Features, essays, reporting

2022
Talking to Maud Newton about her forthcoming book, Ancestor Trouble for  Salvation South, Chuck Reece’s new project. I hope these thoughtful southern readers will be as intrigued by this book as I am excited about it. 

Me on the Norman Mailer kerfluffle at the LA Times.

2021
Feature on Gary Shteyngart and his novel Our Country People for the LA Times. We were attacked by bees.

Q&A with Rebecca Carroll about her memoir Surviving the White Gaze. (Shondaland)

Q&A with Charlie Jane Anders about her science fiction collection, Even Greater Mistakes. (Shondaland)

Feature on Dave Eggers and his novel The Every for the LA Times. We spoke via phone; he was on a land line.

Q&A with Stacey Vanek Smith about her smart book, Machiavelli for Women (Shondaland).

Q&A with Yahdon Israel about his moves to bring transparency to publishing in his new position at Simon & Schuster. (Shondaland)

Interviewing Colson Whitehead about his delightful novel Harlem Shuffle. (Shondaland)

Q&A with YZ Chin about her debut novel Edge Case. (Shondaland)

Q&A with Katie Kitamura about her novel Intimacies. (Shondaland)

LA Times feature on Richard Lange and his novel Rovers about vampire bikers in the desert southwest in the 1970s.

Q&A with Dana Spiotta about her novel Wayward. (Shondaland)

Q&A with Ashley Ford about her memoir Somebody’s Daughter. (Shondaland)

Q&A with Anjali Enjeti about her two books published in 2021: The Parted Earth, her debut novel, and an essay collection, Southbound.

Lucy Sante’s marvelous book Maybe the People Would Be the Times collects their critical writing on photography, music, books, movies, fotonovelas, plus heady remembrances of NYC in the ’70s and ’80s. (Pioneer Works Broadcast)

LA Times: A feature on Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum and her marvelous short story collection, Likes.

LA Times: Interview with Victoria Chang about her unforgettable poetry collection, Obit

Q&A with Gabriela Garcia about her novel Of Women and Salt. (Shondaland)

Q&A with Kaitlyn Greenidge about her novel Libertie (Shondaland)

Essay on the tragically overlooked band Fishbone, for the March Plaidness song-and-essay bracket matchup

Interview with Elizabeth Kolbert on her chilling climate change book Under a White Sky and our efforts to combat it. (Shondaland)

2020

On Don Delillo’s The Silence and his influence, with guest appearances by Rachel Kushner, Jonathan Lethem and Dana Spiotta (LA Times) 

The Road vs. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao in the Super Rooster Tournament of Books (The Morning News TOB

Ayad Akhtar and Laila Lalami talk to each other and answer my questions (LA Times) 

Interview with Carlos Lozada about his excellent book What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era (LA Times)

Interview with Laila Lalami about her excellent book Conditional Citizens: On Belonging In America (Shondaland) 

Margaret Atwood answers my questions about The Testaments and Trump (LA Times) 

The Booker Prize, explained (Shondaland) 

Interview with Yaa Gyasi on her novel Transcendent Kingdom (Shondaland)

Feature on the delightful Hari Kunzru and Red Pill, his smart new novel (LA Times) 

Interview with Suzanne Nossel on Dare to Speak (Shondaland)

Interview with Natasha Trethewey on her gorgeous and heartbreaking memoir Memorial Drive (Shondaland) 

Interview with science writer Sonia Shah on her book The Next Great Migration: The Beauty and Terror of Life on the Move (Shondaland)

On reading Octavia Butler during the pandemic (Shondaland)

Lydia Millet is so cool. Her new novel is A Children’s Bible. (LA Times)

Welcome to the Suburban Psychedelic – the home design trend that I wish hadn’t died around 1973. (Curbed)

Kawai Strong Washburn Q&A on his debut novel, Sharks in the Time of Saviors (Kirkus)

Emily St. John Mandel on pandemics, prediction and her new novel, The Glass Hotel (LA Times)

Jenny Offill Q&A on Weather (Shondaland)

When is the right time to talk about sexual assault? Apparently, never. (Salon)

Ada Calhoun Q&A on Why We Can’t Sleep (Shondaland)

::: This was a fun one: Literary ambition. Fabulous parties. A hidden past. Who is Anna March? The story of a literary grifter, co-written with the tenacious Melissa Chadburn (LA Times, 2018)

2019
Jeanette Winterson on her new novel Frankissstein, Mary Shelley, AI and more (LA Times)

The Nobel Prizes in Literature were a home run and a strikeout (Chicago Tribune)

Convoy Your Enthusiasm: Mad Max (HiLoBrow)

