The Ugly Side of Ambition: A Conversation with Joy Lanzendorfer
Joy Lanzendorfer discusses her debut novel, RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM.
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Posts Tagged: magical realism
The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project: Callum Angus
“When I first came out as trans, I learned a lot from trans youth; they taught me so much.”
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Morowa Yejidé
Morowa Yejidé discusses her new novel, CREATURES OF PASSAGE.
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Rumpus Original Fiction: Hibiscus Tacos
It’d been a while since I’d spent time in a body.
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Upending the Scene: A Conversation with Te-Ping Chen
Te-Ping Chen discusses her debut story collection, LAND OF BIG NUMBERS.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project: Sheila Squillante
“I felt like I wanted to do it and not explain it.”
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Possibility Is Spellbinding: The Lightness by Emily Temple
In short, lightness is the capacity to leave without regret.
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Queer, Magicked Reality: A Conversation with JD Scott
JD Scott discusses their new story collection, MOONFLOWER, NIGHTSHADE, ALL THE HOURS OF THE DAY.
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Violence and Human Reality: Talking with Szczepan Twardoch
Szczepan Twardoch discusses his novel, THE KING OF WARSAW.
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Rumpus Original Fiction: Wild Animals
I searched in its beady eyes and tried to find a motherly warmth.
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How We Write the Dead: A Conversation with Vikram Paralkar
Vikram Paralkar discusses his debut novel, NIGHT THEATER.
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Four Continents, Three Families, One Nation: Talking with Namwali Serpell
Namwali Serpell discusses her debut novel, THE OLD DRIFT.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #167: Josh Denslow
“It was a relief to be out of the confines of scriptwriting. I was having fun again.”
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #152: Anita Felicelli
“My gut instinct is to privilege rebels.”
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Smart Girls, Weird Magic: Talking with Kendra Fortmeyer
Kendra Fortmeyer discusses her first novel, HOLE IN THE MIDDLE.
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Kimberly Lojewksi
Kimberly Lojewski discusses WORM FIDDLING NOCTURNE IN THE KEY OF A BROKEN HEART.
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Living in the Realm of the Subconscious: Talking with Melissa Fraterrigo
Melissa Fraterrigo discusses her new novel-in-stories, Glory Days, writing speculative fiction, and how our formative years influence us later in life.
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Playing God: A Conversation with Daniel Olivas
Daniel Olivas discusses his recent short story collection, The King of Lighting Fixtures, writing humor, and the role of religion in his work.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #113: Tom Stern
“[T]his admittedly bizarre idea just came into focus for me that Walter was actually pregnant with his own twin brother who would be obsessed with getting his MBA.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
...moreFacing the Unknowable
For So to Speak, Madeleine Wattenberg interviews writer Anne Valente. In discussing Valente’s latest book, Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down, they touch on magical realism, using multiple points of view to tell a story, and how literature can engage with contemporary issues: Fiction requires empathy, and also vulnerability and being comfortable with the unknown. We live […]
...moreFacing Reality in China’s “Ultra-Unreal” Literature
A literary movement aiming to express the surrealist daily life of modern China (a reality that can’t be captured by traditional genres like satire or horror) is giving the next generation of Chinese authors the opportunity to subtly critique their surroundings without government backlash. Author Ning Ken calls this new genre choahuan, or ultra-unreal, which […]
...moreMaking the Fantasy a Reality
It’s particularly pleasurable to read interview between writers who know each other well. Over at Oxford American, long-time friends Ada Limón and Manuel Gonzales discuss Gonzales’s new novel, The Regional Office Is Under Attack, and what it means to write with an ear to the fantastical: When I first started writing, though, I was deep […]
...more21st Century Magical Realist
Beyond the obvious fact of when it was written or published, what does it mean for literature to be contemporary? Is a work’s relevance determined by market trends and cultural currents? In her monthly advice column for Electric Literature, Elisa Gabbert allays a writer’s temporally induced anxieties: Magical realism “has been done,” yes, but so […]
...moreCelebrating Borges’s Dual Natures
Maybe there are two Borges in the world, existing at the same time. One is the fiction writer we know, the lover of paradox, the trickster, the forger, the artist who describes fantastical events with straight-faced authority, using the syntax and tone of academia; and then there is this other Borges, the critic, who writes reasonably and […]
...moreNo Magic, Just Reality
While most of the world lauds Gabriel García Márquez as a literary genius, those from his hometown of Aracataca (on which Macondo in One Hundred Years of Solitude is based), feel little more than an abiding resentment. The author was in a position to help the town—many of its residents don’t have access to clean water—but […]
...moreWhen Realism Is Magical
Fabulism is a lot like this purse. It seems to belong to this world, but doesn’t follow all of the rules. It beckons you. It’s off. The more you explore it, the more mystery and power it has. Over at Electric Literature, Melissa Goodrich makes the case for fabulism vs. realism.
...moreNintendo IQ84
The world is a horrible place, full of bleak scenes and ghastly characters. Fill your eyeballs instead with the infinitely more appealing magical realist world of this Murakami-inspired video game.
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