Jennifer Acker's Blog, page 17
October 21, 2024
Forever Red
TINA VALLÈS
Hunger can’t be explained. It’s always unbelievable, especially the hunger of a child. Imagining my father starving when he was younger than ten years old makes me want to time-travel back to my grandparents’ store and bluntly ask: Why did you let your son starve when you had a store full of food?
Hunger can’t be explained. It’s always unbelievable, especially the hunger of a child. Imagining my father starving when he was younger than ten years old makes me want to time-travel back to my grandparents’ store and bluntly ask: Why did you let your son starve when you had a store full of food?
A Day Revisited
ROBERT CORDING
I’m standing in the exact spot / of this photograph, looking at the past— / my middle son, still alive, lying on the rug / at my feet in my oldest son’s house. / On his wide chest, his niece, weeks old, / sleeps, adrift perhaps in the familiarity / of the heart’s steady beat, her memory / of him formed mostly by this photograph.
I’m standing in the exact spot / of this photograph, looking at the past— / my middle son, still alive, lying on the rug / at my feet in my oldest son’s house. / On his wide chest, his niece, weeks old, / sleeps, adrift perhaps in the familiarity / of the heart’s steady beat, her memory / of him formed mostly by this photograph.
October 18, 2024
What We’re Reading: October 2024
CHRIS JOHN POOLE
Narrative must accommodate reality, yet it can also give it new form. This Is Not Miami fizzles with this tension. Exploiting the duality of the crónica , Melchor asserts that truth and fiction are inextricable.
Narrative must accommodate reality, yet it can also give it new form. This Is Not Miami fizzles with this tension. Exploiting the duality of the crónica , Melchor asserts that truth and fiction are inextricable.
October 15, 2024
A New Kind of Campus Novel: Bruna Dantas Lobato on Her Debut Novel
BRUNA DANTAS LOBATO
But primarily, I wanted to write a contemporary long-distance relationship immigrant novel. I’ve always felt like a lot of immigrant novels didn’t capture my experience; those novels are about leaving something behind and going toward this other future. But I was trying to live two lives at once.
But primarily, I wanted to write a contemporary long-distance relationship immigrant novel. I’ve always felt like a lot of immigrant novels didn’t capture my experience; those novels are about leaving something behind and going toward this other future. But I was trying to live two lives at once.
October 14, 2024
Read Excerpts by Finalists for the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing 2024
NEWS AND EVENTS
We are thrilled to announce the finalists chosen for this year’s Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing in fiction. In this ninth year of the prize, it has never felt more important to highlight themes of migration, displacement, unrest, alienation, self-determination—of seeking home, and all the reasons one leaves home to find a better way.
We are thrilled to announce the finalists chosen for this year’s Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing in fiction. In this ninth year of the prize, it has never felt more important to highlight themes of migration, displacement, unrest, alienation, self-determination—of seeking home, and all the reasons one leaves home to find a better way.
An Index of Earth Words
ANNESHA MITHA
This planet is mine and I belong to this planet. I know because when the dirt hits my tongue I feel almost joy. The earth here tastes like blood, which I haven’t tasted in many years, but I remember it, I remember being a child and cutting myself on an open can my mother had left in the kitchen, so long ago the memory comes to me as if from underwater.
This planet is mine and I belong to this planet. I know because when the dirt hits my tongue I feel almost joy. The earth here tastes like blood, which I haven’t tasted in many years, but I remember it, I remember being a child and cutting myself on an open can my mother had left in the kitchen, so long ago the memory comes to me as if from underwater.
not equal to ≄
AYOTOLA TEHINGBOLA
This dark stain will make her run, from her father and mother whom she loves so much, from the old railway and oil wells of Aba, from the noise and smog of Lagos; this dark mark will lead her to apply to six graduate programs in a country she had no affinity for and she chose the furthest one: Boise State University.
This dark stain will make her run, from her father and mother whom she loves so much, from the old railway and oil wells of Aba, from the noise and smog of Lagos; this dark mark will lead her to apply to six graduate programs in a country she had no affinity for and she chose the furthest one: Boise State University.
Three Stories from A Bunch of Savages
SOFI STAMBO
My father once even asked me, when did we become so Americanized, and why do we use declarations like that. It’s unnatural: if you love someone you just love them, you show them, you don’t need to say it. I told him that I respectfully disagree, and I’m all for saying everything good you can find to say to another person.
My father once even asked me, when did we become so Americanized, and why do we use declarations like that. It’s unnatural: if you love someone you just love them, you show them, you don’t need to say it. I told him that I respectfully disagree, and I’m all for saying everything good you can find to say to another person.
Excerpt from Cattail
HAITAO XU
Mom liked to say Cattail was a tiger plant because Cattail was born in the year of the tiger. A tiger is the strongest of all the beasts, and cattail is the toughest of all the plants. And you have both, a tiger plant. You never compete for pretty looks but for strength. Those were her exact words.
Mom liked to say Cattail was a tiger plant because Cattail was born in the year of the tiger. A tiger is the strongest of all the beasts, and cattail is the toughest of all the plants. And you have both, a tiger plant. You never compete for pretty looks but for strength. Those were her exact words.
October 10, 2024
Translation: Two Poems by Edith Bruck
EDITH BRUCK
Pretty soon / When people hear a quiz show master / Talk about Auschwitz / They’ll wonder if they would have guessed / That name / They’ll comment on the current champion / Who never gets dates wrong / And always pinpoints the number of dead.
Pretty soon / When people hear a quiz show master / Talk about Auschwitz / They’ll wonder if they would have guessed / That name / They’ll comment on the current champion / Who never gets dates wrong / And always pinpoints the number of dead.
