Kelly Opdycke

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 her state won the state’s summer reading challenge. Oh, and…

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 behind the temporary solution of foster care. The essay is…

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. Oh, yeah, it’s also a piece for any of you…

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 of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lena Durham, and many others to readers…

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, who is best known as the author of The Jane…

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 to [insert topic here],” but after way too many hours…

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 Japanese Literature.” If you’re in need of some good advice…

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 created as a result of those who died because of…

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 the immigration issue. In fact, he believes immigration makes people…

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 as this except from a poem he wrote for his…

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 essay about some books that should never be read. By…

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 was fired because she voiced her opinion on a controversial…