Michael Connelly Q&A about The Night Fire, Bosch and Murder Book (Washington Post)

Colson Whitehead and the incredible evil of the place that inspired The Nickel Boys (LA Times)

2018
Who started the 1986 fire at the LA Public Library? Susan Orlean investigates in her new book (LA Times)

Abrupt changes at ALOUD: Louise Steinman and Maureen Moore depart; 800 sign petition over dismissal (LA Times)

Interview with Megan Abbott about her latest, Give Me Your Hand (LA Times)

I drag Mark Haskell Smith to the Chowder Barge, LA’s only floating restaurant, to talk about his high-seas-hijinks novel, Blown (LA Times)

Anthony Bourdain died, and while I was not a friend or colleague I did get to interview him once, which has been one of the highlights of my career. I look back at his relationships to books and the way that the LA Times had reviewed him, which started good and got snitty, not under my tenure. (LA Times)

A quick guide: Should you read the White House expose Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff? (LA Times) Also, remember when it hit shelves early? (LA Times)

A short obituary for Ursula K. LeGuin (LA Times)

Things I wrote because I was the only person to do them: A preview of the LA Times Festival of Books; a summer books preview, a selection of political panels at the LA Times Festival of Books, spring literary events, an anemic summary of the NBCC winners, an even thinner book trend for 2018. (LA Times)

2017
LA Times. Visiting the homes of 3 literary titans in 1 day: Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Noah Webster (with a bonus photo of my great-grandparents)
LA Times. Talking to John Hodgman about his terrific memoir Vacationland
LA Times. Talking to Marc Maron, whose WTF podcast makes a surprisingly good book.
LA Times. Kazuo Ishiguro wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
LA Times. Summer reading guilty pleasures: Memoirs by Bette Davis and silent film star Colleen Moore
LA Times. New US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith
LA Times. Talking to Dennis Lehane about Since We Fell
LA Times. Robert Silvers obituary
LA Times. David Dutton obituary
LA Times. How Milo Yiannopoulos landed his very big book deal (before it was cancelled)

2016
LA Times. The 10 most important books of 2016
Black authors dominate the National Book Awards (LA Times)
LA Times. Exploring  the dark side of LA with Atlas Obscura
LA Times. Bob Dylan winning the Nobel is a great literary moment. Really.
LA Times. Counterpoint hands the keys to Catapult
LA Times. Legs McNeil and Gilliam McCain talk about their iconic oral history Please Kill Me
LA Times. Nick Offerman on Mark Twain and his favorite writers
LA Times. A. Scott Berg and John Logan on co-writing the film Genius
LA Times. Meet Lisa Lucas, the bookish extrovert who now heads the National Book Foundation
LA Times. David L. Ulin and Paul Kolsby on their co-written novel Ear to the Ground
LA Times. An interview with the interview-averse Don Delillo
LA Times. 33 1/3 essential books that rock
LA Times. Novelist Umberto Eco dies at 84
LA Times. 6 Book trends for 2016

2015
LA Times. Carrie Brownstein on her memoir, Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl
LA Times. Why Americans miss out on the Nobel Prize in Literature
LA Times. 100 Years of Best American Short Stories is essential but problematic
LA Times. A quick conversation with Junot Diaz
LA Times. Jonathan Evison on his new novel, This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!
LA Times. Remembering punk rock coffeehouse Jabberjaw with the book It All Dies Anyway
LA Times. Amy Stewart puts aside bestselling gardening books for Girl Waits with Gun
LA Times. John Scalzi: science fiction star, destroyer of trolls
LA Times. Elizabeth Gilbert storms the podcast charts, joining ranks of literary podcasters
LA Times. Jimmy Carter talks about his new book, A Full Life: Reflections at 90
LA Times. Anticipation is high for Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman (front page story)
LA Times. Q&A with Judd Apatow about Sick in the Head
LA Times. Juan Felipe Herrera is the new US Poet Laureate (front page story)
Virginia Quarterly Review: Jodie Evans has a Code (Pink)
LA Times. Q&A with Karl Taro Greenfeld about The Subprimes
LA Times. True adventures of bold women: 3 books for summer
LA Times. Wendell Steavenson on her Egypt memoir Circling the Square
LA Times. LAPD’53 – police photos and the bombastic James Ellroy
LA Times. Levar Burton on his passion project, Reading Rainbow
LA Times. Tavis Smiley on his new book about Maya Angelou
LA Times. A conversation between Janet Fitch and Cynthia Bond
LA Times. Q&A with Atticus Fish about Preparation for the Next Life
LA Times. Tumblr: Where books and nail art meet
LA Times. The literary life and death of alleged Robert Durst victim Susan Berman (online only)
LA Times. Q&A with Seth Greenland, novelist and ex-TV writer
LA Times. Spring books preview
LA Times. Dennis Lehane is now an Angeleno (and he’s got a new book)
LA Times. A story in a deck of cards, The Family Arcana, is a Kickstarter hit (online only)
LA Times. After 50 years, Harper Lee returns (front page story)
LA Times. David Duchovny on his debut novel, Holy Cow
LA Times. Patton Oswalt and his funny film obsession in Silver Screen Fiend

