What to Read When You’re Feeling like a Criminal
Rumpus editors share their favorite fiction, poetry, and nonfiction books that deal with crime, criminals, and the criminal justice system.
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Posts Tagged: crime
The Saturday Rumpus Essay: We Aren’t Killers; They Are
One story mirrors our identity—any of us could be falsely accused! The other tale is about the Other—because it’s unfathomable that one of us would commit murder. We aren’t killers; they are.
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The Rumpus Interview with Joe Ide
Joe Ide discusses his debut novel, IQ his writing process, and why he enjoys fly fishing.
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The Last Book I Loved: So Long, See You Tomorrow
By drawing us into his childhood, Maxwell shows us how to revisit our own. We become the storytellers of our own lives.
...moreTragedy in Spades: a Crime Documentary (the Play)
Probably internationally acclaimed playwright Liza Birkenmeier, dubbed “the next big thing” by someone somewhere, who wrote national bestseller “Funny Women #136: Recommendation Letter” is also here to help you with your weekend plans. The cultural moment we are in is obsessed with true crime . . . and with truth, and with crime. Through April 9th in […]
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The Last Book I Loved: The Loss of All Lost Things
I recognize something in the stories… It’s the culture of “I made it” versus the culture of staying behind, the culture of achievement versus the culture of guilt.
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The Rumpus Interview with J. Aaron Sanders
J. Aaron Sanders discusses his debut novel, Speakers of the Dead, his writing process, and the wisdom of sharing his early drafts with his students.
...morePhotographing Crime
It’s a paradox that many of the show’s images are strangely striking even if the crimes they represent are horrifying. Joseph Stalin had at least 750,000 executed between 1937 and 1938. A photographer made a portrait before each execution, shooting the condemned from the front and the side—something the Khmer Rouge did, too. The images […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Garth Risk Hallberg
Garth Risk Hallberg talks about his debut, City on Fire, living in New York City now and in the ’70s, and the anxiety and gratitude you feel when your first novel generates so much buzz.
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Majik Market
The summer and early fall of 1974 replays like a gritty movie in my head, a 70s era Lumet or Scorsese, elements of cinema verite, but stylized, heightened.
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The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Last Chance out of Jonestown
An addict struggles to forgive himself for the violence he sowed.
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The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Patrick O’Neil
Patrick O’Neil talks about his debut memoir Gun Needle Spoon, being big in France, the drug/recovery genre, and writing through trauma.
...moreDan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
(Dan Weiss is out on tour with his band The Yellow Dress. He’ll be back on August 3rd.) The murder she never committed. Our parents’ patriotism. The Father, Son and Holy Surfboard. DNA science is not absolute. The synecdoche falls down first.
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Jack Gantos
Jack Gantos discusses the sense of “delusional invincibility” he had in 1970s New York that led him to prison—and then on to a career as an award-winning children’s book author.
...morePowerful Couples
Over the past decade, the Colemans have published nearly 50 books, sometimes as solo writers, sometimes under pseudonyms, but usually as collaborators with a byline that has become a trusted brand: “Ashley & JaQuavis.” They are marquee stars of urban fiction, or street lit, a genre whose inner-city settings and lurid mix of crime, sex […]
...moreTrue Detective
Voltaire became steeped in the country’s rules of criminal procedure, a labyrinth he found appalling: “As there are half-proofs, that is to say, half-truths, it is clear that there are half-innocent and half-guilty persons. So we start by giving them a half-death, after which we go to lunch.” He fretted at how France appeared to […]
...moreWeekly Geekery
Stop worrying about Buzzfeed and worry about yourself. That moment when you realize the Internet has changed the way you write. The darker side of the Internet writing business. Your leaky attention is evidence of brilliance. Probably. Remembering that thing that you didn’t do. A search engine for the past.
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The Rumpus Interview with Katie Crouch
Katie Crouch discusses Etruscan history, the Amanda Knox trial, and turning fact into fiction for her novel Abroad.
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Towards a Fight
The future is coming, it is coming for everyone in this story. Someday that cop will turn on his TV and see the first black president, the first president who looks like he does, say that he thinks couples like me and Dee ought to be able to marry if we want to. Which probably means we ought to be able to kiss.
...moreReagan’s “Welfare Queen” Was Real and Terrifying
Ronald Reagan’s anecdotal speech about a “welfare queen” who bilked taxpayers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars has largely been discredited as racist demagoguery, but it turns out that particular woman did exist—and welfare fraud was the least of her offenses. Read Josh Levin’s longform account of the life and crimes of Linda Taylor, […]
...moreThriller Education
At Words Without Borders, B.J. Epstein expounds upon the culture of crime novels, its covert international influence and the diversity of fear. She also continues the necessary conversation of why Anglophones are relentlessly intimidated by translated literature. Why are English-language readers so interested in crime but less likely to want to read other texts? Is […]
...moreThe Monday Rumpus Book Blog Roundup
Hello, world. Today, on the 5th of July, 2010, I have to go hock things to tourists so I can pay the bills, so this might be all you get from me today. A great essay on the omniscient over at The Millions. GIANT has a receipt you can use for Tin House’s new rule […]
...morePolitics Sunday
Is there a connection between immigration (both legal and otherwise) and lower crime rates? Oh, National Review. Sigh. “Sergei Magnitsky was our attorney, and friend, who died under excruciating circumstances in a Moscow pre-trial detention center on Nov. 16, 2009. His story is one of extraordinary bravery and heroism, and ultimately tragedy. It is also […]
...moreWhy Do Scandinavians Seek The Darkness?
One of the biggest selling, most highly-praised novels at my bookstore right now is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Since it just came out in paperback, we’ve been selling like six of them a week. Based on reading the book’s blurbs and hearing about it from customers and coworkers, it appears […]
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