Rumpus Original
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The Last Book I Loved: Dream Songs
My relationship with John Berryman’s Dream Songs, like the songs themselves, is murky, complicated, obscure in origin, and not easy to explain—not even to myself.
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The Rumpus Review of Amour
Thankfully, this film really is a love story. Yet it’s such a ruthlessly unsentimental one that the title still feels like a provocation.
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Interstitial Days
A glance, an explosive connection, or a kiss that brings on a divorce. Decisions to stay or go. A diagnosis dictating a body’s abrupt end, slow decline, or unexpected recovery.
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Matthew Parker
You know what struck me about Matthew Parker, one-time homeless wanderer, former drug addict with more than ten years of prison under his belt, between his ears, now a writer and graphic author?
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A Taste of Larceny in My Blood
Two excerpts from Matthew Parker’s graphic memoir, Larceny in My Blood: A Memoir of Heroin, Handcuffs, and Higher Education:
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The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Mediocre People
I’m pretty mediocre. I’m ashamed to admit it. I’m not even being sarcastic or self-deprecating. I’ve never done anything that stands out.
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Swinging Modern Sounds #41: Utopian Communities
Bands, those funny little plans, that never go quite right, is a line from a really great song by Mercury Rev (“Holes,” from Deserter’s Songs), a song that rightly probes the mixed feelings that you might have about bands had…
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Spit and Mud
What I remember most about church is all the sitting, standing, and kneeling, the stink of incense, the calm of the priest’s voice, the hard wooden pews, and not really understanding why every Sunday, I found myself, alongside my family,…
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FUNNY WOMEN #93: Revised Pinterest FAQs
Pinterest is a million-page woman’s magazine written by everyone you’ve ever met and edited by no one.
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The Rumpus Interview With Michelle Orange
We sat on my bed, our backs against the wall, talking about her essay collection, This Is Running For Your Life.
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Ted Wilson Reviews the World #171
BEAR ATTACKS ★★★★★ (2 out of 5) Hello, and welcome to my week-by-week review of everything in the world. Today I am reviewing bear attacks.
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The Better Bombshell
This week marks the launch of the anthology The Better Bombshell, a collaboration of writers and artists exploring female role models.