Features & Reviews
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From the Archive: Sketch Book Reviews: Girlhood by Melissa Febos
An illustrated review of Melissa Febos’s new essay collection, GIRLHOOD!
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Make the Story Work, and the Politics Will Look After Itself: The Rumpus Interview with Tony Birch
It is easy to be awed by Tony Birch’s prolific body of work—his dynamic career ranging from firefighter to professor—his deep love of family and heritage, and his humility. He is a historian and climate change activist who outwardly observes…
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To Become A Kind Person Who Also Writes Books: Body Work by Melissa Febos
The ethics of Body Work are not necessarily that we writers and lovers must achieve perfect consistency between our behaviors (shopping at Sephora) and our politics (beauty standards are harmful), or between our desires (to be rewarded, both intangibly and…
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I Write to Make Myself Unrecognized: A Conversation with Shangyang Fang
In Buddhism, there is always an expression on this and that, and the yes and no of this and that. For example, the other side of the river is a metaphor of death, in contrast to this life, this side.…
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The Community Aspect of Poetry: A Conversation with H. Melt
I think poetry lends itself to community and getting to know people intimately. Poetry requires vulnerability.
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At the Crossing Between Words: Migrant Psalms by Darrel Alejandro Holnes
The actor stares the audience in the eye—shattering the fourth wall, and we’re implored to see better. Holnes challenges us to view our realities as multifaceted and dynamic—there are no neat boxes, no easy definitions.
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Apocalypse Yesterday: Chi Ta-wei’s The Membranes
The Membranes is a climate novel not because it contends with catastrophe, but because it shows that everydayness has a way of proceeding alongside disaster.
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Reading Fiction As an Act of Resistance: A Conversation with Azar Nafisi
We need fiction because fiction does not polarize. Fiction is based on understanding over judgment.
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Rumpus Book Club Excerpt: Animal Bodies by Suzanne Roberts
An excerpt from Suzanne Roberts’ Animal Bodies: On Death, Desire, & Other Difficulties forthcoming from Nebraska Press, March 2022
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Catalyst Events and a Time for Poetry: An Interview with Charles Flowers
Consider: My coming out story has been told, but coming out is constantly changing and shifting and needs retelling, and each telling has value for a particular audience.
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A Dreamscape of Longing: Two Big Differences by Ian Ross Singleton
Zina’s observations of her time in Detroit crystallize both a feeling of otherness and a wry critique of the young American activists who celebrated socialist ideas without fully appreciating the legacy of Soviet rule in Ukraine.
