Facing a Lived Reality: A Conversation with Kelly Sundberg
Kelly Sundberg discusses her debut memoir, GOODBYE, SWEET GIRL.
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Join NOW!Kelly Sundberg discusses her debut memoir, GOODBYE, SWEET GIRL.
...more“I want to make a case for the serious, literary legitimacy of the female experience of self-construction.”
...moreOur next Letter in the Mail comes from Rumpus editor and contributor Arielle Bernstein!
...moreI didn’t want to criticize her, or demand explanations from her. I just wanted to hear her speak.
...moreThe sounds I made were pleasant to my ears, but that’s all they were to me. I was too young to understand what culture and heritage meant, too young to understand the reasons behind memorizing ancient poems.
...moreI ask Hussein if he’s proud of the work he’s doing. He says that he is. We stop talking. For a moment, the market feels like peace.
...moreTORCH is a series devoted to showcasing personal essays, interviews, and art about immigrant and refugee experiences.
...moreYou may have noticed some recent changes to The Rumpus masthead. First, the sad news. Mary-Kim Arnold, our fearless Essays Editor who took over for the inimitable Roxane Gay, is leaving to pursue other projects. We wish her all the best, and are excited to see what she’ll be working on next! We’re also saying […]
...moreFirst, in the Saturday Interview, Arielle Bernstein talks to writer and workshop facilitator Jen Pastiloff. Pastiloff’s project, The Manifestation Workshop: On Being Human, combines yoga and creative writing to inspire participants. She speaks openly about anorexia, healing as a process, and how to build self-esteem. In describing her workshops, Pastiloff says: People move their bodies and write and share […]
...moreI am good at making people feel safe.
...moreThe more variation we see in life, the more it becomes less about seeing one type of book by marginalized people.
...moreJosie Pickens talks about building relationships through blogging, changing the narrative around black women in America, and eradicating silence through storytelling.
...moreIn a focused and engaging Saturday Interview, Arielle Bernstein talks to essayist Karrie Higgins—the author of a 2015 Best American Essay titled “Strange Flowers”—about the generative quality of chaos within the creative process. Higgins points to the influence of forensic science on her approach. “I keep little investigation notebooks with rough notes, maps, diagrams, magic spells, experiments,” the author […]
...moreThe more narratives that approach reality “differently” get treated as “insane” or “unreal,” the less readers are exposed to them, and the more “unreal” or “insane” they seem. It’s like a feedback loop.
...moreFirst, Brandon Hicks contemplates the strange game of pricing art in “The Forgetful Painter.” And in the Saturday Interview, Arielle Bernstein talks to illustrator Ijeoma Oluo about her new publication, Badass Feminist Coloring Book, and the surprises she encountered while creating it. Oluo’s initial Kickstarter project outgrew its modest goals by a significant margin. “It was so […]
...moreIjeoma Oluo discusses feminism, coloring, badass women, and being a troller of trolls.
...moreArielle Bernstein, Rumpus Film/TV/Media and Saturday Editor, writes about Rihanna, bitches, and blood over at Salon: Women are raised on images of toxic masculinity just like the men around us are. Many of us also played “Grand Theft Auto” and watched great films featuring tons of sexualized violence against women: “Last Tango in Paris,” “A Clockwork […]
...moreFirst, Brandon Hicks finds the essence of military conflict in his comic, “War.” Then, Arielle Bernstein talks to self-proclaimed “anti-racist feminist” Tamara Winfrey-Harris in the Saturday Interview. Winfrey-Harris’s blog, What Tami Said, provides some of the material for an essay collection due out this July. Racism and sexism are big problems in society, but Winfrey-Harris says: […]
...moreThe reality is that there is privilege even within social justice movements.
...moreFirst, Julie Marie Wade points to Tod Marshall’s skillful use of call and response in his new poetry collection, Bugle. The theme of mortality punctuates this “fierce” and “stunning” book. Marshall’s speaker, Wade writes, “contemplates what we think we know about nature, music, human frailty, and human triumph.” Meanwhile, The Internet is “the great, depressing equalizer,” […]
...moreJacob Wren discusses his newest novel, Polyamorous Love Song, the relationship between art and ethics, and whether Kanye West is a force for good in the art and music world.
...moreFirst, say hello to our new Saturday media editor, Arielle Bernstein! Then, in “All The World’s A Stage,” Grant Snider neatly illustrates our inner performer. Poet Kent Shaw marvels at the “glandular muscularity” of water as a theme in Harmony Holiday’s dual book, A Famous Blues/Go Find Your Father. Jazz voicing accentuates the father/daughter relationship at […]
...moreFight Club was never a fairytale. It’s a painful howl into a night that probably isn’t listening and that is more a cry of pain than a drive to hurt.
...moreObvious Child is sweetness, swaddled in a dirty joke. It’s the delicate pastel world of Wes Anderson, where characters are imperfect but want to get better. Where every asshole, in the end, has a really big heart.
...more[Lars von Trier is] a black hole in the middle of his cinematic universe, and sooner or later he’s going to suck everything right into himself.
...more“We live in a moment where images fill our lives in more obvious ways than words. Every day we scroll through Tumblrs, memes and gifs, a parade of images as completely absorbing as it is mind numbing.”
...moreLars von Trier’s films are effective primarily because he is not afraid of creating complex female characters.
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