Louise Steinman is a writer, artist, and independent literary curator. She was the founder and longtime curator of the ALOUD series for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. She is co-director of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities at USC and the author of three books, most recently The Crooked Mirror: A Memoir of Polish-Jewish Reconciliation (2013). Forthcoming in 2026: With Dream-Awakened Eyes: Seeing Charlotte Salomon (Bored Wolves Press) and Country Gone Missing: Nightmares in the Time of Trump, revised, second edition (Conflux Press).
Louise Steinman
Articles
A Day in Radomsko
A report on Louise Steinman’s book launch in Poland and the larger project of Polish-Jewish reconciliation.
The Collaborative Skein: Searching for a Way Forward in Polish-Jewish Relations, a Conversation
Louise Steinman and Piotr Florczyk offer a wide-ranging and provocative discussion of the legacy of the Holocaust in Poland.
Time Regained: Reading Józef Czapski in Billings, Montana
Louise Steinman finds solace and inspiration by reading Józef Czapski on Marcel Proust in Billings, Montana.
Resister in Sanctuary: We Won't Go
Louise Steinman on "WE WON’T GO: The L.A. Resistance, Vietnam and the Draft," at the Central Library’s Getty Gallery until August 19.
When a Rock Is a Stone: Finding “Spiral Jetty”
Louise Steinman goes in search of artist Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty.”
Slight Exaggeration: An Interview with Adam Zagajewski
Louise Steinman talks to poet Adam Zagajewski about his new memoir, "Slight Exaggeration."
Elegantly Wrapped Dung: or, A Polish Journalist’s Posthumous Victory
Two years after his death, the European Court has ruled in favor of Maciej Ziembinski's freedom of speech for his article entitled "Elegantly Wrapped Dung."
Writer in Exile: An Interview with Yasmine Merei
When I heard that Syrian journalist and activist Yasmin Merei was staying in LA, I jumped at the chance to talk with a woman recently arrived from the front lines.
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