Bones of Buried Kings
What makes a body violable? This jaw, a piece of evidence. This body, the remains of a life.
...more
Posts Tagged: grandfathers
My Grandfather’s Laugh Is like Thread
Is he there? Does he hear? Does he understand?
...more
Rice Cake Love
I’ll always wish for one last dim sum, one more time to hear the words “I love you, too.”
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Grace
After the anger came a deep, resigned sadness, as if her cruise were canceled at the last minute. She’s stuck on the shore of her life, watching everyone she loves sail into the distance.
...more
The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Jon Raymond
The Rumpus Book Club chats with Jon Raymond about his new novel Freebird, intergenerational trauma, and the unshakeable love of family.
...more
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Suit
It was as if he understood that the authentic must begin in the voice. And through the texture of the voice—its moral and psychological claims—sensory details emerge with absolute authority.
...more
Wanted/Needed/Loved: Torres’s Family Portrait
I’m constantly making up stories, and writing histories, even when I’m not putting them into songs.
...more
What They Never Told Me, What I Never Asked: Reflecting on Roots and Writing
[T]he questions pile up, never to be answered.
...more
The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Photos that Remember Us
Mathew Daddona’s father and uncle were adopted into different families. When they reunited with each other and their biological father as adults, they uncovered connections that extend through the generations.
...more
For Lack of Anything Better
The curse of being a writer is knowing other people. I need other people (to write about) but I can’t handle other people (the way I can literary characters).
...more
Against Everything
The mountains of Alabama are small mountains—foothills, really—but they are mine like a sports team is mine—like a football game (which I have for so long been near but have not really, really seen) is mine—as in the phrase “We scored! We scored!”
...more