Jennifer Acker's Blog, page 59
May 16, 2022
New to Liberty: A Conversation with DeMisty D. Bellinger
DEMISTY D. BELLINGER
They’re trying to take hold of their own lives and define life for themselves instead of having the rest of the world do that for them. Desire is a big part of it too...In thinking about my own work, so much of it is about desire and love and a need to define oneself.
They’re trying to take hold of their own lives and define life for themselves instead of having the rest of the world do that for them. Desire is a big part of it too...In thinking about my own work, so much of it is about desire and love and a need to define oneself.
May 13, 2022
Podcast: Nathan Jordan Poole on “Idlewild”
NATHAN JORDAN POOLE
Nathan Jordan Poole speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about his story “Idlewild,” which appears in The Common’s new spring issue. In this conversation, Nathan talks about doing seasonal work at Christmas tree farms and the workers from all walks of life he met there.
Nathan Jordan Poole speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about his story “Idlewild,” which appears in The Common’s new spring issue. In this conversation, Nathan talks about doing seasonal work at Christmas tree farms and the workers from all walks of life he met there.
May 12, 2022
In the Fog
ADA NEGRI
So dense was the fog, you were blinded by it. You had to cut through it like a swimmer against water. It forced its way into your mouth, into your nostrils, suffocating you. All around, houses and streets dissolved in the nebulous mass of vapors. The atmosphere of a dream.
So dense was the fog, you were blinded by it. You had to cut through it like a swimmer against water. It forced its way into your mouth, into your nostrils, suffocating you. All around, houses and streets dissolved in the nebulous mass of vapors. The atmosphere of a dream.
May 11, 2022
Baguettes
JAMES STAIG
Few things link me to the different places I have lived in more than bread. It’s not just me, I like to think. Bread defines a sense of belonging, a dialogue between my way of being and those different cultural forms of wheat, water, salt, and yeast.
Few things link me to the different places I have lived in more than bread. It’s not just me, I like to think. Bread defines a sense of belonging, a dialogue between my way of being and those different cultural forms of wheat, water, salt, and yeast.
May 2, 2022
Hummingbird Tantra
CORRIE WILLIAMSON
Red draws their tiny eye, and every hummingbird / feeder you can buy blooms a plastic, stoic / ruby, effigy of flower, tadasana of red. Already / they have eaten me out of sugar, but forgetful today / I’ve left the sliding porch door wide, and on my couch /
a cheery wool blanket...
Red draws their tiny eye, and every hummingbird / feeder you can buy blooms a plastic, stoic / ruby, effigy of flower, tadasana of red. Already / they have eaten me out of sugar, but forgetful today / I’ve left the sliding porch door wide, and on my couch /
a cheery wool blanket...
Idlewild
Nathan Jordan Poole
It seemed, in those first few months after the accident, that he and his wife would remain with each other, if only to have the presence of their pain burn as brightly as it could—how they relished and needed it, in those early months. It was right to keep the fuel together, to let it burn.
It seemed, in those first few months after the accident, that he and his wife would remain with each other, if only to have the presence of their pain burn as brightly as it could—how they relished and needed it, in those early months. It was right to keep the fuel together, to let it burn.
The Woman in the Well
ANU KUMAR
For nearly two years of my life, I lived with a ghost. It was when my father, a civil servant, was posted in Sambalpur, a now forgotten town in northern Odisha, a state in India’s east. Newspapers then, and even now, always added the descriptor “India’s poorest state”...
For nearly two years of my life, I lived with a ghost. It was when my father, a civil servant, was posted in Sambalpur, a now forgotten town in northern Odisha, a state in India’s east. Newspapers then, and even now, always added the descriptor “India’s poorest state”...
Side Mirror
J.D. SCRIMGEOUR
You’re floundering in flashes of light and dark, / so after a few minutes you scoot inside / because January’s cold, and ask your wife for help, / embarrassed you can’t do even this simple task. / She peers over her glasses, studies the tape, / then returns it unstuck, separated...
You’re floundering in flashes of light and dark, / so after a few minutes you scoot inside / because January’s cold, and ask your wife for help, / embarrassed you can’t do even this simple task. / She peers over her glasses, studies the tape, / then returns it unstuck, separated...
A Rage on Berbice, 1763
LYNNE THOMPSON
Before I was north and south of a new country / I was divided from I was a tactic I was / a slave-trading port / Before I was remade as Amerindian / I was sugar as the main crop / Before I was overworked and underfed / I was selected for immediate punishment
Before I was north and south of a new country / I was divided from I was a tactic I was / a slave-trading port / Before I was remade as Amerindian / I was sugar as the main crop / Before I was overworked and underfed / I was selected for immediate punishment
Of Prayers and Orisons
BENJAMIN PALOFF
It has become the first ritual of morning to throw / the door open, welcoming the breeze now free of / evening’s biting insects, another in a long line of / self-justifications: it will arrive whether it’s / welcome or not. As will the birds, who know when you breakfast / and on what...
It has become the first ritual of morning to throw / the door open, welcoming the breeze now free of / evening’s biting insects, another in a long line of / self-justifications: it will arrive whether it’s / welcome or not. As will the birds, who know when you breakfast / and on what...
