Podcasts about los angeles times book review

City Lights and Akashic Books celebrate the publication of "Joyce Carol Oates: Letters to a Biographer," edited by Greg Johnson, published by Akashic Books. Purchase here: https://citylights.com/new-nonfiction-in-hardcover/joyce-carol-oates-letters-to-a-biograp/ This rich compilation of Joyce Carol Oates's letters across four decades displays her warmth and generosity, her droll and sometimes wicked sense of humor, her phenomenal energy, and most of all, her mastery of the lost art of letter writing. In this generous selection of Joyce Carol Oates's letters to her biographer and friend Greg Johnson, readers will discover a never-before-seen dimension of her phenomenal talent. Whereas her academic essays and book reviews are eloquent in a formal way, in these letters she is wholly relaxed, even when she is serious in her concerns. Like Johnson, she was always engaged in work, whether a long novel or a brief essay, and the letters give a fascinating glimpse into Oates's writing practice. Joyce Carol Oates is the celebrated author of a number of works of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. She is the editor of "New Jersey Noir," "Prison Noir," and "Cutting Edge: New Stories of Mystery and Crime by Women Writers;" and a recipient of the National Book Award, the PEN America Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Humanities Medal, and a World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey. "A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers" is her latest work. Steve Wasserman is the publisher of Heyday Books. He is a former editor-at-large for Yale University Press and editorial director of Times Books/Random House and publisher of Hill & Wang and The Noonday Press at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. A founder of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities at the University of Southern California, Wasserman was a principal architect of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books during the nine years he served as editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review (1996–2005). He has written for many publications, including "The Village Voice," "Threepenny Review," "The Nation," "The New Republic," "The American Conservative," "The Progressive," "Columbia Journalism Review," "Los Angeles Times," and the "(London) Times Literary Supplement." Originally broadcast via Zoom on Thursday, March 18, 2024. Hosted by Peter Maravelis. Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation. citylights.com/foundation

Stella Levi recounts her remarkable life on Isle of Rhodes, caught between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World, National Jewish Book Awards for Holocaust Memoir and Sephardic Culture Michael Frank's essays, articles, and short stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Slate, The Yale Review, Salmagundi, The TLS, and Tablet, among other publications, and his fiction has been presented at Symphony Space's Selected Shorts: A Celebration of the Short Story. He served as a Contributing Writer to the Los Angeles Times Book Review for nearly eight years. Frank is the author of What Is Missing, a novel, and The Mighty Franks, a memoir, which was awarded the 2018 JQ Wingate Prize and was named one of the best books of the year by The Telegraph and The New Statesman. Selected as one of the ten best books of 2022 by The Wall Street Journal, One Hundred Saturdays received a Natan Notable Book Award, two National Book Awards from the Jewish Book Council, and the Sophie Brody Award for outstanding achievement in Jewish literature. A 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, Frank lives in New York City and Camogli, Italy.

