SPI Session #5: Under Review

November 4, 2021 5:00 pm — November 4, 2021 6:30 pm

When the Los Angeles Review of Books was founded in 2011, the profession of book reviewing was in crisis. Traditional venues — the book pages of newspapers — were shrinking and vanishing, edging out serious conversations about new publications. Inspired by the near-infinite vistas of virtual space, LARB sought to rekindle those conversations online. But has the web been a blessing for book reviewing, or has proliferation of venues, poor compensation, and the hunger for clicks diluted and compromised the practice? Join us to discuss these pressing questions with critics Aaron Bady, Jane Hu, Christian Lorentzen, Julian Lucas, Ismail Muhammad, and LARB’s Editor-in-Chief Boris Dralyuk.

Aaron Bady is a writer and academic based in Oakland, California. He is an editor at the Stanford Social Innovation Review and an editor-at-large for The New Inquiry, and Founding Editor at Popula. He is also a regular contributor at The Week, member of The Los Angeles Review of Books “Dear Television” collective, Stranger’s Guide contributing editor, and PhD in English Literature at UC Berkeley. His work has appeared in venues including The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Nation, Pacific Standard, Boston Review, among others.

Jane Hu is a PhD candidate in English and Film & Media Studies at UC Berkeley. Her cultural criticism has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Bookforum, The Nation, Harper’s, The Ringer, and The Awl, among other places.

Christian Lorentzen is an essayist and critic based in Brooklyn. He is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, Bookforum, and Harper’s Magazine and a contributing writer for Air Mail.

Julian Lucas is a writer and critic based in Brooklyn. He is an associate editor at Cabinet and a contributing editor at The Ballot. His work has appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, Harper’s, Vanity Fair and The New York Times Book Review.

Ismail Muhammad is a story editor at the New York Times Magazine. He was previously the criticism editor for The Believer. His nonfiction and criticism have appeared in Catapult, The Paris Review, LitHub, The Atlantic, The Nation, and other venues. He lives in Oakland.

Boris Dralyuk is the Editor in Chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books. He is co-editor (with Robert Chandler and Irina Mashinski) of The Penguin Book of Russian Poetry, editor of 1917: Stories and Poems from the Russian Revolution and Ten Poems from Russia, and translator of Isaac Babel, Andrey Kurkov, Maxim Osipov, Mikhail Zoshchenko, and other authors. His work has appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, The New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, and elsewhere.

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This event is part of LARB’s Semipublic Intellectual Sessions, a tenth anniversary celebration and fundraiser. Donate what you can to register for this event or make a contribution of $75+ to receive a full series pass, which includes automatic registration to all five events, a copy of the Semipublic Intellectual issue of the LARB Quarterly Journal, and a limited edition Semipublic Intellectual tote.

Download a full program guide here.