| This week on The Rumpus and
an update from Asheville, NC |
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We have electricity again! However, cell and wi-fi are still spotty and it's day 15 without water coming from our taps. Thanks to our volunteer team spread out all over the country we are able to continue to publish original work five days a week during this very rough time.
In case you haven't followed the Hurricane Helene damage this (supposedly, once in a 1000 year disaster) has done to Asheville, NC and neighboring towns, we are still going through it. Without running water, all of our schools are closed indefinitely (some are digging their own wells!), all restaurants in the city are closed and have to be re-permitted before opening again, our Governor has (smartly) stopped all non-essential travel to the area. It's difficult to convey how distressing it is to know nearly everyone in your home city has taken a financial hit and is suffering personal loss. My partner and I have both personally lost freelance income that we likely won't be able to recover. That income directly effects what I can or can't do for the magazine, since my paid work has subsidized The Rumpus for the past 3 years.
I would like to thank everyone who donated to the Asheville nonprofits I called out last week. And the 6 new people who signed up for new Memberships (we're now at 499 total Members!) to support us and the 3 people who made tax-deductible donations to the magazine. We truly need so much more help to keep going. I'll say it as clearly as I can, The Rumpus will not continue to exist in its current form without reader support. We are currently $25,000 away from this year's funding goal.
We keep learning (and relearning) that without solid infrastructure and an ongoing support system, we're all vulnerable. The good news is you get to decide what you care about.
-Alyson Sinclair, Publisher, The Rumpus |
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| PS. We're also experiencing things that give us hope every day. The city has more options for free access to food, bottled water, and medical assistance. It is currently easier to get free food in Asheville than to pay for it. We HOPE this continues for folks in need forever! We're shifting from the stage where we need immediate supplies and search and rescue to how do we deal with immediate and longer term infrastructure and financial losses. |
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Interviews & Reviews
Sarah Rosenthal interviews Nikkya Hargrove about Mama for Voices on Addiction
“It was a no-brainer for me to title my book Mama. It’s what my mother called me, it’s a title I wore with honor back then and today as a mom myself.”
Abby Higgs interviews Susan A. Brewer about The Best Land
“The people keeping the records tend to have authority, and they tend to have an agenda, so they’re going to portray things in a way that fits their agenda.”
Angela Mazza reviews Casey McQuiston's The Pairing
“A celebration of pleasure in its many forms – art, wine, food, sex – and a portrayal of queer intimacy that expands the possibilities for romance as a genre.”
Allison Armijo interviews Keiko Lane about Blood Loss
“Everything is an archive if we question and listen closely enough.” |
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| Available Now:
NEW TRAVEL MUGS!
(Our electricity is back in Asheville, so we're shipping regularly now!) |
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 | | The NEW "Write Like a Motherfucker" travel tumbler is elegant and classy AF! This is your new grownup high quality 16 ounce insulated MiiR brand to-go mug. MiiR is a certified B-Corp, and we're basically selling these at cost. This tumbler handles hot and cold beverages equally well. It fits great in a cup holder and in your hand. Black powder coated with Rumpus red etching. It's the classic design by Walter Green. “Write Like a Motherfucker” is a quote from one of the most famous Dear Sugar columns by Cheryl Strayed.
*Annual Rumpus Members, a reminder to log into your store account, if you'd like to pre-order at a 20% discount. |
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New Essays & Columns
Rumpus Original Comic: "Changes" by Amanda Dibando Awanjo
“Their journey - tree, sidewalk, book, bus, building, carpet - a mix of random and inevitable.”
Rumpus Original Fiction: "Boy Moms" by Sanjana Thakur
“It’s nice of the Baptists to let us use this space–though of course, we know they’re trying to convert us. We’re okay with that. It feels good to be wooed.”
Rumpus Original Column Enough: "Ulcer's Like Men's Eyes" by Laura Mota-Juang
“A shelter becomes a prison / a womb becomes a form to be / convicted”
Rumpus Original Essay: "Spinning Webs in Space" by Jill Christman
“I want them to take comfort in the good company so far away from the comfort of home. I want their story to be a good one.”
Rumpus Original Poetry: Four Poems by juj e lepe
“i lost sight of something bright / and metallic: strands of silver tied / to diseased trees honey bees / fetal against hot asphalt” |
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| Partner announcement and special offer to Rumpus readers: |
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 | Join the Accountability Workshops led by Annie Hartnett (author of novels Rabbit Cake and Unlikely Animals) and Tessa Fontaine (former Rumpus columnist and author of the memoir The Electric Woman and the novel The Red Grove).