SCROLL DOWN FOR A BRAND NEW PUBLISHED REPORT!On this episode of Feudal Future, hosts Joel Kotkin and Marshall Toplansky are joined by American writer, Michael Lind, to discuss the future of work.Michael Lind is the author of more than a dozen books about U.S. political and economic history, politics and foreign policy. He has explained and defended the tradition of American democratic nationalism in The Next American Nation (1995), Hamilton's Republic (1997), What Lincoln Believed (2005), The American Way of Strategy (2006), and Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States (2012). His most recent book is The New Class War: How to Save Democracy from The Managerial Elite (2020). Lind's works of fiction and poetry include The Alamo (1997), named by the Los Angeles Times Book Review as one of hte best books of the year, and Bluebonnet Girl (2003), illustrated by Kate Kiesler, an Oppenheimer Toy Portfolio Gold Book Award winner.Educated at the University of Texas and Yale University, Lind is a columnist for Tablet and a contributor to American Affairs, American Compass and Project Syndicate. He has been an editor or staff writer at Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, The New Republic, the National Interest, co-founder of New America, and Assistant to the Director of the U.S. State Department's Center for Foreign Affairs. He has taught at Harvard, Johns Hopkins and the University of Texas. Check out his new book here: https://www.amazon.com/Hell-Pay-Conspiracy-Destroying-America/dp/0593421256NEW:Download our newest report: NURTURING CALIFORNIA INDUSTRIEShttps://www.chapman.edu/communication/demographics-policy/ca-industries-2023.pdfExecutive SummaryThe focus of this joint project between The Chapman Center for Demographics and Policy and the New California Coalition lies in trying to create better employment opportunities for Californians. We look at which industries our states still maintain strategic advantages that we can build on. This will require some major changes in how the state operates, particularly on the regulatory side. It will also require a ratcheting up of state economic development and skills training programs. Our focus is not primarily a typical “pro-business” agenda in that our primary interestlies in creating conditions that benefit the bulk of Californians. If the majority thrives, so too will most business. An economy that enriches only a few and offers little to others is, in the most fundamental way, unsustainable for the long-term future.Visit Our Pagewww.TheFeudalFuturePodcast.comSupport Our WorkThe Center for Demographics and Policy focuses on research and analysis of global, national, and regional demographic trends and explores policies that might produce favorable demographic results over time. It involves Chapman students in demographic research under the supervision of the Center's senior staff.Students work with the Center's director and engage in research that will serve them well as they look to develop their careers in business, the social sciences, and the arts. Students also have access to our advisory board, which includes distinguished Chapman faculty and major demographic scholars from across the country and the world.For additional information, please contact Mahnaz Asghari, sponsored project analyst for the Office of Research, at (714) 744-7635 or asghari@chapman.edu.Follow us on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-feudal-future-podcast/Tweet thoughts: @joelkotkin, @mtoplansky, #FeudalFuture #BeyondFeudalismLearn more about Joel's book 'The Coming of Neo-Feudalism': https://amzn.to/3a1VV87Sign Up For News & Alerts: http://joelkotkin.com/#subscribeThis show is presented by the Chapman Center for Demographics and Policy, which focuses on research and analysis of g

Page One, produced and hosted by author Holly Lynn Payne, celebrates the craft that goes into writing the first sentence, first paragraph and first page of your favorite books. The first page is often the most rewritten page of any book because it has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. We interview master storytellers on the struggles and stories behind the first page of their books.About the guest author:Kate Manning's most recent novel, GILDED MOUNTAIN, was named an Indie Book Pick for November 2022. Manning is also the author of the critically acclaimed novels My Notorious Life and Whitegirl. A former documentary television producer and winner of two Emmy Awards, she has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, Time, Glamour, and The Guardian, among other publications. She has taught creative writing at Bard High School Early College in Manhattan, and lives with her family in New York City.About the host:Holly Lynn Payne is an award-winning novelist and writing coach, and the former CEO and founder of Booxby, a startup built to help authors succeed. She is an internationally published author of four historical fiction novels. Her debut, The Virgin's Knot, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers book. She recently finished her first YA crossover novel inspired by her nephew with Down syndrome. She lives in Marin County with her daughter and enjoys mountain biking, surfing and hiking with her dog. To learn more about her books and private writing coaching services, please visit hollylynnpayne.com or find her at Instagram and Twitter @hollylynnpayne.If you have a first page you'd like to submit to the Page One Podcast, please do so here.As an author and writing coach, I know that the first page of any book has to work so hard to do so much—hook the reader. So I thought to ask your favorite master storytellers how they do their magic to hook YOU. After the first few episodes, it occurred to me that maybe someone listening might be curious how their first page sits with an audience, so I'm opening up Page One to any writer who wants to submit the first page of a book they're currently writing. If your page is chosen, you'll be invited onto the show to read it and get live feedback from one of Page One's master storytellers. Page One exists to inspire, celebrate and promote the work of both well-known and unknown creative talent.  You can listen to Page One on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher and all your favorite podcast players. Hear past episodes.To get updates and writing tips from master storytellers, follow me onFacebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Instagram.Until then, be well and keep reading!

