The Rumpus

The Rumpus
source
Name	The Rumpus
Type	Online magazine
Format	Digital
Founded	2009
Founder	Stephen Elliott
Country	United States
Language	English

The Rumpus

The Rumpus is an American online literary magazine founded in 2009 that publishes essays, reviews, interviews, fiction, and poetry. It has hosted contributions from writers and cultural figures associated with Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, and Granta, and developed relationships with institutions such as Poets & Writers, National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, and Community of Literary Magazines and Presses. It operates within the literary ecosystems of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon while engaging national readers and participants linked to University of Iowa, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, Brown University, and Johns Hopkins University.

History

The magazine was launched in 2009 by Stephen Elliott amid dialogues involving editors, authors, and journalists tied to The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon, and Slate. Early coverage and interviews connected to writers from McSweeney's, Tin House, Fence Books, Graywolf Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and W. W. Norton & Company helped position the site alongside small-press movements and independent journals associated with Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Boston Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review. Over time the magazine navigated controversies paralleling public debates involving The New Republic, Gawker, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic Wire, and HuffPost. Editorial transitions involved contributors and editors who had worked with The Paris Review Prize nominees, Pulitzer Prize finalists, and recipients of the MacArthur Fellows Program, National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, and PEN/Hemingway Award.

Editorial Mission and Content

The publication emphasizes long-form criticism, personal essays, and interviews in conversation with literary and cultural figures from Toni Morrison, Joan Didion, Zadie Smith, George Saunders, and Junot Díaz to poets associated with Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Tracy K. Smith, Eileen Myles, and Ocean Vuong. It publishes book reviews that engage titles from Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Little, Brown and Company, Bloomsbury, and HarperCollins. Its interview series has featured editors and authors connected to NPR Books, BBC Culture, The Guardian, The Observer, and Los Angeles Times Book Review. Essays and criticism often intersect with public conversations about awards like the National Book Critics Circle Award, Nobel Prize in Literature, Costa Book Awards, and programs run by The Rockefeller Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Contributors and Notable Works

Contributors have included established and emerging writers who have also appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, Granta, Harper's, The Threepenny Review, Boston Globe, The Times Literary Supplement, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Believer. Notable works published on the site have featured essays and fiction by figures associated with David Foster Wallace, Philip Roth, Dorothy Parker, Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahiri, Kazuo Ishiguro, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, and Susan Sontag. The magazine has also run profiles and interviews with editors and cultural curators with ties to Vintage Books, Knopf, Faber & Faber, Secker & Warburg, and independent presses such as Coffee House Press and Dalkey Archive Press.

Events and Community Programs

The organization has hosted readings, panels, and community programs in collaboration with institutions like Poets & Writers, Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, Greenlight Bookstore, City Lights Bookstore, and university presses at University of Chicago Press, Princeton University Press, and Yale University Press. Events featured collaborations with festivals and conferences including Brooklyn Book Festival, Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Edinburgh International Book Festival, AWP Conference, and Decatur Book Festival. It has run mentorship initiatives and workshops that connected participants to residency programs such as MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Blue Mountain Center, and support networks tied to Lambda Literary, Women Writers, Women’s Books, and The Center for Fiction.

Reception and Impact

Critical reception has been mixed to favorable across outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, and literary blogs linked to The Millions, Electric Literature, Book Riot, and Flavorwire. The publication influenced conversations about digital literary culture alongside platforms like The Awl, Medium, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, and Nightwalker. It has been cited in academic syllabi at Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Stanford University, and University of Michigan for courses on contemporary literature and cultural criticism, and its archives are consulted by scholars publishing in journals such as PMLA, Modern Fiction Studies, Contemporary Literature, and American Literary History.

Business Model and Funding

The site has experimented with membership programs, crowdfunding campaigns akin to those run on platforms used by Kickstarter and Patreon, grants from organizations including National Endowment for the Arts, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation, and partnerships with independent publishers such as Graywolf Press and Copper Canyon Press. Revenue streams have combined advertising, sponsorships by cultural institutions, subscription offerings comparable to models used by The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Vox Media, and events ticketing tied to collaborations with Barnes & Noble and local bookstores. Financial reporting and negotiations have intersected with nonprofit advocacy groups such as Institute of Museum and Library Services and trade associations like Association of American Publishers.

Category:American literary magazines Category:Online magazines of the United States