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An Interview with Karen Russell - Believer Magazine

December 8, 2025 at 10:48 PM

The Believer

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"It’s the setting, and the sense memory of moving through the landscape of the book, that stays with me far longer than names of characters or details of plot."

—Karen Russell, interviewed by Stephanie Palumbo

www.thebeliever.net/logger/2014-...

“IT WILL KILL YOU, AND IT NEVER KNEW YOUR NAME.” An Interview with Karen Russell About Her Syllabus This is part of a series of conversations with writers who teach, where we discuss how they develop ...

An Interview with Elif Shafak - Believer Magazine

December 8, 2025 at 7:48 PM

The Believer

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"A writer needs not to forget that she is a reader first and foremost."

—Elif Shafak, interviewed by @kayagenc.bsky.social

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

I first met Elif Shafak in 2000, at the dawn of her literary career, whose success few could have predicted at the time. It was my second year at Bilgi, a liberal-arts university in Istanbul where she...

December 8, 2025 at 4:51 PM

The Believer

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"We have within us all these marvelous capacities, and it’s the structure of society right now that can fool us into despair and resignation."

—Anne Boyer, interviewed by Callie Hitchcock

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

An Interview with Edward Albee - Believer Magazine

December 5, 2025 at 9:23 PM

The Believer

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"I do not invent characters. There they are. That’s who they are."

—Edward Albee, interviewed by Linda Leseman

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

Having a conversation with Edward Albee about theater, even if you’re relatively well versed in the subject, is a challenge on the level of trying to play chess with a grandmaster. It’s not just that ...

Love and Murder in South Africa - Believer Magazine

December 5, 2025 at 7:24 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

Cheers to Eula Biss! Her Believer essay "Love and Murder in South Africa" has been honored with a spot in The Best American Essays 2025, edited by Jia Tolentino.

Read the piece on our website:

www.thebeliever.net/love-and-mur...

My first encounter with South Africa was a book, My Traitor’s Heart, which I read when I was twenty, and it was because of this book that I traveled to South Africa twenty years later. I don’t know wh...

Excerpts from The Believer: An Interview with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein

December 5, 2025 at 5:56 PM

Reposted by The Believer

McSweeney's

@mcsweeneys.net

"Bands like the Eagles presented this image of a closed group that you had to be really proficient to get into, and none of us were. We were all enamored of the Stooges and the MC5, and all the stuff that was very raw and struggling."
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- - -A few pieces of creative advice shared by Debbie Harry: You can’t please everyone all the time You can never make a big enough fool of you...

www.mcsweeneys.net

December 5, 2025 at 5:30 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

"What anybody else ever gets to see of mine, writing-wise, is the product of a kind of Darwinian struggle in which only things that are emphatically alive to me are worth finishing."

—David Foster Wallace, interviewed by Dave Eggers

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

An Interview with David Foster Wallace - Believer Magazine

David Foster Wallace is from east-central Illinois, and this is a large part of his appeal. In addition, he has written a number of books. Among them are the story collections Girl with Curious Hair a...

December 4, 2025 at 10:19 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

It's a great time to catch up on issues you missed. Head to the McSweeney's store before the end of the week for 50% off all back issues of The Believer.

store.mcsweeneys.net/t/categories...

American Boys - Believer Magazine

December 4, 2025 at 6:31 PM

The Believer

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"The team’s story was an essential one, I argued—an American story, a Somali story, a narrative of migration and integration, xenophobia and community, sports and brotherhood."

—@wtmcgrath on a high school basketball team from Cedar-Riverside

www.thebeliever.net/american-boys/

Listen to this story: Cedar-Riverside was humming. The boys were looking fresh—Frenchy with his hair twisted up, Saiid’s beard trimmed tight—everybody edged up and faded up and straight from the barbe...

High-Control Goods: LuLaRoe Leggings - Believer Magazine

December 4, 2025 at 3:07 PM

The Believer

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"Given the right time and place, I would’ve fallen for LuLaRoe in a heartbeat."

—Rafael Frumkin's new column on the women's clothing brand that was ruled an illegal pyramid scheme

www.thebeliever.net/high-control...

Here’s a sentence I bet you don’t read very often: I was surprised by how much I enjoyed my loudly patterned leggings from the family-owned alleged pyramid scheme otherwise known as LuLaRoe. I purchas...

December 3, 2025 at 6:19 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

We're stretching our Cyber Monday deal all week, in what may be the first documented case of "Monday all week" actually sounding like good news. Visit our website to get 50% off all back issues of The Believer, the Quarterly, and Illustoria.

store.mcsweeneys.net/t/categories...

