City Guides

We've asked those in the literary community—authors, booksellers, publishers, editors, and the like—to take us on a tour of their city of residence: to the places they go to connect with writers of the past, to the bars and cafés where today’s authors give readings, and to those sites that are most inspiring for writing.

Seattle

by
E. J. Koh
4.16.21
Illustration of Seattle skyline of buildings with a lake and mountain landscape.

E. J. Koh, author of the memoir The Magical Language of Others (Tin House, 2020), gives her take on what the city of Seattle offers to readers and writers.

Chicago

by
Adam Morgan
8.31.17

Adam Morgan, editor in chief of the Chicago Review of Books, explores the many sides and literary sights of Chicago, and how the city continues to evolve.

Iowa City

by
Jan Weissmiller
5.1.12

Before heading to the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, held throughout June and July, get acquainted with the reading series, bars, landmarks, and people—including our guide Jan Weissmiller, co-owner of indie bookseller Prairie Lights Books—of designated City of Literature Iowa City. 

Los Angeles

by
Carolyn Kellogg
7.18.11

From F. Scott Fitzgerald to Nathanael West, Joan Didion to Raymond Chandler, many writers have been inspired by Los Angeles. In this installment of City Guides, Carolyn Kellogg, staff writer at the Los Angeles Times and Jacket Copy blogger, visits her favorite haunts made famous by writers of both past and present.

Boston

by
Ifeanyi Menkiti
7.18.11

The city of Emerson, Thoreau, and the Transcendentalists has produced many prominent writers in its past, but it is also a city whose literary history is still in the making. Ifeanyi Menkiti, who was born in Onitsha, Nigeria, and moved to Massachusetts eventually becoming owner of the nation’s oldest poetry bookstore, tours the vast literary landscape of the greater Boston area.