Acclaimed for crafting ''sharply drawn characters, exuberant prose,'' and ''plenty of period detail'' (Los Angeles Times Book Review), Diane McKinney-Whetstone is the author of six novels, including Tumbling, Tempest Rising, Trading Dreams at Midnight, and Lazaretto, a historical novel set in a legendary 19th-century Philadelphia quarantine hospital. A two-time recipient of the American Library Association Black Caucus Literary Award for fiction and winner of a Zora Neale Hurston Society Award, she taught creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania for 12 years and has contributed writing to The Atlantic, Essence, and Philadelphia Magazine. In Our Gen, McKinney-Whetstone follows the residents of a Philadelphia-area active-living retirement community who revert to the passions and excesses of their youth. (recorded 7/19/2022)

Steve Wasserman was born and raised in Berkeley, but launched his literary life in Los Angeles, first as deputy editor of the Los Angeles Times then as the long-time editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review. He then sampled a rich life among the New York publishing elites. In 2016, Wasserman and his 15,000-book library came home. He talks to us as the publisher of Berkeley's Heyday Books, an imprint dedicated to social justice and California's rich history and natural abundance.

Jessica Helfand. Jessica is internationally acclaimed in her area of work as a designer, writer, and educator. She received both her BA in graphic design and architectural theory in 1982 and her MFA in graphic design in 1989 from Yale University. With William Drenttel, she co-founded The Winterhouse Institute and with Michael Bierut, Design Observer. She has written for many national publications, including The Los Angeles Times Book Review, Aperture and The New Republic. She is the author of numerous books on design and cultural criticism, including Paul Rand: American Modernist (1998), Screen: Essays on Graphic Design, New Media and Visual Culture (2001) and Reinventing the Wheel (2002). Her critically acclaimed Scrapbooks: An American History (Yale University Press, 2008) was named that year's best visual book by the New York Times. Her most recent publications include Design: The Invention of Desire (2016), Culture is not Always Popular: Fifteen Years of Design Observer and Face; A Visual Odyssey (2019).

LOST AND FOUND by Sheldon Greene A Holocaust survivor chooses between life in a small Western Pennsylvania town and reparations in Israel. Gentle, funny, poignant, and magical, the book celebrates the small miracles of ordinary life. A rabbi discovers he can heal. Sterile people give birth. A mysterious bookstore burns. A cookbook divides the sisterhood. The Los Angeles Times Book Review gave it a Critics Commendation and said, Greene is a born storyteller. Sheldon Greene is a San Francisco Bay Area Lawyer. His last published novel is Burnt Umber. Greene's legal background includes high impact public interest litigation, alternative energy, and credit unions. He also sings bass in the Oakland Symphony Chorus. https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Found-Sheldon-Greene-ebook/dp/B07GW7FQ2V/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=lost+and+found+sheldon+greene&qid=1607527602&sr=8-1 www.sheldongreene.com http://www.bluefunkbroadcasting.com/root/twia/shelgreenamg.mp3

Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Announcements. Central Works Script Club, where you read the script of a new play and send comments to the playwright. The July script is The Lady Matador's Hotel by Christina Garcia. A podcast with the playwright, hosted by Patricial Milton, will be posted to the Central Works website on July 28. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is launching a new streaming service featuring full length videos of recent plays. The Copper Children plays through July 15, followed by A Midsummer Night's Dream through July 22. Tickets through the website. Theatreworks Silicon Valley is presenting another live solo performance from Florence, Italy with Hershey Felder, Beethoven, A play with Music on Sunday July 12 at 5 pm Pacific. Tickets through the website. Moliere in the Park presents Richard Wilbur's translation of Tartuffe, starring Raul Esparza and Samira Wiley, recorded live with actors superimposed on a set, through July 12. Book Passage's Conversations with Authors features Tim Cahill, Saturday July 11 at 4 pm Pacific time and Ann Patchett Sunday July 12 also at 4 pm Pacific. And David Mitchell in conversation with Michael Chabon, hosted by Tom Barbash airs on Thursday, July 16, again at 4 pm Pacific time. Aurora Theatre's yearly fundraising event, Supernova, is open and free, on Monday July 13th. Registration required. Bay Area Book Festival. Various Unbound conversations available streaming. The Booksmith lists its entire July on-line schedule of interviews and readings on their website, which includes Lockdown Lit every Tuesday at 11 am Theatre Rhino Thursday play at 8 pm July 9, 2020 on Facebook Live is Modjeska, San Francisco's First Superstar, conceived and performed by John Fisher. The Death of Ruby Slippers by Stuart Bousel, available streaming. Shotgun Players. Streaming, the folk opera Iron Shoes. Recorded in spring 2018, continuing through July 17, and The Claim, workshop production. The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess, July 9-12, 7 pm. Registration required. San Francisco Playhouse. Every Monday, SF Playhouse presents Zoomlets, a series of short play table reads. 42nd Street Moon. A live evening of Sondheim songs, Friday July 10th on Facebook Live, featuring an array of local theatrical talent. Kepler's Books presents Refresh the Page, on line interviews and talks. Registration required. Lincoln Center Live July 10 – September 8, 2020: Carousel, with Kelli O'Hara and Nathan Gunn. National Theater At Home on You Tube: The Deep Blue Sea.   Bookwaves Barry Lopez, whose latest book is “Horizon”, now out in trade paperback, in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. From Barry Lopez's website: From the National Book Award-winning author of the now-classic Arctic Dreams, a vivid, poetic, capacious work that recollects the travels around the world and the encounters–human, animal, and natural–that have shaped an extraordinary life. Taking us nearly from pole to pole–from modern megacities to some of the most remote regions on the earth–and across decades of lived experience, Barry Lopez, hailed by the Los Angeles Times Book Review as “one of our finest writers,” gives us his most far-ranging yet personal work to date, in a book that moves indelibly, immersively, through his travels to six regions of the world: from Western Oregon to the High Arctic; from the Galápagos to the Kenyan desert; from Botany Bay in Australia to finally, unforgettably, the ice shelves of Antarctica. Extended 45-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast. Special thanks to the Bay Area Book Festival and Cherilyn Parsons.   Arts-Waves Margaret Atwood, discussing her novel “The Robber Bride,” recorded in San Francisco on November 24, 1993 with Richard Wolinsky and Richard A. Lupoff, from the “Probabilities” archive. The second of eight interviews with Margaret Atwood, author of such novels as The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Graceand the Oryx and Crake trilogy. In this interview, she discusses her novel “The Robber Bride,” as well as what it feels like to be a Canadian author, her views on Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. LeGuin and science fiction and genres in general, and some of the thought processes behind writing her books.     The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – July 9, 2020: Barry Lopez – Margaret Atwood appeared first on KPFA.

Michael Frank is the author of What Is Missing, a gripping psychological novel centered on the lives of three brilliantly developed characters. His memoir, The Mighty Franks, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, one of The Telegraph's and The New Statesman's best books of 2017, and the winner of the 2018 JQ Wingate Literary Prize. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and many other publications. He was a contributing writer to the Los Angeles Times Book Review for almost ten years. 

Today's episode is brought to you by "Odessa on the Delaware: Introducing FBI Agent Marsha O'Shea". I sincerely hope you will enjoy this thrilling crime novel. You can purchase it here: AmazonCharles Salzberg is a novelist, a journalist, and an acclaimed writing instructor. His new novel, Devil in the Hole, a gripping work of literary crime fiction based on the notorious John List murders, is on shelves now. He is the author of the Henry Swann detective series: Swann Dives In; Swann's Last Song, which was nominated for a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel; and the upcoming Swann's Lake of Despair. His non-fiction books include: On A Clear Day They Could See Seventh Place: Baseball's 10 Worst Teams of the Century; From Set Shot to Slam Dunk, An Oral History of the NBA; and co-author of My Zany Life and Times, by Soupy Sales; Catch Them Being Good; and The Mad Fisherman. He has been a Visiting Professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, and has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Hunter College, the Writer's Voice, and the New York Writers Workshop, where he is a Founding Member. He is a consulting editor at the webzine Ducts.org and co-host, with Jonathan Kravetz, of the reading series, Trumpet Fiction, at KGB in New York City. His freelance work has appeared in such publications as Esquire, New York Magazine, GQ, Elle, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, The New York Times Arts and Leisure section, The New York Times Book Review, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

Is the Age of Gutenberg finished?  Has the Internet now become so widespread as to render books obsolete?  Are publishers dinosaur institutions? Is the crisis of American literacy also a crisis of American democracy? Does it matter? Steve Wasserman, former editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, will argue that books will survive as long as the human species is defined by its opposable thumb and its obsessive need to tell each other stories.

