Notable San Francisco: 4/18–4/24
Literary events and readings in and around the Bay Area this week!
...morePosts Tagged: Steve Almond
Messy and Complicated and Real: Talking with Laura Pritchett
Author Laura Pritchett discusses her two most recent books, death, sex, and being rural in modern America.
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What to Read When It’s Time for Sports
Just a “heads up” (as they say in the sports world): this isn’t your average sports list.
...moreNotable Portland: 1/12–1/18
Friday 1/13: Franz Nicolay reads from his anarcho-leftist memoir debut, The Humorless Ladies of Border Control and is joined afterwards in conversation by Cari Luna, author of The Revolution of Every Day. Powell’s City of Books, 7:30 p.m., free. Sunday 1/15: Get ready for Dear Sugar Radio: The Writers Resist! Join hosts Cheryl Strayed and […]
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Drivel Delivered
Drivel: Deliciously Bad Writing By Your Favorite Authors, contains exactly what its title promises. The book came out last fall, but Lit Hub just posted a few excerpts, including a comic strip by Daniel Clowes and a story by Gillian Flynn that was inspired by the Sweet Valley High series. On his literary “gem,” Clowes said, […]
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Super Hot Prof-on-Student Word Sex: Liz Prato
Liz Prato talks about her debut story collection, Baby’s on Fire, why she enjoys the process of revision, and what the phrase “literary citizenship” means to her.
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Super Hot Prof-on-Student Word Sex: Julia MacDonnell
Julia was one of those “students” whom you suspect, after maybe fifteen seconds, should actually be teaching the class you are currently (allegedly) teaching.
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HORN! REVIEWS: Against Football
It’s Ronald Reagan’s dream: A taxpayer-funded monopoly run by a bunch of assholes.
...moreMore Sunday Links
Friday was one of those days where it felt like way too many threads had come unraveled from the thrift-store sweater of my life and were just tangled in an heap of wet yarn at my feet. One of those dreary grey days when I could have used some advice, and maybe a gentle voice […]
...morePolitics and Football
The Millions takes a look at Rumpus columnist Steve Almond‘s book Against Football: Almond stalks through his arguments against the modern state of football at a pace that is both clipped and highly personal. There is a lot of shame here, a discomfort with being complicit in that “system” lying at the root of his […]
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Fantasy Football for Poets: Dispatch #1
I’m not supposed to be an NFL fan. I like writing, books, wine, condiments, ambient music, and US Presidents.
...moreSperm Puppets All
Writing and sex have a lot in common, least enjoyable their knack for making participants feel vulnerable and insecure. But when anything goes, writers produce work that is beautiful for this very vulnerability: Believe it or not, the resulting scenes are often deeply moving. And here’s why: because nearly every bad decision a writer makes […]
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Steve Almond
The Rumpus Book Club chats with Steve Almond about his new book, Against Football, One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto, the complicity of fans in the violence of the NFL, the sports media’s role in the discussion (or lack of one) and the difficulty of leaving a sport you love.
...moreNotable NYC: 9/13–9/19
Saturday 9/13: Sara Lippman reads from collection of stories, Doll Palace. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free. Mitchell S. Jackson, Porochista Khakpour, Gabriel Roth, and Elissa Schappell read as part of LitCrawl, presented by Center for Fiction. KGB, 6 p.m., free. LitCrawl takes over the East Village. Mulitple Locations, 6 p.m., free.
...moreSteve Almond and the Irresistible Narrator
Writer and Rumpus contributor Steve Almond has a handful of spaces left in two classes he’s teaching at the Grotto in San Francisco on July 19. How to Write Riveting Scenes examines some of the best scenes written in literature and deconstructs what makes them great. How to Create an Irresistible Narrator addresses the often […]
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Super Hot Prof-on-Student Word Sex: Along Came Polly
I taught Polly at Tin House one year. Or maybe she taught me.
