“There are many excellent stories that don’t interest me.”

“On Easter I signed up my first short story for the Paris Review. It’s by a young woman you’ve never heard of named April Ayers Lawson, and it’s an astonishment. All sex and brains and feeling. And it’s funny too. A minute before I read the story, I had no idea that such a thing existed. If I’d had a theme in mind for the issue, this story would almost certainly not have matched that theme. This is a long way of saying I’m looking for the best of the best, period—except I don’t really believe in The Best.”

More Intelligent Life chats with Lorin Stein, the new editor of the Paris Review.

(via PW)

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Isaac Fitzgerald has been a firefighter, worked on a boat, and was once given a sword by a king, thereby accomplishing three out of five of his childhood goals. Formerly of The Rumpus and McSweeney’s and most recently the founding editor of BuzzFeed Books, Isaac is now the co-host of BuzzFeed News’ Twitter Morning Show, #AMtoDM. He also appears frequently on The Today Show to talk books, and is co-author of Pen & Ink: Tattoos and the Stories Behind Them and Knives & Ink: Chefs and the Stories Behind Their Tattoos (with Recipes) (winner of an IACP award), and the author of a YA novel and picture book forthcoming from Bloomsbury. He uses Twitter.

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