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From F. Scott Fitzgerald to Nathanael West, Joan Didion to Raymond Chandler, many writers have been inspired by Los Angeles. In this installment of City Guides, Carolyn Kellogg, staff writer at the Los Angeles Times and Jacket Copy blogger, visits her favorite haunts made famous by writers of both past and present.
The city of Emerson, Thoreau, and the Transcendentalists has produced many prominent writers in its past, but it is also a city whose literary history is still in the making. Ifeanyi Menkiti, who was born in Onitsha, Nigeria, and moved to Massachusetts eventually becoming owner of the nation’s oldest poetry bookstore, tours the vast literary landscape of the greater Boston area.
Andrew Wylie accuses HarperCollins of behaving badly toward authors; Slam Poetry celebrates twenty-five years; Gertrude Stein gets an iPhone; and other news.
Lee Montgomery, editorial director of Tin House Books, moved to Portland, Oregon, twenty years ago but never meant to stay. It was a charming Victorian house, the rain and clouds, and the energy of the places featured in this guide that compelled the writer in her to hunker down and take advantage of a city brimming with literary offerings.
The Borders saga meanders to a close; Books, Inc., marks its one hundred sixtieth birthday; Austen's "The Watsons" sells for $1.6 million; and other news.
Chinese poet Liao Yiwu makes safe passage into Germany; incarcerated Bahraini protest poet is released; ten young African authors to read now; the Forward Poetry Prize's potential gender bias; and other news.
The French women's soccer coach reads poetry to rally his team for World Cup; Margaret Drabble, sister of A. S. Byatt, speaks candidly about sibling rivalry; Google blocks publication of a former employee's book; and other news.
Google prepares to launch its first e-book reader; Gertrude Stein speaks to children; Vendela Vida on the appeal of the unlikable female protagonist; why not go highbrow when it comes to beach reads; and other news.
Paul Auster challenges Philip Roth on the state of fiction; Beck proposes a "sixties-style" indie press; the changing shape of the book industry; French novelists take on new realism; and other news.
A priceless twelfth-century manuscript has been reported stolen from a safe in northern Spain; W. W. Norton revives its storied imprint; a Virginia Woolf photo album is digitized and made available online; and other news.
