Tom Lutz is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Professor of the Graduate Division at UC Riverside, the founding editor-in-chief and publisher of the Los Angeles Review of Books, founder of The LARB Radio Hour, The LARB Quarterly Journal, The LARB Publishing Workshop, LitLit Book Fair, and LARB Books. Ken Subedi sat down and conversed with Lutz about his experiences of Nepal and his works while he was in Nepal for New York Writers Workshop Kathmandu 2024.
When did you come to Nepal for the first time?
During the big earthquake. In 2015.
Did you come for work or pleasure? What was the purpose?
No, I travel. I write travel books. I travel whenever I get the chance. Gertrude Stein said—you can either buy clothes, or you can buy art. So you just have to choose—what do you want? She bought art and I bought clothes for one dollar, and then I travelled.
Where did you travel? To France?
I have travelled to 150 countries.
Where did you travel in Nepal in 2015?
I just travelled in Kathmandu and some rural towns around Kathmandu. What is that big temple town?
Changunarayan? Bhaktapur Durbar Square?
Yes, right.
So you came to Nepal in 2015. But when you were living in the US, when did you know about Nepal for the first time?
Well! It was the first time I had been to Nepal where there was a religion which was so syncretic. I see in the Buddhist temple, a Buddhist monk praying to Ganesh.
But usually Buddhists pray in their own rites. But here in Nepal, even the Buddhists pray to the Hindu gods.
Exactly! This is the only place I have seen that.
The roots of Buddhism lie in Hinduism.
Yeah, right! Of course! And the basic kind of Namaste, kindness, was impressive to me. That’s on the positive side. On the negative side—I had a romantic image of Kathmandu. So I was surprised by the traffic and the pollution, and the poverty. That was surprising. I didn’t expect it.
So you also got to see how the earthquake ruined the country and the people who were devastated by it, right?
Yes. I only came because I had some time, and I went to India as well.
Right now, how was your experience attending the workshop and Himalayan Literature Festival?
Literature is international. It’s a cosmopolitan kind of activity. When people write – sometimes Nepalese writers write about Nepal, sometimes American writers write for America. But most of the American writers write hoping to write for the world.
That is also because of the English language!
Yeah! And Yuyutsu is a perfect example. He goes everywhere. He writes to everyone. And he brings writers from everywhere. He is a perfect example of the cosmopolitanism of literary work.
But at the same time that may also create some sort of homogeneity, also the cultural homogeneity.
Yes. I think literature fights against homogeneity. Literature is interested in all the nooks and crannies of difference. There is no reason to write about Taylor Swift for example. Writers don’t tend to be interested in the normal.
Salman Rushdie says that a writer should always challenge the current stage, like current tradition, current norms, or established values. What’s your opinion on this view?
Yes. Literature always crosses the boundary. For example: Take this cup of tea; there is no story here. But if I take this tea and throw it in your face, then it is a story. I crossed a cultural boundary. It is something abnormal. And then it becomes a story.
You have written lots of books on various genres. You also write travelogues. You travel. There are so many areas where you have worked simultaneously. What excites you, what fascinates you the most? Is it literary criticism, fiction, memoir, or novel, or travelogue? Do you have any favorite areas? It’s like asking a father which son you love the most. In Nepal, the youngest son is always loved.
Yes. And that is true. The youngest child is more loved. The book I am working on is always the one that. I am reading something which is from 2021. Just four years ago.
Did you write a memoir in 2022?
No, it’s a novel. The novel has some memoirist aspects. It’s the new novel I just finished that is coming this year. And novels are really fun.
You can take the characters to where you want!
The characters go where they want. And I watch them, I think.
Do you let the characters go, or do you bring some restrictions?
The characters take their own life jack. It’s more like you are watching them do things.
I guess you love all the genres, but novels should be more near to your heart.
Yeah! I don’t know about the heart. It’s all about the book 1925. It’s a literary history. It was also really fun. I loved that work.
So, the venture which you are working on is the most exciting part!
I think that I have written these very different kinds of things because I had a teaching job. It paid me a salary. I could write whatever I wanted to write. I didn’t have to worry about whether I sold it, if I sold 10 copies or 10,000 copies, or 100,000.
So, you write for the sake of passion?
