The spring issue of the LA Review of Books Journal is dedicated to the concept of Genius — how do we know what it is? How do we define it? How do we understand it and what role does it play in our culture? We have asked writers, scholars, critics, and artists to weigh in on the complicated concept. This issue is meant to challenge the idea of Genius — who after all, decides what genius is? — but also engage with it and try to unravel its complexities. We have grants that carry the title; we have people widely acknowledged as geniuses; we have organizations that can bestow that term to its members, and yet it’s still a mysterious, impenetrable concept, that we both suspect and revere. The issue is looking to tackle that straight on, while also including work by the writers and artists we consider worthy of the name, in all of its variations.
The issue will also include a series of definitions of “Genius”, formatted like the dictionary, where artists, playwrights, poets and critics try to define the slippery term and tell us what the word means to them.