Blog
The Macondo Dimension of South El Monte: Carribean Fragoza in Conversation with Héctor Tobar
This is an excerpt of a free event for our virtual events series, City Lights LIVE. This event featured Carribean Fragoza in conversation with Héctor Tobar, celebrating the launch of her new book Eat the Mouth That Feeds You, published by City Lights Books. This...
Rap Music on Trial: On literalism, literacy, and reasonableness
Killer Mike performs during the 2016 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. PHOTO BY KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES FOR COACHELLA By Daniel Levin Becker Key for Key, Pound for pound I’m the biggest Dope Dealer and I serve all over town. These words were written in...
Reflecting on Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Passing, One Year Later
LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI March 24, 1919 (Yonkers, New York) – February 22, 2021 (San Francisco, California) Lawrence Ferlinghetti, distinguished American poet, artist, and founder of City Lights Booksellers and Publishers was instrumental in democratizing...
5 Questions with Garrett Hongo, Author of The Perfect Sound
Garrett Hongo was born in Volcano, Hawaiʻi, and grew up on the North Shore of Oʻahu and in Los Angeles. His most recent books are The Mirror Diary: Selected Essays and Coral Road: Poems. A regular contributor to SoundStage! Ultra, he lives in Eugene, Oregon and is...
5 Questions with Daniel Levin Becker, Author of What’s Good
Daniel Levin Becker is an American critic, translator, and editor, and the youngest member of the Oulipo literary collective. He is the author of Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature (Harvard UP, 2012) and the translator of, among...
5 Questions with Morgan Thomas, Author of Manywhere
Morgan Thomas’s work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Kenyon Review, American Short Fiction, VICE, Electric Literature, Ploughshares, them., and StoryQuarterly, where their story won the 2019 Fiction Prize. They are the recipient of a Bread Loaf...
Sesshu Foster and Arturo Ernesto Romo discuss their book ELADATL in the ‘On Futures’ video series
On Futures is a series highlighting how designers, artists, curators, and writers envision alternative cultural and architectural temporalities that map out an expansive range of possible futures. It's produced by SCI-Arc, an architectural school in Los Angeles....
5 Questions with Nadifa Mohamed, Author of The Fortune Men
Nadifa Mohamed is the author of Black Mamba Boy and The Orchard of Lost Souls. She has received both the Betty Trask Award and the Somerset Maugham Award, and in 2013, she was named as one of Granta‘s Best of Young British Novelists. Her work appears regularly...
5 Questions with Gina Apostol, Author of Bibliolepsy
Gina Apostol is the author of the novels Insurrecto, Gun Dealers’ Daughter, and The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata. She is the recipient of a PEN/Open Book Award and two Philippine National Book Awards. Her essays and stories have...
City Lights Publishers Year in Review: Best of 2021
We published 10 books in 2021. Here are just some of the highlights, best of's, and more from another affirming year of work for us. Eat the Mouth That Feeds You by Carribean Fragoza "For National Hispanic Heritage Month, 11 Recent Books on Latino Life," The New...
