Rumpus Exclusive: The Intro to PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018
But there is freedom and possibility in not knowing.
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Books
Building the Muscle: A Conversation with Kristi Coulter
Kristi Coulter discusses her debut essay collection, NOTHING GOOD CAN COME FROM THIS.
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What to Read When You Want Short Stories
A list of books to celebrate the release of the forthcoming anthology, Everyday People: The Color of Life!
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Hidden Just Beyond View: Jenny George’s The Dream of Reason
George interrupts us, clears her throat, makes us listen.
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Sharp and Twisty and Complicated: Talking with Melanie Abrams
Melanie Abrams discusses her debut novel, PLAYING, and a forthcoming novel, MEADOWLARK.
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Finding Her Way: The Devoted by Blair Hurley
[W]hat do you do when you meet the Buddha on the road?
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One Burning Question: A Conversation with Evelyn C. White
“I understood in that moment that my life had changed forever. And it has.”
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Blood from a Door Nail: Talking with Susan Shapiro
Susan Shapiro discusses her forthcoming book THE BYLINE BIBLE.
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What to Read When You Are Ready to Start Over
Melissa Radke shares a list of books to celebrate her memoir, Eat Cake. Be Brave.
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Between Bodies: The Undressing by Li-Young Lee
Yet the backyard cannot exist without the intimacy of the bedroom.
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Emboldened to Ask: A Conversation with Natalie Singer
Natalie Singer discusses her debut memoir, CALIFORNIA CALLING.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #146: Andrew Solomon
“I can tell my story with precautions; others strip away my armor and expose a beating heart.”
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Beautiful Evil: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Alaska attracts those looking to be free from the constraints of society.
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Here Is the Physical Proof: Talking with Elizabeth Rush
Elizabeth Rush discusses RISING: DISPATCHES FROM THE NEW AMERICAN SHORE.
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Different Voices: A Conversation with Crystal Hana Kim
Crystal Hana Kim discusses her debut novel, IF YOU LEAVE ME.
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What to Read When You’re a PEN Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize Winner
The PEN 2018 Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize winners share books that have inspired them!
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Two Extraordinary Books: Bullets into Bells and Inquisition
The obscenities and tragedies of American life pile up with speed, and in quantities, that are appalling.
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The Evolution of Present-Day Greece: Talking with Nanos Valaoritis
Poet and author Nanos Valaoritis discusses the political and cultural situation in Greece today.
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Fidelity to Deep Emotion: Lauren Groff’s Florida
The sentence is Groff’s most fertile ground.
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How to Become a Poet: A Conversation with Ashley M. Jones
“You don’t have to drink yourself into the Great American Poetry Masterpiece.”
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What It Is to Be Human: Talking with Ottessa Moshfegh
Ottessa Moshfegh discusses her new novel, MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION.
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What to Read When Mining Your Anxious, Undiagnosed Childhood
Amanda Stern shares a list of books to celebrate her memoir, Little Panic.
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Hero and Villain: Emily Pérez’s House of Sugar, House of Stone
How hard it is to trust the difference between sacrifice and sabotage!
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Poet-Cosmologist: A Conversation with Bruce Beasley
“The cusp of errand and awe is where poetry always is for me.”
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #145: Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint
“Categories are, by definition, externally created and applied.”
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Holding Herself Up: Amy Dresner’s My Fair Junkie
It’s hard to build a life, no matter who you are, Dresner suggests.
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The Quiet of a Ghost: Talking with Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Ingrid Rojas Contreras discusses her debut novel, FRUIT OF THE DRUNKEN TREE.
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The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Terrance Hayes
“They are poems before sonnets.”
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Country, Black Ass, Queer Perspective: Talking with Michael Arceneaux
Michael Arceneaux discusses his new memoir, I CAN’T DATE JESUS.
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What to Read When You’re at the Bar
Miriam Parker shares a list of books to celebrate her debut novel, The Shortest Way Home.
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