What to Read When You’re Seeking a Family of Choice
J. Ryan Stradal shares a reading list to celebrate his forthcoming novel, THE LAGER QUEEN OF MINNESOTA.
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Posts by: J. Ryan Stradal
A Super Bowl Preview for People Who Don’t Know Football (2015 Edition)
Like an all-night rager in the apartment upstairs or a crying infant on a red-eye, the Super Bowl is one of those ineluctable public occurrences that’s seemingly impossible to stop and difficult to ignore.
...moreFantasy Football for Poets: Dispatch #2
“You want your cup to overflow,” he said. “My cup is causing a flood.”
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Fantasy Football for Poets: Dispatch #1
I’m not supposed to be an NFL fan. I like writing, books, wine, condiments, ambient music, and US Presidents.
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The Rumpus Interview with Jim Ruland
Forest of Fortune author Jim Ruland discusses his new novel, gambling addiction, and what happens behind the scenes at the casino.
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A Super Bowl Preview for People Who Don’t Know Football (2014 Edition)
If you don’t watch football but might be forced to watch the Super Bowl, this may help.
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Fantasy Football for Poets, Week 13
In this column, J. Ryan Stradal examines complex issues of the NFL and brings you original interviews.
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Fantasy Football for Poets, Week 12
I’m writing about three players who have all quit America’s most popular and visible sport mid-season. Their reasons for quitting are as different as their trajectories, but in each of them, there are shards of a much larger and tragic American story.
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Fantasy Football for Poets: Week 11
What breaks my heart both as a Vikings fan and a human being is that, in spite of all this, I kind of like Mike Ditka.
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Fantasy Football For Poets: Week Ten
That day, Jonathan was the last one, and this time, the ritual made the young second-year player snap. He threw his cafeteria tray to the ground, left team facilities, and has never returned..
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Fantasy Football For Poets: Week 9
“Okay, what would your children want me to do?” asked head trainer Paul Sparling. “Take care of daddy?”
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Fantasy Football for Poets: Week 8
No one knew it was a torn ACL, which means that Reggie’s incredible 189-game streak is over, his season is over, and perhaps even, at his age, his thirteen-year career is over.
...moreFantasy Football for Poets: Week Seven
“I told him, if this doesn’t work, I’m going to kick your ass. I told him that because he’s going too far. He thinks he knows more than me, but he doesn’t.”
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The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Charles Blackstone
At the launch of his new novel, Vintage Attraction, the multi-talented Managing Editor of Bookslut sits down, over a figurative glass of fine wine, to spill his passions.
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Fantasy Football for Poets: Week Six
When he retires at the end of the year, he’ll be remembered as one of the best tight ends in NFL history, and as a man whose heart, athletic skills, and bilingual outreach have made him a hero to Spanish-speaking football fans around the world.
...moreFantasy Football for Poets: Week Five
Being unable to play his favorite instrument anymore broke his heart, but while his injured hand couldn’t perform the delicate gesticulations of a violinist, it was not a hindrance in the blunt-force job of offensive lineman.
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Fantasy Football for Poets: Week Four
Because a literary magazine definitely needs a Fantasy Football series.
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Fantasy Football For Poets: Week 3
Why wouldn’t we have a fantasy football column on a literary website?
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The Saturday Rumpus Interview with Cecil Castellucci
Cecil Castellucci, perhaps the most wonderfully prolific and brazenly genre-busting author in Los Angeles, has worn many hats in a celebrated life in the arts
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A Super Bowl Preview for People Who Don’t Know Football (2013 Edition)
If you’ve seen a Super Bowl before, everything you think you hate about the event is probably true and hasn’t changed.
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Saturday Special: The Rumpus Catches Up with Ann Friedman
The former Executive Editor of GOOD and current curator of LadyJournos! is one of our generation’s most intelligent, insightful, and often funniest voices.
...moreA Super Bowl Preview For People Who Don’t Know Football (2012 Edition)
If Hollywood could cast the Super Bowl teams, it wouldn’t choose most of the guys who make up the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. It also couldn’t invent the stories of how these people got here any better.
...moreOn This Presidents’ Day: A Brief History of Presidential Sex
A special holiday history lesson from The Rumpus:
...moreA Super Bowl Preview for People Who Don’t Know Football
Once a year, an awful lot of people are forced to pretend to care about football.
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