Rumpus Originals Archives - Page 48 of 808

“Yes” as Signature and Grounding: Hannah Emerson’s The Kissing of Kissing

In this experience of oneness . . . Emerson invites comparisons to mystic poets. And like them, Emerson breaks from her singular experience to take on some of life’s biggest questions: What does it mean to be human? Why do we exist?

Read

Read

Witches, Mushrooms, Collective Voices, and Catalan: A Conversation with Irene Solà and Mara Faye Lethem

Remember the little green dolls in Toy Story that live in a vending machine, the claw is their god and they go “The Claw!” and cower away? I imagined the mushrooms in the same way, except their claw is the rain.

Read

Read

Cure for Last Night’s Leftovers

Let’s be clear: There is no hangover cure. Anyone who claims to have never had a hangover is either a) a liar, b) a teetotaler, or c) a responsible drinker. I’m none of those things, most days, despite effort, and the number of times I’ve searched for “how to cure a hangover” in the harsh light of a weekend morning is embarrassing the older I get, so manage your expectations.

Read

Read

A Guidebook for Liminal Times: Martin Shaw’s Smoke Hole

These are liminal times. You must have this book at your side.

Read

Read

Solace in Writing About the End of the World: An Interview with Mike Meginnis

The most beautiful thing I can think of to do with one’s life is to write a novel, even as I feel really ambivalent about the utility of doing it, about the value to myself and to society and to my local community of having written a book.

Read

Read

From the Archive: Sketch Book Reviews: Girlhood by Melissa Febos

An illustrated review of Melissa Febos’s new essay collection, GIRLHOOD!

Read

Read

Rumpus Original Poetry: Three Poems by Rosa Alcalá

In my meanness I hear the mother of my mother and her mother / before her, the cold cellars and flat pillows of their hearts. The single current / of anger that ran through their voices, each daughter forever through time / believing herself a burden.

Read

Read

Make the Story Work, and the Politics Will Look After Itself: The Rumpus Interview with Tony Birch

It is easy to be awed by Tony Birch’s prolific body of work—his dynamic career ranging from firefighter to professor—his deep love of family and heritage, and his humility. He…

Read

Read

Sons and Daughters

Boys were boys and girls were girls and gender norms were there for a reason. We didn’t realize the reason was to keep women down. Maybe we just didn’t care.

Read

Read

To Become A Kind Person Who Also Writes Books: Body Work by Melissa Febos

The ethics of Body Work are not necessarily that we writers and lovers must achieve perfect consistency between our behaviors (shopping at Sephora) and our politics (beauty standards are harmful), or between our desires (to be rewarded, both intangibly and commercially, for our adherence to dominant culture) and our values (to resist that dominance).

Read

Read

Rumpus Original Fiction: Scale

With my first blood, a scale appears, hard and iridescent in the soft skin below my arm. In bathroom mirror light, elbow raised, I press and prod, fingertips rusted from…

Read

I Write to Make Myself Unrecognized: A Conversation with Shangyang Fang

In Buddhism, there is always an expression on this and that, and the yes and no of this and that. For example, the other side of the river is a metaphor of death, in contrast to this life, this side. I hope that poetry is a way to shatter the border.

Read

Keep in Touch

The Rumpus in your Inbox!

Sign up for the weekly Rumpus