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Rodlyn-mae Banting

Rodlyn-mae Banting is a freelance journalist, cultural critic, and poet writing at the intersections of gender, race, and popular culture. They have bylines in Jezebel, Electric Literature, Tone Madison, Madison365, and elsewhere.

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Rodlyn-mae's Latest Articles

A simple vertically split image collage shows an embellished professional headshot of author Sasha Debevec-McKenney on the left. She has curly hair and wears clear plastic glasses, while peering over the edge of a stone step or ledge. Colorful horizontally angled lines appear above her head. On the right, the predominantly pink book jacket for "JOY IS MY MIDDLE NAME" which appears in thick capital letters that are centered at the top. Faint sketches of various U.S. Presidents appear in the background around and below the title, making it resemble a kind of sketchbook. In the lower part of the jacket, Sasha Debevec-McKenny's name appears in smaller white text on top of an illustration of blue flames.
Sasha Debevec-McKenney catalogs a museum of her 20s in “Joy Is My Middle Name”
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Culture
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October 20, 2025

The formerly Madison-based poet gives justice to our city and the richness of girlhood in this debut poetry collection.

A maroon and white quilt with floral triangles reads "a QuiLT is SOMETHinG HUMAN" in custom printed lettering. Upside down, the quilt also reads "some human thing" in a continuous cursive font. The quilt is displayed vertically on an outdoor balcony.
A home base for a tactile, human art form
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Culture
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September 22, 2025

Textile Arts Center weaves together Madison's buzzing fiber-arts scene.

A simple rectangular image collage. The left side of the image shows the cover of "Fablemaker," which has a deep blue background and the word "Fablemaker" written in cursive font that gradates from burnt orange to yellow. The title is also written vertically from the bottom-up. The right side of the image is a photograph of Mandy Moe Pwint Tu at dusk looking down and wearing an embroidered cardigan, with soft trees in the background out of focus.
Mandy Moe Pwint Tu tries to alchemize what she couldn’t witness
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Culture
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August 25, 2025

The Madison-based poet transfigures the anguish of grief into the catharsis of memory in debut collection, "Fablemaker."

A basic landscape-oriented collage is split vertically and comprised of two other images. On the left, a book jacket for "Invisible Cartographies" displays the title in large capital-letter white text at the center with the author "Meg Kim" in smaller font below it. The book jacket design is abstract, and captures an imposing cityscape in shades of gold and black in the upper background, while a shimmering, prismatic blanket covers the middleground. Spiraling coral-like designs appear in the foreground and at the top of the jacket above the cityscape. The image on the right is a black-and-white portrait photograph of Meg Kim, who wears round glasses. They are dressed in a simple, solid-colored sweater with short black hair.
“Invisible Cartographies” lyrically excavates geographies both material and spiritual
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Culture
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July 28, 2025

Poet Meg Kim probes the limits of the knowledge and language of place.

An outdoor photo of two people in summer clothes sitting opposite one another at a picnic table. They smile and face the camera. A wooden game called "Hook and Ring" sits on top of the table along with some aluminum cans and plastic bottles. There are three tents pitched in the grass in the background behind them.
Queer Campout is reclaiming the outdoors
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Culture
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June 2, 2025

Queer adults get to enjoy swimming, hiking, and crafting—without the hyper-gendered baggage of Boy/Girl Scouts.

Close-up photo of a red clover blossom with lots of small, pointed fuchsia petals.
Why is Madison a hub for race fraud?
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Politics
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January 3, 2024

An investigation into race, gender, opportunity, and whiteness.

Illustration by M.Rose Sweetnam. [Image description: written in chalk on concrete are the words “CHALK WARS!” The words are drawn over a comic style explosion. In perspective standing above the chalk drawing is a super soaker spraying the image with water. On the super soaker is the trans symbol with the trans flag in the background. End image description]
A case of calcified hate: Madison’s anti-trans chalk wars
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Politics
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October 31, 2022

An ephemeral medium becomes a weapon of choice for local TERFs.

The logo for WisCon 45 is shown against a pastel orange background. The logo consists of the name "WisCon" in large, italicized sans-serif letters, filled in with violet coloring and images of stars. The lower-case "o" has the number "45" inside it, and extends downward to create a "female" symbol.
WisCon is back, and taking a hard look at itself
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Culture
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May 24, 2022

After a successful fundraiser, the sci-fi con forges ahead with an in-person convention centering safety and institutional growth.

The cover of Mandy Tu’s chapbook, "Monsoon Daughter," showing a drawing of a crocodile and flowers on a green background, is set next to a headshot of the author.
Grief is a kindness: A conversation with Mandy Tu on her debut chapbook, “Monsoon Daughter”
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Culture
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May 16, 2022

The poet and UW-Madison MFA student celebrates the book’s release at a May 28 virtual reading.

The university won’t love you back: The UW System’s pursuit of normalcy in the time of corona
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Politics
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October 25, 2021

What happens to a failing system when you assume that there is no need for alternatives?