Interviews & Reviews
Denise S. Robbins interviews Mary Annaïse Heglar about Troubled Waters
“I was experiencing climate grief. And I needed some sort of vehicle to process that grief.”
Matthew Zarenkiewicz reviews Ángel Bonomini's The Novices of Lerna
“What Bonomini’s fantastic collection of fiction presents is not simple answers to the questions it raises, but more cascading and knotty questions.”
Katie Bannon interviews Ann Batchelder about Craving Spring
“At that moment, something beautiful and transformative happened . . . I felt resolve as well as sadness in letting go, a spiritual recognition, a deeper connection to compassion.”
Asa Drake reviews Saretta Morgan's Alt-Nature
“Alongside the jargon of American militarism, incarceration, and capitalism, Morgan practices the language of collective and enumerated ecologies—of the desert, its occupants, and its occupation . . . ”
The Rumpus interviews Eddie Ahn about Advocate for THE FIRST BOOK
“The book also works to reconcile family history and identity with some of the more difficult aspects of fighting for environmental justice . . . ” |
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ICYMI we recently launched a new Rumpus offering: The Writer's Welcome Kit, a 5-week asynchronous course to establish your regular writing practice. This course was created by author and writing coach Paulette Perhach specifically for writers who are looking for a starting point as they begin to practice their craft in an intentional way. *Perhach's book, Welcome to the Writer's Life, was published in 2018 by Sasquatch Books / Penguin Random House and was selected as one of Poets & Writers' Best Books for Writers.
The version offered by The Rumpus has 51 lessons with corresponding projects as well as additional contributions on best practices, resources, and insights shared by our team.
If you're a beginning writer in any genre who would like guidance on establishing a dedicated writing practice OR any writer who wants to commit to an intentional routine, this course was built for you.
As a limited time BONUS offer to anyone who signs up by May 21, you'll be able to join a free online accountability classes offered on Wednesday evenings in May/June. See details below!
These live Zoom meetups will include drop-in visits from Rumpus Poetry Editor, Carolina Edeid, Fiction Editor, Reena Shah, and Editor-in-Chief, Aram Mrjoian. These editors will share insights into their personal writing practice and what they look for as editors for the magazine.
This accountability bonus offer won't be available on an ongoing basis, so sign up by May 21 if you're interested in this 2 for 1 deal.
Ready to start? |
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New Essays & Columns
Rumpus Original Fiction: "Mukbang" by Divya Maniar
“The egg was more an exception than a rule. After cooking, our mother disappeared into her room for the evening, leaving my sister ample time to get herself set up with the camera.”
Rumpus Original Essay: "The Irrevocable Condition" by Hannah Paige
“Sometimes we injure ourselves so irreparably in this pursuit of home that when we get there, we can’t get up.”
Rumpus Original Poetry: Two Poems by Dabin Jeong
“What time is it there / Are you going to sleep now / Have you eaten yet / What time is it there / Is there even rice to eat / It’s warm like spring here”
Rumpus Original Comic: "Softmongering" by Kristin Emanuel
“In the dream, I am pregnant, backflipping through a field of feral pianos...I wake aching"
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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 . . .
May 15: Emma Copley Eisenberg is the author of the novel Housemates and the hybrid nonfiction book The Third Rainbow Girl, which was named a New York Times Notable Book and Editor’s Choice of 2020 as well as nominated for an Edgar Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Anthony Bouchercon Award among other honors. Her fiction has appeared in Granta, VQR, McSweeneys and elsewhere. Subscribe by May 14!
June 1: Julian Randall is a Living Queer Black poet from Chicago. A recipient of multiple fellowships, including a Pushcart Prize. He holds an MFA from University of Mississippi. His writing appears in New York Times Magazine, POETRY, Marvel Comics, and the Atlantic. Julian is the author of Refuse (Pitt, 2018), winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and a finalist for an NAACP Image Award, The Pilar Ramirez Duet (Holt Books for Young Readers), The Chainbreakers (HBYR, 2024) and The Dead Don’t Need Reminding: Essays (Bold Type Books, 2024). He can be found at @JulianThePoet and on his website JulianDavidRandall.com. Subscribe by May 31! |
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Next up in our Indie x Indie
POETRY BOOK CLUB:
Girl Work by Zefyr Lisowski
x Noemi Press |
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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 May 15, to receive our JUNE Poetry Book Club pick Girl Work by Zefyr Lisowski and join our subscriber-only conversation with author Zefyr Lisowski, Katie Kosma The Rumpus'sEnough column editor, and a representative from Noemi Press.
As a subscriber, we'll send you a copy of this book the first week of June 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 JUNE's Poetry Book Club Selection: Girl Work, a book-length meditation on sexual violence and feminized labor, centers hybrid-form and prose poems exploring haunting, labor, sexual trauma, and the assertion of a gender- nonconforming self in our current political moment. Written in injunctions to the self, to past assailants, and to friends, Girl Work, challenges canonical representations of pain as punitive, redemptive, or separable from the environmental conditions it springs from. Throughout Girl Work, a self is restored from the detritus of memory—flashes of sexual violence, pop cultural touchstones like the movie The Ring, the music of Ke$ha, the sudden death of a father, the paintings of Henry Darger, and more. Winner of the 2022 Book Award from Noemi Press.
About the author:
Zefyr Lisowski is a trans and queer writer, artist, and North Carolinian currently living in NYC. She's a Poetry Co-editor for Apogee Journal and the author of Blood Box, winner of the Black River Editor's Choice Award from Black Lawrence Press and released in fall 2019; she's also the author of the microchap Wolf Inventory (Ghost City Press, 2018) and a 2019 Tin House Summer Workshop Fellow. Zefyr's work has appeared in Literary Hub, Nat. Brut., Muzzle Magazine, and DIAGRAM, among many other places; she's also received support from Sundress Academy for the Arts, McGill University, the New York Live Ideas Fest, the Blue Mountain Center for the Arts, and the 2019 CUNY Graduate Center Adjunct Incubator Grant. A three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize, she also goes by Zef.
About the Press:
Founded in 2002, Noemi Press is a 501(c)(3) literary arts organization dedicated to publishing and promoting the work of emerging and established authors and artists. Noemi Press relies on the support of those who believe in the future of literature. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today.
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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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