Our 2024 Prizewinners

Moira McCavana and Caleb Crain

The Paris Review Redux: free interviews, stories, poems, and art from the archives of The Paris Review. View this email in your browser Photograph of Moira McCavana by Mara Danoff; photograph of Caleb Crain by Peter Terzian. We recently announced that Moira McCavana will receive the George Plimpton Prize for her story "Every Hair Casts a Shadow," published in issue no. 245 of the Review. The story follows the owner of a failing shoe store while she grapples with mourning rituals in Barcelona. The George Plimpton Prize, awarded annually since 1993 by the editorial committee of our board of directors, honors our founding editor's commitment to championing new talent and recognizes an emerging writer of exceptional merit.  This year, the Susannah Hunnewell Prize will be presented to Caleb Crain for his story "The Letter," which appears in issue no. 244. In "The Letter," a man receives a mysterious letter from a former lover who died years ago, and he is finally forced to contend with the end of their relationship. Established in 2023, the Susannah Hunnewell Prize is awarded to a writer for an outstanding piece of prose or poetry published by the Review in the previous year, given in memory of the Review's beloved former publisher, who died in 2019.  In celebration of our 2024 prizewinners, we have unlocked "Every Hair Casts a Shadow" by Moira McCavana and "The Letter" by Caleb Crain from our archive. On April 2, we will honor both writers at our annual Spring Revel, where Tobias Wolff with the Hadada Award, our prize for lifetime achievement in literature. Tickets are available online. PROSE Every Hair Casts a Shadow Moira McCavana I wouldn't say I've been intentionally avoiding Marisol. I'd be glad to see her if we ran into each other at the supermarket or on the street. But I'd started to feel uneasy riding the bus alongside her, especially now that I could no longer pretend it was merely the least complicated way for me to get home.  I had meant to return her poster the next day, but I'd forgotten, and then felt relieved to have avoided the interaction. We'd been sitting in our usual places, Marisol and Isabel chattering away—I'll point out that neither of them works—while I went over the hand formations for the tricky middle portion of "Für Elise" behind my purse.  From issue no. 245 (Fall 2023) PROSE The Letter Caleb Crain Sometimes a book taken from someone's house still carries the scent of their house, of what it was like to be in a room with them, and when you first open the book, you're with them again for a moment. Riley had that feeling now. It was an enraging letter and a sweet one. Matty had actually once said aloud that in order to win an argument, what you need to do is control the frame around the story, not the story, and that seemed to be what he was trying to do in the letter. But Matty had never been able to pull off being strategic; his maneuvers had been too visible. As for being allergic to cats, by the way, Riley was too, just not very.  From issue no. 244 (Summer 2023)   To read more stories from past winners of the Plimpton Prize, including fiction by Yiyun Li and Jonathan Escoffery, why not subscribe? You'll receive four print issues a year plus unlimited digital access to our seventy-year archive. Copyright © 2024 The Paris Review. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: The Paris Review 544 West 27th Street 3rd Floor New York, New York 10001 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe, if you must.