Molly O’Brien: The Last Book I Loved, White Teeth
I was ten years old when 1999 became 2000. My knowledge of the Y2K problem was vague; I could only glean a nebulous mood of panic from overheard newscasts and…
Blogs
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Happy Birthday Tracy K. Smith!
That’s one hell of a birthday present, there. A Pulitzer Prize! We’d like to point out that The Rumpus Poetry Book Club had an idea of just how awesome this…
National Poetry Month Day 16: “Big Legs On the Bus” by George Ducker
Welcome to The Rumpus’s National Poetry Month project. We’ll be running a new poem from a different poet each day for the month of April. Big Legs on the Bus…
National Poetry Month Day 15: “Alternate Ending: My Grandmother As Gretel” by Kate Schmitt
Welcome to The Rumpus’s National Poetry Month project. We’ll be running a new poem from a different poet each day for the month of April. Alternate Ending: My Grandmother As…
Lit-Link Round-up
My six-year-old son is obsessed with the Titanic. I thought he was just quirky, but the New Yorker posits this as an archetype of human obsession. I interview Charles Blackstone,…
A National Poetry Month Special: “Bones” by Melissa Broder, Illustrated by Paul Tunis
When Paul Tunis emailed me and asked if I'd be interested in looking at a comic he'd drawn in collaboration with the poet Melissa Broder, my answer was an unequivocal yes.
I Have a Jaw That Seeks Chunks
In Melissa Broder’s second collection, Meat Heart, there is a burgeoning tension between the spiritual life of the imagination and its blood and guts container—the forehead, the hips, the heart—that…
National Poetry Month Day 14: “between the wolf and the dog” by Davis McCombs
Welcome to The Rumpus’s National Poetry Month project. We’ll be running a new poem from a different poet each day for the month of April. between the wolf and the…
The Body Place Is a Thinking Place
From these two new books, the reader can gather that it isn't just the day that is strong and can withstand change, but the same words can be applied to the speakers of these poems and to Myles herself.
National Poetry Month Day 13: “15 Minutes” by Eileen Myles
Welcome to The Rumpus’s National Poetry Month project. We’ll be running a new poem from a different poet each day for the month of April. 15 minutes the beaming sun…
The Last Book I Loved: Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
Based on the true story of an English midland town in the year 1666 that quarantined itself to sweat out the bubonic plague, Geraldine Brooks’ Year of Wonders: A Novel…
What We Hunger For
I am always interested in the representations of strength in women, where that strength comes from, how it is called upon when it is needed most, and what it costs for a woman to be strong.