How to Become a Poet: A Conversation with Ashley M. Jones
“You don’t have to drink yourself into the Great American Poetry Masterpiece.”
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Posts Tagged: Sherman Alexie
ENOUGH: Clara, Too
A Rumpus series of work by women and non-binary people that engages with rape culture, sexual assault, and domestic violence.
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Creating New Possibilities: Talking with Nato Green
Comedian Nato Green discusses performing political standup, revolutionaries, and the way forward for tired capital-L Leftists.
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The Thread: Look What You Made Me Do
Can a person with some agency ever claim victimization, or are agency and victimhood a binary?
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Terese Mailhot
Terese Mailhot discusses her debut memoir, Heart Berries, writing candidly about one’s personal life, and the good that can come from anger.
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Both Presence and Absence: Safia Elhillo’s The January Children
The book, in the end, is shot through with a faith in human communion despite immense communal and individual loss.
...moreNotable Twin Cities: 9/10–9/16
Literary events and readings in and around the Twin Cities this week!
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VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Erika T. Wurth
Erika T. Wurth talks about her latest book, Buckskin Cocaine, persevering through rejection, and white writers writing Native characters.
...moreNotable San Francisco: 7/19–7/25
Wednesday 7/19: John Burroughs (aka Jesus Crisis) is a voice to be reckoned with from Cleveland, Ohio, where he founded Crisis Chronicles Press and promotes many poetry events. He is visiting the West Coast for the first time on his 2017 poetry tour. He will be joined at tonight’s reading by D. R. Wagner, M. J. […]
...moreNotable Los Angeles: 7/17–7/23
Monday 7/17: Jesus Ramirez-Valles discusses and signs Queer Aging: The Gayby Boomers and a New Frontier for Gerontology. 7 p.m. at Book Soup. 90×90 presents: Wirecutter. Celebrate the release of PAPERS with poets Bridgette Bianca, Amanda Wang, and Rebecca Lee, and artist Ana Chaidez. 8 p.m. at Cielo Galleries/Studios.
...moreNotable Philadelphia: 6/20–6/26
Tuesday 6/20: Heavy Metal film screening. 8 p.m. at Tattooed Mom, $5. Wednesday 6/21: Poetry Showcase feat. NET Center poets. 5:30 at Franny Lou’s Porch.
...moreNotable NYC: 6/17–6/23
Sunday 6/18: Sherman Alexie presents his memoir You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me. WORD Jersey City, 5 p.m., free. Monday 6/19: Arundhati Roy presents The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. BAM, 7:30 p.m., $25.
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The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Amy Benson
Our American obsession with the personal and individual has made us the tremendous resource consumers we are in the world.
...moreWeekend Rumpus Roundup
First, in Rumpus Saturday Fiction, Sherman Alexie’s shares three short stories—”Fixed Income,” “Honor Society,” and “Valediction”—that all offer his trademark whimsy and insight into the human condition. Three different teenagers struggle with poverty, endemic racism, and social exclusion, and must depend upon themselves to make the right choices in difficult moral situations. Then, in the […]
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Saturday Rumpus Fiction: Three Short Stories by Sherman Alexie
These are desperate times, and I’m not as desperate as a lot of people, but I’m desperate enough to need this job.
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The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Louise Erdrich
The esteemed author talks about the themes of justice, atonement, and reparation in her fifteenth novel, LaRose, and about the importance of Planned Parenthood to her success.
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The Read Along: Omar Musa
In the second installment of The Read Along, Omar Musa shares how airplane delays can lead to productive reading sessions and how easy it is to get sucked into Internet wormholes about geodesic domes.
...moreAll About Banned Books
Americans love banning books, and the winners of this year’s most banned books have been announced by the American Library Association. John Green’s young adult novel Looking for Alaska takes the top spot, keeping Green in the top ten. He was joined this year by the Bible. Other big winners on the top ten list […]
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Spotlight: A Poetry Comics Discussion
Amy Fusselman gathers four writer-artists working in the poetry comics genre to discuss the emerging form.
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Anna March’s Reading Mixtape #11: Thanksgiving Is Racist as Hell
It’s long past time to explode some myths about Indigenous Peoples, whites and Thanksgiving. For many of us in the US, Thanksgiving has become a day to reunite with friends and family, watch football and gorge ourselves on an enormous feast. Giving thanks has taken a back seat and the truth about the massacres and […]
...moreCheaters Sometimes Win
While the poetry world continues to grapple with the Best American Poetry controversy, perhaps its worth considering why anyone would try to game the system. Theodore Ross over at The New Republic explains how cheating is one of the best ways of getting published. He confesses to his own misdeeds, including ignoring submission guidelines and […]
...moreWhite Jealousy
The new Best American Poetry anthology, edited by Sherman Alexie, contains a poem by the very white Michael Derrick Hudson who used the pen-name Yi-Fen Chou to get his poem into publication. Now, Asian American poets are pushing to get readers interested in actual Asian poets, in addition to decrying Hudson’s attempts to game the system: […]
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The Sunday Rumpus Essay: I’m Chinese, and Sherman Alexie Chose Me
As a writer, have I ever benefited from being Chinese?
...moreAlways Part-Time
Over at KUOW, Sherman Alexie chats about why The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian just can’t stop getting banned.
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
With the Senate Intelligence Committee’s online release of their Torture Report summary and Melville House’s announcement last week that it will publish a bound copy of the summary report at the end of this year, torture has been in the air. Even before that, though, the murmurings of what has been going on at Guantánamo […]
...moreBanned Books Week: A Rumpus Roundup
Sunday marked the start of Banned Books Week, a celebration of freedom, and a recognition of the threat of censorship. Libraries around the US are hosting events. Books are banned for a variety of reasons, and by a variety of organizations. Although mostly, its about sex.
...moreEdan Lepucki Gives ‘Colbert Bump’ to Sweetness #9
Edan Lepucki‘s debut novel California has been the poster child for the conflict between Amazon and Hachette ever since Sherman Alexie plugged the book on The Colbert Report. Since receiving the Colbert bump, California has hit the #3 spot on the New York Times bestseller list. When Colbert invited Lepucki onto Monday’s show, she took the opportunity […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Edan Lepucki
Author Edan Lepucki talks to the Rumpus about publishing, the craft of writing, teaching, and what to do about the end of the world.
...morePolice Called on Teens Giving Away Banned Book
After Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was banned by an Idaho school district, a crowdsourced funding effort bought a book for every kid in the local junior high school. Nearly all of the books were given away to students, reports Death and Taxes, but not before overly concerned parents […]
...moreAuthors Try Their Hands at Bookselling for a Day
Ever wonder what would happen if a bunch of well-known authors invaded your favorite indie bookstore? This past weekend, patrons around the country saw it happen. Sherman Alexie’s “Indies First” project successfully launched with writers around the nation volunteering at local independent booksellers, meeting with readers, selling books, and, in the case of children’s book […]
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