Notable San Francisco: 12/5–12/11
Literary events in and around the Bay Area this week!
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Posts Tagged: Kiese Laymon
Notable Philadelphia: 10/30–11/5
Literary events in and around Philly this week!
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Notable NYC: 10/27–11/2
Literary events in and around NYC this week!
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Notable Los Angeles: 10/22–10/28
Literary events in and around L.A. this week!
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Writing Back to History: A Conversation with Kiese Laymon
Kiese Laymon discusses his new memoir, HEAVY.
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Notable Portland: 7/12–7/18
Literary events in and around Portland this week!
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What to Read When You’ve Made It Halfway Through 2018
Rumpus editors share forthcoming books they can’t wait to read!
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Taking Back Control: A Conversation with Joseph Osmundson
Joseph Osmundson discusses his memoir, Inside/Out, intimacy, trauma, and the sometimes violence of desire.
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What Do I Do With My Fear?: A Conversation with Megan Stielstra
Megan Stielstra discusses her new essay collection, The Wrong Way to Save Your Life, fear, privilege, and the intersection of politics and everyday life.
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VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Erika T. Wurth
Erika T. Wurth talks about her latest book, Buckskin Cocaine, persevering through rejection, and white writers writing Native characters.
...moreNotable Twin Cities: 4/23–4/29
Sunday 4/23: Author Jacqueline Briggs Martin, illustrator Claudia McGehee, and stream-hunter Mike Osterholm will present their beautiful new picture book Creekfinding. There will also be a signing and reception with refreshments. Red Balloon Bookshop, 3 p.m., free. Monday 4/24: Poet Chris Santiago will be reading from his collection Tula to celebrate National Poetry Month. Maple Grove Library, 6:30 p.m., free. Tuesday 4/25: Join Excelsior Bay […]
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with Rion Amilcar Scott
Rion Amilcar Scott discusses his story collection Insurrections, father relationships, hip-hop, knowing when to abandon a project, and choosing not to workshop certain stories.
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The Rumpus Interview with Emily Raboteau
Emily Raboteau discusses her essay, “Know Your Rights!” from the collection, The Fire This Time, what she loves about motherhood, and why it’s time for White America to get uncomfortable.
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The Rumpus Interview with Kaitlyn Greenidge
Kaitlyn Greenidge discusses her debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, siblinghood and sisterhood, and finding a group to call “my people” in the larger literary world.
...moreYoung Black Writers Reflect on #blacklivesmatter
because I want to not cry because I actually hate crying because none of my tears can offer resurrection none of my poems can offer resurrection none of my image searches can offer resurrection and I want us to stay alive Khadijah Queen and eleven other young writers of color—Roger Reeves, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Rion Amilcar […]
...moreEvil Loves Tomorrow
What I do know is that love reckons with the past and evil reminds us to look to the future. Evil loves tomorrow because peddling in possibility is what abusers do. At my worst, I know that I’ve wanted the people that I’ve hurt to look forward, imagining all that I can be and forgetting […]
...moreNotable NYC: 9/27–10/3
Saturday 9/27: Dylan Landis reads Rainey Royal (September 2014). BookCourt, 7 p.m., free. Anselm Berrigan, Sapphire, and Katrin Tschirgi celebrate the release of the latest issue of Washington Square. NYU Creative Writers House, 7 p.m., free. Sunday 9/28: Melissa Adamo, Alex Norcia, Melissa Swantkowski, and Dana Jaye Cadman celebrate the two year anniversary of English Kills […]
...moreReading Others in America
When it comes to our literary dialogue, Kiese Laymon stands unaffected: The problem with our national lit isn’t just that it’s often written from the same voice; it’s written often to the same listeners. But if you changed the listeners, you change the art. Literally. The conversation goes on at Vol.1 Brooklyn; Laymon touches on […]
...moreThe Books That Don’t Make It
“For every book I publish,” a writing teacher once told me, “there’s one book I don’t.” Over at The Millions, Chloe Benjamin talks to five writers about the unpublished novels they have tucked away in their drawers and what those works mean to them.
...moreTalking About Oppression
Writers who deal with oppression are as varied as the forms of oppression they face. Kiese Laymon and Leigh Stein come from two disparate backgrounds, writes Rachel Edelman in Critical Flame, but both end up critiquing gender and racial oppression in similar ways: Laymon is a black man from Mississippi; Stein is a white half-Jewish […]
...moreWhat We Talk About When We Talk About the American South
The latest issue of Guernica is out, and it’s a doozy. The special issue—the first of 4 such issues funded by a Kickstarter campaign—takes on the American South. Features include novelist Kiese Laymon in conversation with his mother on language and love in the South (check out our own interview with Laymon here) and Rumpus contributor Lincoln Michel‘s […]
...moreTournament of Books X Begins!
Get ready for the Morning News’s tenth annual Tournament of Books, a “March Madness–style battle royale” to determine which work of fiction will reign supreme (though the site is careful to note that the competition “is not an attempt to formalize the best 17 books of 2013”). Some of this year’s finalists include The Signature of […]
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How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon
Stacie Williams reviews Kiese Laymon’s HOW TO SLOWLY KILL YOURSELF AND OTHERS IN AMERICA today in The Rumpus Book Review.
...moreWeekend Rumpus Roundup
Giddy-up, you hateful stallion! It’s time for another Weekend Rumpus Roundup. In the Saturday interview, Kiese Laymon takes some time with the Rumpus to discuss his latest book, Long Division, and explores in greater length the literary influences that have contributed to the development of his own Afrofuturist style. Irish poet Seamus Heaney—who unfortunately passed […]
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The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Kiese Laymon
Kiese Laymon first caught my eye when his essay, “You Are the Second Person,” was published in Guernica Magazine from his collection, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America.
...moreFirst Time Author, Two New Books
Kiese Laymon is a first-time author with two new books out. We have linked to essays by him in the recent past. Both of these essays (“You are the Second Person” and “The Worst of White Folks”) are included in his new book, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, published last week. […]
...moreDon’t You Know White Folks Don’t Care If You Die?
In what ways are we responsible to each other, and what happens when we don’t accept that responsibility? What happens when we do not recognize each other as being worthy? This Gawker essay may be called “The Worst of White Folks,” but those are the questions it implicitly asks. The worst of me, I understand, […]
...more“Oprah Only Deals With Real Black Writers”
Hey Brandon, this is my fourteenth thorough revision for you in four years. I know I’m not changing your mind and that’s fine…My book is unapologetically an American race novel, among other things. I’m still not sure why you bought the book if you didn’t dig the vision. This snatch of Kiese Laymon’s email to […]
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