"...too much saturation and enchantment can be perilous." Hospitality Training and Taking Care of the Reader: Phyllis Grant interviews Gabrielle Hamilton about Next of Kin (@penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/QE4Q9eG

“A feast. A hole, a heart. / Entrails. Daily rites, / making right. Doilies / on a plate.” \ From "Sacrifice," a new original poem by Annie Kantar. ➡️ buff.ly/xNDmECr

"Now that I am old, I look just like her. I look in the mirror and say that’s my Omai. What is she doing in the mirror?" Elizabeth Zertuche interviews Joanna Choi Kalbus about The Boat Not Taken. ➡️ buff.ly/GWne770

“How, as an eel, would I know I was good? How would I convince myself I was happy?” From "The Eeling," new original fiction by @ginathayer.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/yIOHCFr

“Readers should expect to be delighted by a poet who touches subtly yet incisively on the friction between the different selves we become, moving between languages and nations.” Luis Torres reviews @brentameneyro.bsky.social’s A Face Out of Clay (@upcolorado.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/nN3yWd5

“I don’t know if I will smell like you in forty years, / If the silver of my hair will catch the same light.” From “The Evening Leaves Debris on the Streets of California," a new original poem by @hanawiderman.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/5xnSj1n

"The traces of exploitation, resource drain, and recklessness are impossible to detangle from the seduction of power, wealth, and privilege." @egjames.bsky.social interviews @cleyvisnatera.bsky.social about The Grand Paloma Resort (Ballantine Books). ➡️ buff.ly/i002Da2

“In the pale light of the windowsill your tongue stretches, tastebuds catching the last dregs of sun. It must be hungry, you think.” From "Mother Tongue," new original fiction by Ocean Teu. ➡️ buff.ly/8NVt5bS

“Another thing they don’t tell you when your kid is diagnosed with cancer: the answer to everything they ask for is going to be yes.” From "Grim," a new original essay by Elizabeth Austin. ➡️ buff.ly/ORRXCuS

"All of us are searching for answers for something in our lives." It's hard to be a Person: @meganeolaughlin.bsky.social interviews @tinhouse.bsky.social A Silent Treatment (Tin House). ➡️ buff.ly/gdw70Yo

“Let’s see—the earliest roads were made / by animals, Google tells me, which doesn’t really answer my question. / Let’s say a border is less about division and more about contact.” From "Lesson," one of two new original poems by @cooperdart.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/Fnhn1Kx

"I want everyone to be able to play Bingo but I don't want to have anything to do with it, personally." Our next Letter in the Mail (from authors!) comes from Women's Hotel author Daniel M. Lavery. Subscribe to LITM by December 14 to receive Daniel's IRL letter: buff.ly/O4uely0

“...my daughter lifts her hand up off the handlebars & her bike wobbles & she holds it steady & she looks at me & she does not see all my past selves & the sun is shining through the trees...” From "On a street named after a forest," a new original essay by Laura Price Steele. ➡️ buff.ly/9TCsgbp

"There’s something about the expectation of control in all of our media right now that is very sinister to me. I don’t think it’s a good path..." @explodingarrow.bsky.social interviews Aiden Arata about You Have a New Memory (@grandcentralpub.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/x3MaxSX

We've got one last desk to show you, and it belongs to Sky Daddy author Katie Folk @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social. Join us Tue., Dec. 16 at 3pm EST/12pm PST as we say farewell to @gregmania.bsky.social who has steered the Show Us Your Desk ship with style, curiosity, and boatloads of humor.

“Her graceful, funny stories of largely internal horrors are a salve to those who fear that their very selves are, in some small and critical way, wrong...” From @tessmcgeer.bsky.social's latest installment of Books That Made Me Gay: Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. ➡️ buff.ly/ZMBkSvn

“Startlement is both reflective and prospective, with grief, wonder, and ridiculous joy in abundance—to be startled is to be awakened!” Miracle of the Ordinary: Jide Badmus reviews Ada Limon’s Startlement (@milkweededitions.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/0ysLZFy

“We were the most alive we had ever been, our bodies of indestructible steel, healthy and young and filled to the brim with potential.” From "Junkies," a new original essay by A. R. Sherbatov. ➡️ buff.ly/cHXWL9q

"...if you don’t desire anything, that can also be the root of all suffering." Get Free, Man: Olivia Q. Pintair interviews Zoe Dubno about Happiness & Love (@scribnerbooks.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/Wh2ZDlI

“To think about the irregularities of my heart is to induce the irregularities of my heart.” From "Foxglove," a new original essay by @suburbanprairie.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/UJcFK89

"Women have these extra burdens, and yet we still make art." Risk, Transgression and the Loyalty to Art: @sonyalea.bsky.social interviews Sally Mann about Art Work (Abrams Press). ➡️ buff.ly/l4wyeOZ

“My desire and grief overlapped like wonky laminate. I didn’t know how to fit them together properly.” From “Hear the River Laugh,” a new original essay by @gunnarupnorth.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/qGhglzc

“She’s a young adult. I want to be not-her-mom here. She deserves to speak her truth. Even when I don’t like it.” From "Something New," a new original essay by Karen Karason. ➡️ buff.ly/z2C8D9K

“...the book is kind to a woman who—mistreated by her partners and the media alike—received less than her fair share of kindness in life.” The Object of Our Attention: @acreegrahammacam.bsky.social reviews Marisa Meltzer’s It Girl (@atriabooks.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/aZp2Dbs

"I believe your country haunts you in the most bizarre way, and you cannot do much about it." A Poem Invites You, Warns You, and Then Confounds You: Tryphena Yeboah interviews @adedayoagarau.bsky.social about The Years of Blood (Fordham University Press). ➡️ buff.ly/NfZosro

