Essays
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Where Things Stand
Andrew Sullivan linked to Roxane Gay’s “Where Things Stand,” which revealed that nearly 90% of books reviewed in The New York Times were written by white authors. Amanda Hess also wrote about the piece, elaborating on the distinct conversations around…
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Money Novels
In the current issue of BookForum, Christian Lorentzen, an editor at the London Review of Books, writes about “the perils of money fiction” in the twenty-first century. “There are a few ways out of these traps—ersatz journalistic gap filling, hapless…
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Where Things Stand
After the VIDA counts in 2010 and 2011, as well as Jennifer Weiner’s count she released on her blog in January 2012, I wanted to see where things stood for writers of color. Race often gets lost in the gender…
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Versal Ten
Rumpus essays editor Roxane Gay’s short story “Who We Are Beneath the Glass” is featured in Versal’s 10th anniversary issue. The Versal Journal interviews her about creative firsts, angles, Amsterdam, and more.
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Late Night Library
The second episode of Late Night Conversation features Rumpus essays editor Roxane Gay. Listen in as Gay talks with guest host Karen Munro about emerging writers, publicizing her debut novel, and online journals.
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Peculiar Benefits
What I remind myself, regularly, is this: the acknowledgment of my privilege is not a denial of the ways I have been and am marginalized, the ways I have suffered.
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Today’s Required Reading
At Guernica, Randa Jarrar writes about this one time when she tried to visit her sister in Palestine and she was deported by Israel. I was so afraid of facing the guards at the airport that I had a difficult…
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The Rumpus Interview with Julianna Baggott
Julianna Baggott’s Pure is about a post-apocalyptic world where the responsibility for changing and saving civilization lies with children.
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The Trouble With Prince Charming or He Who Trespassed Against Us
I enjoy fairy tales because I need to believe, despite my cynicism, that there is a happy ending for everyone, for me.
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Girls Girls Girls
A television show about my twenties would follow the life of a girl who is lost, literally and figuratively. There wouldn’t be a laugh track.
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What We Hunger For
I am always interested in the representations of strength in women, where that strength comes from, how it is called upon when it is needed most, and what it costs for a woman to be strong.
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Beyond the Measure of Men
Here we are again. In the New York Times Book Review, Meg Wolitzer takes up the matter of “women’s fiction,” in her essay, “The Second Shelf.” She does a fine job of addressing the ongoing, fraught conversation about men, women, the…