The Unbearable Whiteness of Being: Claudia Cortese Discusses Wasp Queen
Poet Claudia Cortese talks about her new book Wasp Queen and Lucy, the rebellious 90s teen whose voice inspired the collection.
Features & Reviews
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview #80: Jon Raymond
Jon Raymond is one of Portland’s finest wordsmiths. His writing spans TV, film, short story, novel, art criticism, and a hefty array of magazine work. His new novel, Freebird, is…
Fantasy Is a Writer’s Most Powerful Weapon: Literature Class, Berkeley 1980
The reality of the horror cannot be put into words, cannot be realistically described; it can only enter through imagination.
VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Angie Thomas
Angie Thomas discusses her debut novel, The Hate U Give, landing an agent on Twitter, and why she trusts teenagers more than the publishing industry.
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Adrian Matejka
Adrian Matejka discusses his new collection Map to the Stars, writing about poverty in contemporary poetry, and how racism maintains its place in our society.
Living Outside the Narrative in Elif Batuman’s The Idiot
The Idiot dramatizes the alienation, and even heartbreak, of losing the narrative thread of your existence.
The Dark Heart of America: On David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon
David Grann's new book Killers of the Flower Moon explores the 1920s murders of the Osage tribe, the making of the FBI, and is a reminder of the all too recent history of betrayals that comprise America’s dark heart.
Visiting Abandoned Places: A Conversation with Kristen Radtke
Kristen Radtke discusses her illustrated memoir Imagine Wanting Only This, working with editors on graphic narratives, and visiting abandoned places.
What It Means to Hold and Be Held in Jennifer Givhan’s Protection Spell
The book explores ambiguities—in terms of race, in terms of motherhood, but especially in terms of the body and the subconscious.
Immigration and Infertility: Talking with Shanthi Sekaran
Shanthi Sekaran discusses her new novel, Lucky Boy, where fraught issues like immigration and infertility—and the lives they impact—intersect.
The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #79: Kelcey Parker Ervick
The woman whose face appears on the Czech five-hundred koruna doesn’t appear there without consequence. During the late 19th century, politically active Božena Němcová was an innovator of Czech literature.…
The Myth of the Troubled Female in Sorry to Disrupt the Peace
Sometimes it's necessary to shift one's moral compass, and sometimes it's necessary to destroy it.