Become a Rumpus Member
Join NOW!
““i’m soft-skinned but my bones have hardened calcium deposited cartilage, the fat around my heart lithified with the carnage of constrictors around tiny mice ribs, squeezed till it removes the soft mealy insides. sucked out by standards i will never reach. by these industry snakes.”
...more
Jade Sharma discusses her first novel Problems, the complicated feelings that came with debuting to rave reviews, and her writing and editing processes.
...more
Emilly Prado discusses her debut essay collection, FUNERAL FOR FLACA.
...more
It hadn’t felt like teasing. It felt the way it always did these days—that I had disappointed her.
...more
Elle Nash discusses her new short story collection, NUDES.
...more
All I want is to feed myself like a person who wants to be fed.
...more
Zaina Arafat discusses her debut novel, YOU EXIST TOO MUCH.
...more
Perfection over pasta. Beauty over bread. The more it hurt, the better.
...more
Find and replace. Food for alcohol. Daughter for dad.
...more
Jennifer Pastiloff discusses her first book, ON BEING HUMAN.
...more
“Trust that if you want to write that much it will find a way out of you.”
...more
I am an oracle who, while dispensing answers to all those who seek them, cannot predict my own future.
...more
I eat, and eat, and eat, and mourn.
...more
Jenny Valentish discusses her memoir, WOMEN OF SUBSTANCES.
...more
Elissa Washuta discusses her chapbook, STARVATION MODE.
...more
“I want to make a case for the serious, literary legitimacy of the female experience of self-construction.”
...more
Without men around to impress, I discovered my own taste—what desire meant beyond the desire to be desirable.
...moreFor Huffington Post’s Highline magazine, Jason Fagone profiles a trauma surgeon working to make a small dent in our country’s problem with gun violence. At Catapult, Abbey Fenbert writes a funny, heartfelt essay about trying to ban books in the seventh grade.
...more
“No one knows how to handle it,” I tell her, but I can see she’s angry and I’m speaking into the wind.
...more
The world around me looked suddenly sharper, more sinister, the female body where I lived appearing so much more penetrable, exposed, and impossible to hide.
...moreWhile I was in residential treatment, my Scrabble games with my mom slowed down. We both lingered over our turns, taking longer than usual to make the next move. Normally I rush to play my turn, keeping the tab open on my screen and the notification email in my inbox to rile up my OCD […]
...more
Turning onto my street and looking south I feel the ground drop beneath me every time—I turn the corner and the sidewalk falls. I feel invisible then, as if I’ve vaporized.
...more
I always say the last time was the last time, and I always mean it, but I’m scared I’ll relapse again.
...more
The day you follow me to that mound of oyster shells on the beach is the day I realize muscle and bone have been at war for a long, long time.
...more
The banality of evil hides in people, and who they unleash it upon become forever tainted by their names. They become one. Creator and monster. Evil by association.
...more
I began to lack reality. I took to baggy tops and A-line silhouettes to hide my poking collarbone, my meatless hips. I took up as much space as I could in bulky sweaters. I compensated for my diminishing reality by covering over my negative space.
...moreSunday Rumpus editor Gina Frangello has a beautiful essay over at The Manifest-Station (run by Rumpus Contributor Jennifer Pastiloff) that reflects back on her days dealing with anxiety, an eating disorder, and getting out. “In an Afterschool Special, the crazy girl who is afraid of unopened packages of food would get help somehow, would have […]
...more