My Interview with Susie Bright, Sex-Positive Feminist
Susie Bright, sex-positive feminist, writer, revolutionary, and my first tongue-kiss with a woman recently released her memoir Big Sex Little Death.
...morePosts by: Elissa Bassist
Hold for Laughs
The AFI Directing Workshop for Women has been dedicated to developing the talent of the next generation of film and TV female directors since 1974. Amy French, one of last year’s eight AFI DWW fellows, generated some buzz with her feature from last year, El Súperstar, and continues to bring it with Hold for Laughs, […]
...morePoor Yorick Entertainment
Upon finishing Infinite Jest (doing so is like a sacrament, which I say even though I’m Jewish), Chris Ayers created a shining visual memorial/appendage to Infinite Jest. The website Poor Yorick Entertainment is “a visual exploration of the filmography of James O. Incandenza and the world of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.” About the site: […]
...moreUnsolicited Writing Advice You Want
Some advice for writers from our own Elissa Bassist: [Some of this is stolen. But I won’t tell you what because I want to impress you.]
...moreOMG and LOL are inducted into the OED
“It’s wonderful to experience the ongoing corruption and evolution of the English language.”
...moreJennifer Egan Wins Award; Gives Me Advice
Elissa Bassist shares her personal notes after having a conversation with Jennifer Egan:
...moreRumpus Women on Firedoglake Book Salon
The Rumpus Women, Vol. I contributors have been on tour. We’ve read in bookstores, bars, and family rooms in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Brooklyn, and Denver. The readings have been awe-inspiring: smart, funny, charming, sad, honest, brave. In case you couldn’t make a reading or live in Iowa, Rumpus Women will be on Firedoglake Book Salon, an online news […]
...moreFunny Women Around the Web: Jenny Hagel
Jenny Hagel, the filmmaker/comdienne who made the Feminist Rapper webseries (see below), released a new short comedy film online this week. “Tech support” is about a woman who falls in love with the girl on the other end of a long tech support phone call–and what happens when she drops that call.
...moreFunny Women Are on Vacation
Dearest Readers, Contributors, Hopeful Contributors, and Men, The Funny Women column is going away to the Sugar Shack until 2011. While you are welcome and encouraged to send submissions to funnywomen AT therumpus.net, please note I’m embarrassingly behind on reading your work and editing upcoming pieces (I have adjusted the submission guidelines to reflect this). I’ll be […]
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The Funny Women Interview with Amy Sedaris
Feeling down? Make a Self-Esteem Shell Collage! Write a poem on a piece of paper about you and the ocean and about how you feel about the ocean and why you are special and of course the ocean and then surround the poem with whatever shells you collected that day so you will always remember […]
...moreThe Rumpus Review of The Social Network: Suck It
At the end of The Social Network, a new indie flick that no one has ever heard of, I turned to my friend, and out of every intelligent comment I could have made, I said, “There was so much testosterone in the movie that I feel fucked six ways sideways.”
...moreLorrie Moore at The New Yorker Festival
Notes I took on what Lorrie Moore said while in conversation with Deborah Treisman, The New Yorker‘s fiction editor, that I felt selfish keeping to myself: How to become a writer: -You can’t carve solitude out of loneliness–you need people to get away from them.
...moreElissa Bassist Recounts The Rumpus
In “VIDA Counts The Rumpus” two female writers from VIDA: Women in Literary Arts “crunch the numbers and let us know how The Rumpus is doing in the gender disparity department.” The verdict: we’re kinda sexist, but not as sexist as most places; that’s what the numbers say at least. But what do the people–the women, […]
...moreWrite to Get Paid
“I really believe that most writers in America have taken on this idea that we’re never going to get paid–and so we accept so little for what we do, when what we do is so valuable. And it’s wanted.” —Ali Liebegott
...moreThe Exit Interview: A Conversation with My Ex-Boyfriend
At first, I loved Dan from a distance. Judging on a bell-curve, I was attractive for my high school debate team, but otherwise, I was far from his type of girl. And yet, that one day on the quad, he saw me, sat next to me, picked me. Few get to date that one person they […]
...moreThe Rumpus Funny Women Interview with Sarah Haskins
Like most women, I am gay for Sarah Haskins. Unlike most women, I got to interview her. Here are some things you should know about Sarah to get the most out of our interview:
...moreHave I Earned These Clichés?
When life is not the slightest bit luminescent, I read Lorrie Moore. She honors a commitment to the search for truth and morality through emotional and reachable means.
...moreSassy Gay Friend: Juliet
Things would’ve gone better for Juliet if only she’d had a Sassy Gay Friend.
...moreFunny Women Around the Web, 2/12/09
The best part of editing the Funny Women column is developing e-mail relationships with various women. (Did I say various? I meant you. Only you.) Sabrina Veroczi of Booby Hatch* is my new jam. Booby Hatch is an all-female sketch comedy group that recently performed their 3-woman, 1-man show, “Cone of Silence,” at the Upright Citizen Brigade’s […]
...moreFUNNY WOMEN #15: How to Move to San Francisco
First, abandon everyone you know and love. Say goodbye to friends, lovers, would-be lovers, American cheese, and sanity. You don’t need these things in San Francisco. You need isolation. You need Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. You need Saturday nights writing in your blog. This is the required pain and suffering. This is only for starters. […]
...moreThe Rumpus Funny Women Interview with Julie Klausner
Some people say men aren’t funny. In her memoir I Don’t Care About Your Band, comedienne Julie Klausner says it a few times: (1) “I was tired of pretending I thought he was funny”; (2) “I knew I was funnier and smarter than [insert man’s name here].” Here are a few things to know about Julie Klausner […]
...moreAnnals of Advertising: The Young Ones
“Neil’s Heavy Concept Album.” More from the annals of advertising.
...more(Mistakenly) Miss the January Monthly Rumpus?
Read about it and see video here, thanks to Evan Karp of The SF Examiner. He condenses the whole night: “I think everyone had fun. I know I did. The main thing is to raise awareness of the site, I think, because I really am finding it more and more invaluable; and to raise money for […]
...moreMy Imaginary Interview with Elaine Showalter
In March of 2009, I wrote to Elaine Showalter on behalf of The Rumpus, saying she inspired me as a writer, editor, and feminist. She agreed to an interview, the focus of which would be her latest book, A Jury of Her Peers. Ranging from the instigators to contemporary innovators, Jury is the first (yeah, […]
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