About
The Los Angeles Review of Books is a magazine covering culture, politics, and the arts. Considered a “pillar of West Coast literary culture with national impact,” LARB publishes reviews, essays, and interviews online every day, as well as a quarterly print journal, which also features original fiction, poetry, and art.
LARB was founded in 2011, when the widespread shuttering of book review publications and supplements seemed to suggest that criticism itself was endangered. From that beginning, LARB has been uniquely attuned to the dynamic intellectual life of Los Angeles and the world at large; it became, as Richard Brody put it in The New Yorker, “one of the instant jewels of the Internet.” LARB has reimagined the literary review—fusing the high and the low, the academic and the avant-garde—in a way that fosters accessibility and expertise, playfulness as well as precision.
Our civic arts programs are designed to advance the next generation of editors and publishers. In 2017, LARB launched the LARB Publishing Workshop, an immersive, collaborative program designed for aspiring publishing professionals. LARB also hosts a series of Writing Workshops, led by award-winning writers and authors. In addition, LARB brings readers, writers, and the broader literary community together year-round through events like LITLIT (the Little Literary Fair), the LARB Luminary Dinners, and our Book Club.
This year marks LARB's 15th anniversary. Join us as we celebrate with new editorial features, old favorites from the archive, an anniversary anthology issue, special events, and more!
Help Us Fulfill Our Mission
The Los Angeles Review of Books is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, reader-supported organization that depends on public support and financing to exist. Since LARB’s early days as an entirely volunteer-run Tumblr, we have been dedicated to making thoughtful, wide-ranging engagement with literature and culture accessible not only through our paywall-free online publication, but also through our many public and educational programs, which celebrate small independent presses and help students from diverse backgrounds build careers in publishing. In 2023, LARB was awarded the Whiting Literary Magazine Prize as an organization whose “commitment to history, critical thought, imagination, and to its eponymous city runs deep.”
Community support has helped LARB professionalize our small staff and grow our operations, but LARB still very much depends on the generosity of readers and donors to pay our staff and contributors, to support scholarships for our annual Publishing Workshop, and to finance our ongoing publication and public programming. In an age when book reviews, publications, and literary arts organizations are rapidly shutting down, LARB remains committed to connecting readers to the people, books, and ideas that enliven and explain our world.
Donate
You can support our mission by becoming a LARB member or giving a one-time donation. All LARB memberships and one-time donations are fully tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Donate or Become a LARB Member
You can also mail a check, made payable to “Los Angeles Review of Books,” directly to:
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Granada Buildings
672 S. La Fayette Park Place, Suite 30
Los Angeles, CA 90057