Joshua Barlas is a writer based in California whose work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including The Summerset Review, Little Patuxent Review, Emrys, Santa Clara Review, and others. His fiction often explores identity, masculinity, and the uneasy space between performance and self-awareness, frequently blending surreal elements with emotional realism.
He previously wrote under the pen name Ben Leib, a name first adopted as a form of anonymity—an attempt to sidestep the burdens of authorship and responsibility. Over time, the pseudonym became less about concealment and more about distance: a way to resist the rigid expectations of literary identity and to approach the work with a degree of skepticism and self-interrogation. He has since returned to publishing under his given name, though the questions that prompted the pseudonym—about authorship, performance, and the instability of identity—continue to shape his fiction.
Influenced by California writers such as Raymond Chandler, John Fante, Joan Didion, and Charles Bukowski, his work engages with the tradition of American literary masculinity while simultaneously questioning it. His stories often attempt to hold two opposing impulses at once: the allure of romanticized gender roles and the recognition of their limitations. At times, the work succeeds in this tension; at others, it reflects the very contradictions it seeks to examine.
Outside of writing, Barlas has spent much of his life at sea, working as a tugboat captain in the San Francisco Bay and sailing internationally, including voyages above the Arctic Circle and below the Antarctic Circle. These experiences occasionally inform his work, particularly in its attention to isolation, risk, and the mechanics of human decision-making.
A selection of his published work is available on this site.
For inquiries: joshbarlas@gmail.com
Also, please watch my St. Francis Yacht Club Presentation, during which, I discuss my voyage to Antarctica.
The Summerset Review – “Souvenirs”
Another Chicago Magazine – “The Beating of a Nazi”
Little Patuxent Review – “The Augury”
Santa Clara Review – “My House of Cards”
Serving House Journal – “Those Lonely, Lonely Nights”
Additional Publications
Existere – “Fingerprints”
Monongahela Review – “To the Buses and Planes, I Thank You”
Temenos – “My Portrait In the Memorial”
Pisgah – “The Memoirist’s Christmas”
Marathon Literary Review – “Stout of Heart, Bereft of Mind”
Digital Americana – “Best of the Terrible Lies”
Bound Off – “Climbing”
Mosaic Art & Literary Magazine – “The Brave Man who Lives in My Gullet Whispers”
Grey Sparrow – “Packing the Wound”
On the Premises – “Tenderness”
Johnny America – “My Love Is Going To My Love”
Blacktop Passages – “Always the Lucky One”
Constellations – “Turn into the Skid”
Perceptions – “Nineteenth and Valencia”
Black and White Magazine, Red Ochre Press – “Je Vais Bien”
Sein und Werden – “Centrifugal Momentum and the Points to which We’re Affixed”
Scissors and Spackle – “The Gifts I Received”
Sliver of Stone – “La Adivinacion”
Milk Sugar – “Vengeance Is a Speechless Clown”
Corner Club Press – “The Writing Group”
Pom Pom Pomeranian – “Unreturned Calls”
Bitchin’ Kitsch – “The Embarcadero”
joshbarlas.com 