Last year, publishing power couple Roxanne Gay and Debbie Millman acquired dear online lit mag The Rumpus. Today the new leaders celebrated their launch rebranded site With new essays, fiction, and fresh design.
The Rumpus was founded by author Stephen Elliott and launched in 2009 out of San Francisco. Under Elliott’s editorial purview, the site became one of our best and scrappest online lit mags, launching the careers of writers like Cheryl Strayed (aka “Dear Sugar”), Yumi Sakugawa, and Steve Almond.
Although the guard was changed several times after Elliott’s complicated exit, The Rumpus Most hang on as a volunteer-driven labor of love. But with the masthead support of fan/contributors like Gay, the site has been able to weather some of the storms that have left its comrades in cyberspace.
In some ways, the Gay-Millman takeover is a homecoming. Gay served as a longtime essay editor for the site. And as he shared in a statement from last march“The discord It was one of the first places where my writing found a significant audience, and it helped shape me into the writer I am today.”
So what’s next for this new-old magazine?
Millman, who will serve as the site’s new culture editor and creative director, suggests a change in atmosphere is imminent.
“We will still cover fiction, essays, poetry, book reviews, author interviews, etc. with the same rigor and integrity,” podcast host told Publishers Weekly. “But we’re also going to include more design criticism, art criticism, and overall cultural coverage. The spirit of the writing and coverage will be very similar; on top of that, it will be different.”
Both leaders have suggested that the new site will not deviate from politics, or the concerns of the day. Gay plans to launch a companion Spanish-language vertical to attract a broader population of readers. And inspired by a conversation with poet Reginald Dwayne Bates (D.) Founder of Freedom Reads) The new editor also intends to launch a column edited and written by people who are in or have been to prison.
In more general content news, a discord The feature planned for July will survey a large number of creatives with the question, “What does freedom mean to you?” This reader hopes this will refute all the skeptics. America 250 Content flood organization neutered is grateful to NEA.
But all this is in the future. on today’s rebranded discordYou can find an essay by Sheila Monaghan, a conversation with Author Dave HousleyAnd two wonderful new short stories.
In addition, a briefly inactive site-sponsored book club has become active again. Monthly discussions with authors—open to all!—beginning on June 30th at 7 pm. The first guest is Ann Patchett; Millman will lead a discussion focused on her latest novel, Whistler. Readers can register Here.
