Posts by: Lisa Dusenbery

Sandy Roundup

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Mother Jones is a good place for ongoing updates. Yesterday, their Climate Desk spoke with elderly NYC residents trapped without power. Our own Michelle Dean writes about “FEMA, Inequality and the Need for Better Government.” “Where Did All the Gasoline Go?” The Atlantic has some answers. The Nation looks ahead to how Sandy will impact the election. How to […]

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All-Story and The Conversation

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Zoetrope’s fiction quarterly, Zoetrope: All-Story is offering slices of cinematic history to lucky subscribers. Subscribe to the magazine before November 15th and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win one of fifty original 35mm frames from Francis Ford Coppola’s acclaimed film The Conversation.

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West Coast Showdown: The Stranger vs. The Believer

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“Watch as writers from The Believer and Seattle’s The Stranger go head-to-head with tales from their youth. Jesus! LSD! Virginity! No topic is off-limits.” Featuring The Believer’s Brian McMullen, Laura Howard, and Daniel Levin Becker and The Stranger‘s Lindy West, Christopher Frizzelle, and Bethany Jean Clement. Free drinks with purchase of How to Be a Person or The Believer Issue #93 while supplies last! Thursday, November […]

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Sandy Roundup

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The New York Times tracks the storm and the daunting recovery effort. The Atlantic has a range of coverage on the hurricane, including political, economic, and historical perspectives. A list of resources for Sandy relief efforts at Racialicious. Check the NYC Mayor’s office Twitter feed for ongoing updates and ways to help. Rumpus columnist Steve Almond on why Sandy matters […]

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McSweeney’s Launches Poetry Series

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McSweeney’s brand-new poetry series begins tomorrow evening in San Francisco. The inaugural reading will feature writers Allan Peterson, author of Fragile Acts (a Rumpus Poetry Book Club selection), Rebecca Lindenberg, author of Love: An Index, and Zubair Ahmed, author of the forthcoming City of Rivers. Friday, October 26 at 7:30 PM at Booksmith. Free!

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The (Big) Business

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“San Francisco’s critically acclaimed independent stand up comedy show takes over Cobb’s – for one night only.” Comedy collective The Business — featuring  Mike Drucker, Caitlin Gill, Sean Keane, Alex Koll, Bucky Sinister, and Chris Thayer — will take the stage at Cobb’s Comedy Club for a special birthday show! Featured guests for the evening include Kevin Camia and Jamie & Sissy […]

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Nick Hornby in San Francisco Tomorrow!

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Nick Hornby is on tour for More Baths Less Talking, the latest collection of his celebrated Believer column. Tomorrow he stops in San Francisco for a conversation with Judson True. Wednesday, Oct. 24th, 7:30 pm at Herbst Theatre (401 Van Ness Avenue). Click here to purchase tickets.

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The Escape Hatch

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Molly Crabapple writes about her time as a “professional naked girl,” reflecting on the complicated relationship between beauty and power. “…I was doing my best to escape the trajectory of art school-retail-professional failure that, as a broke student at a bad school, I was marked out for. I wanted to make money fast, shove it into […]

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How to Sharpen Pencils: The Commercial

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Melville House presents a 30-second TV spot for David Rees’ new book, How to Sharpen Pencils. Check out the video after the jump. And don’t miss the great conversation we had with Rees last month. “As you’ll see, the commercial borrows the tried and true tropes of American infomercials to sell a truly revolutionary product: the definitive guide […]

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Amanda Davis Award

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McSweeney’s is accepting submissions for their Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award. “This memorial award is intended to aid a young woman writer of 32 years or younger who both embodies Amanda’s personal strengths—warmth, generosity, a passion for community—and who needs some time to finish a book in progress.” More information on the contest after the […]

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Amanda Todd and Myths of the Internet Age

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At the New Yorker, Rumpus Saturday editor Michelle Dean writes about Amanda Todd, cyber-harassment, outed Reddit moderator Michael Brutsch, free speech, and the idea that cyberspace would offer a “bodiless” freedom. “The power to get away from yourself, like everything else, is unevenly distributed. Women have become, as Franks put it, ‘unwilling avatars,’ unable to […]

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“the literary apologia”

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Novelist John Reed, who wrote an excellent piece for us last year on the politics of narrative, talks with Slant about repentant book critics. The conversation includes some kind word for our book reviews: “On the Rumpus, you can write a 3000 word review. You’re just not going to get that in print.” Thanks, John […]

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Lawrence Ferlinghetti Poetry Fellowship

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The University of San Francisco has established a fellowship in honor of Lawrence Ferlinghetti “who published and supported the work of writers who were outsiders―outside traditional academia or traditional social conventions.” Awarded bi-annually, the fellowship provides full tuition funding to an applicant in poetry “whose work embodies a concern for social justice and freedom of […]

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Blame Game

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At Clutch, Evette Dionne writes an open letter to Abigail Fisher, the young woman whose case against the University of Texas is currently being heard by the Supreme Court. Fisher claims that her whiteness was held against her, leading to the rejection of her college application. According to UT, Fisher wouldn’t have been admitted, regardless […]

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Kathleen Alcott in San Francisco!

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Kathleen Alcott will be at Alley Cat Books next week, reading from her new debut novel, The Dangers of Proximal Alphabets (September’s Rumpus Book Club selection). Join her on Tuesday, October 16, 6:30 pm. Alley Cat Books (3036 24th St.) Alcott has two other SF readings planned: Thursday, October 11 (tonight!), 7 pm. Belmont Library (1110 […]

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“Underwear is definitely pants”

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Dissecting the lies writers tell themselves, Alexander Chee offers sound advice on how to succeed — or at least succeed in being honest with oneself. “Don’t sit there imagining disapproval instead of imagining your novel. Find out. Write it, get people to read it, send it out. And don’t just send it out five times. […]

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Seeming versus Being

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“Ultimately, A Working Theory of Love examines, quite successfully, our semi-delusional approach to interpersonal relationships and contemplates whether the world comes down on the side of seem or be—or if it remains negotiated in the space in between.” BOMBLOG takes a closer look at the exploration of the “mind-body problem” in Scott Hutchins’ new novel, A […]

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Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee

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Dan Weiss is away this week. We’ll do our best to get the day started without him. “If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time.” Indeed. Take a peek inside The Book of Barely Imagined Beings. The therapist of the future is […]

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Rock-N-Roll Carnival

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This Thursday, Broke-Ass Stuart, Tricycle Records and Public Works are hosting a Rock-n-Roll Carnival in San Francisco. The event will feature performances by Birdmonster, Le VICE, and Teenage Sweater. Plus magic, comedy, burlesque, whiskey, and more. October 11th at Public Works. Doors at 8pm. $7 pre-sale/ $10 at the door. More info after the jump:

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SF’s Adobe Bookshop Lives!

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Good news: Adobe Bookshop, which has spent twenty-three years in the Mission, will not be closing despite rising rent. Andrew McKinley, the proprietor of Adobe, explains his plan to transform the shop. “I choose to be an optimist and believe that the store can be saved, providing enough people band together to contribute labor, sufficient funds, and […]

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