The Believer
@thebeliever.net
A quarterly literature, arts, and culture magazine.
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Our first-ever Sports Issue is coming soon! Featuring
@minakimes.bsky.social, Kiese Laymon, Jenny Odell, @lauravandenberg.bsky.social, a custom Believer-branded swim cap, and much more.
Subscribe now and get 15% off: store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...
@minakimes.bsky.social, Kiese Laymon, Jenny Odell, @lauravandenberg.bsky.social, a custom Believer-branded swim cap, and much more.
Subscribe now and get 15% off: store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...
"There’s no law against a sentence existing in two places at once, unlike humans, who are no longer allowed to bilocate because it confuses the cops too much."
—Patricia Lockwood on the question of "tweeting it or saving it for the book"
www.thebeliever.net/logger/2014-...
—Patricia Lockwood on the question of "tweeting it or saving it for the book"
www.thebeliever.net/logger/2014-...
What Would Twitter Do? - Believer Magazine
Welcome to the seventh week of What Would Twitter Do? In this series, I interview some of my favourite people on Twitter about their Twitter habits and philosophies. This week features Patricia Lockwo...
www.thebeliever.net
November 14, 2025 at 7:29 PM
"There’s no law against a sentence existing in two places at once, unlike humans, who are no longer allowed to bilocate because it confuses the cops too much."
—Patricia Lockwood on the question of "tweeting it or saving it for the book"
www.thebeliever.net/logger/2014-...
—Patricia Lockwood on the question of "tweeting it or saving it for the book"
www.thebeliever.net/logger/2014-...
"The first thing I wondered while reading Jeff and Shaleia Divine’s Twin Flames: Finding Your Ultimate Lover was what kind of a writer Jim Jones was."
—from Rafael Frumkin's column on products made by cults MLMs, and fringe groups
www.thebeliever.net/high-control...
—from Rafael Frumkin's column on products made by cults MLMs, and fringe groups
www.thebeliever.net/high-control...
High-Control Goods: Twin Flames - Believer Magazine
The first thing I wondered while reading Jeff and Shaleia Divine’s Twin Flames: Finding Your Ultimate Lover was what kind of a writer Jim Jones was. I’m not sure whether he wrote his Peoples Temple se...
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November 14, 2025 at 5:55 PM
"The first thing I wondered while reading Jeff and Shaleia Divine’s Twin Flames: Finding Your Ultimate Lover was what kind of a writer Jim Jones was."
—from Rafael Frumkin's column on products made by cults MLMs, and fringe groups
www.thebeliever.net/high-control...
—from Rafael Frumkin's column on products made by cults MLMs, and fringe groups
www.thebeliever.net/high-control...
Got a question you’d like a clear, candid take on? Carrie Brownstein is providing answers to readers’ everyday dilemmas in her regular advice column. Write to her at advice@thebeliever.net.
November 14, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Got a question you’d like a clear, candid take on? Carrie Brownstein is providing answers to readers’ everyday dilemmas in her regular advice column. Write to her at advice@thebeliever.net.
"The hopeful self-help magnate is a paradoxical breed, at once altruistically believing himself to be invested in society’s greater good while desiring to secure a personal shitload of cash."
—from an essay by Jessica Lamb-Shapiro
www.thebeliever.net/we-need-hear...
—from an essay by Jessica Lamb-Shapiro
www.thebeliever.net/we-need-hear...
We Need Heart-Touching, Soul-Penetrating Stories! - Believer Magazine
If every one would see To his own reformation How very easily You might reform a nation —Nineteenth-century rhyme A BRIEF TIMELINE OF SOME SEMINAL SELF-HELP BOOKS The Bible The Bhagavad-Gita Meditatio...
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November 13, 2025 at 6:49 PM
"The hopeful self-help magnate is a paradoxical breed, at once altruistically believing himself to be invested in society’s greater good while desiring to secure a personal shitload of cash."
—from an essay by Jessica Lamb-Shapiro
www.thebeliever.net/we-need-hear...
—from an essay by Jessica Lamb-Shapiro
www.thebeliever.net/we-need-hear...
"Most coasters rely for their thrill on the specter of danger, the feeling that at any moment the train might derail and careen off the tracks."
Kevin Moffett reports on America's coaster culture for an amusement park magazine.
www.thebeliever.net/funworld/
Kevin Moffett reports on America's coaster culture for an amusement park magazine.
www.thebeliever.net/funworld/
Funworld - Believer Magazine
CLIFF’S AMUSEMENT PARK, ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO, JUNE Albuquerque is hot and bright and infested with moths. Gary Hays, owner of Cliff’s Amusement Park, the only amusement park in New Mexico, tells me...
www.thebeliever.net
November 13, 2025 at 3:49 PM
"Most coasters rely for their thrill on the specter of danger, the feeling that at any moment the train might derail and careen off the tracks."
