Tag: interview

Essayist Chelsea Hodson had to give herself permission to be uncomfortable.

After a profound shift in thinking about an unfairly stigmatized plant, Bolivia is ready to spread the gospel of coca.

“If you’re doing something small, something that’s mostly your labor and vision, then stick to what makes you satisfied.”

The 20th anniversary of the Amber Alert sent the writer on a two-year journey to cover a murder in the Navajo Nation.

On Didion, Arendt, Malcolm, Ephron and other women writers who made an art of having an opinion.

Elizabeth Flock on the years she spent studying other people’s marriages in Mumbai.

“I thought I’d never publish these things. I thought it was important for me to hide the fact that I’m not right in the head.”

An interview with Mark Arax about the two decades he spent writing about the San Joaquin Valley empire of Lynda and Stuart Resnick.

Curator Michael Auping on the forty years he spent interviewing artists in their studios.

Ten years and three presidents, later, Guy Fieri’s populist persona has proven extremely resilient.

Oluo’s interview is a master class in confrontation, in which the hard questions are asked and the answers are pushed.

In addition to offering plenty of great advice for aspiring writers, George Saunders reflects on the creative process for his new novel, the interviews, notes, and scenes that once distilled become his nonfiction work, and on bold compassion as the right course of resistance under a Trump presidency.

Anna Furman interviews Sarah Manguso about the process of writing her new book 300 Arguments, her writing influences, failure and thwarted ambition, and how Sarah’s sleeping post-inauguration.

In 1970, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) sat down for an interview with The Paris Review just months before abandoning his campaign for president, running as the Chilean Communist Party candidate. American author Rita Guibert conducted the interview at Neruda’s home in Isla Negra, just south of Valparaiso: Oh, there is no advice to give to […]

Yusaf Khalil interviews Syrian scholar Yasser Munif about the roots of the Syrian civil war and how the West is trying (and failing) to help.

In these six stories, a drunk driver confesses via viral video, an ex-Catholic returns to confession, a high-school cheater reveals her indiscretions, and more.

At Vanity Fair, David Kamp interviews Bruce Springsteen on his upbringing, depression, and the seeds of his upcoming book, ‘Born to Run.’

There must be few journalistic feats more difficult than getting inside the head of a teenager. But with “13, Right Now,” Washington Post staff writer Jessica Contrera joins the ranks of reporters who have skillfully chronicled the lives of children and teens, including Susan Orlean (read her classic Esquire piece, “The American Man, Age 10”) and more […]

Jillian Keenan on her new memoir, which delves into her lifelong obsessions with spanking and Shakespeare.

Lauren Groff on not knowing what you’re doing, the thrill of the mess, and using all your senses to find a way in to the story.

What makes a secret society? Is it the codes and the handshakes, the physical language?

Daniel Le Bailly de La Falaise on private caterings for celebrities, the sexuality of a peach, and how the simplicity of food is the ultimate luxury.

If you don’t take Swift seriously, you don’t take contemporary music seriously. With the (arguable) exceptions of Kanye West and Beyoncé Knowles, she is the most significant pop artist of the modern age. The scale of her commercial supremacy defies parallel—she’s sold 1 million albums in a week three times, during an era when most […]

During the 1960s and 70s, legendary jazz drummer Art Taylor interviewed his fellow musicians. The interviews are collected in the 1993 book Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews, and it’s one of jazz’s greatest. The familial, casual conversations are also serious and insightful, full of history, portraiture, and revelations about race relations in America, and the […]

The waiter arrives. When he asks about food allergies, Kafka hands him a written list. Then he excuses himself to go to the bathroom. As soon as he’s gone, Kundera says, “The problem with Kafka is that he never got enough tail.” We all snicker. Joyce orders another bottle of wine. Finally, he turns and looks at me through his dark glasses. “I’m reading your new book,” he says. “Oh?” I say. “Yes,” says Joyce.

An interview with Mary Pilon about her new book, ‘The Monopolists,’ which uncovers the real story about how Monopoly became the game it is today.

“I feel like PostSecret is almost like an anti-Facebook. It’s the true story that you would normally never share in a public arena.”

What Márquez told Peter H. Stone in a 1981 interview with The Paris Review.

Sex is difficult to write about because it’s just not sexy enough. The only way to write about it is not to write much. Let the reader bring his own sexuality into the text. A writer I usually admire has written about sex in the most off-putting way. There is just too much information. If you start saying “the curve of . . .” you soon sound like a gynecologist.

In light of the recent measles outbreak in California, I want to share this interview with Eula Biss, author of On Immunity. After the birth of her first child, Biss’ research turned to vaccination, and she ruminated on a culture in which no man, woman or child is an island. Michael Schulson interviewed Biss at Salon.