Recent posts
Rumpus Articles
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The Rumpus: Redesigned
When Debbie Millman and I decided to buy The Rumpus, one of the first things we wanted to do was redesign the website which was great but due for a refresh. For the past several months, we have worked with…
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On Nature Writing, Growing up an Indoor Kid, and Walmart as Landscape
We see the world through high resolution filters. Brands become our chaperones to exotic landscapes. Never mind the break in aesthetic—the golden arches pop-up along the interstate while driving through Death Valley like the sudden appearance of a roadside oasis.…
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Shredding the Crazy Cat Lady Stereotype: A Mini Interview with Rebecca van Laer
“I think fiction feels safer. If I’m writing a short story, I don’t usually call up my friend and say, “Hey, I’m thinking about putting this line you said in there.” There was initially a scene from my life that…
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Rumpus Original Poetry: Gabriela Mayes
Gabriela Mayes is a Brazilian writer whose work spans poetry, nonfiction, and cultural criticism. Her recent writing appears or is forthcoming in The Westchester Review, Shelf Magazine, and Chiricú Journal. She directs graduate initiatives that bridge the academic and public…
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Hospitality Training and Taking Care of the Reader: A Conversation with Gabrielle Hamilton
“ I don’t like reading books where you can feel the writer fiddling with you and admiring themselves as they manipulate the words on the page. I don’t love a self-congratulatory writer—you can sniff it on the page immediately—more than…
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House of Three Rooms
“The body flicks the lights on. A yellowing glow floods the interior, like a head full of nothing. The lights are on, goes the saying, but nobody’s home. My father says this about the dog too dumb to hunt. The…
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Rumpus Original Poetry: Annie Kantar
Annie Kantar is the author of Means to Be Lucky (Poets & Traitors Press), and translator of the Book of Job, commissioned by Koren Publishers, and of Leah Goldberg’s collection of poems, With This Night (University of Texas Press), which…
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Buddhist in a Corvette: On Richard Siken’s Third Transformation
Richard Siken’s virtuoso third collection, I Do Know Some Things, Copper Canyon Press 2025, arrives as a righteous heir of Edson’s vision. The book, bloated with human truth and stripped of pretense, offers black comedy, lyrical excavation, and a persistent,…
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Getting Readers on Your Side through Humor: A Conversation with Erin Somers
“I love writing humor; it’s what gets me to my desk. The humor comes pretty naturally, which is part practice and part good luck. It’s baked into my worldview. Whenever I’m starting something new, I’ll have this moment of terror…
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An Exodus and a Beginning: A Conversation with Joanna Choi Kalbus
My memoir chronicles our adversities as well as our achievements. She wanted me to attend a university and become a teacher. She cried at every one of my graduations and achievements. I know now life is fragile and fleeting, and…
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Rumpus Original Fiction: The Eeling
Most people had stopped working. No point in making money now. Those who continued either genuinely loved what they did, or had ended up at the bottom of the waitlist and had to find ways to get by until their…
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Good And Evil and Other Stories: A Conversation with Samanta Schweblin
“I’m fascinated by poetry that reaches complex, new ideas through the most ordinary words. It reminds us that fire, that hypnotic, powerful force, is nothing more than a spark born from two simple pieces of wood. I suppose I long…