with intense eagerness since 2012! a channel of the los angeles review of books

Avidly's Origins

About Avidly

Avidly specializes in short form criticism about how culture feels. Sarah Blackwood and Sarah Mesle founded Avidly in 2012, partly out of their sense that academics had too few venues for energetic writing, and partly out of their desire for more Adam Lambert/Twilight content. Avidly became a channel of the Los Angeles Review of Books in 2014. In 2016, the Avidly Reads book series was launched with NYU Press. For reasons we apparently cannot remedy, there are wineglasses behind this bioblurb.

Sarah Mesle

Co-Founder and Editor

Sarah Mesle is Assistant Professor (Teaching) of Writing at the University of Southern California and Editor-at-Large at the Los Angeles Review of Books. Her dog is a shepherd mix named Luna.

Sarah Blackwood

Co-Founder and Editor Emerita

Sarah Blackwood is Associate Professor of English at Pace University and the author of The Portrait's Subject (2019, University of North Carolina Press). Her dog is a shepherd mix named Belle.

Emma Johnson

Editorial Assistant

Emma Johnson attends Kenyon College, where she reads for the Kenyon Review.