The Believer, Issue 112

The Believer #112

by Heidi Julavits (Editor), Vendela Vida (Editor), Andrew Leland (Editor)

The Believer’s mission is to introduce readers to the best and most interesting work in the world of art, culture, and thought—whether that means literature, painting, wrestling, philosophy, or cooking—in an attractive vehicle that’s free from the bugbears of condescension, mustiness, and jargony obfuscation. Its content (including essays, interviews, comics, poetry, and reviews) offers fresh perspectives from editors Heidi Julavits, Vendela Vida, and Karolina Waclawiak. Each issue includes the popular columns “Stuff I’ve Been Reading,” by Nick Hornby and “What the Swedes Read” (a look at Nobel Prize-winners), by Daniel Handler

The Summer Issue features new work by Nell Zink, Álvaro Enrigue, and Gary Greenberg; interviews with Robert Coover, Amber Tamblyn, and the New York Public Library’s Paul Holdengräber; and new poetry by Rae Armantrout. Also in these pages, and among many other delights, you’ll find a special section on the theme of wildlife, essays on the man after whom Jim Jones patterned himself and what it’s like to be named after a sibling who died before you were born, examinations of the work of the artists Ray Johnson and Jimmy Robert, and the editors’ short lists for the eleventh annual Believer Book Award and the fifth annual Believer Poetry Award.

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 2014

About the author

Heidi Suzanne Julavits is an American author and co-editor of The Believer magazine. She has been published in The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 2, Esquire, Story, Zoetrope All-Story, and McSweeney's Quarterly. Her novels include The Mineral Palace (2000), The Effect of Living Backwards (2003) and The Uses of Enchantment (2006) and The Vanishers (2012).

She was born and grew up in Portland, Maine, before attending Dartmouth College. She later went on to earn an MFA from Columbia University.

She wrote the article "Rejoice! Believe! Be Strong and Read Hard!" (subtitled: "A Call For A New Era Of Experimentation, and a Book Culture That Will Support It") in the debut issue of The Believer, a publication which attempts to avoid snarkiness and "give people and books the benefit of the doubt."

In 2005, she told the New York Times culture writer A.O. Scott how'd she decided on The Believer's tone: "I really saw 'the end of the book' as originating in the way books are talked about now in our culture and especially in the most esteemed venues for book criticism. It seemed as though their irrelevance was a foregone conclusion, and we were just practicing this quaint exercise of pretending something mattered when of course everyone knew it didn't." She added her own aim as book critic would be "to endow something with importance, by treating it as an emotional experience."

She has also written short stories, such as "The Santosbrazzi Killer", which was published in Harper's Magazine.

Julavitz currently lives in Maine and Manhattan with her husband, the writer Ben Marcus, and their children

Reviews

[Hans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm finally moving into the transitional phase of The Believer, as they experiment with a new format and publish a lot less frequently before their time and space jump...which we can talk about when I finally get there. The new format works well. I like how they have create a different section to highlight one of the longer stories/essays.

It is mostly highlights in this issues, including:
--Nell Zink: "How to Send Things to Germany"
--Jeannie Vanasco: "What's in a Necronym?"
--Kristina Shevory: "A Common Language"
--Elisabeth Donnelly: "Descending Night" (See also 99 Percent Invisible episode #200 "Miss Manhattan")
--Mary Mann: "(Untitled)"
--interviews with Paul Holdengräber, Amber Tamblyn, and Robert Coover
--plus the conversation between Charles Yu and Lev Grossman

[Sara Habein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great issue. Read every single thing.