The Past Is Never Dead: On TV’s Backstory Problem
Elizabeth Alsop explores the ubiquity—and limitations—of the “trauma backstory.”
Elizabeth Alsop explores the ubiquity—and limitations—of the “trauma backstory.”
Arise (2023), paper beads on barkcloth, 57 7/8 x 66 1/8 inches; Granary (2023), paper beads on barkcloth, 75 x 64 1/2 inches. Images courtesy of Karma and Sanaa Gateja.
Devin Thomas O’Shea reviews Austin Frerick’s “Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food.”
Ryan Shea revisits Guillermo Gasió’s 1988 anthology “Borges en Japon, Japon en Borges.”
Whitney Mallett talks with Geoffrey Mak about his new book “Mean Boys: A Personal History” and trauma plot trends in recent writing.
Heather Treseler reviews April Gibson’s “The Span of a Small Forever” and Alice Notley’s “Being Reflected Upon.”
Announcing a new series of LARB Workshops this May with Nadja Spiegelman, Hannah Assadi, and Callie Siskel. Registration closes on April 28 at 11:59 p.m. PST.
Enroll now
Subscribe to get LARB Quarterly, no. 40: “Water” featuring Terry Nguyen, Dorie Chevlen, Jayson Buford, Kim Gordon, Olivia Heal, and more!
Scholar Randol Contreras joins Kate Wolf and Eric Newman to discuss his new book “The Marvelous Ones: Drugs, Gang Violence, and Resistance in East...
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Ian Ellison reviews Brian K. Goodman’s “The Nonconformists: American and Czech Writers Across the Iron Curtain.”
Scholar Randol Contreras joins Kate Wolf and Eric Newman to discuss his new book “The Marvelous Ones: Drugs, Gang Violence, and Resistance in East...
Ed Simon reviews Mohamed Amer Meziane’s “The States of the Earth: An Ecological and Racial History of Secularization.”
Ryan Coleman reports from the Los Angeles Festival of Movies.
Alyx Vesey bemoans the cancellation of HBO Max’s series about a female hip-hop duo, “Rap Sh!t.”
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Emily Ann Zisko discovers a cure-all for commercialism, consumerism and c-loneliness at the Burbank IKEA residency exhibition.
Kate Sadoff, surrounded by fruiting L.A. bodies, ponders the fungus among us at Jennifer Croft’s “Extinction of Irena Rey” reading in Brentwood.
The recent outpouring of literary works from Latin America leads Emily Quintanilla to unearth Dick Cluster’s profile of Texas’s own FlowerSong Press...
Your climbing guide Kate Sadoff offers you a “peak” at the release reading of Will Cockrell’s “Everest, Inc.: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an...
Scholar Randol Contreras joins Kate Wolf and Eric Newman to discuss his new book “The Marvelous Ones: Drugs, Gang Violence, and Resistance in East...
A double-header episode about two new novels that each feature high stakes feats of translation.
Kate Wolf speaks with the poet Victoria Chang about her latest collection of poems, “With My Back to the World.”
Eric Newman speaks with director Morgan Neville about his new film “STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces.”