Posts by author
Pat Johnson
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Critical Hit Awards Judged by Rumpus Books Editor
With so many books available, it’s easy to spend hours meandering through reviews. Book reviews often facilitate our reading decisions, but rarely do reviewers receive the recognition they deserve. Last month, Rumpus books editor M. Rebekah Otto judged Electric Literature’s Critical Hit…
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A Crisis of Hands
One of life’s many struggles is learning to become comfortable with your body–a body you didn’t choose. We’ve all looked in the mirror and wanted to change something. For Rumpus contributor Melissa Febos, it was her hands. Febos says: They gave…
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Playing with Food
Brock Davis was one of those kids who probably drove his parents crazy during dinner. Davis’ collection of “food art” is playful, weird, and provocative. What we like about his work is he takes the staple food items we have…
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This here post is for the Faulkner Fans
Marco Kaye’s “As I Lay Buying” takes Faulkner’s classic backwoods family, The Bundrens, and throws them into a modern Macy’s for some Holiday shopping. What more can we say–it’s funny. And even if you didn’t like As I Lay Dying,…
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We bet you’ve never seen nudes like this!
Asger Carlsen’s nudes look so real at first you might think they are naked contortionists with missing appendages posing for the camera. Carlsen’s nudes are twisted, sometimes literally; and yet, although disturbing, they are beautiful. Here’s one to pique your…
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Young Brooklyn Artists Keep it Fresh
The fresh eyes and perspectives of young artists keep the art world from stagnating, and Brooklyn is a hotbed for these up-and-coming artists. The L Magazine interviews some young Brooklyn artists about their accomplishments, experiences living in Brooklyn, and what…
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The Publishing Industry Takes A Blow?
Authors such as Stephen King and Judy Blume will soon be able to reclaim works they published 35 years ago. An article on paidcontent.org investigates a relatively unknown law that will soon come into effect and could redirect the publishing industry’s…
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250-year-old Secret Text Decoded
New technological advances have allowed researchers into an ancient world of secret texts that once seemed nearly impossible to decode. Noah Shachtman’s article in Wired, titled “They Cracked This 250-Year-Old Code, and Found a Secret Society Inside,” explores how new computer generated…
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Susan Sontag on Art: Illustrated Diary Excerpts
Rumpus contributor Wendy MacNaughton has teamed up with Maria Popova (of Brain Pickings) to illustrate selected excerpts from Susan Sontag’s diaries. The artwork is available on Etsy as an 11×14 print on heavy cotton rag paper with razored edges in a limited edition of…
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Great Novels with Bad Endings
How many love affairs have you had with novels that ended abruptly, poorly, without cause or the “proper” resolution? You finish the last word, your arms hang limp, the novel collapses into your lap, and you mutter: seriously? In Joan…
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Poets respond to the Israel-Gaza conflict
Marcela Sulak and Tala Abu Rahmeh called on poets to respond to the Israeli and Gaza conflict(s) through letters and poetry in a collaborative project called “The Gaza Poetry Roundtable.” Much of the media reduces the Gaza-Israel situation to numbers: rockets…
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Mary Todd Lincoln: The Controversial First Lady
Mary Todd Lincoln was no Jackie Kennedy. Although Mary Lincoln is often portrayed as being consumed by aristocratic airs, she hardly fit in with the upper-class. She spent hefty sums of money on custom tailored dresses to “look the part;”…