November 25, 2013 Bulletin See You There: St. Mark’s Fundraiser By Sadie Stein Image via Blogcitylights. Over the past months, we have closely followed the efforts of our friends at St. Mark’s Bookshop to find a permanent, affordable home in Manhattan’s East Village. Now, the owners have announced plans for a December 5 fundraiser to help them move to a smaller home a few blocks east of their current Third Avenue location. Both in-store and online, you will be able to bid on signed first editions by the likes of Anne Carson, Lydia Davis, and Paul Auster.
November 22, 2013 Bulletin Have You Seen This Desk? By Sadie Stein Today, George Eliot’s birthday, let us pay tribute to the sad chapter in our collective history when, in 2012, someone stole the author’s portable writing desk from the Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery in Warwickshire. Having seen no updates in the ensuing year, we are left to assume that both thief and papier-mâché secretaire are still at large, and that some greedy literary mogul is gazing upon it as we speak. But as Miss Evans herself might have said, “It is surely better to pardon too much, than to condemn too much.” May it bring inspiration.
November 8, 2013 Bulletin Claire Vaye Watkins Wins Dylan Thomas Prize By Sadie Stein We are delighted to announce that Claire Vaye Watkins has won the Dylan Thomas Prize, awarded to the best work of literature published by an author under the age of thirty, for her debut short story collection Battleborn. Read an excerpt of Watkins’s story “Gold Mine,” from issue 195, here.
October 29, 2013 Bulletin Or, the Modern Prometheus By Sadie Stein Anyone watching the CW’s Hart of Dixie last night will have noticed, at the 1:40 mark, an unexpected cameo by our very own digital director, Justin Alvarez. (You may know him as the mind behind our Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts, among many other things.) Allow us to set the scene. Dr. Zoe Hart (Rachel Bilson) and Joel Stephens (Josh Cooke), in the Rammer Jammer, pass a poster for a one-man stage adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Joel: Oh my—[laughs] I have to send this to my friend Justin at The Paris Review. He is going to flip out. Also, we must go. Dr. Hart objects, on the grounds that said production is some four hours long and features a third act in German. But this proved to us that the writers of the show know what they’re talking about; Justin (who has an MFA in playwriting, a fact we imagine will figure in his character’s trajectory) is indeed a fan of experimental theater with an enviable attention span. Our in-office research has informed us that the character of Joel is supposed to be a New York intellectual, and is apparently not a fan favorite.
October 24, 2013 Bulletin The Paris Review and WNYC, a Perfect Match By Sadie Stein Just a reminder to our readers: for the next five days, when you pledge to support WNYC, you can get a subscription to The Paris Review! Support public radio, and in the process receive four issues a year of poetry, fiction, interviews, and more. Just choose The Paris Review as your thank-you gift at the $100 pledge level. As always, you can pledge at a monthly level, or all at once. And yes, you can re-up an existing subscription, too!
October 22, 2013 Bulletin Double-Bind By Sadie Stein Last night posed a geographical dilemma for poet, Daily contributor, and Paris Review softball outfielder Rowan Ricardo Phillips. We had known for a while that Rowan was due to receive the 2013 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry for his collection The Ground. But when we learned he was also the recipient of a 2013 Whiting Writers’ Award, on the same evening, and several blocks northwest, we wondered how exactly he’d work the geography. In the end, it was tight; when the PEN Awards started, Rowan was not onstage with the other recipients. But he finally arrived, was there to accept his second award of the evening, and both times made impressive extemporaneous remarks, somehow seamlessly working in Catalan, Shakespeare’s sonnet 116, and heartfelt tributes to his mother and wife, between thank-you’s to editors, publishers, and friends. All in all, a good night’s work! Hearty congratulations to Rowan and all the evening’s talented honorees.