Kevin Moffett reports on America's coaster culture for an amusement park magazine.
www.thebeliever.net/funworld/
Kevin Moffett reports on America's coaster culture for an amusement park magazine.
www.thebeliever.net/funworld/
Bay Area friends: Don't miss Believer editor Daniel Gumbiner in conversation with Only Son author Kevin Moffett later this month! The event is free and hosted by the International Library of Young Authors.
November 12, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Bay Area friends: Don't miss Believer editor Daniel Gumbiner in conversation with Only Son author Kevin Moffett later this month! The event is free and hosted by the International Library of Young Authors.
In our new web-exclusive column, Rafael Frumkin explores the dubious organizations behind everyday consumer goods. In this installment, he looks at Yogi Tea's connection to 3HO, aka the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization.
www.thebeliever.net/high-control...
www.thebeliever.net/high-control...
High-Control Goods: Yogi Tea - Believer Magazine
There are very few things about which I claim any kind of gustatory snobbery. I’ll try practically any food once, probably twice if it doesn’t threaten my stomach’s integrity. The reason things like H...
www.thebeliever.net
November 11, 2025 at 8:15 PM
In our new web-exclusive column, Rafael Frumkin explores the dubious organizations behind everyday consumer goods. In this installment, he looks at Yogi Tea's connection to 3HO, aka the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization.
www.thebeliever.net/high-control...
www.thebeliever.net/high-control...
"I think about songs as worlds. When thinking about collaborating with organizations, I ask myself, Who can build out the world of this song with me?"
—Jamila Woods, interviewed by Sam Sax
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
—Jamila Woods, interviewed by Sam Sax
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
An Interview with Jamila Woods - Believer Magazine
Jamila Woods is a polymath: a multi-hyphenate artist, a teacher, a student, a singer, and your favorite poet’s favorite musician. Born and raised in Chicago, Jamila has released three critically accla...
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November 11, 2025 at 7:34 PM
"I think about songs as worlds. When thinking about collaborating with organizations, I ask myself, Who can build out the world of this song with me?"
—Jamila Woods, interviewed by Sam Sax
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
—Jamila Woods, interviewed by Sam Sax
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
“I think generally people just don’t like phonies. In that sense, nothing has changed in sixty years.”
–Ezra Koenig, interviewed by Ross Simonini
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
–Ezra Koenig, interviewed by Ross Simonini
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
An Interview with Ezra Koenig - Believer Magazine
Ezra Koenig is a smartly dressed, culturally savvy rock musician living in the age of hip-hop. His band, Vampire Weekend, has released three widely successful albums (a trilogy, as he thinks of them) ...
www.thebeliever.net
November 11, 2025 at 2:38 PM
“I think generally people just don’t like phonies. In that sense, nothing has changed in sixty years.”
–Ezra Koenig, interviewed by Ross Simonini
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
–Ezra Koenig, interviewed by Ross Simonini
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
“I feel like there is a ceiling on how close a storyteller can get to someone else’s experience.”
—Barry Jenkins, interviewed by Morgan Jerkins
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
—Barry Jenkins, interviewed by Morgan Jerkins
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
An Interview with Barry Jenkins - Believer Magazine
Incredulous. That is the word that describes how I felt about the opportunity to interview Academy Award–winning director Barry Jenkins and about sitting across from him onstage in Las Vegas at the Be...
www.thebeliever.net
November 10, 2025 at 10:33 PM
“I feel like there is a ceiling on how close a storyteller can get to someone else’s experience.”
—Barry Jenkins, interviewed by Morgan Jerkins
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
—Barry Jenkins, interviewed by Morgan Jerkins
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
"It was a rare day that we drove the forty-five minutes eastward to enter the Loop, and I treated that shit as if we were taking off for Fukuoka or Lisbon or Bordeaux."
—Bryan Washington on Houston’s I-610 Loop
www.thebeliever.net/bryan-washin...
—Bryan Washington on Houston’s I-610 Loop
www.thebeliever.net/bryan-washin...
Place: The Loop, Houston - Believer Magazine
FEATUREs: City population: 2.3 million Rate of growth: 250 new residents per day Most diverse city in the US No zoning laws From the ground, Houston’s highways don’t look like much. They’re just more ...
