A Modern-Day Witch: Talking Augusten Burroughs
Augusten Burroughs discusses his new memoir, TOIL & TROUBLE.
...more
Posts Tagged: magic
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Hanif Abdurraqib
Hanif Abdurraqib discusses his new collection, A FORTUNE FOR YOUR DISASTER.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Em
For her twenty-first birthday, Kiều’s younger siblings set fire to her bed.
...more
The Thread: Mother Me
Enchantment. Lying. Are they really so different?
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: One of Them Dies
We seldom forget when people promise to give us something, whether we need or want that thing or not. I promise you death, you want a death.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: My Name Is Jean-Pierre and I Am Still an End Table
I am glad to be free of that tyrant, even if it means I am an end table waddling inch-by-inch down this path on a foolish mission that might prove impossible. I may be an end table, but at least I am free.
...more
Reinventing Motherhood and Re-Dreaming Reality: Talking with Ariel Gore
Ariel Gore discusses her new novel We Were Witches, why capitalism and the banking system are the real enemies, and finding the limits between memoir and fiction.
...more
It’s Never Too Late to Be Found: A Conversation with Rene Denfeld
Rene Denfeld discusses her latest book, The Child Finder, the ways in which trauma traps us, and the important role of imagination in finding resilience and escape.
...more
As Long as What Is Said Is Understood: Talking with Lesley Nneka Arimah
Lesley Nneka Arimah discusses her debut collection What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, mother-daughter relationships, and the pleasures of genre fiction.
...more
Names Are Always the First Lock on Any Cage: Talking with Dolan Morgan
Dolan Morgan discusses his latest short story collection, Insignificana, losing his favorite jacket, Internet comments, and the ending of Lost.
...more
The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #25: Are You Now, or Have You Ever Been, a Success?
In America, everybody, it seems, wants to be a success. Me, too. Recently, I confided to a family member that sometimes, in moments of deep despair (fortunately they are fairly uncommon), I find myself contemplating suicide as the most sensible retirement plan. The road ahead, paved with potholes and poverty, sometimes doesn’t look all that […]
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
This week’s story is one of breathtaking imagination and emotional depth, a tale of borders and visas, dreams and language, captivity and liberation. At The Offing, Sofia Samatar’s “An Account of the Land of the Witches” takes us from an ancient land of flying boats and towering headdresses, where a single word can transport a […]
...more
Storytelling Is a Search: An Interview with Sequoia Nagamatsu
Sequoia Nagamatsu discusses his debut collection Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone, grief as a character, and the intersection of ancient myth and the modern world.
...more
The Rumpus Interview With Danielle Trussoni
Danielle Trussoni discusses her new memoir, The Fortress, black magic, the cult of marriage, and the dark side of storytelling.
...more
The Rumpus interview with Jeremy P. Bushnell
Jeremy P. Bushnell discusses his new novel, The Insides, themes of consent, and designing a post-apocalyptic board game.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Wendy C. Ortiz
Wendy C. Ortiz discusses her new book Bruja, what a “dreamoire” is, the magic all around us, and why she loves indices—and cats.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Emily Barton
Emily Barton discusses dieselpunk, genderqueer magic, and the collaboration between reader and writer in her latest novel, The Book of Esther.
...more
Wishing and Hoping: Card Tricks, Love Spells, and Methods of Escape
I’ll go one further and posit that we need our illusionists: to disprove our eyes, investigate our dreams, and sometimes charm the money from our pockets.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Minsoo Kang
Writer and historian Minsoo Kang talks about his new translation of The Story of Hong Gildong, a touchstone novel of Korea written in the 19th century.
...more
The Sunday Rumpus Essay: The Sweetest Kidnapping
[S]ometimes you don’t know you’re experiencing a fairytale until years later.
...more
The Saturday Rumpus Interview: Karrie Higgins
The more narratives that approach reality “differently” get treated as “insane” or “unreal,” the less readers are exposed to them, and the more “unreal” or “insane” they seem. It’s like a feedback loop.
...more
Between Botany and Alchemy: A Return to Return to Oz
This was a world I wished I’d created myself.
...more
Jack of Hearts
Magic isn’t about making the impossible happen. Surely that’s a big part of it, but more importantly, magic reminds us how it feels to be bewildered by something.
...moreNew Readers Report Theme: Resolutions
After reading all your splendid short pieces on the theme “Magic” we’re eager for another Rumpus Readers Report! This month’s theme? Resolutions. (It is January, after all.) Please send your submissions, maximum 400 words, to Susan Clements, silentjoy2001 AT yahoo.com. We’ll choose the best ones to run as a feature on the site. Deadline: In two days! Friday, January […]
...more
Readers Report: Magic
A collection of short pieces written by Rumpus readers pertaining to the subject of “Magic.”
...moreNew Readers Report Theme: Magic
After reading all your splendid short pieces on the theme “My Summer’s End,” we’re eager for another “Rumpus Readers Report”! This month’s theme? Magic. Please send your submissions, maximum 400 words, to Susan Clements, silentjoy2001 AT yahoo.com. We’ll choose the best ones to run as a feature on the site. All submissions are due by 11:59 PM, […]
...moreThe Greatest Pickpocket in the World
There’s a reason everyone you know is tweeting links to the New Yorker story about a master pickpocket, and that reason is: it’s amazing. You can’t help but love the feats of thievery it describes—nabbing the sunglasses off someone’s face without them noticing, impressing a skeptical Penn Jillette to the point of profanity. Plus there are […]
...moreRumpus Sound Takes: Baritone Depth
Sean Rowe Magic (Collar City) It might be hard to get past the first song on Sean Rowe’s Magic it if you have a real aversion to guitar-based songs written in what is commonly referred to as “adult contemporary” style: competent music writing and playing, extending just to the edge of what is comfortable.
...moreNow You See It…
The Art of Disappearing has been compared to The Time Traveler’s Wife, but Ivy Pochoda’s prose is lusher, her characters more melancholy, her style more mysterious.
...moreThe Magic Hour
Reading such a dense novel can feel like being in the backseat of a car traveling nonstop through a safari, with a reader wanting to stop and poke around a bit, maybe get a little more explanation from the tour guide.
...more