From the Archives: Rumpus Original Fiction: Lunch Money
Out here on the balcony, perched three stories above the ground, we’re in her world.
...moreBecome a Rumpus Member
Join NOW!Out here on the balcony, perched three stories above the ground, we’re in her world.
...moreI was fine. No one and nothing could hurt me.
...moreLet’s be clear: There is no hangover cure. Anyone who claims to have never had a hangover is either a) a liar, b) a teetotaler, or c) a responsible drinker. I’m none of those things, most days, despite effort, and the number of times I’ve searched for “how to cure a hangover” in the harsh light of a weekend morning is embarrassing the older I get, so manage your expectations.
...moreI pushed him so he glided through the fish, the eels, the boxed-in worlds of blues.
...moreFinding joy in the now, even as death and difficulty mark the days, is possible, a choice, and a practice.
...moreNineteen is a book that’s by turns smart, sad, and scathing.
...more“Was it vodka?” Mama said. Her voice had cracks in it. Why ask? She knew.
...moreJames Brown and Patrick O’Neil discuss WRITING YOUR WAY TO RECOVERY.
...moreAndrea Actis discusses her debut book, GREY ALL OVER.
...moreElizabeth Gonzalez James discusses her debut novel, MONA AT SEA.
...moreIn this book we are taken by all three: language, plot, character.
...moreTelevision babysat our family—our thirteen-channel set, reception via a rooftop antenna.
...moreI grieve my father’s disembodiment. It is my grief inheritance.
...moreIt hadn’t felt like teasing. It felt the way it always did these days—that I had disappointed her.
...moreThe toll I took on people I love can’t be measured. But I want to know.
...moreFor years, decades even, my father tried to escape meth’s hold.
...moreThere are many ways to be ripped to shreds.
...moreMelissa Faliveno discusses her debut essay collection, TOMBOYLAND.
...moreSecrecy stitched us a fraudulent reality. Denial masqueraded as hope.
...moreThere is no finality to this grief. Only a series of losses, compounded.
...moreErica C. Barnett discusses her debut memoir, QUITTER.
...moreI needed my beauty to be invisible, either accidental or not at all.
...moreThe marijuana shop shimmers from the abyss, a glowing green jewelry box atop the hill.
...moreDrunk women are targets. Drunk men can be anything.
...moreA Rumpus series of work by women and non-binary writers that engages with rape culture, sexual assault, and domestic violence.
...moreMy sobriety is still a mystery to me. Forty years this December.
...moreMy family rarely throws the word addiction around. If we do, it is whispered.
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