Jennifer Acker's Blog, page 67
December 13, 2021
How to Write on a Ledge: An Interview with John Murillo
JOHN MURILLO
I have never—or, at least, very seldom—been able to write about or toward a subject. Instead, I use subjects, images, and phrases as points of departure. Ledges. What I had to do with this series, then, was to just write, then see what I had, and decide whether it fit into the series or not.
I have never—or, at least, very seldom—been able to write about or toward a subject. Instead, I use subjects, images, and phrases as points of departure. Ledges. What I had to do with this series, then, was to just write, then see what I had, and decide whether it fit into the series or not.
December 10, 2021
Friday Reads: December 2021
ELLY HONG
For our December round of Friday Reads, we spoke to two of our contributors from Issue 22. Read on for recommendations that strike a unique balance between comedy and tragedy.
For our December round of Friday Reads, we spoke to two of our contributors from Issue 22. Read on for recommendations that strike a unique balance between comedy and tragedy.
December 9, 2021
Tell Me About Bobby Kennedy
BOB JOHNSON
The night Barack Obama was elected president, Roger Sinclair and his family gathered in his living room to watch the results come in. And there Roger—lifelong Democrat, city councilman, local party chair—drank a bottle of Merlot.
The night Barack Obama was elected president, Roger Sinclair and his family gathered in his living room to watch the results come in. And there Roger—lifelong Democrat, city councilman, local party chair—drank a bottle of Merlot.
December 7, 2021
Negotiating Fluidity
BRIDGET A. LYONS
We are dodging icebergs at twenty-five miles per hour. From the bow of our eighteen-foot Zodiac, I try to make sense of the ecosystem I’ve come here to investigate: northern Alaska’s Beaufort Sea coastline. But my customary visual bearings don’t seem to be serving me here in Alice’s Arctic Wonderland, where even the most fundamental rules of spatial arrangement have been upended.
We are dodging icebergs at twenty-five miles per hour. From the bow of our eighteen-foot Zodiac, I try to make sense of the ecosystem I’ve come here to investigate: northern Alaska’s Beaufort Sea coastline. But my customary visual bearings don’t seem to be serving me here in Alice’s Arctic Wonderland, where even the most fundamental rules of spatial arrangement have been upended.
December 3, 2021
Podcast: Priyanka Sacheti on “Oman is Mars: An Alien All Along”
PRIYANKA SACHETI
Priyanka Sacheti speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her essay “Oman is Mars: An Alien All Along,” which appears in a portfolio of writing from the Arabian Gulf, in The Common’s fall issue. In this conversation, Priyanka talks about her feeling of not belonging anywhere—born in Australia to an Indian family, but growing up in Oman as a third culture kid.
Priyanka Sacheti speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her essay “Oman is Mars: An Alien All Along,” which appears in a portfolio of writing from the Arabian Gulf, in The Common’s fall issue. In this conversation, Priyanka talks about her feeling of not belonging anywhere—born in Australia to an Indian family, but growing up in Oman as a third culture kid.
December 2, 2021
Translation: Poetry by Esther Ramón
ESTHER RAMÓN
Two of those brief animals / that populated the branches / and the furniture made useless / by humidity and neglect. / They were separated
From time that burns as it passes, / from this insignificance,
Two of those brief animals / that populated the branches / and the furniture made useless / by humidity and neglect. / They were separated
From time that burns as it passes, / from this insignificance,
November 26, 2021
November 2021 Poetry Feature
ALDO AMPARÁN
Nights alone I tread / I drag the cloak // through the mud of the old / municipal gardens / ancient heirloom my family’s ghosts // exhale / between its woven thread / of silk & cotton / some old // cousin too distant / to have known me
Nights alone I tread / I drag the cloak // through the mud of the old / municipal gardens / ancient heirloom my family’s ghosts // exhale / between its woven thread / of silk & cotton / some old // cousin too distant / to have known me
November 22, 2021
Film Review: El Planeta
HANNAH GERSEN
In Amalia Ulman’s debut feature, El Planeta, which she wrote and directed, Ulman and her real-life mother (Ale Ulman) play a mother and a daughter awaiting eviction. Ulman’s character, Leo (short for Leonor), has returned home after the death of her father, whose sporadic alimony payments barely supported her mother.
In Amalia Ulman’s debut feature, El Planeta, which she wrote and directed, Ulman and her real-life mother (Ale Ulman) play a mother and a daughter awaiting eviction. Ulman’s character, Leo (short for Leonor), has returned home after the death of her father, whose sporadic alimony payments barely supported her mother.
November 19, 2021
Podcast: Carin Clevidence on “Ghosts of the Southern Ocean”
CARIN CLEVIDENCE
Carin Clevidence speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her essay “Ghosts of the Southern Ocean,” which appears in The Common’s fall issue. In this conversation, Carin talks about how her experiences traveling to Antarctica on expeditions have changed over the years.
Carin Clevidence speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her essay “Ghosts of the Southern Ocean,” which appears in The Common’s fall issue. In this conversation, Carin talks about how her experiences traveling to Antarctica on expeditions have changed over the years.
November 18, 2021
I Will Be in the Place You Least Expect to Find Me: 10 Questions with Latifa Baqa
LATIFA BAQA
The experience of writing is a private one, and our relationship with what we write is an intimate relationship that involves narcissism and isolation (which is why I think the hardest thing a writer can do is collaborative writing).
The experience of writing is a private one, and our relationship with what we write is an intimate relationship that involves narcissism and isolation (which is why I think the hardest thing a writer can do is collaborative writing).
