{"id":127784,"date":"2018-07-24T13:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-07-24T17:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=127784"},"modified":"2018-07-24T15:16:22","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T19:16:22","slug":"redux-writers-at-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/07\/24\/redux-writers-at-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Redux: Writers at Play"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every week, the editors of\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. You can have these unlocked\u00a0pieces delivered straight to your inbox every\u00a0Sunday by\u00a0signing up for the Redux newsletter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This week, we bring you J. D. McClatchy\u2019s 2002\u00a0Writers at Work interview<\/a>, Nancy Lemann\u2019s short story \u201cSportsman\u2019s Paradise<\/a>,\u201d and Mark Halliday\u2019s poem \u201cBallplayer at\u00a0Midnight<\/span><\/span><\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

J. D. McClatchy, The Art of Poetry No. 84<\/a>
\nIssue no. 163 (Fall 2002)<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been happier in the locker room than on the playing field . . . and that puts a different spin on \u201csports,\u201d doesn\u2019t it? The idea of\u00a0competition<\/em>\u00a0appeals to me. But focusing on a ball? All that gear, the injuries, the forced bravado and bonding, the cheerleaders, the lust for statistics . . . not for me, I fear. My parents were champion golfers, and early on pushed me toward the links. I had a natural swing, and might have been a good golfer. But, as you\u2019d expect, I resisted their kind shove, and decided to try tennis\u2014for which I had no aptitude whatever\u2014and failed, as I had at chess. I\u2019ve already said how thankful I remain that I went to schools where one didn\u2019t have to prove oneself with a kneecap injury. Nowadays, my favorite solitary sport is the morning\u2019s crossword puzzle, and my preferred contact sport\u2014so much more grueling than football!\u2014is gardening.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sportsman\u2019s Paradise<\/a>
\nBy Nancy Lemann
\nIssue no. 122 (Spring 1992)<\/em><\/p>\n

April comes and April goes, and May, and June, all passing by without shedding a drop of rain. The sky has been a blue desert since spring. The sun rises every morning, a bright white disk growing larger and hotter each day. Cicadas drawl halfheartedly in the trees. The reservoir outside the village has shrunken into a bathtub for the boys, peeing at each other in the waist-deep water.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ballplayer at\u00a0Midnight<\/span><\/span><\/a>
\nBy Mark Halliday
\nIssue no. 84 (Summer 1982)<\/em><\/p>\n

On the third floor
\nI urinate into a white bowl
\nhearing cars on Taber Avenue
\nrolling busy through the dull cold night<\/p>\n

Down the hall Julie must be falling
\nasleep in her green peeling room
\nshe is used to being alone I tell myself<\/p>\n

I wash hands gingerly because
\nmy right little finger
\ngot scraped in a basketball game yesterday \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you like what you read,\u00a0get a year of<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>The Paris Review\u2014four new issues, plus instant access to everything we\u2019ve ever published.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every week, the editors of\u00a0The Paris Review\u00a0lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine\u2019s archive. You can have these unlocked\u00a0pieces delivered straight to your inbox every\u00a0Sunday by\u00a0signing up for the Redux newsletter.     This week, we bring you J. D. McClatchy\u2019s 2002\u00a0Writers at Work interview, Nancy Lemann\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31006],"tags":[34789,21342,34790,34787,28011,34788],"class_list":["post-127784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-redux","tag-ballplayer-at-midnight","tag-j-d-mcclatchy","tag-mark-halliday","tag-nancy-lemann","tag-on-sports","tag-sportsmans-paradise"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRedux: Writers at Play by The Paris Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Every week, the editors of \u2018The Paris Review\u2019 unlock a selection of pieces from our archive. This week, we're giving you access to work by J.D. 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