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Rumpus Articles
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Notable NYC: 3/19–3/25
Saturday 3/19: Esther Lin, Rajiv Mohabir, and Jonathan Alexandratos join the Oh, Bernice! Reading series. Astoria Bookshop, 7 p.m., free. Dawn Lundy Martin and Rosemarie Waldrop join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., free. Abigail Welhouse launches Too Many…
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The Saturday Rumpus Essay: I wanted to be sure to reach you
I have no answers, but I can feel my feet.
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The Last Pilot
Most writers have imagined the scene of their own death—in the hopes of stylizing the moment or savoring the thought of someone sifting through and publishing their old manuscripts. It seems that James Tate, even in death, outdid us all…
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Broadway-Blues-Bad Casting
Ever since Zoe Saldana was set to play Nina Simone in the upcoming biopic Nina, controversy has surrounded the casting choice. Writing in the Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates says that the issue isn’t just about Saldana’s lighter skin tone, but the…
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DC Politicians Unhappy with PJ Harvey
The singer’s “The Community of Hope,” off her upcoming album The Hope Six Demolition Project, has been out a week and is already drawing attention from unhappy politicians. The song was inspired by DC’s Ward 7 and explores urban blight—creating an…
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This Week in Short Fiction
This is supposed to be a story. This is the first sentence of “The Alive Sister,” a powerful new work of flash fiction by Megan Giddings published at The Offing on Monday. In it, two little black girls are playing…
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Frigid
My first gynecologist tells me that my vagina is on the smaller side of the normal range. I use this as a justification for why, at eighteen, I still can’t get a tampon in more than a quarter of an…
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The Most Literate Nation
Finland tops the charts for most literate nation, with the United States coming in seventh. A new study looks not just at literacy rates but at literacy behaviors. These behaviors include counting libraries, newspapers, and years of schooling. Ranking nations…
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Stranger than Real Life
At Lit Hub, Tobias Carroll discusses the enduring appeal of strange fairy tales, and their influence on contemporary fiction: They remind us that the larger world is inherently complex, that the lessons imparted by stories of wicked creatures and good-hearted…
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Notable Chicago: 3/18–3/24
Friday 3/18: Join Rob Roberge and Suzanne Scanlon in conversation about Liar, Roberge’s new memoir. Women & Children First, 7:30 p.m. Sunday 3/20: Naomi Martinez, Juana Goergen, and Jennifer Patiño Cervantes share work in English and Spanish for Contratiempo: She…
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As a Matter of Fact
The New Yorker’s Jill Lepore laments the devaluation of truth in politics with the rise of “big data”: The era of the fact is coming to an end: the place once held by “facts” is being taken over by “data.”…
