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A special bonus episode of The Paris Review Podcast celebrating N. Scott Momaday, the winner of the Review’s 2021 Hadada Award, which recognizes a distinguished member of the writing community who has made a strong and unique contribution to literature. What you are about to hear is an exclusive excerpt of the first step in the process of conducting Momaday’s Writers at Work interview, a bit of the very first call between Momaday and his interviewer, the poet Layli Long Soldier. They discuss the importance of oral tradition to literature, especially to the Native American tradition.

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This bonus episode revisits and remixes the virtual launch events for Paris Review issues 233 and 234, summer and fall  2020—no Zoom room required! First, Eloghosa Osunde reads the opening of her story “Good Boy”; next, Aracelis Girmay reads Lucille Clifton’s “Poem to My Yellow Coat”; then Lydia Davis shares  her short piece “The Left Hand”; translator Patricio Ferrari recites “Crater of the Beginning” by Portuguese poet Antonio Osorio; Jamel Brinkley reads an excerpt from his story “Witness”; Rabih Alameddine reads from his story “The July War”; Emma Hine presents her poem “Cassandra”; and the episode concludes with Girmay’s awe-filled recollection of her visit to Clifton’s archive, plus her rendition of Clifton’s poem “Bouquet.”

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A special bonus episode, recorded live at On Air Fest on March 8, 2020 (just before social distancing sent everyone home), featuring a crowded room of lovely human beings enjoying an immersive live performance of The Paris Review Podcast. The show opens with excerpts of Toni Morrison’s 1993 Art of Fiction Interview, scored live by some of the musicians that created the score for Seasons 1 and 2. Then Vijay Seshadri reads his poem “Ailanthus”; Quincy Tyler Bernstine reads “A Story for Your Daughters, A Story for Your Sons” by Rebecca Makkai; finally, Emily Wells provides live scoring for Bill Callahan’s rendition of Adrienne Rich’s poem “The Tree.”

 

 

“The Tree” excerpted from Collected Poems: 1950-2012 © 2016 by the Adrienne Rich Literary Trust. Used with permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. // The musicians providing the live scoring are Curtis Brewer on guitar, Sam Ospovat on drums, and Mike Brown on bass. // Our theme song is composed by David Cieri.

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The final episode of Season 2. The incomparable Charlotte Rampling reenacts Simone de Beauvoir’s classic 1965 Paris Review interview; Danez Smith reads their poem “my bitch!”; Sarah Manguso shares her lyric essay “Oceans,” about moving to California, cancer, and writing oceanically; actor Griffin Dunne reads Henry Green’s story “Arcady; or a Night Out.”; and we close with a recording of the late WS Merwin reading his poem “Night Singing.”

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Singer/songwriter Bill Callahan reads “Laguna Blues,” a poem by former U.S. poet laureate Charles Wright; J.M. Holmes reads his Pushcart Prize–winning story “What’s Wrong with You? What’s Wrong with Me?”; seminal dramatist Tennessee Williams describes his daily rituals in an archival interview; and comedian Jenny Slate channels Anne Sexton in her reading of the poet’s “Admonitions to a Special Person.”

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Salman Rushdie reads an apologetic letter written by Dylan Thomas to his editor; poet Sharon Olds identifies “The Solution” to America’s problems; Alexandra Kleeman reads her haunting story “Fairy Tale”; and singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart reads the little-known legend of “The Woe Shirt,” as written by Paulé Bártón.“Mea Culpa” © The Dylan Thomas Trust. www.discoverdylanthomas.com.

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