Rumpus Originals
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If Hemingway Were a Poet
In poet Ben Lerner’s debut novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, we follow expat Adam Gordon as he travels Spain managing the boundaries between art and life.
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All Over Coffee
Regret TrilogyClick image to enlarge: … All Over Coffee is published in the Sunday Datebook section of the San Francisco Chronicle, on SFGate.com, and in two book collections by City Lights Press. The second and newest book, Everything is its own…
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Is There a 9/11 Literature?
Bryan Charles and Christopher Bollen talk about 9/11 literature and life outside of New York. Charles’s memoir, There’s a Road to Everywhere Except Where You Came From, tells his story of being in the Twin Towers on the morning of…
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The Decade of Magical Thinking
A Rumpus Lamentation on What We Lost Say you took the long view of September 11, 2001, the view from the heavens, the view of a compassionate celestial being. From up there, you’d see that approximately 150,000 earthlings died that…
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Albums of Our Lives: The Sonic Youth Mixtape a Friend Gave Me
In the early ’90s, when I was in high school, I listened to songs from bands that got played on the radio.
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Return to the Year Broken Free
I wish I could explain to you, to myself, the effect this language has upon me, but I can only say it makes my skin crawl. In a good way.
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RECESSION SEX WORKERS #13: Bella Blue’s School of Three: Burlesque, Boys and Polyamorous Love
Mardi Gras was uncharacteristically dismal in 2010. I met a group of curvaceous, saucy strippers at 10 a.m. on Bourbon Street, where the air was thick with pizza and Red Bull vomit, 24-hour margarita shops and hot dog stands.
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DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #84: The Distance of the Leap
From what garden or pot or crack in the pavement did you grow? How did you get your water?
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The Gifts of the Blarney Stone
Sebastain Barry’s latest novel, On Canaan’s Side, follows aging Lilly Bere as she crosses the Atlantic to America and slowly watches everyone around her die.
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Happy Feet and the Mbaqanga Rhythm of the Boyoyo Boys
“Gumboots” is what inspired Paul Simon to break out the accordion and kick-start Graceland.