THE BELIEVER 143 (FALL 2023)

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Named the best magazine of 2022 by Alta.

In Issue 143 of The Believer, Katie Gee Salisbury searches for the true originators of cinema’s most famous Asian detective; public educator Lauren Markham reports on America’s homeschooling surge; and Anika Banister tracks Garfield’s transition from syndicated comic to viral meme muse. We have feature interviews with Jeff Daniels, Gene Luen Yang, Nathaniel Dorsky, and Annie-B Parson, plus a micro-chat with Noor Naga. Also, Ken Howe revisits his decade-long hunt for every volume in the New York Edition of Henry James, and Mallika Rao unpacks the female ingenuity behind a Turkmen carpet. You’ll find more from the usual suspects, Nick Hornby and Carrie Brownstein, as well as guest columns by Deb Olin Unferth and Maris Kreizman. Also: a new comic about an odd bird from Teddy Goldenberg, author trivia typewritten by Joy Williams herself, poems, reviews, and even more.

Table of Contents:

Notes & Apologies
by The Editors

Underway: Chloé Cooper Jones

Resurrector: Liz Phair
by Maris Kreizman

Stuff I’ve Been Reading
by Nick Hornby

Close Read: Denny
by Mallika Rao

Ask Carrie
by Carrie Brownstein

Sacrifice Zone: Eagle Ford Shale by Deb Olin Unferth

“What Henry James Has Done for Me ”
by Ken Howe
A book-loving dermatologist recounts his decade-long pursuit of the complete New York Edition of Henry James.

“Odd Bird”
a new comic by Teddy Goldenberg

Gene Luen Yang
interviewed by Amy Kurzweil

“Lasagna Nation”
by Anika Banister
How Garfield grew from an old-fashioned newspaper comic into an omnipresent staple of internet meme culture.

Jeff Daniels
interviewed by Amanda Uhle

“Tune In, Drop Out, Homeschool”
by Lauren Markham
What is public school for? And what does it mean if we, as a society, are abandoning it?

“My Doctor Warns Me”
a new poem by Camille Rankine

Annie-B Parson
interviewed by Jordan Kisner

“The Man Without a Face”
by Katie Gee Salisbury
The best-known performances of the fictional detective Charlie Chan were done by white actors in yellowface. Who were the little-known Asian thespians who preceded them?

Place: Lac du Bois
by Ruby Sutton

Nathaniel Dorsky
interviewed by Will Epstein

One-Page Reviews
Short reviews of small press books, featuring Clara Sankey on Pip Adam, Nina Li Coomes on Hiroaki Sato, Sam Sax on Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Anne K. Yoder on Ben Fama, and Ricardo Frasso Jaramillo on Margarita García Robayo.

Noor Naga
interviewed by Ginger Greene

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