Listen in to Here & Now as Rumpus columnist Steve Almond discusses the 2012 Pulitzer Prize fiction indecision–and why it may be a good thing. Almond argues that we are overly invested in literary awards and suggests that the Pulitzer process should focus on the deliberations rather than the voting.

“The most fascinating thing you could do with all these contests is to have a transcript of these conversations, because that way they’d be talking about the books, instead of saying, ‘Book A wins for whatever mysterious reason.’”

Let’s say you work at the Renaissance Esmeralda in Indian Wells, just down the road from Palm Springs. You do maintenance stuff: irrigation, pool filters, plumbing. …more

The Story Prize announced their choices for outstanding and notable story collections of 2011. TSP features Rumpus columnist Steve Almond’s God Bless America, along with a number of Rumpus Book Club selections, including Daniel Orozco’s Orientation and Other Stories and Jim Shepard’s You Think That’s Bad.

A quick pop quiz for the upwardly mobile couch potato: what theme unites virtually all our marquee cable television shows? …more

We’re ending the week with a big ol’ Rumpus bang. Steve Almond kicked off a brand-new column, THE WEEK IN GREED. Plus, Rick Moody is back in action with a new SWINGING MODERN SOUNDS. Hooray!

Because of flaws in my character that I am helpless to correct, I spent some minutes last week watching a clip on the BDM[1] of folks cheering the eventual Republican nominee for President, Willard Mitt Romney. Romney had just won another primary. The crowd began chanting Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! …more

In Steve Almond’s new story collection, God Bless America, Almond does what he does best—eviscerate and then forgive our pitiful culture of excess. …more

A Rumpus Lamentation on What We Lost

Say you took the long view of September 11, 2001, the view from the heavens, the view of a compassionate celestial being. From up there, you’d see that approximately 150,000 earthlings died that day. …more

After decades of unlimited wealth and power, Gadhafi’s on the run. Such a steep decline from rich to running can only incite the imagination. Salon.com got a slew of authors to imagine the intricacies of Gadhafi’s current reality. Steve Almond imagined the unrequited love story of Gadhafi and Condoleeza Rice. Here’s one particularly enticing passage:

“He stepped into a room and a great calm settled, like the veil a bride might wear, something to lure and disguise, and this was the sensation of balance, of knowing whom to embrace, whom to shun, whom to dismiss into the night with its perfume of balsam and gasoline. How, then, to explain the feelings stirred in him by Leezza? The lurch beneath his ribs? The moist trembling of his tongue?”

The Rumpus and the Bay Citizen are excited to announce our next monthly event, “We Love You From the Start.”

August’s event features a slew of brilliant writers: Melissa Febos, Brendan Constantine, Steve Fainaru, and Steve Almond. Nato Green is bringing the comedic entertainment! And there will be musical performance by the amazing Unwoman.

August 8th, 7pm, The Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd Street, San Francisco. $10, cheap! You can’t afford not to go!

Hosted by Rumpus Managing Editor Isaac Fitzgerald!

From our Pacific Northwesterly neighbors, a new Tin House podcast featuring Steve Almond for your enjoyment.

Steve Almond provides a lecture from last summer’s Writer’s Workshop, “Everything They Told You in MFA School Was Wrong, Except For The Debt.” He poses questions like, “What is writing?” It’s not “making shit up” but “decision-making.” There’s humor, there’s sarcasm, strong opinions and poignant life-lessons, true to Almond form.

Gil Scott-Heron died on May 27, at age 62. As I write this, there’s no official cause of death. We’ll know soon enough. This is America, after all. Whatever the medical details suggest, I’m listing his official cause of death as grief. …more

David Sirota writes a weekly column that appears in dozens of newspapers. He has his own radio show. And he’s a frequent guest on cable TV gabfests. These facts should qualify Sirota as a pundit.

But it feels wrong – and slightly dirty – to use that word. …more

Publishing Perspectives covers Rumpus contributor and “literary rock star” Steve Almond’s D.I.Y. success.

(Yet Another) Rumpus Lamentation:

It’s a sunny winter day in Tucson, Arizona. There’s an event being held in the parking lot of a supermarket called Safeway. …more

“You will have to imagine my confusion when Ms. Nutting’s debut story collection, Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls, appeared on my doorstep. She had chosen to defy all reasonable laws of feminine desire by spurning me as a sexual object. And yet she had managed to publish a book.” …more

How I Became a Music Critic:

At age 19, I was assigned to review Bob Dylan in concert, despite the fact that I had very little sense of who Bob Dylan was. I was doing a summer internship at my hometown paper, and the regular critic had fallen ill. …more

A Rumpus Meditation on Editors, Ambition, and Angry Dependence (in 33 loosely jointed parts):

1. On July 30, the managing editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, Kevin Morrissey, took his life. His note stated that he “just couldn’t bear it anymore.” …more

There’s been a lot of new people here lately, so if you’re new to the Rumpus (or if you’re not), Sunday’s the day where you can catch up with what Rumpus Books has been up to this week. …more

Porn, Christopher Hitchens, snacking on weaker humans … You name it, Rumpus Books has got it. Our weekly roundup below the fold.  …more

Man, Rumpus Books has been busy. This week, we published quite a number of must-read reviews, excerpts, interviews, and even a reprint, all conveniently rounded up for you below the fold. …more

Happy spring, Rumpusers! Come see what you missed in Rumpus Books this week. …more

“If asking contributors to write for free then collecting 50K is good karma, what’s bad karma, Mark?”

I know we’ve been linking to a lot of Rumpus contributor Steve Almond lately, but the guy’s on a truth-to-power roll. Also, he’s awesome.

This time, it’s in the form of an email exchange between him and the agent Mark Reiter, who asked him to contribute for free to a compilation the agent’s getting $50,ooo for putting together.

(via Cheryl Strayed)

“Am I suggesting that music criticism is a pointless exercise? Yeah, I guess I am.

In many cases it’s even worse than that. Because critics are, by their very job description, charged with being hypercritical. I certainly was. It was as if my critic credibility depended on my not being fooled into actually enjoying myself.”

Rumpus contributor Steve Almond takes on music criticism over at The Boston Globe.

This week in New York a tribute to George Carlin, James Wood reads a book he’s never read before, Shya Scanlon gets other people to read his poems, NYC Twestival 2010, Huggabroomstik, Jeff Lewis and others cover songs by Major Matt Mason USA, Victor Lavalle and Maud Newton talk, and Lapham’s Quarterly holds a panel discussion on creativity.

MONDAY 3/22: The Critic’s Voice: First Reads with James Wood. James Wood takes on a special assignment this season—to read a book he’s never read before, then return to the Poetry Center and discuss it. He’s chosen Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, a collection of short stories by David Foster Wallace. 92 Y. Lexington Ave. at 92nd St. 8:15pm. …more

Steve Almond’s self-published This Won’t Take But a Minute Honey is now a best seller at Harvard Bookstore.

Check out Steve’s self-publishing story here.

(Writing wretched verse so you don’t have to since 1995)

Juice

Today the jury voted to “acquit”
though the way the word leapt forth
was the way a Southern gentleman cedes
a game in frustration …more

This week, Rumpus Books reviewed a book on Girl Power and the music of the nineties,  a novel about the American dream, and an homage to Sylvia Plath. …more

To say that I’ve had a checkered history in publishing would be like saying Elizabeth Taylor had a checkered history in marriage. …more

Come catch up! Highlights from this week in Rumpus books are below the fold. …more