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From Stephen Elliott
The next Letter in the Mail, going out April 30, is from Seth Fischer!
Seth is a Rumpus contributor and former editor as well as the founding editor of The Splinter Generation. His writing has appeared in publications like Pank and Guernica.
...moreAwesome news! Megan Stielstra’s Rumpus essay “Channel B” will appear in The Best American Essays 2013, guest edited by our very own Cheryl Strayed (aka Dear Sugar).
Seth Fischer’s “Notes from a Unicorn” will be listed as a notable essay.
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I want to write the world off as brutish and cruel, to go all Gordon Gecko, or maybe Don Draper, to stop worrying about the people around me and start looking out for number one, maybe learn Parkour, or at the very least learn to throw a punch
...more“There was one other mythical bi man in the entire city, but try as I might, I never found him. At the gay bar, I sometimes got called a ‘half-breeder.’”
Seth Fischer’s Rumpus essay “Notes from a Unicorn” has made the Best Sex Writing of 2013 book!
...moreHere’s a few very short stories for your Monday morning:
“When a door opens and you can’t see who’s coming, it’s almost always a cat that would like to be your lover.” — At BLIP MAGAZINE, “The Cat Lover” by Thaisa Frank.
“We sweet-lipped drag queens for clean sheets.” — At The Collagist, “And Then We Were Happy” by T Kira Madden.
“She shakes her head and says, “I don’t drink.” She did years ago.
...moreHere are links to stories I read this week that I liked and I hope you’ll like too.
“It’s not that we wouldn’t be able to lay our hands on bodily fluids via some other avenue, says Stephen, it’s just that prohibiting their sale on eBay is an egregious encroachment of our rights as Americans.” At Necessary Fiction, ”Things We Have Tried Unsuccessfully To Purchase On eBay” by Andreas Trolf.
“When Crawford brought back Gabby from the Philippines, he asked what we thought of some green eyed Asian children running around the farm one day,” Granny said in a low aside.” — At The Dead Mule of Southern Literature, “The Acceptance Speech” by Hope Denney.
...moreEvery Monday I link to very short fiction I like that I hope you’ll like too:
“When we reach the street, the houses are dark, except for one—the grey one with the white trim, chain link fence, black oak tree.” — At Waccamaw, “A House Made of Stars” by Tawnysha Greene.
“On the street the air is fifty knives of cold. This is not Alaska. Why did we move here?” — At Fiction Southeast, “Winter” by Aimee Bender.
...moreIt’s Monday morning, so here’s some links to some wonderful very short writing that made my day better and hopefully makes your day better too.
Also, in a side note, I’m very sad to learn that > kill author will be closing down, but I’m excited to read the last issue on Wednesday.
...moreHere are some excerpts from and links to some very short writing that made my day better and hopefully makes your day better too.
“Doesn’t it make you feel like an old-timey big-city career girl, carrying parcels up your stoop, struggling to unlock your door, when a handsome stranger in a suit comes up outta nowhere and offers to lend a hand…” At Anderbo, “My Sister Bags Groceries,” nonfiction by Alexandra Tanner.
...moreIt’s been awhile since I’ve been a-Rumpusing, but I got this email from the talented Ashley Bethard thanking me for including her in an old Here Are Some Stories I Like link list, and I got to thinking about how much I loved doing those, so I asked Isaac if I could do them again, and he said yes.
...more“Cheryl Strayed uses her voice to emotionally connect with her readers, to use craft towards that end and not in spite of it. Which is all just to say that the lesson Cheryl is giving writers is just as valuable as the story Cheryl is giving readers: Don’t forget that craft is a means to an end, and not simply an end in itself.”
Rumpus contributor Seth Fischer writes about what Sugar‘s Wild taught him as a writer.
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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
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).
...moreBy 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.
...moreSeth Fischer, our intrepid Sunday editor, recently relayed unto us his current house-sitting/writing endeavors down in L.A. His author interview on Neon Tommy covers the differences of being a writer in the two distant urban poles of California, his foray into online literature, thoughts on punk rock and the editorial life.
...moreHere are links to some very short fiction that made my day better. This week, for some reason, they all have to do with critters. Enjoy!
“I was sixteen when I saw my first, standing stock-still and straight upright, like a statue, in the dark, cool cellar of my boyfriend’s mother’s weekend house.” — At anderbo, “Bad Little Boyfriends” by Lauren Waterman.
...moreEver get so frustrated with the Internet that you wanna just take a pen and write right on top of the screen?
Well, that happened to me so many times that I decided to start a website where people do just that—or the closest possible thing to it—by taking a screenshot and writing right over the top of the web with the software that comes with almost every computer.
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I’m not exactly an insider here at The Rumpus. I’m not really an outsider either. I’m the Sunday editor.
Here’s some very short essays that only take a moment to read and that made me feel something. Hopefully they’ll do the same for you. I got a brief excerpt of each one below. Click on the link for the whole essay.
...moreThe Book Bench pointed me in the direction of this phenomenal time waster of a site called Unwords, which is “a dictionary devoted to made-up words.” Thanks a lot, Book Bench.
I decided immediately upon finding the word “toilet toupee” (any shag carpet toilet cover that causes the lid to become top-heavy, thus creating endless annoyance to male users) that I had to use these words to write a first sentence to a hypothetical short story.
...moreWho doesn’t like bookplate porn? (via)
The Rumpus doesn’t do pop culture, but if you happen to have written something about Lady Gaga, you might want to send it here. (PS. GIANT doesn’t lie. Kate Durbin is awesome.)
Apparently, this Orange Prize judge thinks women — at least the women nominated for the Orange Prize — write too much “misery lit.”
Which is more violent — The Bible or the Quran?
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