Los Angeles Review of Books
Encyclopedia
The Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB) is a literary review journal covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched in April 2011, to be followed by a more extensive website and a print edition later in the year. Founded by Tom Lutz
, Chair of the Creative Writing Department at the University of California, Riverside
, it seeks to redress the decline in Sunday book supplements by creating an online “encyclopedia of contemporary literary discussion.”
The Review plans to feature multiple reviews of new fiction, poetry, and nonfiction; original reviews of classic texts; essays on contemporary art and culture; and literary news from abroad, including Mexico City, London, and St. Petersburg.
LARB also proposes looking seriously at detective fiction, thrillers, comics, graphic novels, and other writing “often dismissed as genre fiction,” and printing reviews of books published by university presses. Of these plans Lutz has said, “What's considered worthy of study in the literary world has shifted radically over the past 50 years, and it reflects the natural evolution of academic thought, which is constantly raising questions about what matters.”
The site also features input from over 200 contributing editors, including T.C. Boyle, Antonio Damasio
, Jonathan Kirsch
, Jonathan Lethem
, Jeffrey Eugenides
, Mike Davis, Jane Smiley
, David Shields
, Carolyn See
, Barbara Ehrenreich
, Greil Marcus
, Jaron Lanier
and Jerry Stahl
. Section editors include Cecil Castellucci
(Young Adult Fiction), Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Claudia Rankine
(Poetry), Rob Latham (SF), Ben Schwartz (Comics) and Boris Dralyuk (Noir).
In addition to Lutz, the current editorial staff includes Matthew Specktor
, Julie Cline, Evan Kindley, Lisa Jane Persky
, Kate Wolf, Clarissa Romano, and Jonathan Hahn.
A print edition is also planned.
Tom Lutz
-Life:He taught at the California Institute of the Arts, and the University of Iowa.He was nonfiction editor of the Los Angeles Review. His work appeared in Zyzzyva.He teaches at University of California, Riverside.He lives in Los Angeles and Iowa City....
, Chair of the Creative Writing Department at the University of California, Riverside
University of California, Riverside
The University of California, Riverside, commonly known as UCR or UC Riverside, is a public research university and one of the ten general campuses of the University of California system. UCR is consistently ranked as one of the most ethnically and economically diverse universities in the United...
, it seeks to redress the decline in Sunday book supplements by creating an online “encyclopedia of contemporary literary discussion.”
The Review plans to feature multiple reviews of new fiction, poetry, and nonfiction; original reviews of classic texts; essays on contemporary art and culture; and literary news from abroad, including Mexico City, London, and St. Petersburg.
LARB also proposes looking seriously at detective fiction, thrillers, comics, graphic novels, and other writing “often dismissed as genre fiction,” and printing reviews of books published by university presses. Of these plans Lutz has said, “What's considered worthy of study in the literary world has shifted radically over the past 50 years, and it reflects the natural evolution of academic thought, which is constantly raising questions about what matters.”
The site also features input from over 200 contributing editors, including T.C. Boyle, Antonio Damasio
Antonio Damasio
Antonio Damasio is David Dornsife Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, where he heads USC's Brain and Creativity Institute and Adjunct Professor at the Salk Institute. Prior to taking up his posts at USC, in 2005, Damasio was M.W...
, Jonathan Kirsch
Jonathan Kirsch
Jonathan Kirsch is a Biblical scholar, an attorney, and columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He is a bestselling author of books on religion, the Bible, and Judaism. He earned a B.A. degree in Russian and Jewish history from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a J.D. degree from Loyola...
, Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Allen Lethem is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels...
, Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Eugenides
Jeffrey Kent Eugenides is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer. Eugenides is most known for his first two novels, The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex . His novel The Marriage Plot was published in October, 2011.-Life and career:Eugenides was born in Detroit, Michigan,...
, Mike Davis, Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.-Biography:Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained an A.B. at Vassar College, then earned an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the...
, David Shields
David Shields
David Shields is an American author of non-fiction, fiction, and works that resist generic classification. His latest book is Reality Hunger: A Manifesto...
, Carolyn See
Carolyn See
Carolyn See is the author of nine books, including the memoir, Dreaming: Hard Luck and Good Times in America, an advice book on writing, Making a Literary Life, and the novels There Will Never Be Another You and The Handyman....
, Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich
-Early life:Ehrenreich was born Barbara Alexander to Isabelle Oxley and Ben Howes Alexander in Butte, Montana, which she describes as then being "a bustling, brawling, blue collar mining town."...
, Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...
, Jaron Lanier
Jaron Lanier
Jaron Zepel Lanier is an American computer scientist, best known for popularizing the term virtual reality .A pioneer in the field of VR, Lanier and Thomas G. Zimmerman left Atari in 1985 to found VPL Research, Inc., the first company to sell VR goggles and gloves...
and Jerry Stahl
Jerry Stahl
Jerry Stahl is an American novelist and screenwriter, He is best known for his memoir of addiction Permanent Midnight. A film adaptation followed with Ben Stiller in the lead role....
. Section editors include Cecil Castellucci
Cecil Castellucci
Cecil Castellucci, also known as Cecil Seaskull , is a young adult novelist, indie rocker, and director. She currently lives in Los Angeles, California...
(Young Adult Fiction), Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Claudia Rankine
Claudia Rankine
Claudia Rankine is an American poet and playwright born in 1963 and raised in Kingston, Jamaica and New York City. She has taught at Case Western Reserve University, Barnard College, University of Georgia, and in the writing program at the University of Houston. As of 2011, Rankine is the Henry G...
(Poetry), Rob Latham (SF), Ben Schwartz (Comics) and Boris Dralyuk (Noir).
In addition to Lutz, the current editorial staff includes Matthew Specktor
Matthew Specktor
Matthew Specktor is an American writer whose debut novel, That Summertime Sound, was published in August 2009....
, Julie Cline, Evan Kindley, Lisa Jane Persky
Lisa Jane Persky
Lisa Jane Persky is an American actress.Persky was born in New York City, New York, the daughter of Jane Holley and Mort Persky...
, Kate Wolf, Clarissa Romano, and Jonathan Hahn.
A print edition is also planned.