A Transcendent Wilderness: Andrew J. Graff’s Raft of Stars
In particular, Graff’s river is numinous. It’s the center of everything.
...more
Posts Tagged: absent fathers
The More Painful Absence: Keema Waterfield’s Inside Passage
In this lush and raw account, musicians play, voices harmonize and then separate again, town after Alaska town rolls by… and Waterfield searches for home.
...more
Reinventing the Truth: A Conversation with Anna Qu
Anna Qu discusses her debut memoir, MADE IN CHINA.
...more
Making Space for Curiosity: A Conversation with Pik-Shuen Fung
Pik-Shuen Fung discusses her debut novel, GHOST FOREST.
...more
Voices on Addiction: Safety in a Blue Light
Television babysat our family—our thirteen-channel set, reception via a rooftop antenna.
...more
This Is Not a Metaphor
On the far side of silence, I suspect, is joy.
...more
How Beautiful and Rough: A Conversation with Ashley C. Ford
Ashley C. Ford discusses her debut memoir, SOMEBODY’S DAUGHTER.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Three-Finger Freddie and a Fight
He could spin a Spalding between those eight digits faster and smoother than anyone.
...more
Other Stories, Other Lives: Life among the Terranauts by Caitlin Horrocks
By the time the television cameras arrive, the rest of the world may be surprised, but we’re not.
...more
Voices on Addiction: Searching for Lilacs
It hadn’t felt like teasing. It felt the way it always did these days—that I had disappointed her.
...more
Depths of Story: Who’s Your Daddy by Arisa White
The inherited wounds cut so deep one wonders if they can ever be fully healed.
...more
Asking the Right Questions: Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom
Transcendent Kingdom becomes an experiment in itself.
...more
Possibility Is Spellbinding: The Lightness by Emily Temple
In short, lightness is the capacity to leave without regret.
...more
Voices on Addiction: None of This Is Bullshit
I was fine. No one and nothing could hurt me.
...more
Where Words Often Fail: Talking with Bryan Washington
Bryan Washington discusses his new novel, MEMORIAL.
...more
My Father’s Guide to Field Dressing an Elk
Around here, we don’t waste meat, and we don’t waste life.
...more
Constant Motion: Children of the Land by Marcelo Hernandez Castillo
More than a longing for an origin story, Hernandez Castillo’s memoir is an attempt to bring the invisible to light.
...more
The Poem Must Forgive: E. J. Koh’s The Magical Language of Others
Empathy and forgiveness must begin with understanding.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Biswell and Hope and the Job, A Story in Five Epiphanies
I’d love to prove that I can sell windows.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Gauri Kalyanam
Her heartbeat is a history folded into a vessel.
...more
I Am the Ignition
I don’t believe in redemption stories.
...more
Voices on Addiction: One More Conversation
That’s how I felt again, then: a child suddenly fallen, helpless. Unable even to breathe.
...more
The Thread: Fatherless
I create myself, raise myself. I am mine.
...more
Voices on Addiction: A Conversation with Andrea Jarrell
I didn’t want to be edited in that way. I needed to tell my story.
...more
Conversations with Writers Braver Than Me: Jason Diamond
Jason Diamond discusses his memoir Searching for John Hughes, confronting his childhood abuse, avoiding his parents, and writing about all of it.
...more
Voices on Addiction: Too Much Hope
I wanted more time with him, but I didn’t want to hope. Too much hope will mess you up.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Asali Solomon
Asali Solomon discusses her debut novel, Disgruntled, narrative structure, the mythology of memory and place, and returning to Philadelphia after years away.
...more