What you get:
Multi-faceted support. In addition to the bi-weekly meetings, Annie and Tessa provide . . . - One-on-one coaching anytime you need it, and help you craft a personalized writing contract.
- Connections and insights from the larger literary community with monthly guest speakers for inspiration (guests include: Steve Almond, Weike Wang, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Jonathan Escoffery, Marie-Helene Bertino, Hannah Pittard, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, agents, publicists, and more!
- Access to a Slack channel for staying in touch with your cohort and the larger community
- Zoom writing sessions
- Occasional real-life meetups! Members live all over the globe.
If you’ve always wanted a writing community or a writing coach, you’ll get BOTH!
The cost is $150/month, month-to-month commitment. Cancel anytime. Meetings are on Zoom, every other week: Mondays 1-2:30 pm ET, Wednesdays 1 -2:30 pm ET, and Wednesdays 8-9:30 pm ET.
And, as promised, there's a SPECIAL OFFER for Rumpus readers! Receive $25 off your first month with the code RUMPUS25.
To JOIN:
→ Sign up here, and start by creating an account.
→ Then, enter the discount code RUMPUS25 on the payment page for $25 off your first month.
**Special offer ends Nov. 1, 2024. Sign up now for the 1st month discount. Please note that The Rumpus isn't running these Accountability Workshops. All questions and any logistical support, should be directed to Annie and Tessa. |
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| Letters in the Mail (from authors!) |
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Letters in the Mail from authors is a Rumpus subscription in which you receive an actual, postmarked letter from one of our favorite writers in your IRL mailbox twice a month. All letters are non-promotional, include a creative prompt, and have a return mailing address in case you'd like to write the author back!
Up next, an author letter from . . .
October 15: Bruna Dantas Lobato is a writer and translator. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Guernica, A Public Space, and The Common. She was awarded the 2023 National Book Award in Translation for The Words That Remain by Stênio Gardel. Originally from Natal, Brazil, Dantas Lobato lives in Iowa and teaches at Grinnell College. Blue Light Hours is her debut novel. Subscribe by October 14! Mini Intervew with Bruna Dantas Lobato Tell us about your most recent book? How do you hope it resonates with readers?
Lobata: My debut novel, Blue Light Hours, tells the story of a Brazilian woman’s first year at an American college and how she maintains a relationship with her mom over video calls. I wanted to write the modern mother-daughter immigrant story I wish I had when I was a lonely and broke international student in the 2010s, still trying to figure out how to be a person in this country, away from the security of home, relying a little too much on my computer for socializing. I hope readers will feel less lonely than I did.
What book made you a reader?
Lobata: I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t a reader, but I do remember the first book that made me want to be a writer: My Sweet Orange Tree by José Mauro de Vasconcelos. I read the novel in the original Portuguese when I was 10 or 11 years old and I was so moved by the young narrator who taught himself how to read, found safety under a tree when life at home got hard, and dreamed of one day being a poet. It was the first time I wanted to underline a book, and reread it, and even memorize it. I still love rereading it from time to time, for all it has to say about “tenderness,” the young boy’s favorite word. It’s been translated into English by Alison Entrekin.How did you know you wanted to be a writer?Lobata: I had this itch as a kid to write down everything I saw and heard. I kept diaries and wrote fictional stories, and also enjoyed jotting down whatever my mom said on the phone and guessing what the other person had said on the other end. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, really. I took my first creative writing class in high school and took fiction workshops all through college. |
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| Submissions for Comics are open August 1 until October 31.
Submissions for Essays are open until October 31.
Two new columns, Collaborative Criticism and Close Reads are now open year-round!
Our new column Parallel Practice is open again for submissions. Read the call here before submitting.
We are open for Funny Women and Prose and Poetry Book Reviews submissions year-round.
Submissions for Poetry opened on Aug. 15 and closed on Aug. 19th, since we hit our 500 submissions limit in just four days.
(Reminder, annual Rumpus Members can submit their work in any genre all year long.) |
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Reader Support Keeps The Rumpus Going! |
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Founded in 2009 in San Francisco, CA and now based in Asheville, NC with readers and editors all over the US and abroad, The Rumpusis one of the longest-running independent online literary and culture magazines. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers readers already know and love. Often, we are an emerging writer's first notable publication, which is something we’re really proud of. We believe that literature builds community—and if reading The Rumpus makes you feel more connected, please show your support! Our Membership and subscription programs along with tax-deductible donations made to The Rumpus through our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, help keep us going and brings us closer to sustainability.
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