Recent posts
Rumpus Articles
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Wake of Weight
People think losing weight feels natural and glorious, like a snake finally shedding its skin. That’s what I’d imagined: the victorious satisfaction of squishing out the last toothpaste from my tube.
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Three Poems
All Night I Dreamed Growing up my motherhad an abortion rights stickeron the front door of our suburbanraised ranch. Red shingles and blackshutters. Inside me my rightswere a tight fist. I would not openmy fingers no matter how hardboys and…
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The Rumpus Initiatives Cycle 1 Winners
When Debbie and I took the helm of The Rumpus, supporting writers and editors was one of our most fervent ambitions. To that end, we have launched a series of initiatives that allow us to do so in the ways…
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What Is Freedom: Lydia Davis
I am thinking of my cat, who is free to wander the house and make her own choices of when to eat, where and when to lie down and go to sleep. Her freedom exists within constraints imposed by me—for…
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Big Beautiful Home
From the beginning, Our House drew me in, with its bright red door contrasting against the deep blue exterior—my favorite colors. Inside, as I wandered from room to room, I asked myself, Is this Our House?
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Three Poems
In Good HealthThe stripe across my neck makes me afraid of my body. I sip Tylenol,check the pulse in my temple the color of my tongue. You are unmoved by the litany of afflicting ailments. I name the long, many-lettered…
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What Is Freedom:Vincent Valdez
Freedom is learning to recognize and understand the real difference between illusion and the reality of being free.
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Leaving Paradise
I moved to New York for an ideaanimated by imagery:red and yellow leaves, snow, and lots of walking.Blue mittens and bloated coatsresembling pastry. And then six months later:bare shoulders, grass roaring with bugs.On my last Sunday in California, I stood…
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What Is Freedom?
This year, 2026, is the 250th anniversary of American independence. This 4th of July will be a bombastic celebration of an independence that came at an unbearably high cost for the original stewards of this land. We cannot surrender to…
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Untying the Silence: A Conversation with Davin Malasarn
“The characters in this book often serve as stand-ins for my family members. I forgave Kamron, and that helped me forgive my father. Or maybe it was the other way around–maybe in the writing process I forgave my father and…