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November 10, 2025 at 6:02 PM
"It was a rare day that we drove the forty-five minutes eastward to enter the Loop, and I treated that shit as if we were taking off for Fukuoka or Lisbon or Bordeaux."
—Bryan Washington on Houston’s I-610 Loop
www.thebeliever.net/bryan-washin...
—Bryan Washington on Houston’s I-610 Loop
www.thebeliever.net/bryan-washin...
"My first real intensive songwriting was NIN-based. I wasted a lot of time avoiding writing because I was afraid it would suck—a recurring theme.."
—Trent Reznor
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
—Trent Reznor
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
An Interview with Trent Reznor - Believer Magazine
Few comebacks in pop music are as well-laid and well-timed as Trent Reznor’s return as Nine Inch Nails in 2005. The high-water mark of the band’s cultural relevance had come and gone eleven years prio...
www.thebeliever.net
November 10, 2025 at 2:55 PM
"My first real intensive songwriting was NIN-based. I wasted a lot of time avoiding writing because I was afraid it would suck—a recurring theme.."
—Trent Reznor
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
—Trent Reznor
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
Reposted by The Believer
wrote abt fake snow
Our first-ever Sports Issue is coming soon! Featuring
@minakimes.bsky.social, Kiese Laymon, Jenny Odell, @lauravandenberg.bsky.social, a custom Believer-branded swim cap, and much more.
Subscribe now and get 15% off: store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...
@minakimes.bsky.social, Kiese Laymon, Jenny Odell, @lauravandenberg.bsky.social, a custom Believer-branded swim cap, and much more.
Subscribe now and get 15% off: store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...
November 9, 2025 at 4:23 PM
wrote abt fake snow
Our first-ever Sports Issue is coming soon! Featuring
@minakimes.bsky.social, Kiese Laymon, Jenny Odell, @lauravandenberg.bsky.social, a custom Believer-branded swim cap, and much more.
Subscribe now and get 15% off: store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...
@minakimes.bsky.social, Kiese Laymon, Jenny Odell, @lauravandenberg.bsky.social, a custom Believer-branded swim cap, and much more.
Subscribe now and get 15% off: store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...
November 7, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Our first-ever Sports Issue is coming soon! Featuring
@minakimes.bsky.social, Kiese Laymon, Jenny Odell, @lauravandenberg.bsky.social, a custom Believer-branded swim cap, and much more.
Subscribe now and get 15% off: store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...
@minakimes.bsky.social, Kiese Laymon, Jenny Odell, @lauravandenberg.bsky.social, a custom Believer-branded swim cap, and much more.
Subscribe now and get 15% off: store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the...
The McSweeney's Advent Sale is on now: everything in our store is 15% off, with select featured titles at 25% off. Visit our site for some great gift ideas!
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Week One: 25% off these featured titles - The McSweeney’s Store
The McSweeney's Store
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November 7, 2025 at 4:32 PM
The McSweeney's Advent Sale is on now: everything in our store is 15% off, with select featured titles at 25% off. Visit our site for some great gift ideas!
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"No matter what might be said, access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with the world."
—Michel Houellebecq
www.thebeliever.net/h-p-lovecraf...
—Michel Houellebecq
www.thebeliever.net/h-p-lovecraf...
H.P. Lovecraft: Against Nature, Against Life - Believer Magazine
“Perhaps one needs to have suffered a great deal in order to appreciate Lovecraft…” —Jacques Bergier Life is painful and disappointing. It is useless, therefore, to write new realistic novels. We gene...
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November 7, 2025 at 3:15 PM
"No matter what might be said, access to the artistic universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a little fed up with the world."
—Michel Houellebecq
www.thebeliever.net/h-p-lovecraf...
—Michel Houellebecq
www.thebeliever.net/h-p-lovecraf...
"If realness is the aim of the average taxidermist attending the Annual Taxidermy Convention Competition and Trade Show, whimsy is the goal of the alternative adherents."
—Michelle Tea on "alternative taxidermy"
www.thebeliever.net/charming-def...
—Michelle Tea on "alternative taxidermy"
www.thebeliever.net/charming-def...
Charming Deformities - Believer Magazine
Maya Bookbinder and I are going to the Annual Taxidermy Convention, Competition, and Trade Show, a recurring shindig hosted most years by a red state and held this year in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a...
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November 6, 2025 at 9:06 PM
"If realness is the aim of the average taxidermist attending the Annual Taxidermy Convention Competition and Trade Show, whimsy is the goal of the alternative adherents."
—Michelle Tea on "alternative taxidermy"
www.thebeliever.net/charming-def...
