Publicists vs. Reporters
“The dangers are clear. As PR becomes ascendant, private and government interests become more able to generate, filter, distort, and dominate the public debate, and to do so without the…
Posts by author
Sam Riley
474 posts
Sam Riley is an adult who works at McSweeney's.
Undervalued Teachers
“People talk about accountability, measurements, tenure, test scores and pay for performance. These questions are worthy of debate, but are secondary to recruiting and training teachers and treating them fairly.…
New Believer Things
This month’s Believer comes with a whole bunch of laudatory excitement. The sixth annual Believer Book Award for 2010 has been officially announced, along with the first ever Believer Poetry…
Pseudonymously Famous
What happens when a book is shortlisted for the Orwell prize and its author chooses to remain pseudonymous? Possibly, the beginning of a new canon. “Strictly speaking this isn’t anonymity…
Artistic Oppression
Where mythologizing dictators and threatening artists intersect, totalitarian art was born. Find out about this cultural phenomenon and its many historical/contemporary examples. “The crucial element in the creation of totalitarian…
Things You Never Got to Hear Faulkner Say
When Faulkner addressed English classes at the University of Mississippi in 1947, he offered some interesting advice (there is always time for writing, it’s not good to wait when feeling…
Believing in Science
There’s an awesome Mother Jones article on how we intake our science like lawyers and how our reasoning is inextricably linked to our emotional centers. We’re used to scientific evidence…
Goodwillie and Kyle on Tour
Two of last month’s Rumpus readers, David Goodwillie and Aryn Kyle, are documenting their book tour and are sharing the comedic moments via tweets and tumblr, respectively. And as the…
In Support of the Memoir
Dinty W. Moore’s rebuttal to Lorrie Moore’s essay in the New York Review of Books, in support of memoir-writing defends the genre and points out the absurdities in Moore’s adamant…
Self-Publishing Dos and Don’ts
More fuel to add to the self-publishing discussion: HTMLGIANT has posted a thorough guide on self-publishing books—how to print, distribute, get your very own ISBN, and a list of what…
Digital Folk Art
“Like quilting, archiving employs the obsessive stitching together of many small pieces into a larger vision, a personal attempt at ordering a chaotic world.” This essay provides some edgy perspective…
Subtitle Takeover
Bill Morris wrote an essay on the overwhelmingly long subtitles that seem to be part of the current book-perusing experience. This lengthy subtitle trend has extended to the reaches of…