The Paris Review #257 - Fall 2026

Svetlana Alexievich on the Art of Oral History: “If you cut straight to the part you need, which is what journalists do, it won’t be interesting, and it won’t be the truth, either. Not the whole truth.”

Donald Antrim on the Art of Fiction: “I deplored the idea that writing involves suffering, that it had to be a bloodletting. Later I found out that it would be, and maybe should be.”

Prose by Eka Kurniawan, Angie Sijun Lou, Brian Ma, Scott McClanahan, Sam McKinniss, Tomoka Shibasaki, and Woo Dayoung.

Poetry by Asha Futterman, Zakaria Mohammed, Geoffrey G. O’Brien, Vasko Popa, Diane Seuss, and Natalie Shapero.

Art by Gertrude Abercrombie, Silke Otto-Knapp, and Laura Owens; cover by Elizabeth Glaessner.