Posts by author
Lauren O’Neal
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PJ Harvey Tuesday #10: “Satisfaction”
There was this thing that happened in the ’90s: a lot of women were making rock music. It seems simple to most of us here in the twenty-first century, but back then, it was apparently an extremely difficult concept to…
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The Rumpus Interview with Molly Antopol
Writer Molly Antopol talks about what it’s like to craft a story collection over the course of ten years, the desire to never feel smarter than her characters, and the thin piece of glass that exists between her and Israel.
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Man vs. Terrifying Gigantic Agribusiness
…“grew up in world (S.C.) that wouldn’t accept him,” “needs adulation,” “doesn’t sleep,” was “scarred for life.”…“What’s motivating Hayes?—basic question.” An actor’s notes for a role? A writer’s sketch of a character for a novel? Actually, these are observations by…
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Trolls Are “Sadists and Psychopaths”
Common wisdom has it that the Internet has disconnected people from their sense of empathy—but maybe it’s just exposed society at large to greater numbers of people who were already unempathetic. This Washington Post blog post reports on a Canadian study which…
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A Different Kind of Valentine
Looking for a last-minute Valentine’s Day gift for the book-lover in your life? Why not pay that gift forward to your community? Romance novelist Anna DeStefano’s Hearts for Hearts initiative “to give back to their communities by donating books they…
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Famous Librarian Also Famous Jerk
Melvil Dewey: inventor of the Dewey decimal system, godfather of modern library science, and…sexist jerk? According to this Bitch blog post, Dewey helped open the field of librarianship to women by allowing them into his classes at Columbia’s library school, but…
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Do Writers Also Have to Be Protesters?
Pankaj Mishra has always been a politically outspoken writer, so when Mo Yan, who has defended the Chinese government’s censorship, won the Nobel Prize, Mishra was the last person anyone expected to defend him. But he did, asking, “Do we…
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How Writing Helped Connu’s Founders with Business
Last year, writers Susannah Luthi and Niree Perian launched Connu, a sort of literary magazine in app form that curates short stories for readers. (We blogged about their Kickstarter campaign back in June.) You’d think creating apps and writing fiction…
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The Obsessive, Nerdy Joys of Copyediting
This conversation at the Millions between Edan Lepucki and her copyeditor Susan Bradanini Betz is a beautiful paean to the editing process—and enlightening for anyone who wonders what precisely a copyeditor does. Lepucki and Betz discuss author/editor compatibility, obsessive style…
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Studies Confirm: High School Sucks
…over the past 40 years, despite endless debates about curricula, testing, teacher training, teachers’ salaries, and performance standards…there has been no improvement—none—in the academic proficiency of American high school students. Also, “American high schools are even more boring than schools…
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Acclaimed African Author Comes Out as Gay
Supporters of African LGBT rights were so relieved about Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni’s veto of an anti-gay bill that they were nearly blindsided when Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan’s signed a similar bill into law. The law prompted Binyavanga Wainaina, a…
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Hard Times Blues by Elwin Cotman
Lauren O’Neal reviews HARD TIMES BLUES by Elwin Cotman today in The Rumpus Book Reviews.