What Is The Rumpus?
The Rumpus publishes original fiction, poetry, literary humor writing, comics, essays, book reviews, and interviews with authors and artists of all kinds. We publish new work five days a week. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers our readers may already know and love. We want to bring new perspectives into the conversation that will make us look deeper.
Over our 15 year history, the writing we’ve published has been nominated for and won many of the major literary awards and prizes including inclusion in numerous Best American anthologies, Best of the Net best of lists, the PEN Robert J. Dau Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and more. Frequently, work that debuts in the magazine ends up in anthologies and book collections of all sorts or becomes a part of an author’s first book. We are proud to help shape the work of thousands of authors throughout our existence and help them find their audience.
The Rumpus launched in San Francisco in 2009 and now has editors all over the United States. In January 2017, The Rumpus was purchased by Marisa Siegel, who previously served as Managing Editor from 2014–2017. In January 2022, Alyson Sinclair became the new owner and publisher and Marisa Siegel continues at The Rumpus as an editor-at-large. In May 2025, Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman became the new owners and publishers of The Rumpus.
We believe that literature is community—and if reading The Rumpus makes you want more, we’ve got more! Sign up to participate in the Letters in the Mail from authors and join us as a Rumpus Member—each of these programs helps to keep The Rumpus in existence.
We offer monthly and yearly Membership programs with exclusive content and perks for Members.
Writers: contribute to The Rumpus by submitting your writing (check our Writer’s Guidelines) to keep our pages filled with goodness.
You can find our TOS and privacy page here.
Where did you get the name The Rumpus?
Legend has it that it was Katie Crouch’s idea. Rumpus is the name of the dog in her novel Men and Dogs. After launching The Rumpus, our founders were informed there is also a student humor magazine at Yale called Rumpus Magazine, which is no longer publishing.
Do you run original fiction and poetry?
We do run original fiction and poetry, and you can find our reading periods for both here. Please note that we do not accept unsolicited fiction and poetry outside of those reading periods.
How do I submit my work?
We accept submissions through our submissions manager powered by Submittable. Please read our Writer’s Guidelines before sending us your work.
Does The Rumpus pay for writing?
The Rumpus is a lean, mostly volunteer-run organization but we firmly believe writers should be paid for their work. We pay a modest $100 for prose and comics and $50 for poetry. We will increase these rates when we can.
Where do I buy Rumpus merch?
Merch is coming soon!
Submissions must be directed to our submission manager powered by Submittable. Please submit to the appropriate category. Submittable only displays categories that are open for submission. If you do not see a category, please reference the below reading periods for information on when you can submit.
- All work must be previously unpublished. This includes personal blogs and social media.
- Please only send one submission to a given section at a time; when we’ve responded with a decision, you are welcome to submit to that section again.
- We accept simultaneous submissions to other publications. Please promptly withdraw your submission if your work is accepted at another publication. And congratulations!
Please allow three months before sending submission status queries. Your patience is appreciated.
Agents and publicists: we strongly prefer that writers submit their own work to us. The Rumpus has an exceptional and diverse editorial team; bypassing Submittable results in fewer readers and editors looking at your work.
GUIDELINES FOR PUBLISHERS/PUBLICISTS
If you would like The Rumpus to consider a forthcoming or recently published book for possible review or preview list, please see this page for more information on what we’re looking for and submit your titles here.
Owners and Publishers: Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman
Managing Editor: Laura June Topolsky
Essays
Editors: Robbie Maakestad (he/him), Kate Branca (she/her), Taylor Byas (she/her), Anna Held
Readers: Kate Lewis (she/her), Sergio Muro (he/him), Tiffany Yo (she/her)
Fiction
Editors: Reena Shah, Chris Santantasio, WS Gong (he/him)
Readers: Maxwell Suzuki (he/him), Amy Wheeler Harwood, Elizabeth Zertuche (she/her)
Interviews
Editors: Annelies Zijderveld, TBD
#ShowUsYourDesk Host (on Instagram): Greg Mania
#SmallPressSunday: Janet Rodriguez
Criticism
Prose Reviews Editors: J Brooke (they/them)
Poetry Reviews Editors: Adedayo Agarau
Poetry
Senior Editor: Saeed Jones
Editors: Emma Hyche (she/her), janan alexandra, Monica Romo Masiello
Readers: Javeria Hasnain, Danielle Shi
Comics Editors: Colleen Kolba, Eliza Harris
Engagement Editor: Caitlin Rae Taylor
Letters in the Mail: Kaitlyn Adams
Store Manager: Meg Pillow
The magazine wouldn’t exist today without the following founding editors and foundational supporters: Isaac Fitzgerald (co-founder and managing editor), Roxane Gay (essays), Cheryl Strayed (Dear Sugar), Katy Henriksen (music), Paul Madonna (comics), Molly McArdle (Tumblr), Jason Novak (illustration), Rebecca Rubenstein (interviews), Brian Spears (poetry), and to our former store managers, Wendy Rutkowski and Eric Carroll.
Thanks also to former publishers Marisa Siegel and Alyson Sinclair, former editors-in-chief Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn and Aram Mrjoian, and managing editors Stephanie Trott, Lisa Dusenbery, Marissa Korbel, Zoë Ruiz, and Lyz Lenz.
We are also grateful for the guidance and support of Mary-Kim Arnold, Melissa Febos, Julie Greicius, Christine H. Lee, Celeste Ng, Claire Vaye Watkins, Julie Buntin, and our former volunteer board members Catherine Campbell, Kristine Leja, Courtney Maum, Kelly Sundberg, Cindy Tran, Mark Wallace, and Reema Zaman.
And to every volunteer reader, editor, contributor, and artist we’ve published on The Rumpus: you are the reason we exist. Thank you for being a part of the magazine’s past, present, and future.
Founded in 2009, The Rumpus is one of the longest running online independent literary magazines. We publish original essays, interviews, fiction, poetry, comics, humor writing, book reviews and more! We strive to be a platform for underrepresented stories and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. Besides reaching a large, engaged audience of literary readers, ads also help us maintain the website and keep the magazine alive!
Please contact Monica at ads@therumpus.net for additional information and rates.
Also of note: we DO NOT publish sponsored content or guest posts. We also do not allow Google Ads or other surveillance-based ads to run on our site. That means the ad for your book, writing retreat, class, beautiful notebooks, etc. will not run alongside ads for products like foot cream, weight loss scams, fast fashion, pills, and other types of irrelevant stuff that comes up when eyeballs are sold to the highest bidder.
Who we are:
We are an online literary magazine. Our website address is https://therumpus.net.
What personal data we collect and why we collect it:
We do not collect personal data.
Embedded content from other websites:
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
The Rumpus is a participant in Bookshop.org‘s affiliate program, which is a program designed to provide a means for sites to earn a small commission from book sales. We never make editorial choices based on the possibility of affiliation commissions. The Rumpus participates in Bookshop’s program in order to help raise additional revenue that supports indie bookstores and helps us keep the magazine running.
Analytics:
The Rumpus uses Jetpack and Google Analytics. Data collected is anonymized.
Who we share your data with:
We do not share your data.
What rights you have over your data:
You can always request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes. To make this request, please email hello@therumpus.net.
Please visit our store to view privacy policies related to store accounts and the store website.
For any questions or concerns about our privacy policy and your data please email hello@therumpus.net.
Letters In The Mail From Authors
Membership
For customer service issues, please contact Eric at store@therumpus.net.
For advertising inquires, please contact Monica ads@therumpus.net.
For all other inquires, contact hello@therumpus.net.