The Rumpus Book Clubs have been around for over six years now and they remain unique in a couple of important ways. First, we only feature pre-release books—that is, books that haven’t gone on sale yet, so you’re getting copies before anyone else (sometimes before the authors receive their personal copies!). And, we give members the chance to chat online, directly, with the authors at the end of each month. Check out last month’s conversations with Martin Seay and Sandra Meek for examples of this.
Our Book Clubs help us keep The Rumpus running—so, you can speak with your favorite writers, read great books, and support the website in one fell swoop.
So what’s coming up in June?
In the Fiction Book Club, we’re featuring Saša Stanišić’s novel Before the Feast from Tin House books, about which Ismet Prcic says:
Stanišić’s prose captures the official narrative and the myth, the dream and the rumor, the hearsay, all of it. It captures how we humans see what we later dare to call reality. I love it.
In the Poetry Book Club we’ll be reading Solmaz Sharif’s Look from Graywolf Press. Yusef Komunyakaa said of this book:
By unearthing, decoding, and reconstructing half-hidden symbols of power built into nomenclature as well as everyday expression, the poet serves truth―sometimes delicately, other times brutally… Each phrase pulls the reader into a system of being, personal and historical, and Look, line by line, extends toward prophecy and (“I am singing to her still”) harmony.
Books will be going out to members this week, and the conversation will start soon afterward. You can be a part of this month’s club by subscribing here. Come join us and be part of the conversation!