Barry Lopez, whose latest book is “Horizon” in conversation with Richard Wolinsky. From Barry Lopez's website: From the National Book Award-winning author of the now-classic Arctic Dreams, a vivid, poetic, capacious work that recollects the travels around the world and the encounters–human, animal, and natural–that have shaped an extraordinary life. Taking us nearly from pole to pole–from modern megacities to some of the most remote regions on the earth–and across decades of lived experience, Barry Lopez, hailed by the Los Angeles Times Book Review as “one of our finest writers,” gives us his most far-ranging yet personal work to date, in a book that moves indelibly, immersively, through his travels to six regions of the world: from Western Oregon to the High Arctic; from the Galápagos to the Kenyan desert; from Botany Bay in Australia to finally, unforgettably, the ice shelves of Antarctica. Special thanks to the Bay Area Book Festival and Cherilyn Parsons.   The post Barry Lopez, “Horizon” appeared first on KPFA.

In conversation with Concepción de León, the digital staff writer for the Books desk at The New York Times. She also writes "El Espace," a news and culture column for Latino. A ''one-woman cultural collision'' (Los Angeles Times Book Review), poet, essayist, and fiction writer Julia Alvarez is renowned for her lyrical, poignant, politically insightful books, including How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, which details the lives of four sisters before and after their exile from the Dominican Republic; A Wedding in Haiti, an examination of three of Alvarez's most personal relationships; and Return to Sender, a novel about the families of undocumented Mexican workers in Vermont. Her many awards include the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Literature and the 2013 National Medal of Arts. On the eve of the 25th anniversary of its publication, the new edition of Alvarez's novel In the Time of the Butterflies is a celebration of the four mariposa sisters who symbolized courage, love, and resistance. (recorded 4/23/2019)

In conversation with Carlin Romano, Critic-at-Large, The Chronicle of Higher Education, former literary critic The Philadelphia Inquirer and author of America the Philosophical. Celebrated internationally for a prolific, ''achingly beautiful'' (Los Angeles Times Book Review) body of work across a variety of genres, Chinese émigré Ha Jin is the author of a score of novels, volumes of poetry, story collections, and a book of essays. His many honors include the National Book Award, two PEN/Faulkner Awards, the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Jin's books include Waiting, Under the Red Flag, and War Trash. The Banished Immortal is a biography of the 8th-century, Tang Dynasty poet whose verses remain an intrinsic element of Chinese language and culture. (recorded 1/17/2019)

Sep. 5, 2015. Jon Meacham discusses "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power" as part of a special celebration of Jefferson's Library at the 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. Speaker Biography: Jon Meacham is the executive editor and executive vice president at Random House. During his career, he has been editor-in-chief of Newsweek, a contributing editor to Time Magazine, editor-at-large of WNET and a commentator on politics, history, and religious faith in America. Meacham’s book "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House" won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for biography. He has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times Book Review and The Washington Post Book World. Meacham has written the best-selling book "American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation" and edited "Voices in Our Blood: America's Best on the Civil Rights Movement," a collection of distinguished nonfiction about the midcentury struggle against Jim Crow. His most recent work is “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power." For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=7028

Great Plains writer Marilyn June Coffey has written three books, 600 poems, and dozens of articles and stories. A trained journalist (B.A., University of Nebraska, 1959) and creative writer (M.F.A., Brooklyn College, 1981), she has produced work that includes a popular memoir, a record-setting novel, and a prize-winning poem. Her poem, Pricksong, reviewed in the Los Angeles Times Book Review and Newsweek, won a national Pushcart Prize. Coffey's novel Marcella made literary history. It was the first novel written in English to use female autoeroticism as a main theme. Gloria Steinem called it "an important part of the truth telling by and for women. In 1989, Coffey's memoir, Great Plains Patchwork, appeared. The New York Times called it entertaining and insightful. Atlantic Monthly featured a chapter as its cover story. Natural History bought two chapters, American Heritage one. Harper & Row, McGraw-Hill, Macmillan, and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich printed excerpts. Known as a prose stylist, Coffey received a Master Alumnus award for distinction in the field of writing from the University of Nebraska in 1977. Since 1987, the UN-L Archives has collected forty boxes of Coffey's papers in its Mari Sandoz room. In 1991, Coffey investigated the orphan train movement, developing three programs for the Nebraska Humanities Council. One became the second most popular of the 232 programs underwritten by NHC and spurred her to write Mail-Order Kid. Now retired, Coffey taught writing at Boston University, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and Fort Hays State University in Kansas for thirty-four years, twice earning tenure. She became an interpretive reader/performer, appearing on local radio stations, statewide TV, and before more than 130 groups in twelve states, from Maine to Texas.   Her new book, Thieves, Rascals, & Sore Losers is available for pre-order.

