Book Reviews Editor news: Thank you,
Chelsea Leu and welcome Michael Barron! |
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While we've seen many book reviews sections (and entire literary magazines disappear) over the years, long-form thoughtful reviews are still a priority for The Rumpus. Today, we're sharing our gratitude for our outgoing prose Book Reviews Editor and welcoming a new addition to the team!
From our wonderful outgoing prose Book Reviews Editor, Chelsea Leu:
Back in 2019, in the before times, I became The Rumpus prose Book Reviews Editor despite being a rank amateur with no editing experience to speak of. Nearly four years and 196 reviews later (yes, I've been counting, and yes, there is a spreadsheet), I've learned so, so much--about editing, of course, but also about the warmth of literary community, and how thrilling it is to find brilliant voices who have been underappreciated or are just starting out. (If you care about these things too, support The Rumpus!) I think it's time for someone else to give the section a fresh perspective, and I'm genuinely excited to see where it goes. Meanwhile, I'll be spending my new free time in a Word document, chipping away at a project I fondly imagine will someday become a book. I find it impossible to pick favorites of any kind (please never ask me what my favorite book is), but here are just a few of the many wonderful reviews I've edited: Mason Andrew Hamberlin on Ander Monson's Predator Hilary Sun on Julie Otsuka's The Swimmers Jonathan Leal on Lucy Sante's Maybe the People Would Be the Times Amelia Possanza on Andrea Long Chu's Females and Jenn Shapland's My Autobiography of Carson McCullers
You can also find out more about Chelsea's work on her website & follow her @ChelseaLeu.
Chelsea, we can't thank you enough and we look forward to your debut some day soon! |
| And now introducing our incoming prose Book Reviews Editor, Michael Barron:
I'm excited to assume the role of prose Book Reviews Editor for The Rumpus, a magazine that's existed almost as long as I've been in the literary world—an old friend. It's a serendipitous step in my editorial career that has included two stints in indie book publishing (New Directions, Melville House). Many of my books were reviewed by The Rumpus, which was then, and still is, vital to championing the underdog literature published by smaller presses that might not get attention elsewhere. I want to continue that tradition and widen the breadth of my great predecessor Chelsea Leu in attending to and advancing unsung, overlooked, and formally inventive literature. I see The Rumpus book review as the ideal venue for indie presses, translators, and those readers and critics who look to be challenged by contemporary international and American literature. Along with being an editor, I’m a writer and occasional translator. As the son of a Salvadoran mother my tastes tend to gravitate toward peripheral and immigrant literature. You can learn more about me at michaelbarron.co or on Twitter @_michaelbarron.
* Rumpus Members: Stay tuned for a future Members-only newsletter that will feature a longer conversation about Michael's hopes for the book review and more details on what he'll be looking for. Please note that Leena Soman Navani continues to be our Poetry Book Reviews Editor. |
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Interviews & Reviews
Clint Smith, poetry and the body (an interview). "It needed to happen for me. I began the collection before How the Word is Passed. I started it when my wife got pregnant in September, 2016. I didn’t start How the Word is Passed until the confederate monuments came down in May, 2017."
Hannah Pass reviews Alissa Hattman’s Sift. "In Hattman’s debut novel Sift, we see a similar search for truth, explored through her lean and dazzling prose. We meet the narrator, Tortula, and The Driver, who set out on a dystopian journey through the terrains in search of fertile ground to plant crops. They travel across blackened fields, through smoke-filled air, past a charred city and desert, until finally reaching a mountain. It’s in these landscapes that we bear witness to Tortula’s meditations on memory and connection, on nature and letting go, and what it means to exist in a world for people, when there are no people around."
Jane Wong, against a singular story (an interview). "I’m coming to nonfiction as a poet. My nonfiction essays were singular essays before they were woven into a memoir." |
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Originals & Columns
Sketch Book Reviews: Night Vision by Mariana Alessandri, reviewed by Kateri Kramer:
"The book is about all the ways we can understand and process the darkness we all experience."
"Humans Don't Live Long Enough" written by Tiara Shelley and illustrated by Katie Nieland:
"We spend our short lives stuck in or shedding the layers of who we were told to be . . . "
Three Poems: "Love’s Rare Sightings" by E. Hughes:
"The burden of my life bound my mother / to a man. I don’t want to bind my lover..." |
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Every month subscribers receive a book in the mail handpicked by The Rumpus staff.Now through midnight on June 15, you can sign up for our June Poetry Book Club pick The Diaspora Sonnets by Oliver de la Paz.
As a subscriber, you'll also be invited to an exclusive online video discussion with the book's author + a Rumpus Editor. 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.
**Due to consistently low numbers, we've ended our prose Book Club program. Our last pick was for June 2023. Those subscribers were contacted in advance, will receive their last book, and are invited to join the June author conversation as usual. All their recurring payments were discontinued. If you want to see these sorts of programs continue, they are a LOT of work, so we need readers to join and tell their friends!*
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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 . . .
June 1: James Allen Hall
June 15: Paul Hlava Ceballos |
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Calls for Submissions
Kitchen Table Literary Arts x The Rumpus
Voices on Addiction:
Open May 1st - June 30th. 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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Thank you to this week's sponsor Bloomsbury |
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We're trying something new with half or full month ad partners for the site and/or our weekly e-newsletter in the hopes of having a more solid way of supporting the work we do at The Rumpus. This also allows us to have more say in who we work with vs. automated ads feeding through our site.
If you're interested in sharing the work you do as a publisher, literary organization, author, or other member of the literary community, please reach out to Monica at ads@therumpus.net.
*If you're a Rumpus Member, editor, or volunteer reader, email hello@therumpus.net your upcoming literary-related events or classes and we'll do our best to include them in an upcoming free weekly newsletter. We appreciate you supporting the work WE do and would like to pay it forward. |
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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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