Reza Aslan Looks to Enliven LA’s Staid Literary Scene

No doubt about it, writing is a lonely sport. Words come from within, and go to a computer screen or thumb drive. Or, if you’re old school – and a lot of people are old school – a piece of paper. Even from a typewriter. But the lonely writer needs dialogue, too. Other people with whom to talk, laugh, and commiserate. Drink.

The religious scholar Reza Aslan teaches creative writing at UC Riverside. He’s best known for his writings on Christianity and Islam, with his bestselling books Zealot, a biography of Jesus Christ, and No God but God, about the origins, evolution, and future of Islam. But he’s also the host of a new literary series called The Writer's Room at the West Hollywood nightclub DBA. The next show is tonight with playwright, screenwriter and producer Liz Meriwether, from the TV show New Girl.