Features & Reviews
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Oedipus at Hiroshima – Living Design in Japan
Some (more) inspiring Japanese design nuggets excavated from my ramshackle book collection.
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Fucking and Writing: The Rumpus Conversation with Jami Attenberg
“Perhaps we should talk about fucking. Fucking and writing, fucking and talking, fucking and thinking, fucking and whatever else it is that fucking goes with…”
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Staying Alive as a Poet, Artist, Etc.
“Sometimes it seems as though poets, in particular, move in an endangered artistic world. Think Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Anne Sexton. And, last month, Rachel Wetzsteon, an accomplished poet who took her own life at age 42.” Jacket Copy last…
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A Bosnian Novelist And An Irish Novelist Walk Into A Bar
If you have any doubts about the power of the novel, or its lasting cultural significance, or its transcendent ability to deepen and enrich our chaotic earthly experiences, look no further than this impassioned conversation at The Believer between two…
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Almond on “Hysterical Lyricism” and the Splinter Generation
“Why do you think people are emailing and texting and twittering and Facebook updating in such a compulsive manner? Because they’re lonely as all hell…” The Splinter Generation has an interview with Rumpus contributor Steve Almond, conducted by Rumpus contributor…
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Remembering Didion’s The White Album
Thirty years have passed since Joan Didion composed The White Album, her book of essays about the unsettling thrills and shadows of 1970’s LA, and by now the book’s title might as well refer to the hair color of its…
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Folksy Fruits – Anthropomorphic Adventures in Opal Orchard
Folksy Fruits was part of T. Benjamin Faucett’s “Moon Queen” series, which included four titles, all published in 1924. The other three books are Frolicsome Flowers: They See the Wonderful “Rajah Rug,” Brainy Berries: A Night in Crystal Cave, and…
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The Divot
(A review of A Common Pornography in the style of A Common Pornography, by Kevin Sampsell) This friend of mine, Justin, loaned a book to me. It was titled A Common Pornography, by this guy Kevin Sampsell. I got the…
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“Life Among the Pirates”
“The fact is, though, being pirated is the Peruvian equivalent of making the bestseller list. One writer I know ends all his readings by urging those in attendance to ‘buy my book before it gets pirated’. When I asked him…
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Life Stories Roundup
In this week’s roundup, there’s a late night talk show host with a following of occultists, conspiracy theorists and would-be time travellers, a wannabe Warhol with his own hippie art collective and New York’s most honest cabbie.
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Neil Gaiman: Goth’s Mainstream Success
While many artists with cult followings seem to develop them by maintaining an air of mystery, Neil Gaiman has done so by connecting directly with his fans. When sales of his books wane, threatening to fall from best seller lists,…
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The Last Book I Loved: In The Woods
I’m not a fan of murder mysteries. Truth is, I just don’t care why someone murdered someone else. Plus there’s the violence (grisly), the sex (cop-on-cop, cop-on-suspect), the conventional motives (jealousy, insanity, payback for molestation), the handful of suspects (lover,…