Chance (Scribner) When Kem Nunn's debut novel Tapping the Source was published, the Los Angeles Times Book Review wrote: "Kem Nunn is the bright son of a very good family. His 'parents' include Hammett, Chandler, Raoul Whitfield, Paul Cain, James M. Cain, Horace McCoy, and yes, Ross MacDonald. What Kem Nunn has done is what every good parent yearns for and is afraid of: he has surpassed them all." Now, with Chance, Nunn surpasses even himself. Half Coen Brothers, half Dashiell Hammett, Kem Nunn has written a gritty, twisted psychological thriller centered on a lonely, brilliant, forensic neuropsychologist in San Francisco. Dr. Eldon Chance has a track record of becoming involved with the wrong women. As he enters a mid-life crisis brought on by the failure of his marriage, a series of bad decisions lead him into a relationship with Jaclyn Blackstone, a patient suffering an apparent dissociative identy disorder. And unfortunately her abusive husband, an Oakland homicide detective, is the jealous type. At the same time, Chance meets a young man named “D,” a self-styled Samurai who Chance thinks is a war veteran, but is really more of a deranged loner. As Chance finds his life twisting more and more uncomfortably into Jaclyn Blackstone's world, D acts as Chance's guide to the underbelly of San Francisco and his coach for the looming show-down with Jaclyn's psychotic husband. In his own cool, gray City of Love, amid its fluid, ever-changing beauty and shifting fogs, Dr. Chance will be forced to live up to his name. By turns horrific and darkly comic, suspenseful and thought provoking, Chance is a head trip through the fun house from “one of the most interesting writers working the coast” (San Diego Union Tribune) and confirms Kem Nunn'sreputation as a master of suspense and a novelist of the first rank.  Kem Nunn is a third-generation Californian and the author of six novels, including the National Book Award NomineeTapping the Source, Tijuana Straits, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Best Mystery/Thriller, The Dogs of Winter, Pomona Queen, and Unassigned Territory. In addition to writing novels, he writes screenplays for television and film, most notably John from Cincinnati which he co-created with David Milch, Deadwood, and currently, Sons of Anarchy. He lives in Southern California.

Host: Chris Mooney Our guest this week is Susan Jacoby. She's the bestselling author of a number of books about secularism and American culture, including Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism and The Age of American Unreason. Jacoby started her career at the Washington Post, and her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Book Review, Newsday, Harper's, The Nation, Vogue, The American Prospect, Mother Jones, and the AARP Magazine, among other publications. Her latest book, just published and the subject of our interview, is The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought.

These Dreams of You (Europa Editions) We're thrilled to present Steve Erickson, author of Zeroville and editor of the literary journal Black Clock, who will read and sign his new novel These Dreams of You. "In its gorgeous, vivid prose and its acutely sensitive soul, These Dreams of You shows us just what a novel can still do in our own crazy times." --Boston Globe "Erickson's seemingly fractured novel turns out to be something else -- the novel as fractal, a series of endless, astounding tessellations." --The New York Times Book Review "Over his entire career Erickson has challenged readers with a fiercely intelligent and surprisingly sensual brand of American surrealism." --The Washington Post Steve Erickson is the author of eight previous novels, including Zeroville, which was named one of the best novels of the year by Newsweek, the Washington Post Book World, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and noted as one of five favorite novels in a winter 2008 National Book Critics Circle poll. He also has written two books about American politics and popular culture, Leap Year and American Nomad.  Erickson has written for Esquire, Rolling Stone, Bookforum, Frieze, Conjunctions, Salon, the L.A. Weekly, the New York Times Magazine and other publications and journals, and his work has been widely anthologized. Currently he is the film critic for the Los Angeles Magazine and the editor of the literary journal Black Clock, which is published by the California Institute of the Arts where he teaches in the MFA Writing Program. Erickson has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts grant and a fellowship from John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. In 2010 he was been nominated for a National Magazine Award for criticism and received one of seven awards in literature given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS February 22, 2012.

