The Rumpus
  • My Account
  • Essays
  • Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Comics
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • The First Book
    • Reviews
    • Themed Months
    • What to Read When
  • Columns
    • Beyond the Page
    • Close Reads
    • Collaborative Criticism
    • ENOUGH
    • Funny Women
    • Parallel Practice
    • Voices on Addiction
    • We Are More
    • Conversations With Writers Braver Than Me
    • Dear Sugar
    • Roxane Gay
    • All Columns
  • Store
  • Prize
  • Rumpus Membership
  • Merch
  • Letters in the Mail
  • Bonfire Merch
  • My Account
Become a MemberDonate
Become a Member Donate
The Rumpus
The Rumpus The Rumpus
  • My Account
  • Essays
  • Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Comics
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • The First Book
    • Reviews
    • Themed Months
    • What to Read When
  • Columns
    • Beyond the Page
    • Close Reads
    • Collaborative Criticism
    • ENOUGH
    • Funny Women
    • Parallel Practice
    • Voices on Addiction
    • We Are More
    • Conversations With Writers Braver Than Me
    • Dear Sugar
    • Roxane Gay
    • All Columns
  • Store
  • Prize
0

Essays

168 posts
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original

The Flowers You Left Us

  • Annelise Jolley
  • February 15, 2022
Looking at the two stems housed in a water glass on my kitchen table, it strikes me that “in the ground” means opposite things for flowers and people. As long…
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original

Calliope

  • Lesley Jenike
  • February 8, 2022
There are, as my niece says, so many ghosts in Cincinnati; they initiate the weather, evaporating only to rain down again...
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original

Play for Camera

  • William Horn
  • February 3, 2022
I want to tell her that Hunter is Hunter and Daisy is Daisy and both should be allowed to breathe. I want to tell her I know the instinct to split yourself in half, too, that I know the violence required to hold your true self in shadow, that I have another name I only dare whisper.
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original

The Divine Aquatic

  • Nafisa A. Iqbal
  • February 1, 2022
After all these years, I know now that what felt like rebirth to me had felt like—had been—near-death for them.
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original

You Keep Everything Outside

  • Rachel Cochran
  • January 25, 2022
"So it’s a surprise to you—and not entirely a pleasant one—when you fall in love with someone who has a penis. You thought you’d set up defenses against the possibility, but here he is, and here you are, loving him."
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original
  • Sex

From the Archive: Unbound

  • Lauren Kayes
  • January 18, 2022
It’s always been ground glass, scraping against my insides. I imagine a light held to the place where I open would illuminate a mess of torn flesh, throbbing red-wet.
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Other
  • Rumpus Original

On Being Tough

  • Kathleen Gullion
  • January 11, 2022
The path down to the riflery range was steep and winding, littered with roots.
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original

Bad Brain Blues: Disclosing an Invisible Disability

  • Brooke Knisley
  • January 6, 2022
As the camera zooms out to show CARTOON BROOKE’s full body, the funk music kicks back in.
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original

A Childhood Story

  • Adam Carter
  • January 4, 2022
My father didn’t like my movie choices. He said they weren’t realistic. He’d been in the Air Force and was deployed in Vietnam. He’d brought back his own war stories.
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original

Joe at the Aquarium

  • Ariél M. Martinez
  • December 16, 2021
I pushed him so he glided through the fish, the eels, the boxed-in worlds of blues.
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original
  • Television

The Aesthetics of Safety

  • Freda Epum
  • December 14, 2021
I find beauty in being protected from danger.
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Politics
  • Rumpus Original

Becoming American in the Age of Trump

  • Ofelia Montelongo
  • December 13, 2021
How does one come to feel American in the eyes of others?
Read

Posts pagination

Previous 1 … 11 12 13 14 Next
Become a Member!

BECOME A MONTHLY OR ANNUAL RUMPUS MEMBER AND RECEIVE EXCLUSIVE CONTENT, EDITORIAL INSIGHTS, MERCH DISCOUNTS, AND MORE! OUR GOAL IS TO REACH AT LEAST 600 MEMBERS BY THE END OF 2025 TO COVER OUR BASIC OPERATING COSTS.

Join today!
COMMUNITY SUPPORT KEEPS THE MAGAZINE GOING!

Founded in 2009, The Rumpus is one of the longest-running online literary magazines around. We’ve been independent from the start, which means we’re not connected with any academic institution, wealthy benefactor, or part of a larger publishing company. The vast majority of the magazine’s funding comes from reader support.

In other words, we can’t survive without YOU!

Make a Tax-Deductible Donation
Letters in the mail (from authors)

Receive letters from some of our favorite authors written just for Rumpus readers and sent straight into your (snail) mailbox 2x a month!

sign up now!

Keep in Touch

The Rumpus publishes original fiction, poetry, literary humor writing, comics, essays, book reviews, and interviews with authors and artists of all kinds. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers our readers may already know and love. We want to bring new perspectives into the conversation that will make us all look deeper.

We believe that literature builds community—and if reading The Rumpus makes you feel more connected, please show your support! Get your Rumpus merch in our online store. Subscribe to receive Letters in the Mail from authors or join us by becoming a monthly or yearly Member.

We support independent bookstores! 10% of sales on any titles purchased through our Bookshop.org page or affiliate links benefits the magazine.

The Rumpus in your Inbox!
The Rumpus
  • Team
  • About & Writers’ Guidelines
  • Advertise
  • TOS and Privacy Policy
© 2025, The Rumpus.

Input your search keywords and press Enter.