Back in 2002, when I was still in college, I lived in DC for a quarter in a quad dorm room that felt like the set of a queerish Adam Sandler movie. I—a semi-closeted bisexual drunk—lived with a gay guy from Beverly Hills …more

Sunday the day to catch up with Rumpus Books. …more

Sunday’s the day to catch up with Rumpus Books. …more

Rumpus Books was up to a helluva lot this week. …more

Writers, listen up: I’ve got a pretty cool call for submissions for you.

Fiddleblack, a small press and literary journal, is seeking fiction and nonfiction submissions for its digital winter issue and 2012 print annual. There are a few thematic specifics they desire, but overall Fiddleblack is looking for sharp and dusky work with a strong sense of place. Sometime next year, they’ll begin accepting unsolicited queries for their small press, so be sure to sign up for the mailing list.

Contact them at editor@fiddleblack.org with any questions, or to query directly.

The Rumpus’ own Nicholas Rombes is featured in Fiddleback #2.

Ouch. A really harsh rejection to Gertrude Stein. 

Here’s a lovely essay on hate.

An interview with a conspiracy theorist (via).

Feeling political? Here’s some revolutionary reading, from Lewis Lapham’s. (via)

Sunday’s the day to catch up with Rumpus Books.  …more

Kadafi’s book bans are over. 

At The Guardian, on “the many futures of books.”

On the lack of literary apps.

Three Percent wants you to know what translators look like. (not too bad, not too bad at all.)

It was one hell of a week at Rumpus Books. Come see what you missed. …more

I’m feeling concise.

You can check out and help build the Occupy Wall Street library catalogue here.

Books that aren’t quite books? (via)

How self-publishing is taking off in China.

Interactive book covers.

Sunday’s the day to catch up with Rumpus Books. …more

Sunday’s the day to catch up with Rumpus Books. …more

“Citizens United may have transformed Corporations into People… And Occupy Wall Street – Occupy the World – has transformed people into Citizens. Into activists. And in the end – I would bet my personal 99 percenter savings on it – real citizenship will trump fake person-hood.”

— At CNBC, Jerry Stahl on what makes Occupy Wall Street so powerful to so many.

A Men's Wearhouse shutting down for the Oakland General Strike

Well this is going to be something.

Oakland’s general strike is today. Organizers are expecting tens of thousands of people. Almost every labor union has endorsed, and students will be walking out all over the Bay Area (solidarity statements here).

Businesses throughout Oakland are shutting down (partial list here), including, apparently, Men’s Wearhouse(!) and the Grand Park Theater (here’s their marquee.) Some of Oakland’s schools will close and nearly 200 teachers have requested subs for the day. UCSF nursing students will be working medical in Oakland.

Here’s how you can participate, wherever you are. NLG/OccupyLegal hotline will be on all day and night tomorrow. Call 415-285-1011 with any reports of arrests or police brutality. If you’re going to protest, write the number on your arm or skin somewhere. They will take your phone if arrested.

What’s happening today is really important.

Don’t believe me? Here’s writers from Jerry Stahl to Ursula Le Guin to Alice Walker to D.A. Powell talking about Occupy Wall Street.  …more

So, here’s something amazing.

Tomorrow, November 2nd, Occupy Oakland is organizing the first general strike in America since 1946.

Can we just stop and sit with that for a moment?   …more

I am freakin’ loopy today.

Jessa Crispin explains why you’re not really crazy. (and maybe I’m not either!)

Because this is the type of thing that I might get in trouble for posting on The Rumpus, and because I’m gonna do it anyway: “The Presidents of the United States of America, Sorted Into Hogwarts Houses.”

Okay fine, here’s something that’s maybe the opposite of that: a blog on Joan Didion’s use of details in Salvador at The Paris Review. 

(Come on folks, impress me. I can tell which ones you click on, you know.)

Via The Millions, here’s something on PDA in the library (WARNING: This is a bad pun.)

It was a good week at Rumpus Books. Come see what you might’ve missed. …more

By pretty much all accounts, last night was tense but hopeful for the Occupy movement in the Bay Area. (For an account of the national movement, check out Brian Spears’ roundup from this morning.)

