The Paris Review

Joseph Earl Thomas reads his essay “I Got Snipped: Notes after a Vasectomy,” about the best sexual decision he ever made.

Mihret Sibhat reads her essay about a friendship she formed with a prostitute in Addis Ababa while attempting to teach her about Jesus.

“When people see your truck, they tend to see what you can do for them,” J. D. Daniels writes in his essay a black Nissan hardbody pickup he owned many years ago.

Ottessa Moshfegh reads her essay “The Smoker,” about renovating a house soaked in nicotine—and a haunting encounter with its former owner.

Writers reading first-person essays. "Personals" is available in The Paris Review Podcast feed.

“Concerning the Future of Souls” by Joy Williams

Zach Williams short story "Trial Run" is read by actors Michael Chernus, Danny Mastrogiorgio, and Gabriel Marin.

Peter Orner's gripping short story, “Foley’s Pond,” read by actor Jim Fletcher.

George Takei delivers a stunning read of this 1910 story from legendary Japanese author, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.

Sean Thor Conroe shares entries from “The Walk Book”—his meticulous, funny travelogue about his 2014 attempt to walk across the United States.

Nobel Prize–winning Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, interviewed in her home in the village of Krajanów.

Robert Glück reading from his memoir, "About Ed," and in conversation with Lucy Ives.

Scenes from an Open Marriage, read by Jean Garnett

Terrance Hayes reads his poem, "Bob Ross Paints Your Portrait."

Pulitzer Prize winner Sharon Olds discusses sex, religion, and writing poems that "women were definitely not supposed to write, and reads three of her poems.

A stealth poetry reading inside a bustling IKEA. Poet Maggie Millner reads her own poem, as well as two more from the archive: Toi Dericotte’s “Bird” and Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Death.”

Actor, producer, and screenwriter Lena Waithe reads Rivers Solomon’s “This Is Everything There Will Ever Be,” which was published in issue no. 243 of the Review. The story, dark and uplifting by turns, is a portrait of “just another late-forties dyke entirely too into basketball, dogs, and memes.”

The Paris Review Podcast returns with its 4th Season on November 15th

In an essay specially commissioned for the podcast, Aisha Sabatini Sloan describes rambling around Paris with her father, Lester Sloan, a longtime staff photographer for Newsweek, and a glamorous woman who befriends them. In an excerpt from The Art of Fiction no. 246, Rachel Cusk and Sheila Heti discuss how writing her first novel helped Cusk discover her “shape or identity or essence.” Next, Allan Gurganus’s reading of his story “It Had Wings,” about an arthritic woman who finds a fallen angel in her backyard, is interspersed with a version of the story rendered as a one-woman opera by the composer Bruce Saylor. The episode closes with “Dear Someone,” a poem by Deborah Landau.

In an essay specially commissioned for the podcast, Aisha Sabatini Sloan describes rambling around Paris with her father, Lester Sloan, a longtime staff photographer for Newsweek, and a glamorous woman who befriends them. In an excerpt from The Art of Fiction no. 246, Rachel Cusk and Sheila Heti discuss how writing her first novel helped Cusk discover her “shape or identity or essence.” Next, Allan Gurganus’s reading of his story “It Had Wings,” about an arthritic woman who finds a fallen angel in her backyard, is interspersed with a version of the story rendered as a one-woman opera by the composer Bruce Saylor. The episode closes with “Dear Someone,” a poem by Deborah Landau.

November 10th, 2021PODCAST SEASON 3 This episode focuses exclusively on the work of fiction writer Edward P. Jones, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Known World and All Aunt Hagar’s Children, and the subject of the Art of Fiction no. 222.

George Saunders, in an excerpt from his Art of Fiction interview, explains how his teenage job delivering fast food prepared him to write fiction; Monica Youn reads her poem “Goldacre,” which tells the truth about Twinkies; Molly McCully Brown reads her essay “If You Are Permanently Lost,” in which she confesses that “space makes no sense”; and Venita Blackburn reads “ Fam,” a very short story about social media and self-love.

Robert Frost defines modern poetry in an excerpt from his Art of Poetry interview; the Italian poet Antonella Anedda discusses her poem "Historiae 2" with her translator Susan Stewart before the American vocal ensemble Tenores de Aterúe re-imagines the poem as a song in the folk tradition of Anedda's native Sardinia; and Yohanca Delgado reads her story "The Little Widow from the Capital," a tale of mystery, heartbreak, and embroidery set in a New York apartment building.

The celebrated podcast returns for its third season. Join us on an audio odyssey through the pages of The Paris Review, featuring the best fiction, poetry, interviews, and archival recordings, from the world's most legendary literary quarterly.

A special bonus episode of The Paris Review Podcast celebrating N. Scott Momaday, the winner of the Review’s 2021 Hadada Award, which recognizes a distinguished member of the writing community who has made a strong and unique contribution to literature.

A special bonus episode, recorded live at On Air Fest on March 8, 2020 (just before social distancing sent everyone home), featuring a crowded room of lovely human beings enjoying an immersive live performance of The Paris Review Podcast.

The final episode of Season 2. The incomparable Charlotte Rampling reenacts Simone de Beauvoir’s classic 1965 Paris Review interview; Danez Smith reads their poem “my bitch!”; Sarah Manguso shares her lyric essay “Oceans,” about moving to California, cancer, and writing oceanically; actor Griffin Dunne reads Henry Green’s story “Arcady; or a Night Out.”; and we close with a recording of the late WS Merwin reading his poem “Night Singing.”

