Atlantic's literary editor L.A. bound

Tim Rutten reports in the LAT today that Benjamin Schwarz, who has changed the profile of The Atlantic book section in his three years as literary editor, is moving to Los Angeles in September. There already have been many more Los Angeles writers than usual appearing in the venerable Boston-based magazine, among them David Ulin, Caitlin Flanagan, Sandra Tsing Loh and, in upcoming issues, Mona Simpson and Marc Cooper. Rutten calls the move a major Eastern acknowledgment of Los Angeles' intellectual chops, and Schwarz -- who has spent time here working for RAND -- agrees.

"I just know more interesting people in Los Angeles than I do in any other city," Schwarz said. "In a way, that's unsurprising, since nowadays there are many more independent intellectuals doing much more interesting work in Los Angeles than anywhere else in the country."

"I've long thought that L.A. is an underexploited literary field. It has an extraordinarily large pool of highly educated and talented people thinking in very interesting ways about contemporary culture. It's a much more interesting place than Boston, for example."