The Self as a Cultural Artifact
[Memoir] comes alive at the fissures of its coherency: when a narrator is struggling to hold the self together in a text—for the reader’s sake if not also her own.…
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memoir
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The Rumpus Interview with Mark Leyner
Mark Leyner discusses his new novel, Gone with the Mind, about a failed novelist, Mark Leyner, who gives a reading to his mom in an almost-deserted food court.
Toni Tennille’s Tell-All
Toni Tennille’s memoir dropped at the start of the month. Jamie Blaine interviews the squeaky-clean singer about possible subtext in her music, among other things: I didn’t say do it…
The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Zoe Zolbrod
The Rumpus Book Club chats with Zoe Zolbrod about her new book The Telling, pushing against victim narratives, how the conversation surrounding sexual abuse has evolved, and the melding of research with memoir.
The Rumpus Interview with Debbie Moderow
Debbie Moderow talks about her new memoir, Fast Into the Night: A Woman, her Dogs, and their Journey North on the Iditarod Trail, the realities of dog sled racing, and climate change.
No New Friends
A connection so fundamentally optional doesn’t provide the same ambivalence and tension you get with alcoholic parents, narcissistic spouses, or resentful bosses. If your friend abuses you or your trust,…
Comics’ Relief
For Threadless.com’s new monthly Women & Comics interview series, Gina H. Prescott speaks to cartoonist/writer/historian Julia Wertz. Wertz discusses her autobiographical comics; her historical and cityscape comics for the New Yorker…
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…
Memoir from Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace
The Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace has announced that Hatchette Books will be publishing her memoir Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout. The book was written with…
Rich Enough That I Don’t Have to Tell ‘Em That I’m Rich
Since its publication twenty years ago, Frances Mayes’s memoir Under the Tuscan Sun has transformed its namesake Italian setting into a sort of synonym for a wealthy lifestyle. Travel writer Jason…
The Sunday Rumpus Interview: A Roundtable on Writing, Editing, and Race
With Lisa Factora-Borchers, Patrice Gopo, Jennifer Niesslein, Tamiko Nimura, and Deesha Philyaw.
The Rumpus Interview with Rob Roberge
Rob Roberge talks about his new memoir, Liar, the differences between writing fiction and writing memoir, and why every narrator is an unreliable narrator.