It’s whatever you want to do. I travel but I do not have an itinerary. I wander freely and write freely like I travel.
Have you written anything on Nepal?
Yes. I think I have a Nepal section in one of the travel books, The Kindness of Strangers. I have already written about it.
It is said that for the same person to be a good creative writer and a good literary critic is a rare thing. You have worked as both and succeeded. Do you think you can be good in both areas?
A lot of critical people who write criticism think that they don’t have the ability to write creative kinds of fiction. I think they just don’t try it. And some novelists and some poets think that they can never do other things. So they don’t try. I tried to write a novel when I was much younger but I had not read much and had not gone to college yet. They can get in each other’s way sometimes.
Do you think it is possible to work like you? How can you balance that?
For me, that’s a very personal thing. I said I am not going to try to write great literature. I am going to write a thriller. Mystery genre does not have to be fancy; it does not have to be great literature. It can be just to tell a fun story. I think it’s somewhere in-between.
Is it due to your profession? Are you able to balance both works like literary criticism and the work which you are doing? Many professors teach how to write, but they don’t write themselves. But you have done a great job.
Exactly, it helps. I think I became a better critic when I wrote some poetry and some fiction. I think I write better criticism, I write better fiction and poetry because I love my works as a historian, as a scholar.
I think you started with literary criticism. Or, did you start with creative work?
I graduated from my high school. Then, I worked doing different things for ten years. Then, I started going to college. Then after graduate school, I became a professor. So during that period, I was writing poetry, I was writing songs, I tried to write fiction. My earliest attempts were creative writing. But I didn’t publish anything. And then when I started going to school, my first book was a scholarly book.
Regarding the Los Angeles Review of Books, what triggered you to start a new media only dedicated to reviews?
There is a personal reason and a historical reason. The personal reason is—I got a new job, a very good job, and a very good pay. I thought what I should do next is—something that’s not for me, not to make my career better, not something more absurdist. I should do something for the service. When all the book reviews in America were dying, the newspapers were shrinking; I grew up reading the book reviews in the newspapers. That was my introduction to literary culture. And I wanted other people to get into the conversation. I started an online service. It did not cost anything. I called my friends. It was volunteer labor. Gradually it became bigger and bigger. I had to hire staff. So, I built a board of directors and turned it into a non-profit organization so that we could take grants and gifts, and pay staff. I spent 60 hours a week for ten years.
It is like a contribution to the literary fraternity. People are writing reviews throughout the world. The representation of local literature is also accessible throughout the world.
We have readers in 200 countries.
How do you find the representation of the Global South in producing great literary works? What is your view regarding their representation from South Asia?
I am 71 years old. When I started reading literature in the 1970s, I never heard the phrase Global South. We read Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alejo Carpentier and Frantz Fanon. There were a dozen texts from around the world. There were a handful of people. Also VS Naipaul. Now, for the last 20 years, the idea of the Global South has been a part of every English Department, every Literature Department. Every university has people working on Global South literature; now, it’s a recognized area. The American book market is dominated by very few bestselling authors. All of the big money is going into publishing all of those few bestselling authors from the US and the UK. In the second level, there are lots of authors from Africa, India, and the East. There are a lot of writers now who are considered the important literary writers of the Four American Literary Readers who are from the Global South. So it’s a big change. If you look at Germany or any Latin American country, the publishers there publish half of the work that is translated from other languages. In America it’s three percent. It’s still a very small part. That means that even though Africa is being represented in Four American Readers, it has been represented by a small percentage of writers from Africa. Often, those are writers who have moved to England or America.
I think one should be at least second generation to become a published author in the US, like Ravi Shankar. If he was first generation in the US, it would have been more difficult for him to secure publishing from the American publishers. It may be because of the languages, the familiarity with the culture.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o from Kenya. He was a famous author in Kenya. His fames were around the world, while he still lived in Kenya. But he had gotten into trouble with the government. And he was imprisoned. He fled to America. So he lived in America for 20/25 years. So writers like that have much more access to American readers because they live in America, give readings in America and are part of the scene. There are a number of authors who live in both places and cultures. I know there are hundreds of great African writers who Americans have never heard of and have never translated.
What languages do you speak besides English?
I speak some French and some Spanish.
