The Paris Review #251 : Spring 2025

Trade paperback.  Hot off the press!!  Prose, poetry, art and interviews to make your brain sing.

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya on the Art of Fiction: “Don’t you know my life story by now? I don’t experience fear.”

Margo Jefferson on the Art of Criticism: “I was brought up to move—along with some Negros from Negroland or others who turned out to be just as smart, if not smarter—into Whiteville, to represent the race at its best, as they would say. And, at the same time, to take everything that the white world had to teach us—literary canons, classical music, et cetera—and master it.”

Prose by Amie Barrodale, A. M. Homes, Marie NDiaye, Domenico Starnone, Miriam Toews, and Zheng Zhi.

Poetry by Abigail Dembo, Nora Fulton, Susan Howe, D. A. Powell, Nasser Rabah, Edward Salem, and Nanna Storr-Hansen.

Art by Em Kettner, Agosto Machado, and Lady Shalamar Montague; cover by Anna Weyant.

 Table of Contents      

Fiction        

Amie Barrodale -- "Crystal Palace"        

A. M. Homes -- "Walter, Like Water"        

Marie NDiaye -- "Monsieur Matin"        

Domenico Starnone -- "Three Stories"        

Zheng Zhi -- "The Hedgehog"    

Interview        

Margo Jefferson -- The Art of Criticism No. 6        

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya -- The Art of Fiction No. 267    

Poetry        

Abigail Dembo -- "The Common Era"        

Nasser Rabah -- "The War Is Over"        

Nora Fulton -- "La Comédie-Française"        

Nanna Storr-Hansen -- "Spring"        

Susan Howe -- from "Penitential Cries"        

D. A. Powell -- "Project Apollo"        

Edward Salem -- "My Aerodynamics"    

Portfolio        

Agosto Machado -- "Downtown (Altar)"        

Lady Shalamar Montague -- "Three World Tours!"    

Memoir        

Miriam Toews -- "A Truce That Is Not Peace"    

Cover        

Anna Weyant

Issue No. 251 Cover:

Art        

Em Kettner -- "Bright Lights"