History Is Fluid: R.F. Kuang’s Babel
In Babel, language is a resource stolen from the mouths of native speakers.
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Posts Tagged: fantasy
Defying Gravity: Ryka Aoki’s Light from Uncommon Stars
This book is disarmingly—in fact, unnervingly—amoral.
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Pick Your Pleasure: Talking with Liz Asch
Liz Asch discusses her new book, YOUR SALT ON MY LIPS.
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Rumpus Original Fiction: Notes Toward the End of the World
At the beginning of the trip, we couldn’t wait to reach the end of the world.
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Upending the Scene: A Conversation with Te-Ping Chen
Te-Ping Chen discusses her debut story collection, LAND OF BIG NUMBERS.
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FUNNY WOMEN: How to Write the Perfect Fantasy Novel
Get creative! “Brian” could become “Bryawn,” courter of women, slayer of ogres.
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Writing Resistance: A Conversation with J. Kasper Kramer
J. Kasper Kramer discusses her debut novel, THE STORY THAT CANNOT BE TOLD.
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Scripture and Ebony: A Love Story
At some point, I would have to break my silence.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #138: Melissa Broder
“We have what we need inside us already, it’s just a question of uncovering it, of remembering who we are again and again.”
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VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Lola StVil
Lola StVil discusses her latest novel, Girls Like Me, how her characters demand to be written, what her family thinks of her writing career, and why representation is essential.
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Between Autonomy and Powerlessness: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Women’s bodies signify so much, both to ourselves and others, that inhabiting them and having ownership over them often feel like two different states of being.
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
This week’s story is one of breathtaking imagination and emotional depth, a tale of borders and visas, dreams and language, captivity and liberation. At The Offing, Sofia Samatar’s “An Account of the Land of the Witches” takes us from an ancient land of flying boats and towering headdresses, where a single word can transport a […]
...moreThis Week in Books: Dear Sweet Filthy World
Welcome to This Week in Books, where we highlight books just released by small and independent presses. Books have always been a symbol for and means of spreading knowledge and wisdom, and they are an important part of our toolkit in fighting for social justice. If we’re going to move our national narrative away from […]
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The Future of Body Horror: Can Our Art Keep up with Our Suffering?
The individuality of body horror is its signature attribute. Nothing is more intimate than one’s own body, and by extension, one’s own physical suffering.
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with Jane Alison
Jane Alison discusses her autobiographical novel, Nine Island, the value of truth in fiction, and unsubscribing from romantic love.
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VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Jaquira Díaz
Jaquira Díaz discusses the challenge of writing about family members, her greatest joy as a writer, and her literary role models.
...moreAnti-Blackness in Sci-Fi Publishing
Less than two percent of science fiction stories published in 2015 were by black writers. And a recent study found that black speculative fiction writers face “universal” racism—more damning evidence demonstrating the institutionalized racism in book publishing, and the importance of introducing more diversity at every level of the process.
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(K)ink: Writing While Deviant: Amber Dawn
What do we as writers tell each other about the intersections of trauma and desire? How do we encourage (or discourage) each other to reveal the power and tensions in those margins?
...moreMaking the Fantasy a Reality
It’s particularly pleasurable to read interview between writers who know each other well. Over at Oxford American, long-time friends Ada Limón and Manuel Gonzales discuss Gonzales’s new novel, The Regional Office Is Under Attack, and what it means to write with an ear to the fantastical: When I first started writing, though, I was deep […]
...moreNext Letter in the Mail: Ben Fama
We’re getting ready to send out our next Letter in the Mail, and it’s from Ben Fama! Ben writes about the release of his 2015 poetry collection, Fantasy, a hot summer spent with a difficult dog as a favor to a friend, an absent partner in Berlin, and the very little writing he’s managed to accomplish given all […]
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The Limits of Extreme Beauty: Nicolas Winding Refn and Neon Demon
Daylight here burns up the atmosphere. The dawn of a new day is, in fact, the end of everything.
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The Diary of Anaïs Nin While Binge-Watching Broad City
One episode after another with every outrageous twist and turn. I smile but no laughter comes—just a gaping mouth wishing to devour more!
...moreDescribing the Indescribable
Electric Literature asked four writers to sit down and discuss Lian Hearn’s epic series The Tale of Shikanoko, a work of “historical fantasy” that “defies all easy description or easy understanding.” Here’s what author Kelly Luce had to say about the work: The world of the Shikanoko books is so richly imagined. The setting itself is novel to us, it is […]
...moreSave the Children
Graeme Whiting, headmaster of the Acorn School (motto: “Have courage for the truth”) of Nailsworth, Great Britain, recently published a blog post condemning “sensational” fantasy novels such as the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Hunger Games series that feature “dark,” “insensitive,” and “addictive” subjects. At the LA Times, Michael Schaub wrote about the […]
...moreDeath Becomes Her
I’m going to learn to let my murder flag fly, flap by tiny blood-stained flap. For some, the fantasy isn’t enough. They have to read about real people dying in horrible ways too. At Book Riot, Rachel Weber discusses her love of true crime, and how pop culture phenomena like Serial and Making A Murderer have […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Minsoo Kang
Writer and historian Minsoo Kang talks about his new translation of The Story of Hong Gildong, a touchstone novel of Korea written in the 19th century.
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The Slow Fall of the Hot Heroine
If nothing else, it’s the opinion of other women that encroaches on mine. Resemblances spark my joy; differences become character flaws.
...moreThe Language of Invention
Fantasy author Sofia Samatar (The Winged Histories) speaks to Kati Heng at Weird Sister about world building and invented languages, as well as the often forgotten history of non-white, non-male fantasy writers.
...moreLines between Genres
At Hazlitt, Tobias Carroll writes on the current state of science fiction and fantasy, with recent works in both genres borrowing from the other to expand the limits of their worlds.
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