists are inspired by the Golden State. If nothing else, “Bet on yourself,” he urges. “I guarantee there is someone out there in the world who your story will impact and matter to and perhaps save the life of.”
