Council Literary Series: Karen Russell in conversation with Marc Weingarten
10am | Tour of the Richard J. Riordan Central Library – Optional
11am | Reception
11:30am | Author Program
12:30pm | Lunch and Book Signing
The California Club ( 538 Flower Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071)
*Parking is included at the Westlawn Garage (524 W. Flower)
Tour of the Richard J. Riordan Central Library
Before the luncheon, enjoy an optional docent-led tour of the historic Richard J. Riordan Central Library. Learn about the art and architecture, from the iconic sphinxes and rooftop pyramid to the soaring 8-story atrium, and explore the library’s remarkable collections. The tour runs from 10am to 11am with limited space. You can sign up for the tour when you are registering for the luncheon.
Please be sure to RSVP during checkout!
If you have any questions, please email The Council office at thecouncil@lfla.org or call 213.228.7506.
Our Guest Author:
Karen Russell
Karen Russell is the author of six books of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. She has received MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, she now lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, son, and daughter. The Antidote , her second novel, is a National Bestseller and New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice title.
About the Book:
The Antidote
The Antidote opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing—not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl drought, but beneath its own violent histories. The Antidote follows a “Prairie Witch,” whose body serves as a bank vault for peoples’ memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch’s apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the town’s secrets and its fate.
Russell’s novel is above all a reckoning with a nation’s forgetting—enacting the settler amnesia and willful omissions passed down from generation to generation, and unearthing not only horrors but shimmering possibilities. The Antidote echoes with urgent warnings for our own climate emergency, challenging readers with a vision of what might have been—and what still could be.
Praise
“Direct and intimate. . . . [The Antidote] turns the whispered secrets of a Dust Bowl town into a bold metaphor for repressed history.” —The Atlantic
“The Antidote blends speculative and fantasy elements with rich language and vivid characters in an effort not to escape reality but to comment even more thoughtfully on it. . . . Russell’s lyrical writing dazzles on every page.” —The New York Times
Our Moderator:
Marc Weingarten
Marc Weingarten writes about books and authors for The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Toronto Globe & Mail and The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of three nonfiction books: Thirsty, The Gang That Wouldn’t Write Straight and Station to Station, as well as the editor of two essay collections about music, Yes Is The Answer and Here She Comes Now.
