The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #194: Sarah Rose Etter
“[H]opefully, the book is surreal but also universal.”
...more
Posts Tagged: Loneliness
Voices on Addiction: A Conversation with Emily Arnason Casey
Emily Arnason Casey discusses her debut essay collection, MADE HOLY.
...more
No One Can Be Saved: A Conversation with Amanda Goldblatt
Amanda Goldblatt discusses her debut novel, HARD MOUTH.
...more
Being Seen: A Conversation with Lane Moore
Lane Moore discusses her first book, HOW TO BE ALONE.
...more
The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Melissa Broder
Melissa Broder discusses her debut novel, The Pisces (Hogarth, May 2018), the importance of love between women, and mermaid sex.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Even the Moon
When you finished, several minutes passed before we spoke. You dipped a finger in a pool of candle wax. How could I know this was the only real secret you’d ever kept?
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Summer of Families
“What do you think about this,” he said, measured and cool. “What if we offer a service where people can pay to be in our family, but only for a few hours.”
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Brit Bennett
Brit Bennett discusses her debut novel The Mothers, investigating “what-if” moments, and navigating racism in white spaces.
...moreYou Are Never Alone If There’s a Poem
I’ve often wondered if my turn to poetry in times of loneliness and uncertainty is a behavior that’s naturally implicit within the genre or if it upholds some cliché notion of what poetry is and should be. Is poetry a cause of loneliness or a balm against loneliness? Emilia Phillips explores the effect and personal […]
...more
The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Unrecognized Brownie, Circa 1978
I picture families lingering over albums in the faraway future, someone leaning over someone else’s shoulder, pointing at me, asking, Who was that?
...moreJust Dance
Well, that’s the point of being alone—it’s not anything to do with you. It’s about being something in someone else’s life, and no one ever knows the difference, or the truth. That’s why people like bad movies and bad fiction, and it’s worth it, it’s worth it, it’s worth it. Over at the Paris Review, Sadie […]
...more
Dear McSweeney’s: Two Letters from Stephen Elliott
I’ve been traveling for two weeks and people prone to the kind of thoughts I’m prone to should never be alone out in the world.
...more
Goodbye, Starman
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Bowie saved my life on more than one occasion. And now that he’s gone, I’m at a loss again.
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
Over the last several weeks, The Offing has been releasing a stream of stunning work from its 2015 Trans Issue, and the collection of transgender/non-binary voices they’ve cultivated forms one of the most powerful issues of any magazine we’ve seen this year. One story that stands out as a star among stars is Casey Plett’s “Couldn’t […]
...more
War Narratives #4: Meet the Civilians
Each character achieves independence in his own way, but independence winds up looking a lot like loneliness.
...more
The Saturday Rumpus Essay: Remembering Molly
Ten years later I still wondered about those aviator glasses and whether The Breakfast Club could restore us.
...more
The Saturday Rumpus Review of The Martian
It is the story of an astronaut stranded on Mars for about a year, all by himself.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Yumi Sakugawa
Yumi Sakugawa discusses her latest book, Ikebana, discovering meditation, exploring blank spaces, and drawing a world of sentient oranges and one-eyed monsters.
...more
The Saturday Rumpus Review: Little Minnie at the Movies
Being a teenager sucks. It’s not pretty or nice or sweet or kind.
...moreThe Loneliest Whale In The Ocean
Somewhere in the Pacific ocean, a whale of unprecedented size is swimming around and calling out to other whales, with no response. This is the “52 Blue” whale, subject of worldwide devotion and fascination and a beautiful new essay on being alone from Leslie Jamison. You can (and should!) read an excerpt on Slate. One marine-mammal […]
...more
Last City I Loved: Abu Dhabi
When I am in Abu Dhabi, I miss New York and Chongqing and Buenos Aires and all the other places in the world that mean something to me. And when I am in those other places, I miss Abu Dhabi.
...moreOnly the Lonely (Have Serious Health Problems)
Loneliness is more than just a feeling, according to an article in the New Republic. It’s a biological process that activates your physical pain responses and trashes your immune system. Here’s one of many fascinating (and, okay, probably depressing) examples of the very tangible effects of loneliness, from a study of gay men with HIV during […]
...moreLonely Art
“…Loneliness is a word — easily enough spoken or written, like death or love – but really it’s a deep sadness, which is also a force, driving so many of our desires and actions, and at the same time shameful and hidden and nearly impossible to live with, out in the open, in any authentic […]
...more