Rumpus Original Archives - Page 20 of 713

Telling our necessary truths: A Conversation with Janet Rodriguez

Only after this memoir was I able to see the Kafka truth: We are telling our necessary truths. We are the necessary heroes of our own narratives. Somewhere inside all of it, there is a collective truth, one we can safely tell.

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From the Archive: The Saturday Rumpus Essay: DNA

Of course, maybe dividing the world into two kinds of people is just another way of making sure there is a crack in everything. When can you smooth out this fault line?

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The Story and the Truth: Elaine Hsieh Chou’s Disorientation

. . . a scathing, satirical campus novel about academia, orientalism, the Western commodification of Asian cultures, and the lengths to which institutions will go to protect their reputations and their darlings.

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From the Archive: Rumpus Original Fiction: No Good

The sounds that she would expect here are entirely absent. There are no cries, no weeping. Just soothing, muffled tones.

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We’re more powerful if we’re not so embroiled in illusion: A Conversation with Irene Silt

Love is just extremely terrifying and kind of abysmal.

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What to Read When 2023 is Around the Corner

Another year, another TBR pile.

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Rumpus Original

RUMPUS BOOK CLUB EXCERPT: A LOVE STORY BY DAVON LOEB

An excerpt from The Rumpus Book Club's February selection, THE IN-BETWEENS by Davon Loeb forthcoming from West Virginia University Press on February 1, 2023

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How to Write an Honest Memoir: A Conversation with Evette Dionne

I don’t ever do anything from a place of fear—which is an odd place for me to be in because I have anxiety—but I have to [step into places of discomfort] because that’s where growth happens. If you’re comfortable, you’re not growing.

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From the Archive: The Weight of Our Living: On Hope, Fire Escapes, and Visible Desperation

I want to leave the party through the window and find my uncle standing on a piece of iron shaped into visible desperation, which must also be (how can it not?) the beginning of visible hope.

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The Claws That Type the Text: Ander Monson’s Predator: A Memoir, a Movie, an Obsession

Rather than saying, Fuck it, and remaining stagnant in the face of cultural horrors, Monson suggests readers start with the marginalia. Exhaust all possibilities. Carve a new path where sweeping prescriptions fail to stick.

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Rumpus Original Fiction: The Turning of Celestial Bodies

When I start running, I want you to keep your eyes on it, because you’ll notice something that may seem strange. You will find that no matter where I run, or how long, or how far, you will not see this moon move an inch in the sky.

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