Rebels and Outliers

Available August 12, 2025

Rebels and Outliers: Real Stories of the American West shines a spotlight on the unforgettable characters that author and journalist John M. Glionna has encountered during his more than 30 years crisscrossing the western United States for some of the nation’s top newspapers. With sharp insights, Glionna captures the essence of the modern West through the lives of its most intriguing, unconventional inhabitants.

From the struggles of a Navajo Nation police officer grappling with the tension of enforcing laws among her own people to the quirks of a pig farmer who feeds his livestock with leftovers from Las Vegas’s extravagant buffets, Glionna fearlessly delves into topics that reveal the complexities of life on the fringes. Each showcases Glionna’s remarkable talent for uncovering the universal truths that connect us all.

243 pages • 5.5 x 8.5 paper • $27.95

Upcoming Publication: August 12, 2025

Upcoming Publication: August 12, 2025

A captivating follow-up to Glionna’s 2022 book, Outback Nevada: Real Stories of the Silver State, Rebels and Outliers is a testament to the untamed, enduring character of the people who call the West home.

John M. Glionna was a Seoul-based Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent from 2008 to 2012 and covered South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Pacific Islands. Later, as the paper’s Las Vegas bureau chief, Glionna covered the American West. He has written extensively about California and co-taught a journalism course at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Glionna is now a freelance writer who divides his time between Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He is the author of Outback Nevada: Real Stories from the Silver State.

Praise for Rebels and Outliers

  • "John Glionna is a true original who could roll out of bed, wander into an empty town and with his sideways sensibilities and peculiar passions come back with a go-to-hell, never-told tale before lunch If you're a writer, you'll wonder, "Now why didn't I think of that?' If you're a reader, you're in for a treat. He understands that stories are all we have, in the end, to understand the world, each other and ourselves."

    Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times columnist, author of The Soloist, a New York Times bestseller

  • "John Glionna starts with the premise that everybody has a story to tell, and he goes on to listen and write the hell out of it. His stories in Rebels and Outliers take you from deserts to prisons, where you meet gay cowboys, a cross dresser, a midwife, a professional gatecrasher and a postmaster trying to keep her near-ghost town alive. Glionna's stories will change the way you look at humanity with all its glorious permutations, and never again to dismiss anybody as boring."

    Barbara Demick, National Book Award finalist, author of the recently published Daughters of the Bamboo Grove

  • "Really, how does Glionna find these people? It's his secret sauce, the step-stone to telling singular American stories. I hope he keeps finding them so we can marvel at the way life unfolds in so many quirky and challenging ways, especially across the American the West. This is a fantastic collection."

    Roger Smith, former nacional editor, Los Angeles Times, editor, USC Schaffer Center for Health Policy and Economics

  • "This book overflows with tales of dreamers, schemers, misfits and renegades. John Glionna delivers their stories with his customary verve, compassion and humor. Each essay bristles with life and passion and the joy we all crave. Together, they are an unparalleled ode to the 21st century American West."

    James Rainey, senior Los Angeles Times reporter and media writer

  • "John Glionna has traveled this vast land and listened to its voices. With a poet's eye and a raconteur's gleam, he has given us unforgettable characters that represent an America in full: restless, defiant, broken, joyous, scheming and redemptive. A great mosaic of who we are."

    Jeffrey Fleischman, author of Good Night, Forever and Last Dance

  • "John Glionna has an uncanny eye for 'rebels and outliers' who make our world so much more interesting, if we just pause to see and hear them. His heartfelt storytelling unearths the soul of every story as his art intersects with real life."

    Diana Dawson, former Kansas City Star reporter, associate professor of journalism, University of Texas/Austin, founder of the Moody College Writing Support Program

  • "John M. Glionna's Rebels and Outliers: Real Stories of the American West is a captivating collection that immerses readers in the rugged, still-untamed spirit of the American frontier. Glionna's prose is as sharp and evocative as the landscapes he describes, capturing the essence of the modern West with vivid detail and emotional depth. His eye for the extraordinary in the ordinary breathes life into the unforgettable characters he chronicles-individuals whose resilience, rebellion, and distinctiveness leave a lasting impression. Each story is a testament to the complexity and diversity of those who've shaped this iconic region, from renegades and outcasts to dreamers and adventurers. Glionna doesn't merely recount their adventures; he brings them to life, allowing readers to walk beside them through hardship and triumph. With a rare blend of narrative skill and historical insight, Rebels and Outliers is an engrossing exploration of the American West's most fascinating figures, and a must-read for anyone who loves good stories well-told."

    David Freed, author of the best-selling Cordell Logan mystery series

  • "John Glionna has a rare gift as a journalist. It's the ability to probe into the human soul, to find out what drives people to follow uncommon paths. His subjects aren't powerbrokers or celebrities. In Rebels and Outliers, the protagonists range from workaday individuals who try to right wrongs to community eccentrics to folks who are just struggling to cope with their patch of America in the 21st century. In a newsroom, Glionna would commonly be described as a 'human interest' reporter-but that phrase seems much too small to describe the humanity of his work."

    Scott Harris, former Los Angeles Times columnist and international bon vivant

  • And more...

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