A Vocabulary for Apostates
I needed to reshape the definitions of words that were used against me.
...more
Posts Tagged: children
Rumpus Exclusive: “Ada Bloom Finds the Windmill”
Ada followed her song deeper into the bush, until the windmill loomed up before her.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Biswell and Hope, Christmas: A Story in Four Epiphanies
She can really throw herself into a stoning.
...more
Exploration and Connection: A Conversation with Oliver de la Paz
Oliver de la Paz discusses his newest collection, THE BOY IN THE LABYRINTH.
...more
Split Chins, Open Coats
My whistle was useless. Using it felt like an insult.
...more
Monarchs, Motherhood, and Transformation
These butterflies needed help, and I wanted to deliver them my garden.
...more
Telling the Story of Now: A Conversation with Valeria Luiselli
Valeria Luiselli discusses her new novel, LOST CHILDREN ARCHIVE.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Lifers
We were beginning to exist on the periphery of our own lives.
...more
The Perfect Childhood
Even when these questions are not articulated, they’re there.
...more
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Peter Mishler
Peter Mishler discusses his debut collection, Fludde, the effect of ritual on poems, and childhood psychology.
...more
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Strawberry Field
To pick a strawberry, one must crouch.
...more
On Birds, Cats, and Children
My devotion to the cats was not an imitation of human motherhood. To confuse the two, I thought, was an insult to both.
...more
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.
...more
The Last Poem I Loved : “The Planned Child” by Sharon Olds
The poem is no longer a part of the book I own. I ripped it out, had it framed, and nailed it to the wall right next to the door in our master bedroom.
...more
The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #126: Christopher Zeischegg
“Being thrust into forced ritualistic closeness does break the ice, but doesn’t guarantee closeness.”
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: One of Them Dies
We seldom forget when people promise to give us something, whether we need or want that thing or not. I promise you death, you want a death.
...more
After the Telling
We want to protect our children from everything, even sometimes ourselves.
...more
The Miracle Bowl
Praise the family that tethers me. Praise the well-used kitchen utensils and scoured mixing bowls and butter knives, thick slabs of jelly on the bread.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: City of Foundlings
What makes him think she’s in any less pain? Because hers isn’t prolonged by uncertainly, isn’t moored by hope.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Prescriptions
I wore sobriety like a shirt that was too tight in the shoulders, and everyone around me knew it.
...more
Endless Preparation: Apples and Women’s Work
It makes sense to me that Johnny Appleseed, a man, would travel God’s earth spreading his profligate seed. And then women are doomed to their lives trying to make that seed into something useful.
...more
A Hinging Thing: Talking with Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith discusses her new collection Good Bones, how motherhood has changed her writing, and what it felt like to have a poem go viral.
...more
Everyone Loves the Pope
My lover became the Pope. It was the twenty-tens and the Catholic Church wanted to rebrand with Newport cigarettes and Hermes chiseled calves.
...more
A Magpie for the Lord
What would it be like to not be us? We were trying to figure out so much about the world then, and this is something we could never get to the bottom of.
...more
It’s Never Too Late to Be Found: A Conversation with Rene Denfeld
Rene Denfeld discusses her latest book, The Child Finder, the ways in which trauma traps us, and the important role of imagination in finding resilience and escape.
...more
Finding the Finally: Alice Anderson Discusses Some Bright Morning, I’ll Fly Away
Alice Anderson on her memoir, Some Bright Morning, I’ll Fly Away, drag, and motherhood.
...more