The Art of the Libretto: A Conversation with Nilo Cruz
Metropolitan Opera will debut *El último sueño de Frida y Diego* on May 14, a new opera that imagines Frida Kahlo returning from the underworld to meet Diego Rivera on the Day of the Dead. The libretto, written by Pulitzer‑winning playwright Nilo Cruz, was a fifteen‑year labor of love, shaped in partnership with composer Gabriela Lena Frank. The story imposes a rule that the dead cannot touch the living, turning their tumultuous romance into a mythic exploration of love after death. Directed by Deborah Colker, the production stars Isabel Leonard and Carlos Álvarez.
Making of a Poem: Jeffrey Angles on “Memory of a Three-Year-Old”
Jeffrey Angles discusses his English translation of Nakahara Chuya’s 1936 Modernist poem “Memory of a Three‑Year‑Old,” featured in the Paris Review’s Spring issue. The poem, originally published in Bungei hanron and later in Chuya’s 1938 collection, recalls a childhood episode involving parasitic...
A Bubbly Ambivalence. . .
The Paris Review released its monthly "Bubbly Ambivalence" roundup, featuring curated excerpts from a range of upcoming books, from Chelsey Minnis’s experimental poetry to Patrick Radden Keefe’s biography of the Aga Khan. Editors pulled passages directly from galley proofs, giving...
Kafka’s Misdiagnosis
In a 1922 diary entry Kafka describes a self‑imposed failing that shields him from madness while also stalling any progress, framing his creative paralysis as a bargain with insanity. The essay argues that Kafka’s oeuvre reflects a neurotic rather than...
Bolaño’s Heresy: On Distant Star
Roberto Bolaño’s introduction to *Distant Star* deliberately withholds any actual poems, replacing them with paraphrased descriptions and sky‑writing fragments. The narrator recounts three brief verses by the mysterious Ruiz‑Tagle, then shifts to the surreal aerial messages of Carlos Wieder, a...
Announcing the 2026 George Plimpton and Susannah Hunnewell Prizewinners
The Paris Review announced its 2026 literary honors, naming Renny Gong the George Plimpton Prize winner and Bud Smith the Susannah Hunnewell Prize recipient. Both awards will be presented at the Spring Revel gala on April 14, alongside a lifetime‑achievement Hadada award for Edward P. Jones....