Rumpus Original Fiction: What Kind of Love Is That?
Nothing in Texas came easy.
...more
Posts Tagged: parenting
On Returning to The Book of Nightmares as a New Father in the Trump Era
2018 began interlaced with a double helix of joy and fear.
...more
Facing a Lived Reality: A Conversation with Kelly Sundberg
Kelly Sundberg discusses her debut memoir, GOODBYE, SWEET GIRL.
...more
The Perfect Childhood
Even when these questions are not articulated, they’re there.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: New Hallways, New Doors
Now it is nearly fall, and the baby is small and pink.
...more
The Promise of a Shampoo Bottle
Maybe this was what I’ve been missing all along. Acidification.
...more
The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #147: Saadia Faruqi
“If you can’t really tell the whole story in five thousand words, are you really a writer?”
...more
A Pointed Narrative Choice: Talking with Lydia Kiesling
Lydia Kiesling discusses her debut novel, THE GOLDEN STATE.
...more
Curse of Beauty
My daughter is beautiful. I wanted to be beautiful. And isn’t she a reflection of me?
...more
Finding Atonement in the #MeToo Era
There is no greater act of love than to hold someone accountable for their mistakes.
...more
That Balancing Act: A Conversation with Vanessa Hua
Vanessa Hua discusses her forthcoming novel, A RIVER OF STARS.
...more
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Strawberry Field
To pick a strawberry, one must crouch.
...more
The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Meghan Flaherty
Meghan Flaherty discusses her debut memoir, Tango Lessons, how the book found its current format, and writing a memoir at a young age.
...more
How I Learned to Hope Again
And in order to hope, I have to once more believe—in the midst of unrelenting dark—that light exists even if I cannot see it.
...more
Coming Clean
Intellectually, I know Gracie’s mom loves her and needs help. In practice, I just want my daughter safe.
...more
A Part of Me
Now my not wanting men to be front and center in my life capitalized sperm into a rare commodity. Empowered reproduction is largely a myth.
...more
Mixed Feelings: Your Divorce Won’t Ruin Your Kids
Marriage is one way of housing love. But there are a hundred other houses—sometimes you just have to build them yourself.
...more
The Ritual
It’s not easy being the mother of a dead child. In fact, it may be the hardest kind of mothering there is.
...more
My Son’s Tutu
The thing I’ve learned about kids is that you only ever get a glimpse of the grown-up people they’ll become.
...more
On Birds, Cats, and Children
My devotion to the cats was not an imitation of human motherhood. To confuse the two, I thought, was an insult to both.
...more
Body Fluids: An Exploration of Motherhood
I think fresh semen smells like aspirin, which is made from a mold that grows on birch trees, which of course are phallic.
...more
Mothering outside the Margins: Celebrating Messy Motherhood
This May, The Rumpus celebrates and salutes messy, inclusive, complicated tales of mothering.
...more
Paying It Forward: Meaghan O’Connell’s And Now We Have Everything
[O’Connell’s] baby, once born, is not the answer to any question, but rather the genesis of a thousand new ones.
...more
Poetry Is a Manifestation of a Life: Talking with Marvin Bell
Poet Marvin Bell discusses his now-famous love poem, “To Dorothy,” and the woman who inspired it.
...more
The Family Novel
What you cannot put into words cannot become a lie.
...more
Guns or No Guns: Mental Health Crisis in Schools
I do the best I can to reach out to those I see isolated or disturbed, but I have to also be careful I don’t make myself a target.
...more