This is somewhat of a relief after Tuesday night, when a coalition of Bay Area police used tear gas, nonlethal rounds, and more in Oakland, critically injuring 24 year-old veteran Scott Olsen by shooting him in the face with a projectile and then throwing a flash grenade at the people trying to help him. There are also reports of a journalist having the camera ripped out of his hands and then being shot with a beanbag by the police when he protested. Al Jazeera is citing an unconfirmed report that one prisoner has been beaten, called “Poncho” for being Latino, and tortured for filing a police brutality claim. 

The fallout is immense. Occupy Oakland reclaimed Frank Ogawa Plaza last night, though as of now I hear the encampment is small. It is looking increasingly likely that the violence will cost Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, the Oakland Police Chief, and others their careers. Quan’s legal advisor has publicly stated he is considering quitting in protest.  …more

A woman in a wheelchair comes through a cloud of teargas

Holy crap.

As many of you know, on Monday night, Oakland police raided the Occupy Oakland encampment, arresting and tear-gassing residents and destroying the entire camp. Last night, 500-1500 people reportedly came out to protest, and they were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, a sound cannon and concussion grenades.

Just to portray the seriousness of this, here is a protesting man, reportedly a veteran, shot in the face with a nonlethal round (difficult, NSFW). (The police chief denied the use of rubber bullets.) …more

“I will find a way to harm you or cause you suffering* if you fuck with the mechanics of this piece” — DFW writes to Harper’s and signs with a skull and crossbones. 

Maud Newton eats rattlesnake, and it’s kind of gross!

“The imperative to develop new technologies and implement them on a heroic scale no longer seems like the childish preoccupation of a few nerds with slide rules. It’s the only way for the human race to escape from its current predicaments.” — At Matt Bell’s blog, some wise words from Neal Stephenson.

Here’s where some of the inspiration for Stoker’s Dracula came from. 

Sunday’s the day to catch up with Rumpus Books. Here’s what we published last week. …more

I just spent 16 hours on a train going from San Francisco to LA. I hate everyone in the world right now except … no, no exceptions. Everyone. Sorry. As a result, though, everything I link to today will be awesome. And by awesome I mean nerdy. Because nerdy things make me happy.

Stan Lee! Kids Imprint! 

Tor’s got a comic about all morticians losing their jobs! 

Margaret Atwood is making a sci-fi book out of straw! 

And here’s a triple-crown nerd affair, which may actually have improved my mood: NPR has a flowchart on the best 100 sci-fi and fantasy books.

Sunday’s the day to catch up with Rumpus Books. Come see what you missed this week. …more

Last night, as part of the Occupy SF Art and Performance Series, Foxtails Brigade, Sherilynn Connelly, and others came out to support the protestors at Bierman Park. By pretty much all accounts, it was incredible.

Foxtails Brigade—with Laura Weinbach, Anton Patzner (Judgement Day, Bright Eyes), Jo Lewis (Os Beaches, F-Pod B-Pod) and Jascha Hoffman—even played an encore presentation at the main camp in front of the Federal Reserve when they finished at Bierman.

Today, at 3pm in front of the Federal Reserve, Classical Revolution will be playing. Come check it out, talk to the protestors, and get involved.

This is freakin’ awesome, folks. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

This week, come check out the Occupy SF Art and Performance Series, with local awesomes like Michelle Tea, Nato Green, Kamau Bell, Heklina, Literary Death Match’s Alia Volz, and more

A few days ago, Hiya Swanhuyser and I ran into each other as we were checking out Occupy SF in front of the Federal Reserve downtown. What we saw down there was exciting, no doubt, but a little underwhelming. The Mayor seems to be screwing with the occupation on every technicality he can, and many I’ve talked to don’t seem as excited about this particular occupation as they do the ones in New York and LA and Chicago. …more

A “(h)elpless tribute, I suppose, to the all-time ego king.”

Jonathan Lethem has a phenomenal essay on Norman Mailer over at the LA Review of Books, which is also really turning into a sort of powerhouse in its own right.

“It’s new for many observers, on the left and the right, to grasp how a movement might unfold without a clear agenda, set of leaders — or even one anthem. Many people find the non-hierarchical structure of Occupy Wall Street frustrating. Among the presumptions it overturns is the one that leads us to expect and emblematic musical performance: that new Dylan or Baez or Mahalia Jackson lifting every voice toward song.”

At NPR, Ann Powers on what sort of music scene is unfolding down on Wall Street.

How’s that for a sentence you never thought you’d hear?