Figuring It Out: A Conversation with Rosellen Brown
Rosellen Brown discusses her new novel, THE LAKE ON FIRE.
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Posts Tagged: research
The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #149: Susan Orlean
“I believe a writer should know a lot more than what she puts on the page.”
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Poet-Cosmologist: A Conversation with Bruce Beasley
“The cusp of errand and awe is where poetry always is for me.”
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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.
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The Real People: A Conversation with Rebecca Makkai
Rebecca Makkai discusses her forthcoming third novel, The Great Believers, how she arrived at the book’s structure, and the story and its characters.
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Reading Other People’s Mail: Talking with Michelle Dean
Michelle Dean discusses Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion, literary legends, and the absence of Black writers from the narrative.
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Lady Killers and Our Obsession with Murder: Talking with Tori Telfer
Tori Telfer discusses her first book Lady Killers and the fragile “social saran wrap” that keeps us all from killing each other.
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What Appears to Be Fiction: A Conversation with Nicole Krauss
Nicole Krauss discusses her new novel Forest Dark, provoking questions about reality with her work, and trusting readers to think for themselves.
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“The Book I Said I Would Never Write”: Talking with Karolina Ramqvist
Karolina Ramqvist discusses The White City, her first novel to be translated to English, and the idea of a writer’s persona out in the world versus a just being a writer, writing.
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In a Quicksand of Language: A Conversation with Krys Lee
Krys Lee discusses her debut novel, How I Became a North Korean, having empathy for people and characters, and finding the balance between real-world facts and imagination.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #96: Donna Baier Stein
Colorado’s Baby Doe Tabor was a bad ass. Born in 1854, ‘Lizzie,’ as she was known, bucked social norms of her day. In an era when silver miners believed it bad luck to even speak to a woman before descending into the mines, Lizzie worked alongside her male counterparts in the damp, dark underground caverns. […]
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The Human Cost: Discussing Political Storytelling with Olivia Kate Cerrone
Olivia Kate Cerrone discusses her novella The Hunger Saint and the significance of historical fiction.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview #80: Jon Raymond
Jon Raymond is one of Portland’s finest wordsmiths. His writing spans TV, film, short story, novel, art criticism, and a hefty array of magazine work. His new novel, Freebird, is the story of a Californian Jewish family entangled in clashing politics, unspoken histories, and personal dissolve. The Singers are Holocaust survivor Sam, his contemptuous children, […]
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The Dark Heart of America: On David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon
David Grann’s new book Killers of the Flower Moon explores the 1920s murders of the Osage tribe, the making of the FBI, and is a reminder of the all too recent history of betrayals that comprise America’s dark heart.
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Melissa Febos
Melissa Febos discusses her new book Abandon Me, choosing to be celibate for six months, letting go of our own mythologies, and the sexist reaction women receive when they write nonfiction.
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A Way to Make Sense of the World with Suzanne Buffam
Poet Suzanne Buffam discusses her latest work, A Pillow Book, sleep remedies that don’t work, and the worries that occupy her mind and keep her from sleep.
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The Rumpus Interview with Kea Wilson
Kea Wilson discusses her debut novel We Eat Our Own, the influence of film on her work, and what she’s learned from working as a bookseller.
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War Narratives #8: Flashes of War by Katey Schultz
Schultz enables readers to see past their own perspectives and empathize with both the Afghan child and the American war widow.
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The Rumpus Interview with Robert Glancy
Robert Glancy discusses his sophomore novel, Please Do Not Disturb, growing up under a dictatorship, borrowing and stealing from reality, and his love of proverbs.
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On Suffering and Sympathy
What is the distance between sympathy and action? How do we travel from one to the other?
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with Bronwen Dickey
Bronwen Dickey discusses Pit Bull: The Battle over an American Icon, her examination of one of the most feared dog breeds, how the media changes perceptions, and what Eliza Doolittle might have to say about this.
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The Rumpus Interview with Yaa Gyasi
Yaa Gyasi discusses her debut novel Homegoing, growing up in Alabama, the multiplicity of black experiences, the legacy of slavery, and her writing process.
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Martin Seay
The Rumpus Book Club chats with Martin Seay about his debut novel The Mirror Thief, the Great Work of alchemy, researching optical prosthetics, and keeping plot lines straight in a 600-page novel.
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The Rumpus Interview with Chanan Tigay
Author Chanan Tigay discusses the complicated man at the heart of The Lost Book of Moses, the anxieties of writing true stories, how much to withhold from your reader—and tells a few jokes about creative nonfiction.
...moreMapping the Brain
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley published a new study about brain activity in people listening to podcasts, the New York Times reported. “Using novel computational methods, the group broke down the stories into units of meaning: social elements, for example, like friends and parties, as well as locations and emotions. They found that […]
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VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Tania James
Tania James discusses her most recent novel, The Tusk That Did the Damage, the challenges of writing an elephant narrator, and the moment when she knew she could be a writer.
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Zoe Zolbrod
The Rumpus Book Club chats with Zoe Zolbrod about her new book The Telling, pushing against victim narratives, how the conversation surrounding sexual abuse has evolved, and the melding of research with memoir.
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The Rumpus Interview with Laura Mullen
Acclaimed poet and writer Laura Mullen talks about her new book, Complicated Grief, obsession, germ theory, and exposing the arbitrary and superficial protections that have failed us.
...moreWeekly Geekery
The rationalizations for irrational behavior. Failing up in Silicon Valley. Men’s feelings are mucking up research. The Internet is creepy.
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The Rumpus Interview with Anthony Marra
Anthony Marra discusses his latest book, The Tsar of Love and Techno, how humor affects literature, how absurdity affects war, and what makes the perfect mixtape.
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