Posts by author
Lauren O’Neal
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Fiction Becomes Islamic Punk Reality
When Michael Muhammad Knight wrote his novel The Taqwacores, about Muslims playing punk music, he didn’t know his fictional story would end up throwing down roots in the real world. But young Muslims read the book and saw themselves: “I had…
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Warm, Wise Submissions Tips
Submit to the idea that submitting your work can teach you where you’ve come from as a writer, where you’re at as a writer, and where you might be going as a writer. For Gulf Coast‘s blog, Joseph Scapellato enumerates reasons…
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The History and Significance of Black Dolls
You may have heard of the doll test, during which black children, given the choice between a black doll and an otherwise identical white doll, often identified the white one as prettier and nicer. If so, you probably understand what…
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Bestsellers, Worst Ethics
Reading bestsellers lists can be baffling. You know the whole world isn’t going to spring for literary fiction or erudite essay collections all the time, but sometimes a book seems so bland and unremarkable that you wonder how so many…
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Best of Luck to Ray and Roast Beef
Achewood was the verbal king of webcomics, with endlessly inventive turns of phrase and quotable lines in virtually every strip. Then it petered out and has updated only sporadically for the past few years. But late last night, its creator,…
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Weekend Rumpus Roundup
If you were too busy preparing kickass hors d’oeuvres for your Oscars party to read The Rumpus this weekend, we understand, and we’re here to help. Here’s what you missed. An enchanting comic about an invisible crown by Yumi Sakugawa.…
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Black Writers, Non-Black Readers
It is technically no longer what Carleen Brice calls “National Buy a Book By A Black Author and Give it to Somebody Not Black Month,” but Black History Month seems as good a time as any to link to her…
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And in This Corner…The Emancipator!
Previously, we blogged about how Abraham Lincoln grew his trademark beard partly because of a letter from a little girl. As it turns out, that’s not the only surprising biographical fact about Lincoln; he was also an avid wrestler, as…
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Literary Black History Month Resources for Kids
Looking for a literary way to celebrate Black History Month with the kids in your life? Reading Rockets has a wide-ranging list of resources, from children’s book recommendations to writing activities to interviews with black writers and illustrators. There are…
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Where Bunny Rabbits Meet Black Flag
Hot tip from Xeni Jardin: the Bay Area Film Society is screening Farmcore tomorrow at New Nothing Cinema in San Francisco. Farmcore is a documentary about the Farm, a San Francisco community center during the ’70s and ’80s that housed gardens,…
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Keep Doubt Alive with Essays
If you’re a regular Rumpus reader, you probably like essays. And if you like essays, you’ll probably enjoy this New York Times opinion piece about their literary and social value: Ever since Michel de Montaigne, the founder of the modern essay,…
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“How Do We Become More Than What’s Sold to Us?”
I imagined the sour-faced exec watching the video of our conversation and asking the teens why he paid for a bunch of queers to talk about Andy Warhol, and I have to admit, I was INTO IT. The Rumpus’s Thomas…