The Short Swimsuit: A Personal & Historical Account
My short swimsuit was a symbol of bold confidence, and I wore it in defiance—of illness, and who I’d become.
Rumpus Original
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The Rumpus Interview with Phil Milstein
About twenty years ago, Phil X. Milstein damaged the psyches of my miscreant writer and musician friends in the Bay Area.
Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Neil White
Fifteen years after serving my time, I still think about prison and the ways in which it might have affected me.
Drinking the Seagull
At the end of his first day on the raft, as the light dwindled to nothing and the chill of night settled around him, did he close his eyes and wish for sleep, wish for dreaming, wish to somehow be transported home to his family, or at least away from the open sea?
Swinging Modern Sounds #37: The Age of Fine Arrangements
Cuddle Magic, in my opinion, is the band most likely to succeed, these days, if by succeed you mean getting a leg up, surpassing the modest touring-all-the-time-not-making-very-much-money-hustling-constantly model of the…
ALBUMS OF OUR LIVES: LIZ PHAIR’S EXILE IN GUYVILLE
I must have heard about Liz Phair from Sassy Magazine, my go-to and, really, only source for anything remotely counter-culture in the early ‘90s.
Ted Wilson Reviews the World #146
THE SALAD I SAW A KID EATING ★★★★★ (2 out of 5) Hello, and welcome to my week-by-week review of everything in the world. Today I am reviewing the salad…
Sunday Rumpus Essay: Shadows and Ghosts: Batman, Thomas Cromwell, and the Corporation of Yaddo
Emily Rapp returns to the movies, with a meditation on Batman, grief, the shadows of Yaddo, and the inspirational power of weakness.
Seeking Grace in Strange Places
I am not a religious person. I usually tell people, if they ask, that I’m a secular humanist, because religion plays no part in my life. And mostly, this is…
The Rumpus Interview with Mary Chapin Carpenter
Atypically outspoken for a politically liberal contemporary country singer, Carpenter has succeeded critically and commercially while honoring her own artistic inclinations.
We Are Many. We Are Everywhere.
A great deal of the conversation about publishing and diversity is grounded in the idea that there simply aren’t many writers of color.