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Rumpus Articles
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Begin Here: Post-Factum
When French novelist and filmmaker Marguerite Duras died on March 3, 1996, she was probably as prepared as any of us can be. Between November, 1994 and August, 1995 she had written a short, 54 page impossible to find book…
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Without a Claim by Grace Schulman
Anna Ziering reviews Grace Schulman’s Without a Claim today in Rumpus Poetry.
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Notable NYC: 3/29–4/4
Saturday 3/29: Courtney Zoffness, Marin Gazzaniga, Lisa Dierbeck, Marian Fontana read as part of the Brooklyn Writers Space series. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free. Joe Meno, Carl Phillips, and Simone White read at the Washington Square issue launch party. Meno’s Office…
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The Works Behind the Work
Over at the New Yorker, Meg Wolitzer writes about the cultural influences that helped inform her novel The Interestings. They include Archie comics, folk music, and Michael Apted’s “Up” films”: A good chunk of what you need to know about the characters…
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The Eternal Question: To MFA or Not?
Writers who are currently trying to decide whether an MFA is right for them will find that the questions being raised today are not unlike those addressed by Flannery O’Connor: What first stuns the young writer emerging from college is…
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Tricks and Tropes of the Trade
Though it may never be nominated for an Oscar, the contemporary ad has unarguably become a genre of its own. Over at McSweeney’s, Kendra Eash pokes fun at some of the genre’s tricks and tropes. See how this guy in…
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What Writers Love
It is rumored that verbomania is an actual word. If we look at the etymology of verbomania, we see that verbo- comes from the Latin word verbum, meaning “words.”
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The Power to Transform
“Women are more likely than men to change form and style,” or so Stacey D’Erasmo writes in this New Yorker piece. Female artists tend to transform their work over the course of their careers, while male artists are more likely to…
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Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
Yes, this winter was real awful (I saw from mild and dry California). Important goat news: they are way smart. Island fortresses! Maybe we have a better idea of where Autism comes from? Now 50 Watts brings you 1920s Swedish…
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Annie Dillard and the Art of the Essay
“Writers serve as the memory of a people. They chew over our public past.” Read an essay on Annie Dillard’s philosophy of the essay and its writer over at Brain Pickings.