A Wedding in Haiti, :Julia Alvarez has been called “a one-woman cultural collision” by the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and that has never been truer than in this new book, a story about three of Alvarez’s most personal relationships—with her parents, with her husband, and with a young Haitian boy known as Piti. A teenager when Julia first met him in 2001, Piti crossed the border into the Dominican Republic to find work. Julia, impressed by his courage and charmed by his smile, has over the years come to think of him as a son, even promising to be at his wedding someday. When Piti calls in 2009, Julia’s promise is tested. Julia Alvarez is the author of nineteen books, including How the García Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies.How The García Girls Lost Their Accents picked by NY Librarians as one of 21 classics for 21st century. In the Time of the Butterflies was selected a Notable Book was chosen as one of the Best Books for Young Adults, 1995, by the Young Adult Library Services Association and the American Library Association. Return to Sender won the 2010 Winner of:Pura Belpré & Americas Award. Once Upon A Quinceañera was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism.   Juia Alvarez is a writer-in-residence at Middlebury College, she and her husband, Bill Eichner, established Alta Gracia, an organic coffee farm–literacy arts center, in her homeland, the Dominican Republic. http://www.juliaalvarez.com/ Photo Credit: Bill Eichner

C.M. Mayo reads an excerpt from her memoir, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (Milkweed Editions paperback; Dancing Chiva e-book). It covers, in part, the history of the Jesuit Conquest. For more about this book, including excerpts, photos, videos, and more podcasts, please visit www.cmmayo.com "A luminous exploration of Baja California... a work of nonfiction that elides into modern myth" -- Los Angeles Times Book Review"A sensitive and knowing over-view of a place and a people so near and yet so far from the U.S. or Mexico" -- Harry W. Crosby, author of Last of the Californios and Antigua California Read more reviews of this book here. 

An introduction to Mexico and Mexican literature: C.M. Mayo reads her prologue to her collection of 24 contemporary Mexican writers, MEXICO: A TRAVELER'S LITERARY COMPANION (Whereabouts Press). Visit www.cmmayo.com to read more, including table of contents, list of contributors, excerpts, and C.M. mayo's interview on National Public Radio, and more. "It will open your eyes, fill you with pleasure and render our perennial vecinos a little less distante." Los Angeles Times Book Review

The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Are So Important in a Distracted Time (Sasquatch Books) Los Angeles Times book critic David L. Ulin will discuss and sign his new boook on the importance of reading in a digital culture, The Lost Art of Reading. Reading is a revolutionary act, an act of engagement in a culture that wants us to disengage. In The Lost Art of Reading, David L. Ulin asks a number of timely questions — why is literature important? What does it offer, especially now? Blending commentary with memoir, Ulin addresses the importance of the simple act of reading in an increasingly digital culture. Reading a book, flipping through hard pages, or shuffling them on screen — it doesn't matter. The key is the act of reading, the seriousness and depth. Ulin emphasizes the importance of reflection and pause allowed by stopping to read a book, and the focus required to let the mind run free in a world that is not one's own. Far from preaching to the choir, The Lost Art of Reading is a call to arms, or rather, pages. David L. Ulin was book editor of the Los Angeles Times from 2005–2010. He is the author of The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith (Viking, 2004; Penguin, 2005), selected as a Best Book of 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Chicago Tribune. He has edited two anthologies of Southern California literature: Another City: Writing from Los Angeles (City Lights, 2001), a Los Angeles Times Book Review Best Book of 2001; and Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology (Library of America, 2002), which received a California Book Award from the Commonwealth Club of California, and was selected by the Los Angeles Times Book Review as a Best of the Best for 2002. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, LA Weekly, Los Angeles, and National Public Radio's All Things Considered; his essay "The Half-Birthday of the Apocalypse" was nominated for a 2004 Pushcart Prize. For the 2008–2009 academic year, he was a visiting professor in the MFA in creative writing program at the California Institute of the Arts. Currently, he teaches in USC's Masters of Professional Writing program, and in the low residency MFA in creative writing program at the University of California, Riverside's Palm Desert Graduate Center. Photo of the author by Noah Ulin. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS OCTOBER 27, 2010.

