The Paris Review / 252

The Paris Review No. 252 Summer 2025

 

Fanny Howe on the Art of Poetry: “If I could say I was assigned something at birth, it would be to keep the soul fresh and clean, and to not let anything bring it down.”

 

Marie NDiaye on the Art of Fiction: “Oh, no! Reading beautiful books can’t be traumatizing. Seeing awful things can be—but reading? I don’t believe in that at all.”

 

Prose by Anuk Arudpragasam, Tom Crewe, GauZ’, Zans Brady Krohn, and Joy Williams.

 

Poetry by Will Alexander, John Berryman, Yongyu Chen, Eugene Ostashevsky, Ricardo Reis, and Nell Wright.

 

Art by Anne Collier, Celia Paul, and Alessandro Teoldi; cover by Tyler Mitchell.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

FICTION

Anuk Arudpragasam The Visit

Tom Crewe The Fête

GauZ’ The Sans-Papiers of Saint-Bernard

Zans Brady Krohn Saying Nothing Nicely

Joy Williams After the Haiku Period

INTERVIEW

Fanny Howe The Art of Poetry No. 118

Marie NDiaye The Art of Fiction No. 268

POETRY

Will Alexander Torrential by Unknown Emergence

John Berryman “Nothing ruffled or made glare or could dismay . . .”

John Berryman “He is prone. Smoke on the iced lake, freer . . .”

Yongyu Chen Outpost

Ricardo Reis Ode 76

Eugene Ostashevsky Falling Sonnet XI

Nell Wright the future

Nell Wright Remote Work

COVER

Tyler Mitchell Issue No. 252 Cover

ART

Anne Collier Auras

Celia Paul Rose 1 and Rose 2

Alessandro Teoldi Ingredienti

 

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A quarterly literary magazine founded in 1953.