The Rumpus Interview with Elissa Schappell
Elissa Schappell and I met too many years ago to say, at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. We were both waiters, which means that you serve students, scholars, fellows and…
Rumpus Originals
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The Rumpus Interview with Stuart Nadler
Stuart Nadler’s debut collection, The Book of Life, has been aptly compared to Bernard Malamud’s work. Like Malamud, Nadler crafts stories that are straightforward, classic and unsparing—and these stories explore…
A Mark of the Naive
Woodnote is a layered history, both natural and personal, that is ultimately about how we identify and describe what we encounter in the world, and how we identify ourselves inside…
Albums of Our Lives: The Stooges’ Fun House
As an acne-faced and awkward wannabe punk rock teenager, I knew who Iggy Pop was. I knew who he was because a lot of the Goth girls I would meet…
DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #87: In the Direction of Real Life
In fear and in pain and in faith, we swim there, to wherever that is, in the direction of real life.
The Rumpus Original Combo with Justin Torres
Justin Torres has had a lot of jobs. He worked on a farm. He walked dogs. He drove a truck, picking up donations around New England. He even had a stint at Brainwash, folding laundry. Thankfully, along the way he began writing, and his debut novel We the Animals was released in September.
We the Animals
We the Animals, the beautiful debut novel from Justin Torres, moves in small moments. Tiny chapters, spare prose, and meticulous sentences take us through the complicated, messy childhood of three…
Donnie Darko and the Tyranny of the Franks
Perhaps the most enduring movies are those that tempt us into deep interpretation even as they resist all efforts to impose meaning on them.
I’m Nothing If Not Polite
Notes From Irrelevance is a long weave of sentence shimmers with influences of someone who has read and absorbed a rich range, from classics to the most experimental, making each…