The Dandelion Clock (Tinfish Press) Acclaimed Los Angeles poet Daniel Tiffany will read from and sign his latest collection, The Dandelion Clock. "Each of the poems in The Dandelion Clock is a pearl strung together with music from the origin of human sounds. This book has the stillness of haiku and the raw power of Beowulf. Daniel Tiffany is a revolutionary poet." —Wang Ping "Daniel Tiffany's 'pocket rhapsodies' are gorgeously spring-loaded, micro-tuned, and aching with time, time lost, syllabic time, dreamtime, time the conqueror. The Dandelion Clock is a burning fuse and a wonderful book."  —Peter Gizzi Daniel Tiffany has published translations of Sophocles, Georges Bataille, and the Italian poet, Cesare Pavese. His critical works include Toy Medium: Materialism and Modern Lyric (University of California Press, 2000), named one of the "Best Books of 2000" by the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and Infidel Poetics: Riddles, Nightlife, Substance (University of Chicago Press, 2009). His first volume of poetry, Puppet Wardrobe, was published in 2006 by Parlor Press; a second book of poems, The Dandelion Clock, appeared from Tinfish Pess in 2010. His poems, which have won the Chicago Review Annual Poetry Prize, as well as the John Billings Fiske Prize, appear in journals including Tin House, Boston Review, and the Paris Review. His third book of poetry, Privado, is due to be published in 2011 by Action Books. He teaches at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

If you experience any technical difficulties with this video or would like to make an accessibility-related request, please send a message to digicomm@uchicago.edu. Peter Filkins is a graduate of Williams College and Columbia University, where he received his M.F.A. in poetry. An Associate Professor in the Division of Languages & Literature at Simon's Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Filkins has translated Ingeborg Bachmann's collected poems, Songs in Flight, which received an Outstanding Translation Award from the American Literary Translators Association. In addition he has translated Bachmann's novel fragments, The Book of Franza and Requiem for Fanny Goldmann, as well as a novel by Alois Hotschnig titled Leonardo's Hands. His own poems have appeared in two volumes, What She Knew and After Homer, and his poetry, translations, and reviews, have appeared in The Paris Review, Partisan Review, Poetry, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, The New Republic, and numerous other publications. He is currently working on a translation of H. G. Adler's novel, Eine Reise, and his new collection of poems will be released by Zephyr Press in 2006.

A conversation about publishing, book criticism and LA literary culture with David L. Ulin, editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

Christopher Hitchens, one of the most celebrated social critics of our time, has been a columnist for Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, The Nation, Slate and Free Inquiry. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including God is Not Great (2007), A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq (2003), Why Orwell Matters (2002), The Trial of Henry Kissinger (2001), and Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001). Additionally, he has written prolifically for The London Review of Books, Granta, Harper's, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, New Left Review, The New York Review of Books, Newsweek International, The Times Literary Supplement, and The Washington Post. He is also a regular television and radio commentator. In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Hitchens discusses his new best-selling book God Is Not Great, which is his contribution to the recent slate of best-selling atheist titles. He also explores various strategies for challenging religiosity in our society, the immorality of the Bible, how religion is bad for one's health, his many recent public debates with believers, and what he calls the war between the West and Islamism. He also comments on the relationship between atheism and intelligence, atheism and great literature, and the need for a "New Enlightenment."

The great Irish novelist--known as a pioneer for her frank portrayals of women--discusses her daring new work that explores the unbreakable bond between mother and child. "O'Brien is a storyteller, an Irish story-teller, one of an ancient tradition of storytellers, people who tell the truth." (Thomas Cahill, Los Angeles Times Book Review)

David Yulen talks about his new job as head of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, poet David Lehman reads from his book, "Operation Memory," and more...

David Yulen talks about his new job as head of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, poet David Lehman reads from his book, "Operation Memory," and more...

The Best of Jackson Payne (Knopf) A conversation with author Jack Fuller, who happens to be the president of the Tribune Publishing Company, and Steve Wasserman, editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review, about concern journalistic ethics, conflicts of interest, and art.