Lauren O'Neal is an MFA student at San Francisco State University. Her writing has appeared in publications like Slate, The New Inquiry, and The Hairpin. You can follow her on Twitter at @laureneoneal.
If you couldn’t make it to Litquake’s digi.lit conference, never fear—you can listen to Laura Miller’s keynote address here. Though the conference focused on digital publishing, the Salon writer talks just…
I was new to Austin and to adulthood, and if adulthood meant dressing up in pencil skirts and suffering, well, I’d pretend that was as glamorous as it looked in old movies. I didn’t care. I loved it. I’d kiss it like the girl in the song kissed ice and dirt.
Being the most talented writer doesn’t necessarily translate into publishing success, which really comes from methodical and consistent work rather than raw talent. Read this and other advice for emerging…
Louisiana writer and cartoonist Greg Peters passed away last week at age 50. His long-running subversive comic strips Suspect Device and Snake Oil, forerunners to strips like Get Your War On, satirized politics…
Our girl Elissa Bassist lays some hella smart analysis on Orange is the New Black for Medium: To see what’s been missing in popular culture is to see how comprehensive and refined…
The BBC’s Gavin Esler conducted a brief but thought-provoking interview with Kenyan author Ngugi Wa Thiong’o. Whereas Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie declares she has “taken ownership of English,” Thiong’o balks at the…
Listen to Neil Gaiman read from his latest novel The Ocean at the End of the Lane (his first book meant for adult readers that he’s written in eight years). He…
If you find clowns more sinister than hilarious, you’re in good company. Clowning has long been associated with a frisson of tragedy or fear, since way before It or John Wayne…
Upworthy has an exhaustive (but not at all exhausting) list of young-adult books besides the Harry Potter series for the teenager in your life (or you—no judgment!). Historical fiction (The Book…
Rumpus readers already know librarians are heroes, but it’s nice to see other people get it too. Here’s io9’s list of 20 heroic librarians who save the world in books,…
We’re psyched to see we made it onto Flavorwire’s list of 25 Best Websites for Literature Lovers, especially because we were labeled “the best of the West”! Labels are always…