Posts Tagged ‘Susan Orlean’

Last summer, we reported about the temporary move from New York to Los Angeles of New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean. A snappy Twitter exchange (or two) later, we are now happy to herald her participation in Mediabistro’s upcoming online Literary Festival & Workshops, running July 16 through August 1.

Orlean is one of several high-profile speakers set to provide literary wisdom and guidance:

Susan Orlean  Author Journalist, The New Yorker

Constance Hale  Author, Sin & Syntax

Rebecca Skloot  Author, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Jason Boog  Publishing Editor GalleyCat, Mediabistro

Sarah Fine  Author and Child Psychologist

Jason Allen Ashlock  Literary Agent and President Movable Type Management

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Another old-schooler bites the dust. LA Times columnist Jim Newton has officially joined the ranks of Twitter. Looks like he’s got the hang of it. He’s already giving Susan Orlean shout outs.

New Yorker staff writer Susan Orlean–she of Orchid Thief fame–is moving to Los Angeles for the next several months. Perhaps a sign of LA’s growing legitimacy among Northeasterly lit types, Orlean seems to have received none of the typical what-will you-do-about-the- food-lack-of-culture-horrible-architecture-traffic queries. Instead, her friends and readers are worried about her chickens.

It is legal to have them in Los Angeles, as long as they’re a polite distance from your neighbors; and there’s a lively L.A. chicken scene already in place (I already have my Los Angeles Urban Chicken Enthusiasts T-shirt, courtesy of one of the members.) But our backyard in California is small. Moreover, there are zillions of coyotes and bobcats hanging out in the neighborhood, and they are not the scrawny East Coast models: like everyone in Los Angeles, the coyotes I’ve seen there look like they work out a lot with personal trainers. The idea of putting a coyote magnet in the backyard, someplace where the coyotes can bench-press four hundred pounds, is terrifying. At least for the moment, the chickens will stay here.

Is it just us, or is it really strange to see someone of “Orchid Thief” author Susan Orlean‘s stature tweeting about Facebook? And using an “Argh!” You know how TMZ and all the gossip rags have pictures of celebrities in sweatpants buying canned beans at the grocery store? Maybe someone needs to compile a “banal tweets of the literati.” Step up your game Susan! We buy your books because we think you’re smarter than us.

*OK, the one caveat is if she got added to the NAMBLA group, like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But she needs to tell us if she was. Otherwise, this tweet is beneath her.