Writerly Horizons: On Making and Sustaining California Literary Culture: An Editors’ Salon

Los Angeles Review of Books is excited to present Writerly Horizons: On Making and Sustaining California’s Literary Culture, a LARB editor's salon, featuring writers John Freeman and Christopher Soto in conversation with LARB's Editor-In-Chief Medaya Ocher.

In his forthcoming book, California Rewritten, John Freeman sojourns through California’s literary history, considering what the state’s canon unearths about our past and how writing can help us imagine a shared future. Freeman will be joined by L.A. poet Christopher Soto, author of Diaries of a Terrorist, a poetry collection about the carceral state, and founder of the Center for California Literature. With its vast coastlines and braided mountain ranges, California is a singular spatial paragon. How, these authors will discuss, does California’s geographic landscape inform its literary one, and inversely, how does literature shape life here in the Golden State? Freeman and Soto will be in conversation with LARB editor-in-chief Medaya Ocher to explore the influence of California literature on our past, present, and future, as well as the singular experience of writerly life here on the Western coast.

The Editor’s Salon series is an exclusive opportunity for LARB members to take part in conversations between LARB’s own editors and a range of leading experts and voices in their fields. Join us for an evening of drinks and conversation on October 14 at 6 p.m. at the LARB offices at the historic Granada Buildings in MacArthur Park.

John Freeman has hosted Alta‘s California Book Club since its founding in 2020. He is an executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf, and he edited Freeman’s (2015–2023), a literary annual of new writing. His books include How to Read a Novelist and Dictionary of the Undoing, as well as the anthologies Tales of Two Americas, Tales of Two Planets, The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story, and Sacramento Noir. He is also the author of three poetry collections, Maps, The Park, and Wind, Trees. His work is translated into more than twenty languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. The former editor of Granta, he lives in New York.

Christopher Soto is the Executive Director and Founder of the Center for California Literature. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from NYU and most recently worked at UCLA's Ethnic Studies Research Centers. He has been published at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and more. He finds joy by reading on the hammock next to his dog, Cafecito.

Editors’ Salons are open to all Supporter-level members and above. Become a member or upgrade from your Digital or Print Subscription for as little as $10 a month. Supporter-level members and above: sign in to register!