...moreIrresistible Narrators and Riveting Scenes with Steve Almond
Rumpus columnist and friend Steve Almond is teaching two classes at the Grotto in San Francisco on July 19th! How to Write Riveting Scenes will investigate what it takes to keep readers on the edge of their seats, while How to Create Irresistible Narrators examines the work of Nabokov, Salinger, Austen, and others in an effort […]
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Super Hot Prof-on-Student Word Sex: Antonia Crane, The Dirty Dozenth
And this is precisely why I was so entirely blown away by Antonia Crane’s new memoir, Spent, which chronicles her dark and twisted path through the above horrors with remarkable elegance and restraint.
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Catawampus Uber Alles!: The Rumpus Interview with Peter Mountford
Writer Peter Mountford talks about his latest novel, the impossibility of altruism, the realities of the midlife crisis, and the “catawampus” that is economics.
...moreSteve Almond Adds Class on Sex Writing
Steve Almond, our friend and author of not one but two Rumpus columns, is teaching three classes in the Bay Area on the weekend of December 7–8. In addition to the classes on obsession and humor in San Francisco that we blogged about earlier, Steve will be conducting a “freewheeling workshop” in Oakland on how […]
...moreObsession and Humor in Writing
In early December, Rumpus columnist Steve Almond will teach writing classes at the SF Grotto. His December 7th class will focus on the idea of embracing one’s obsessions to jump-start good writing, avoiding the pitfalls of sentiment and self-absorption. On December 8th, Steve will teach a class pitching “funny” as the “new deep,” keeping in […]
...morePut A Strange Object in Your Earholes
Did you like the super hot prof-on-student word sex between Steve Almond and Kelly Luce from a few days ago? Then you might also enjoy words from Callie Collins and Jill Meyers, the cofounders of the press that published Luce’s debut short-story collection Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows A Tail. Here they are on […]
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Super Hot Prof-on-Student Word Sex: Kelly Luce
If it weren’t such a goddamn cliché, I’d write something snappy like: “Kelly Luce is attempting to reinvigorate magical realism by launching a full-scale invasion of Murakami’s homeland.”
...more“I Might Really Geek Out Here, Dude”
In 2005, Elizabeth Gilbert was a mid-list author with some fiction and some journalism under her belt. In 2006, she tried something new and published a memoir, Eat, Pray, Love. The rest is history and Oprah Book Club sales. Now she’s returned to her roots with a novel, The Signature of All Things, and our very own Steve […]
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Super Hot Prof-on-Student Word Sex: Peter Stenson
Just like that, I knew I’d been bamboozled. Stenson could write. The rest of the story sailed past and I found hardly a single occasion to complain, which is, for Super Hot Profs, a legitimate cause for despair.
...more“The Story Behind Stoner“
Remember the Steve Almond essay “Lost and Found” from back in 2009? It was about a novel by John Williams (not the Star Wars composer) called Stoner (not like the marijuana enthusiast), which, though underappreciated by the world at large, bowled Almond over with its “tender and ruthless honesty.” At The Millions, Claire Cameron has reopened the topic […]
...more“No, It’s Not Called Dear Salty.”
Steve Almond, a longtime Rumpus columnist and the original Dear Sugar before Cheryl Strayed took over, is sharing his two cents again! This time he’s giving advice every Monday at WBUR in Boston on their site Cognoscenti. The most recent column includes tips on how to inform a “friend” of their body odor and when to start […]
...moreBoston Marathon Roundup
If you’re looking for a token of solace after the Boston marathon bombings, please check out Roxane Gay’s words if you haven’t already. And Thomas Page McBee reflects on ways to help when feeling helpless. At the Guardian, Rumpus columnist Steve Almond comments on the histrionic attitude the media has taken on in the wake of […]
...moreDon’t Worry Too Much About Goodreads, Says Steve Almond
Amazon’s buyout of Goodreads has a lot of people curling their lips in disgust, and Rumpus columnist Steve Almond is among them: “As a reader and writer I find all this pretty despicable.” But it’s worth zooming out and looking at the buyout’s context: industry-wide changes to publishing’s traditional (and deeply dysfunctional) business practices. Says Almond, […]
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