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weekend rumpus roundup

  • Max Gray

    Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    First, in the Saturday Interview, Penny Perkins speaks with Ramona Ausubel about Ausubel’s latest novel, Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty, her previous collections, and “the ways that stories change the real chemistry of the world.” Then, Jeff Lennon reviews Cynthia Cruz’s…

  • The Rumpus

    Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    First, in the Saturday Essay, Naseem Jamnia considers memories, genetics, and what gets passed down from one generation to the next. She writes, “The brain is a curious, malleable thing, and just as cigarette smoke and alcohol can be tucked…

  • Max Gray

    Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    First, the “luminous” poetry of Circe Maia takes center stage in the Saturday Interview. Chip Livingston talks to writer and teacher Jesse Lee Kercheval about her ongoing work translating Uruguayan poetry, much of which is written and performed in Montevideo, where “everyone…

  • Max Gray

    Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    First, Michael Wasson’s imagistic prose poetry fills the Saturday Essay. Wasson’s dreamlike narrative describes a first day of school from his childhood. Wasson recalls the teacher taking attendance, calling out, “who’s missing?” The question launches a lyrical investigation of the author’s memory and identity. Then,…

  • Max Gray

    Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    First, in the Saturday Interview, Tyrese L. Coleman talks with author Leslie Pietrzyk about her award-winning 2015 collection, This Angel On My Chest, and its relationship with real life events. The author explains her approach to writing about personal tragedy, which is “to write the…

  • Max Gray

    Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    First, Michelle Marie Wallace chats with two Bay Area writers-turned-visual artists, Cristina García and Truong Tran, in the Saturday Interview. García and Tran share their inspirations and the impetus that led each to make visual art after spending many years…

  • Max Gray

    Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    First, in the Saturday Essay, Terese Marie Mailhot considers the strange and tragic ways life wounds Native American women. She remembers running away from her home, the reservation. “Native women walk alone from the dances of their youth into homes they…

  • Max Gray

    Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    First, in the Saturday Interview, Randall Tyrone talks with writer Keith Newton about his innovative chapbook, A Week of Kindness, which reflects Newton’s fascination with surrealist Max Ernst’s 1933 “collage novel” Une semaine de bonté. Newton shares thoughtful views on organized religion, art as a…

  • Max Gray

    Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    First, in the Saturday Interview, Tyrese L. Coleman talks to Tara Laskowski about her new collection, Bystanders. Laskowski, editor of SmokeLong Quarterly and an experienced flash fiction author, discusses the writing process and her motivation for creating a more traditional collection…

  • Max Gray

    Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    First, the irreverent Eaton Hamilton recounts her history with pulmonary illness in gripping detail in the Saturday Essay. Hamilton, an aspiring animal researcher, discards her educational goals when the reality of her condition is revealed. Paralleling her story to the macabre qualities…

  • Max Gray

    Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    First, in the Saturday Essay, Ben Wirth looks back on New Year’s Eve 1999 with mixed feelings. Hope, apprehension, wonder, and naiveté color his memory—along with cultural landmarks like Fight Club, MTV, and Conan O’Brien. And Patrick James Dunagan observes the benevolent…

  • Max Gray

    Weekend Rumpus Roundup

    First, in the Saturday Essay, Nicole Walker considers her relationship with her partner, Erik, and the ways that raising children fray that relationship. When they sleep apart, the absent intimacy of the shared bed becomes a symbol for their difficulties…