Wanted/Needed/Loved: Viv Albertine’s Emotional Investigation
I’ve worked through the pain, and made something useful and creative out of it.
...more
Posts Tagged: sisters
These Places Surround Me: Talking with Quintan Ana Wikswo
Quintan Ana Wikswo discusses her novel, A Long Curving Scar Where the Heart Should Be, delving into the facets of trauma, and her creative processes.
...more
TORCH: The Reunion
He was and still is a stranger, uninhabitable and distant like a whisper in a language I don’t quite understand.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: One of Them Dies
We seldom forget when people promise to give us something, whether we need or want that thing or not. I promise you death, you want a death.
...more
Spotlight: “Rooftops of My Youth” by Frances Cannon
A comic describing the illustrator’s childhood adventures and misadventures climbing rooftops of all sorts.
...more
The Dark All Around Us
There is still light in the dark. This is the paradox that Little Bear has to accept in order to fall asleep.
...more
Spotlight: “Perfect Sisters” by Joyanna M and Lily Bell
“Sister Love” touches on how a traditional family can fail the victim of domestic violence, and how that failure can compound the victim’s trauma.
...more
The Night Is Itself a Novel: Talking with Lidija Dimkovska
Lidija Dimkovska discusses A Spare Life, living through the break-up of Yugoslavia, her writing style, and where she now feels most at home.
...more
Come Together through Bodies: Jennifer Colville’s Elegies for Uncanny Girls
The female body here is as palpable as image. As the images and objects transform, so does the female’s body.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Prescriptions
I wore sobriety like a shirt that was too tight in the shoulders, and everyone around me knew it.
...more
Breaking Through: Gayle Brandeis Discusses The Art of Misdiagnosis
Gayle Brandeis discusses her memoir, The Art of Misdiagnosis, out today from Beacon Press.
...more
Death, Memory, and Other Superpowers
There was no cedar chest filled with tissue-wrapped rattles, handprint art projects, and bronzed baby shoes. Our parents never spoke of our missing sister.
...more
Voices on Addiction: The Honeybee
She never stopped, a bee buzzing from flower to flower to flower, collecting all the sweetness she could.
...more
Reclaiming the Language of Pop Culture: Reversible by Marisa Crawford
Marisa Crawford’s Reversible is an evocative collection, showcasing the ways in which pop culture saturates us with meaning, and how it teaches us to become.
...more
Saying What Shouldn’t Be Said: A Conversation with Julie Buntin
Julie Buntin discusses her debut novel, Marlena, why writing about teenage girls is the most serious thing in the world, and finding truths in fiction.
...more
Out of the Trenches: The Rumpus Review of Wonder Woman
If there was ever a case for women avoiding Botox, Diana’s signature skepticism for the patriarchy is it. She has never encountered womanhood as subordinate, and she’s not about to start.
...more
Allowing a Female to Own Her Genius: Talking with Alana Massey
Alana Massey discusses her debut collection, All the Lives I Want, the best piece of writing advice she’s ever received, and acknowledging the work that women do.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Naomi Jackson
Naomi Jackson discusses her debut novel, The Star Side of Bird Hill, how she approached writing about mental illness and its affects on a family, and choosing to to tell a story from multiple perspectives.
...more
Rumpus Original Fiction: Salt
A flash-fire covered the horizon all around and behind her, and my mother glowed genuine blue. I saw her skeleton, or maybe her white-hot soul. Something flew up and around our heads.
...more
The Rumpus Interview with Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay discusses her new collection, Difficult Women, the problem with whiteness as the default and the need for diverse representation, and life as a workaholic.
...more
The Sunday Rumpus Essay: Pet the Dog
It would be simple to say that she is missing the internal formulation that makes one enthusiastic about dogs. And that would be true, partially. Was she, as their mother once said, a cold fish?
...more
Letter to Jim
Many days I couldn’t see the way forward, but I kept going, the way you had. It was you, after all, who taught me how to stay.
...moreThe Rumpus Interview with Kerry and Tyler Cohen
Sisters and collaborators Kerry and Tyler Cohen talk about their new book Girl Trouble: An Illustrated Memoir, female friendships, and some of the challenges of writing memoir.
...more
The Saturday Rumpus Essay: Such a Thing
The future perfect tense indicates an action that is certain to occur. But when the future is not perfect or certain, the conditional “would” is more appropriate.
...moreAn Open Letter to My Brother, A Trump Supporter
Dear John, I, like so many other Americans, spent the past weeks worrying, crying, and searching for the people around me that I loved so they could be beacons when I felt most battered. I did not seek you out, did not call or text you, did not respond to your victory message because I […]
...more
Missing Lorraine
I guess I was somewhat relieved that my aunt realized she wouldn’t survive another day in her apartment, and I cautiously believed that she did want to live, at least for the next ninety days.
...more
White Noise
People never detail the confusion—the way days feel like years, and seconds like hours.
...more
The Life Jacket
How later you learned grief and love are partners too. How love held you through grief’s fire.
...moreSong of the Day: “Don’t Save Me”
Male siblings seem to dominate many famous musical groups. Examples range from contemporary bands like Kings of Leon and The National to household names like The Jackson 5, The Beach Boys, The Allman Brothers, The Isley Brothers and The Neville Brothers. So it’s about time the ladies earned a bit of the spotlight. Though the sisters in HAIM—Este, Danielle, and Alana—grew up playing […]
...more