Singer/songwriter Bill Callahan reads “Laguna Blues,” a poem by former U.S. poet laureate Charles Wright; J.M. Holmes reads his Pushcart Prize–winning story “What’s Wrong with You? What’s Wrong with Me?”; seminal dramatist Tennessee Williams describes his daily rituals in an archival interview; and comedian Jenny Slate channels Anne Sexton in her reading of the poet’s “Admonitions to a Special Person.”

Salman Rushdie reads an apologetic letter written by Dylan Thomas to his editor; poet Sharon Olds identifies “The Solution” to America’s problems; Alexandra Kleeman reads her haunting story “Fairy Tale”; and singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart reads the little-known legend of “The Woe Shirt,” as written by Paulé Bártón.

Actor Quincy Tyler Bernstine revisits one of the most unsettling scandals of the nineties with her reading of Lucille Clifton’s poem “lorena”; Jason Alexander brings Philip Roth’s early story “The Conversion of the Jews” to vivid life; and poet Brenda Shaughnessy contemplates “All Possible Pain.”Lucille Clifton, “lorena” from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton.

Legendary novelist and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison explains why beauty is absolutely necessary in an interview from the magazine’s archives; Molly Ringwald channels adolescent grief in her reading of “Guests,” a story by Mary Terrier; and poet Alex Dimitrov reads his poem “Impermanence.”

Season 2 Trailer: The Paris Review Podcast Returns

Before Philip Roth was an American icon, he published one of his first short stories in The Paris Review in 1958. In 2010 he received the Hadada, our award for lifetime achievement. Here is his acceptance speech.

The final episode of Season 1. Jamaica Kincaid in conversation and reading her short story WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING LATELY; James Salter’s story BANGKOK read by Dick Cavett; Sadie Stein encounters a literary specter on the 1 Train; Frederick Seidel reads his poem THE END OF SUMMER; and Caitlin Youngquist reads Robert Bly’s CHORAL STANZA NUMBER ONE, which appeared in the very first issue of The Paris Review, in the Spring of 1953.

Shotguns, peacocks, golf, acid. Editor Terry McDonell recounts his 1984 visit, along with George Plimpton, to Hunter S. Thompson's home in Colorado, including never-before-heard archival tape; a poem by Pablo Neruda, translated by Alastair Reid and read by Antonio Gueudinot; and actor Paul Heesang Miller reads WILLIAM WEI, a short story by Amie Barrodale.

David Sedaris reads Frank O'Hara; Mary-Louis Parker reads Joy Williams; Dakota Johnson reads Roberto Bolaño; John Ashbery is scored by musician Steve Gunn; and The Paris Review's Southern Editor John Jeremiah Sullivan sings Robert Johnson.

A frat boy encounters the divine in Benjamin Nugent's story GOD, performed by Jesse Eisenberg; Rowan Ricardo Phillips examines the difference between heaven and paradise in his poem KINGDOM COME; and Kristin Dombek sends us a LETTER FROM WILLIAMSBURG.

Stockard Channing and Anna Sale recreate the Review's 1956 interview with Dorothy Parker; writer Idra Novey talks about the taste of the letter "H"; Helga Davis reads Alexia Arthurs short story BAD BEHAVIOR; acclaimed playwright John Guare shares former Review editor Blair Fuller's true story AN EVENING WITH JD SALINGER; and Jeff Gleaves, the Review's Digital Director, recites Elena Wilkinson's poem AFTER THE LOSS OF A LIMB.

Denise Levertov's poem SOUND OF THE AXE, read by actor Glynis Bell; Eudora Welty tells George Plimpton about the time Henry Miller visited her in Jackson, Mississippi, and recounts the mysterious tale of Thelma; Ottessa Moshfegh reads her story A DARK AND WINDING ROAD.

Eudora Welty recalls the time her mother saved Dickens; David Sedaris ponders the unsettled dead in his essay LETTER FROM EMERALD ISLE; Nadja Spiegelman reads Sharon Olds's poem THE BEETLE; and Peter Ho Davies's short story THE ENDS tells a tale of Nazis, gallows, and basketball.

Acclaimed poet Eileen Myles reads SWEET HEART; two-time Tony nominee Alison Fraser lends her voice to Lucia Berlin's story B.F. AND ME; author Caleb Crain encounters the angel of death; and Brian Cullman shares a story about the time Van Morrison bought him a drink.

Marc Maron reads THE WORM IN PHILLY, a story by Sam Lipsyte; Robert Pattinson reads a poem by James Wright; George Plimpton recalls a boxing match in Hemingway's dining room; and Sadie Stein shares a true story about missed connections.

LeVar Burton recreates the Review's Art of Fiction interview with James Baldwin; Morgan Parker reads her poem HOTTENTOT VENUS; Dakota Johnson reads a poem by Dorothea Lasky; and Lorin Stein reads WHY DON'T YOU DANCE, a classic story by Raymond Carver.

A visit to Jack Kerouac’s house ends with the story of Buddha; Hailey Gates reads a poem by Erica Ehrenberg about love and moving on; and MY WIFE, IN CONVERSE, Shelly Oria’s tale of marriage, poetry, and cooking class, as performed by Donnetta Lavinia Grays.

Poet and downtown icon Eileen Myles reading a poem by James Schuyler; archival tape of Maya Angelou interviewed by George Plimpton, the founding editor of the Review; the legendary actor and writer Wallace Shawn reading Denis Johnson’s famous story “Car-Crash While Hitchhiking”; and a true story by Sadie Stein, read by herself, about doing the twist alone on a Tuesday night.

Coming soon: The Paris Review Podcast