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

176 posts
Read
  • Essays

A GenderPunk Love Letter

  • Alice Paige
  • November 13, 2023
Every support system that is lacking is made up for by a mad rush of love-struck queers trying to hold each other up.
Read
Read
  • Essays

From the Archive: Grape Leaves

  • Mandy Shunnarah
  • November 10, 2023
Comfort and memory and grief commingled in the dish.
Read
Read
  • Adopteee Awareness
  • Essays

The Blood of My Mother

  • Charmaine Arjoonlal
  • November 9, 2023
For as long as I remember, I have had stories in my head and instead of writing them down, I had imaginary conversations with people.
Read
Read
  • Adopteee Awareness
  • Essays

You’re Not My Birth Mother, But Thanks

  • Michael Montlack
  • November 7, 2023
But then someone appeared: a woman. Forty-ish. Brown hair. Casual sweater and jeans. An apologetic grimace.
Read
Read
  • Essays

Escape Velocity

  • L.E. Marshall
  • September 19, 2023
But neither of us has said what does matter, or what we want, only what we do not want, and there in his defensive stammering, I can play my final card: You don’t know anything about me.
Read
Ross Gay headshot
Read
  • Essays

from The Book of (More) Delights

  • Ross Gay
  • September 12, 2023
Anyhow, alas, thanks to my boundless, bottomless, boundaryless ignorance: goddamn and holy shit! Waxing and waning! Have you heard?!?!
Read
Read
  • Essays

When We Melt

  • G. Ravyn Stanfield
  • August 8, 2023
Art makes things go together that don’t fit at all.
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original

Animal Rescue

  • Asha Dore
  • July 4, 2023
The morning I found Gaspard and Vincent, I had just visited the punk house where the ex boyfriend had been staying. He had some things of mine that I couldn’t let him keep . . .
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original
  • Voices on Addiction

Voices on Addiction: Anchor Point

  • Kelly Coughlin
  • June 27, 2023
At first, sobriety feels at once like a death of a best friend, loss of comfort, and a beloved version of one’s self. On some level, it is exactly these things . . .
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original
  • Rumpus Originals

Speaking to Men at Parties

  • Emilia Copeland Titus
  • June 23, 2023
There are moments when the light passes just right over the high point of someone’s cheekbone and I imagine my whole life as it would have been in a different universe, tracing the events of this imaginary life from that spot on their face to my death.
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original
  • We Are More

We Are More: Wanting to Want: Romance and Sports Anime

  • Summer Farah
  • June 13, 2023
I think I understand the gap between obsession and devotion, then.
Read
Read
  • Essays
  • Rumpus Original
  • Voices on Addiction

Voices On Addiction: Speaking Ill of the Dead

  • Juliane Bergmann
  • May 26, 2023
I have always felt stuck in the quicksand of Wanting-Things-To-Be-Different.
Read

Posts pagination

Previous 1 … 5 6 7 8 9 … 15 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.