Haunted by Child Refugees: Valeria Luiselli’s Tell Me How It Ends
These aren’t ghosts; these are children who have braved a perilous journey to escape the violent nightmares back home.
Posts by year
2017
1853 posts
Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
OBVIOUSLY the most important news of the week is that the Dutch King has secretly been a commercial airline pilot this whole time. We all wish we were in a…
Elegy with Records on the Doorstep
The old music still filled pits in him like sawdust and wood glue do a nail hole. The songs didn’t say anything new over the years, but they provided home when he missed it.
Voices on Addiction: Twenty-Five
I know that there are those who would argue that alcoholism is a singularly extreme condition, and I get that, but I’ve always felt clear that there’s a lot of overlap between alcoholism and plain old ordinary humanity.
Notable San Francisco: 5/17–5/23
If you can make only one event this week, don’t miss the Oakland Book Festival on Sunday, 5/21. This all-day festival features more than 100 writers, 50 panels, and lots of tabling…
This Week in Essays
Noriko Nakada writes with mesmerizing beauty on outrunning her darkness for Catapult. In the latest TORCH installment at The Rumpus, Nadia Owusu traces the inherited trauma in her family’s history.
Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
Meanwhile, in the northern most city. Dragons are for rich white kids. If we live another billion years, things are gonna get REAL weird. Maybe life evolved on land? But,…
All Writing Is Political: A Conversation with Mohsin Hamid
Mohsin Hamid discusses his new novel, Exit West, hope in fiction as a form of resistance, the necessity of learning to accept social change, and how much America and Pakistan have come to resemble each other.
Album of the Week: Powerplant by Girlpool
Powerplant is the sophomore album of Los Angeles duo Girlpool, now out via Anti-Records. Starting out with an intimate, bedroom pop made up of vocals over guitar and bass, Harmony Tividad…
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Chen Chen
Chen Chen discusses his new collection When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, playing the game white supremacy has set up, and if God is trying and failing to be a cool dad.
Notable Philadelphia: 5/16–5/22
Tuesday 5/16: Wavves and Needle Points. 8 p.m. at The Fillmore, $29. Wednesday 5/17: Open Mic. 8 p.m. at Connie’s Ric Rac. Goth Night. 10 p.m. at The Dolphin.
This Week in Indie Bookstores
Amazon is creating a new uproar by allowing online booksellers to buy the “buy” button and sell unwitting consumers used books as new. The Bay Area remains a literary haven…