Features & Reviews
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The Rumpus Interview With Uwem Akpan
“After the phone call from The New Yorker, I walked more than a mile to church to thank God. But then I told God I would talk to Him another time and darted home.”
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The Adderall Diaries
The Adderall Diaries page has been updated to include a great review that ran today in Bookslut and more information on our low income galley giveaway. More here.
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Save the Words
By the end of my last “relationship,” we had so few words left for each other. How many other ways could we say, “I’m sorry” or “I unlove you” or “fuck you”? We used up all the words we knew…
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Mourning the Book
I expected to feel a sense of accomplishment when I finished Wallace Stegner’s “Angle of Repose,” but instead I felt lost, grief-stricken. It was a mixture of sadness for the main character and a fear that I might yet ruin…
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Adam Robinson: The Last Book I Loved, Alaska
I can’t figure out why James Michener gets such short shrift. Is it because he’s too popular? Or because he had help with his painstaking geographical research? The critical disregard doesn’t bother me, though, except that I wish there was…
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Diary of a Young Survivor
A playwright’s first novel takes on adolescence and grief in a post-9/11 world
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Rebecca Solnit on Writing What Matters
In The Believer, Rebecca Solnit gives some advice I hope to someday learn to follow completely: “Apolitical is a political position, yes, and a dreary one. The choice by a lot of young writers to hide out among dinky, dainty, and…
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The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
This week, the book blogs are full of answers. Listen to them. Vonnegut knew why we are all such drama queens (there are charts involved). A thought-provoking take on writing a satisfying ending. The Book Bench points out that CNN…
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The Rumpus Sunday Book Review Supplement
This week, Rumpus books reviewed a collection of poetry by Michael Robins, a novel by Ru Freeman, a book of essays by Kurt Caswell, and the novel Nog by Rudolph Wurlitzer.
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If Only Nothing Would Grow
It isn’t lyrical, it isn’t fun, it isn’t a spectacle, it doesn’t beg for your attention—Nog honestly considers the absurdity and sadness of everyday life.
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The Constitution in Pictures
Over at Cool Tools, Kevin Kelly has posted a review of a graphic adaptation of the US Constitution. Describing the document as “a robust self-correcting legal OS,” but admits that it can be hard to understand. But he recommends the…
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Jesmyn Ward Tells It Like It Is
Jesmyn Ward is a long way away from the environment she writes about, yet she is lauded as a southern author with the ability to capture the essence of her home. Ward, who is currently entering her second year as…