circus
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Between Illusion and Reality: A Conversation with Erin Pringle
Erin Pringle discusses her debut novel, HEZADA! I MISS YOU.
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Telling the Truth, Sideways: A Conversation with Tessa Fontaine
Tessa Fontaine discusses her debut memoir, THE ELECTRIC WOMAN.
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Telling Our Truths: A Conversation with Shaindel Beers
Shaindel Beers discusses her third collection, SECURE YOUR OWN MASK.
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The Last Greatest Show on Earth: Ringling vs. Reality
In other words, something’s wrong when you turn to acrobats and lion tamers to anchor yourself in a spinning world.
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A Circus, a Kiss
The circus was small, a little tent in the center of a field, but of course we didn’t know it was small, we didn’t know there were bigger circuses in other places. We didn’t even know there were other places.…
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The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Words Fail
Martha Bayne runs away with the circus and finds unexpected meaning in the effort required to achieve its gaudy display. “Can it really be escapism,” she asks, “if you’re working so hard?”
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The Human Monster
[Julia seemed like] a monster to the whole world, an abnormality put on display for money, someone who had been taught a few artistic turns, like a trained animal. [But] for the few who knew her better, she was a…
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Dispatch from the Carnival #3: Bloodlust
What does not occur to me at the moment of this bloodlust, will not until much later, is that I am actively seeking the violence. I want to witness the worst.
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The Rumpus Interview with Duncan Wall
Duncan Wall, a prominent circus theorist and advocate for circus arts, discusses his memoir, The Ordinary Acrobat, narratives of performance, and community-building with the nonprofit Circus Now.
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Dispatch from the Carnival #2: The Snake Charmer
Sideshows themselves are a place where people come to see a public display of their private fears. Fear of deformity, of a disruption of the gender binary, of mutation, of disfigurement, of a crossover with the animal world, of being…
