THE BELIEVER 147 (FALL 2024)

All subscriptions to The Believer placed before December 1 will include this issue.

Inside Issue 147: Will McGrath tags along with a basketball team of Somali American teenagers as they journey from Minnesota to the Sunshine State for a national tournament; R. Emmet Sweeney describes the many attempts to adapt a bestselling 2,500-page Tamil epic for film; Mychal Denzel Smith turns to online chess after the loss of his mother leaves him unable to write; Sandy Ernest Allen traces our cultural depictions of electroshock therapy; and Boots Riley, in a sprawling interview with Annalee Newitz, discusses comic books, labor strikes, and conversations as art form. You’ll also find interviews with Kaveh Akbar, Kate Zambreno, Jack Stratton of trailblazing indie band Vulfpeck, and punk legend Kathleen Hanna; as well as two new poems by Eduardo C. Corral and Ruben Quesada that have been illustrated by artists Gabrielle Bell and Hartley Lin.

Find all this plus: Giri Nathan on the paranoia in M. Night Shyamalan’s weirdest film; Nick Hornby recommending, with some regret, reading material for Bruce Springsteen fans; and Carrie Brownstein returning to advise on the subject of “healthy” eating. And, as always, even more awaits within these ink-perfumed pages, including small-press book reviews, games, and a grand tour of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities.

Table of Contents:

The Routine
by Katya Apekina

Resurrector: Signs
by Giri Nathan

Stuff I’ve Been Reading
by Nick Hornby

The Process: Tia Cabra
by Eric Farwell

Ask Carrie
by Carrie Brownstein

“Ancient to the Future”
by R. Emmet Sweeney
After Tamil director Mani Ratnam read the historical epic Ponniyin Selvan in college, he embarked on a quixotic, multi-decade journey to adapt it.

Boots Riley
interviewed by Annalee Newitz

“Scholar’s Mate”
by Mychal Denzel Smith

“Sabbatical”
a new poem written by Eduardo C. Corral and illustrated by Gabrielle Bell

Jack Stratton
interviewed by Josh Fischel

“American Boys”
by Will McGrath
On the road with the Cedar-Riverside Warriors, an all-Somali high school basketball team from Minnesota.

Kaveh Akbar
interviewed by India Ennenga

Schema: Conditional Cities
by Mairead Small Staid

“On Voice”
a new poem written by Ruben Quesada and illustrated by Hartley Lin

Kate Zambreno
interviewed by Danielle Dutton

“A Brilliant Cure but We Lost the Patient”
by Sandy Ernest Allen
What do media representations of electroshock tell us about the impact of this controversial treatment?

Kathleen Hanna
interviewed by Melissa Locker

One-Page Reviews Short reviews of small press books, featuring Grace Byron on Oğuz Atay, Sean McCoy on Tilsa Otta, and Celine Nguyen on Lucy Ives.