A Psychogeographical Bildungsroman: Talking with Jo Hamya
Jo Hamya discusses her debut novel, THREE ROOMS.
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Posts Tagged: Teju Cole
Criticism as a Life Practice: A Conversation with Yxta Maya Murray
Yxta Maya Murray discusses her new novel, ART IS EVERTHING.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #199: Stuart M. Ross
“Ty is, you know, tied in a knot. On a very old shoe.”
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What to Read When Your Life Feels Bifurcated
Judith Krummeck shares a reading list to celebrate her new book, OLD NEW WORLDS.
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The Rumpus Book Club Chat with Tsitsi Dangarembga
Tsitsi Dangarembga discusses her new novel, THIS MOURNABLE BODY.
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We’re All Unreliable Narrators: Talking with R.O. Kwon
R.O. Kwon discusses her debut novel, THE INCENDIARIES.
...moreNotable NYC: 6/10–6/16
Saturday 6/10: Katie Kitamura and others join AmpLit Fest. Pier i, West 70th Street, Noon, Free. Sunday 6/11: Hafizah Geter, Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, Lara Mimosa Montes, Cathy Linh Che, Lucas De Lima, and Carly Joy Miller join the Dead Rabbits Reading Series. DTUT, 8 p.m., free. Matt DiPentima, Etan Nchin, Iris Cohen, and Jen DeGregorio […]
...moreNotable NYC: 2/18–2/24
Saturday 2/18: Ryan Dobran and Wendy Letterman join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Kristen Gallagher and Ed Steck celebrate new books from Skeleton Man Press. The Glove, 6 p.m., free. Sunday 2/19: Elizabeth Hall and Melissa Buzzeo read poetry. Berl’s Poetry Shop, 6:30 p.m., free. Monday 2/20: Not My President’s Day march. Columbus […]
...moreNotable NYC: 1/28–2/3
Sunday 1/29: Write to elected officials. Community Bookstore, 7 p.m., free. Robert Marshall, Clifford Chase, Alexander Chee, Lisa Cohen, and Matt Sharpe join the Sunday Night Fiction series. KGB Bar, 7 p.m., free. Daniel José Older, Morgan Parker, Ashley C. Ford, Eve Ewing, Justin Smith, Hari Ziyad, and Tochi Onyebuchi celebrate the release of Beyond Ourselves, […]
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Where We Go from Here
Warrior up! Begin with small actions, like donating or volunteering, if you’re able.
...more“Specialists in All Styles”
In an interview with Tobias Carroll for Men’s Journal, Teju Cole discusses his affinity for the work of writer and critic John Berger, and how that relationship has informed his own writing: I think what we get from the artists, writers, musicians, photographers, and so on who we admire is a sense of encouragement or […]
...moreShhhh…
In a world of noise, let the message of Teju Cole’s surreal short story over at The New Inquiry speak for itself: “But it is so weak!” the people shouted. “It is not beautiful, or intelligent, or brave, or well-dressed, or charming, or gifted in oratory. How can it grow in strength and influence so?” And if […]
...moreNotable NYC: 1/23–1/29
Saturday 1/23: Kristina Bicher, Claudia Cortese, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, and Sharon Mesmer join Couplet, a quarterly reading series. The Delancey, 7 p.m., free. Robert Fitterman reads from his latest collection along with Brian Droltcour at the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., free. Sunday 1/24: Matt Marinovich and Gregory Rossi join the Sunday Night Fiction […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Elisa Gabbert
Author Elisa Gabbert talks about her books, The Self Unstable and The French Exit, diversity, publishing, whiteness, and writing in the Internet Age.
...moreThe Role of the Critical Writer
For The Awl, Maria Bustillos sits down for lunch with writer Teju Cole in Bali, where Cole recently spoke at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. The two discuss art, colonialism, and the role of the critical writer. Regarding the latter, Cole says: What it’s our job to do [as critics] is to help create and sustain […]
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R.I.P.: The Museum of Death
What strikes me is not the necrophilia or the fetal pigs or the spoon designed for scooping out human brain matter, but rather the mundane.
...moreTeju Cole Made You a Mixtape
This is a Lasgidi of the mind, representing a meld of many club nights in Lagos and alternate Lagoses through the past decade. It is a cauldron of that vertiginous self-confidence that anyone who knows any Nigerians knows well. Put down the New Yorker—Teju Cole is here with his selection of Nigerian dance jams, ready to […]
...moreRushdie Slams Withdrawn PEN Panelists
PEN America announced on Sunday their intention to honor Charlie Hebdo’s surviving staff with the Freedom of Expression Courage award at their May 5 Gala. The novelists Peter Carey, Michael Ondaatje, Francine Prose, Teju Cole, Rachel Kushner, and Taiye Selasi have withdrawn as hosts of the ceremony, claiming the French magazine promotes hate speech and […]
...moreThe Eye of the Writer
She sent me this photograph and wrote: I run across my own life as a dog runs across a field, zigzag. The search is endless. Then I come to a sudden stop. I stand and listen to the small movements in things. I listen with my camera, for the camera is a kind of microphone. […]
...moreTeju Cole: On Photography
Among one of the many new aspects of the New York Times Magazine’s redesign is a cast of four columnists, each featured for one week during the month. Here’s Teju Cole on photography in his first installment.
...moreWho Do You Cry For?
Who do we remember and why do we mourn? Teju Cole writes about unmournable bodies for the New Yorker.
...moreReserved for the Dead and Dignified
For the New Yorker’s “Inner Worlds,” Colum McCann writes about his father’s writing shed, and Teju Cole shares his experience of watching (and rewatching) Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “Red.”
...moreWriters Read For “Guilty Pleasure” Too
In the second volume of the series “How Writers Read,” The Believer asks a diverse group of authors (including Teju Cole and Graham Foust) about their reading preferences. Questions range from what the authors read for “guilty pleasure,” to whether they prefer shorter or longer works.
...moreThis Week in Short Fiction
This week, last week, men who have taken lives are walking away unpunished, unquestioned even. We have their victims’ names: Mike Brown. Eric Garner. We have their final words: Hands up, don’t shoot. (Six shots fired.) I can’t breathe. (Repeated until his breath is forever gone.) To stand with these two men is to go […]
...moreSteady Dissonance
Teju Cole’s got a penchant for prose that lingers; over at The New Inquiry, he delivers once again: When I have a nap or something, J.D. said, and I fall asleep (these words in English, all of a sudden, and not in French; but only these words), at that moment, in a sort of half […]
...moreEbola is the Ku Klux Klan of Paper Cuts
At the New Yorker, Teju Cole mocks CNN’s recent discussion, framed around the question, “Ebola: The ISIS of Biological Agents.”
...moreShooting the West Bank
Teju Cole spent his summer in Palestine, just before the latest wave of hardship. Viewing the country through his camera lens proved more affecting than not: Photography cannot capture this sorrow, but it can perhaps relay back the facts on the ground. It can make visible graves, olive trees, refuse, roofs, concrete, barricades, and the bodies […]
...moreRereading James Baldwin
Teju Cole has a long, staggeringly (good, sharp, dynamic, crushing) essay in The New Yorker about rereading James Baldwin’s Stranger In The Village: American racism has many moving parts, and has had enough centuries in which to evolve an impressive camouflage. It can hoard its malice in great stillness for a long time, all the while pretending […]
...moreFiguring Out What Essays Are
What’s the difference between an essay and a novel? Teju Cole considered that question in his 2012 essay, “The White Savior Industrial Complex,” writing that essays have points, while novels do not. While Cole continues to stand by this essay, he admits that there are exceptions to this rule. Some essays have no point at all, […]
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