Rumpus Original
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SPOTLIGHT SERIES:
James JajacSilver Hell is the work of James Jajac, which he sums up as being “the process of self-destructing and the gradual process of rebuilding your life.”
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A Conversation So Imperfectly Understood
Rosanna Warren’s tautly elegant poetry in her collection Ghost in a Red Hat captivates me. Warren does not aim for obscure language and obstructed meaning; she carefully and clearly reveals her intent in writing her poems.
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The Rumpus Interview with W. Kamau Bell
W. Kamau Bell wants stand-up comedy to be seen as an art form enjoyed by hip, educated people. He’s on a mission to raise the IQ and literacy of comedy audiences
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The Fates Will Find Their Way
“It seemed, some days, that life was nothing more than a tally of the people who’d left us behind.”
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Happy with Crocodiles
A short story by Jim Shepard, author of the forthcoming collection You Think That’s Bad, our Rumpus Book Club pick for February. *** Her envelope had hearts where the o’s in my name should have been and I tore it…
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Ted Wilson Reviews the World #72
SHORTS ★★★★★ (5 out of 5) Hello, and welcome to my week-by-week review of everything in the world. Today I am reviewing shorts.
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The Rumpus Original Combo with Deb Olin Unferth: Part 1, The Interview
“For years I was angry at myself for having run away with a man. Later, I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t that person anymore. Why couldn’t I find someone to give me an identity again?”
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Have Gun, Will Travel
Deb Olin Unferth’s ruefully funny memoir revisits the year she followed her boyfriend into the war zones of Latin America.
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A FAN’S NOTES, The Rumpus Sports Column #34: From Dallas to Eternity
The Pittsburgh Steelers are headed to the Super Bowl yet again. It’s their third trip to the championship game in six years, despite a season shadowed by controversy. During the regular season—before the season started, even—the Steelers seemed to be…
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Glass Is Really a Liquid
The hard thing about these poems is that they make sense, fundamentally, but they’ve got a strange, skittering-away sense to them, a resistance to being pinned down.
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Readers Report Back From… Impossible Love
Rumpus readers take on Impossible Love. Edited by Susan Clements. The woman never forgot her body had once been covered in tiny holes. She’d been born with them all over. They were practically undetectable and no one ever got close…