Recent posts
Rumpus Articles
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Making Revolution Beautiful: A Conversation with Sophie Lewis
“Without wanting to make things too neat, I think there is a continuity between projects insofar as maybe one could postulate the love letter is part negation of what kills us.”
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What Is Freedom: Imani Perry
Freedom is as freedom does.It was not in 1776, when Benjamin Franklin still bought, sold and owned peopleAnd Madison, and Jefferson and Washington too-And somebody whose name I don’t know in MarylandOwned my mother mother mother mother mother Esther.I come…
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50 of the Best Book Covers of the Year (So Far)
Book covers undeniably serve a marketing function. They are a way of drawing potential readers in and, hopefully, conveying valuable information about the book.
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Two Poems
Notes Toward the Great Floridian Novel I Ruth dusted the taxidermy alligatorwhere it stood menacing the front windowof her mother’s tourist trap shop in Alachua.Behind the gator hung Hawaiian shirts,other gators’ claws made into backscratchers,and American flag glass breakersin the…
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Born to Run: The American Road Trip Myth & Lauren Groff’s “The Wind”
There is a sinister breeze blowing throughout the story, like the big bad wolf that is always stalking the piggies and the sheep. It’s often lingering right outside the gates or behind the wall, sometimes breaking through, breaking ribs, bruising…
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Maintaining the Energy for Activism When You’re Struggling to Pay Rent: A Conversation with Jules Wernersbach
“So you’ve got this rat-a-tat-tat of things to do riding the wave of your own internal nonsense. That’s the natural tension of being a human being at work. My challenge as a writer is to make space for both in…
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Three Poems
Gödel’s First Incompleteness or Ode on Dissociation I Lispector said to writewith the whole body— the body as a loosingan arrow into. Each translation seconds the second o.I checked. My parents are my parents. Also real.The faceless neighbor, heavy on…
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Two Countries, Two Identities Asking “Where Do I Belong:” A Conversation with Sofi Stambo
“When I was growing up, no one had time for anything, so if I didn’t say what I needed to say quickly—in two lines—the person I was talking to would have moved on already. They would be in another room…
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What Is Freedom: Lynne Tillman
Philosopher Isaiah Berlin drew a seminal distinction between negative liberty, freedom from interference, for instance, from the state, and positive liberty, freedom to self-master, or to live as you want. Berlin said both forms, freedom to and freedom from, are…
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Homecoming
The jokes about being found under a bridge now became a haunting possibility. My mother had passed away years ago and I was estranged from my father. I tried to think if Mom ever mentioned the circumstances of my birth.…
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What Is Freedom? Toshi Reagon
I came through into life through the pathways of this incredible planet. Planet Earth the third planet from the sun. The ocean world. The planet of abundance and life. I arrived through the portal of the people of grace. Singing…
