Eric Newman

Eric Newman is a writer, critic, and researcher whose work explores questions of race, belonging, identity, and utopian imagination in 20th century queer American culture. A former reporter for Condé Nast and Nielsen Business Media, he is currently the gender and sexuality editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books, co-host and executive producer of the LARB Radio Hour on KPFK L.A. 90.7 FM, and a lecturer in English at UCLA. He lives in Santa Monica.

Articles

Is the Media Alright?
LARB Radio Hour presents excerpts from the February 2025 live discussion and podcast taping on the current challenges facing the media.
Eric Newman, Kate Wolf, Medaya Ocher, Leslie Berestein Rojas, Oscar GarzaMar 24
- Politics
- Cultural Studies
Dreaming New Worlds: A Conversation with Ekow Eshun
Eric Newman interviews Ekow Eshun, curator of “In the Black Fantastic,” a recent speculative arts exhibit at London’s Hayward Gallery and its eponymous companion book from MIT Press.
Eric NewmanOct 1, 2022
- Art & Architecture
- SF
The Unchanging Same: On Édouard Louis’s “A Woman’s Battles and Transformations”
Eric Newman on Édouard Louis's "A Woman’s Battles and Transformations."
Eric NewmanAug 25, 2022
- Around the World
- Memoir & Essay
Liberating the Archives: Hugh Ryan’s “Women’s House of Detention”
Eric Newman interviews Hugh Ryan about the queer carceral history of his new book, “The Women’s House of Detention”
Eric NewmanAug 16, 2022
Claude McKay in Our Time: A Conversation with Gary Holcomb and William J. Maxwell on “Romance in Marseille”
Gary Edward Holcomb and William J. Maxwell on the publication of Claude McKay’s “Romance in Marseille.”
Eric NewmanOct 23, 2020
- Fiction
Cruising Happiness: On Garth Greenwell’s “Cleanness”
Eric Newman reviews the latest from Garth Greenwell, “Cleanness.”
Eric NewmanJan 23, 2020
- Fiction
- Gender & Sexuality
Pointing to the Trap
LARB gender and sexuality editor Eric Newman considers “Females” by Andrea Long Chu.
Eric NewmanNov 25, 2019
- Gender & Sexuality
- Philosophy & Religion
“Call Me by Your Name” Gets a Dubious Sequel in André Aciman’s “Find Me”
Eric Newman reviews “Find Me,” André Aciman’s underwhelming sequel to “Call Me by Your Name.”
Eric NewmanOct 29, 2019
- Fiction
Is That All There Is?: Queer Culture and Politics on the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall
Much has changed in the 50 years since the flashpoint of the modern LGBTQ movement, but there is still much more to do.
Eric NewmanJun 29, 2019
Technicolor Saints and Celebrated Outlaws: An Interview with John Rechy
Eric Newman speaks with John Rechy about his latest novel, “Pablo!,” and the struggles and pleasures that have attended his long career as a writer.
Eric NewmanSep 2, 2018
- Fiction
- Gender & Sexuality
The Self in Sex: Lust and Loss in Jonathan Dollimore’s “Desire: A Memoir”
Eric Newman considers Jonathan Dollimore's "Desire: A Memoir."
Eric NewmanDec 3, 2017
- Gender & Sexuality
- Memoir & Essay
Between the Sheets: Sex, Power, and Literary Desire in John Rechy’s “After the Blue Hour”
Eric Newman appreciates the lessons of “After the Blue Hour” by John Rechy.
Eric NewmanApr 17, 2017
- Fiction
The Intimate World of Edmund White
The latest from America’s fabulist of post-Stonewall gay life documents an increasingly narrow vision of a queer world.
Eric NewmanApr 23, 2016
- Fiction
Queer Kinship: Truman Capote’s Early Stories and the Queer Child
Blueprints of the august, confident and delightfully acerbic writer-to-come.
Eric NewmanNov 26, 2015
- Fiction
The Feels of Friendship
Korean dramas have refreshing views of same-sex friendship, but do their gains depend on a gay retreat to the closet?
Eric NewmanJun 10, 2014
- Gender & Sexuality
- Television
Republic of Trauma
Roxane Gay has written an important and unforgettable new novel that expertly navigates the emotional terrain between captivity and freedom, trauma and healing, the personal and the political.
Eric NewmanJun 6, 2014