From the Archives: Rumpus Original Fiction: Lunch Money
Out here on the balcony, perched three stories above the ground, we’re in her world.
...moreBecome a Rumpus Member
Join NOW!Out here on the balcony, perched three stories above the ground, we’re in her world.
...moreI think, as writers, we only have so much choice. Obsessions emerge from our lived experience.
...moreAbout storms, truly, what did I know?
...moreI like to say this is a novel about split-second decisions, because either you go for it or you sink into the water and be forgotten.
...moreThe thing about living with my ex’s mural of his own ex about two hundred feet from my apartment was that I loved it.
...more“Can we separate the art from the artist?” If you’re like me, you’ve been in more than a few versions of this particular conversation. You could even, at this point in the post-MeToo era, write a MadLib of this conversation. It starts out in the abstract. Within the first thirty words, the term “canceled” will […]
...more“You better start running,” he says, as he takes the hammer from its peg. “Your lucky hammer!” he yells.
...moreI want to be fully present for whatever I’m doing, whether it’s teaching, or writing, or being with people I love.
...moreA stitch that sews both self and world into being.
...moreWomen just need to live / inside a geodesic dome / powered by male rage; / the angrier they get / the safer we’ll be
...moreembracing ambivalence, returning to one’s hometown and the musings it inspires during a time of collective dread, a canine writing team, and the power of imagination
...moreThe Hurting Kind’s epigraph, a quote from Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik [implores] us to “Sing as if nothing were wrong. / Nothing is wrong.” When we read Limón, we can almost believe that.
...moreI’ve been drawing the figure alone in interiors for a long time, and when the lockdown happened, my work blew up. I recognized, “Oh, suddenly everyone’s depressed at the same time.”
...more“Is this sex?” “No.” “Is this sex?” “No.” “How about now?” “Maybe.” “I think so.” “Probably.”
...moreThe shame is cumulative.
...moreI wanted to be able to frame the story within this understanding that these are powerful forces and that these are stories we’ve heard a lot before, and that these stories get in the way of, or make it hard to understand or even listen to, a more authentic or more real story about who people are or can be.
...moreI need a book that gives me the high of MDMA without the risk of faintness, dehydration, or a nosy mall cop telling me to put my shirt back on in the food court.
...moreAn excerpt from The Rumpus Poetry Book Club’s March selection, SYNTHETIC JUNGLE by Michael Chang
...morePeople who feel safe and able or who have privilege should use the space they create for themselves to make more space for people from marginalized communities. We all need to hold space for one another.
...moreHow do you represent, in a different tongue, the languages within the language of the original text?
...moreIt was too late for Lucy to be whatever she wanted. All she could do was be herself.
...moreI think we are all shaped by history, whether we accept this or not.
...moreI have long gravitated toward books that know where they are situated.
...moreI was fine. No one and nothing could hurt me.
...moreAn excerpt from The Rumpus Book Club’s March selection, HAPPILY by Sabrina Orah Mark
...moreGravity is what tethers us to the earth and to those we love, but it is also what we are constantly trying to escape. Anchor is about both these states—the holding on and the letting go—and the tension between them.
...more. . . good writing and good storytelling has to exceed the relatable . . .
...moreWe lose track of things and people over time. But back then, they felt like everything.
...more