National Poetry Month Day 25: Kaveh Akbar
The Rumpus celebrates National Poetry Month with new poems daily from poets we admire, illustrating a variety of voices and perspectives in contemporary poetry.
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Posts by: Kaveh Akbar
Deluded, Confused, Bummed Out, and Ugly: Reflecting on Philip K. Dick’s
In honor of Philip K. Dick’s 95th birthday, Alice Sola Kim has penned a touching essay about discovering the brooding science fiction titan while she herself was a brooding teenager. She writes, “Knowing that reality could be up for grabs, manipulated, and twisted gave me a prickly, shivery joy. But this would be a shallow […]
...moreAuthors Try Their Hands at Bookselling for a Day
Ever wonder what would happen if a bunch of well-known authors invaded your favorite indie bookstore? This past weekend, patrons around the country saw it happen. Sherman Alexie’s “Indies First” project successfully launched with writers around the nation volunteering at local independent booksellers, meeting with readers, selling books, and, in the case of children’s book […]
...moreJohn Steinbeck Talks Falling in Love
John Steinbeck will be remembered as many things – as the author of Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, and many other canonical works of American literature, of course. To his son Thom, however, he was a sagacious authority on love, as evinced by this 1958 note taken from a collection of […]
...moreChristie’s “Poirot” Draws Curtains After Twenty-Five Years
Our own Rumblr editor, Molly McArdle, has a piece up in the Los Angeles Review of Books celebrating the twenty-five year run of “Poirot,” a British television series based on stories by Agatha Christie. In her piece, she examines the nuanced titular protagonist of “Poirot,” as well as the beloved show’s cultural and literary significance. […]
...moreRejection Woes
Over at The Millions, several esteemed editors discuss their journals’ rejection policies. Magazines represented include The Paris Review, Hobart, The Rattling Wall, The Harvard Review, and others. It is wonderfully humbling as a writer to be reminded how difficult the task of rejecting good work can be.
...moreMcSweeney’s Anthology and Book Trailer!
To commemorate their fifteenth anniversary, McSweeney’s is offering up an anthology featuring work from their past fifteen years. And they have a trailer for the anthology here. Fun fact: it features Isaac Fitzgerald and Sam Riley! You can preorder the anthology! The collection features work from literary heavy-hitters like George Saunders, David Foster Wallace, Zadie Smith, Jonathan Ames, and […]
...moreRare Footage of O’Hara, Ginsberg, Baraka Emerges
Yesterday, avant-garde cinema legend Jonas Mekas posted remarkable archival footage of Allen Ginsberg, Frank O’hara, Amiri Baraka (who still went by Leroi Jones), and Ray Bremser reading together in 1959. The reading, which took place at the Living Theater in New York City, was a benefit for Yugen magazine. No audio was recorded at the […]
...moreEliot’s “Prufrock” Gets Comic Book Makeover
Let us go then, you and I… Montreal illustrator Julian Peters has just released the first nine-pages of his comic-book adaptation of T.S. Eliot’s classic poem, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” The poem, one of the canonical works of modernism, was written in 1910 and published five years later. Julian Peters, who has […]
...more“Medora” Screening Coming to San Francisco
On November 18th, San Francisco’s Roxie Theater will be screening Medora, the gripping basketball documentary that dazzled critics at SXSW. Directed by Davy Rothbart, founder and editor of FOUND Magazine, the film chronicles a high school basketball team from Medora, Indiana. Watch the economically devastated community rally behind their long shot Medora Hornets in what Academy […]
...moreAdvice for Broke Writers
While the notion of an author subsisting in a tuberculine, Dickensian squalor may appeal to some, the truth is that most writers have cell phone payments and Netflix bills like everyone else. For those writers, Scratch Mag may prove useful. The new journal, launched by Jane Friedman and Manjula Martin, aims to help “writers who are struggling […]
...moreAlice Munro May Not Be Done Writing Just Yet
Back in June, celebrated Canadian short fiction writer Alice Munro announced she was leaving writing to finally relax and enjoy her friends and family. Then, earlier this month, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Now, it seems she may still have more to say. In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, […]
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