Rumpus Originals
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DEAR SUGAR, The Rumpus Advice Column #75: The Three-Year Dry Hump
Set your limits. State your needs. Respect your boundaries. Then step back.
Rafah Crossing
Approaching the Rafah crossing on the morning of its historic opening, I pass a lone Palestinian woman in her mid 20’s holding a newborn, walking into Egypt. Twenty yards behind…
A FAN’S NOTES, The Rumpus Sports Column #37: Snake Bite
In the Book of Job, a capricious, punishing God speaks from behind the obscuring protection of a whirlwind.
My Stupid Dollar, My Beautiful Soul
When reading Space, in Chains, I would command my sister, my mother, my friends: “listen to this poem.” I recited Kasischke’s poetry out loud at the dinner table; I scanned…
There Is a Head Rolling Over the Platform: The Strange Case of George Lippard’s The Quaker City
On July 12, 1849, a man appeared at the offices, in Philadelphia, of the Quaker City, a newspaper. He was despondent and wearing only one shoe, and was seeking the…
FUNNY WOMEN #53: An Editors’ Slush-Pile Meeting at the Backdoor Review
At Backdoor Review, we receive tens of thousands of submissions. We’ve collected a few cover letters and reprinted them now (without permission) with manuscript comments from our editors in italics.
Long Drive Home
Will Alllion’s second novel Long Drive Home examines how one quick decision shapes a young father’s life.
The Rumpus Interview with Scott McClanahan
McClanahan's prose is unfettered and kinetic and his stories seem like a hyper-modern iteration of local color fiction.