Lutz taught American literature, cultural studies, literary theory, and creative writing at the California Institute of the Arts, University of Iowa, Stanford University, and the University of Copenhagen. He is currently Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Creative Writing at University of California, Riverside. He has published over 100 articles in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Chicago Tribune, Die Zeit, ZYZZYVA, Exquisite Corpse, Salon.com, Black Clockand dozens of other magazines, newspapers, book collections, and literary and academic journals. His books include Aimlessness, Born Slippy: A Novel, Drinking Mare's Milk on the Roof of the World: Wandering the Globe from Azerbaijan to Zanzibar, And the Monkey Learned Nothing: Dispatches from a Life of Travel, Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America, Cosmopolitan Vistas: American Regionalism and Literary Value, Crying: The Natural & Cultural History of Tears, and American Nervousness, 1903: An Anecdotal History. They have been translated into 12 languages. He is the founding editor and publisher of Los AngelesReview of Books. Los Angeles Review of Books launched in April 2011. He also founded The Larb Radio Hour and The LARB Quarterly Journal. In 2016, he launched the , which seeks "to revolutionize the publishing industry from the ground up by increasing access, facilitating change, and inspiring invention through the recruitment, training, and mentorship of early-career talent from diverse backgrounds." He lives in Los Angeles.
“Noir: A Conversation,” with Steph Cha, LitHub, January 14, 2020
“The Ship of State,” a conversation with Dave Eggers, Los Angeles Review of Books, December 2019
“The Movie-Made Self,” an introduction to Merton of the Movies, by Harry Leon Wilson, LARB Classics, November 2019
“Gun Island: An Interview with Amitav Ghosh,” LARB Radio Hour, October 2019
“In the Shadow of the Archive,” in The Critic as Amateur, ed. Saikat Majumdar and Aarthi Vadde, Bloomsbury, September 2019
“Where the Amateur Reader Ends, and the Professional Critic Begins,” LitHub, August 2019
“This Storm: Interview with James Ellroy,” LARB Radio Hour, July 2019
"The Parade: A Conversation with Dave Eggers," LARB Radio Hour, June 2019
“Talent Show: A Conversation with Juliet Lapidos,” LARB Radio Hour, Los Angeles, April 26, 2019
“Making the World Safe for Nerds,” Michael Silverblatt, a chapbook, A Public Space Books, November 2018
“A Conversation with Laurie Winer and Seth Greenland, LARB Radio Hour, October 2018
“A Conversation with Eric Vuillard and Laurie Winer,” Chevalier’s Books, LARB Radio Hour, September 2018
“The Missing Narrator: A Conversation with Rachel Cusk,” LARB Radio Hour, Los Angeles CA, May 2018.
“Gun Love: A Conversation with Jill Clement,” LARB Radio Hour, Los Angeles CA, March 2018
“A Life in Letters: An Evening with Maxine Hong Kingston,” LARB Radio Hour, Los Angeles CA, February 2018
“Interview with Antonio Damasio and Eric Newman, LARB Radio Hour, February 2018.
“LA Femme en Noir,” LALA, Fall 2017
“Publishing in Los Angeles,” LALA, Summer 2017
“Behagen und Unbehagen aud der Matratze,” Matratze/Matrize: Mobelierung von Subjekt und Gesellschaft, ed. Irene Nierhaus and Kathrin Heinz, Transcript, 2016.
“The Commons as Network,” ASAP/Journal, Vol. 1: p. 49-50, 2016.
“A Conversation with Nicholson Baker,” LARB Radio Hour, Los Angeles CA. September 2016.
Interview, Elif Batuman, Los Angeles/New York, LARB Radio Hour, June 2016
“Finding This Lost City in Honduras Was the Easy Part,” New York Times, March 20, 2015
“Plov Day in Tashkent,” Litscapes, ed. Caitlin M. Alvarez and Kass Fleisher, Steerage Press, 2015
“Interview with Iconic Poet Nikki Giovanni,” Los Angeles Review of Books, May 18, 2015
“Tavis Smiley’s New Memoir of Maya Angelou,” Los Angeles Review of Books, May 1, 2015
“There’s No Writer’s Block in the Newsroom,” Los Angeles Review of Books, April 5, 2015
“John Rechy: An Interview”, Los Angeles Review of Books, January 17, 2015
“An Interview with No Pictures: BJ Novak,” Los Angeles Review of Books, Dec 9, 2014
“Notes form the Albanian Diaspora,” Iowa Review, Fall 2014