Features & Reviews
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“Everything paved over eventually cracks, sprouts weeds, and is overrun.”
Andy Hunter, editor-in-chief at Electric Literature, has a “manifesto of sorts” about the future of independent publishing in Publishing Perspectives. He states that, “promotionally, the Internet is like the Wild West: boundless, lawless, and full of opportunity for the inventive,…
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Every Town, USA
“Our world is fragmented, Amanda Eyre Ward seems to say, in all the ways that it might be. I’m going to put it back together for you, slowly. Take my hand.”
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The Rumpus Interview with Dan Chaon
“The feeling of being an outsider, and the identity theme, are hardwired into me. If there’s anything really autobiographical in my fiction, it’s that feeling. I always feel that way.”
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Bye Bye Books – Hello Empty Library
The authorities at Cushing Academy, a New England prep school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts have decided to do away with their traditional library. Meaning, nothing between two covers.
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Lynndie England Sues Tortured Biographer
Former Army reservist Lynndie England, the international face of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, is suing her biographer for seizing control of what was intended to be a shared copyright. In July, writer Gary S. Winkler abruptly resigned from the…
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Writing New Orleans
In the introduction to Guernica Magazine’s New Orleans-themed September edition, editor Pia Ehrhardt writes: “When friends from out of town come to visit, my husband, Malcolm, and I put them in the car and drive. Driving is the only way…
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How Not to Be Boring
Tim O’Brien has a really brilliant article in The Atlantic in which he argues that the biggest problem with “unsuccessful stories” is, to put it quite simply, that “they are boring.” I couldn’t agree more. O’Brien worries about the focus…
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Glenn Beck is the New John Updike
“For the past nine months, ever since a certain somebody seized the White House, conservative pundits have dominated the ranks of nonfiction. … It would be easy enough, and rather predictable, to lament this state of affairs and to find…
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The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
Your humble Rumpus Sunday Editor is smitten. Over the last couple weeks, the book blogs have been in form, publishing intelligent, hilarious, insightful, and riveting posts. In a word, they’ve been brilliant. Some, but most certainly not all, of my…
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The Rumpus Sunday Book Review Supplement
It’s been a real humdinger of a week at Rumpus Books. Come see what we have.
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Don’t Miss the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival: Sunday September 13
Reasons to attend the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival: 1) it’s one of the most hip, smart and diverse American literary events, 2) because Ben Marcus, Sarah Manguso, Thurston Moore, Heidi Julavits and Tao Lin are just some of the stars…
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Where Celebrities Go to Die
Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler takes a crack at the underworld in a hit-and-miss new novel.