Los Angeles Review of Books

Magazine of literary reviews

*Los Angeles Review of Books*
Los Angeles Review of Books, Issue 1
Executive Director	Irene Yoon
Editor-in-Chief	Medaya Ocher
Preceded by	Michelle Chihara (2023)
Founding Chair	Albert Litewka
Categories	Literature, culture, art, interviews
Founder	Tom Lutz
Founded	2011; 13 years ago (2011)
First issue	March 2013
Country	United States
Based in	Los Angeles, California
Language	English
Website	lareviewofbooks.org
OCLC	904358349

The Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB) is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012. A print edition premiered in May 2013.^[1]

Founded by Tom Lutz,^[2] Chair of the Creative Writing Department at the University of California, Riverside, the Review seeks to redress the decline in Sunday book supplements by creating an online “encyclopedia of contemporary literary discussion.”^[3]

Coverage

The LARB features reviews of new fiction, poetry, and nonfiction; original reviews of classic texts; essays on contemporary art, politics, and culture; and literary news from abroad, including Mexico City, London, and St. Petersburg.^[4]

The site 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.”^[5]

Contributors

The site also features input from more than 200 contributing editors, including Reza Aslan, Aimee Bender, T. C. Boyle, Antonio Damasio, Jonathan Kirsch, Chris Kraus, Jonathan Lethem, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jane Smiley, David Shields, Greil Marcus, Jaron Lanier and Jerry Stahl.

References

^ Werris, Wendy (May 23, 2013). "'Los Angeles Review of Books' Debuts Print Edition". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on August 31, 2013. Retrieved May 8, 2014.
^ Kirchner, Lauren (June 30, 2011). "The Los Angeles Review of Books". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
^ Ayoub, Nina (July 20, 2010). "'The Los Angeles Review of Books' to Launch This Fall". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on July 29, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
^ Werris, Wendy (July 19, 2010). "'Los Angeles Review of Books' to Launch This Fall". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on August 28, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
^ McKenna, Kristine (May 20, 2010). "Lutz: Keeper of the Printed Word". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on July 1, 2010. Retrieved August 22, 2010.