The Believer, Issue 113

by Vida, Vendela; Julavits, Heidi; Waclawiak, Karolina

• ISBN13: 9781940450612
• ISBN10: 1940450616
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-12-29
• Publisher: McSweeney's, Believer Magazine

Summary

The Believer, a five-time National Magazine Award finalist, is a bimonthly literature, arts, and culture magazine. In each issue, readers will find journalism and essays that are frequently very long, book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and interviews that are intimate, frank, and also very long. There are intricate illustrations by Tony Millionaire and a rotating cast of guest artists, poems, a comics section, and regular columns by Nick Hornby and Daniel Handler.

In The Believer’s fall issue, Pablo Calvi reports on an oil pipeline that threatens Ecuadorian indigenous populations, Alex Mar has tea with the Church of Satan's high priest, Daniel Werb discusses harm reduction in Tijuana, and Esmé Weijun Wang explores living with schizophrenia. Other essays focus on the anarchist who’s quietly fanning the flames of our country’s insurrectionary movements and the irresistibly gothic family whose middle son is the inspiration behind Bolaño’s mad-genius poet in 2666. There are poems by Kay Ryan and Kathleen Ossip, in-depth interviews with Megan Rapinoe, Michael Schur, Jerry Stahl, Sheila Nevins, Ronald Cotton, and Miranda July, and a special section on the theme of silence with work by Diane Cook, Sara Novic, Stephen Burt, Rachel Z. Arndt, Matthew Zapruder, and JW McCormack.

Table of Contents

Announcing the winners of the annual Believer Book Award and the Believer Poetry Award

Aaron Shulman, "El Desencanto"
The irresistible disenchantments of the Panero family, introduced by the best Spanish cult documentary you’ve never heard of.

Esmé Weijun Wang, "Toward a Pathology of the Possessed"
Schizophrenia’s effects are often discussed in metaphors. What is it like to live with those metaphors?

Roger D. Hodge, "How to Field-Dress a Deer"
An installment in our series of essential advice.

Daniel Handler, "What the Swedes Read”

Kea Krause, “What’s Left Behind”
A flooded copper mine outside Butte, Montana, is the largest contaminated body of water in the country. And it contains a slime that could save the mine, the town, and maybe even the world.

Miranda July interviewed by Ross Simonini
The writer, artist, musician, and filmmaker discusses her life and work by telephone, battling a poor connection.

Sylvia Christie, “Great Moments on the Loo in Literature”
A compendium of important literary moments spent on the toilet, accompanied by a very rude illustration.

Jules Feiffer interviewed by Alex Dueben
The cartoonist discusses creating his noir graphic novel Kill My Mother.

Zander Sherman, “Anarchy in the USA”
Four years after Occupy Wall Street, meet John Zerzan, the man who’s been quietly fanning the flames of the country’s most important insurrectionary movements.

Megan Rapinoe interviewed by Kevin Koczawara
The US women’s soccer team star on growing up playing with her twin, the world of women’s soccer, and the changing landscape for gay athletes.

Kay Ryan, “Sock” (a new poem)

Alex Mar, “Satan in Poughkeepsie”
Anton LaVey exposed the show business of religion when he founded the Church of Satan. Half a century later, its high priest holds afternoon tea in suburban New York.

Kathleen Ossip, “On Giving Birth” (a new poem)

Pablo Calvi, “Secret Reserves”
In a land as exceptional for its fragile and fiercely guarded biodiversity as for its dwindling population of guardians, the indigenous Sápara are first in line for a new form of extinction. And they are staking the only thing they have left against it—their afterlife.

Dan Werb, “Epidemic in the Borderland”
Dr. Thomas Patterson is pioneering HIV prevention in Tijuana’s most dangerous districts, and the results are staggering.

Kay Ryan, “Fatal Flaw” (a new poem)

Symposium: A discussion about (mostly) books as they relate to the theme of silence.
Rachel Z. Arndt on Dockwood; Sara Novic on Stephen King’s Nick Andros; Stephen Burt on Black Bolt; Matthew Zapruder on The History of Silence; Diane Cook on The World Beyond Your Head; and JW McCormack on ghost characters.

Michael Schur interviewed by Stephanie Palumbo
The sitcom writer, director, and producer tells her, “The system of network TV is creaking under its own weight right now.”

Ronald Cotton interviewed by Alexandra Molotkow
The forensic reform advocate spent nearly eleven years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit; now he speaks about the conviction, forgiveness, and closure.

Jerry Stahl interviewed by Sabra Embury
A discussion about subcultures, fanatics, drug problems, and being a dad, held over the course of several humorous emails.

Sheila Nevins interviewed by Kathleen Hale
HBO’s “de Medici” of television has won more prime-time Emmys than any other individual.

Nick Hornby, “Stuff I’ve Been Reading”
The popular column returns.