reading venues

On his writers tour of Portland, Maine, award-winning author Ron Currie Jr. sets out to "dispel the persistent notion that Maine is intellectually DOA" by showcasing the city's thriving literary scene.

From independent bookstores such as McNally Jackson Books in SoHo to long-time forums such as the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church on the Lower East Side, T Cooper, author, most recently, of The Beaufort Diaries, visits his favorite places to research, revise, and read in New York City.

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.

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.

Lee Montgomery, editorial director of Tin House Books, moved to Portland, Oregon, twenty years ago but never meant to stay. It was a charming Victorian house, the rain and clouds, and the energy of the places featured in this guide that compelled the writer in her to hunker down and take advantage of a city brimming with literary offerings.