| This Week from The Rumpus |
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- New Interviews with Robert Shapard and Jackie Domenus by Christine Sneed and Rachel León
- Reviews of Jeddie Sophronius's Interrogation Record and Jamie Hood's Trauma Plot
- New original Fiction by Mathilde Merouani
- New original Essay by Miriam Fried
- Randle Browning stitches sentences in the newest Parallel Practice
- Ana Hein Close Read's Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber
- Letters in the Mail from Erin Dorney
- One week left to submit to The Rumpus PRIZE
- New Rumpus 📚 > 🤖 BOOKS OVER BOTS tote bags in collaboration with Pilsen Community Books! Pre-orders ship Feb. 27. Note: we sold half our stock in the first week! We might run out
- Accountability Workshops special first month discount for Rumpus readers. Offer ends Feb. 28
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Interviews & Reviews
“I go wherever an idea takes me. If it slips into a genre, I go there.”
Christine Sneed interviews Robert Shapard about his short story collection Bare Ana and Other Stories.
“Sophronius is interested in diving into historical records, positioning himself as a poet-historian...”
Jonathan Chan reviews Jeddie Sophronius’s Interrogation Records.
“For queer and trans writers, our narratives are usually not traditional or linear.”
Rachel León interviews Jackie Domenus about their debut memoir No Offense.
“If our stories meant nothing, they wouldn’t have to cut out our tongues.”
Erin Vachon reviews Jamie Hood's memoir Trauma Plot: A Life. |
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| 1 week left to submit to the
RUMPUS PRIZE for
Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction! |
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Announcing the inaugural Rumpus Prize for Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction!
Submissions are open December 5, 2024 to March 2, 2025. The Rumpus has a long history of championing emerging and established poets, fiction writers, and essayists, and we’re pleased to announce a new way the magazine will bring attention to great writing.
All submissions will be read by The Rumpus‘s editorial team, and our final judges will be Kaveh Akbar (Poetry), Rachel Khong (Fiction), and Megan Stielstra (Creative Nonfiction).
The Rumpus Prize offers $3,600 total in prizes, with $1,000 awarded for 1st place prize and publication in 3 genres: poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Honorable mentions receive $200 and publication in each of the 3 genres.
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Accountability Workshops
Partner announcement and
special offer to Rumpus readers: Special offer ends Feb. 28, 2025 |
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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 Feb. 28, 2025. Sign up now for the first 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...
March 1: Erin Dorney is the managing editor at Sarabande Books. Her image-text collection Yes I Am Human I Know You Were Wondering is forthcoming from Autofocus Books in March 2025. Her literary artwork and installations have been featured at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and Susquehanna Art Museum. More at erindorney.com. Subscribe by February 28! |
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| New Rumpus tote bags in collaboration with our friends at Pilsen Community Books! |
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| Introducing brand new Rumpus tote bags made in collaboration with the very fine worker-run bookstore Pilsen Community Books in Chicago—the 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 NOW.
If you’re anywhere else in the US (or it’s too cold to leave the house!) you can order HERE directly through The Rumpus store. Online orders are selling fast! If we run out of our first batch, we'll take backorders and (if demand is high enough, we'll make more in April). Thank you for supporting human artists, writers, and workers. Books over bots, freethinkers over algorithms forever!
—Alyson Sinclair, Publisher, The Rumpus
ps. If you ordered a tote by Feb. 15, lucky you! We shipped yours early and would love to see your pics! All orders between 2/16–2/26 will ship on 2/27.
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| Our ceramic mug
NOW SHIPPING WORLDWIDE! |
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| 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! |
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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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