Columns
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The Thimble is the Tool of the Proletariat
Whether you think Monopoly is boring, cutthroat, depressing, or an opportunity to display your impressive financial skills, we bet you didn’t know the complete history of the board game. Harper’s Magazine features a hefty article on the game’s origins, which…
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Searching for Sylvia Plath
Here’s a lede that might send you to your room with the vapors: “As a rule the work of women poets is marked by intensity of feeling and fineness of perception rather than by outstanding technical accomplishment.” So writes Bernard…
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Rumpus Sound Takes: Share
“When you’re writing something original, you aren’t really being entirely original. There is so much intentional and unintentional stealing.” —Meg Baird
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Simple Madness or Something Else?
Today is the day for ghost stories. At The New Yorker, Brad Leithauser analyzes Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw,” focusing on the distinction still being puzzled out by readers and scholars alike: were the ghosts real, or was…
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Arrr! What do you mean by “cucumber” walls?
Peter Mountford writes about lending a hand to the mysterious “AlexanderIII” of Moscow, who is conducting a pirated translation of his novel. What begins as an author’s dream of “overhearing” a discussion of his phrase-work quickly becomes something else entirely.…
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The Rumpus Interview with Kate Durbin
Kate Durbin’s poetry and performance art focus on female archetypes like princesses, witches, and pop stars. She dives into the cesspools of modern culture without shame, resurfacing to present us with glittering treasures from the depths.
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Crossing State Lines: An American Renga edited by Bob Homan and Carol Muske-Dukes
I first discovered Renga: A Chain of Poems (Brazillier, 1972) in a used bookstore in New York during my first year of graduate school. I was transfixed.
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HEAVY-HANDED: Finally Funny
“I’ve had a few dreams recently about my ex-boyfriends finally getting the courage to say the mean things I always knew they wanted to say to me.”
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Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
Mark your calendars: in September 2014 we’re going to start testing the ship that will (hopefully) bring us to Mars. Meanwhile, did you know there used to be a Miss NASA? I like these 1960s Don Quixote illustrations. It’s true!…
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Halloween is Waiting
Every Halloween, the ghost of my 11 year-old self haunts me. She’s in the candy aisle at Rite Aid gorging on fun-size Twix bars. She’s wrapping candy corn lights around her neck. She’s trying on a vampire costume grinning through…
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2012 US Presidential Election FAQ
After you read Brian Spears’s excellent take on our current political climate and why government is actually, in fact, important, get yourself acquainted with everything you need to know about participating in this year’s election. Google’s Director of Research, Peter…
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West Coast Showdown: The Stranger vs. The Believer
“Watch as writers from The Believer and Seattle’s The Stranger go head-to-head with tales from their youth. Jesus! LSD! Virginity! No topic is off-limits.” Featuring The Believer’s Brian McMullen, Laura Howard, and Daniel Levin Becker and The Stranger‘s Lindy West, Christopher Frizzelle, and Bethany Jean Clement.…