• Beyoncé Lessons

    LARB editors Michelle Chihara and Sarah Mesle went to see Beyoncé’s “Formation” tour’s recent stop at Dodger Stadium.  This is …

    Reading Hillbilly Elegy in Beijing

    By Jeremiah Jenne The United States and China have more in common than people might think. Both are vast, continental …

    Iranian “Fan” Takes Home Top Prize at Farhang Foundation’s Short Film Festival

    By Orly Minazad Farhang Foundation’s 8th annual short-film festival took place Saturday night at LACMA’S Bing Theater to a sold …

    Reading Plays

    By Ian MacAllister-McDonald The first time script I ever read was Bram Stoker’s Dracula, as adapted by Hamilton Deane and …

    Trigger Warnings: What We Fear

    By Bailey Pickens At the end of August, John Ellison, dean of the University of Chicago, joined the ranks of many …

    Why Does Korean Literature Use an Alphabet?

    By Charles Montgomery The LARB Korea Blog is currently featuring selections from The Explorer’s History of Korean Fiction in Translation, …

    Wish You Were Here: The Virtues of Banality

    By Maximillian Alvarez I. “Love in the Ruins” When I begin to lose hope—when I sense that I am, in …

    Looking for Ghosts in the Quietest Place in Beijing

    By Jonathan Chatwin On my first visit to Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery – China’s national cemetery, and resting place of the …

    Wangsimni, My Hometown: a Gangster (and a Filmmaker’s) Pledge of Devotion to Korea

    By Colin Marshall This is one in a series of essays on important pieces of Korean cinema freely available on …

    From Vancouver to Tiananmen — A Review of Madeleine Thien’s Latest Book

    By Michael Rank The extraordinary upheavals that China has undergone over the past fifty years call for an epic novel …