Posts by: M. Rebekah Otto

Is That a Fish in Your Ear?

By

Today, in Book Review, Christopher Lura reviews Is That a Fish in Your Ear? Translation and the Meaning of Everything, David Bellos’s new treatise on the pleasure of translation. Read the review.

...more

Bartleby in NYC

By

Some friends of Housing Works Bookstore are hosting a marathon reading of Herman Melville’s novella Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street. It’s only 45 pages, but it’s an exciting 45 pages. The reading will be this Thursday, Nov. 10, at 3 PM in the public atrium at 60 Wall Street.

...more

White Gloves in Oakland, CA

By

Filmmakers Courtney Stephens and Les Blank explore the shifting definition of the phrase “women’s work” through the lens of the Oakland Museum Women’s Board (and the board’s renowned White Elephant Sale) in their new short documentary, White Gloves. The Oakland Museum will screen the movie, which you can learn more about here, this Friday evening […]

...more

E. L. Doctorow in San Jose

By

Award-winning author E. L. Doctorow will be reading down in San Jose tonight. Then tomorrow afternoon he will be in conversation with our very own Andrew Altschul. Here are all of the exciting details at the San Jose State Center for the Literary Arts website.

...more

Chris Adrian in SF

By

It’s a Chris Adrian double feature! Today, in Book Review, Christopher Feliciano Arnold reviews Adrian’s latest novel, The Great Night. Then tonight at 7:30 Adrian will be reading at Booksmith in the Haight.

...more

1

Cooking the Books

By

Emily Gould (who we interviewed in a Conversation with Writers Braver Than Me) has a new episode of her series Cooking the Books, in which she cooks with writers as they discuss their latest books. In the latest installment, she juices vegetables with Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch, authors of Ten Walks/Two Talks.

...more

Unferth on Bat Segundo

By

Deb Olin Unferth was recently interviewed on the Bat Segundo Show, a podcast of long-form interviews with writers. In her interview Unferth tells us, “in many ways we’re all sort of a bundle of urgencies, right? We’re all trying to do all sorts of things to stay calm. To try and stay calm. And some […]

...more

Newspaper Guild Calls for HuffPo Strike

By

Last week, the Newspaper Guild, a 26,000-member-strong national union of media workers, called on all unpaid Huffington Post bloggers “to withhold their work.” The strike asks specifically for an immediate pay schedule for all contributors. Read their official press release. As you may have noticed, we have discussed the recent purchase of HuffPo by AOL and the […]

...more

New Julian Schnabel Film Under Fire

By

Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) has a new film, Miral, about a young girl in Jerusalem. That’s exciting, right? When the United Nations decided to screen the film, the American Jewish Committee condemned the screening and said the fim was unfairly biased against Israel. Harvey Weinstein, who is distributing the […]

...more

Broadcastr

By

Our friends over at Electric Literature have an awesome new app called Broadcastr that plays certain audio stories based on your GPS location, bringing place-specific tales into your everyday travels! We recommend Jennifer Egan reading from A Visit From the Goon Squad.

...more

Eileen Myles Weighs in

By

Over at The Awl, Eileen Myles shares her thoughts on seeing the VIDA pie graphs. She tells us that writing by women is inherently more interesting: “Why? Because the female reality is still largely unknown. And language is the thrill that holds the unknown in its vague and shifting ways. That’s writing.”

...more

2

KUSF Silenced

By

On Tuesday morning the University of San Francisco closed their radio station, KUSF. More precisely, they sold the bandwidth. We don’t really understand what it means to sell an FCC license, but the station is off the air, to be replaced by a non-commercial classical station. The community of djs and listeners are very upset. […]

...more

Ten Walks/Two Talks

By

As I concluded in Modern Reader #2, I really enjoyed Ten Walks/Two Talks, the recent volume from Ugly Duckling Presse of the meandering conversations between Andy Fitch and Jon Cotner. The duo are in LA this week, reading four times(!) with the likes of Grace Krilanovich, Anna Joy Springer, Tom Lutz, and Maggie Nelson. Go […]

...more

The Way We Live Now

By

Today in Book Review, Shawna Lang Ryan reviews two new novels by Asian American writers, Quiet As They Come by Angie Chau and Take Me Home by Brian Leung. Read the review.

...more

Andrew Winer

By

Andrew Winer will be one of tonight’s readers at The Monthly Rumpus, along with M.G. Martin, Pam Houston, Chris Colin, and Kristen Tracy! With Comedy by Emily Heller and music by Boy in the Bubble and Chris Von Sneidern! Read the Rumpus Review of his excellent new novel here.

...more

Opening Lines

By

Opening Lines discusses the origins and first trys of now-famous writers and other figures. Their tag line reads: “How the famous and infamous got their start.” Some of my favorite’s include that Flannery O’Connor couldn’t spell, Steve Jobs started out making illegal phones long before the iPhone, and Jennifer Egan thinks she got famous too […]

...more

Litquake & the CLA All-Stars

By

The Center for Literary Arts and Litquake present an all-star reading this Sunday night at 6:30. Hosted by Rumpus Books Editor Andrew Altschul, the event features past and future CLA authors Andrew Sean Greer, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mary Roach, Kim Addonizio, and Daniel Alarcón. Venue and ticket info at the official Litquake website.

...more

The Rumpus in your inbox!

* indicates required