Lili Anolik Journalist Profile

Articles

My favourite books from 2024

Jan 8, 2025 | brockpress.com | Mikayla Keniry |Lili Anolik

Throughout 2024, numerous long-anticipated books from countless genres were finally released. Several prized authors released new texts while newer authors asserted their success in the literary world. Looking back on the literary releases of 2024, here are a few reads that stood out to me.
A Year in Reading: Lili Anolik

Dec 11, 2024 | themillions.com | Lili Anolik

A Year in Reading: Lili Anolik For obvious reasons, I spent a lot of time this past year reading and rereading and rereading some more Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. (Hang on, maybe it’s not obvious: I have a new book out called Didion & Babitz.) Reading, as well, writers in the Didion-Babitz orbit. Key husbands: John Gregory Dunne. Key brothers-in-law: Dominick Dunne. Key nephews and/or barely-legal sex partners: Griffin Dunne (Didion’s nephew; Babitz’s barely-legal sex partner).
Ep. 103: Somewhere Over the Blood Meridian | Study Break

Dec 3, 2024 | share.transistor.fm | Lili Anolik

December 3, 2024 • 60 Minutes Ep. 103: Somewhere Over the Blood Meridian | Study Break In this edition of Study Break, we discuss the rise of celebrity lookalike contests, YSL's Proustian fantasy films, recent literary scoop on Cormac McCarthy, the extension of Brat into the deep dark winter, and all things Wicked from the uncanny Hollyweird sapphism of its press tour to the inescapability of its garish color scheme in consumer products.
Five writers on the five books they’d give for Christmas

Dec 2, 2024 | inkl.com | Percival L. Everett |Asako Yuzuki |Lili Anolik |Harriet Baker

Our guide to the books you’ll want to give as gifts this Christmas - (The Independent)Books are the best kind of Christmas present, and we don’t want to argue about it. When you give someone you love an unputdownable novel, a juicy biography, a captivating history book or a set of letters or poems, what you are also giving is hours and hours of pleasure. That’s why five of us writers are sharing our top five suggestions for great books to give as gifts this Christmas.
The Uptown Local: Joy, Death, and Joan Didion

Dec 1, 2024 | literaryreview.co.uk | Lili Anolik |Cory Leadbeater |Griffin Dunne

In the late 1970s, Joan Didion sent her friend Susanna Moore a note containing two pieces of advice: ‘Read The Golden Bowl’; ‘Stop running away.’ It arrived just after Moore had abruptly moved from Los Angeles to London without telling Didion she was leaving. If Lili Anolik is to be trusted, there is a good chance that the note was written on personalised stationery, with ‘JOAN DIDION DUNNE’ engraved at the top.
Writer Lili Anolik on total commitment to the creative path

Nov 29, 2024 | thecreativeindependent.com | Lili Anolik

Writer Lili Anolik discusses writing about writers, embracing gossip as historical record, and the power of tenacity.
Before Joan Didion Had John Gregory Dunne, There Was Noel Parmentel Jr.-A First and Searing Love

Nov 18, 2024 | vanityfair.com | Lili Anolik

I first came across the name Noel Parmentel Jr. in 2022, when I found a letter Eve Babitz had written to her cousin Patricia Helton in 1976. “There are certain people who never actually venture into my scanning region, people [like] Noel Parmentel Jr. who I’ve heard about all my life from various people who’ve been torn to shreds by him and his charm,” she wrote.
Didion & Babitz | Bookreporter.com

Nov 15, 2024 | bookreporter.com | Lili Anolik

On the spectrum of The Beach Boys’ California girls as "tanned dolls" and The Doors’ “L.A. Woman,” Joan Didion and Eve Babitz were…on spectrums all their own. This, despite the fact that brown-eyed Babitz was probably the inspiration for Morrison’s lonely blue-eyed subject, which is a Babitz tidbit that is part of her myth. And the myth of Eve Babitz, as interesting as it is, is far less interesting than the truth about her. This is what writer Lili Anolik has known for a long time.
'Didion and Babitz' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

Nov 13, 2024 | time.com | Mahita Gajanan |Lili Anolik

These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. By Mahita GajananNovember 13, 2024 8:17 AM ESTLiterary legends Joan Didion and Eve Babitz are for some the ultimate avatars of cool women writers. They were also, it turns out, deeply intertwined.
Eve and Joan: Exploring the Tumultuous Friendship of LA’s Literary Ladies

Nov 12, 2024 | lithub.com | Lili Anolik

Lili Anolik on the Irresistible Draw of Eve Babitz and Joan Didion, Two Iconic Chroniclers of California My book on Eve Babitz, Hollywood’s Eve, came out in 2019. Writing it was my way of driving a stake through her heart.