—Michelle Tea on "alternative taxidermy"
www.thebeliever.net/charming-def...
"What we’re doing as writers... It’s an energetic transfer, a passing of knowledge and experience from one imagination to another."
—Laura van den Berg, interviewed by @rokwon.bsky.social
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
—Laura van den Berg, interviewed by @rokwon.bsky.social
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
An Interview with Laura van den Berg - Believer Magazine
The first time I read Laura van den Berg’s stories in her debut collection, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, I was astonished. The stories, teeming with disaster and fantast...
www.thebeliever.net
November 6, 2025 at 3:59 PM
"What we’re doing as writers... It’s an energetic transfer, a passing of knowledge and experience from one imagination to another."
—Laura van den Berg, interviewed by @rokwon.bsky.social
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
—Laura van den Berg, interviewed by @rokwon.bsky.social
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
Get a head start on your holiday shopping: Gift subscriptions are 25% off until the end of this week.
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Believer Magazine Gift Subscription
This is the page for a Believer Gift Subscription. At checkout please use your own address for confirmation, upon purchasing you'll be sent a link to fill out all subscription details for your giftee(...
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November 6, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Get a head start on your holiday shopping: Gift subscriptions are 25% off until the end of this week.
store.mcsweeneys.net/products/bel...
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Having trouble connecting with other writers and artists on digital platforms? Place a classified ad in The Believer and add a little analog warmth to your message.
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Believer Classified Ad
To purchase a classified ad, please use the quantity window to your right to select the number of words in your chosen message.
Now you too can know the thrill of seeing your words in print, thanks t...
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November 5, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Having trouble connecting with other writers and artists on digital platforms? Place a classified ad in The Believer and add a little analog warmth to your message.
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"A first sentence’s job is to draw its reader into the sentence after it."
—from an essay by John Barth
www.thebeliever.net/in-the-begin...
—from an essay by John Barth
www.thebeliever.net/in-the-begin...
In the Beginning, Once Upon a Time, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night - Believer Magazine
“Happy families are all alike, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” I happen not to agree with that famous opening proposition of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, but I’ll carry it to my grave ...
www.thebeliever.net
November 5, 2025 at 6:35 PM
"A first sentence’s job is to draw its reader into the sentence after it."
—from an essay by John Barth
www.thebeliever.net/in-the-begin...
—from an essay by John Barth
www.thebeliever.net/in-the-begin...
We’re revisiting this 2007 interview with the filmmaker Mira Nair, Zohran Mamdani’s mother, who talks about her work and recounts the puckish antics of her then-fifteen-year-old son.
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
An Interview with Mira Nair - Believer Magazine
The Indian-born filmmaker Mira Nair has been directing since 1979, when she made the first of her five documentaries, but her breakthrough film was a feature—the gritty, lush, and painfully sad Salaam...
www.thebeliever.net
November 5, 2025 at 4:10 PM
We’re revisiting this 2007 interview with the filmmaker Mira Nair, Zohran Mamdani’s mother, who talks about her work and recounts the puckish antics of her then-fifteen-year-old son.
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
www.thebeliever.net/an-interview...
We're helping you get ahead on your Christmas list this year with a 25%-off sale on gift subscriptions. Cross someone off your list today.
store.mcsweeneys.net/products/bel...
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Believer Magazine Gift Subscription
This is the page for a Believer Gift Subscription. At checkout please use your own address for confirmation, upon purchasing you'll be sent a link to fill out all subscription details for your giftee(...
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November 4, 2025 at 6:59 PM
We're helping you get ahead on your Christmas list this year with a 25%-off sale on gift subscriptions. Cross someone off your list today.
store.mcsweeneys.net/products/bel...
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“My father’s bookish interests would come to define much of my childhood... Spurred by my own experience of loss and separation after moving to the US, I started to unpack the many stories he told of his books, those dead and alive.”
—Mona Kareem
www.thebeliever.net/the-labyrinth/
—Mona Kareem
www.thebeliever.net/the-labyrinth/
The Labyrinth - Believer Magazine
When it came to books, my father had absolutely no shame. On his first day at the ten-day Kuwait International Book Fair, he’d pile stacks of books at a publisher’s booth and ask him to keep the books...
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November 4, 2025 at 4:46 PM
“My father’s bookish interests would come to define much of my childhood... Spurred by my own experience of loss and separation after moving to the US, I started to unpack the many stories he told of his books, those dead and alive.”
—Mona Kareem
www.thebeliever.net/the-labyrinth/
—Mona Kareem
www.thebeliever.net/the-labyrinth/