- Title: Founder of Literary Affairs, a lifestyle company whose nine facilitators manage 48 to 60 book clubs per month.
- Location: West Los Angeles
- Venues: Private homes for book clubs; libraries and other public spaces for curated author events.
- The job: Though semiretired after 28 years of moderating, Robinson vets books, assesses group dynamics, and matches facilitators with established private book clubs. She also produces author events at larger venues.
- Brass tacks: Book club meetings run for about two hours and are typically monthly. The standard facilitator fee is $400 per meeting, a cost that is usually split between members.
- Primary clients: Highly educated women seeking richer intellectual lives after raising kids or building careers.
- Past picks: Culpability, by Bruce Holsinger; James, by Percival Everett; Sacrament, by Susan Straight.
- Prep: Robinson reads roughly 80 to 100 books a year. She selects titles that can sustain two hours of focused, text-centered discussion and appeal to groups with members at different life stages.
- Perks: Watching members’ children grow up, marry, and have kids of their own. Robinson’s longtime clients are now in their late 80s.
- Highlight: Interviewing George Saunders at a private event.•
This article appears in Issue 35 of Alta Journal.
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Jennifer Lewis is the editor in chief and publisher of Red Light Lit, a small press and reading series established in 2013. She is the author of the short story collection The New Low, published by Black Lawrence Press.
