Tod Goldberg’s “The Low Desert: Gangster Stories” was named a 2022 Southwest Books of the Year. Southwest Books of the Year considers titles published during the calendar year that are about southwest subjects or are set in the southwest.

 “The Low Desert: Gangster Stories,” published in 2021 by Counterpoint Press, is a collection of fictional stories that are very much inspired by the desert southwest, Goldberg said.

“The Low Desert is a collection of stories deeply influenced by the desert southwest — both the setting and the people who inhabit this land — and to be honored as a Southwest Book of the Year tells me that I got it right, which is extremely gratifying,” said Goldberg, a professor of creative writing and director of the UCR Palm Desert low-residency MFA program. “This region is my home, but it's also my muse, and this recognition means my work has been understood in the way I hoped it might. It's all any writer could ask. I am both thrilled and humbled.”

“The Low Desert” also made the longlist for the Reading the West Book Award. Goldberg is the author of more than a dozen books, including “Gangsterland,” a finalist for the Hammett Prize; “Gangster Nation;” “The House of Secrets,” coauthored with Brad Meltzer; and “Living Dead Girl,” a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.