June 6, 2012 Bulletin Introducing Our Summer Issue! By The Paris Review Unlike some magazines, we don’t do “theme” issues. And yet, as we collected the material that makes up 201, we couldn’t help notice that the issue had a decidedly … dramatic bent. Not just interviews with Tony Kushner and Wallace Shawn, but Ann Beattie’s story, “The Astonished Woodchopper,” featuring just that; a Sam Lipsyte story about a modern-day duel; Roberto Bolaño poems about sex and betrayal; Rich Cohen on pirates; Waris Ahluwalia on animal attraction; Davy Rothbart telling the true story of the best night of his life; plus, J.D. Daniels directing you to eat your parents. Tony Kushner: In some ways the Internet is definitely an enemy. This morning I was going to work on a Lincoln rewrite before I came to meet you. A couple of days ago I biked all over Provincetown looking for a needle threader—you know, one of those old-fashioned little tin discs with a cameo on it and a thin wire loop sticking out. I found one and bought it. I’m trying to teach myself how to needlepoint. I even considered bringing my needlepointing here, needlepointing during the interview, but then what would you think? Anyway, I bought this needle threader, but it was crap–two uses into it, the thing broke. So, this morning before working on Lincoln, I decided I would go online and find a really good needle threader. And who knew that on Amazon alone, there are dozens of needle threaders? So I started thinking, Why does this needle threader have five starts and this one four and a half? And this one only has two, isn’t that interesting? Can you imagine who got this needle threader and was really disappointed? And then, it’s like, Oh my God, it’s ten o’clock! I didn’t do any work. Wallace Shawn: I wish there were more plays about a life that is exactly like mine. I would love that! If the program says, ‘An apartment in Manhattan today,’ I’m thrilled! And if it says, ‘An apartment in Chelsea, in Manhattan, today,’ where I live, I’d be even more thrilled. I’m amazed if I can see an actor imitate someone with a French accent—that’s fantastic—and I’m even more excited if an actor can illuminate the psychological state of a person similar to me and the people I know. So I do like naturalistic theater. But I like many kinds of theater. Plus, poetry from John Ashbery, Sophie Cabot Black, Raúl Zurita, Octavio Paz, Lucie Brock-Broido, and David Ferry; nonfiction by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya; and a new translation of Virgil. Subscribe now!
June 6, 2012 Bulletin The 1966 Tee, Ready for Summer By Sadie Stein At left, a candid shot of the 1966 tee, taken over the weekend. I’m here to tell you that in addition to being soft, cozy, and nifty looking, it makes a great beach cover-up, too! Get yours now!
June 5, 2012 Bulletin Four Ties, and Counting By Lorin Stein A few months ago our friend Kirk Miller, of Miller’s Oath, made a small batch of Paris Review ties–twenty-four, to be exact. I bought one. Several members of our board did the same. We have four ties left—one of each! So, as you see, this is a true limited edition. Give one of them to your dad for Father’s Day. Each comes with a free subscription to The Paris Review. Buy one today! While supplies last.
May 31, 2012 Bulletin Don’t Miss the 1966 Tee By The Paris Review In celebration of its two-hundredth issue, The Paris Review is proud to present the Winter 1966 T-shirt. Modeled on a nifty shirt that we discovered on the back cover of issue 36, the design is George Plimpton’s own. As he stated in that ad, it’s “the sort of once in a very rare while shirt that makes an editor proud to do his job.” To celebrate the ’66, we took to the street, asking some New York friends to name their favorite Paris Review authors. Watch this space to see their picks. Printed on American Apparel 50/25/25’s, the shirt comes in men’s (S, M, L) and women’s sizes (M, L). To quote George, we beg you to “share with us the thrill of wearing it.”
May 31, 2012 Bulletin Literary Bars, Brooklyn Lamentations By Sadie Stein RIP illustrator Leo Dillon. Just in time for Book Expo, ten literary bars in Manhattan. Book lovers rally around the marked-for-death University of Missouri Press. 50 Shades of Grey alternatives for the erotica addict. The evolution of the book cover. A Brooklyn elegy.
May 30, 2012 Bulletin Lunch Poems, Mixtapes, Beats By Sadie Stein Spend your lunch at MoMA with Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems, written while O’Hara worked at the museum. The name says it all: Gladwell title generator. Elif Batuman visits Orhan Pamuk’s Musuem of Innocence, with eye-opening results. Ask Maira Kalman. She’ll answer questions live! Watch the trailer for On the Road. A literary mixtape for … the brain? Eyes?