The Believer Issue 145

In Issue 145 of The Believer, Meara Sharma meditates on the life of a largely-forgotten Caribbean writer; Eula Biss writes about the challenges of love after apartheid; Ann Beattie describes the aesthetic pleasures of arranging short stories; and Zefyr Lisowski looks back at the prolific career of trans dollmaker Greer Lankton.

We also have interviews with authors Hernan Diaz and Mona Simpson, podcaster Monica Padman, and sportswriter Marcus Thompson II, as well as a new comic from George Gene Gustines on being a sixteen-year-old letter hack. Plus, Kent Monkman finds his “wiggle,” Susan Steinberg reflects on American Psycho as assigned reading, and Emma Copley Eisenberg writes about all that Eastwick, Philadelphia used to be. All this plus newsprung guest columns from Daniel Halpern and Madeleine Thien, Jenny Slate-penned trivia, poems, book reviews, a historical survey of art-world pejoratives, and more.