The Rumpus

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"A memory of a memory is both less precise and more / true— that is just the way molecules are. Nothing is like it used to be." From "Recall," new poetry by Rob Macaisa Colgate. ➡️ buff.ly/vaGwvdE

"I had thought about the characters so much that I felt like I owed it to them to at least try to write them into existence." This week's newsletter features a conversation with Carly Hillman about The Refuge (@crookedlanebooks.bsky.social). Sub. now at the bottom of our homepage: buff.ly/YkMtGcY

"Will you eat the bees into extinction, just to taste / the end of sweetness?" From "You'd bury a metaphor," new poetry by Aliyah Knight. ➡️ buff.ly/K5dshmm

"We develop our habits through a mix of impulses and instincts, which lead us to a simplified understanding of behavior." Hasan Dudar interviews @walterspot.bsky.social about A Dead White: An Argument Against White Paint (@scribnerbooks.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/ISLUlsI

"I hope you love where you live and the people you live with, and that you have time in your life to read and to let your mind wander...." Our next Letter in the Mail is written by Alysia Sawchyn, author of I Have This Thing for Flowers (@flatironbooks.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/bt80p0b

"The fuckers upon the grass gave zero fucks about the spectacle of it. To be seen in broad daylight was the point, without the cover of darkness..." Flash Fridays have begun! Start them off with "Work Window," new flash fiction by @mattjakubowski.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/FW25zxz

"What does it take to put a person on screen, and what’s left of them once you have?" From "Lesbian Simulators and an AI Thatcher," Notes from TIFF by writer and film critic Elissa Suh. ➡️ buff.ly/opFIAq4

“...it is just as important to call out the ways women perpetuate patriarchy without realizing it, as it is to hold all men accountable for their actions.” This week's installment of Girl on Girl has Rebecca Woolf asking about the women who help fan the flames of misogyny. ➡️ buff.ly/e8hX0e3

"These days, all I do is backslide. Tell me: What system is safe to believe in? All my beliefs turn on me, exposing their underbelly while I try to look away." From "Backslider," a new essay by Brandon Thurman. ➡️ buff.ly/5SLUdzv

"Oh my god my god, how I love you, / have always loved you, / with purpose as wide as horizon—" From "Birth, Home," one of three new poems by Michal 'MJ' Jones. Read all three poems now at buff.ly/VJpTZIr

"The main thing I learn about speaking as a woman is that you can never do it correctly. No matter what you do, there will always be someone to cut you off at the throat." From "castration: a love song," a new essay by Sofie Riley. ➡️ buff.ly/7HbrpRd

We’re delighted that @rebeccamakkai.bsky.social—Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, bestselling author, and Chicago superstar—will be our #AWP27 keynote speaker. Heartfelt thanks to #AWP27 premier sponsor, @therumpus.net & Roxane Gay Books! conference.awpwriter.org/keynote2027....

"Embroidery felt like the thing I needed that was quiet, that would result in something I could look at and know it carried all I could not say, didn’t want to say, wasn’t ready to say." @elsaulhernandez.bsky.social interviews Laurie Ann Guerrero about Redwork (@autumnhouse.org). ➡️ buff.ly/T9sngoZ

"Court jesters used to have their cheeks cut. This permanent smile made it easier to perform even when you didn’t feel like it." From "Who Will Save the Artists," a new culture essay by Candice Thompson. ➡️ buff.ly/eEMM4iX

"What would it mean to know I have a time bomb in my head?" In "Inheritance," a new comic by @jennifermurvin.bsky.social, Murvin remembers her Nana, the actress Lydia McKim, and the illness pervading both her memory and her possible future. ➡️ buff.ly/cdiTkVH

October's installment of the refreshed Rumpus Book Club will be Oct. 26 at 7pm ET. Host @debbiemillman.bsky.social will be speaking with New York Times best-selling author @minjinlee.bsky.social about American Hagwon. Reserve your spot now: buff.ly/pjZInAO

"My best advice about publishing—and writing—is to keep trying." Each week in our FREE newsletter, debut authors like Madeleine Moss demystify the publishing process by discussing the path to publication for their books. Enter your email at the bottom of our homepage to subscribe: buff.ly/YkMtGcY

