Skydiving for Literacy
Think you’d do almost anything to support literacy? How about jump out of a plane? Earlier this year, Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist went skydiving after a school in…
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Kelly Opdycke
51 posts
Kelly Opdycke is a Rumpus intern and an optimist with realist tendencies. She spent her summer at 826LA, where she helped English-Language Learners master homophones in the Amazon, take notes while exploring the Endeavour space shuttle, and write resumes that explain their exceptional hide-and-seek skills. Before this, she received her master’s degree from CSULA. She will be applying to doctoral programs this fall.
Here’s a Tear-Jerker
Looking for a good, tear-jerking read? May we suggest Cris Beam’s essay “He’s Our Baby: What Happens When a Child is Placed in Foster Care.” Cris illustrates the complicated issues…
Megan Kaminski’s “Dear Sister”
Megan Kaminski’s poem “Dear Sister” is a piece meant for all of us who have siblings living far away. And it’s a piece for any of you who miss someone.…
Miranda July’s “We Think Alone” Project
Rumpus interviewee Miranda July is the queen of making the mundane more interesting than we ever imagined. In her project “We Think Alone,” July sends emails collected from the inboxes…
Micah Perks on Karen Joy Fowler
In her latest essay on Tin House, Rumpus contributor Micah Perks tells us why Karen Joy Fowler’s short story collection What I Didn’t See is more than worth the read. Fowler,…
Alert: Your Dissertation Might Not Change the World
If you were lucky enough (cough, cough) to write a dissertation, you remember that during the first few months of the writing process you thought, “Man, I’m going to open everyone’s mind…
Murakami Wisdom
When you come out of a storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what the storm is about. The Shortlist calls Haruki Murakami the “Yoda of…
Learning From Hurricane Katrina
After winning a Pulitzer Prize for her journalistic coverage of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, Sheri Fink expands her work into her latest book, Five Days at Memorial. Fink examines the issues…
Junot Diaz on Immigration
Most of us are familiar with Junot Diaz’s ability to weave his immigrant experience with his excellent writing style, but we may be less familiar with how he feels about…
Remembering Ghanian Poet Kofi Awoonor
Ghanian poet and diplomat Kofi Awoonor was one of the many killed in the Nairobi terrorist attack. We’d like to share with you this short profile of him, as well…
Celebrate Banned Books!
Hey, everyone, it’s Banned Books Week! You can start your celebration by reading one of these banned books. Then, head over to The Toast to read “Ban These Books,” an…
Warning: Do Not Promote Reading
File this under the “What, Really?” section of your daily newspaper: a library aide has been fired for the promotion of reading. In upstate New York, library aide Lita Casey…