Catching Fire: The Los Angeles Wildfires

“Top 25 Best L.A.-Centric Books of 2025!” —L.A. Taco “The poems in this volume reach deep into this horrendous experience and at the same time help us rediscover our common humanity.” —John Bellamy Foster, author, The Dialectics of Ecology Poets and writers explore the devastation of the cataclysmic 2025 fires in Los Angeles, California, penetrating the unfathomable despair of losing everything, exposing the struggle with the ensuing grief, and, through it all, summoning the courage to rise again. Fueled by dry conditions and relentless Santa Ana winds rushing over the landscape with speeds upwards of 100 miles per hour, everything bending to the will of the wind, the spark of Los Angeles’s January 2025 fires exploded into an unprecedented gut wrenching apocalypse. In this superbly curated collection, edited by award-winning L.A. poets S.A. Griffin and Richard Modiano, contemporary poets and writers from L.A. and beyond explore the intense horror of devastating loss, the helplessness of watching from across the country, the grief in the aftermath, and the resolve to rise again together from the ashes. Contributors include: Susan Auerbach, Lin Nelson Benedek, Mary Anne Berry, Michelle Bitting, Laurel Ann Bogen, Lynne Bronstein, Jeffrey Bryant, Mona Jean Cedar, Teresa Mei Chuc, Jeanette Clough, Brendan Constantine, Iris De Anda, Alexis Rhone Fancher, Rich Ferguson, Kathleen Florence, Land Flowers, Kat Georges, S.A. Griffin, Spencer L. Griffin, Susan Hayden, Steve Hochman, jerry the priest, La Rombé, Tom Laichas, Rick Lupert, Suzanne Lummis, Phoebe MacAdams, Sarah Maclay, kamla maya, Holaday Mason, Ellyn Maybe, Richard Modiano, Bill Mohr, Chris Morris, K.R. Morrison, Majid Naficy, Jim Natal, Harry E. Northup, Cynthia Perello, Puma Perl, Kennon B. Raines, Nicca Ray, Riot Renwick, Marilyn N. Robertson, Beth Ruscio, Cathie Sandstrom, Dan Saucedo, Maryrose Smyth, Mike Sonksen, A.K. Toney, David L. Ulin, jimmy vega, Pam Ward, Dig Wayne, Hilda Weiss, Jessica M. Wilson, Gail Wronsky, and Z.