Paris Review Editor Lorin Stein Resigns Amid Sexual Misconduct Investigation

Lorin Stein, the editor of The Paris Review, has resigned from his position in the midst of an internal investigation into his treatment of female employees and contributing writers at the literary magazine, The New York Times reported Wednesday. 

Stein, a highly esteemed figure in the literary world, submitted his resignation to the magazine’s board on Wednesday afternoon. He provided a copy to the Times without comment. In the letter, Stein apologized for his behavior and said he had “only begun to understand this past month” how his actions had degraded women. 

“At times in the past, I blurred the personal and the professional in ways that were, I now recognize, disrespectful of my colleagues and our contributors, and that made them feel uncomfortable or demeaned,” he wrote. “I am very sorry for any hurt I caused them.”

The magazine’s board released a statement speaking out against workplace harassment but declined to comment on Stein specifically. 

“The Paris Review has no tolerance for sexual harassment,” the statement read. “We are committed to whatever is necessary to insure that The Paris Review is free from harassment and discrimination of any kind.” 

The board will release a more comprehensive statement tomorrow after its meeting, board president Terry McDonell said. 

According to the Times, Stein previously admitted to the board that he had dated and otherwise expressed interest in interns and writers for the magazine and that he had engaged in consensual sexual behavior in the office after hours before he was married in 2015.

The investigation into his behavior was launched in October after Stein notified the board that his name appeared on a secretive, crowdsourced list of men accused of sexual misconduct, the Times reported. During the investigation, at least two female writers came forward with complaints about the editor’s behavior toward them. 

Stein is the latest in a series of high-profile media figures to either step down or be fired from their roles, including NBC’s Matt Lauer, PBS’s Charlie Rose, MSNBC ’s Mark Halperin, NPR’s Michael Oreskes and The Atlantic’s Leon Wieseltier.