Other

  • A Soundtrack for Writing

    What music do you write to? GalleyCat has accumulated a decent-sized list of songs that are guaranteed to churn out inspiration.

  • Protecting Possum Man’s Hard Drive

    What do you do with a loved one’s letters, photos, and journals when they pass away? What about their emails, online accounts, and computer files? In an essay at Locus Online, Cory Doctorow describes his efforts to preserve the digital…

  • Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee

    Today’s theme is “things Dan finds neat”. This 1930s illustrated guide to hypothetical alien life is my favorite thing today. This story about the official Chinese newspaper not getting that the Onion is a joke is my second favorite thing…

  • Everybody Loves a Good Looking Book

    There might be some light at the end of the tunnel for independent bookstores. At NPR Books, Lynn Neary discusses the rising popularity of pretty, hardcover books and their power to be undefied by the monumental e-book. More people are…

  • How to Talk to Mothers of Dying Children

    If I wrote about my son in a sentimentalized, cloying, tragic way, perhaps I’d be accused of a woman who writes “silly little stories” instead of epic American novels that engage deep human truths in profound and complicated ways. If…

  • “A Humiliated Boy’s Idea of Manhood”

    What do Raymond Chandler’s protagonists have in common with hip-hop artists? At The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates investigates: “I’ve had the privilege of reading The Big Sleep, between bouts of dabbling with the new Kendrick Lamar. Both works are technically impressive. And both…

  • Mercury Theatre’s War of the Worlds

    In case you missed it last weekend on KCRW, Rumpus pal Richard Park’s radio drama “Wayne Coyne’s Human Head Shaped Tumor” is now available at your listening convenience. The show debuted in McSweeney’s and features original performances by Wayne Coyne,…

  • Peter Orner Reading Thursday at Booksmith

    If you’re in the Bay Area, don’t miss Rumpus columnist Peter Orner‘s reading at Booksmith this Thursday to celebrate the paperback release of his novel Love and Shame and Love. It will include a conversation with fellow author (and occasional…

  • “Teenage Girls Aren’t Pining for Roman Polanski”

    After Chris Brown’s inventively profane online spat with comedian Jenny Johnson and his subsequent departure from Twitter, the public is left to wonder once again just how Brown’s actions fit into the ways our society views race, gender, and abuse.…

  • Police Log Comics: The Book!

    Rumpus contributor Owen Cook’s Police Log Comics will be coming out soon in book form. The book is a 34 page black and white, edition of 200 with a hand colored cover. Here’s the trailer which features strobe and is not recommended for those with a…

  • Capote Fans’ Prayers Answered

    Buried treasure has been unearthed at the New York Public Library: six unpublished pages of Truman Capote’s unfinished novel Answered Prayers. They’re from a chapter called “Yachts and Things,” and you can read them in this month’s Vanity Fair. If…