The Believer

Our spring issue is on its way! Featuring @amandagorman.bsky.social, Joy Williams, @laurenmarkham.bsky.social, @rob-brezsny.bsky.social, @paulcollins.bsky.social, and more.

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An Interview with Black Thought - Believer Magazine As the lead vocalist for veteran Philly hip-hop innovators the Roots, Tariq Trotter, a.k.a. Black Thought, has spent the last thirty years exploring and reshaping the art of emceeing. With his dextero...

"I think attention, or the lack thereof, during one’s career has the potential to make or break one’s journey."

—Black Thought, interviewed by John Morrison

www.thebeliever.net/interview-bl...

An Interview with Mary Gaitskill - Believer Magazine I went to visit Mary Gaitskill on a pleasant October day in the comfortable, chalet-like home she shares with her husband, also a writer, on the campus of Bard College (though neither of them teaches ...

"It’s not good to let other people define your work for you."

—Mary Gaitskill, interviewed by Sheila Heti

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

An Interview with John Darnielle - Believer Magazine Plenty of indie-rock bands find the poignant in the ridiculous and vice versa, but few do it with the hand-strummed, hardscrabble troubadouring of John Darnielle, the songwriter, leader, and, um, main...

"I’m so disconnected from an indie-rock community that I am the hermit people used to guess I was."

—John Darnielle, interviewed by Daniel Handler

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

An Interview with Delroy Lindo - Believer Magazine I am racing the rain in the back of a London cab with Mr. Delroy Lindo. I was advised by a well-traveled friend to trust only this as a means of conveyance—the pug-nosed solidity of the classic black ...

"You asked me, What does it mean to be seen? It means everything."

—Delroy Lindo, interviewed by Erica Vital-Lazare

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

Water Pressure - Believer Magazine In the middle of the summer of 2024, when the temperature in Karachi was skirting 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a man was walking past my paternal aunt’s house. The sun was high in the sky at midafternoon, ...

"Heat and envy, and the unrelenting nature of both during a Karachi summer, can make you act in wild, reckless, and unpredictable ways."

—from Rafia Zakaria's National Magazine Award-nominated essay "Water Pressure"

www.thebeliever.net/water-pressu...

A Conversation with Sherman Alexie - Believer Magazine A couple of winters ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Spokane, Washington, to interview the great Sherman Alexie just before the release of his latest book of poetry, Face. I was worn-out and de...

"The fact is, I want to move rooms full of people. I want to move someone sitting alone under a reading lamp. I want to move someone sitting on a beach. I want to make them laugh and cry."

—Sherman Alexie, interviewed by Neko Case

www.thebeliever.net/a-conversati...

An Interview with Mark Mothersbaugh - Believer Magazine “The Hardest Geometry Problem in the World” is arguably the most beloved piece of original film music to hit the world in the last decade (or three). You may not recognize the name, but the mischievou...

"It made us feel we had to be doing something right to get so many people pissed off."

—Mark Mothersbaugh on Devo's early ethos

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

An Interview with Min Jin Lee - Believer Magazine What truly matters? It’s a deceptively simple question, one with no uniform answer, that has served as a mantra of sorts for author Min Jin Lee. When we spoke by phone in July 2018, she didn’t say thi...

"You have to love what you do so much that the fear diminishes."

—Min Jin Lee, interviewed by Alexis Cheung

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

An Interview with Lorrie Moore - Believer Magazine The funny and poignant stories in Lorrie Moore’s first collection, Self-Help, established her as an original new voice in contemporary fiction more than twenty years ago. She has since published two m...

"Awkwardness is where tension is, and tension is where the story is."

—Lorrie Moore, interviewed by Angela Pneuman

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

An Interview with Michael Pollan - Believer Magazine “ We want to get out of ourselves as much as we’re obsessed with ourselves.” Psychedelics: Dissolve your ego Bring you closer to the scientific world Could (theoretically) be a tool to enforce conform...

"In one way, psychedelics don’t take you further away from the scientific world view but bring you closer to it."

—Robert Pollan, interviewed by Prashanth Ramakrishna

www.thebeliever.net/logger/an-in...

Last call to claim a complimentary issue of @pioneerwork.bsky.social Broadcast alongside your annual subscription to The Believer. Deal ends tomorrow! store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...

Character Studies: Toros in Anora - Believer Magazine Urgency is fairly easy to manufacture in a film—which is, after all, an art form that has historically been partial to time bombs and threats of intergalactic invasion, love interests that wind up tie...

www.thebeliever.net/character-st...

Character Studies: László Tóth in The Brutalist - Believer Magazine In the months leading up to the release of The Brutalist, I avoided learning anything about the movie. This was not an attempt to guard against spoilers: I simply had no desire to see it. I knew only ...

www.thebeliever.net/character-st...

Character Studies: Cardinal Lawrence in Conclave - Believer Magazine Perhaps it should come as no surprise that one of the most common problems a novelist faces when creating fictional characters is the problem every person must face: the struggle to know thyself. In a...

And below are Isle's nominated reviews: www.thebeliever.net/character-st...

Water Pressure - Believer Magazine In the middle of the summer of 2024, when the temperature in Karachi was skirting 104 degrees Fahrenheit, a man was walking past my paternal aunt’s house. The sun was high in the sky at midafternoon, ...

