I’m back in Los Angeles! Yesterday I got coffee with Jim Gavin and Homer, the basset hound he’s pet sitting. Unlike me, Jim doesn’t usually pet sit. He usually writes and teaches and if you’ve been reading this column, you know that I really like his short story collection Middle Men. Not too long ago […]

On Monday night at 826LA, J. Ryan Stradal and McSweeney’s organized a reading to celebrate Lucy Corin’s One Hundred Apocalypses and Victoria Chang’s The Boss. Those two books are now on my to-read list. Although that to-read list gets longer each day. Isaac and Jordan from McSweeney’s were in town from San Francisco and later […]

Remember when your Rumpus Sunday Editor Gina published fiction? She published Tom Kealy’s Nobody and Allison Amend’s The Stench. Stephen Elliott explained, “We don’t publish fiction on The Rumpus. But on Sunday Gina takes over and she can do whatever she wants. I mean, Gina’s a wild card.” Today I didn’t publish fiction but did […]

I texted my friend at midnight: Are you still at the party? My friend said she still was there, she was in the garden, and there were a lot of familiar faces. I showed up and she was right, there were a lot of familiar faces. I’m constantly telling myself I’m an outsider. It’s an old […]

I’m rereading Tom Kealy’s The Creative Writing MFA Handbook, which means I’m thinking of applying to graduate school. When I was in San Francisco, I met Tom Kealy and would run into him from time to time in the Mission District. He was smart and funny and when I moved to Los Angeles, I bought […]

I’ve been thinking and reading a lot about the Zimmerman verdict. I recommend Roxane Gay’s How America Profiled Trayvon Martin and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Karen Bender’s What Great Writing Can Teach Us About Trayvon Martin. Read bell hooks Was Right. I’m supposed to be at a meditation retreat but had to postpone it. Thich Nhat […]

This evening, Michelle Tea is participating in my reading series! We’re celebrating Mermaid in Chelsea Creek. Last night I was in bed, reading Getting Pregnant with Michelle Tea articles and a friend told me that a party near Dodger Stadium was still going on. I said I was too cozy and sleepy to go and […]

I described my body in terms of my illness. My body was only chronic muscle and joint pain. It was 10-plus pain and exhausted. This was when I was bedridden, desperate and my mind was telling me, This is it. This is your life.

And there I was, last night, watching a YouTube livefeed of a state Senate filibuster, something I never thought I would do. -Roxane Gay Let’s start with Roxane Gay’s Let’s Recap What Happened in Texas and When Twitter Does What Journalism Can’t. I agree that Wendy is a Feminist Superhero. Would you like a Rumpus […]

I’ve been housesitting and labeled my week here as a writer’s retreat. I haven’t quite gotten used to the coffee maker, so I put way too much coffee in the machine and drink two cups, which I’m beginning to see now is really six cups. Each morning I seem to induce a mild panic attack, […]

I’m listening to Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich’s curatorial hour as I write this curatorial column. Ben Loory shared a June Mix, which inspired me to eat a chocolate donut for lunch. The next day, I went on a gluten-free diet and then binged on The Bins. Here are three you might enjoy: Cheese, Meat, Soup.

Q: Zoë, who did you fall in love with this week? A: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Listen to the ALOUD podcast, watch her TED talk about The Danger of a Single Story and read her NY Times interview. I saw Adichie read and speak at an ALOUD event and after the reading, I turned to my friend and […]

Joshuah Bearman’s website led me to Christy Wampole’s “The Essayfication of Everything” and Wample led me to Phillip Lopate’s “The Essay: an Exercise in Doubt.” After that, I stumbled onto Andrew Bird’s “Words Will Tell.”

The private movie screening took place on the fifth floor of a building on Beverly Boulevard. When I took the elevator up, a man who worked in the office said, The hookers and blow are ready. No one laughed. Just kidding, he said. Wrong crowd. Later he turned to me and said, You have to […]

My TROP interview with Aisha Sabatini Sloan led me to an interview with Maya Angelou. After I read the interview with Maya Angelou, I decided it was time to read “An Interview: Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde” in Sister Outsider. I’ve been meaning to read this interview for six years. I remember buying the book used at […]

Years ago, after I graduated from UC Santa Cruz, I couldn’t write because my editor voice seemed to be in overdrive. I would start a sentence and somehow end up with a page filled with words that were neatly crossed out. I decided I needed to approach writing with more playfulness. I completed exercises by […]

On Tuesday afternoon at a diner in Echo Park, I interviewed a writer and he told me a story, violent and personal. He told the story suddenly, while I was smiling. Are you serious? I said, which seems to be that very stupid thing people say when they’re stunned.

This afternoon, as I walked down York Boulevard, I was writing Links I Like in my head. I was thinking about a woman I love and how no one takes me seriously when I say I love her, and how I might not take myself seriously either. I was thinking about the dominatrix who wants […]

Does Twitter count as links? I’ve decided yes, it does. This week I felt grateful that I follow Saeed Jones and Thomas Page McBee. In “Into the Fold,” Thomas Page McBee writes, “I understand that in the aftermath of tragedy, bystanders feel helpless. I felt helpless. I feel helpless.” In “Stunned in Silence,” Roxane Gay goes […]

The Rumpus Interview With Ted Travelstead! When Ted recalls the funniest thing he has seen firsthand, he shares a memory about his wife and it is obvious that he loves his wife. I found his answer to be a love story. Then he says, “Oh! Just thought of another one. One time a teen elephant slapped my sister across the face […]