Essays Archive | Los Angeles Review of Books

All Essays

Photography Gone to the Dogs
John Divola’s photographs of the Southern California desert in the late 1990s get a second wind thanks to Nazraeli Press’s reissues.
Andrew WittMar 8
- Art & Architecture
“Superstars” by Ann Scott
One of the premier French cult novels of the last thirty years, a carnal portrait of Paris’s queer rave scene in the ‘90s, the LARB Book Club Spring 2026 pick is Ann Scott's novel, Superstars.
Mar 7
Reading (and Shopping) with Angela McRobbie
A reflection on the Birmingham School cultural studies scholar’s vision of girlhood.
Rose Higham-StaintonMar 2
- Gender & Sexuality
- Cultural Studies
Finding Our God-Terms
The work of literary critic Mark Edmundson offers a powerful vision for recentering the American university.
Joshua HallMar 2
- Literary Criticism
- Education
Shelter in Place
The battle for Minnesota’s public.
Kristin CollierMar 1
- Politics
- Memoir & Essay
It Really Can Happen Here
What the transnational links among fascist movements in the 1930s can tell us about the Far Right today.
Juliette BretanFeb 27
- Politics
- History
LARB Staff’s Book Favorites
LARB's editors pick their best reads of 2025, and what their favorite books from the year were.
LARB StaffFeb 25
Sweating It Out
The history of experiencing life as a sweaty body in steamy queer spaces.
Calvin GimpelevichFeb 25
- Memoir & Essay
- Gender & Sexuality
A Sojourn into the Stephen King Archive: ‘The Dark Half’
Typescript drafts on view in the newly opened archive reframe the horror maestro’s relationship with his alter ego, Richard Bachman.
Andy HagemanFeb 23
- SF
Troubled Hearts on the Land
Minneapolis under siege, in images and words.
David Treuer, Jaida Grey EagleFeb 22
- Memoir & Essay
- Politics
We Are Not Removed from Our Process
Excerpts from Larry Sultan’s posthumous selected writings, ‘Water over Thunder,’ offer a new lens on his artistic process, sense of place, and pedagogy.
Asha Schechter, Larry SultanFeb 21
- Art & Architecture
I Was a Punk for the FBI
Brian James Schill speaks with the founders of ‘Punk’ magazine on its 50th anniversary about whether they were surveilled by the feds.
Brian James SchillFeb 18
Opera (and Comics) Against Fascism
Exploring how the graphic novel ‘Death Strikes’ intersects with the modernist opera ‘Der Kaiser von Atlantis,’ a work composed by Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust.
Melissa ChanFeb 16
Cut Gems
Asha Schechter documents the experience of retouching precious gems, in an essay from LARB Quarterly no. 47: ‘Security.’
Asha SchechterFeb 14
- LARB Lit
- Memoir & Essay
Making a Literary Future with Artificial Intelligence
Five writers and AI researchers discuss the future of literature.
Dashiel Carrera, Katy Gero, Christian Bök, Nick Montfort, Amy CatanzanoFeb 14
- Science & Technology
- Literary Criticism
A Cyberpunk Blueprint for Hollywood’s AI Dreams
Revisiting Pat Cadigan’s 1991 novel “Synners” in light of dystopian developments in Los Angeles.
Jeff HewittFeb 12
- SF
- Film