Sunday Rumpus Fiction: Nobody
Nights at the store, the brother and sister bagged the groceries that tumbled down the conveyors, rarely looking up, a simple nod of the head at a thanks from a customer.
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Posts Tagged: fiction
When Fiction Won’t Let You Lie to Yourself
Why do we incorporate our personal lives into works of fiction? And how do we know when to stop?
In a post for the New York Times‘s “Draft” series, “about the art and craft of writing,” Rumpus columnist Peter Orner recalls a long-ago event that his psyche can’t shake: as a child, he stole a pair of nice gloves from his father.
...more“Some Case Studies in Failure”
“X—well, X is just failing. At taking vitamins. At fully committing himself to the idea of dental hygiene. At opening beer bottles and wine bottles and most bottles made of non-synthetic material. Give X something with a metal lid, and he’ll give it right back to you.”
Failure is front and center in Rumpus interviews editor Rebecca Rubenstein‘s new short story at Used Furniture Review.
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The Rumpus Interview with Elizabeth Gilbert
This is how I think of it: there’s a contract between you and the mystery. And the mystery is the thing that brings life to the work. But your part of the contract is that you have to be the plow mule, or the mystery won’t show up. It might not even show up if you do your work. There’s no guarantee.
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Life in Fiction
I write for the same reason I read: to free fall into a story and live in that world for a while. My novels begin in tiny glimmers—of character, story, scene. When those pieces surface in me, I feel them, not with my mind, but in the body.
...more“Break All the Way Down”
Rumpus essays editor Roxane Gay has a new story over at Joyland.
“The mother of my boyfriend’s youngest child called in the middle of the night. He was asleep, the heat from his body wrapping around us. I stared at the dark shadows of the ceiling fan lazily spinning above us.
...moreFor the Late Bloomers
Bomblog’s Friday “Page Break” series “embraces long-form writing on the web by showcasing original works of fiction by emerging literary talents.” Today they feature Rumpus columnist Alina Simone’s “Late Bloomers,” which is excerpted from her novel-in-progress, Titillation Plus.
...moreFollowing The Rules
“The problem with pulling this kind of thing the wrong way in a speculative-fiction story is that science fiction, fantasy, and horror don’t necessarily share mainstream fiction’s baseline expectations for how reality works, and it’s far too easy to leave audiences feeling cheated, annoyed, or just plain confused when the rules change abruptly, or were ill-defined in the first place.”
...moreTracking Our Literary Style
Is there a distinct difference between our everyday, colloquial speak and written literary language? Fiction has gone through some major evolution since the 19th century when written prose and the vernacular of the time diverged, but this dichotomy has transformed.
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with David Shields (Paperback Edition)
The February 2010 publication of Reality Hunger: A Manifesto, by David Shields, generated an amazing amount of discussion from all sides.
A MODERN READER #3: Extreme Solitude
I have largely avoided The New Yorker’s Fiction section. The stories were about aging women who lived on Cape Cod, or they were set in developing countries. I don’t want to name names, but you know what I’m talking about, the style sometimes described as “suburban malaise.”
The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
The author of the forthcoming My Life with the Lincolns asks what happens when you type Abraham Lincoln into Etsy. The answer is pretty awesome.
Anyone interested in fiction and the Internet should read this now.
...moreThe Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
Happy sexin’ day, everyone!
This isn’t my favorite holiday, so I’m gonna let the Book Bench do all the talkin’ about it with these Dear John letters and some blogging on emails and romance.
Carolyn Kellogg at Jacket Copy points us in the direction of another person calling some sort of fiction dead.
...moreWoman Whose Bio Resembled Novel’s Character Awarded $100K
A woman who claimed a novelist and former friend based the character of a sexually promiscuous alcoholic on her has won a $100,000 libel award from a Georgia jury.
Vicki Stewart claimed that Haywood Smith, a former childhood friend, used her as the basis for a character in her novel The Red Hat Club.
...moreThe Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
The Rumpus Interview with Alasdair Gray
Writer and artist Alasdair Gray is his own best nightmare. It took the modern Scottish bard twenty-five years to finish Lanark: A Life in Four Books (1981), his fat, strangely inspirational novel of urbanism gone awry.
Jim Shepard on Writing Fiction That’s Got Some Truth to It
“The first worry writers have when they consider working with something like historical events has to do with the issue of authority: as in, where do I get off writing about that? Well, here’s the good and the bad news: where do you get off writing about anything? Where do you get off writing about someone of a different gender? A different person? Where do you get off writing about yourself, from twenty years ago?
...more“My Worst Mistake? Getting Sick of My Work”
Fiction writer Michelle Wittle got so tired of going over her short story that she just sent the damn thing out, assuming it had no typos. Oops.
Of course, this is why you have friends read your stuff just to look for typos that make you look like a lamebrain.
...moreThe Storymatic
I’ve always been a sucker for writing prompts, even though they have a way of sometimes being cheesy, forced, and ultimately silly. But recently I came across this interesting product, a paper-based prompt generator that would seem to strike the right balance of specific detail and vague suggestion.
...moreFor the love of God, we are not Generation Y
A little while ago, I got sick of hearing that my generation—which for some God awful reason is called Generation Y—was spoiled, lazy and stupid, all while we were fighting wars (one of which, I seem to remember, we were lied to about) and getting laid off in record numbers.
...moreWhat You Think is Sad: Gabriele Basilico and San Francisco Noir
She always knew it would come to this. A screaming horde of bucknaked smutcrazed rapists banging on her glass ticket kiosk. She crossed herself and with a single prayer commended her soul to the Lord’s Everafter and consigned her flesh to the Devil’s own Here and Now.
...moreFiction from Liana Scalettar
Mom’s weirdo daughter brings home her arty theater friends. Mom makes what she hopes are ductile acquiescent noises. Mom’s boyfriend doesn’t buy it. He wants the friends gone. Mom resists. Weirdo daughter and company put on a show. Daughter wants Mom’s attention (secretly, of course) but Mom, trying her best, still somehow fails her daughter’s test.