"What would it look like if we were a country, or even a world, that helped move people from places that are precarious to places that are safer?" Jennifer Cho Salaff interviews Kawai Strong Washburn about The Names of the New World (@fsgbooks.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/YaRJxAn

"We want stories that shapeshift and evolve. Stories that take us out of our known realities and lift us into worlds unknown." In this week's Member newsletter, fiction editor G Rivera shares what exactly editors look for when screening submissions. Subscribe now: buff.ly/eT6BuvV

"It only takes / a modest revolution to enter / the underworld, peopled not / by shadows, but by more life." From "SUBPASTORAL," new poetry by @luizagurley.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/ppupAyG

"She gasped when she felt the bird’s feet wrap around her spine and bear down, tightly gripping her. A shiver ran through her body when it unfurled its wings." Prolong the obligations of Monday with this week's Sunday Scaries: "Bird Mama" by M.C. Schmidt. ➡️ buff.ly/mF84Av1

"Unlike museums that preserve the original period furnishings of historic figures, The Freud Museum Vienna preserves evidence of Nazi crimes." From "The Small, Sad Freud Museum in Vienna," Charity Hume discusses visiting the Freud Museum in Vienna. ➡️ buff.ly/3XIe7q5

"no empaqué suficiente egoísmo / no empaqué suficiente oportunidad / ni suficiente libertad para esta tierra / de tan grandes libertades" De "NO EMPAQUE LO SUFICIENTE", nueva poesía de @angiepoetwriter.bsky.social. buff.ly/s4LAWJa

"You are not afraid of death; you are afraid of being left behind. Of watching the people you love finding peace without you." From "Homecoming," new fiction by Kelly Murashige. ➡️ buff.ly/YAxGBH8

"I also think art is a site of joint attention." Diana Weymar is back with another embroidered quote! This time, she's stitched a quote from Liz Button's interview with @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social about his most recent novel, Hollywood Ending (@duttonbooks.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/8JPKYqC

"Neurodivergence. Not as accusation, but recognition. Difference, not defect." Fall in Love Mid-Sentence: Atiqah Ghazali-alKashif addresses never having fallen in love at first sight, neurodivergence in women, sapiosexuality, and her hunger for knowledge. buff.ly/0TxXRmt

“FAT SWIM feels orchestral, unified. The stories look to one another for answers.” Without Me, Where Would You Be?: Siobhan Hart reviews @emmaceisenberg.bsky.social’s Fat Swim (Hogarth). ➡️ buff.ly/25yyEhS

"I learned to hide how I felt, learned how language and poetry might fashion a wall to hide behind." Award-winning culture writer and author @nikostratis.com discusses her love for Pavement, poetic subterfuge, and the terror of feeling too much. ➡️ buff.ly/wyQ3p6r

"That’s what is special to me about books. They can be a tool for people to get closer to their own psyches." @allisonwyss.bsky.social interviews Makenna Goodman about Helen of Nowhere (@coffeehousepress.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/SAxmS7w

"A prosthetic may seek to make whole something lost to time or trauma. To restore function. To allow us to travel further." From "The Scale of a Man," a new comic by professional Adventure Cartoonist @lubellwoo.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/hxIRdUV

"He became an easy ally, my best friend, especially in the face of other kids who ridiculed us, who ridiculed me." From "Red Bowl," new fiction by Ogbodo Somtochukwu. ➡️ buff.ly/U66fV77

"We are all mysteries to ourselves. But those mysteries are also in conversation with our communities, our histories...our tradition, our lineage, our families." Irvin Weathersby Jr. interviews @asaleajani.bsky.social about Fugitive Archives (@algonquinbooks.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/HqlqOnm

Host @janetrodriguez.bsky.social is drawing back the curtain on another one of your favorite small presses! Join Janet alongside @coffeehousepress.bsky.social's Marketing Director and Publicist to learn about some new and forthcoming releases. ➡️ IG Live on Sun., Oct. 25 at 3:30 PT / 6:30 ET!

