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Rumpus Book ClubThe Rumpus Poetry Book Club
Because our book club has been so much fun, and because we also love poetry and think people should read more poetry, we are starting a Rumpus Poetry Book Club.
How it works: Exactly the same as our regular book club, but a little cheaper because most of the books are expected to be paperbacks, though a lot of them will probably be hardcover as well. So it’s $20 a month for domestic or $33 for international.
Every month a forthcoming poetry book will be chosen by a member of our poetry advisory board: Brian Spears, Camille Dungy, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, and Matthew Zapruder (more information on the advisory board here). Some times we’ll let a special guest choose a book. The chooser of the book will write a post about why they picked this specific book and host that month’s online discussion with the book club and the author. To see what one of those discussions look like go here. We’ll publish an edited version of the discussion on The Rumpus, something like this.
Books will ship to members roughly a month before the publication date. International members will get their books shipped using international priority mail, which is expensive, but the only way to get you the book in a timely fashion.
Our second selection is Timothy Donnelly’s The Cloud Corporation, chose by Gabrielle Calvocoressi.
You can write a review of the book and we’ll run the best written review(s) on the website. You don’t have to participate in the discussion or review the book, you could just subscribe to receive a new, unpublished poetry book every month.
We’re going to try to only read good books. Of course, all creative writing is subjective. But if we choose a poetry book it’s because we believe it’s really good. We’ll often have to chose between several really good poetry books, but there’s no way around that.
Hope you can join us in this. Our first month with the book club was so fun and we just want to keep going with it, and we want to include the poets.
Domestic
International:
June 30th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Another thing to add to my monthly budget. This is a great idea.
June 30th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
You won’t regret it!
June 30th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
On it. This is amazing.
July 1st, 2010 at 5:01 am
I may be in debt, but what’s another $20 a month for intellectual stimulation?
July 1st, 2010 at 8:16 am
Intellectual stimulation: a deal at any price.
July 1st, 2010 at 9:29 am
Subscription must have.
July 1st, 2010 at 11:55 am
This is a great idea and spmething I haven’t seen before (a poetry bookclub). Worth bringing lunch a few times to pay for.
July 1st, 2010 at 3:22 pm
Uh oh. This I gotta do. $20 a month for poetry during the worst economic downturn in generations. Yeah! Actually, it makes all the sense in the world.
Thank you, Rumpus, for helping me keep my priorities straight.
July 1st, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Thank you Sarah!
July 3rd, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Argh, out of work and already part of the Rumpus book club…but I cannot resist….
July 9th, 2010 at 11:56 am
starts looking under sofa cushions for spare change…
July 13th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Goodbye $20 budget for knitting, hello $20 budget for poetry.
July 27th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
rough months ahead.
August 13th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Hi, this sounds wonderful. There is a poetry book that your readers might like: Scrapbook of Poetry, A collection of 30 poems that allows for the reader to paste photos beside the poetry. The author’s web-site is, pagesbycrystal.weebly.com
August 23rd, 2010 at 7:15 am
I am _so_ interested in doing this. Sure it costs money, but it also takes up time, and time is money, or negative money. You can invoke the Black-Scholes formula and show this, I’m pretty sure. Or you can think of it this way: if I spend money in this way, I am reducing the amount of money I spend in other ways. I am also reducing the amount of money I will earn in the future, because when I read poetry I am not learning what I’m supposed to learn to keep my professional credentials current and stay productive. If enough people do that, and they are, I think, you can kiss Social Security goodbye.
August 24th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Cool idea. I just signed up.
August 31st, 2010 at 5:13 pm
I think this will be one of the best ways to spend $20/month! Much love to Tayari Jones for turning her followers onto this site! I received my copy of The Cloud Corporation in the mail today, can’t wait to dig in!