Our Season 3 finale opens with “The Trick Is to Pretend,” a poem by Natalie Scenters-Zapico, read by the singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers: “I climb knowing the only way down / is by falling.” The actor Jessica Hecht plays Joan Didion in a reenactment of her classic Art of Fiction interview with Linda Kuehl. Jericho Brown reads his poem “Hero”: “my brothers and I grew up fighting / Over our mother’s mind.” The actor, comedian, and podcaster Connor Ratliff reads Bud Smith’s “Violets,” the story of two unlikely arsonists rediscovering life in the flames. The episode closes with Bridgers performing “Garden Song.”

To hear more from Connor Ratliff, check out his podcast Dead Eyes. To hear Avery Trufelman’s latest show, find the podcast Nice Try!

“Hero” by Jericho Brown appears courtesy of the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center.

This episode was sound designed and mixed by Hannis Brown, and mastered by Justin Shturtz.

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In an essay specially commissioned for the podcast, Aisha Sabatini Sloan describes rambling around Paris with her father, Lester Sloan, a longtime staff photographer for Newsweek, and a glamorous woman who befriends them. In an excerpt from The Art of Fiction no. 246, Rachel Cusk and Sheila Heti discuss how writing her first novel helped Cusk discover her “shape or identity or essence.” Next, Allan Gurganus’s reading of his story “It Had Wings,” about an arthritic woman who finds a fallen angel in her backyard, is interspersed with a version of the story rendered as a one-woman opera by the composer Bruce Saylor. The episode closes with “Dear Someone,” a poem by Deborah Landau.

To check out Captioning the Archives, the book Aisha Sabatini Sloan created with her father, Lester Sloan, visit McSweeney’s.

This episode was sound designed and mixed by John DeLore, and mastered by Justin Shturtz.

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This episode focuses exclusively on the work of fiction writer Edward P. Jones, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Known World and All Aunt Hagar’s Children, and subject of the Art of Fiction no. 222. The episode opens with an excerpt from that interview, a conversation between Jones and Hilton Als. Then actor Amber Gray (Hadestown) reads Jones’s story “Marie” from issue no. 122.

This episode was sound designed and mixed by Helena de Groot, and mastered by Justin Shturtz.

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George Saunders, in an excerpt from his Art of Fiction interview, explains how his teenage job delivering fast food prepared him to write fiction; Monica Youn reads her poem “Goldacre,” which tells the truth about Twinkies; Molly McCully Brown reads her essay “If You Are Permanently Lost,” in which she confesses that “space makes no sense”; and Venita Blackburn reads “Fam,” a very short story about self-love and social media.

This episode was sound designed and mixed by Helena de Groot, and mastered by Justin Shturtz.

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Robert Frost defines modern poetry in an excerpt from his Art of Poetry interview; the Italian poet Antonella Anedda discusses her poem “Historiae 2” with her translator Susan Stewart before the American vocal ensemble Tenores de Aterúe re-imagines the poem as a song in the folk tradition of Anedda’s native Sardinia; and Yohanca Delgado reads her story “The Little Widow from the Capital,” a tale of mystery, heartbreak, and embroidery set in a New York apartment building.

Robert Frost’s December 16, 1959, interview with Richard Poirier appears courtesy of the Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard University's Houghton Library. PS3511.R94 Z467 1959x. HOLLIS Permalink: 990023780790203941.

To learn more about Tenores de Aterúe, check out their documentary feature at www.aterue.com. Visit Bandcamp to hear more of their music.

This episode was sound designed and mixed by John DeLore, and mastered by Justin Shturtz.

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The celebrated podcast returns for its third season. Join us on an audio odyssey through the pages of The Paris Review, featuring the best fiction, poetry, interviews, and archival recordings, from the world's most legendary literary quarterly.

This season features fiction by Yohanca Delgado, Venita Blackburn, Bud Smith, Allan Gurganus, and Edward P Jones. Poetry from Monica Youn, Deborah Landau, Jericho Brown, Antonella Anedda, and Natalie Scenters-Zapico. Plus excerpts of interviews with Joan Didion, Robert Frost, Rachel Cusk, and George Saunders. This season includes the voices of Phoebe Bridgers, Connor Ratliff, Jessica Hecht, and Amber Gray.

Check out this trailer for a preview of the upcoming season, and subscribe now to hear the first episode on October 27th, 2021.

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A special bonus episode of The Paris Review Podcast celebrating N. Scott Momaday, the winner of the Review’s 2021 Hadada Award, which recognizes a distinguished member of the writing community who has made a strong and unique contribution to literature. What you are about to hear is an exclusive excerpt of the first step in the process of conducting Momaday’s Writers at Work interview, a bit of the very first call between Momaday and his interviewer, the poet Layli Long Soldier. They discuss the importance of oral tradition to literature, especially to the Native American tradition.

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This bonus episode revisits and remixes the virtual launch events for Paris Review issues 233 and 234, summer and fall  2020—no Zoom room required! First, Eloghosa Osunde reads the opening of her story “Good Boy”; next, Aracelis Girmay reads Lucille Clifton’s “Poem to My Yellow Coat”; then Lydia Davis shares  her short piece “The Left Hand”; translator Patricio Ferrari recites “Crater of the Beginning” by Portuguese poet Antonio Osorio; Jamel Brinkley reads an excerpt from his story “Witness”; Rabih Alameddine reads from his story “The July War”; Emma Hine presents her poem “Cassandra”; and the episode concludes with Girmay’s awe-filled recollection of her visit to Clifton’s archive, plus her rendition of Clifton’s poem “Bouquet.”

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A special bonus episode, recorded live at On Air Fest on March 8, 2020 (just before social distancing sent everyone home), featuring a crowded room of lovely human beings enjoying an immersive live performance of The Paris Review Podcast. The show opens with excerpts of Toni Morrison’s 1993 Art of Fiction Interview, scored live by some of the musicians that created the score for Seasons 1 and 2. Then Vijay Seshadri reads his poem “Ailanthus”; Quincy Tyler Bernstine reads “A Story for Your Daughters, A Story for Your Sons” by Rebecca Makkai; finally, Emily Wells provides live scoring for Bill Callahan’s rendition of Adrienne Rich’s poem “The Tree.”

“The Tree” excerpted from Collected Poems: 1950-2012 © 2016 by the Adrienne Rich Literary Trust. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. // The musicians providing the live scoring are Curtis Brewer on guitar, Sam Ospovat on drums, and Mike Brown on bass. // Our theme song is composed by David Cieri.

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We’re excited to bring you a special clip from Season 6 of LeVar Burton Reads. Take a break from your daily life, and dive into the best short fiction, handpicked by the world’s greatest storyteller. This season features stories about a shape-shifting con man, satyr wedding crashers, and a sentient military robot. Season 6 of LeVar Burton Reads is out NOW—listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to LeVar Burton Reads in Stitcher, Apple, or wherever you listen:http://stitcherapp.com/levarhttp://applepodcasts.com/levarhttp://www.levarburtonpodcast.com/

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