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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.

We’re excited to bring you a special clip from Season 6 of LeVar Burton Reads. Take a break from your daily life, and dive into the best short fiction, handpicked by the world’s greatest storyteller. This season features stories about a shape-shifting con man, satyr wedding crashers, and a sentient military robot. Season 6 of LeVar Burton Reads is out NOW—listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to LeVar Burton Reads in Stitcher, Apple, or wherever you listen:
http://stitcherapp.com/levar
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http://www.levarburtonpodcast.com/

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.”

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.”

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.

Actor Quincy Tyler Bernstine revisits one of the most unsettling scandals of the nineties with her reading of Lucille Clifton’s poem “lorena”; Jason Alexander brings Philip Roth’s early story “The Conversion of the Jews” to vivid life; and poet Brenda Shaughnessy contemplates “All Possible Pain.”Lucille Clifton, “lorena” from The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton. Copyright © 1996 by Lucille Clifton. Used with permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of BOA Editions, Ltd., boaeditions.org.