A Life Worth Writing About
Memoirs get a bad rap, for reasons both legitimate and superficial. With a work of unintentional autobiography under his belt, Lucas Mann grapples with the stigma of the reflexive: To…
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Mary Karr
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The Rumpus Interview with Karen Salyer McElmurray
Karen Salyer McElmurray talks about academia, the relationship between flaws and perfection, writing memoir, and the "tapestry" of writers who inspire her.
New Year, New Reading List
When Esquire released a list of “The 80 Best Books Every Man Should Read,” the magazine provoked ire and excoriation. But hey, at least Esquire has recognized its mistake. For…
The Rumpus Interview with Debra Monroe
Debra Monroe talks about her new memoir, My Unsentimental Education, the future of the genre, and how the Internet has changed what it means to be human.
The Rumpus Interview with Annie Liontas
Annie Liontas talks about her debut novel Let Me Explain You, crafting voices, and the benefits—and occasional pitfalls—of returning to get an MFA after years of writing in the dark.
The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Laurie Jean Cannady
The author of the new memoir Crave: Sojourn of a Hungry Soul talks about growing up impoverished, abused, and in love with words.
The Rumpus Interview with Mary Karr
Mary Karr talks about her new book The Art of Memoir, the perception of memoir from a "trashy" form, the virtues of poetry, and the complexity of truth-telling.
The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
Steph Auteri reviews The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr today in Rumpus Books.
Mary Karr, Queen of the Memoir, on that “Low-Rent Form”
I stopped putting things in quotation marks because I really wanted the reader to continue to understand or believe or think that he or she was in my head. Listen…
The Rumpus Interview with Sarah Tomlinson
Author Sarah Tomlinson talks about ghostwriting, her father and childhood, the tradition of confessional writing, and her new memoir, Good Girl.
The Rumpus Interview with George Hodgman
Editor and author George Hodgman talks about his new memoir, Bettyville, what makes for a good memoir, and returning to his hometown of Paris, Missouri from New York to take care of his aging mother.
The Rumpus Interview with Jennifer Michael Hecht
Poet, historian, and philosopher Jennifer Michael Hecht talks about Thomas Aquinas, Robin Williams, and her most recent book, Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It.