The Body That Is Terra Nullius
My body is a terra nullius, belonging to no one, not even me.
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Posts Tagged: childbirth
Making Deliberate Choices: A Conversation with Sheila Heti
Sheila Heti discusses her new novel, MOTHERHOOD!
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The Ritual
It’s not easy being the mother of a dead child. In fact, it may be the hardest kind of mothering there is.
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Rumpus Original Fiction: She Hated the Child
She 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.
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Mothering Our Children and Ourselves: Molly Caro May’s Body Full of Stars
As May moves through what she now calls her “postpartum challenge,” she does not return to her old self, but instead becomes someone new.
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Effacement of the Mother
When I came home from war, I felt relief. Now that I’m home after childbirth, I’m still waiting for relief. War ends. Motherhood does not.
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Like Juggling Knives: Talking with Rumaan Alam
Rumaan Alam discusses his new novel, That Kind of Mother, the limits of the employer-employee relationship, and the grossness of heterosexual sex.
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Mom Vagina
When the physical therapist explains the electric dildo she holds in her hand will reset the nerve endings in my vagina so I won’t need to pee every hour, I say, “Get it in me and let’s go.”
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It’s Just Reality: Talking with Meaghan O’Connell
Meaghan O’Connell discusses her new memoir, And Now We Have Everything, perfectionism in motherhood and writing, and being pregnant again.
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Body Fluids: An Exploration of Motherhood
I think fresh semen smells like aspirin, which is made from a mold that grows on birch trees, which of course are phallic.
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Paying It Forward: Meaghan O’Connell’s And Now We Have Everything
[O’Connell’s] baby, once born, is not the answer to any question, but rather the genesis of a thousand new ones.
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The Delusion of Objectivity: Talking with Leslie Jamison
Leslie Jamison discusses The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath, understanding that every text is incomplete, and whether motherhood has changed her writing.
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Rivers of Babylon: The Story of a Third-Trimester Abortion
She said something to me, then, that has been a great comfort. “You had a choice,” she said, “but you did not have free will.” A choice that was no choice at all.
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The Thread: Ways of Being Seen
Can you see it now? Is the image different in your mind yet? A thing you can’t unsee.
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The Gate of Permission: A Conversation with Victoria Redel
Victoria Redel discusses her newest novel, Before Everything, living through and beyond grief, and why she loves secrets.
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with Micah Perks
Micah Perks talks about her new novel, What Becomes Us, America’s cultural and mythical heritage, and why every novel is a political novel.
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Hard to Kill
Now everything finally made sense. I had practically died and woken up, resurrected. That’s why everyone was looking at me funny. Like its cousin Death, Near-Death leaves a stench that makes people uncomfortable.
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A Man’s ABCs of Miscarriage
I 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.
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The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Milwaukee. Rust. A Baby.
By the light of early morning, I am writhing in pain again, the drugs are done. But there is a tiny creature—mammal, female—attached to my breast. That is supposed to make it more bearable.
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VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Desiree Cooper
Desiree Cooper discusses her debut collection of flash fiction, Know the Mother, what mother-writers need, and why motherhood is the only story she’s ever told.
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The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Young Women Always Have Something to Sell
I am poked, prodded, stripped down, exposed. It is only now that I am writing this that I am discovering I have feelings about it.
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The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Cynthia Marie Hoffman
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club chats with Cynthia Marie Hoffman about her new book, Paper Doll Fetus, twilight sleep, and the importance of giving voice to the voiceless.
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Birth Story
This is the part of the birth story when the woman is supposed to tap into the primal strength of her ancestors, a pool with a hundred thousand years of depth…
...more“Living in the Shaky Place”
Jessica Valenti writes a powerful piece about her experience with PTSD after undergoing a severe illness during pregnancy and prematurely giving birth to her daughter. “I know now that the core of my trauma was the realization that life is out of my control. Life is unpredictable, scary and sometimes tragic. Believing anything else is […]
...moreThe Wake of Forgiveness
Bruce Machart’s debut novel channels Cormac McCarthy, while narrating a Southern gothic tale centered around women.
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