The Daily Rumpus
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From Stephen Elliott
This month, the Rumpus Book Club has been reading the latest novel from Emily St. John Mandel, The Lola Quartet. Here’s some of what other people have been saying about the book.
Library Journal says of it “Evocative, intriguing, and complex, this novel is as smooth as the underbelly of a deadly, furtive reptile.
...moreWelcome to The Rumpus’s National Poetry Month project. We’ll be running a new poem from a different poet each day for the month of April.
The Story Gets Away From Him
Billy Collins
is dining with friends.
W. S. DiPiero has been awarded the 2012 Ruth Lilly Prize by the Poetry Foundation. From the Poetry Foundation website: “Presented annually to a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is one of the most prestigious awards given to American poets.
...moreThat’s one hell of a birthday present, there. A Pulitzer Prize!
We’d like to point out that The Rumpus Poetry Book Club had an idea of just how awesome this book was even before it officially came out. Not that we’re bragging or anything.
...moreWelcome to The Rumpus’s National Poetry Month project. We’ll be running a new poem from a different poet each day for the month of April.
Semi-Aubade
When I wake in the morning,
my mind is black.
The news broke earlier today that George Zimmerman will be charged for the killing of Trayvon Martin. The charge is second-degree murder. Something important to remember about this case: Trayvon Martin was killed 46 days ago. This only became a bit of a story less than a month ago.
...moreAdrienne Rich, one of the preeminent poets of the 20th and early 21st centuries, has died at the age of 82, according to the LA Times. I don’t really have much to add–she was an amazing poet and powerful presence on the poetic scene, and her influence can be seen in the work of tons of people writing today.
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If you came by the Rumpus table at the AWP convention in Chicago last week you might have seen me or my partner/book designer Amy Letter demonstrating this anthology.
Aging eyes can adversely affect your health.
Easily pronounced names may make people more likable. I wonder if there’s a backlash against names which get too popular?
Do you want to know what microbes are living on your smartphone?
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The AWP Convention starts this coming Wednesday, and The Rumpus will be there. Thursday night we’ll be raising money for 826 Chicago, which is an awesome youth literacy program and which is home to The Boring Store, which is definitely not a secret agent supply store.
...moreTwo days ago I watched rain turn into snow and back into rain again over a three minut stretch. I’ve never seen that before.
Hooray for Kickstarter–I really mean that–but it’s more than a little messed up that they’re going to distribute more money this year than the NEA, not because Kickstarter is distributing so much, but because the NEA is distributing so little, especially when compared to what the federal government spends on much less beneficial programs.
...moreThe Crab Nebula may be acting as a fast particle accelerator.
If you’re going to take a picture of a black hole, you apparently need a telescope the size of Earth. So some scientists are building one, sort of.
...moreIt might not be the worst poem in the universe, as was recently claimed on Wikipedia, but Gina Rinehart’s paean to mining is pretty bad. I’ll copy a couple of couplets here for you, and you can decide whether to go read the rest.
...moreHard to believe, but in a week and a half, The Rumpus will be in Chicago for the AWP convention, and we’ll reading to raise money for 826 Chicago on the evening of March 1. I’ve been with the Rumpus for 3 years and this will be my first Rumpus event, unless you count standing next to Isaac at the table while he entices convention goers with his requests to “check out our sweet mugs.” Readers will include Nick Flynn, Sommer Browning, Peter Orner, Stephen Elliott, me, and the newly un-anonymous Sugar, Cheryl Strayed.
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Rumpus Poetry Editor Brian Spears on why he selected D. A. Powell’s Useless Landscape or A Guide for Boys for the Rumpus Poetry Book Club in February.
I for one welcome our origami robot overlords.
So this story has a bat fly trapped in amber that’s 20 million years old. Who makes this into a movie?
NASA has awesome space pictures, which you would expect.
...moreLast night the low was 1. Not Celsius either. In Celsius it was like negative fuck-you. Earlier in the day I looked out the door and saw bright sunny skies. Then I walked outside and discovered just how cold it can possibly be even when the sun is out.
...moreThe 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage after the California Supreme Court had previously found that same-sex couples had the right to marry. You can find a link to the actual ruling at SCOTUSblog.
...moreIt’s taken 20 years, but Russian scientists are about to breach Lake Vostok, which has been covered by the Antarctic ice cap for 14 million years.
Hey you folks–if you need volunteers to test these virtual reality contact lenses, right here.
...moreA lot, really. First of all, we’re about to chat with Aase Berg and Johannes Gorannson about Berg’s book Transfer Fat It’s the first time we’ve done a translation, and we’re very excited to be able to talk with both the poet and the translator.
...moreI usually try to start things out on the light side on Saturday mornings. I mean, I haven’t watched Saturday morning cartoons in twenty years now I guess (do they even still exist?) and I’ve traded in sugary cereal for homemade breakfast burritos (so good I included a promise to make them at least once a week in my wedding vows, not that I’m bragging), so why start with a downer?
...moreUpdate: The Susan G. Komen Foundation has reversed its decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood.
I doubt the board of the Susan G. Komen Foundation had any idea what sort of blowback they were going to get when Planned Parenthood announced that Komen had decided to stop funding some of Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer work.
...moreThe SOPA/PIPA debates have reopened the discussion over the issue of online piracy, over whether or not it’s stealing, over the amount of economic damage it does to content producers, and whether or not the response will destroy the internet as we currently know it.
...moreSome interesting symmetries between social networks today and in the Pleistocene.
Rebecca Boyle deals with the question of whether some research is so dangerous that it shouldn’t be pursued.
Crazy solar flares have been causing amazing light shows in the night skies, but they’re having another effect, too–they’re cleaning up some of the space junk in orbit.
...moreGetting a late start today, but I still have some interesting reading for you to do.
Tell me if you’ve heard this story before: legislator puts forth a bill which targets a mostly powerless group of people, then withdraws it when its onerous requirements are potentially turned around on him.
...moreI’ve applauded Anonymous in the past, but this is not cool. The second you start drafting people into your cause without their knowledge, you become the thing you rail against.
Hello again grizzled langurs. Glad you’re not all dead after all.
...moreThe weather app on my phone has stopped giving me the temperature and has started simply laughing at me. That is, when it’s not giving me the temperature in Kelvin as a way of cheering me up.
Rumpus superstar Roxane Gay takes on “The anger of the male novelist at Salon.
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Barbara Jane Reyes is the author of Diwata (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2010), recently noted as a finalist for the California Book Award. She was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the author of two previous collections of poetry,
Can’t help myself–I’m a sucker for high speed video of birds in flight. There are few things I find more elegant.
Russia’s Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt (not making that name up), is probably going to crash to earth on Sunday.
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