Rumpus Exclusive: Cover Reveal for At the Edge of the Haight
An exclusive look at the cover of the forthcoming novel, AT THE EDGE OF THE HAIGHT.
...more
Posts Tagged: homelessness
Voices on Addiction: The Economics of Gentrified Vice
The marijuana shop shimmers from the abyss, a glowing green jewelry box atop the hill.
...more
Something to React To: A Conversation with Ivy Pochoda
Ivy Pochoda discusses her newest novel, THESE WOMEN.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Where to Find Him
It felt like the sun beating down on closed eyelids.
...more
The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #198: Rene Denfeld
“Healing is a process you must actively engage in.”
...more
Love in the Belly of Beginning
I think this is what love is, critical and enduring.
...more
The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #163: Padma Venkatraman
“Stories have a power science doesn’t.”
...more
A Magpie for the Lord
What would it be like to not be us? We were trying to figure out so much about the world then, and this is something we could never get to the bottom of.
...more
Wisdom Is a Double-Edged Sword: Talking with Jay Baron Nicorvo
Jay Baron Nicorvo discusses his debut novel, The Standard Grand, how easy it is for civilians to forget about soldiers and veterans, and his longstanding love of animals.
...more
No Other Options
Five months after my dad’s eviction, in the warehouse, I looked through cardboard boxes, stacked on top of one another like a game of Jenga.
...moreThis Week in Books: Civilianized: A Young Veteran’s Memoir
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 […]
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with J.D. Vance
J.D. Vance talks about his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, the perils of upward mobility, and never forgetting where you come from.
...moreDown, Out, and “Paved With Anguish”
At the Guardian, Tim Cooke investigates why writers’ experiences with homelessness and destitution fascinates readers: So what is the attraction of being down and out? For some, the prospect of real, hard-hitting subject matter has proved irresistible, while for others the route to the streets has been paved with anguish. Historically, those who have deliberately flung […]
...moreGiving Voice to the Homeless Writing Community
Boston-based literary magazine The Pilgrim was founded by journalist James Parker with the aim to bring the unheard voices of the homeless community to print while encouraging, teaching, and healing through the act of writing. At the Boston Globe, Zachary Jason takes us inside a meeting of the Black Seed Writers Group as they create the 39th […]
...moreA Zone of Psychological Relief
Over at Lit Hub, Michele Filgate reports on the growing influence of Street Lit, which provides writing workshops and books to the homeless community in Austin, Texas. Filgate also talks with Street Lit founder Barry Maxwell, as he opens up about the “relief” reading offered him while he was homeless: Reading was such a zone of psychological relief, and […]
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Janice Erlbaum
Janice Erlbaum talks about her new novel, I, Liar, how writing memoir compares to writing fiction, homelessness in America, and Munchausen syndrome and Borderline Personality Disorder.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Sharon Oard Warner
Sharon Oard Warner discusses her latest book, Sophie’s House of Cards, Breaking Bad, how a sense of place informs fiction, and the Republican war on Planned Parenthood.
...more
The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Sarah Einstein
Mot was living my own fear… I wanted to learn from him how I might survive, if I too ended up without a home, without the resources to live what I thought of as a minimally decent life.
...moreThe Library As Safety Net
Francie Diep writes for Pacific Standard on how public libraries in Los Angeles are handling the state-of-emergency-level homeless population.
...moreHome, Even in the Most Dangerous of Times and Places
For the Guardian, Julia Eccleshare explores why homelessness is rarely represented in children’s literature. What she finds is that novels for young readers tend to capitalize on the idea of “home” as a place of “fundamental security,” a theme that young readers can easily comprehend: But perhaps the specifics of homelessness in terms of either time or […]
...more
Working Draft of Another Life
We open in a wide framing shot of autumn-tinged trees lining a schoolyard. A procession of first-graders walk-run-skip down the sidewalk circling the school.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Chris Stroffolino
Poet and musician Chris Stroffolino talks about his new album Griffith Park, recording with the Silver Jews, and life inside his piano van.
...morePortland’s Bicycle Library
Portland is home to Street Books, a bicycle-based library that serves the city’s homeless population and day laborers. The project started in 2011 with a temporary grant, but has since flourished into a full-time non-profit. The Oregonian takes a look at the people operating and relying on this unique library system.
...moreInvisible from the Inside Out
Everything I have, aside from what I’m wearing, is in a light brown vinyl purse with two outside pockets. I hold the purse close at all times, and I sleep with it under my head like a rigid, desperate pillow.
...moreGrowing Up Homeless In NYC
Andrea Elliott’s five-part New York Times essay “Invisible Child” is a brutal but absolutely necessary read. In it, Elliott follows Dasani, a bright, athletic girl who, along with her parents and seven siblings, struggle through daily life in savagely underfunded homeless shelters and public schools. It’s a reminder of how strong you have to be to […]
...more
To The Skin
“It” is the overlap between homeless and trans. Oh, did you have a body? When you’re trans and homeless, this is really what the “for customers only” restrooms sign say, below their cheerily simplified depictions of “men” and “women”. Did you have a body? Did you think you could eat, shit, live?
...moreThe Roof Over Your Head
Reporter Julia Scott spent time with three people who ended up living on the streets of San Francisco after losing their homes. Scott brings their stories to this episode of American Public Media’s Marketplace, exploring the correlation between losing a job and the “downward spiral” into homelessness.
...moreLife Under the City
This weekend, Anthony Horton died in a fire in a New York subway tunnel. Horton, who had made a home in the tunnels, was the co-author of Pitch Black, a graphic novel “based on his life underground.” The New York Times reflects on his life and shares an excerpt of the novel, co-written by Youme […]
...moreHomeless at the S.F. Public LIbrary
“What started as a tough situation – staff members worried about people washing up in the bathrooms, or acting badly – turned into an opportunity. The library, which has always thought of itself as a resource, found it had nothing to offer people who came in asking for help finding housing or places to sleep. […]
...more