Recent posts
Rumpus Articles
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Like White Ghosts Swimming
The film director chose to shoot the interview with Paul in the living room. Behind Paul: three deer mounts, one pheasant with outstretched wings, and a largemouth bass, interspersed with family portraits. They’d lit him well; Paul looked good in…
-
Waiting for Alice
He remains mesmerized by Almost Alice, but because she got off at Metropolitan-Lorimer, she is no longer perfect to him. This Williamsburg Bermuda Triangle of bars is a thirsty cesspool of transplants. Alice would never. But he knows what he…
-
Four Poems
Self Portrait of Boy as Venus de Milo The way the light bounces offthe skin covers blemish and bruise. In the light, the bodyis a shiny bronze. The shadowbetween the chest gives the contour of small breasts. If notfor the…