An Interview with Tom Stoppard - Believer Magazine

December 3, 2025 at 6:13 PM

The Believer

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Our upcoming Sports Issue comes with a custom, professional-grade swim cap. This stylish accessory is for subscribers only, so don't miss out—pick up a subscription today.

December 3, 2025 at 3:33 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

Today we're remembering the talented Tom Stoppard, whose vitality and always-fresh perspective made every line in every conversation feel new. In this 2005 interview, this quality is on full display.

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

Tom Stoppard was born in Zlin, Czechoslovakia, in 1937, and came to England in 1946. His major plays include Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), Jumpers (1972), and Travesties (1974). Every Go...

An Interview with Suketu Mehta - Believer Magazine

December 2, 2025 at 10:13 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

Congratulations to Elisa Gabbert and @paulcollins.bsky.social—whose essays "Fear as a Game" and "Why Can't My Son Vote?" earned honorable mentions in this year's Best American Essays series, curated by @jiatolentino.bsky.social. Open this thread for links to the essays.

December 2, 2025 at 7:32 PM

The Believer

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“I like all kinds of people. I grew up in Bombay, a city where if you don’t like people you’re going to be extremely unhappy.”

—Suketu Mehta, interviewed by Karan Mahajan

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

Writing a novel “about” Bombay is undeniably a preposterous project. One could safely brick a house with recent Bombay tomes. But to set out to interview the city—as Suketu Mehta did for his book Maxi...

An Interview with Andrew Garfield - Believer Magazine

December 2, 2025 at 3:16 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

“What I’ve been intentional toward for the last bunch of years was freedom in my work and a sense of letting go of the idea of right and wrong, the idea of getting anything right.”

—Andrew Garfield, interviewed by Esmé Weijun Wang

www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

I first became interested in Andrew Garfield and his work not from his starring role in the two big-budget Amazing Spider-Man films (2012, 2014), nor from his famous laptop-smashing scene in David Fin...

December 1, 2025 at 10:13 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

Happy Cyber Monday! All week long, back issues of The Believer, Quarterly, and Illustoria are marked down by 50%. There's no better time to catch up on issues you missed.

store.mcsweeneys.net/t/categories...

An Interview with Elif Shafak - Believer Magazine

December 1, 2025 at 6:59 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

"When we talk about writing we always assume that we are building or creating things. But it is also about destroying things."

—Elif Shafak, interviewed by Kaya Genç
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...

I first met Elif Shafak in 2000, at the dawn of her literary career, whose success few could have predicted at the time. It was my second year at Bilgi, a liberal-arts university in Istanbul where she...

Believer Magazine Gift Subscription

December 1, 2025 at 2:22 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

Thanksgiving has passed, but here’s one more thing to appreciate: 33% off all McSweeney’s subscriptions. Grab yours before the deal ends tonight!

November 28, 2025 at 10:19 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

Literary journalism makes a great gift for the holidays—get your shopping done this Black Friday and take 33% off of gift subscriptions to the magazine, applied at checkout.

store.mcsweeneys.net/products/bel...

This is the page for a Believer Gift Subscription. At checkout please use your own address for confirmation, upon purchasing you'll be sent a link to fill out all subscription details for your giftee(...

Animal: Wild Turkey - Believer Magazine

November 28, 2025 at 7:50 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

To the tryptophan-weary souls in need of a post-Thanksgiving pick-me-up: subscriptions to The Believer are 33% off (applied at checkout). New subscribers will start with our first-ever Sports Issue, which comes with a custom Believer-branded swim cap.

November 28, 2025 at 5:30 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

Happy Black Friday! Today only, take advantage of 33% off all subscriptions to The Believer—that’s a full year of essays, interviews, poems, and more for just $40.20. Discount applied at checkout.

November 28, 2025 at 2:53 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

"Large as they figured in the first Thanksgiving, as of 1851 there was nary one to be seen in my home state of Massachusetts. And yet now they once again rival the bunny rabbit in multiplication enthusiasm."

—Gish Jen on the wild turkey

www.thebeliever.net/animal-wild-...

FEATURES: Runs almost as fast as Usain Bolt, albeit in bursts Flies faster than most hummingbirds,albeit in bursts Gobbles, purrs, yelps, chirps, clicks, and kee-kees It is a truth, if not universally...

High-Control Goods: East Wind Peanut Butter - Believer Magazine

November 27, 2025 at 4:03 PM

The Believer

@thebeliever.net

"While members implicitly commit to bringing home an income well below the poverty line by joining East Wind, they appear to be making a trade in favor of an all-natural idyll."
—Rafael Frumkin on the East Wind Community and their signature peanut butter
www.thebeliever.net/high-control...

Let me begin by saying that the peanut butter made by the East Wind Community—an intentional community on 1,145 acres of land in the rural Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri—is probably the best pea...