Recent posts
Rumpus Articles
-
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Against Our Will
All that floated there was the mystery. In the presence of all that, I discovered too that there are mysteries residing in the consciousness of my own mind that I don’t want to get out of the way of.
-
Unique Pageviews Don’t Pay Your Web Hosting Bill
Wil Wheaton created quite a fuss last month with an essay about Huffington Post’s request to republish an essay from his blog sans payment. When we called attention to a Salon article discussing paid versus unpaid creative work, Gawker had a…
-
Weekly Geekery
Email is evil… Which explains why Millennials like it so much. Probably. Speaking of Millennials, they get a fancy new, techy bookstore in London. So, that’s nice. Quitting Facebook makes you happier.
-
Another Country
Donald Quist talks to Liz Blood at Awst Press about some of his favorite writers, his graduate school experience, living as an ex-pat in Thailand, and his recent essay up on The Rumpus: I was a little fearful publishing that essay. I…
-
This Week in Indie Bookstores
Shakespeare & Co. sheltered twenty people during the terror attacks in Paris last week. New York City’s Shakespeare & Co., unrelated to the Parisian store, has some expansion plans. The shop and name was bought by Dane Neller, the CEO…
-
Paris Forever
That’s not to say being informed isn’t important—of course it is—but I suddenly felt a more important calling. I remembered the words of Marlon Brando in the wake of 9/11: “This is exactly the time for poetry!” Over at Lit…
-
That Thought and Nothing Else
If you’re still waiting for the Muse to show up, look behind you—it might be driving the other direction. Ann Beattie tells the New Yorker how a bumper sticker inspired her story, “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowgirl”: I thought,…
-
R.I.P.: Facts
I wanted to write about death to get closer to it, to face it clear-eyed. Now I had the opportunity.
-
On Refugees, and Refusing to Be Scared
The news that governors are suddenly deciding that they don’t want to welcome Syrian refugees has really driven home to me just how cowardly much of this country is. We talk tough, mind you, but when we’re asked to really…
-
Does Anyone Speak English Here?
At Aeon, John McWhorter explores the twists and turns through English’s linguistic history that brought us the “deeply peculiar” language structure used today.
-
Literary Losers
Umberto Eco, at a public appearance in the UK to support Numero Zero, imparted some choice thoughts on what makes literature, and on what makes his distinct, from conspiracies and public knowledge to literary losers: It’s very boring to talk about…
