Rumpus Original Fiction: Being the Baby’s Heart
I took a deep breath. A long one. And I started rocking again.
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Join NOW!I took a deep breath. A long one. And I started rocking again.
...moreI want to ask Anna for a map of desirability. Where was I before, where was I pregnant, where am I now?
...moreThe contempt the place exuded for the people inside it felt physical, hanging in the air like humidity.
...moreSomething new in the dead darkness. Short days and shimmers of light.
...moreWhen we begin life, language is play.
...moreWhat does a newborn’s swallow sound like?
...moreIf I slept… All night, I stayed awake.
...moreLet’s not pretend first means there’s a good place to start.
...moreThis time? This time we decided to sleep-train the baby.
...moreNow it is nearly fall, and the baby is small and pink.
...moreShe didn’t want anything to change. She understood it would be easier if she loved the child. But she did not want to love it.
...moreBut more and more I began to wonder if you needed to be human to be a person.
...moreI have become the nanny. I hope my nanny is getting some good writing done.
...moreWhat makes him think she’s in any less pain? Because hers isn’t prolonged by uncertainly, isn’t moored by hope.
...moreAs the old saying goes, making a baby takes two people, but delivering one takes a team.
...moreVictoria Redel discusses her newest novel, Before Everything, living through and beyond grief, and why she loves secrets.
...moreIf there is no distinction between show and commercial, ethics and entertainment, what kind of distinctions, if any, exists between her imaginary play, her consumer life, and our reality?
...moreAfter writing several books (A Friend of the Family, The Explanation for Everything) from a male point of view, Lauren Grodstein’s new novel, Our Short History, is an intimate glimpse into a woman’s life, at a critical juncture between life and death. Karen Neulander, the protagonist of the novel, has a six-year-old boy, Jake, whose father […]
...moreHe loves me, he loves me not: science fiction’s relationship with L. Ron Hubbard. Babies will stop the bullies! The key to reckoning with climate change and nuclear bombs? Stories.
...moreMotherhood is an all-consuming thing. The sleepless nights, the endless diapers, the undying love, the absurd tasks that must be performed to ease a baby into nap time. But time and energy aren’t the only casualties of motherhood. In our culture, motherhood often demands one’s identity as well, consumes it whole as the woman becomes […]
...moreBelle Boggs discusses The Art of Waiting about navigating through the difficulties of conception and fertility treatment.
...moreI once heard the only thing faster than the speed of light is the speed of thought, and I wonder if simply thinking about Sawyer’s sister until my head hurts could get us to the place we fear talking about.
...moreNew York Times readers who ignore The Economist: Danger, groupthink ahead. Data suggests police de-escalation can work. Goats have feelings, too. (Sheep, not so much.) Babies brainwash you with their cuteness. If the Ghostbusters need props, who you gonna call? MIT professors!
...moreBecky Tuch discusses founding The Review Review, motherhood, creativity, and the future of literary magazines.
...more1964, a month prior to the anniversary of JFK’s assassination, a different home movie shot. Infant toss. Up-down. Plummeting. I’m ten months of age—picking up speed.
...moreEven though the summer customers were the worst, always impatient on their way west to the places of her dreams, she envied them.
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