I’ve long been afraid of toilets in Japan, beginning with the one in the temple we visited every summer starting in 1975, when my mother and I began to regularly go to her homeland in a bid to make sure I was familiar with her culture.
“They were stupid questions because he already knew the answers to them,” Dad said. “He just hadn’t taken the time to think about them. And questions you haven’t thought out are stupid ones.”
Lincoln Michel talks about his debut short story collection, Upright Beasts, his interest in monsters, and what sources of culture outside of literature inspire him.
Garth Risk Hallberg talks about his debut, City on Fire, living in New York City now and in the ’70s, and the anxiety and gratitude you feel when your first novel generates so much buzz.
Her lyrics tend to blend together, but it isn’t a turn-off. Instead, it feels intentional; Don’t Weigh Down the Light is more about the feeling than the words.
In Episode 36 of The Rumpus’s Make/Work podcast, Scott Pinkmountain speaks with author and photographer Abeer Hoque about her long journey to publication, and her obsession with memory and nostalgia.