NEWS
I will be in a virtual conversation with Seth Greenland to talk about his new memoir, A Kingdom of Tender Colors, on October 26, 2020, at 7:00 p.m.
I will be giving a quick private fifteen-minute consultation on Zoom as part of the Fiction & Memoir First Aid (Session 4) on October 23, 2020, between 10 am and 5 p.m (Pacific).
Join me, Patrick Howell, Tori Reid, and Mobolaji Olambiwonnu as we launch Dispatches from the Vanguard with Skylight Books on August 13, 2020, 6:30 p.m. PDT.
Join me as I read during the “Short Takes” Fiction Staff Readings in the Virtual Valley on July 23, 2020, 5:30 p.m.
On July 17, 2020, 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m, I will be in a conversation with Rex Weiner via Zoom.
I welcomed the participants of the LA Review of Books Publishing Workshop on July 6, 2020.
Every summer, the Los Angeles Review of Books hosts a three-week intensive course in Los Angeles on the foundations of print and digital publishing.
On April 14, I moderated the virtual book launch event for Mike Davis and Jon Wiener’s latest book “Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.” The recording is now available on YouTube.
We discussed “Set the Night on Fire” and its many resonances for urban communities today, and the recent effects of COVID-19 on Los Angeles.
Join me for the spring session of the LARB Book Club on April 1, 2020. We’ll discuss this hilarious Hollywood classic, Merton of the Movies.
This event is for members of the LARB Book Club.
Born Slippy is now available as an audiobook
Born Slippy is out now on audiobook.
You can listen to a sample and buy it here.
On March 5, 2020 at 7 PM, I will be reading from Born Slippy at Chevalier’s Books in Los Angeles, CA. I will be in conversation with Steve Erickson, author of Shadowbahn and founding editor of the literary journal Black Clock. See you there.
On March 1, 2020 at 1.30 PM, I will discuss Born Slippy at the Barbara and Art Culver Center for the Arts in Riverside. Come by if you’re in the Inland Empire.
On February 19, 2020, I will be visiting Rice University to speak to the English department, the Creative Writing program, and their digital platforms group.
After my university visit, I will read at the Vanderbilt Square Barnes and Noble store, at 7.30. Please stop by if you’re in Houston.
On February 18, 2020, at 7 pm, I will be visiting Austin, TX, to read at Book People bookstore. If you are in Texas, please come and pick up a copy of the book. See you there.
On February 10, 2020, at 7 pm, I’ll have the honor of presenting the Los Angeles Review of Books – UCR Department of Creative Writing Lifetime Achievement Award to Walter Mosley at UCR’s 43rd Annual Writers Week Festival. You can find out more about Writers Week here.
The full schedule is available here.
On February 10, 2020, I will be reading at UC Riverside’s 43rd Annual Writers Week Festival. I’m the Director of the festival. You can find out more about Writers Week here.
And you can find the full schedule here.
On January 23, 2020, I will be in San Francisco for a public reading of Born Slippy. Please come and meet me at Green Apple Books.
On January 16, 2020, I will be in conversation with Steph Cha and reading from Born Slippy. Join us at Skylight Books for this book launch event.
On January 14, 2020, I will be reading from Born Slippy at The Strand in New York. My partner in conversation will be Tobias Carroll of Vol. 1 Brooklyn.
The event starts at 7.30. Doors open half an hour early. Please come if you’re around.
My latest book, Born Slippy: A Novel
is coming January 14, 2020.
The LARB Classics edition of Merton of the Movies, with my introduction, just dropped on November 19, 2019.
Gertrude Stein’s favorite novel of the 1920s, Merton is a comic novel about the Hollywood film industry when it was brand new.
I have an essay, “Where the Amateur Reader Ends, and the Professional Critic Begins” in LitHub.
It’s about my introduction to reading and literature, and my early career as a scholar.
It will be in a volume, edited by Saikat Majumdar and Aarthi Vadde, titled The Critic as Amateur, to be published by Bloomsbury in September.
I will be at Squaw Valley Community of Writers, July 11–15, 2019.
I’ll be giving the Closing Remarks for this year on the 15th.
I’ll be giving the welcome address and opening lecture at the LARB Publishing Workshop at USC on July 7th and July 8th, 2019. The Workshop runs through the end of the month.
I’m interviewing James Ellroy about his latest novel, This Storm, at LARB’s main fundraising event for the summer on June 13, 2019, at the historic O’Melveny Mansion in Hancock Park. The book is the 9th of the 11 volumes in Ellroy’s magisterial fictional history of the US from 1941 to 1972, which includes the Hollywood Quartet, the Underworld USA trilogy and now the Second Hollywood Quartet.
Dave Eggers will be my guest for the Book Club on May 30, 2019. We’ll discuss his superb new novel The Parade.
This event is for members of our Book Club.
The launch party for LARB Books will be held at April 23, 2019, at 7pm, at the Duncan Miller Gallery in Bergamot Station, Santa Monica. Colin Dayan, Yxta Maya Murray, Anthony Seidman, and Steph Cha will present their books. The gallery has an exhibition of photographs of famous authors from the 19th century through the 20th.
I speak to Juliet Lapidos about her debut novel, Talent, for The LARB Radio Hour, April 19, 2019
“Travel Writing and Privilege,” a conversation with Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Eileen Chow, VOH Radio Taiwan, March 2019
“The Global Literary Conversation” The Cheng Shewo Institute, Shih Hsin University, Taipei, Taiwan, March 2019.
“Introduction to a Conversation with Ayesha H. Attah and Nana-Ama Danquah,” View Park CA, February 2019
My conversation with Seth Greenland about his new novel, The Hazards of Good Fortune is up at The LARB Radio Hour.
I’ll be in conversation with Eric Vuillard and Laurie Winer at Chevalier’s Books on Sept. 18, 2018, to discuss his award winning The Order of the Day.
My review of Edith Wharton and Cosmopolitanism, eds. Meredith L. Goldsmith and Emily J. Orlando (University Press of Florida), is out in the academic journal Women’s Studies.