August 23, 2012
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Take Their Advice
“Initially, I thought who am I to tell people what to do? Then I realized I wasn’t telling people what to do from the perspective that this is the only opinion and my opinion is the one that matters. I…
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Like Music for A Writer’s Ears
A little over a month ago, our friends at Litquake debuted their newest venture: a podcast. Available as a free, bi-monthly download, Litquake’s Lit Cast features the “best of” in writerly conversations and readings that Litquake holds throughout the year, and…
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A gift that threatens to overwhelm
Saturday Rumpus editor Michelle Dean writes for the New Yorker about Opal Whiteley, the “once celebrated, then controversial, and now forgotten” 1920s child prodigy and diarist. “The fantasy of orphanhood is a common one. It is the cornerstone of many…
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The 826 Valencia Write-a-thon
The third annual 826 Valencia Write-a-thon is this coming weekend, Sunday, August 26. Grab your pens and pencils, computer, or typewriter and head down to 826 for a full day of inspired, 826-powered writing. The event is a fundraiser for…
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SELF-MADE MAN #15: Everybody Passes
We are all walking through life as if what mattered most were the symbols of our acquisitions and not the fluttering flags of our hearts.
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Readers Report: Sticks and Stones
A collection of short pieces written by Rumpus readers pertaining to the subject of “Sticks and Stones.”
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The Event of Literature, by Terry Eagleton
Though prolific, the writer, cultural critic, religious apologist, and British literary theorist Terry Eagleton fights for relevance with each subsequent book. Most of us, if we know his name at all, either recognize him from the somewhat recent spat between…
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“Corpse Orders”
The newest addition to the Lapham’s Quarterly “Voices in Time” series unearths a text from c. 700 China instructing spellmen on unearthing jewels buried with the dead: “Then proceed into a tumulus and select an adult male corpse—a body without the marks…
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Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
Breaking: we are even fatter than we think. E.B. White was sort of awesome (and grumpy). Behold the (maybe) oldest star in the universe! Bonobo’s are using tools, this is probably important. David Byrne gets asked to make nonsensical bike…
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The Comedian Mayor: The Rumpus Interview with Jón Gnarr
Iceland’s most famous comedian ran for mayor of Reykjavic, and won…

