Features & Reviews
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The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
Because I have way too much time on my hands, and because it’s oddly fitting this week, the book blog roundup is in the form of a dialogue between a hopeless writer and his roommate, who is stoned and watching…
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The Rumpus Books Sunday Supplement
This week, Rumpus Books published a review of Robin Ekiss’s debut poetry collection, the second installment of Sam J. Miller’s 25-word reviews, an interview with Molly Crabapple, and some more notes from Stephen Elliott’s book tour.
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Journeys With George (Saunders), or Why Magazines Should Hire More Fiction Writers, Part 2
Find part 1 here. A while back, as a nice gesture, my pal Sean McDonald gave me George Saunders’ (at the time) new book, The Braindead Megaphone. It was in galley, since Sean edited it. I was excited. Here in…
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Travel with Wells Tower, or Why Magazines Should Hire More Fiction Writers s
Travel writing is mostly bad. It’s partly the fault of the form; contemporary travel magazines are filled with 10 Best New Hotels/Bars/Spas on Yet Another Tony Exclusive Island or How to Eat Fabulously in This Most Glorious Setting You Will…
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Sigrid Nunez Remembers Susan Sontag
Here’s some weekend reading: Sigrid Nunez has written a beautiful memoir of Susan Sontag in the latest issue of Tin House. (The text is not available online, but I highly recommend you pick up this issue of Tin House: it’s…
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The Last Book I Loved: The Romantic Dogs
I always blanch when someone tells me—and always so assuredly, it seems—“ I just don’t really like poetry.” It’s more people, more otherwise avid readers than I would like to think.
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Monofonus Givawaytacular
Monofonus, the Austin-based press that puts out the fantastic and spectacular IF Series, is giving its readers/viewers/listeners a chance to win a set of the entire IF Series catalogue, with its Givawaytacular.
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if:book
The Institute for the Future of the Book “investigates the evolution of intellectual discourse as it shifts from printed pages to networked screens.” As you may have noticed, here at the Rumpus, we’re pretty interested in that too. We, though,…
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Akashic Press Has A New Blog
“Living in Brooklyn (as 3/4 of the Akashic Staff does), discussions about Irony usually in end hipster-bashing sessions. Williamsburg is rendered as a mecca of self-posturing, detachment and apathy. It’s easy to be negative! Enter Trinie Dalton, who does the…
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Science Fiction Predicts The Present
“Science fiction writers don’t predict the future (except accidentally), but if they’re very good, they may manage to predict the present. Mary Shelley wasn’t worried about reanimated corpses stalking Europe, but by casting a technological innovation in the starring role of Frankenstein,…
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No Ordinary Pile of Index Cards
The novel Nabokov was working on when he died, The Original of Laura, is set to be released in the US on November 17th.
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ABA Challenges Big-Box “Predatory Pricing”
Two weeks ago, the American Booksellers Association, an organization of independent booksellers, asked the Justice Department to investigate what it describes as “illegal predatory pricing” by big-box retailers Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target. The price war began on October 15 when…