Columns
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“When My Husband Came Out as a Woman”
Feminist theorist Judith Butler criticizes gender as something culturally constructed while “sex is just as culturally constructed as gender.” According to Butler, the distinction between sex and gender turns out to be no distinction at all. In Anne G. Sabo’s…
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“Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt”
Three years ago yesterday, in honor of Kurt Vonnegut’s birthday, we reprinted Steve Almond’s homage to the late author, “Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt.” “The main thing was that Vonnegut made an impact on readers. He wasn’t one of those recluses who hid…
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Put Some Flash Fiction in Your Headphones
Story Tapes is a new podcast created by Bay Area writers Eliza Smith and Faith Gardner to showcase flash fiction. In the past few months, they’ve featured writers reading their own work and others’, as well as answering interview questions…
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The Last Neighborhood I Loved: Rockaway, Queens
Late summer 2005 and everything’s under water. The news warns us that New York City could be the next New Orleans—flooded subways, ten thousand shattered windows.
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The Rumpus Interview with Nanette Vonnegut
To commemorate what would have been Kurt Vonnegut’s 90th birthday, The Rumpus sits down with Nanette Vonnegut for an exclusive interview about her father, his legacy, and his writing…
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Ted Wilson Reviews the World #160
PRESCRIPTION CONDOMS ★★★★★ (3 out of 5) Hello, and welcome to my week-by-week review of everything in the world. Today I am reviewing prescription condoms.
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Nick Cave Monday #9: “Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry”
Nick Cave scared the crap out of me. The year was 1992 and I was used to grunge and punk rock and loved the bodies hurling into each other. There were bands like The Dwarves who would get naked, bleed,…
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Notable San Francisco
This week in San Francisco Monday 11/12: The SHOUT is a live storytelling event featuring people from all walks of life telling amazing but true 10-minute stories from their lives. Tonight features Danielle Thys, Michael Ray Wisley, Anne Galjour, Paul…
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“Sweet Tooth,” by Ian McEwan
Page-turner thrillers of all stripes trade on nimbly accelerating plot mechanics and narrative sleights-of-hand that highlight the gap between what eventually transpires and what readers (and, often, the intrepid hero) initially believe or anticipate. At the onset, Sweet Tooth’s essence appears…
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Notable New York, This Week 11/12-11/18
This week in New York, events are coming back online post-Sandy (but please consider helping Powerhouse Arena, or lending a hand at evacuation centers that still need volunteers if you’re able): MONDAY 11/12: This month’s Franklin Park Reading Series features…
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Eve Ensler wants you to rise
The Nation features a very knowledgeable and loving essay by Laura Flanders about the inimitable Eve Ensler (author of The Vagina Monologues), her work, and her movement One Billion Rising. OBR is a massive movement which hopes to take a…
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Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
The answer to all our problems is urine ! (PS. this is actually totally inspiring.) It turns out the suitcases left behind by people in insane asylums in the early 20th century are fascinating to see. Let us now look…