Rumpus Originals
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The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Van Halen and the Butcher’s Apron
Susan Straight takes us through the convoluted Tuesdays of election season, through family memories of the music that defined a generation, and poetry that preserves her soul in soulless times.
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A FAN’S NOTES, THE RUMPUS SPORTS COLUMN #44: The Immortal Head-butt
What if one of your worst moments as a human being was sculpted into a 16-foot-tall bronze statue and displayed in front of a shopping mall? Or a Parisian art museum?
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The Rumpus Interview with Jake Adelstein
Jake Adelstein possesses an obsessive, infectious energy, coupled with an immense generosity and an ability to be, when necessary, stringently ruthless. This combination serves him well in the line of work that he half-chose, half-stumbled into: Adelstein is the guy…
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The Magic Bullet
The assumption is that people with mental illnesses are voiceless, can’t speak for themselves in a way that is reliable, in a way that other people want to hear or be led by. People want to hear stories of mental…
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Why I Chose Cleopatra Mathis’s “Book of Dog” for the Rumpus Poetry Book Club
Camille T. Dungy on why she selected Book of Dog by Cleopatra Mathis for the Rumpus Poetry Book Club in November.
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THE RUMPUS INTERVIEW WITH MOUNT EERIE
Phil Elverum, who records as Mount Eerie (and formerly as Microphones) has the distinction of releasing not one but two acclaimed records, Clear Moon and Ocean Roar, in 2012.
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Three Short Essays from The Hard Problem: A Guide for the Intergalactic Writer Looking to Mate
But books aren’t always babies and, perhaps, are not even babies most or any of the time. What are books?
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The Rumpus Interview with Kate Durbin
Kate Durbin’s poetry and performance art focus on female archetypes like princesses, witches, and pop stars. She dives into the cesspools of modern culture without shame, resurfacing to present us with glittering treasures from the depths.
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HEAVY-HANDED: Finally Funny
“I’ve had a few dreams recently about my ex-boyfriends finally getting the courage to say the mean things I always knew they wanted to say to me.”
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Halloween is Waiting
Every Halloween, the ghost of my 11 year-old self haunts me. She’s in the candy aisle at Rite Aid gorging on fun-size Twix bars. She’s wrapping candy corn lights around her neck. She’s trying on a vampire costume grinning through…
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Observations From The Middle Of The Ocean
I want to step outside of the chalk outline I’ve been living in. I want to sketch a different outline for myself. I’m not sure what would be inside this new outline yet, except that it would involve a person…
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My One-And-A-Half-Year-Old Daughter Draws All 43 Presidents of the United States
As the election approaches, artist Jason Novak and his daughter bring us illustrations of all the US presidents.