The Sunday Rumpus Essay: This American Paradise
The thing about Paradise is this—yours can’t be mine, and mine can’t be yours. Paradise exists in the imagination, and imagination is our only privacy.
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childhood
311 posts
Natural Born Drivers
He only knew that the Blazer, like the green card, was something he wanted my brother and me to have, so that we knew we deserved things, things like America.
A “Girl” and Her Mother
At The Millions, Naa Baako Ako-Adjei discusses reading Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” through the lens of her relationship with her own mother growing up, and her new understanding of the story…
The Rumpus Interview with J.D. Vance
J.D. Vance talks about his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, the perils of upward mobility, and never forgetting where you come from.
Dedicate Your No-Trump Vote: Robin Black
In a world in which it is okay for our president to mock a man with disabilities, we might well never see again the ultimately beautiful sight of a classroom of children disowning their own cruelty, choosing to be on the side of decency and care.
The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #8: Dappled Things
The small town where I have recently landed is ugly and beautiful. Walk down the main street: there are a few old gems like an ancient and glorious Masonic Hall,…
America Again
I felt urgently that it was the moment to tell the story of what I’ve learned about American music—or maybe about being an American.
Broken Bones and Old Songs: A Novelist’s Fight to Keep Memory Alive
Memory is the machine of creativity—its heart and soul.
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Lucy Dacus’s Journals
What I write in my journals is a personal record of the events in my life, and my reactions to them.
FUNNY WOMEN #144: Food Reviews by Third Grader
This refined combination will transport taste buds into a state of euphoria matched only when capturing a rare Mewtwo on Pokémon Go.
White Noise
People never detail the confusion—the way days feel like years, and seconds like hours.