October 7, 2011 Bulletin Congratulations to Tomas Tranströmer By Lorin Stein Tomas Tranströmer. The Paris Review congratulates Tomas Tranströmer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature. A valued contributor to the Review, Tranströmer is a poets’ poet, one whose name has come up in several of our interviews. Jorie Graham and Robert Bly both cite his influence. Translating Tranströmer, Bly told us, “was an amazing experience for me because there was a kind of image appearing in him that I’d never seen before … You feel yourself, because of the work you’ve done on the image, invaded by the image. You feel that it has become a part of your house like someone who’s moved into your house, and your house is changed then.” More prosaically, perhaps, Seamus Heaney credited Tranströmer and his wife, Monika, with this excellent-sounding marital advice: “Things will work fine as long as you see each other every six weeks … Just don’t let more than six weeks go past.”
October 6, 2011 Bulletin Help Us Support St. Mark’s! By Natalie Jacoby Yesterday, Lorin wrote about St. Mark’s Bookshop—“where the staff knows how to spread the word about good writing, face to face, hand to hand”—and the importance of keeping independent booksellers like this one alive. We meant every word of it, and to prove it, we’re offering a special discount to St. Mark’s patrons. Beginning today, when you buy a copy of our fall issue at St. Mark’s, you’ll receive a coupon good for 25% off a one-year subscription to The Paris Review, starting with our next issue (it’s good for T-shirts, tote bags, and mugs, too). It’s our way of saying thank you for supporting this beloved East Village institution!
October 5, 2011 Bulletin Saving St. Mark’s By Lorin Stein St. Mark’s Bookshop is the one of the last booksellers in the East Village. Since 1979 it has been famous for its collection of fiction, poetry, and criticism. With just 2,700 square feet, it always manages to stock the best new books and literary magazines—things that would get buried in a less selective store. Pace the Bloomberg newswire, you could find most of these things online. But first you’d have to look—and St. Mark’s teaches you what to look for. The staff don’t just select the stock, they proselytize on its behalf and, in their small way, help hold the neighborhood together. Once a friend of mine went up to the information desk and asked the clerk to restore his faith in the contemporary novel. Another time, another friend asked where to find flowers on a Sunday. Both left satisfied. That’s the kind of store it is. Now it seems St. Mark’s Bookshop may close—not for lack of customers, but for the same reason that the East Village lost its Ukrainian diners: if you’re selling pierogi or paperbacks, it’s hard to make $20,000 every month in rent. The owners of St. Mark’s have asked the landlord—the Cooper Union—to lower that rent by $5,000. Friends of the bookstore have circulated a petition and have gathered some 40,000 signatures supporting this request. We at The Paris Review have a stake in St. Mark’s Bookshop: the store sells between 150 and 200 copies of each issue of The Paris Review. That’s more than we sell in most cities. It’s more than we sell off our own Web site. Magazines like The Paris Review need good bookstores, where the staff knows how to spread the word about good writing, face to face, hand to hand. To our way of thinking, New York needs bookstores, too, or it will no longer be New York.
October 5, 2011 Bulletin On the Shelf By Sadie Stein Hans Christian Andersen. A cultural news roundup. Odds on the Nobel? Harry Potter takes his show on the road. But not his e-book. The trouble with Amazon. Bad news for independent bookstores. And chain bookstores. In praise of the Farmers’ Almanac. Hans Christian Andersen to be buried, again. Volume 12 of Selected Works of Kim Jong-il hits the shelves. “That American culture could bring forth so relentless a critic is perhaps one of the reasons to still think well of it.” A visit to southeast London. Advice for students: “To get an education, you’re probably going to have to fight against the institution that you find yourself in—no matter how prestigious it may be. (In fact, the more prestigious the school, the more you’ll probably have to push.) You can get a terrific education in America now—there are astonishing opportunities at almost every college—but the education will not be presented to you wrapped and bowed. To get it, you’ll need to struggle and strive, to be strong, and occasionally even to piss off some admirable people.”
October 3, 2011 Bulletin Ask the Paris Review! (West Coast Edition) By Sadie Stein This week, The Paris Review heads west: specifically, to the Standard, Hollywood, in L.A., where we’ll be joined by West Coast friends including Ann Louise Bardach, David Kipen, Jonathan Lethem, Tom Lutz, Mona Simpson, and Michael Tolkin. Got a question on books, life, love, or anything else? Pose them below, and our panel will tackle them! We’ll reproduce the best answers on the Daily. And if you’re in Los Angeles, do stop by! When: Thursday, October 6 7:30–10 P.M. Where: Cactus LoungeThe Standard, Hollywood8300 Sunset BoulevardWest Hollywood, CA 90069 And thanks to our friends at PEN USA, our partners for the event.
September 28, 2011 Bulletin Subscribe Now to Get a Digital Discount! By Sadie Stein Just a friendly reminder: through Friday, September 30, when you buy or renew a print subscription to The Paris Review, you can get a digital subscription for only $10. That’s right: a full year of fiction, poetry, and interviews on iPad, iPhone, Android, or online, as well as the hard copy you know and love. (When you buy a subscription through our store, we’ll send you the discount code.)