Jennifer Acker's Blog, page 53
October 12, 2022
Ars/Ours: A Question
NICELLE DAVIS
It was the 80s—my belief in the Easter Bunny falling, but the thrill at mortality peaking. I took a deep breath and plunged my five-year-old hand into the bowl. My body dissolving inside a thousand fragmented mouths.
It was the 80s—my belief in the Easter Bunny falling, but the thrill at mortality peaking. I took a deep breath and plunged my five-year-old hand into the bowl. My body dissolving inside a thousand fragmented mouths.
October 10, 2022
Connection, Collaboration, and Community: An Interview with Kirin Makker and Sejal Shah
SEJAL SHAH and KIRIN MAKKER
“I am a reliable witness to my own experience”—a line from Lacy Crawford’s Notes on a Silencing—has become a refrain in Sejal Shah and Kirin Makker’s friendship.
“I am a reliable witness to my own experience”—a line from Lacy Crawford’s Notes on a Silencing—has become a refrain in Sejal Shah and Kirin Makker’s friendship.
October 7, 2022
Friday Reads: October 2022
SOFIA BELIMOVA
As the weather gets cooler, you may find yourself looking to spend time indoors with a good book and a cup of tea. In this installment of Fridays Reads, we bring you exciting book recommendations from two of our volunteer readers.
As the weather gets cooler, you may find yourself looking to spend time indoors with a good book and a cup of tea. In this installment of Fridays Reads, we bring you exciting book recommendations from two of our volunteer readers.
October 4, 2022
Translation: Albanian Women Poets
VLORA KONUSHEVCI
Croatia produces a truly royal confectionary / used on special occasions, although some call / it an Ustasha’s chocolate, made in Zagreb by / widows who fed their wounded husbands / to the hungry war deity in Vukovar. / Bosnia’s cevaps are sinfully delicious.
Croatia produces a truly royal confectionary / used on special occasions, although some call / it an Ustasha’s chocolate, made in Zagreb by / widows who fed their wounded husbands / to the hungry war deity in Vukovar. / Bosnia’s cevaps are sinfully delicious.
October 1, 2022
Podcast: Jane Satterfield on “Letter to Emily Brontë”
JANE SATTERFIELD
I think of letters as a form that allows you to have a kind of chatty domestic conversation that also launches out toward larger public issues. It’s a form that allows the writer to almost fall into secrets that they can reveal. It’s interesting in that way; it’s both relaxed and urgent.
I think of letters as a form that allows you to have a kind of chatty domestic conversation that also launches out toward larger public issues. It’s a form that allows the writer to almost fall into secrets that they can reveal. It’s interesting in that way; it’s both relaxed and urgent.
September 29, 2022
September 2022 Poetry Feature: Ama Codjoe—from BLUEST NUDE
AMA CODJOE
When my mother was pregnant, she drove / every night to the Gulf of Mexico. / Leaving her keys and a towel on the shore, / she waded into the surf. Floating / naked, on her back, turquoise waves / hemming her ears, she allowed / the water to do the carrying.
When my mother was pregnant, she drove / every night to the Gulf of Mexico. / Leaving her keys and a towel on the shore, / she waded into the surf. Floating / naked, on her back, turquoise waves / hemming her ears, she allowed / the water to do the carrying.
September 28, 2022
The Longkau’s Name (Excerpt from DAKOTA)
WONG KOI TET
The body of water that runs by the neighborhood is in fact a river, but everyone used to call it longkau— a storm drain. The Hokkien word has a crispier edge than the Mandarin longgou. Calling it a river would require a proper name, a division into upstream and down. Nobody knew about that stuff, so we went with what was the easiest.
The body of water that runs by the neighborhood is in fact a river, but everyone used to call it longkau— a storm drain. The Hokkien word has a crispier edge than the Mandarin longgou. Calling it a river would require a proper name, a division into upstream and down. Nobody knew about that stuff, so we went with what was the easiest.
September 27, 2022
Review: June Gervais’s Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair
SUSAN SCARF MERRELL
Rarely is a book as delightful as June Gervais’s debut novel, Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair, a story of people who do their best to be better and then fail and try again with courage and integrity. These characters cannot be dismissed or ignored, because they don’t give up.
Rarely is a book as delightful as June Gervais’s debut novel, Jobs for Girls with Artistic Flair, a story of people who do their best to be better and then fail and try again with courage and integrity. These characters cannot be dismissed or ignored, because they don’t give up.
September 21, 2022
The Influence of Bloodline
NAIVO
The first time I tried to see Judge Florence, I employed the same strategy as most petitioners: I camped out at the entrance to the courthouse in the administrative district next to the lake in the capital to try and grab her as she walked in. But that just showed my ignorance.
The first time I tried to see Judge Florence, I employed the same strategy as most petitioners: I camped out at the entrance to the courthouse in the administrative district next to the lake in the capital to try and grab her as she walked in. But that just showed my ignorance.
September 20, 2022
Inundation
OLIVE AMDUR
I had one recurring nightmare as a child: I am standing in the dry bed of a creek looking upstream, the sun shining and the stones warm on the bottoms of my feet. Suddenly, a roaring wave rushes toward me around a bend and I have no choice but to be swept along with it.
I had one recurring nightmare as a child: I am standing in the dry bed of a creek looking upstream, the sun shining and the stones warm on the bottoms of my feet. Suddenly, a roaring wave rushes toward me around a bend and I have no choice but to be swept along with it.
