North Carolina
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Rumpus Original Fiction: State Facts for the New Age
“I’m a shock absorber for tragedy,” I say, not really knowing what I mean. “Maybe I should just move to Hawaii. I hear that’s a happy place to live.”
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
The next victim of Amazon’s physical stores will be Chicago. If Los Angeles is having a literary renaissance, it is happing at The Last Bookstore. A bookstore in Tampa pokes fun at Amy Schumer poking fun at Tampa.
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The Rumpus Interview with Sara Benincasa
Comedian Sara Benincasa opens up about her latest book Real Artists Have Day Jobs, adjusting to success, Venn-diagramming love, and the loss of Morley Safer.
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The Rumpus Interview with Garrard Conley
Garrard Conley, author of the new memoir Boy Erased, discusses growing up in the deep South, mothers, writing for change, and political delusions.
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The Rumpus Interview with Brian Blanchfield
Poet and writer Brian Blanchfield talks about his essay collection Proxies, touring in support of a prose collection versus a poetry collection, and frottage.
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Wanted/Needed/Loved: Laura Ballance’s Ghost Stories
There is one story that my mother used to tell me often, which has become in some ways a symbol of my childhood.
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The Fight Against North Carolina’s HB2
Following in The Boss’s footsteps, many musicians are speaking out against North Carolina’s so-called “bathroom bill,” which bans trans men and women from using bathrooms of a gender other than that listed on their birth certificates. Ringo Starr, Pearl Jam, Boston,…
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All About Banned Books
Americans love banning books, and the winners of this year’s most banned books have been announced by the American Library Association. John Green’s young adult novel Looking for Alaska takes the top spot, keeping Green in the top ten. He…
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Bruce Springsteen Protests Bathroom Law
Springsteen has cancelled scheduled concerts in North Carolina in what he called “the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards.” The law bans transgender citizens from using…
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Wanted/Needed/Loved: Benji Hughes’s Pareidolia
Love is irrational and it’s supernatural. It’s also probably what we want/need most.
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What We Want Now
Near the end of my Disney tenure, I filched a Magic Music Days sign from the Epcot entrance and hands shaking, brought it to a tattoo artist.
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The Rumpus Interview with Jeremy Hawkins
Author Jeremy Hawkins discusses his debut novel, The Last Days of Video, the resurgence of the independent bookstore industry, and allowing nostalgia to have presence but not precedence in one’s life.