Jennifer Acker's Blog, page 104
February 19, 2020
Excerpt from SING, UNBURIED, SING
JESMYN WARD
Sometimes I think I understand everything else more than I’ll ever understand Leonie. She’s at the front door, paper grocery bags obscuring her, hitching the screen and kicking it open, and then edging through the door.
Sometimes I think I understand everything else more than I’ll ever understand Leonie. She’s at the front door, paper grocery bags obscuring her, hitching the screen and kicking it open, and then edging through the door.
February 13, 2020
Roya Zarrin: Three Persian Poems in Translation
ROYA ZARRIN
Did you hear? / They're calling me / from my northern gardens, with the scent of rice, / and from southern gardens, with the scent of revelation trees. / Forget water justice. / Don’t follow me. / Today I’m bitter, Obadiah. / Today is the feast of sacrifice / and the blood of my lambs run cold
Did you hear? / They're calling me / from my northern gardens, with the scent of rice, / and from southern gardens, with the scent of revelation trees. / Forget water justice. / Don’t follow me. / Today I’m bitter, Obadiah. / Today is the feast of sacrifice / and the blood of my lambs run cold
February 11, 2020
Southtown
ANDREW PORTER
We were so reckless, Madeline said to me the other day when I told her about my memory. Who knows how many random people might have passed through our house in those days. How many of them might have been armed.
We were so reckless, Madeline said to me the other day when I told her about my memory. Who knows how many random people might have passed through our house in those days. How many of them might have been armed.
February 5, 2020
What Matters Most
RACHEL LAVERDIERE
Where I'm headed, there will be heaps of food. After I packed my bag, I snuck past Maman pushing a tray of cinnamon buns into the oven. Yesterday, I overheard her on the phone with Mémère, “The chokecherries should be ripening soon.” Maman never lies.
Where I'm headed, there will be heaps of food. After I packed my bag, I snuck past Maman pushing a tray of cinnamon buns into the oven. Yesterday, I overheard her on the phone with Mémère, “The chokecherries should be ripening soon.” Maman never lies.
January 31, 2020
LitFest Friday Reads: January 2020
Curated by SARAH WHELAN
The Common is gearing up for LitFest, a weekend of events to celebrate contemporary literature, with extraordinary voices such as Jesmyn Ward, Susan Choi, Laila Lalami, and Ben Rhodes. Read on for our editors' recommendations from some of the participating authors.
The Common is gearing up for LitFest, a weekend of events to celebrate contemporary literature, with extraordinary voices such as Jesmyn Ward, Susan Choi, Laila Lalami, and Ben Rhodes. Read on for our editors' recommendations from some of the participating authors.
January 29, 2020
A Geology of Memory: Whiteside Mountain, North Carolina
GREGORY ARIAIL
This mountain in western North Carolina, called Whiteside Mountain and Sanigilâ'gĭ in Cherokee, is a site of an ever-shifting strata of personal and historical memory. In one of my earliest childhood memories, partial and overexposed like a polaroid cutout, a king snake bakes on the brilliant white rocks of the summit.
This mountain in western North Carolina, called Whiteside Mountain and Sanigilâ'gĭ in Cherokee, is a site of an ever-shifting strata of personal and historical memory. In one of my earliest childhood memories, partial and overexposed like a polaroid cutout, a king snake bakes on the brilliant white rocks of the summit.
January 28, 2020
Little Women: A Review
HANNAH GERSEN
I have friends who cried their way through Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, and I expected that I would, too, but I spent much of my first viewing in a state of mild agitation. I had re-read the novel a few days before seeing the film, and was distracted as I tried to figure out the mechanics of Gerwig’s complex temporal structure.
I have friends who cried their way through Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, and I expected that I would, too, but I spent much of my first viewing in a state of mild agitation. I had re-read the novel a few days before seeing the film, and was distracted as I tried to figure out the mechanics of Gerwig’s complex temporal structure.
January 24, 2020
January 2020 Poetry Feature
JOHN FREEMAN, MARCUS SCOTT WILLIAMS, MEGAN PINTO, AND REILLY COX
There are no editors in the café / called Les Éditeurs. There’s not / a single novelist in the Saint- / Germain store gilded by novels.
There are no editors in the café / called Les Éditeurs. There’s not / a single novelist in the Saint- / Germain store gilded by novels.
January 22, 2020
Review: Like Water by Olga Zilberbourg
JEN HINST-WHITE
“There has to be more to this other woman than her role as a mother,” she said. I realize now that she was speaking from her own recent, still-raw experiences.
“There has to be more to this other woman than her role as a mother,” she said. I realize now that she was speaking from her own recent, still-raw experiences.
January 16, 2020
The Hold Steady Sets the Scene
ERIC R. DANTON
Thrashing Thru the Passion, the latest album from Brooklyn indie-rock band the Hold Steady, begins with a striking description: “He shaved his head at the airport / In a bar at the end of the concourse.”
Thrashing Thru the Passion, the latest album from Brooklyn indie-rock band the Hold Steady, begins with a striking description: “He shaved his head at the airport / In a bar at the end of the concourse.”
