Rumpus Original Fiction: Boy of My Dreams
I cannot stop dreaming about the sixteen-year-old boy I loved madly almost twenty years ago.
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Posts Tagged: summer
Rumpus Exclusive: “Lisbon, the Truncated City”
Our love of the superfluous is helpful in better understanding ourselves.
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The Thread: Lacuna
If nobody tells you what to call a feeling, your emotions have a gap.
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Strip District Meats
Already, at nine, my son knows that eating makes me happy.
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A Story of Memory: Machine by Susan Steinberg
The narrator is trapped here, in the summer her family and her life fell apart.
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My Summers of Work, Revolution, and Love
Mah taught me that love wasn’t only rebellious, it was also tenacious.
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The Last Poem I Loved: “Seniors” by D. Nurkse
How do we counterbalance or offset our knowledge of particular crimes, particularly those that are so pervasive?
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Sylvia Plath and Reclaiming the Gaze
Perhaps as women we are always trying to record the gaze. Marginalized people are often asked to validate our distrust, trepidation, and fear.
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What to Read When You Don’t Want Summer to End
A list of books that take place in the summer, remind us of summer, and/or just make for great beach reads.
...moreThe Summer of Lana Del Rey
Three summers ago, I did nothing but drive around Middlebury, Vermont, blasting Lana Del Rey and chain-smoking cigarettes. It was—and I will be dramatic, because that is how it felt—an act of survival. That summer I was in an academic program where we were only allowed to speak or be spoken to in French. But […]
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The Storming Bohemian Punks the Muse #33: Solstice Soul Song
Today I write on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. As someone who has been influenced by not a few pagan practitioners and Wiccan wonder workers, along with more conventional priests and monks of various religious varieties, I am attuned to the turning of our planet in the cosmos. Striving to be […]
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
We’re halfway through June, and though the first day of summer isn’t technically until June 21, I think we can all agree that we’re well into the sweltering season. This week’s story captures those quintessential staples of summer—swimming pools, soft serve, bike rides, frozen Capri Suns—but it’s no typical poolside read. “We Were the Drowners” by […]
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
This week (or month) in short fiction (and poetry), it’s National Translation Month! Each September, the National Translation Month (NTM) initiative, started in 2013, celebrates literary works in translation and promotes cross-cultural readership with offerings of exciting new translations on its website. The selections are released throughout the month and so far include poetry from […]
...moreSurrealism for Summer
Over at AnOther, Carmen Gray shares five classic surrealist films that you can watch now. Don’t let your summer go blah; feed your head!
...moreGet Up and Go
Are you filled with seasonal summer ennui? Well, here’s a list that has something for everyone to inspire your get-up-and-go. No excuses.
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Out the Road
Long before reaching it, I knew about the end.
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The Last Book I Loved: Abbott Awaits
Summer works like this. Every day small moments cycle like waves within tides, eroding our opportunities on a geological scale invisible from our point of immersion.
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The Saturday Rumpus Essay: Instructions for Replicating a Bad Summer
Compare yourself to a raw wound. Explain that everyone else is one too, whether they know it or not.
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Safety Rope
No touching unless he touches you. No touching where people can see. No touching unless dared to touch. Brad makes the rules, but never says them aloud.
...moreThe Summer Melt Phenomenon
Kate McGee, a reporter for Austin’s NPR affiliate KUT, recently completed on a summer-long series titled The Months Between. The series followed three Central Texas graduating high school seniors to chronicle the phenomenon of “summer melt,” where college-bound grads (often low-income minority students) never end up attending college. All episodes of The Months Between, as […]
...moreSong of the Day: “Jump Off The Roof”
One of the least talked-about and most heartfelt tracks off Vince Staples’s identify-defining album, Summertime ’06, dispenses with the bravado of his other lyrics. At the same time, “Jump Off The Roof” showcases the fatalism and lyrical prowess that have garnered the 22-year-old Staples so much praise. Dissonant background vocals and a modest backbeat help to make this […]
...moreSummer Swimmer’s Lament
Over at The Millions, Nick Ripatrazone dives into John Cheever’s “The Swimmer,” a story with well-deserved fame in the literary community, exemplary of Cheever’s style and a perfect read with which to mourn summer’s end.
...moreThe Economics of a Childhood Summer
At Longreads, Elissa Strauss analyzes the economics and frustrations that come with giving low-income children a summer.
...moreWord of the Day: Frigiferous
(adj.); bearing or bringing cold; from the Latin frigus (“cold”) There’s no denying it, as much as we might wish to: the Northern Hemisphere is in the midst of the coldest part of the year. We temper the icy storms with romantic images of thick woollen scarves and roaring fires and leftover roasted chestnuts, but […]
...moreJunot Díaz Plans A Holiday Vacation
Summer isn’t over yet. Read what Junot Díaz, Donald Trump, and others have planned before the weather turns cold. And may we all be as lucky as Junot: Once on a beach in Jamaica, right before an October storm swept in, I fell in love. She had hair like all your best things combined. It […]
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