transcendentalism Archives

The Present in Its Most Vivid Colors: A Conversation with Ben Shattuck

What does a growth of new grass on a hillside in spring make you feel? Is it a mixture of nostalgia and hope? Or what does a distant mountain range wreathed in a crown of clouds make you feel?

Read

Read

Beauty in a Cold Season: Katherine May’s Wintering

As we go, we are breathlessly held in an in-between state, a limbo, a transition.

Read

Read

Documenting Existence: Deed by Justin Wymer

Wymer is grappling with survival, with the cost of the duplicity of identity.

Read

Read

The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Eric Tran

Eric Tran discusses his new collection, THE GUTTER SPREAD GUIDE TO PRAYER.

Read

Read

Too Bright to Belong: A Conversation with Clare Beams

Clare Beams discusses her debut novel, THE ILLNESS LESSON.

Read

Read

The Desire to Be: Talking with Garrard Conley and Taylor Larsen

Garrard Conley and Taylor Larsen discuss their recent work.

Read

Read

On Saviors and Superheroes: A Conversation with Adam Nemett

Adam Nemett discusses his debut novel, WE CAN SAVE US ALL.

Read

Read

The Rumpus Interview with Chris Jennings

Chris Jennings talks about his new book Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism, incremental reform, Transcendentalists, Shakers, and creating a more perfect future.

Read

Read

The Rumpus Review of The Revenant

On its surface, The Revenant is a story about revenge and survival. On a deeper level, it’s about how those two motivations factor into a generational battle between the (God-like) forces of nature and industry—a sort of perverted Armageddon.

Read

Other

Sarah Palin, the Transcendentalist

From Lincoln’s famous love of quoting Shakespeare to George Bush’s prodigious reading habits, American politics have always mingled with the literary pantheon. Now that Sarah Palin is back in the…

Read

Other

Queer American History

This slideshow is a few weeks old, obviously, because it was posted for Independence Day, but there’s no wrong time to read about queer American history. Some topics covered: Was…

Read

Keep in Touch

The Rumpus in your Inbox!