The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #214: Sarah Kersey
“A poem cannot exist without form or structure, just like the human body can’t operate without a skeleton.”
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Posts Tagged: William Faulkner
A Hard-Won Love: NOS by Aby Kaupang and Matthew Cooperman
The child is born of them, yet is other to them; they work on behalf, and yet despite, and also against her.
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These Places Surround Me: Talking with Quintan Ana Wikswo
Quintan Ana Wikswo discusses her novel, A Long Curving Scar Where the Heart Should Be, delving into the facets of trauma, and her creative processes.
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Ward’s Mississippi Is Our Mississippi: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Capturing the Delta in harrowing detail, Ward takes readers on a journey from her own home of the Gulf Coast to the Mississippi State Penitentiary.
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What to Read When You Want to Make America Great Again
Here is a list of books that help remind us what actually makes America great (hint: it’s not tax cuts).
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VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Angie Thomas
Angie Thomas discusses her debut novel, The Hate U Give, landing an agent on Twitter, and why she trusts teenagers more than the publishing industry.
...moreThe Night Wash Jones Won
Eighty years ago, Wash Jones appeared as a minor character in William Faulkner’s masterpiece on American identity and self-invention, Absalom, Absalom! From a craft perspective Jones was put in for a purpose: to demonstrate the role that white working-class men played in maintaining white supremacy among the wealthiest people in America before the Civil War, […]
...moreThe Popular Vote
The Library of Congress recently polled American citizens to find out what books had the most profound effect on them. Among the 17,000-plus survey respondents, popular answers were books like Frank Herbert’s Dune, Stephen King’s The Stand, and The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss. While some literary greats like Toni Morrison did not appear on […]
...moreThis Week in Indie Bookstores
Memphis-area Burke’s Book Store celebrated its 140th year of selling books. The current owners plan to use the milestone reintroduce the store, and that includes investing in a custom bicycle to make book deliveries. Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi started because owners Richard and Lisa Howorth believed William Faulkner’s town should have a bookstore. They […]
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The Last Book I Loved: Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932
What makes a person who they are? Is evil born or made?
...moreThe Gods of Southern Gothic
At the Guardian, author M.O. Walsh tries to account for the global popularity of southern gothic literature. While he attributes much of southern gothic literature’s success to a tradition of oral storytelling, he also suggests that it is the southern novelist’s ability to treat the “grotesque” with empathy that helps to create memorable characters: Show me […]
...moreFaulkner’s Failures
Before becoming an acclaimed novelist, William Faulkner was a failed poet. NPR looks at what drove Faulkner from poetry to prose.
...moreFaulkner’s Quarter
At The Daily Beast, Nathaniel Rich riffs on William Faulkner’s New Orleans: William Faulkner had recently begun a draft of “Dark House,” the novel that would ultimately become Absalom, Absalom!, when he arrived in New Orleans on February 15, 1934. He came to attend an air circus that was being thrown to celebrate the opening of […]
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Guildtalk #1: The Rumpus Interview with Eddie Joyce
Guildtalk, brought to you by The Rumpus and the Authors Guild, brings attention to exciting new voices in American literature. The first installment features Richard Russo and Eddie Joyce.
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The Rumpus Interview with Christian Kiefer
Writer, musician, and poet Christian Kiefer discusses his literary influences, the “beautiful, beat up, and weird town” that is Reno, and writing from the perspective of beasts in his new novel The Animals.
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This Week in Short Fiction: Thus Were Their Faces by Silvina Ocampo
Probably more than anything else, sheer curiosity propels readers through [Silvina Ocampo’s] stories.
...moreOn Faulkner and Cocktails
There are two Faulkners, and each of these Faulkners is embodied by one of the author’s two favorite drinks, as Robert Moor posits in a recent Paris Review article. The julep is High Faulknerian. Taking in the dense, lush language in his most lauded works—As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, and Absalom, Absalom!…But […]
...moreEmily Dickinson: Karaoke Queen?
For Bookish, music writer and self-described “karaoke ho” Rob Sheffield lists which songs famous authors of the past would have belted out on karaoke night. He’s unquestionably right about Oscar Wilde crooning something from The Smiths, though it seems a missed opportunity not to have given James Joyce “Baby Got Back.” Which tunes do you […]
...moreFaulkner Goes Postal
Take a look at William Faulkner’s resignation from his postmaster job, which appears at Letters of Note: As long as I live under the capitalistic system, I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people. But I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of […]
...moreThe Wishing Tree
Maria Popova of Brain Pickings got her hands on a copy of William Faulkner’s only children’s book, written for his stepdaughter (and a few other children in his life) and published in a print run of 500. With words like “choss” and “youall,” it may not be the best way to teach kids new vocabulary, […]
...moreThis here post is for the Faulkner Fans
Marco Kaye’s “As I Lay Buying” takes Faulkner’s classic backwoods family, The Bundrens, and throws them into a modern Macy’s for some Holiday shopping. What more can we say–it’s funny. And even if you didn’t like As I Lay Dying, we think you’ll like Kaye’s clever rendition.
...moreMulticolored The Sound and the Fury Finally Published
When William Faulkner originally published The Sound and the Fury, he wished Benjy’s narrative could be printed in different colors to denote different time periods, lamenting that “I’ll just have to save the idea until publishing grows up.” Now it has: The Folio Society is publishing an edition of the novel colored as Faulkner envisioned it.
...moreListen to Faulkner Read
William Faulkner secured the first Writers-in-Residence position at UVA and held the position for two terms. This site has sonically preserved Faulkner’s residency in the form of these recordings. He held readings, gave a couple addresses and answered questions from UVA audiences, of which this site preserved 1690 minutes. This site also has links to […]
...moreIn This Light
In This Light, a collection of Melanie Rae Thon’s short stories, shows the writer’s shifts in the last twenty years, while reminding us of her powerful, haunting storytelling.
...moreRobot Horses Waging War on Angels: A Profile of Chris Eaton
There are bodies, and there are words. The bodies shift sides and see their components replaced; they look in mirrors and see themselves made horrific, the mechanical overtaking the organic, and they ask themselves whether they can still feel, still love.
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