Interviews & Reviews
Jiordan Castle interviewed by Emma Bolden about her memoir-in-verse Disappearing Act.
"As young people, no matter how bad the situation is, we look to books to tell us that not only can it get better but that it can become stranger or more exciting and more fulfilling."
Gracie Jordan reviews Mieko Kinai's Mild Vertigo.
"The book’s mild vertigo arises from the continuous cycle of the mundane routine that Natsume follows day after day, a whirl of eventless domesticity."
Liz Declan interviews Janika Oza about her new novel A History of Burning.
"The thing with writing a fictional narrative rooted in history is that it’s not possible to get everything right, and I had to learn to be okay with that—I had to give myself permission. Above all else, I was writing in service of the emotional truth."
Carrie Lee South reviews Stephanie Burt's collection We Are Mermaids.
"By including speculative elements, Burt takes us out of our binary world and puts us in a place where social constructs are meaningless and arbitrary." |
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Originals & Columns
From the Archives: "Swans and Other Lies" by Anita Felicelli:
"Stars above, mica sparkling below the street lamps. She has rented a room at the Shrinking Violet Motel for the night and she spins around to find her bearings. Nobody else is out at this hour. The streets are wide, stygian, infinite."
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For our September 2023 - August 2024 selections (and possibly beyond!), we’ll focus on great new poetry collections AND hear from the indie publishers behind the books with our new Indie x Indie Poetry Book Club format!
Join by midnight September 15th, to receive our October Poetry Book Club pick Another Last Call edited by Kaveh Akbar and Paige Lewis and join our subsciber-only conversation with editors Kaveh Akbar and Paige Lewis in conversation with Kristen Renee Miller, Editor in Chief and Executive Director at Sarabande Books, and Marisa Siegel, Senior Acquiring Editor for Trade at Northwestern University Press and Editor-at-Large for The Rumpus.
As a subscriber, we'll send you a copy of this book the first week of October and you'll also be invited to an exclusive online video discussion with the book's author + the author's editor + a Rumpus Editor and fellow book club members. Subscribers are encouraged to join in the chat with their questions before and during the conversations. These will take place on the Rumpus' Crowdcast channel and will remain available to subscribers for 1 month after they take place.
About October's Poetry Book Club selection: In 1997, Sarabande published Last Call, a poetry anthology that became a formative text on the lived experiences of addiction. Now, more than twenty-five years later, editors Kaveh Akbar and Paige Lewis offer this companion volume for a new generation. Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction & Deliverance showcases work from poets like Joy Harjo, Afaa M. Weaver, Diane Seuss, Layli Long Soldier, Sharon Olds, Jericho Brown, Ada Limón, and Ocean Vuong, as well as many new and powerful voices.
“Why do I feel so at home among the poems and poets of Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction & Deliverance? There is nothing more human, haunted, humbling, and bottom line, than the desire that fuels addiction and recovery—and poetry. In reading this brilliant anthology, I feel less alone. I’ve found my people.” —Diane Seuss, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for frank: sonnets
About October's featured indie press:Sarabande Books is a nonprofit literary press founded in Louisville, Kentucky. Established in 1994 to champion poetry, fiction, and essay, they are committed to creating lasting editions that honor exceptional writing. With nearly three hundred titles in print, they have earned a dedicated readership and a national reputation as a publisher of diverse forms and innovative voices. Through their free arts programming like Sarabande Writing Labs, they are proud to invest in emerging writers and serve as an educational resource locally and nationally. |
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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, author letters from . . .
September 1: Mario Chard is the author of Land of Fire (Tupelo Press, 2018), winner of the Dorset Prize and the Georgia Author of the Year Award in Poetry. (subscribe by August 31)
September 15: Quinn Carver Johnson is the author of The Perfect Bastard (Northwestern University Press), was the editor-in-chief of the Aonian literary magazine, and is host of the People's Poetry reading series in Tulsa, OK. (subscribe by September 15) |
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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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