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MAGA as Fan Fiction
On America’s runaway Story Drive.
Featured Exhibit
Ciccio
POND SCUM is a 40-panel leporello assembled by Ciccio and published by Seven.
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Great Maestros of the Human Heart
Larry Wolff attends the October 2025 Parma Verdi Festival to write about ‘Macbeth,’ ‘Otello,’ and ‘Falstaff.’
Daddy Reissues
Dinah Brooke’s 1971 debut novel ‘Love Life of a Cheltenham Lady,’ newly reissued, explores a young woman’s journey to realizing that ‘we should give up the charade’ of ‘heterosexual relationships and the bourgeois family structure.’
Caroline Fraser's 'Murderland'
Caroline Fraser talks about her new book Murderland, which takes an ecological lens to serial killers, and finds a connection between PNW plants and killers like Ted Bundy
And I Never Looked Back
Tracing the California lineage of Charles Bukowski’s publisher, Black Sparrow Press, and its passionate founder, John Martin.
Mushrooms Are Not a Metaphor
Maria Pinto finds climate futures hidden among wild mushrooms.
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LARB Turns 15
Join us this year as we celebrate 15 years of LARB with a rotating selection of new editorial features and old favorites from our archive, some fresh updates to our site and newsletters, a forthcoming special anthology issue of the LARB Quarterly, a full slate of exciting events and workshops, and so much more.
Celebrate with us!
Have dinner with a literary luminary.
On January 24, 2026, acclaimed journalist and author Susan Orlean will be joined in conversation by music critic and fellow writer Alex Ross at the historic Thomas Mann House. Tickets are on sale now.
Secure your spot.
LARB RADIO HOUR
Caroline Fraser's 'Murderland'
Caroline Fraser talks about her new book Murderland, which takes an ecological lens to serial killers, and finds a connection between PNW plants and killers like Ted Bundy
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Help us keep LARB paywall-free.
FROM THE FORTHCOMING ISSUE
An Apocalypse for Every Epoch
Emmett Rensin writes on eco-grief, the climate dirge, and one Armenian monk in a new hybrid fiction-cum-essay from LARB Quarterly no. 47, “Security.”
FROM THE FORTHCOMING ISSUE
Filthy Matters
Calvin Gimpelevich writes on the history and politics of public bathrooms, in this essay from LARB Quarterly no. 47, “Security.”
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Not Exactly a Thesis
Brais Lamela explores fiction, history, and the slipperiness of the nonfiction novel in ‘What Remains,’ newly translated by Jacob Rogers.
The Long Breath of the World
On László Krasznahorkai’s sentences and what they require of us.
Science on Ice
Neil Shubin’s stories of polar exploration tell us about the losses ahead.
A Guide to Living in and with Nature
What the ancients can teach us about cultivating a sustainable world.
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SILVER SCREEN
Culture Never Recovered
From his rear window, M. Keith Booker reads the new anthology of stories inspired by Alfred Hitchcock, edited by Maxim Jakubowski.
TRAFFIC JAM
Saints of the Middlebrow
Jon Repetti considers Jeremy Rosen’s “Genre Bending: The Plasticity of Form in Contemporary Literary Fiction.”
CITY OF ANGELS
Still Not Geriatric: Archiving a Teenage Riot Grrrl Band
Martin Wong catches up with SoCal punk band Emily’s Sassy Lime upon their reunion for the California Biennial.
THE SOCIAL NETWORK
Your Life Is Not a Plot
Nada Alic speaks with Halle Butler about social satire, writing humor, and her newest novel, “Banal Nightmare.”
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Latest
Toward a Feminism Without Gender
Monique Wittig’s novels ‘The Lesbian Body’ and ‘Across the Acheron’ have just received new editions that reflect the feminist thinker’s ongoing cultural impact.
Dangerous, Decadent Depths
John Knych dissects Hiron Ennes’s ‘The Works of Vermin.’
The Mysterious Eugenics of Aesthetic Taste
In the 11th essay in the Legacies of Eugenics series, Michael Rossi shows how American scientists and artists used their discovery of racial ‘types’ to buttress eugenicist notions of aesthetic taste.
Made for Strength
Irene Katz Connelly argues for a new approach to witch hysteria via two recent novels, Olga Ravn’s ‘The Wax Child’ and Irene Solà’s ‘I Gave You Eyes and You Looked Toward Darkness.’
A New Cinematic Language for Trans Life
Chris Shields speaks with filmmaker Louise Weard about her ‘Castration Movie’ series.
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Fault Lines
What our editors can’t stop thinking about, from cultural research and reporting to political commentary and coverage of current events.
Drawing America’s Brutal Imagination
Justin A. Davis writes on Ralph Bakshi’s controversial film “Coonskin” for its 50th anniversary, in a preview of the LARB Quarterly no. 47, “Security.”
Run for the Sun, Little One
Carly Mattox considers recent critiques of imperialist nostalgia via Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later” and Adam Curtis’s “Shifty.”
Freeing the Library
Aaron Boehmer writes about community libraries and the importance of accessible archival and literary resources in these times.
Racialized Economic Piracy
Joel Edward Goza dives into Calvin Schermerhorn’s new study of American history, tracing a financial pattern of racial exploitation that’s woven into the nation’s fabric.
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Vantage Points
Long-form views on literature, art, and experience from LARB’s online magazine and print Quarterly.
Beginning to See the Light
Rowland Bagnall dives into the early work of Stephen Shore, newly collected by MACK.
A Fierce and Complicated Compassion
Alix Christie considers Susan Straight’s challenging yet crucial portraits of an “overlooked” California.
The Fascist Cinematic Universe
Tim Brinkhof considers Joe Wright’s new Mussolini miniseries as a flawed representation of the rise of fascism in Italy.
No More Heroes
Clara Cuccaro considers the “myth of resistance” in Joachim Trier’s newest film, “Sentimental Value.”
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Short Takes
Brief dispatches from L.A.’s arts and culture scenes. Courtesy of LARB’s local columnists and occasional correspondents.
Hail, Caesar
Friends, Romans, countrymen: Nathan Jefferson lends his ears (and eyes) to the immersive “Julius Caesar” production at Heritage Square Museum.
The Whole Idea of Knowing the Truth
Elizabeth Barton trawls through the newly opened Joan Didion archives at New York Public Library to learn about the making of the author’s first book.
Jackpot!
“Nothing is clearly defined” in Julia Yerger’s art exhibition, which Keith J. Varadi finds to be a big win.
My Date at the Holocaust Ballet
Dorie Chevlen attends “Memoryhouse,” an abstract, cinematic performance that still managed to dance around comparisons to contemporary injustices.
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LARB Radio Hour
Susan Orlean's 'Joyride: A Memoir'
Susan Orlean joins the podcast to talk about her new book 'Joyride: A Memoir,' her literary career, and the state of journalism today
Sally Mann’s 'Art Work: On the Creative Life'
We revisit our episode with photographer and writer Sally Mann about her book, "Art Work: On the Creative Life."
Special Show: Jenny Slate and Sarah Manguso
Tales from Two Critics: A.S. Hamrah and Melissa Anderson on the Year in Film
Film critics and authors A.S Hamrah and Melissa Anderson join the podcast to talk about 2025 in film, the Warner Bros. sale, AI use, and more.
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The LARB Quarterly
LARB Quarterly, no. 47: Security
Brace yourself, new essays, fiction, poetry, art, and comics are here. Hunker down with the LARB Quarterly no 47: Security, exploring vulnerability, loss, and refuge.
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