New Poetry & Columns
Rumpus Original Column ENOUGH: "Hold Your Breath Up to the Mirror and Draw Yourself a New Face" by Swati Sudarsan
"I drape my breath / over my face and press my / cheek onto it, feeling how fast its warmth fades"
Rumpus Original Poetry: Three Poems by Dorothea Lasky
"I let in the odor of another rose / Melting into a peony / I murdered the hydrangea into tiny petals" |
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Interviews & Reviews
Ramona Reeves interviews Kelly Sather about her short story collection Small in Real Life *A RUMBLR exclusive!
"...there’s a sharp emotional twisting happening that I think gives the sentences power."
Ghassan Zeineddine, interviewed by Brian Truong, about his novel Dearborn
"There’s always this push and pull of how much of your identity that you can reveal."
Spencer Gaffney reviews Bryan Washington's novel Family Meal
"...what does it mean to move on from something, somewhere, someone, and where does one go?"
Deirdre Sugiuchi interviews Emi Nietfeld about her memoir Acceptance
"In that way of looking at the world, there was no bridge, no connection—the world snapped in two."
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What to Read When You Want to Find Home
Over the nearly three years it took to complete work on the book, I drew upon music, movies, books, and other media to sort out my thoughts and create the framework. And since its completion I’ve been glad to continue to delve into works that speak to my feelings. Most of the works on this list are perennial favorites of mine. They are books I’ve returned to time and again because they parse out in beautiful ways what home can or should be. Some of the texts offer keen views of the necessity of letting go of what you’ve always known to create a better place. Others honor what is valuable and necessary about our homes even if we are seeking to make them in our own image.
—Athena Dixon, author of The Loneliness Files & The Incredible Shrinking Woman |
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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 October 15th, to receive our November Poetry Book Club pick Orders of Service by Willie Lee Kinard III and join our subsciber-only conversation with author Willie Lee Kinard III, Carey Salerno, Executive Editor and Executive Director at Alice James Books, and Brian Spears, Rumpus Poetry Editor.
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 November's Poetry Book Club selection: As a young, Black, queer person in a small town in the South where everyone knows everyone, Orders of Service is a coming-of-age exploration of the everyday fever of fleeting relationships, while capturing the romantic, psychic quotidian of the Bible Belt.
“Willie Lee Kinard III’s astonishing debut collection braids mythology, sex and desire, gutbucket and gospel—defying outdated notions of bodies, binaries, the black church, and the natural world. These verses render testimonies so electric, you can’t help but shout. Kinard knows caring begins in language. He knows black boys crafted of fable can become sharp-witted and tender lovers and loving men. Orders of Service cuts so clean and deep you’ll find yourself several pages in before you notice blood on your fingers.”
—Yona Harvey
About November's featured indie press: Founded as a feminist press in 1973, Alice James Books is committed to collaborating with literary artists of excellence whose voices have been historically marginalized by producing, promoting, and distributing their work which often engages the public on important social issues. Alice James provides a platform from which to elevate exceptional literary artists and is dedicated to helping its writers achieve purposeful engagement with broad audiences and communities nationwide. We help writers tell their stories and connect with readers. We envision this work making continued contributions that sustain American literary and artistic culture and to growing a more understanding, equitable, and just community through literature. |
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| Featured Partner or Sponsor |
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| Interested in advertising in The Rumpus e-newsletter or on therumpus.net? Contact Monica at ads@therumpus.net. |
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| Join Curbstone Books and The Rumpus for an inspiring evening of readings featuring authors Omar El Akkad, Jennifer Fliss, Elisa Gonzalez, Perry Janes, Sebastián Páramo, and Jane Wong. Hosted by Rumpus Editors-at-large Marisa Siegel and Marissa Korbel. This event is open to the public and is an official Portland Book Festival 2023 Cover to Cover event. Doors open at 6:30 pm, readings begin at 7:15 pm PDT. This event is pay-what-you-can. Suggested $15-$20 / donation. No one will be turned away due to lack of funds. All proceeds will be split evenly between the 6 readers and 2 host organizations (The Rumpus & Curbstone) to help with costs related to organizing and preforming at this event. Please RSVP to secure your spot. |
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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 . . .
October 15: Kelly Sather is the author of Small in Real Life (University of Pittsburgh Press, Oct. 2023), her debut story collection and winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize. She is a former entertainment lawyer and screenwriter, and her fiction has appeared in Santa Monica Review, J Journal, Pembroke Magazine, PANK, and elsewhere. She grew up in Los Angeles and lives in Northern California. (subscribe by October 14)
November 1: Daniel Gumbiner’s first book, The Boatbuilder, was nominated for the National Book Award and a finalist for the California Book Awards. His 2nd novel, Fire in the Canyon, was just released by Astra House in early Oct. He is the Editor of The Believer and a 2022–23 Hermitage Fellow and lives in Oakland, CA. (subscribe by October 31) |
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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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