I Stop Somewhere Waiting for You
Your words feel like shapes, like wooden blocks to clear out of the way.
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Posts Tagged: romance
Mixed Feelings: The Power and Limits of Labels
Maybe I’m not bisexual. What am I?
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #126: Christopher Zeischegg
“Being thrust into forced ritualistic closeness does break the ice, but doesn’t guarantee closeness.”
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Everybody Is Fine: Talking with Jasmine Guillory
Jasmine Guillory discusses her debut novel, The Wedding Date, finding success, writing sex, and the revolutionary act of eating.
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Language Is All Convention: Talking with Elif Batuman
Elif Batuman discusses her new novel The Idiot, what it means to be a writer, and the artifice of language.
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Rumpus Original Fiction: Mustard Seeds
At the end of the week, which was long with sleepless nights, Miri picked her heart out of the kitchen sink, put it in a paper lunch bag, and took it to the witch.
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Mixed Feelings: Why Do Men Always Want to Settle Down?
Many women do want to get married, and that’s a perfectly reasonable choice. The problem, then, is that when a woman says she doesn’t want to marry, many people find this hard to believe.
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Reading across Cultures: A Conversation with Ratika Kapur
Ratika Kapur discusses her latest book, The Private Life of Mrs. Sharma, the disappointing romance of affairs, and how people carry on after doing the unthinkable.
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Writing Romance: The Rumpus Interview with Sonali Dev
Sonali Dev talks about her latest novel, A Change of Heart, the romance genre, writing non-white characters, and the parallels between writing and architectural design.
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with Jane Alison
Jane Alison discusses her autobiographical novel, Nine Island, the value of truth in fiction, and unsubscribing from romantic love.
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The Saturday Rumpus Essay: I Left My Heart in Taos
You might gasp. You might gasp and your heart slips out. You whisper and let red willows drift toward the river.
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The Rumpus Review of Bridget Jones’s Baby
Perhaps Bridget fans who watched the movies but never read the books might not find this movie to be such a hard blow… But those who read the books—and those who loved the pilgrim soul in Bridget—will feel the loss more keenly.
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The Rumpus Review of The Light Between Oceans
I wanted so badly to invest in the characters, to cry and feel their pain, but I felt detached.
...morePower and Choice in the Romance Novel Industry
In an essay for Catapult, writer and editor Kayleigh Hughes tackles the complex reality of the romance novel industry, wherein content can be simultaneously triggering, objectifying, empowering, and brave: As time went on I felt more like a party trick and a robot. At the end of the workday, I wasn’t able to clear my mind of […]
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Rumpus Exclusive: An Excerpt from Danielle Trussoni’s The Fortress
Danielle Trussoni’s new novel, The Fortress: A Love Story, is out today from Dey Street, an imprint of William Morrow Publishers.
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with Maryse Meijer
Maryse Meijer discusses her debut collection Heartbreaker, the importance of tension in writing, revision as a shield against criticism, and life as a twin.
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You’ve Got Mail and the Internet of Ordinary People
You’ve Got Mail was one of the first movies to depict the Internet as it affects the lives of ordinary users.
...moreLearning and Loving in French
Supposedly, the best way to master a foreign language is to fall in love with a native speaker. Language, in delineating a boundary that can be transgressed, is full of romantic potential. … If first languages are reservoirs of emotion, second languages can be rivers undammed, freeing their speakers to ride different currents. Over at […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Amy Rose Spiegel
Amy Rose Spiegel discusses her debut memoir, Action: A Book about Sex, carnal confidence, and the nuances of sex-positivity.
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How We Break
There is breaking, and there is breaking free from the broken.
...moreRomancing the Cure
Homer understood in the 8th century BCE what modernity has yet to accept—love can be an addiction, and when it is, we need substantial outside help. Angela Chen writes for Aeon on romantic love as addiction, and the taboos around “curing” people of romantic love.
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Rumpus Original Fiction: Swans and Other Lies
As she presses against Patterson, she feels her feet softening, losing gravity. He’s embracing her, willing her to disappear, swallowing her.
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
Valentine’s Day, the annual celebration of romance, named after a martyred saint who doesn’t have anything to do with love, is almost here. In recognition of the holiday, The Cut is providing a refreshing counterpoint to the flowers-and-chocolates narrative with “True Romance: five days of stories about love as it’s actually lived,” which includes a […]
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
When you think of romance, you probably think Romeo and Juliet, Pride and Prejudice, Gone With the Wind, Wuthering Heights—or anything by Nicholas Sparks if you’re into more modern fare. These famous love stories, spread across centuries, have one thing in common: they’re all about heterosexual couples. Matthew Griffin’s debut novel, Hide, is helping change […]
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One Hundred Thousand Miles
No one cares, of course, if you’re still capable at forty-four of being bad, or if you think you’ve got to be bad sometimes just to know you’re alive.
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