Jennifer Pastiloff

  • Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    This Sunday, Ted Wilson turned five. Happy anniversary, Ted! In the latest “Last Book I Loved,” Michelle King finds a kindred spirit in Sylvia Plath, who, the first time she kissed husband Ted Hughes, allegedly bit his cheek and drew blood.…

  • The Sunday Rumpus Essay: We Are Not Dead

    The Sunday Rumpus Essay: We Are Not Dead

    “The wants and desires of dead people, the one’s they didn’t get to fulfill—that’s what slays me…What if they wanted more? What if they didn’t want to leave behind the things they left behind?”

  • Ask a question to “Dear Life”

    Rumpus contributor Jennifer Pastiloff has a wonderful site called The Manifest Station. After being deluged with life questions from readers, she decided to start a feature (smartly) called “Dear Life”. The beauty of the “Dear Life” segment is that writers…

  • Lit-Link Round-Up

    This is my second-to-last round-up before I go on hiatus for my book tour, which is a sprawling, insane thing that’s lasting until the end of April, on and off. That’s nothing, of course, compared to the duration of some…

  • Releasing Grief

    Following some tumultuous years that included divorce, birth, separation, and her mother’s suicide, Rumpus contributor Gayle Brandeis has written an essay at The Manifest Station where she releases all of that from her body and finally asks the question: How…

  • Reflecting on Penance

    Sunday 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…

  • The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Ruptured

    The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Ruptured

    I think about that night a lot, how I knew the ambulance was coming for us. Call me Magic, if you want. I won’t object. Who doesn’t want to be called Magic? Was it magic or do we always know…

  • Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    Christ…brace yourself for an emotionally crippling time with these weekend features. (The pain is worth it! It always is!) In Saturday’s feature, the tragic end to an interplanetary love story shivers with loss—one of Yumi Sakugawa’s best comics yet. Sunday’s…

  • The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Possession

    The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Possession

    A bad play; a lover whose name has slipped forever into the cracks of history; a crash on a deserted highway in the middle of the night…Jennifer Pastiloff remembers the ingredients of jealousy, shame, regret, and the transformational power of…

  • Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    If your Cinco de Mayo was too excelente for you to spend much time online, here’s a recap of what happened on the Rumpus this weekend. An aquatic wonderland of a comic from Yumi Sakugawa. “What if we are stuck?…