Midwest
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The Middle Season
My doctor told me to begin with adding five minutes to my morning walk. During those five minutes, I recalled the life I’d once had—that intense life that ambition gave me—and the man I’d once been.
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The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Milwaukee. Rust. A Baby.
By the light of early morning, I am writhing in pain again, the drugs are done. But there is a tiny creature—mammal, female—attached to my breast. That is supposed to make it more bearable.
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Flannel-Soaked Nostalgia
Is there any fabric more well-loved than flannel? At Vela Magazine, Sonya Huber discusses the significance wearing flannel had to her teenage self in the 1980s Midwest: Flannel hid the shape of a woman, yet it revealed as we pushed…
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Rumpus Original Fiction: Monkey Men
Still lying on the bed in the Wausau hotel room, I started counting ceiling tiles. From above the covers. Not under. Never under. I always feel constricted, under.
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The Sound of White Flight
Over at Catapult, Kashana Cauley explores the origins of the Midwestern accent and discovers its roots in racial segregation: Apparently it wasn’t enough for GLVS [Great Lakes Vowel Shift] speakers to move very far away from minorities in order to…
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The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Tess Taylor
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club chats with Tess Taylor about her new collection Work & Days, manual labor, and the lyric possibilities in small fields.
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Regarding the Boy
What happens to a place when it can no longer define itself by its history, when it tears everything down? What is the rust belt without the plants, the factories? Who is the boy without his sister?
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The Conversation: Angel Nafis, Safia Elhillo, and Elizabeth Acevedo
I don’t think it ever fully sunk in for me that I even live in America.
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The Rumpus Interview with Jessa Crispin
Jessa Crispin talks about The Dead Ladies Project and The Creative Tarot, founding Bookslut, why she has an antagonistic relationship with the publishing industry, and her estrangement from modern feminism.
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The Rumpus Interview with J. Ryan Stradal
J. Ryan Stradal talks about his debut novel Kitchens of the Great Midwest and why the rise of the American foodie has less to do with hipsters than you might think.
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Julie Iromuanya
The Rumpus Book Club chats with Julie Iromuanya about her new book Mr. and Mrs. Doctor, writing an unlikeable main character, and worrying about your parents reading your finished book.