Posts Tagged: immigrants

“The Book I Said I Would Never Write”: Talking with Karolina Ramqvist

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Karolina Ramqvist discusses The White City, her first novel to be translated to English, and the idea of a writer's persona out in the world versus a just being a writer, writing. ...more

In Between the In-Between: Talking with Jenny Zhang

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Jenny Zhang discusses her story collection Sour Heart, trying to escape the past, collective versus individual responsibility for trauma, and love as imprisonment. ...more

Your Patriotism Isn’t Love, It’s Blindness

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Love of country, some argue. With their boots firmly planted in my chest as I struggle to protest. No, that is not love, but blindness. ...more

A Specific Kind of Loneliness: In Conversation with Geeta Kothari

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Geeta Kothari discusses her debut collection, American xenophobia, and the immigrant narrative. ...more

Readers Report: The New Patriot

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A collection of short pieces written by Rumpus readers pertaining to the subject of “The New Patriot.” ...more

What Is Being Charted Here?: Talking with Jennifer S. Cheng

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Poet and essayist Jennifer S. Cheng discusses her collection House A, working "in the dark," and the idea of home. ...more

TORCH: My American Playground

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I left the car by the roadside and ran up the slope, in tears now, reaching the picnic tables and swings and, as bright and vivid as in my dreams, my purple-shaped climbing frame, exactly as I remembered it. ...more

On Speaking Plainly: A Conversation with Rajith Savanadasa

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Rajith Savanadasa discusses his debut novel, Ruins, writing across oceans, and the chance encounter with refugees that led to the story at the heart of his novel. ...more

VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Tamiko Nimura

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Tamiko Nimura talks about the influence of history, memory, and silence on her work; creating a private MFA for herself; and writing a generational memoir. ...more

Rumpus Original Fiction: Day of the Dead

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Octavio is tired, tired of trying to separate what he remembers so vividly from the memories he can barely make out in the fog. ...more

Haunted by Child Refugees: Valeria Luiselli’s Tell Me How It Ends

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These aren’t ghosts; these are children who have braved a perilous journey to escape the violent nightmares back home. ...more

Family Is the Deepest Scar: Minae Mizumura’s Inheritance from Mother

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With each word, I found myself thinking of my own grandmother’s journey, escaping war to America with no money, no education, and six children, the pain of this experience inevitably hardening the whole family. ...more

TORCH: Blood Trauma

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But still: A pattern. The trauma had been diluted by time. But, it was still present, still discernible, in my blood. ...more

The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #26: Love Is the Ultimate Trip

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My day job is driving on the ride sharing platform, Lyft. Several years ago, I retired from teaching school to devote myself to writing and painting and lived off savings until I couldn’t. Four years ago, I started driving Lyft so I wouldn’t have to take a straight job and could focus on my creative work.

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Mothers of My Diaspora

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It paralyzes me to think about the sacrifices my family made before I was in my mother’s womb. When they came here they knew they would lose a part of their language, their memories, their sanctity of self. ...more

TORCH: Lessons From My Grandma on Language and Silence

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The sounds I made were pleasant to my ears, but that’s all they were to me. I was too young to understand what culture and heritage meant, too young to understand the reasons behind memorizing ancient poems. ...more

The Saturday Rumpus Essay: The Savage Mind, Pt. 1

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The violence came in and we were not just in danger of being victims of it. We were in danger of being violent ourselves. ...more

Corinne Lee and Finding an Antidote to America’s Toxicity

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Poet Corinne Lee on writing her epic book-length poem Plenty and finding new ways to live in a rapidly changing world. ...more

Lesley Nneka Arimah’s Characters Muscle Their Way through Girlhood

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In our current political climate with its rampant animosity towards immigrants, Arimah offers a humanizing portrait of both the Nigerian citizen and first generation young female immigrant. ...more

Interrogating the English Language with Safiya Sinclair

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To be forced to speak in the language of the colonist, the language of the oppressor, while also carrying within us the storm of Jamaican patois, we live under a constant hurricane of our doubleness. ...more

This Week in Indie Bookstores

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Bookstores are getting more political because of Trump.

And as it turns out, getting political is pretty good for business.

Facebook deleted and then restored an Oak Park, Michigan bookstore’s page over a stray copyright claim.

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The Rumpus Interview with Viet Thanh Nguyen

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Viet Than Nguyen discusses his story collection The Refugees, growing up in a Vietnamese community in San Jose in the 1980s, and the power of secondhand memories. ...more

TORCH: Growing Season

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I ask Hussein if he’s proud of the work he’s doing. He says that he is. We stop talking. For a moment, the market feels like peace. ...more

This Week In Trumplandia

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Welcome to This Week in Trumplandia. Check in with us every Thursday for a weekly roundup of the most pertinent content on our country, which is currently spiraling down a crappy toilet drain. You owe it to yourself, your communities, and your humanity to contribute whatever you can, even if it is just awareness of the truth.

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We Brown Women

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Our bodies will not be your banners. We are not yours to use and abuse, we are not yours to dupe. We see through your words, and we see your violence. ...more

This Week in Books: I Brake for Moose and Other Stories

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Welcome to This Week in Books, where we highlight books just released by small and independent presses. Books have always been a symbol for and means of spreading knowledge and wisdom, and they are an important part of our toolkit in fighting for social justice.

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