Recent posts
Rumpus Articles
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The Lesbian Erotic Poem: Eileen Myles and Gertrude Stein
Whereas queerness itself is the resistance to sexual oppression, queer poetry is an arm, an extension and realization of resistance enacted with language. Employing Lorde, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” means that a lesbian poem aimed…
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Three Poems
I tend not to know how to say when it hurts. Firstly, I don’t know what it is. I wait for the call and no doctor rings. Wait, then, some more.
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The Pastor’s Ex
She was no flapper. Although she could see flapping from here, what with Sara’s daughter’s leather miniskirt dangling fringe on her thigh. She gave the fringe a shake and absorbed the crowded bar, the packed dance floor, the DJ spinning…
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Integrating Writing into the Pandemonium of Life: A Conversation with Martín Espada
“[P]oetry is not doing what it does in isolation. I don’t expect my poems to magically accomplish anything. I see my poems as part of a movement: That movement is political. It is artistic. It transcends poetry. It transcends politics.…
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The Rumpus at AWP 2026
Debbie and I are really excited to meet Rumpus readers, writers and staff at AWP 2026 in Baltimore, from March 4-8th. At the bookfair, you will find us at BOOTH 1240 where you can learn more about The Rumpus, what…
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Jon Fosse and the Perils of Writing Without Intention
…Vaim’s light touch arrives as a breath of fresh air.
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Transnational Dreaming in the Port of Hong Kong
Drawing from memory is acceptable, Hao said. I once went on a trip with my late wife. We went to Norway because she wanted to see whales and I regretted not taking any photos. But many years later, I drew…
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Knott’s Berry Farm, 1996
At thirteen, we were not afraid to speak aloud what we already knew—we would rather die than let them see the secrets of our bodies exposed. They had taught us enough about hiya, that we feared the weight of its…
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On Drowning
I learned from my mother, passed down from her mother, how to hold inside me a great ocean of sadness because the world is a cruel and inhospitable place. At the age of fifteen, I first told her I didn’t…
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One Catastrophe Away from Losing Everything: A Conversation with Kim Samek
I like stories because you can take a big swing, you can do anything you can;, you can be experimental. If it doesn’t work out, it really doesn’t matter. When you work in the long form, if you take a…
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Eurotrash as Nonfiction
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that much of the music I enjoyed incorporated some component of nonfiction. Emboldened by a breakneck beat, Eurotrash reserves space for societal commentary through the lens of the speaker’s experiences. Translations by fans on…
