She’d been ready to do her part for the war effort. Out of appreciation and gratitude and patriotism. All those hours on that terrible ship. Now what Seymour wanted was…
Balancing love and truth probably requires a very rigid, if not anal avoidance of glory and shame, when it comes to the portrayal of the people in the story—be they family members or characters.
Journalist Joe Mozingo digs deep into his ancestral history to uncover the origin behind his surname, and discovers it's one of the few African names to survive not only the Middle Passage, but the history of American slavery itself.
Richard Stern has died. Stern was a short story writer, novelist, and essayist. I’ve always been particularly fond of Stern’s short stories, which are as emotionally raw as they are…
Why do we incorporate our personal lives into works of fiction? And how do we know when to stop? In a post for the New York Times‘s “Draft” series, “about the…
Another bookstore closes and San Francisco yawns. But Adobe Books on 16th Street, between Valencia and Guerrero isn’t another bookstore. It is a haven, a port for lonely souls, readers.
This morning I threw Julian Barnes’ Sense of an Ending out the window of my car. I was reading at a red light. This occurred at approximately 10 A.M. at the…
If you’re in the Bay Area, don’t miss Rumpus columnist Peter Orner‘s reading at Booksmith this Thursday to celebrate the paperback release of his novel Love and Shame and Love.…
Bay Area readers, listen up: Rumpus columnist Peter Orner is doing a reading Thursday evening at 5:00 in UC Berkeley’s Morrison Library as part of the Story Hour series. Will…
At The New York Times, Rumpus columnist Peter Orner reviews Adam Levin’s new story collection, Hot Pink. “Life in Hot Pink is raw, messy, yet replete with moments of awkward…