Saturday 11/30: Indies First is a nationwide celebration of independent bookstores launched by author Sherman Alexie to support small businesses. Independent bookstores around New York City invited some of their favorite authors for appearances: John Bemelmans Marciano, Emma Straub, Tim O’Mara, Jami Attenberg, Myke Cole, Amy Shearn, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, Brandan Jay Sullivan, and Sarah […]
...moreEarlier this year, the Rumpus’s own Sari Botton described the burden of living with our reproductive choices in Confessions of a Good Girl. But what of the men in all this reproductive choice-making? Currently they have little say regarding their responsibility for child support once their sexual partner makes her choice to continue with the […]
...moreOn Wednesday, October 23rd, long-time Rumpus contributor and editor of the recent collection Goodbye to All that: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York, Sari Botton will host an event in Brooklyn featuring reading and stories by contributors to the anthology and fellow New Yorkers with love/hate relationships of their own with the city. Rumpus’ […]
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Driving down Second Avenue, we saw the usuals: skater kids and college students, queens and models and junkies. My heart hurt more and more. The landmarks of my most troubled memories now filled my heart with longing. I even missed my ghosts.
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Maybe you’ll be an actress. Maybe you’ll do stand up. Maybe you’ll suck dick for money.
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We sit down with Sari Botton, long-time Rumpus contributor and author of our “Conversations with Writers Braver Than Me” column, to talk about her new anthology, Goodbye To All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York, and more.
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Both Yuknavitch and Scarboro, whose books echo each other in interesting ways, were willing to talk with me about this question of what to do with memoir, and much more.
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In Whip Smart, Melissa Febos unflinchingly chronicles five years in her early twenties when she was a dominatrix and heroin user. But the book is about so much more than those details.
...moreToday, on the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Get Out of My Crotch! hits the stands. It’s a collection of twenty-one essays that speak out against the travesties of the US health care system and the relentless prevalence of violence against women. It’s also co-edited by our own Sari Botton and features writing from Rumpus […]
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In my thirties, I have had two abortions, six years apart. I tell no one. I perpetuate the shame of every woman who has ever chosen to terminate an unwelcome pregnancy—with my silence.
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Sometimes I fantasize about expanding these conversations beyond the one-on-one—getting a few particular writers into a room together to discuss the risky business of writing the sort of memoir or autobiographical fiction that might upset family, or others close to you. Actually, this column was born out of a burning desire to get Stephen Elliott […]
...moreWith the Petraeus sex scandal hijacking everyone’s attention away from anything else resembling news – and I am so guilty of gawking incessantly at this juicy side show; I’ll admit I CANNOT wait for the unveiling of the shirtless FBI agent – it’s easy to lose sight of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the wake […]
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Al-Anon sucked. If I hadn’t been too broke for therapy, I’d never have taken a friend’s advice to attend those awful meetings. They were worse than the AA meetings I’d been to over the years in support of my string of alcoholic boyfriends—three, if you’re keeping count.
...moreSari Botton talks with Cheryl Strayed about how she keeps finding the courage to be honest in her work—about herself and others around her.
...moreWhen I saw the words “This week’s Letter In The Mail is from Sari Botton” at the bottom of Wednesday’s Daily Rumpus email from Stephen Elliott, my stomach dropped.
...moreSari Botton’s excellent piece on ghostwriting has resonated throughout the Internet, with coverage from both The Atlantic and Andrew Sullivan. We love you back!
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“Ghostwriter” is a problematic word. It gives people the idea that we have some kind of other worldly power; that we’re able to hover over clients somewhere in the ether and read their minds, then write their books using only our own words.
...more“Somehow you wind up on the topic of his wife’s vagina.” So begins Rumpus columnist Sari Botton’s story, “Before He Opened His Mouth,” which was published yesterday at This Recording.
...moreAt Emily Books, Rumpus columnist Sari Botton expands on her recent conversation with Emily Carter. Botton addresses her regret at leaving out certain topics, and the personal reasons at the heart of those editorial choices. “Most of all, the issue is wound up in my central dilemma – my conflicting, deep motivations to both write […]
...moreAre you trying to write today but feeling distracted/unmotivated/lonely? If so, perfect. We’re taking “Write Like a Motherfucker,” Dear Sugar’s #48 column one step beyond…
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I’ve been living in NYC for years so I am cautiously optimistic about everything.
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What is the chance of one of those books living up to its pre-release hype? Of earning back its advance?
...moreAlbert, who is at work on her second novel, describes both books as “personal” as opposed to autobiographical, although they are rooted in her own experiences.
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I wasn’t surprised to find that I enjoyed Havrilesky’s book and really related to it. There is so much overlap in our stories, I should probably hate her for beating me to the finish line by miles – thousands of them.
...moreFlynn and I discussed his approach to writing the memoirs—as well as the advantages of having Protestant parents—over coffee in the West Village.
...moreI wrote the book with a tremendous suspension of disbelief; I wrote it as if no one was ever going to read it. I know that sounds like a cliché.
...moreAs someone who was raised with reform Judaism, my negative experiences with religion pale next to Auslander’s.
...moreIn an effort to embolden myself to move past this crippling fear and go on writing – or give up altogether – I’ve begun interviewing memoirists I admire.
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