David L. Ulin

David L. Ulin is the author or editor of ten books, including Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles, shortlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay, and the Library of America’s Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award. The former book editor and book critic of the Los Angeles Times, he has written for The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, The Nation, The New York Times, and other publications. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lannan Foundation.

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Jan 19, 2021
New Beginnings for Books

Alta books editor David L. Ulin finds that amid a crisis, the soul of our culture still survives.

By David L. Ulin
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Dec 11, 2020
Talking with Lynell George
The author of A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky spent four years immersed in the life and work of Octavia E. Butler. This is what sh…
By David L. Ulin
Nov 16, 2020
The Better Angels of His Nature

In Every Day We Get More Illegal, Juan Felipe Herrera doubles down on hope.

By David L. Ulin
Oct 12, 2020
Fractured Fairy Tales

With Likes, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum makes magic out of the mundane.

By David L. Ulin
Jul 1, 2020
Looking Backward from the Future

Relevant to the real world as much as to the worlds it imagines, science fiction has always offered more than is expected.

By David L. Ulin
Jul 1, 2020
The Best of West Coast Science Fiction
Across the decades, these groundbreaking works of West Coast science fiction have shown us where we are and where we might be headed, f…
By David L. Ulin
Mar 20, 2020
California Dreaming

Rishi Reddi’s novel, Passage West, explores an underrepresented narrative.

By David L. Ulin
Mar 17, 2020
Joy Harjo’s Trail of Tears

Joy Harjo reimagines a national narrative in An American Sunrise.

By David L. Ulin
Nov 11, 2019
‘Blade Runner’ and Los Angeles, Then and Now

The iconic film’s futuristic vision of life in 2019 is already in the past.

By David L. Ulin
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Sep 30, 2019
Torchbearer

Elaine Katzenberger reflects on City Lights’ past—and looks to its future.

By David L. Ulin
Mar 4, 2019
The Jungle of Politics, Then and Now

Upton Sinclair’s 1934 bid for California’s governorship has lessons for today.

By David L. Ulin
Nov 6, 2018
Lucia Berlin Lives On
“Evening in Paradise” burnishes the reputation of this relatively unknown writer whose posthumously published “A Manual for Cleaning Wo…
By David L. Ulin
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Oct 3, 2018
The Beats’ Holy Grail
Jack Kerouac called it “the greatest piece of writing I ever saw” and cited it as inspiration for the style of “On The Road.” After yea…
By David L. Ulin
May 7, 2018
Reinventing the Wheel
New transportation innovations are forcing planners and city officials to rethink everything about how we’ll get around in California’s…
By David L. Ulin
Feb 15, 2018
Tightrope Walker

It may seem like overstatement to call Gina Berriault’s “Women in Their Beds” a masterpiece, but that’s what it is.

By David L. Ulin