{"id":4734,"date":"2010-09-10T18:08:28","date_gmt":"2010-09-10T22:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=4734"},"modified":"2010-10-27T13:29:03","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T17:29:03","slug":"excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/","title":{"rendered":"Excuses, Excuses\u2014and Invitations!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2-211x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2978\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2-211x300.jpg 211w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2.jpg 271w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/>Dear Readers of &#8220;Ask The Paris Review&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p>Several of you have written in to enquire after my health. I&#8217;m touched by your solicitude &#8230; and very sorry to have no advice for you this week. All of us here on White Street and at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tierra-innovation.com\/\">Tierra Innovation<\/a> are scrambling to launch our fall issue and our new website. Stay tuned! <\/p>\n<p>In lieu of advice, I offer you a <a href=\"http:\/\/poetryoutloud.org\/poems\/poem.html?id=16772\">poem<\/a> on the subject of having no advice\u2014and an invitation: <\/p>\n<p>if you are in striking distance of New York, please <a href=\"http:\/\/litcrawl.org\/events\/an-evening-with-the-paris-review\">join us tomorrow night<\/a>  at Fontana&#8217;s Bar when we unveil the fall issue. Advance copies will be for sale. Contributors will read and may be persuaded to sign copies. There is talk of a raffle. The celebrations will begin at 8 o&#8217;clock and continue until we drop. <\/p>\n<p>On Sunday we&#8217;ll be at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brooklynbookfestival.org\/\">Brooklyn Book Festival<\/a>, booth #23, next to the fountain.<\/p>\n<p>I hope to see you one place or the other!<\/p>\n<p>Lorin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Readers of &#8220;Ask The Paris Review&#8221;: Several of you have written in to enquire after my health. I&#8217;m touched by your solicitude &#8230; and very sorry to have no advice for you this week. All of us here on White Street and at Tierra Innovation are scrambling to launch our fall issue and our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[798,799,165,800],"class_list":["post-4734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ask-the-paris-review","tag-event","tag-party","tag-poetry","tag-website"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Excuses, Excuses\u2014and Invitations! by Lorin Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"September 10, 2010 \u2013 Dear Readers of &quot;Ask The Paris Review&quot;: Several of you have written in to enquire after my health. I&#039;m touched by your solicitude ... and very sorry to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses\u2014and-invitations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Excuses, Excuses\u2014and Invitations! by Lorin Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September 10, 2010 \u2013 Dear Readers of &quot;Ask The Paris Review&quot;: Several of you have written in to enquire after my health. I&#039;m touched by your solicitude ... and very sorry to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses\u2014and-invitations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-10T22:08:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-10-27T17:29:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"271\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"384\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lorin Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lorin Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lorin Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccd66e9829fecb87371ce574d778e34b\"},\"headline\":\"Excuses, Excuses\u2014and Invitations!\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-09-10T22:08:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-27T17:29:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/\"},\"wordCount\":162,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2-211x300.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"event\",\"party\",\"poetry\",\"website\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ask The Paris Review\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/\",\"name\":\"Excuses, Excuses\u2014and Invitations! by Lorin Stein\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2-211x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-09-10T22:08:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-27T17:29:03+00:00\",\"description\":\"September 10, 2010 \u2013 Dear Readers of \\\"Ask The Paris Review\\\": Several of you have written in to enquire after my health. I'm touched by your solicitude ... and very sorry to\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2.jpg\",\"width\":\"271\",\"height\":\"384\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Excuses, Excuses\u2014and Invitations!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccd66e9829fecb87371ce574d778e34b\",\"name\":\"Lorin Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/336124c76cd6e539d4400e8b6c72da18130705594d9fe99e18f431d949440f1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/336124c76cd6e539d4400e8b6c72da18130705594d9fe99e18f431d949440f1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lorin Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/lstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Excuses, Excuses\u2014and Invitations! by Lorin Stein","description":"September 10, 2010 \u2013 Dear Readers of \"Ask The Paris Review\": Several of you have written in to enquire after my health. I'm touched by your solicitude ... and very sorry to","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses\u2014and-invitations\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Excuses, Excuses\u2014and Invitations! by Lorin Stein","og_description":"September 10, 2010 \u2013 Dear Readers of \"Ask The Paris Review\": Several of you have written in to enquire after my health. I'm touched by your solicitude ... and very sorry to","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses\u2014and-invitations\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2010-09-10T22:08:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2010-10-27T17:29:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":271,"height":384,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Lorin Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lorin Stein","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/"},"author":{"name":"Lorin Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccd66e9829fecb87371ce574d778e34b"},"headline":"Excuses, Excuses\u2014and Invitations!","datePublished":"2010-09-10T22:08:28+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-27T17:29:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/"},"wordCount":162,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2-211x300.jpg","keywords":["event","party","poetry","website"],"articleSection":["Ask The Paris Review"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/","name":"Excuses, Excuses\u2014and Invitations! by Lorin Stein","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2-211x300.jpg","datePublished":"2010-09-10T22:08:28+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-27T17:29:03+00:00","description":"September 10, 2010 \u2013 Dear Readers of \"Ask The Paris Review\": Several of you have written in to enquire after my health. I'm touched by your solicitude ... and very sorry to","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/boyreadingnedanshutzsmall2.jpg","width":"271","height":"384"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/09\/10\/excuses-excuses%e2%80%94and-invitations\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Excuses, Excuses\u2014and Invitations!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ccd66e9829fecb87371ce574d778e34b","name":"Lorin Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/336124c76cd6e539d4400e8b6c72da18130705594d9fe99e18f431d949440f1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/336124c76cd6e539d4400e8b6c72da18130705594d9fe99e18f431d949440f1c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lorin Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/lstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6920,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4734\/revisions\/6920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}