The Paris Review

• “It’s about eating lunch. They eat salad and cake. All they do is eat”: in which a two-year-old judges books by their covers.
• “He tends to devoice a lot of the fricatives, but I take that purely as an idiolectal variant”: an (in-depth) interview with the linguist who created Game of Thrones’ multiple languages.
• Fifty authors, including Hilary Mantel, Tom Stoppard, and John Banville, have contributed annotated first editions to an English PEN auction. Which is to say, they can (theoretically) be yours.
• The Henry Miller Memorial Library decamps temporarily to Miller’s hometown of Brooklyn for the Big Sur Brooklyn Bridge festival.
• Ishiguro on film, Tóibín on opera: six novelists on their second-favorite art forms.

As one of our readers, Ms., pointed out, I didn't really give readers enough notice about last week’s PEN translation panel. Mea culpa! You can watch the following video of the event—featuring a distinguished assemblage of writers, editors, and translators—from the comfort of your own home. And if you have any burning questions on the topic, I feel safe in saying Lorin will be delighted to answer them, via advice@theparisreview.org!

The venerable Kaweco company has been making this “sport pen” for generations. Designed for ladies, sportsmen, and officers, its compact size means it is easily carried in a pocket—a novelty at the time of its invention! Storied history aside, it’s quite simply a delight to write with, look at, and handle. I’ve been hooked since I first started using them ten years ago. It’s with great pleasure that we present this limited-edition Paris Review sport pen—a must for the sportspersons and officers in your life, but just as delightful for the rest of us. A small luxury that will bring you pleasure every time you use it, and a lovely gift either on its own or with a year of The Paris Review.

Steve Jobs. Photo by COG LOG LAB.

A cultural news roundup.