Jennifer Acker's Blog, page 101
April 21, 2020
Ode to the Floor
SUFIYA ABDUR-RAHMAN
My boy is on the floor again. I’ve just told him he has to get in the shower, before dinner, after homework, after only five minutes of TV. “What?” he protested in a drawn-out whine that contorted his face into a buskin tragedy mask before collapsing onto the floor.
My boy is on the floor again. I’ve just told him he has to get in the shower, before dinner, after homework, after only five minutes of TV. “What?” he protested in a drawn-out whine that contorted his face into a buskin tragedy mask before collapsing onto the floor.
April 20, 2020
“To Be Led from Behind” Chosen for 2020 Best Small Fictions Award Anthology
Mohammad Ibrahim Nawaya's story “To Be Led from Behind,” translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger, has been chosen to appear in Sonder Press’s 2020 award anthology The Best Small Fictions. The anthology, now in its sixth year, presents one hundred and twenty-six pristinely crafted pieces from an array of authors. It features micro fiction, flash fiction, haibun stories and prose poetry.
April 17, 2020
How Much History Can Hurt: An Interview with Emma Copley Eisenberg
EMMA COPLEY EISENBERG
I think the passage of time can be the most devastating thing about being alive. People say time heals all wounds but sometimes it’s the opposite, isn’t it? The farther away we get from something beautiful and complicated that happened to us, sometimes the more it hurts, precisely because it’s past and we’ll never have it again or never master it.
I think the passage of time can be the most devastating thing about being alive. People say time heals all wounds but sometimes it’s the opposite, isn’t it? The farther away we get from something beautiful and complicated that happened to us, sometimes the more it hurts, precisely because it’s past and we’ll never have it again or never master it.
April 16, 2020
Review: Klotsvog by Margarita Khemlin
OLGA ZILBERBOURG
Through Maya, Khemlin illuminates the particularity of the Holocaust survivor experience for Soviet Jews, and with an even greater granularity, Jews who grew up in the shtetls and lost their entire families to Nazi violence.
Through Maya, Khemlin illuminates the particularity of the Holocaust survivor experience for Soviet Jews, and with an even greater granularity, Jews who grew up in the shtetls and lost their entire families to Nazi violence.
Literature and Creative Writing Resources for Your Remote-Learning Needs
During this difficult time, we want to take the opportunity to highlight a few educational resources we offer that are readily available for at-home learning. Even while stuck at home, you can use works from The Common to connect your students to new voices and perspectives from around the world, while also deepening their own sense of place.
April 12, 2020
Translation: I Couldn’t Say When It All Began
EDURNE PORTELA
I’ve locked the front door and pushed both bolts into place. I’ve checked the sliding door from the kitchen and blocked the rail with a stave of wood. I’ve also locked the bedroom from the inside.
I’ve locked the front door and pushed both bolts into place. I’ve checked the sliding door from the kitchen and blocked the rail with a stave of wood. I’ve also locked the bedroom from the inside.
April 9, 2020
Living the Bright Words: A Conversation with Eco-poet Kimberly Burwick
KIMBERLY BURWICK
I had been writing a series of poems dealing with my young son's aortic condition, paying painfully close attention to the articulation of his breath, his body. Oddly enough, he was paying closer, if not meticulous, attention to the environment. Suddenly, he was leading me through the brightness and newness of language in snow, in crushed beetles, dust, sap...in everything.
I had been writing a series of poems dealing with my young son's aortic condition, paying painfully close attention to the articulation of his breath, his body. Oddly enough, he was paying closer, if not meticulous, attention to the environment. Suddenly, he was leading me through the brightness and newness of language in snow, in crushed beetles, dust, sap...in everything.
April 8, 2020
Dispatches from Macedonia
TIARA DINEVSKA-MCGUIRE
The kingdom is collapsing inwards and tears down history as it falls. / We hear the vacant space where our language was kept; the absence / Growls as if it remembers once being full.
The kingdom is collapsing inwards and tears down history as it falls. / We hear the vacant space where our language was kept; the absence / Growls as if it remembers once being full.
April 7, 2020
Counsel
DAVID MOLONEY
I work alone on the Restricted Unit in the Barker County Correctional Facility in New Hampshire. It’s a semicircular room, the curved wall lined with nine cells. Most of the day, the inmates press their faces to scuffed windows, silent. There are no bars. The architects went with rosewood steel doors. Rosewood: the color of merlot.
I work alone on the Restricted Unit in the Barker County Correctional Facility in New Hampshire. It’s a semicircular room, the curved wall lined with nine cells. Most of the day, the inmates press their faces to scuffed windows, silent. There are no bars. The architects went with rosewood steel doors. Rosewood: the color of merlot.
April 1, 2020
All Night in the Tuberculosis Room
RENA J. MOSTEIRIN
I am still holding the mask. I feel that I still need it, having worn it all night over my mouth and nose to keep the germs from coming in. Everything is glowing: the mask, my breath, my hands.
I am still holding the mask. I feel that I still need it, having worn it all night over my mouth and nose to keep the germs from coming in. Everything is glowing: the mask, my breath, my hands.
