1+ day, 4+ hour ago  (414+ words) SUGGESTED EXCERPT: "This isn't advice but it's helpful. I'd heard from so many poets I admire that it was hard, sometimes really hard, to get their first collection published. Some poets I know even published their second books before their…...

1+ day, 4+ hour ago  (119+ words) Roc'o Franco is a Chicana poet from Chicago. She holds fellowships from The Watering Hole, Periplus Collective, and others. The Frost Place, VONA, Tin House, and StoryStudio have supported her work. She was selected for the 2026 Guild Literary Complex's 35 Writers…...

1+ day, 3+ hour ago  (191+ words) No one is expected to keep up with the Atlantic City Race Course. No one is expected to even know of its existence. I only know because I grew up across the street from it. Discovering the weeded and birdnested…...

2+ day, 4+ hour ago  (1961+ words) My daughter and I pretend we're carnival workers one afternoon, hammering at a heavy wooden post until it's waist-high in the grass, and then we're carpenters, arranging the box we've ordered onto its base, securing the painted shelves onto their…...

3+ day, 5+ hour ago  (620+ words) Tolbert and I communicated over email about the role of ecopoetry, the practice of tree walking, and the capacity of language to hold admissions of fear, failures, and resentment." The Rumpus: "I was struck by your connection to the natural…...

3+ day, 22+ hour ago  (534+ words) Debbie Millman and I are thrilled to share some exciting new initiatives we are launching with The Rumpus. Beginning on April 1, 2026, we are increasing our pay rates for work accepted on or after that date. (Sadly, we cannot retroactively apply…...

4+ day, 3+ hour ago  (476+ words) The odds of picking a perfect March Madness bracket are frequently given as one in 9.2 quintillion. How likely is that? You're far more likely to be eaten by a grizzly bear, or to win the Powerball, or probably to win…...

5+ day, 5+ hour ago  (1681+ words) Books That Made Me Gay: The Vanishers by Heidi Julavits'The Rumpus Books That Made Me Gay: The Vanishers by Heidi Julavits At twenty, I worked overnight at the circulation desk checking out laptops to students in mechanical emergencies and alphabetizing…...

5+ day, 4+ hour ago  (326+ words) Aimee Nezhukumatathil is an award-winning and bestselling poet, essayist, editor, and professor living in Oxford, Mississippi. Her expansive body of work, which includes multiple collections of poetry and illustrated essays, celebrates the awe, wonder, and joy of the natural world…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago  (394+ words) I had the pleasure of speaking with Murr on the phone about the power struggles between the members of the condo, character development, and the complicated nature of chasing the "American dream." This interview has been edited for length and…...