This Week from The Rumpus
  • Week Two of National Poetry Month kicks off with Kieron Walquist, Khalaf Tuffaha, Catherine Bowman, Patrick Rosal, and Hayan Charara
  • An interview with Lynn Steger Strong by Katie Coleman
  • A review of Denne Michele Norris's When The Harvest Comes by Kelsey L. Smoot
  • Samuel Ashworth talks The Death and Life of August Sweeney for The First Book
  • Letters in the Mail for April 15 with Tiana Clark
  • What to Read When You're Looking for Romance by Gemini Wahaj 
  • Only 24 left! Rumpus 📚 > 🤖 BOOKS OVER BOTS tote bags in collaboration with Pilsen Community Books!

National Poetry Month


“leftover snakeskin |      woven like ribbon through a milk crate | 

"Temple | Torture Chamber" by Kieron Walquist

“there’s a chandelier / the size of an unexploded missile / hanging from the ceiling and / not a corpse in sight.

"Millefeuille" by Khalaf Tuffaha

“For the ghost of a great poet: / fennel to gnaw on and sun-buttered yarrow / to light the way.

"The Kitchen Table" by Catherine Bowman

“I am the heart of the innermost / heart / I am the fire of the heart / and the water of the heart / I am still

"Psalm from Below" by Patrick Rosal

“Does the flycatcher still trill? / Who will remember the honeycreeper? / Let me ask, does the truth matter?

"People, Motherfucker, People!" by Hayan Charara
Letters in the Mail (from authors!)
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...

April 15: Tiana Clark is the author of the poetry collections Scorched Earth; I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood, which won the 2017 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize; and Equilibrium, which won the 2016 Frost Place Chapbook Competition. Clark’s other honors include a Pushcart Prize, a Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Tennessee State University, where she studied Africana and women’s studies. She is the Grace Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence at Smith College. Find out more at TianaClark.comSubscribe by April 14!
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Interviews & Reviews
 

“Asking a character to be relatable all of the time negates the possibility of their being a fully realized human.”

Katie Coleman interviews Lynn Steger Strong about The Float Test

“The pit in my stomach, the ache, the cost of a story that hits so close to home . . .”

Kelsey L. Smoot reviews Denne Michele Norris’s When The Harvest Comes

“The human body is the most miraculous machine, and each of us gets one—just one.”

Samuel Ashworth talks The Death and Life of August Sweeney for The First Book
What to Read When: You’re Looking for Romance

"I like stories that are inscribed by political events, by the chaos and danger of powerful structures, dealing with things as they are but yearning for things as they might be, a peek into another world. The world is bad, but a short story creates a moment of arresting beauty, moving the reader to understanding or feeling."

—Gemini Wahhaj, What to Read When You’re Looking for Romance
AVAILABLE NOW!
New Rumpus tote bags in collaboration with Pilsen Community Books!

Introducing brand new Rumpus tote bags made in collaboration with the very fine worker-run bookstore Pilsen Community Books in Chicagothe first totes The Rumpus has made in over a decade!!

Back in October, as those of us in Asheville, NC were still struggling with getting running water back after Hurricane Helene, Pilsen Community Books worker-owner and long-time friend, Mandy Medley, reached out to see if there was a way to help boost The Rumpus from afar

We spend so much time publishing new work that we don’t often have the resources or bandwidth to create new merch, so we came up with the idea of collaborating on a tote and commissioning Asheville-based artist Kyndra Sweep to create the illustrations and lettering for us.

Net proceeds will be split evenly between Pilsen Community Books and The Rumpus. If you’re in the Chicago area, you can purchase totes in-person at the bookstore.

If you’re anywhere else in the USyou can order HERE directly through The Rumpus store.

Thank you for supporting human artists, writers, and workers. Books over bots, freethinkers over algorithms forever!


—Alyson Sinclair, Publisher, The Rumpus
AVAILABLE NOW!

Calls for Submissions

Two new columns, Collaborative Criticism and Close Reads are now open year-round!

We are open for Prose and Poetry Book Reviews submissions year-round.

(Reminder, annual Rumpus Members can submit their work in any genre all year long.)

Our ceramic mug
NOW SHIPPING WORLDWIDE!
Sometimes our international friends ask how they can order our classic "Write Like a Motherfucker" ceramic mug. Well, we now have an option for you to get them through Bonfire. Get one for yourself or your best overseas bud. Also available to US folks, of course!
Order HERE

Reader Support Keeps The Rumpus Going!

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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