The Paris Review – Spring 2004

The venerable grand-dame of literary journals has been through some major changes lately, with the recent sad passing of enthusiastic founder, George Plimpton. However, the quality of the journal has remained very high, as might be expected. This issue features interviews on the art of poetry with poet Paul Muldoon and Paris Review’s own Poetry Editor Richard Howard.

The venerable grand-dame of literary journals has been through some major changes lately, with the recent sad passing of enthusiastic founder, George Plimpton. However, the quality of the journal has remained very high, as might be expected. This issue features interviews on the art of poetry with poet Paul Muldoon and Paris Review’s own Poetry Editor Richard Howard. These sections (“The Art of Poetry” and “The Art of Fiction”) are often the reason I find myself digging through old issues of The Paris Review, when I start reading a favorite writer and suddenly get inspired to find out all I can about their thoughts on writing. There’s fiction by the likes of Rick Moody, a long essay about Dylan Thomas’s childhood and a pair of sonnets by the sharp Karen Volkman, if you’re a fan of hers. I very much enjoyed “Beast,” a poem by Sarah White which begins: “She looked like milk / She smelled / like vines curled with fruit. // Hunger with no form / propelled me / toward her, one maw.” Another poem not to be missed: Christian Nagle’s “Father Cleaning My Nails.” A satisfying and diverse read, as always. [The Paris Review, PO Box 469052, Escondido, CA 92046. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $12. http://www.parisreview.com] – JHG