“Bang’s translation honors Dante’s goal to support a broad readership, while her detailed notes convey the depth of scholarship and understanding that position her to do so.” Matthew Nisinson (@mnisinson.bsky.social) reviews Mary Jo Bang's translation of Dante's Paradiso. ➡️ buff.ly/De6vEvk

"I can never tear myself away from who I am, and at my core, I’m a poet." Permanent Knots and Anti-Colonial Archives: @nxo.bsky.social interviews Daniela Catrileo about Chilco (@fsgbooks.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/zK9FU3H

What a time to be alive when Show Us Your Desk host Greg Mania (@gregmania.bsky.social) interviews Jade Chang (@jadechang.bsky.social) on Tuesday, November 25 at 3 pm ET / 12 pm PT. Meet y'all there on Instagram Live 😍. Follow The Rumpus on Instagram: buff.ly/2HLP5i9

“What you saw in those twinned arcs—coincidence, reassurance, hope, God—said everything about you.” From "10 Wrong Ways to Tell It," a new original essay by Sarah Renee Beach. ➡️ buff.ly/ocispFT

"I wanted to write about this absurdity, the self-questioning, and the self-surveillance." The “Art Cop” in the Black Imagination: Leslie-Ann Murray interviews Brandon Taylor about Minor Black Figures (@riverheadbooks.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/T0hgdas

“The bones are what get left behind when a life has ended.” From "Picking Up Bones," a new original essay by @jennyqi.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/JAI7W7x

"Where horses buck and language unravels / she’s found the knob for no-door. Take me, take / me, me. Butter in the throat, music in / the pan, sizzle the no-door open, yes, / now." From "Nude II," one of three new poems by Shira Erlichman. ➡️ buff.ly/zNEkE2U

So proud to publish this deep heartfelt dive @therumpus.net — thank you @nonbinarypapi.bsky.social therumpus.net/2025/11/10/a...

Don't miss @karenpalmer.bsky.social's "Aftermath" at @therumpus.net—a stunning essay about the Eaton Fire and the significance of what we surround ourselves with. #RumpusEssays therumpus.net/2025/11/12/a...

Before all the hubub we covered it ;) @therumpus.net #nathanblum #booker #bookerprize therumpus.net/2025/06/25/o...

"When the doubt creeps in, as it inevitably does, I often think about writing in the dark." Our next Letter in the Mail (from authors!) comes from Samantha Saldivar, author of Play You For It (Dell). Subscribe by Nov. 30 to receive Saldivar's letter straight to your IRL mailbox: buff.ly/Jf8rbbW

“I realize no matter how many times she returns to the field and looks at me, I probably won’t feed her. I have nothing to offer.” From "Mississippi Dog," a new original essay by Nathan Fako. ➡️ buff.ly/42ICoNU

“How many nights of rest would it take for the feeling of being completely alone to go away?” From "How an Earthquake Put Me on a Boat," a new original essay by Sumati Huber. ➡️ therumpus.net/2025/11/12/h...

"Absence feels like a wound, because the things we surround ourselves with have meaning..." From "Aftermath," a new original essay by @karenpalmer.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/yKwsomF

"We have survived, we will survive, we will fight tooth and nail for our survival." Junious Ward interviews Marissa Edwards about End of Empire (@penguinbooksusa.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/EBLegqc

“Gratitude doesn’t fully encompass the feeling I have toward Boggs for this textured portrayal of Baldwin’s life.” After Jimmy’s Heart: Kelsey L. Smoot reviews Nicolas Boggs’ Baldwin: A Love Story (@fsgbooks.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/Qu9yhRq

“He refused to give his death a name, but it knew his." From “The Spurious Glamor of Certain Voids," a new original essay by @colinhamilton.bsky.social about the death of authors. ➡️ buff.ly/SOJr5ua

"Writing always draws on resilience." JOYRIDE: @yvonnec.bsky.social interviews @susanorlean.bsky.social about her memoir Joyride (@avidreaderpress.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/018CSRO

Thanks to @therumpus.net for publishing my graphic narrative "Irregular Heart". therumpus.net/2025/11/07/i...

“That it is radical to think of Muslims as humans is made obvious by how casually Mamdani’s opponents in this mayoral election engage in anti-Muslim hate.” From "Zohran Mamdani’s Campaign and the Radical Idea that Muslims are Human" by @hebagowayed.bsky.social. ➡️ buff.ly/rhFYoAZ

"Bang. Bang. Bang. I even felt it in my skull. My eyes, they're still throbbing." Our next Letter in the Mail (from authors!) comes from A. M. Sosa, author of And I'll Take Out Your Eyes (@algonquinbooks.bsky.social). Subscribe by Nov. 14 to get Sosa's letter IRL: buff.ly/Jf8rbbW

"Because I grew up so intimately with these Cain and Abel fables, I knew them like the back of my hand. They were the stories I grew up with, stories I fell asleep to." Shlagha Borah interviews I.S. Jones about Bloodmercy (@ampoetryreview.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/Ax4Ilhf

Today's listing of the day is: The Rumpus @therumpus.net #WritingCommunity

"The essay itself was just such an echo, almost like a haunting." Avenging Aaliyah and the Non-Event of Dead Girls: Ashley-Devon Williamston interviews @mickmakesmagic.bsky.social about Dead Girl Cameo: A Love Song in Poems (@penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social). ➡️ buff.ly/mqe647n

Over at @therumpus.net, I am so happy to publish an essay by @hebagowayed.bsky.social about Zohran Mamdani and the radical idea that Muslims are human! therumpus.net/2025/11/05/z...