Rumpus Contributors Are Rocking the Kirkus Review!
Getting a postive Kirkus review is a big deal, and Rumpus editors are rocking it with their forthcoming releases.
...morePosts by: Ashley Perez
A Portrait of Bernard Cooper
In a recent post at the LA Times, book critic David L. Ulin writes about Bernard Cooper’s forthcoming memoir, “My Avant-Garde Education.” Ulin also gives a remarkable portrait of Cooper as an artist. If you don’t think that’s radical, you might want to think again. Along with Waldie, Wanda Coleman, Susan Straight, Eloise Klein Healy and […]
...moreA Unique Way of Getting Down With Gertrude Stein
Rumpus assistant editor Lauren O’Neal interviews Michelle Sutherland about her opera/musical/self described “event” Gertrude Stein SAINTS over at the Hairpin. They talk about the role of men in the play, how Carnegie Mellon got on board, and how rap totally works for this! Gertrude Stein really hung out with the biggest macho dickheads of the […]
...moreA New Interview with Kyle Minor
Over at The Believer Logger, Matt Bell conducts a wonderful interview with Kyle Minor. There is a wonderful bit in here about work ethic: “What I hope, eventually, is that I can get to a situation where I’m spending most of my work time on the projects I care most about—the stories, the novels, the screen work, […]
...moreCan We Separate The Art From The Artist?
“The problem with art is, because we love it so much, we put the artists who created it on pedestals and we believe they cannot fail because, in some corner of our mind, we’ve formed a relationship with them and their product, and for us to discover them as imperfect shatters the illusion: we have […]
...moreThe Freedom to Fail
Recording artist Moby writes over at The Guardian about why he needed to leave New York and come to Los Angeles for his art. Los Angles gave him the room and the freedom to fail. “Plenty of other cities in the United States and abroad are, of course, interesting and beautiful, but I moved to […]
...moreWear Your Book’s Emotions!
Move over, e-books—there’s a new innovation in reading technology! The folks over at MIT have developed a wearable book that lets the reader experience the character’s emotions while they read. Check it out!
...moreOn Apologizing and Forgiveness
It has been several years since all this went down, and from an outsider’s perspective I’ve mostly gotten over it. For a while it put a halt on everything good in my life, but eventually I stopped crying about it. I stopped seeing red on a daily basis, I stopped cursing everyone who knew about […]
...moreAll We Need Is A Hand
“This morning, I carried my packages down to the parking lot, still slick from the rain, and loaded them into the car. When I closed the trunk, I saw the white-haired woman who lives in our apartment complex. She stood to one side of the parking lot, at the edge of a large puddle, wearing […]
...moreMexican Pain Pills and Butterflies
Rumpus managing editor Zoë Ruiz has a new essay at Ohio Edit. She talks about pain management, sex, friendship, and visions. “On Tuesday night, I drive to a bar on Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles to meet a poet. We are going to discuss poetry and what he will read on Thursday evening. As I drive […]
...moreIs the comma going the way of the Dodo?
Much is being said of the Oxford comma recently and if it is really needed but what if the comma is going the way of the Dodo bird? Is the prominent punctuation mark becoming completely unnecessary? Matthew Malady at Slate seems to think so. “That may sound crazy to folks who bristle at Oxford comma problems or […]
...moreLive like Ben Franklin
Benjamin Franklin had a rigid schedule and something must have been right, he was instrumental in developing our country and a savvy businessman. Tim Goessling at the Good Men Project decided to live a day according to Franklin’s schedule. “Upon arriving at work, I wrote my earlier established goals down and kept them on my […]
...moreThe Meaning of Family Roles
I choose to believe the label “godmother” means something. I was connected to my godmother by the ceremony, and the birthday cards, and the word itself. She wanted to be that for me. I don’t believe in the holiness of the water fountain the priest dunked Sasha’s head into, but I believe in my love […]
...moreLove and Mark Ruffalo
Rumpus contributor Wendy C. Ortiz has an essay at The Nervous Breakdown about the two times she saw Mark Ruffalo and why she couldn’t talk about the first time for a long time. My daycamping-partner-in-crime was very excited about seeing Mark Ruffalo, and she really wanted to tell someone…but who is there to tell these […]
...moreHappiness is Overrated
Critical theorist Mari Ruti writes about how humans may not be built for happiness: “If all of that isn’t enough to make you suspicious of the cultural injunction to be happy, consider this basic psychoanalytic insight: Human beings may not be designed for happy, balanced lives. The irony of happiness is that it’s precisely when […]
...moreThe Gender Identity Talk
The “parts” that are covered up by our underpants are private. It’s no one’s business to ask about them or talk about them. (That goes for the parents, too!) If someone tells you she is a girl, she’s a girl. If he tells you he’s a boy, he’s a boy. If they say they’re both, […]
...moreA Failing Writer’s Perspective on Taking Risks
Yuvi Zalkow, author of A Brilliant Novel in the Works, has a hilarious series on his site called, “I’m A Failed Writer”. In the 15th installment in the series, Yuvi talks about what it means to take risks. Need a 6 minute break from life? Watch this.
