| This Week from The Rumpus |
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[Publisher's note: Asheville, NC]
It's difficult to know what to say this week, but we keep moving forward at The Rumpus. Doing what we can to keep an independent lit mag focused on publishing emerging writers, risk-takers, and historically underrepresented voices going feels like a small act of resistance. Frankly, giving a shit about other people's stories and trying to do anything that's not driven by capitalism feels wildly optimistic. That hasn't changed since Tuesday.
Here in Asheville, NC we still don't have drinking water 43 days after Hurricane Helene. If you missed my earlier note about how this is effecting The Rumpus and why we're trying to raise money, you can read it here. We're still hearing that the city is hopeful our reservoir will be able to bring clean water to us by mid-December. They're tackling what is usually a 3 year engineering project in a matter of months AND they're simultaneously working on a back up plan. We're grateful here to the people who are doing all they can to bring our city back.
We also want to share our gratitude to the public supporters who have donated to The Rumpus since Sept. 30. With the help of 101 mostly small donors, we have raised $11,205 of our $25K end-of-year goal. We now have $13,795 to go.
Can you help before December 31? Reaching this goal buys us some much needed time to gather additional resources and allows us to see a path for 2025 and (hopefully) for many years to come.
I know a lot of us are tired of being "resilient," but that's the path we're trying to take. It will be much easier with the help of our readers, writers, and the lit community.
With appreciation,
Alyson Sinclair, Publisher |
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| Thank you to recent Rumpus supporters: |
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| Adrienne Kitaeff Alice Kaltman Alice Taylor Alyssa Burgart Andrea Greer Andrew Poster Anna Carey Annie Bartos Annie Penfield Bookshop (Bookshop.org) Brett F Lauer Camille Griep Catherine Svehla Celia Knapp Charles Stinner Christina Rivera Colleen Rodgers Cynthia Weiner Deborah Filanowski Dede Cummings Elmaz Abinader Eric Stinton Eve Ettinger Fiona Hankenson Grace Prasad Holly M Wendt Janet Bowdan Jason Malamud |
| Jill Bronfman
Kathleen Schmidt Lena Valencia Linda Button Lisa Taggart Liz Borkowski Lori Wald Lou Dunham Maggie Hill Margaret Carter Marissa Korbel Melissa deSa Melissa Elliotte Meri Johnston Michaela Chan Nina Schuyler Rabihah Mateen Rani Monson Rhonda Britten Roanna Flowers Sarah Baldwin Stacey Lewis Stevie Trujillo Susan Ito Suzanne Watt Teresa Burns Gunther Terese Svoboda
And 46 donors who gave privately |
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New Essays & Columns
Rumpus Original Fiction: "Obliquity" by Chloe N. Clark
“If you’re lost in the dark, doesn’t any light seem like salvation?”
Rumpus Original Essay: "All in Good Taste" by Elyssa Goodman
“Drag was looked down upon for decades, not just by mainstream straight culture but by queer culture as well.”
Rumpus Original Poetry: Four Poems by Anna Lena Phillips Bell
“Along the wash-fuzzed limits, / at water-rounded corners, / is left the sign of the blue / I wrote what won’t be done in.”
Rumpus Original Poetry: "Septum" by Edward Salem for We Are More
“I still don’t have an IUD and I could have / an accident anytime. And I can’t think of IUDs / without thinking of IEDs, even all these years / after America’s destruction of Iraq.”
Rumpus Original Comic: "I See More Lives Than I Ever Lived" by Jeevitha Kannan
“You see a girl with pretty ribbons / warming up wet firecrackers / near the old kitchen furnace / waiting to burn her childhood” |
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Letters to Adoption:
our 2nd annual series giving space to adoptee voices during National Adoption Month
Rumpus Original Essay: "Selkies" by Ali Maaxa
“You will know that she, too, was taken from her mother - a teenager who did not know that she was worthy, that she could nourish life.”
Rumpus Original Essay: "Reaching" by Kimberly Rooney 高小荣
“I rarely speak to the man who took up the mantle of being my father, and I fear that, because you are my father too, this has doomed us already.” |
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Interviews & Reviews
Erin Wood interviews Jennifer Case about We Are Animals
“So much of We Are Animals, for me, was learning to unearth myself from generations of shame and unfair burdens, the kind that stopped me from feeling embodied...”
Nathan Blum reviews Fiona McFarlane’s Highway Thirteen
“I didn’t know about the journey ahead of me...I only knew that I had found a worthy guide.”
Wendy J. Fox interviews Jody Hobbs Hesler about Without You Here
“Writers are supposed to have this thick skin, always. I feel like that’s not really genuine to the experience of the writer who’s supposed to be emotionally receptive.”
Marina Kraiskaya reviews Blas Falconer’s Rara Avis
“In this rare book, the reader too can find renewal in the telling.”
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| Available Now:
NEW TRAVEL MUGS! |
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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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| 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 . . .
November 15: Nina Schuyler’s short story collection,In This Ravishing World, won the W.S. Porter Prize for Short Story Collections and the Prism Prize for Climate Literature and was published in July 2024. Her novel, Afterword, won the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Science Fiction and Literary and the PenCraft Seasonal Book Award for Literary and Science Fiction. Her novel, The Translator, was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing and won the Next Generation Indie Book Award for General Fiction. Her books, How to Write Stunning Sentences and Stunning Sentences: A Creative Writing Journal are bestsellers. Her short stories have been published by Zyzzyva, Fugue, Nashville Review, and elsewhere, and have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. She teaches creative writing for Stanford Continuing Studies and The Writing Salon. Subscribe by November 14! |
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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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