The Paris Review – No. 256: Summer 2026

A Coffee Table Mags pick for those who still believe a single sentence can stop you in your tracks — The Paris Review, since 1953.

The Paris Review is a literary magazine featuring original writing, art, and in-depth interviews with famous writers.

Harryette Mullen on the Art of Poetry: “I knew I would exhaust myself as subject matter, but I could take something and turn it upside down, inside out, add a few doodads, and that way it would become inexhaustible.”

Yan Lianke on the Art of Fiction: “I personally didn’t think there was anything anti-war in writing about how an individual might be terrified of battle. I was really writing about my own fear.”

Prose by Lucy Ellmann, Chad Fore, Daisy Hildyard, Chigozie Obioma, Daniel Saldaña París, and Shuang Xuetao.

Poetry by Zain Baweja, Jean Day, Hannah Piette, Frederick Seidel, Shamsher Bahadur Singh, Katana Smith, and Tran Hang My.

Art by Hadi Falapishi, Andrew Kuo, and Hannah Tishkoff; cover by Alex Da Corte.