...moreWhen can online comments help?
We have written about the dangers of reading the comments before online. There are times however when it can be beneficial. Simone Supekar writes over at The Atlantic about how the comments on the internet helped her cope with a disease: “In an ideal world, there’d always be a George Clooney nearby, reassuring us of […]
...moreHappy Birthday Mr. Poe!
In honor of Edgar Allan Poe’s upcoming birthday on January 19th, the folks over at the Huffington Post are wondering if the famous “Poe Toaster” will make his annual appearance at Poe’s grave to leave three roses and a bottle of cognac. The mysterious visitor has been notably absent the last three years.
...moreArt as Ephemera?
David Ulin writes about Shelley Jackson’s new project at the Los Angeles Times. If you didn’t hear about her previous project, Skin, now is a good time to do so. Her new project is similar. The story is told one word at a time but written in the snow. Jackson makes that explicit by rendering […]
...moreA New Interview with MariNaomi
Rumpus cartoonist MariNaomi is interviewed over at Panel Patter about her new book Dragon’s Breath and Other True Stories as well as life as a autobiographical cartoonist: Whit: Do you think that being an autobio cartoonist/writing candidly about your life makes people treat or view you and your work differently? MariNaomi: Absolutely. For one thing, when […]
...moreReleasing Grief
Following some tumultuous years that included divorce, birth, separation, and her mother’s suicide, Rumpus contributor Gayle Brandeis has written an essay at The Manifest Station where she releases all of that from her body and finally asks the question: How Dare You? “What is it you want to say to your mom?” she asks, and […]
...moreThe Truth About Dishonesty
Brain Pickings has an animate video to highlight Dan Ariely’s new book, The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty. Ariely writes in the book what causes our moral compass to go awry: “We all have a tendency to think of people as good or bad. And, we say, as long as we kick the bad people, everything […]
...moreMark Twain Still Popular…In China!
Did you know that Mark Twain is one of the best known foreign writers in China? Neither did we. There is a well earned, and unabashed image of Mark Twain as the quintessential American author and for good reason. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn remains in the American cannon and is taught all over the […]
...moreA Brief History of the Author Interview
At the New Yorker, Hannah Rosefield talks about how the author interview developed and why we, as a celebrity obsessed culture, care so much. “By Koval’s reckoning, we read or listen to author interviews for the same reason we read novels: to find out how to live. But where novels are often opaque in their […]
...moreMary Shelley’s Correspondence Discovered!
Nora Crook, in perhaps the most exciting click ever to happen on the internet, made the discovery of a lifetime when she came across previously unpublished correspondence from the late Frankenstein author Mary Shelley. The article at The Guardian describes several letters written by Shelley shortly before her death. “Perhaps most touching is her pride […]
...moreReflecting on Penance
Sunday Rumpus editor Gina Frangello has a beautiful essay over at The Manifest-Station (run by Rumpus Contributor Jennifer Pastiloff) that reflects back on her days dealing with anxiety, an eating disorder, and getting out. “In an Afterschool Special, the crazy girl who is afraid of unopened packages of food would get help somehow, would have […]
...moreGeorge Saunders,Timebends, and What Art Is Supposed to Do
There is a great interview over at BuzzFeed Books with George Saunders in which he discusses Arthur Miller’s Timebends and what he believes the purpose of art is. I also found myself really excited by Miller’s basic assumptions about art: It’s important, it is supposed to change us, it’s not supposed to be trivial or […]
...moreA Different Type of Grieving
Rumpus contributor Melissa Chadburn has a heartbreaking and beautiful essay at Buzzfeed about how she is learning to grieve for her nephew who was stillborn and how to use that process going forward: “I’m reminded of a gospel that personifies Death: Death, this being that rides a pale white horse, the clomps and gallops leaving a […]
...moreThe Book As a Luxury Item
All hailed the e-book for its innovations in technology. Embedded links, comments, and multi-media elements were what is supposed to kill the physical book. This recent essay at Salon contends that now that e-books are essentially being stripped down to resemble physical books, the real book is now considered a luxury item. “But those examples […]
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