Interviews & Reviews
Junious Ward interviews Yalie Sawed Kamara about Besaydoo
"The reality that a place that can raise you and kill you at the same time, this is something that is on my mind about home. Oakland can be both beautiful and perilous."
Enrique Aureng Silva reviews Liliana Colanzi's You Glow in the Dark
“It is as if Colanzi is rebelling against the loss of collective memory of tragedy, against the unbearable fact that things go back to normal faster than they should...”
Rebecca Ackermann interviews Amy Kurzweil about Artificial: A Love Story
"The philosophical question it leads you to is: is there something to being a person that can’t be recorded?"
The First Book: Kate Brody on Publishing Rabbit Hole
"I’ve been surprised by how many moments of sheer delight there have been." |
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New Fiction & Columns
Rumpus Original Fiction: Three Flash Stories by Mandira Pattnaik
“Our men, even if they’re dead, and the crocodile teeth they collected will bless us with jobs and meals.”
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| Another year, another AWP! |
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| Traveling, event planning, and tabling at AWP is a TON of volunteer work and we (along with most indie presses) lose money by attending. Why do we do it? For the COMMUNITY, to see friends, make friends, learn from one another, meet past contributors, and encourage future contributors. Thank you to everyone who said hello, shared your stories, and complimented our new website. We're especially grateful to folks who bought a mug, became a Rumpus Member, or helped us defray this big expense in any way. |
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Thanks to our indie press partners Feminist Press, Nightboat, Hub City Press, and LittlePuss Press for co-hosting an evening of Queer Trans Joy in Kansas City last week! And, of course, to the talented readers who made the event.
That night we raised $440 for the Transgender Law Center and were awed (and maybe crying?!) during Wo Chan's tribute drag performance. If you missed the raffle that night or weren't able to make it, you can still support the Transgender Law Center by clicking the link above.
Pictured ABOVE (left to right): Annell López, Nadine Santoro (Feminist Press), Wo Chan, Kai Cheng Thom, Margot Atwell (Feminist Press), Janet Rodriquez (The Rumpus), Marisa Crawford, Cat Fitzpatrick & Casey Plett (LittlePuss Press), Carter Sickels, and Alyson Sinclair (The Rumpus). |
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And the very next night, we sponsored "Women Who Leave" an event featuring 5 incredible writers who've written about leaving relationships. Hosted by Kelly McMasters and featuring authors Reema Zaman, Maggie Smith, Dionne Ford, and Joanna Rakoff (pictured in order above). Pics courtesy of Rumpus Senior Interviews Editor (and the Publisher's MVP of the night) Annelies Zijderveld.
It was a full house! And, despite the venue double-booking the space, we were able to problem solve a bit in real time. Notebooks were filled, (more) tears were shed, and books were signed. We are thankful to these wonderful authors for being a part of this event, all the patient and empathetic attendees who joined us, and the other double-booked group (Atmosphere Press) who graciously moved their meetup to the hallway (seriously) due to the venue's error and no fault of their own.
In short, AWP was exhausting and infuriating at times, but it was also beautiful and energizing. See you next year in LA!
--Alyson Sinclair,Publisher, The Rumpus |
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Next up in our Indie x Indie
POETRY BOOK CLUB:
Blue on a Blue Palette by Lynne Thompson
x BOA Editions |
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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 March 15, to receive our April Poetry Book Club pick Blue on a Blue Palette by Lynne Thompson and join our subsciber-only conversation with author Lynne Thompson.
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 April's Poetry Book Club selection: Lynne Thompson’s Blue on a Blue Palette reflects on the condition of women—their joys despite their histories, and their insistence on survival as issues of race, culture, pandemic, and climate threaten their livelihoods. The documentation of these personal odysseys—which vary stylistically from abecedarians to free verse to centos—replicate the many ways women travel through the stages of their lives, all negotiated on a palette encompassing various shades of blue. These poems demand your attention, your voice: “Say history. Claim. Say wild.”
“Lynne Thompson’s Blue on a Blue Palette is at turns—and, often, all at once—old and new. That is, rooted strong in a long tradition and legitimately experimental. Thompson’s range in form and subject matter is equaled only by the deftness with which she handles each. In these pages we get a true blue blueswoman who knows when to whisper and when to wail, one who has lived some, and means to make song of what she’s seen.” —John Murillo, author of Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry
About April's featured indie press: Since its founding in 1976, BOA has published more than 300 books of American poetry, poetry-in-translation, and short fiction. BOA Editions, Ltd., a not-for-profit publisher of poetry and other literary works, fosters readership and appreciation of contemporary literature. By identifying, cultivating, and publishing both new and established poets and selecting authors of unique literary talent, BOA brings high quality literature to the public. Support for this effort comes from the sale of its publications, grant funding, and private donations.
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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 . . .
March 1: Mako Yoshikawa is the author of the novels One Hundred and One Waysand Once Removed. Her memoir Secrets of the Sun: A Memoir is forthcoming this month. Her essays have been published in LitHub, Harvard Review, Southern Indiana Review, Missouri Review, and Best American Essays, among other places. Yoshikawa attended Columbia University, received a Masters in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama at Lincoln College, Oxford, and has a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is a professor of creative writing and director of the creative writing graduate program at Emerson College. She lives in Boston and Baltimore. Subscribe by Feb. 29!
March 15: Corey Sobel’s debut novel, The Redshirt, was published by the New Poetry & Prose Series at the University Press of Kentucky in 2020. The Redshirt was a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and one of NPR’s Favorite Books of 2020. Sobel has non-fiction published by or forthcoming from The Wall Street Journal’s book section, Esquire, Largehearted Boy, and HuffPost, and he edits the column “Music for Desks” at Epiphany Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and their dog and cat. Subscribe by March 14! |
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| Essays are open until Feb. 28 for new work.
We're now accepting submission for our Enough column until Feb. 29.
Fiction is open for submissions until March 15.
Comics is open for submissions until March 31.
We are open for Funny Women and Book Reviews submissions year-round.
(Reminder, annual Rumpus Members can submit their work in any genre all year long.) |
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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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