This Week from The Rumpus
  • Just announced: Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman to lead The Rumpus as magazine’s new owners starting May 1!
  • New Interviews with Emma Pattee and Nadia Alexis by Liz Iversen and Leslie-Ann Murray
  • New Review of Nicole Graev Lipson's Mothers and Other Fictional Characters from Kristi D. Osorio
  • New Fiction by E.B. Taylor
  • Katie C. Reilly for Voices on Addiction 
  • Fresh new Poetry from V. B. Borjen
  • Jen Siraganian for We Are More
  • Jeff Kass shares What to Read When You're a True Believer
  • Bianca Rae Messinger for April 1st Letters in the Mail (from authors!)
  • New Rumpus 📚 > 🤖 BOOKS OVER BOTS tote bags in collaboration with Pilsen Community Books! Available and shipping now.
In case you missed it,
We had BIG NEWS to share during AWP in Los Angeles this week!
The Rumpus, one of the longest-running independent literary and culture magazines, will transition to new ownership under Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman, as of May 1, 2025. The Rumpus is ready for its next phase, and this change is an opportunity for meaningful growth and an increasingly sustainable and secure future under Roxane and Debbie’s leadership. As many people familiar with the magazine know, Roxane Gay is a founding editor of The Rumpus and was integral in publishing work that established the magazine’s reputation for publishing risk-taking writers; her history with The Rumpus makes this transition feel like a homecoming. Debbie Millman is a widely acclaimed designer, writer, and educator who will bring her expert eye and talents to the magazine’s design and create new opportunities for spotlighting visual artists. This is truly a dream team. Here's the link to read the full announcement from our current publisher/owner, Alyson Sinclair.

Interviews & Reviews
 

“I felt like I’d touched death, and I was going to write the fucking book.”

Liz Iversen interviews Emma Pattee about Tilt

“An absorbing memoir of a life permanently altered by the burden and beauty of motherhood.”

Kristi D. Osorio reviews Nicole Graev Lipson's Mothers and Other Fictional Characters

“This is a book of resistance.”

Leslie-Ann Murray interviews Nadia Alexis about Beyond the Watershed

New Essays & Columns


I wonder if my mother will recognize me. I wonder if she’ll be angry, if she’ll be hurt.

Rumpus Original Fiction: "For the Love of a Body" by E.B. Taylor

“Is there something about watching other people act in a way that is socially unacceptable that makes us feel better for restraining ourselves?

Rumpus Original Column Voices on Addiction: "What I Learned About Myself from Watching Intervention" by Katie C. Reilly

“our rooms         our carpeted floors / ― the palace / the chair    we sat in / ― the stone throne / of Knossos

Rumpus Original Poetry: Two Poems by V. B. Borjen

And by world, / I mean the / U.S., which to itself is the world. / But is not the world. Except to a father / whose house is dynamited in Palestine.

Rumpus Original Column We Are More: Five Poems by Jen Siraganian
What to Read When You're a True Believer

One thing I always tell my students is, your story matters, because I want them to believe their observations about themselves and the world around them are worth writing about. 

—Jeff Kass, "What to Read When You’re a True Believer"

 
Letters in the Mail (from authors!)
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...

April 1: Bianca Rae Messinger is a poet and translator living and working in Buffalo, NY. She is the author of the chapbooks The Love of God (Inpatient Press, 2016) and parallel bars (Center for Book Arts, 2021) and translator of In the Jungle There is Much to DO [comunidad del sur [mauricio gatti], Berlin Biennale, 2020] among others. Subscribe by March 31!
SUBSCRIBE to Letters from Authors
SUBSCRIBE to Letters + Membership!
AVAILABLE NOW!
New Rumpus tote bags in collaboration with Pilsen Community Books!

Introducing brand new Rumpus tote bags made in collaboration with the very fine worker-run bookstore Pilsen Community Books in Chicagothe first totes The Rumpus has made in over a decade!!

Back in October, as those of us in Asheville, NC were still struggling with getting running water back after Hurricane Helene, Pilsen Community Books worker-owner and long-time friend, Mandy Medley, reached out to see if there was a way to help boost The Rumpus from afar

We spend so much time publishing new work that we don’t often have the resources or bandwidth to create new merch, so we came up with the idea of collaborating on a tote and commissioning Asheville-based artist Kyndra Sweep to create the illustrations and lettering for us.

Net proceeds will be split evenly between Pilsen Community Books and The Rumpus. If you’re in the Chicago area, you can purchase totes in-person at the bookstore.

If you’re anywhere else in the USyou can order HERE directly through The Rumpus store.

Thank you for supporting human artists, writers, and workers. Books over bots, freethinkers over algorithms forever!


—Alyson Sinclair, Publisher, The Rumpus
AVAILABLE NOW!

Calls for Submissions

Open until March 31 for original Comics. Dig into our long history of publishing comics here.

Two new columns, Collaborative Criticism and Close Reads are now open year-round!


We are open for Prose and Poetry Book Reviews submissions year-round.

(Reminder, annual Rumpus Members can submit their work in any genre all year long.)

Our ceramic mug
NOW SHIPPING WORLDWIDE!
Sometimes our international friends ask how they can order our classic "Write Like a Motherfucker" ceramic mug. Well, we now have an option for you to get them through Bonfire. Get one for yourself or your best overseas bud. Also available to US folks, of course!
Order HERE

Reader Support Keeps The Rumpus Going!

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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