How Founding Editor of the LA Review of Books Tom Lutz Writes: Part Two

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- Kelton Reid
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- Kelton Reid

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Episode: 441 of 441
Duration: 36min
Language: English
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Category: Self-help & Personal development

Bestselling, award-winning author, and founder of the LA Review of Books, Tom Lutz, returned to talk with me about life in the French countryside, his writer’s residency, and the greatest year in literary history, 1925.

He's a Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing at UC Riverside, and the author of multiple bestselling and award-winning titles – translated into dozens of languages – including Doing Nothing (American Book Award winner), Crying, American Nervousness, 1903 (both New York Times Notables), and Born Slippy, his first novel.

His latest, 1925: A Literary Encyclopedia, is described as an “… exploration of one of the richest moments in our literary and cultural history .… an explosion of literary innovation, from the rise of modernist masterpieces like Mrs. Dalloway and The Great Gatsby to a boom in pulp fiction.”

Besides founding the Los Angeles Review of Books, "... a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and disseminating ... engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts," Tom also founded The LARB Radio Hour, The LARB Quarterly Journal, The LARB/USC Publishing Workshop, and LARB Books.

He and his wife now run a residency for writers and artists in St. Chamassy, in France’s Dordogne region.

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In Part Two of this file Tom Lutz and I discussed:

Adjusting to the life of a country gentleman and all the great wines

Why he cares less than ever about what people think of his work

The legion of classic texts that came out of one of the most prolific years in history

How 1925 birthed so much progress for American culture

Why literature is the R&D wing of human enterprise, especially in 2025

And a lot more!

Show Notes:

1925: A Literary Encyclopedia by Tom Lutz