From the Archives: Rumpus Original Fiction: Em
For her twenty-first birthday, Kiều’s younger siblings set fire to her bed.
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Join NOW!For her twenty-first birthday, Kiều’s younger siblings set fire to her bed.
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...moreEmma Copley Eisenberg discusses THE THIRD RAINBOW GIRL.
...moreThe narrator is trapped here, in the summer her family and her life fell apart.
...moreHow do we transcend generations of trauma and let go of our burdensome past?
...moreAlways, when my father spoke to me in words I could not understand, my guilt spoke back.
...moreBefore the arrival of the barrel, there was the sky.
...moreShe didn’t want anything to change. She understood it would be easier if she loved the child. But she did not want to love it.
...moreBroken people are drawn to other broken people. Comparing scars. Laying belly to belly. Two similar pieces of different puzzles.
...moreWe want to protect our children from everything, even sometimes ourselves.
...moreMaybe you didn’t remember to get out of his way while pretending to be brave. It’s hard to be brave when you think a man is about to kill you.
...moreShame is a treble hook that tells me that 1) I not only fail but am a failure, that 2) I not only damage people but I am damaged, and that 3) I not only lie but I am a lie.
...moreAndré Alexis discusses his latest book The Hidden Keys, puzzles, chance, divinity, and the Toronto literary community.
...moreIn a political climate in which undocumented immigrants are painted as criminals and rapists and half the country is crying for deportation, this week’s story reminds us that immigrants are fathers who love their daughters, who work hard and send money home to dying mothers, who will go to the ends of the Earth for […]
...more“I hurt myself today,” Johnny Cash sings in one of the last recordings he made, his poignant cover of the Nine Inch Nails song, “Hurt.” The song couldn’t be more appropriate now, during this week of confusion and heartache and regret. Cash chose to release it towards the end of his life, perhaps as a kind […]
...moreAnuk Arudpragasm discusses his debut novel The Story of a Brief Marriage, the bombing of civilians during the war in Sri Lanka, documenting war crimes, and powerful Tamil women.
...morePaula Whyman discusses her debut collection You May See a Stranger, discovering truth in fiction, and how memory interferes with good storytelling.
...moreGarrard Conley, author of the new memoir Boy Erased, discusses growing up in the deep South, mothers, writing for change, and political delusions.
...moreLast summer, I nearly killed my son. It was an accident, but the guilt I live with belongs to those whose malicious deeds are intentional.
...moreShame. The Internet. Monica Lewinsky. You spend hours killing people, but you don’t feel guilty. So much data. So few uses. All your stories in one little app. Reimagining incarceration. Your annoying Facebook friends have something to tell you.
...moreBut I had deployed only once to Iraq. When so many others, including friends of mine, had suffered two, three, four, five, or more deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, why should I be the one enjoying the comfort of flying first-class?
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