The Paris Review #256 : Summer 2026

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

Harryette Mullen on the Art of Poetry: “I knew I would exhaust myself as subject matter, but I could take something and turn it upside down, inside out, add a few doodads, and that way it would become inexhaustible.”

Yan Lianke on the Art of Fiction:  “I personally didn’t think there was anything anti-war in writing about how an individual might be terrified of battle. I was really writing about my own fear.”

Prose by Lucy Ellmann, Chad Fore, Daisy Hildyard, Chigozie Obioma, Daniel Saldaña París, and Shuang Xuetao.

Poetry by Zain Baweja, Jean Day, Hannah Piette, Frederick Seidel, Shamsher Bahadur Singh, Katana Smith, and Tran Hang My.

Art by Hadi Falapishi, Andrew Kuo, and Hannah Tishkoff; cover by Alex Da Corte.

Table of Contents      

Fiction        

Lucy Ellmann -- MT        

Chad Fore -- Lil Spooky        

Daisy Hildyard -- Two Lives        

Chigozie Obioma -- The Yellow Leaf        

Daniel Saldaña París -- The Cascades        

Shuang Xuetao -- God’s Arrow    

Interview        

Yan Lianke -- The Art of Fiction No. 269        

Harryette Mullen -- The Art of Poetry No. 120    

Poetry        

Zain Baweja -- Gloss        

Jean Day -- from “Adamant!”        

Tran Hang -- My Boatman        

Shamsher Bahadur Singh -- Yellow Striped Pajamas        

Hannah Piette -- Fountain        

Hannah Piette -- Nijinsky Dancing        

Hannah Piette -- Playing and Reality        

Hannah Piette -- Poetry and Madness        

Frederick Seidel -- Deadheads in the Dark        

Katana Smith -- Ralph Lauren    

Portfolio        

Hadi Falapishi -- Dreams        

Andrew Kuo -- Places    

Cover        

Alex Da Corte -- Issue No. 256 Cover    

Art        

Hannah Tishkoff -- Beginning of a Poem