Los Angeles Review of Books PubLab | We are the official annual journal of the LA Review of Books Publishing Workshop, an immersive, collaborative summer program designed for students and innovators interested in publishing.

We are the official annual publication of the LA Review of Books Publishing Workshop, an immersive, collaborative summer program designed for students and innovators interested in publishing.

Abstract floral cluster with swirling lavender petals around a dark central opening, orange-and-white striped tongue-like forms, and coral-textured petals covered in small pore-like dots.

Daniela Martén Rothe Portfolio

“Diosa Lenguona” (2021) Oil on canvas. 150×120 cm. Copyright Daniela Marten Rothe (2026)

Three women dressed in bright colors sit together on a couch and stare into the camera.

Amara Higuera Portfolio

Amara Higuera Portfolio Amara Higuera is a Mexican-American artist based in Los Angeles that experiments with the lens and its limitations to approach an identity that falls into the cracks between categories and the complex web of connections that shape it. Ranging...

Unfinished sketch of a woman staring into the distance while sitting at a table with a cup, saucer, and pitcher.

Self-improvement

Self-improvement “Tea” (c. 1890), Mary Cassatt. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art. It was one of those clear, sunny October days: crisp, bright mornings; intense, red afternoons; chilly, slow evenings. It was Sunday, so at 5 p.m. she went to yoga...

A nineteenth-century stereograph of two side-by-side identical prints. Both are a photograph of a bride and groom during their wedding march, with their wedding party following behind. The image is largely black and white, excepting the pink bridesmaids' dresses and blue-green palm fronds surrounding the group.

Monogamy is Dead, Long Live Monogamy!

When I was a teenager, my mother died. A few years later, my father remarried. I now have the language to describe grief as an encounter with what could have been and cannot be, one in which we negotiate with imagined futures after loss. At that time, however, I found...

An elaborate castle structure perches atop a monster's jaw, which swallows condemned souls.

A Corporate Digest

David followed the woman in the navy pantsuit toward a moment six years of school had been pointing to—countless dorm rooms, textbooks, and microwave dinners converging. Her five-inch-high heels led him down a precisely built hallway. It was simple yet thoroughly...

Close-up of a watermelon covered with bubble wrap.

Authorities are trying to figure out who stole a 150-pound watermelon worth $1,500

Authorities are trying to figure out who stole a 150-pound watermelon worth $1,500WBALTV-11 | 11:31 a.m. EDT September 10, 2013 The sky is dark when he steps out ontothe back porch into his watermelon patch. In a minute, he will find the vine is cut, feelthe dirt...

Of Mirrors, of Stones

we throw a stone in the mirror / it bounces back—Ivan de MonbrisonIn 1835, German chemist Justus von Liebig developed a formula for making mirrors with silvered glass, turning the bespoke vessels once reserved for the wealthy into a mass-manufactured household...

Andrea Long Chu’s Females, Revised

Andrea Long Chu’s Females, Revised “At Your Own Expense” (2026), digital collage and mixed media, Lauren Burnham. Incorporates various silhouettes from the ledger book of William Bache (1803-12), sourced from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian...