The Sweet Smell of Excess
Al-Anon sucked. If I hadn’t been too broke for therapy, I’d never have taken a friend’s advice to attend those awful meetings. They were worse than the AA meetings I’d…
Blogs
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In Memory of Victor Martinez
Peter Orner remembers his friend, the late poet and novelist Victor Martinez.
A Brief History of the Rumpus Book Club
A Brief History of the Rumpus Book Club The Rumpus Book Club kicked off on May 19, 2010, when Stephen decided to announce it in his Daily Rumpus in his…
Nick Cave Monday #4: “The Mercy Seat”
There’s one song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds that pretty much sums up every era of the band, and that’s “The Mercy Seat.” Nick has said it’s one…
Lit-Link Round-up
Jump on board for the Great Write Off. Speaking of Dzanc Books, co-founder, award-winning author and philanthropist extraordinaire, Steven Gillis, gives it up on Other People. Ladyparts Justice…”they hate creepy…
Drawn Out Stories: Comic Book Art and Artists
This Sunday, October 7th, the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum will be hosting Drawn Out Stories: Comic Book Art and Artists, an event that features Rumpus comics editor Paul Madonna, along…
“The Fact of the Matter” by Sally Keith
In The Fact of the Matter, moments are artifacts to be labeled and sorted. The poems are not an attempt to make sense – of time, of history, and of…
The Last Poem I Loved: “Sleeping Lioness” by Larry Levis
As a fiction writer, and as a reader, I gravitate toward stories from the perspective of a specific, imperfect and alert, outward-and-inward-looking consciousness, a transparent eyeball with legs and, at…
A Matter of Dignity
Certain constituencies are always shoved aside, always told their issues will be addressed at some nebulous point in the future. During a lengthy debate, to see these issues merit neither discussion nor debate speaks to how little dignity is valued on the political stage.
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Portland!
Portland Goes Wild for Mathew Dickman and the Objectivist Tradition Now: I can’t tell you whether or not two days ago I was in a brief e-mail back and forth…
“The Crossed Out Swastika” by Cyrus Cassells
Cyrus Cassells’ fifth collection of poems, The Crossed-Out Swastika, treads the familiar yet treacherous and muddy ground of World War II. For a less skilful poet, such hostile territory may…
FUNNY WOMEN #87: Delusions of Grandeur
I told him that I was a novelist and modeled in between books to support the online charity I’d founded to send unwanted makeup to women abroad.