LA Review of Books
Summary: The Los Angeles Review of Books is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and disseminating rigorous, incisive, and engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts. The Los Angeles Review of Books magazine was created in part as a response to the disappearance of the traditional newspaper book review supplement, and, with it, the art of lively, intelligent long-form writing on recent publications in every genre, ranging from fiction to politics. The Los Angeles Review of Books seeks to revive and reinvent the book review for the internet age, and remains committed to covering and representing today’s diverse literary and cultural landscape.
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- Artist: Los Angeles Review of Books
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Podcasts:
Colin Marshall talks with novelist, poet, translator, and film producer Grace Jung. She is the author of Deli Ideology, a new novel from Thought Catalog about one young woman's experience of the Great Recession in New York and Seoul.
Tom and Laurie talk with actor and playwright Eric Bogosian, whose new book "Operation Nemesis" tells the fascinating story of Soghomon Tehlirian and a vast network of assassins who in the early 1920's systematically tracked down and murdered former Ottoman leaders and perpetrators of the Armenian genocide. Also, Tom, Laurie, and Seth discuss this week's #TwitterFiction Festival.
Colin Marshall talks with reporter Sam Quinones, who covered gangs, drugs, and immigration at the Los Angeles Times for a decade. He has written the books Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream, True Tales from Another Mexico, and the new Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic.
This week's show features historian and journalist Jon Wiener, who was among hundreds of writers who signed a letter of protest against The PEN American Center's recognition of Charlie Hebdo with the 2015 Freedom of Expression Courage Award on Tuesday night. Also, Tom interviews Laila Lalami, author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Moor's Account, and Tom, Laurie and Seth talk about the value of literary prizes in general.
This week's segments include excerpts from Tom Lutz' interview with legendary poet Nikki Giovanni; LARB contributing editor Dinah Lenney joins to talk about Kim Gordon's memoir "Girl in a Band"; Maria Bustillos interviews film and television composer Ego Plum; Seth asks Tom and Laurie about the perils of editing at the Los Angeles Review of Books, especially when editing the work of friends.
Günter Grass' recent death had us wondering whether we can read authors whose personal lives offend us, considering Grass' history as a member of the Waffen-SS during WWII. We also discuss which authors or books we're ashamed of enjoying, and Laurie apologizes for a word she used on last week's show.
This week's segments include a discussion on William Giraldi's New Republic essay "Immortal Beloved: Why writers want fans who last forever;" Hilary Mantel's wildly popular Wolf Hall; Laurie Winer reviews the Broadway hit Fun Home; Maret Orliss, senior programming manager for the LA Times Festival of Books, talks about this coming weekend's festival, now in its 20th year.
Ellis Weiner, former writer and editor at National Lampoon, columnist at Spy Magazine, and currently a contributor at The New Yorker, joins Laurie Winer and Seth Greenland on this week's show. They discuss Weiner's prolific career as a humor writer and the history of humor writing in America.
Colin Marshall talks with Laila Lalami, author of Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and Secret Son. Her latest novel is The Moor's Account, the story of a 16th-century Spanish expedition in search of gold in modern-day Florida through the words of an unusually eloquent Moroccan slave.
This week Meghan Daum talks about a brand new collection of essays she edited titled "Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids." Daum also discusses an earlier book of her own essays, "The Unspeakable." Featuring Tom Lutz, Laurie Winer, and Seth Greenland.
LARB's Philosophy & Critical Theory editor Arne De Boever interviews Judith Butler about her 2015 CalArts lecture series, Demonstrating Precarity: Demonstrating Precarity: Vulnerability, Embodiment, and Resistance. A video version of this interview can be found at http://lareviewofbooks.org/av/
Tom McCarthy's new experimental novel "Satin Island" celebrates the role of the anthropologist over the novelist; John McPhee's latest essay in The New Yorker questions the extent to which authors should use cultural references in their work; author Meghan Daum discusses a great book she just finished, Bernard Cooper's "My Avant-Garde Education"; Tom Lutz talks about finding a lost city in Honduras and the dilemma that the archaeologists now face.
Tom Lutz is back this week and joins Laurie and Seth to discuss schmaltz (sentimental art, not rendered chicken fat), and whether it is necessary in our cultural diet. Also they debate the merits of Laura Poitras' Academy Award-winning documentary "Citizen Four", and Judith Freeman talks about a great book she just read, Rachel Cusk's "Outline."
Colin Marshall talks with Cynthia Kadohata, author of novels for young readers like the Newbery Medal-winning Kira-Kira, the National Book Award-winning The Thing About Luck, and the new Half a World Away. She has also written for adults with such novels In the Heart of the Valley of Love, a grim but hopeful vision of Los Angeles' future.
Composer Jake Heggie talks with LARB's Stephen Rohde about his opera, Dead Man Walking, and its treatment, musically and dramatically, of the death penalty.
