PTSD
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Fresh Comics #7: Giving Up The Ghost
If you’ve never heard of Whit Taylor, then now is the perfect time to discover her. Ghost (2015) is her understated masterpiece, self-published just months ago. As I began reading the book, I thought I was in for a nice little story…
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The Rumpus Interview with Colin D. Halloran
Writer and former US Army infantryman Colin D. Halloran on his new collection, Icarian Flux, how he used experimental narrative to explore his life with PTSD, and why he doesn’t want to be known only as a “war poet.”
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War Narratives #2: Trauma Writing
[I]f we don’t explore wartime trauma in literature, we will never understand war’s impact in personal or social terms; never understand the incredible variety of responses to trauma, with all its nuances and exceptions.
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The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Patrick O’Neil
Patrick O’Neil talks about his debut memoir Gun Needle Spoon, being big in France, the drug/recovery genre, and writing through trauma.
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Body of Words
Standing at the pool’s edge, he planted his eyes on the V-shape of my body where my legs met at my hips, where I felt the water drip. I saw his brown irises turn hard and hungry.
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The Animals in My Home
I let the flame get low. I fall asleep before blowing it out. I know I shouldn’t, but in the moments when I wake from nightmares, I like the warmth the candle offers, despite the danger.
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The Rumpus Late Nite Poetry Show: Beth Bachmann
In Episode 8 of The Rumpus Late Nite Poetry Show, poet Beth Bachmann chats about her new collection, Do Not Rise, Dolly Parton, and the demands of lyric poetry.
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Safety First
Back in 2012, we published an essay by Lauren Becker called “Safety” about her experience being stalked. It was beautifully written and one of the scariest things you’ll ever read. Now, almost a year later, she’s written a followup piece…
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Sick
I visit him on Tuesday nights at the only time they’ll let me see him. I show the receptionist my driver’s license, confirm my social security number and home address, and sign my name on a dotted line.
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That’s Life
I want to write the world off as brutish and cruel, to go all Gordon Gecko, or maybe Don Draper, to stop worrying about the people around me and start looking out for number one, maybe learn Parkour, or at…
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25 Years
I was a first grader at Hubbard Wood School in 1988 when a woman entered my school and shot six kids.
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“Living in the Shaky Place”
Jessica Valenti writes a powerful piece about her experience with PTSD after undergoing a severe illness during pregnancy and prematurely giving birth to her daughter. “I know now that the core of my trauma was the realization that life is…