Read Rafia's piece here: www.thebeliever.net/water-pressu...

Congratulations to @islemcelroy.bsky.social and Rafia Zakaria on the 2026 National Magazine Award nominations!

Last chance to score a free issue of @pioneerwork.bsky.social Broadcast along with your annual subscription to The Believer. Deal ends this weekend, so sign up today: store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...

An Interview with Michael Pollan - Believer Magazine “ We want to get out of ourselves as much as we’re obsessed with ourselves.” Psychedelics: Dissolve your ego Bring you closer to the scientific world Could (theoretically) be a tool to enforce conform...

"The essence of spiritual experience to me is a powerful sense of connection... It’s not supernatural at all; it’s just the fact that we are connected."

—Michael Pollan, interviewed by Prashanth Ramakrishna

www.thebeliever.net/logger/an-in...

An Interview with John Darnielle - Believer Magazine Plenty of indie-rock bands find the poignant in the ridiculous and vice versa, but few do it with the hand-strummed, hardscrabble troubadouring of John Darnielle, the songwriter, leader, and, um, main...

"I don’t believe in ironic appreciation. I think if you like something, the core of it is you like it."

—John Darnielle, interviewed by Daniel Handler

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

An Interview with Black Thought - Believer Magazine As the lead vocalist for veteran Philly hip-hop innovators the Roots, Tariq Trotter, a.k.a. Black Thought, has spent the last thirty years exploring and reshaping the art of emceeing. With his dextero...

"I trust my gut. But so many people before me have come and gone, and I’m pretty clear on what not to do."

—Black Thought, interviewed by John Morrison

www.thebeliever.net/interview-bl...

Looking for nothing to do? Check out San Francisco is Dead, a new Bay Area events calendar compiled by the editors of McSweeney's.

www.sanfranciscoisdead.com

The Desert and the River - Believer Magazine 1. When I arrive at Vieux Farka Touré’s house, he is rehearsing with his band in a colonnaded courtyard. It’s a kind of residential amphitheater, about thirty yards square, with nothing in it but a co...

"The other band members join in and music fills the courtyard. It’s at once raw and polished, a refined jamming, Vieux’s special blend of traditional Malian and American roots music known as the desert blues."

—from "The Desert and the River" by Rob Curran
www.thebeliever.net/the-desert-a...

An Interview with Mark Mothersbaugh - Believer Magazine “The Hardest Geometry Problem in the World” is arguably the most beloved piece of original film music to hit the world in the last decade (or three). You may not recognize the name, but the mischievou...

"Even back then we were already predicting that the hippies would become the capitalists of the ’80s."

—Mark Mothersbaugh, interviewed by Maura Kelly

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

The Believer Subscription (includes a complimentary issue of Pioneer Works Broadcast) For the rest of February, subscriptions to The Believer include the latest issue of Broadcast—the annual print publication from our dearly beloveds at Pioneer Works—absolutely free. A thirteen-time N...

It’s the last week to take advantage of our subscription bundle with @pioneerwork.bsky.social! Visit our site for deal details: store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...

An Interview with Lorrie Moore - Believer Magazine The funny and poignant stories in Lorrie Moore’s first collection, Self-Help, established her as an original new voice in contemporary fiction more than twenty years ago. She has since published two m...

“Keeping your fingers crossed makes it difficult to hold a pen, but I must say, it’s worth it.”

—Lorrie Moore, interviewed by Angela Pneuman

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

"Something that's not yourself." — An Interview with Karl Ove Knausgård - Believer Magazine Karl Ove Knausgård enters the empty cinema in the Ingmar Bergman Center with a package of cigarettes in his hand and asks me where I got my coffee. He runs away to get a cup for himself before sitting...

"Shame tells you when you’ve gone too far. Then you try if it’s okay to go too far."

—Karl Ove Knausgård, interviewed by Rebecka Bülow

www.thebeliever.net/logger/2013-...

Annotating Michelle Kwan’s “Fields of Gold” Performance, 2002 Winter Olympics - Believer Magazine Two days before Michelle Kwan skated an exhibition performance to Eva Cassidy’s cover of Sting’s “Fields of Gold” during the 2002 Olympics, she fell while attempting a triple flip jump in the free-ska...

“Watching this now, I’m struck by how young she appears; the maturity of her skating and the magnitude of her accomplishment have aged her in my mind.”

—Belinda Huijuan Tang on Michelle Kwan’s 2002 performance

www.thebeliever.net/annotating-m...

We think you’ll love Broadcast—the annual print mag from @pioneerwork.bsky.social—so we’re including a complimentary issue with all Believer subscriptions through the end of the month. See details here: store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...

"Something that's not yourself." — An Interview with Karl Ove Knausgård - Believer Magazine Karl Ove Knausgård enters the empty cinema in the Ingmar Bergman Center with a package of cigarettes in his hand and asks me where I got my coffee. He runs away to get a cup for himself before sitting...

"Today, if you have a strong sense of shame you also have a strong desire to overcome it. And that’s when you can write."

—Karl Ove Knausgård, interviewed by Rebecka Bülow

www.thebeliever.net/logger/2013-...