Gift of Christine Bombaro, Class of 1993.

"A dispatch from the front lines of literature." —The Atlantic The Unprofessionals is an energetic collection celebrating the bold writers at the forefront of today’s literary world—featuring stories, essays, and poems from “America’s greatest literary journal” (Time) For more than half a century, the Paris Review has launched some of the most exciting new literary voices, from Philip Roth to David Foster Wallace. But rather than trading on nostalgia, the storied journal continues to search outside the mainstream for the most exciting emerging writers. Harmonizing a timeless literary feel with impeccable modern taste, its pages are vivid proof that the best of today’s writing more than upholds the lofty standards that built the magazine’s reputation. The Unprofessionals collects pieces from the new iteration of the Paris Review by contemporary writers who treat their art not as a profession, but as a calling. Some, like Zadie Smith, Ben Lerner, and John Jeremiah Sullivan, are already major literary presences, while others, like Emma Cline, Benjamin Nugent, and Ottessa Moshfegh, will soon be household names. A master class in contemporary writing across genres, this collection introduces the must-know voices in the modern literary scene.

Women at Work Vol. II is The Paris Review's second volume of interviews with women writers from the past seven decades. Introduced by editor Emily Nemens, the twelve interviews in Women at Work span the history of The Paris Review, from Marianne Moore (1961) to Maxine Groffsky (2017) by way of Katherine Anne Porter, Marguerite Young, May Sarton, Doris Lessing, Maya Angelou, Alice Munro, Jeanette Winterson, Wendy Wasserstein, Luisa Valenzuela, and Louise Erdrich. Intimate, deep, full of surprises, these classic interviews will be a source of inspiration and instruction to writers, students, and anyone else who cares about the creative process, or about the specific challenges faced by creative women.

In this collection of interviews taken from The Paris Review, sixteen of the world's great women writers speak about their work, their colleagues and their lives. Women Writers at Work revisits classic interviews with Rebecca West and Simone de Beauvoir along with exchanges with Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Nadine Gordimer, showing how different generations have found their voices. They talk about where they write.They talk about how they write. Most importantly they discuss why and what they write. As Margaret Atwood points out in her bracing introduction, the 'Women Writers' here cannot be put into a box, neatly labelled WW. The label should probably read WWAAW, 'Writers Who Are Also Women.' What unites them is less their gender than their commitment to the craft of writing and to life. Each interview is accompanied by a biographical and critical profile, a photograph of the writer and a facsimile manuscript page.

“Black women writers and critics are acting on the old adage that one must speak for oneself if one wishes to be heard.” —Claudia Tate, from the introduction Long out-of-print, Black Women Writers At Work is a vital contribution to Black literature in the 20th century. Through candid interviews with Maya Angelou, Toni Cade Bambara, Gwendolyn Brooks. Alexis Deveaux, Nikki Giovanni, Kristin Hunter, Gayl Jones, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Tillie Olson, Sonia Sanchez, Ntozake Shange, Alice Walker, Margret Walker, and Shirley Anne Williams, the book highlights the practices and critical linkages between the work and lived experiences of Black women writers whose work laid the foundation for many who have come after. Responding to questions about why and for whom they write, and how they perceive their responsibility to their work, to others, and to society, the featured playwrights, poets, novelists, and essayists provide a window into the connections between their lives and their art. Finally available for a new generation, this classic work has an urgent message for readers and writers today.

A bold, contemporary and urgent novel from a renowned Italian writer that examines silence in different forms, immigration, family and social class.

In 1989, George Plimpton compiled a survey of writers on writing¿anecdotes, aphorisms, and excerpts culled from the Writers at Work interviews. Our new, updated edition brings together almost four hundred writers, editors, and translators from issue no. 1 to issue no. 224 to provide a rare glimpse of what being a writer is really like. Divided into four parts¿¿The Writer: A Profile,¿ ¿Technical Matters,¿ ¿Different Forms,¿ and ¿The Writer¿s Life¿¿the book dilates on subjects such as first efforts, work habits, plot, writer¿s block, prizes, and politics.

Interviews med: William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, Jack Kerouac, Charles Olson, Voznesensky - Ginsberg - Orlovsky, Paul Bowles, Ken Kesey, Gary Snyder, Barney Rosset, Lawrence Ferlinghetti.