The Las Vegas Review of Books is committed to enhancing a broad literary community that extends across the planet but has its point of departure in the city of Las Vegas. Like the city itself, LaVeRB can be wild and fun yet also classy and cosmopolitan. Vegas is a mix of drive-thru wedding chapels and Michelin-starred restaurants, and a literary criticism that speaks from such a perspective will reflect a comfort with both the classic and kitschy. Just as Southern Nevada offers a unique blend of deadly deserts and decadent desserts, LaVeRB strives to provide readers with a new mix of critical orientations and tastes in every review.
In a nod to the old North American Review, an early nineteenth-century organ that paved the way for other U.S. literary periodicals to follow, LaVeRB publishes all reviews anonymously. Too often today, book reviewing is used as a way for professional writers to promote their own titles and reputations. The focus here at LaVeRB will always be on the work under consideration. The names of reviewers will not be revealed.
While LaVeRB is published from Las Vegas, its critical purview is not limited to the literature of the region. But no voice speaks in a vacuum. LaVeRB reviews, regardless of individual authorship, speak from a position in Southern Nevada and reverberate outward accordingly.
An earlier publication also called the Las Vegas Review of Books ran from 2010 to 2018 and was run by Geoff Schumacher and Scott Dickensheets. The current publication is a new and different venture, but it is happy to acknowledge this spiritual predecessor.
John Hay
Editor-in-Chief
john.hay@lasvegasreviewofbooks.com
Las Vegas Review of Books 