"I think the world needs happy stories and books about hopeful dreamers." In this week's free newsletter, P. Paramita chats about the publication of her pro wrestling meets culinary novel Appetite. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter at the bottom of our homepage: buff.ly/dtBT23U

"...integrity requires that you are willing to do what’s right despite what it might cost you." Timothy Jai interviews @deeshaphilyaw.bsky.social about The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman (@marinerbooks.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/0DmkMt9

"I scan the whole yard and driveway for appendages, any missing bits of man, until finally there is something. It’s not him, though. It’s the cats." From the newest installment of Sunday Scaries: "Little Cat People" by Belicia Rhea. ➡️ buff.ly/zkEXO3q

"It was easy to blame our mothers...They’d shown us how to make mistakes. And we studied those mistakes. Oh god, did we study." From "Our Mothers," new fiction by Amy Silverberg. ➡️ buff.ly/Z3c4Uzo

"To be a prey animal then is to survive a litany of trials: tests of error, and of gentleness. To live with terror passed down in the blood." From "Transparent Horses," new poetry by Izzy Toy Rettke. ➡️ buff.ly/Y6AnXZH

"There’s a scratch of electricity behind my eyes, that familiar vertiginous sway, but I don’t disappear. I stay right here in the snow, moving toward the light, caught in an orbit that tugs me into the woods." From "Liturgy of Teeth," new fiction by Joshua Allen Sorrells. ➡️ buff.ly/at1kVmE

"So what is KATSEYE? A girl group, yes, but also a girl group-shaped concept." In our newest culture essay, @missmollymary.bsky.social analyzes her own fascination with the reality-show-created girl group KATSEYE. ➡️ buff.ly/ki6iUAi

"My prized lump, my eldest-born, / what wouldn’t I do for it? Love it or try / desperately to fix it, the same difference." From "Cyst with Teeth," one of two new poems by Angelica Whitehorne. ➡️ buff.ly/NEvGrut

"I find myself paralyzed by language more often than not, and yet here I am, engaged in an interview in which I am supposed to be the writer." Returning to the Self: Tryphena Yeboah interviews Truong Tran about How to Exi(s)t (@citylightsbooks.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/0igTTZq

"she’d / dry-heaved in the parking lot / so many people / so many people / she said mama’s fine and / unbuckled her children" From "El Paso Walmart in Two Parts," new poetry by Samantha Strong Murphey. ➡️ buff.ly/wf4IVlw

"Quizás es, incluso, lo más mexicano de mi escritura: esta relación con el humor y con el humor negro. La irreverencia." Comunidad y escritura: una conversación con Laia Jufresa, escrito por Katherine Tilghman. Lee la conversación: buff.ly/7Dds1GC

"I have spent a lot of time coming up with things I 'need' to be doing other than this comic." From "The Hardest Lesson Learned the Hardest Way," a new comic by @iamsuzanneweber.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/HV3F4bp

“I wonder if the rules around motherhood are harder to see because they don’t look like rules. They sound like your own voice." The correspondence between our two favorite letter writers continues this week with Monica's letter "We Expect Too Much from Mothers." ➡️ buff.ly/Hk7125D

"My mom mourned all her children, their watermarked class photos pasted on our fridge and in her wallet, but I was the one who remained." From "Elmo" by Amina Washington, winner of the 2026 Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize. ➡️ buff.ly/GqtMznx

"If Jemma serious about this writing business, she need to be prepared to ride it far as she can, past what white folk can see. Maybe even past where I can see." From "Claim," new fiction by @kaylalightner.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/fAvAPD7

"Ideology is easy to reject. The question of what women should want, and which path will deliver it, is harder to untangle..." "Damned if You Do: On Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear" by Erin Caldwell Antler. ➡️ buff.ly/HpGWCse

"I have to tell you: there's something utterly heartbreaking about putting a book you wrote out into the world." Our next Letters in the Mail (from authors!) entrant is from Nina LaCour, author of Meet Me in the Garden (@flatironbooks.bsky.social). Subscribe to LITM now: buff.ly/Lj7DxpO