Features & Reviews
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Fingers Through Holy Water
Gospel music, like its secular cousin the blues, never wallows in pity, but instead seeks to transcend pain and reach glory. Bashir’s book makes the same trip.
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Why Books Are Stupid
Elissa Bassist recently wrote a piece extolling the virtues of books. She suggests the good ones “can make life manageable” and turn a bad day into a good one. But here’s the thing: If this were true, librarians would be…
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Great Authors’ Syllabi
When I think about good books, I think about this: -Never read a bad book/book you don’t like 50 pages in; it’s wasteful. -You will die someday; read accordingly. -Reading aloud among friends can be [insert the best adjective you…
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The Rumpus Interview with Jonathan Ames
Maybe my work isn’t a cry for help. It may just be a baby’s need to cry or a dog’s need to bark.
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Vollmann’s ‘Imperial’ country
William T. Vollmann, the author whose exhaustive research helps to blur the line between fiction and nonfiction, and whose books tend to be measured by the pound, has a new book coming out titled Imperial. The 1300-page tome looks at…
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The Rumpus Interview with Sam Anderson
“An ideal, awesome job,”—that’s how Sam Anderson, at several points in our conversation, describes his position as book critic for New York Magazine.
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Bait and Switch
Like a well-planned itinerary, the blueprints of James Lasdun’s stories are thoughtfully delineated, and each step feels purposeful and sure.
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Dave Eggers: The Last Book I Loved, Destiny Disrupted
I’m in the middle of Tamim Ansary’s Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes, and it’s incredibly illuminating. Ansary pretty much covers the entire history of Islam in an incredibly readable and lucid way. I’ve been recommending this…
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Time is Real!
Not too long ago I reviewed a movie called The Examined Life, by director Astra Taylor, which featured ninety minutes of fascinating, exhilarating discussions with eight contemporary philosophers. The film left me hungry for more, and recently The New Press…
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The Rumpus Original Combo: Rachel Loden
Rachel Loden is the author of Hotel Imperium as well as four chapbooks, including The Last Campaign and The Richard Nixon Snow Globe. Her second full-length book, Dick of the Dead, was published by Ahsahta Press in May 2009. What…
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Muumuu House: Independent Press Embraces Online Genres
Muumuu House, an independent press edited by author Tao Lin, publishes not only poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, but also Gmail chats and Twitter selections on its starkly minimalist website. Lin’s most recent book Shoplifting from American Apparel garnered mixed reviews…
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Audacia Ray’s New Reading Series
Audacia Ray is an admirably prolific activist, author, blogger, director and producer. She was formerly Executive Editor at $pread Magazine, co-founded the Sex Work Awareness advocacy organization, is Program Officer for the Online Communications and Campaigns division of the International…