2014
LA Times. James Patterson’s juggernaut year
LA Times. Celebrating the holidays with new LA books
LA Times. Bouchercon: The killer convention comes to Long Beach
LA Times. To write and die in LA: A tour of author graves
LA Times. Anne Rice tells me about her vampire thing
LA Times. Willliam Gibson, ever-prescient, and his novel The Peripheral
LA Times. Marlon James and his ambitious new novel A Brief History of Seven Killings
LA Times. John Darnielle on his novel Wolf In White Van and National Book Award nod
LA Times. Talking to new MacArthur “Genius” Fellows Alison Bechdel and Terrance Hayes
LA Times. Fall lookahead with Cedering Fox and WordTheatre
LA Times. Dylan Landis on her novel Rainey Royal
LA Times. Jules Fieffer and his graphic novel noir Kill My Mother
LA Times. Director Chris Weitz and his first novel, the YA thriller The Young World
LA Times. John Dean and his exhaustive new chronicle of the Nixon tapes, The Nixon Defense
LA Times. Book Show bookstore: “Are books the new vinyl? I think they are” says music industry vet and indie bookstore proprietor Jen Hitchcock
LA Times. Ken Vogel on his book Big Money, which is about money in politics in general, and specifically the biggest, hardest-to-track money, which means the Koch Brothers
LA Times. Garrison Keillor has a new book, and he talks to me about it while waiting for a plane
LA Times. Biographer Lynn Sherr on pioneering astronaut Sally Ride
LA Times. Letters of Note’s Shaun Usher on his blog’s gorgeous print book
LA Times. Willy Vlautin of Richmond Fontaine on his new novel The Free
LA Times. Rivka Galchen and her feminist revamping of classic short stories, American Innovations
LA Times. What’s up with the first California Bookstore Day
LA Times. Hit the road, Jackie: 12 road trip books written by women (online only)
LA Times. The How To Be A Writer Game: Play it online, beware the pit of despair

2013
LA Times. Theodora Getty Gaston, now 100: her memoir recounts only part of her marvelous life.
LA Times. Joan Didion tells me Harrison Ford built her beach house. Worlds collide. Mind blown.
LA Times. Chimamanda Ngozi Aidichi pokes fun at race in Americanah
LA Times. Kate Christensen finds comfort in Blue Plate Special
LA Times. Jaron Lanier takes a hard look at the wired world in Who Owns the Future?
LA Times. Ken Baumann’s secret life in books
LA Times. After I saw a 1982 video of Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, Studs Terkel and Calvin Trillin together (?!), I called Harlan Ellison to ask about that day. He told me an extraordinary story about assaulting his publisher. (online only)
LA Times. Satirical genius Sam Lipsyte on The Fun Parts
LA Times. Dan Baum is one of the Gun Guys
LA Times. Nick Flynn on his funhouse-mirror memoir, The Reenactments
LA Times. 2013 Faces to Watch: Michelle Meyering, Emily Rapp, Valla Vakili

2012
LA Times. David Mitchell and Cloud Atlas David Mitchell’s “primal, ontological wow” of seeing his (unfilmable) book come to life on screen.
LA Times. The Silent History: A new kind of e-book
LA Times. Molly Ringwald and her fiction debut
LA Times. Holiday book recommendations 2012
LA Times. Ransom Riggs’ Talking Pictures

2008
Why did John Steinbeck turn Mexican migrant workers into Okies? (LA Times blog post)
Strategies for book business gift-giving (with lessons from the music biz) (LA Times blog post)

2007
Memories of Gorky’s Cafe in downtown L.A. (LAist)
Phil Spector: Closing arguments (LAist)
Phil Spector forensics (LAist)
Phil Spector field trip, in pictures (LAist)
Phil Spector jury deadlocks! (LAist)

2006
At Craig Ferguson’s book event, with interoluctor David Duchovny (LAist)
At the LA Times Book Festival: Chris Abani, Steve Erickson, Michelle Huneven, Jim Krusoe and Janet Fitch panelize (LAist)
What to do with the relics of RFK’s murder (LAist)
Interview with Jim & Michelle of Atomic Ranch (LAist)
Angie Dickinson at American Cinematheque (LAist)