Our Fall issue is here—featuring interviews with Svetlana Alexievich and Donald Antrim, prose by Sam McKinniss, Scott McClanahan, and Woo Dayoung, poetry by Diane Seuss and Zakaria Mohammed, art by Silke Otto-Knapp and Laura Owens, a cover by Elizabeth Glaessner, and more. Follow the link in our bio to subscribe and read issue no. 257. buff.ly/eEDUJKN

This week, we’ve unlocked John Steinbeck’s Art of Fiction interview from the archive. buff.ly/jIDvD5s

“It took me a long time to get hold of anything I could begin to think of as being my own voice.” —Derek Mahon buff.ly/iJcJQyS

We’re hiring interns! Applications for our Spring–Summer internship, which runs from February 9, 2027–August 6, 2027, are open until November 30. Our internship is in-person. Pay is $22/hour, 40 hours/week, with the option to enroll in health insurance. Visit our website to learn more. buff.ly/2XYd3E4

“When people say they’re doing research, I say, You’re just postponing writing.” —Mary Karr buff.ly/jgZG6lf

“The essayist in me was only part of the novelist I’ve finally given myself permission to be.” —Susan Sontag buff.ly/GJaDAvd

“My work does not coagulate. It is as unmanageable as a raw egg on the kitchen floor.” —John Steinbeck buff.ly/hLtX0dX

“It’s amazing what you find out about yourself when you write in the first person.” —Doris Lessing buff.ly/4NRC4oy

“Many of my characters first come through strongly to me as voices.” —William S. Burroughs buff.ly/QU2qAzb

“Real characters are just a limitation.” —Ralph Ellison buff.ly/QQGuzNv

“An artist is a creature driven by demons.” —William Faulkner theparisreview.org/interview…

“Television was probably my first real drug.” —Chris Ware theparisreview.org/interview…

“Personality is socially constructed, genetically constructed, linguistically constructed.” —Jonathan Franzen theparisreview.org/interview…

“As people of color, we can hear, we can feel, when the language is weaponized against us.” —Claudia Rankine buff.ly/08Ys1yi

“Most of the process of writing for me is discarding things. I think, Just get rid of this, just tear it to the ground and start with something more fundamental, vital, and unformulated. Really try to see what’s in front of you.” —Deborah Eisenberg buff.ly/6kmFlH2

“I never thought I was going to be a writer, but I was never interested in anything else. I failed at whatever else I undertook—even as an office worker, I was not outstanding.” —Grace Paley buff.ly/799k7UG

“I loathe the atmosphere of ‘school’ and have loathed it all my life.” —Mary Lee Settle buff.ly/Kt4zQCf

“I didn’t intend to write a poem, and if you’d asked me if I wanted to, I would have said no.” Geoffrey G. O’Brien on the process behind his poem “Ray of Light,” published in our recent Fall issue, no. 257. buff.ly/0r50c5q

“There is no such thing as was—only is. If was existed, there would be no grief or sorrow.” —William Faulkner buff.ly/Fk96Tk4

“We’re living in a world in which we’re all surveilled, targeted, herded, and indoctrinated to an unprecedented degree.” —Mark Leyner buff.ly/VVLZNj0

“I find art easy. I find life difficult.” —Lawrence Durrell buff.ly/20X5YOR