Become a Rumpus Member
Join NOW!
There was a long stretch where I tried actively not to make things I wrote funny because of a disastrous undergrad fiction workshop where I spent thirty minutes just listening to people complain that a story had jokes. And wouldn’t it have been so much better if the author had let us pay attention to the emotions? Lol.
...more
Natasha Stagg discusses her debut novel, Surveys, obsession with celebrity, social media, and how she approached writing about something so ephemeral.
...more
Chip Livingston discusses his new novel, Owls Don’t Have to Mean Death, his move to Uruguay, his writing life, and the significance of owls.
...more
John Freeman discusses his debut collection of poetry, Maps, displacement, empathy, and trying to find a way forward in the nation and the world.
...more
Hanif Abdurraqib discusses They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us, honoring survival by showing up, and refusing to be governed by genre.
...more
SJ Sindu discusses her new novel, Marriage of a Thousand Lies, queer readings of Hindu scriptures, and issues of privilege and power.
...more
Chelsey Clammer discusses her new essay collection, Circadian, her writing process, and the body as text.
...more
Aurvi Sharma discusses her memoir-in-progress, finding inspiration in ancient women’s voices, and writing against erasure.
...more
JoAnna Novak discusses her novel, I Must Have You, eating disorders, and writing characters that challenge our expectations of how women should behave.
...more
Hannah Tinti discusses how The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley came into being, the formation of its characters, and how twelve scars and the celestial heavens help give this book structure and heft.
...more
Lidija Dimkovska discusses A Spare Life, living through the break-up of Yugoslavia, her writing style, and where she now feels most at home.
...more
Mandy Len Catron discusses How to Fall in Love with Anyone: A Memoir in Essays, what makes for a thoughtful love story, and the politics of love.
...more
Jack Driscoll discusses The Goat Fish and the Lover’s Knot, “the impermanence of everything,” and how he chooses his characters’ names.
...more
Lily Hoang discusses her first essay collection, A Bestiary, the importance of genre, and the lessons of teaching.
...more
Elizabeth Crane discusses her latest collection, Turf, how where she has lived has shaped her work, and why she loves writing in first-person plural.
...more
Patty Yumi Cottrell discusses her debut novel, Sorry to Disrupt the Peace, how she accesses “the enraptured state” to write, and dreaming as an art form.
...more
Lola StVil discusses her latest novel, Girls Like Me, how her characters demand to be written, what her family thinks of her writing career, and why representation is essential.
...more
Megan Stielstra discusses her new essay collection, The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, fear, privilege, and the intersection of politics and everyday life.
...more
Laurette Folk discusses her new collection, Totem Beasts, the role of meditation and dreams in her work, and “seeking some heightened experience in the conscious world.”
...more
Devorah Blachor discusses The Feminist’s Guide to Raising a Little Princess, princess culture in America and abroad, and publishing a book on feminism in the current political climate.
...more
There is no pretention here toward lasting fulfillment, but there are quiet dinners of lentils and rice.
...more
Maggie Smith discusses her new collection Good Bones, how motherhood has changed her writing, and what it felt like to have a poem go viral.
...more
David Biespiel discusses his new book, The Education of a Young Poet, being comfortable in uncertainty, and extending moments in writing.
...more
Actor and painter Burt Young talks filmmaking, art, and the years he spent living on a sixty-three-foot yacht.
...more
Rae Armantrout discusses Conflation, a vinyl recording from Fonograf Editions that “interrogates the difference between texture and tactile; thing unspoken versus thing unseen.”
...more
Carolyn Zaikowski discusses her most recent book, In a Dream, I Dance by Myself, and I Collapse, the psychology of repetition, and honoring the power of language.
...more
David Hicks discusses his debut novel, White Plains, how much truth resides in a work of fiction, and becoming a full-time fiction writer.
...more
Brooke C. Obie discusses the historical basis for her debut novel, Book of Addis, writing to dismantle white supremacy, and why Black speculative fiction is integral to her survival.
...more
Poet Nicole Homer discusses her debut collection, Pecking Order, writing motherhood from many angles, and the importance of representation in the media.
...more
In between book launch events, Miranda Pennington found time to discuss her bibliomemoir and more.
...more