Jennifer Acker's Blog, page 75
July 27, 2021
Sample Lesson Plans for Literature and Creative Writing Courses
Ask student groups or individual students to lead discussions on essays and poems from a single issue, identifying specific attributes of place-based writing and how that might apply to their own writing and/or how they perceive the places they inhabit.
July 21, 2021
Mangled
DARINA SIKMASHVILI
It’s only us two for the brunch shift. I met Layla at one of those mangled people meetings so we have a shorthand. She smokes needle-thin joints halfway into the day and half-asses her side work and I’m not bothered by any of it. We can share a silence.
It’s only us two for the brunch shift. I met Layla at one of those mangled people meetings so we have a shorthand. She smokes needle-thin joints halfway into the day and half-asses her side work and I’m not bothered by any of it. We can share a silence.
July 20, 2021
Staring Through a Slit
ALAA TAWALBEH
I still remember the day the blond men dropped leaflets from the helicopters. White leaflets with crisp black letters. This building harbors Hamas mukharibeen families. You must leave now. It will be bombed at…
I still remember the day the blond men dropped leaflets from the helicopters. White leaflets with crisp black letters. This building harbors Hamas mukharibeen families. You must leave now. It will be bombed at…
July 16, 2021
Podcast: Ravi Shankar on “The Five-Room Box”
RAVI SHANKAR
Ravi Shankar speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about his essay “The Five-Room Box,” which appears in The Common’s spring issue. In this conversation, Shankar talks about constructing this essay on identity, family, and fitting in from an excerpt of his memoir, Correctional, about his time spent in prison.
Ravi Shankar speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about his essay “The Five-Room Box,” which appears in The Common’s spring issue. In this conversation, Shankar talks about constructing this essay on identity, family, and fitting in from an excerpt of his memoir, Correctional, about his time spent in prison.
July 15, 2021
Writers on Writing: Rowan Beaird
ROWAN BEAIRD
When someone’s addressing someone else, it’s fine for there to be massive leaps in time, because you know what’s driving it is not a classic, linear narrative, but the narrative that exists between two people.
When someone’s addressing someone else, it’s fine for there to be massive leaps in time, because you know what’s driving it is not a classic, linear narrative, but the narrative that exists between two people.
July 14, 2021
A Salamander
MORIEL ROTHMAN-ZECHER
Cute, I said bending over, a salam— / I swallowed the second half of the word / as my face drew nearer to the shiny body / and I saw the white oozing from its mouth, but / it was too late. / My daughter was already rushing over.
Cute, I said bending over, a salam— / I swallowed the second half of the word / as my face drew nearer to the shiny body / and I saw the white oozing from its mouth, but / it was too late. / My daughter was already rushing over.
July 12, 2021
The Common Magazine Announces Second Literary Editorial Fellow
The Common, the award-winning literary journal based at Amherst College, has announced its second Literary Editorial Fellow: Elly Hong ’21. The fellowship is funded in part by generous support from alumni donors and from the Whiting Foundation, which is providing a $20,000 matching grant for two years in recognition of the magazine’s secure and important foothold in literary publishing.
Come Angels: An interview with Elizabeth A.I. Powell about her new collection The Atomizer
ELIZABETH A. I. POWELLL
I just found my way by saying what I say in a way that hopefully transcends the difficult and makes it redemptive. I had so much fear for so long, I just try to be fearless in a kindly way.
I just found my way by saying what I say in a way that hopefully transcends the difficult and makes it redemptive. I had so much fear for so long, I just try to be fearless in a kindly way.
July 9, 2021
Friday Reads: July 2021
ELLY HONG
In our July edition of Friday Reads, two TC interns and one volunteer reader recommend transportive summer reading, ranging from a novel about a trip to Greece to a good old-fashioned western.
In our July edition of Friday Reads, two TC interns and one volunteer reader recommend transportive summer reading, ranging from a novel about a trip to Greece to a good old-fashioned western.
July 7, 2021
On the Path from the Edison Fishery to the Moose Boneyard
RUSSELL BRAKEFIELD
The powerboat clips Scofield point and breaks away from my cabin toward the more serious waters of Lake Superior. My guide, Tom, cranes his neck to view the shore as if he’s never seen it before, though he knows these bends and inlets well. We pass the outer islands.
The powerboat clips Scofield point and breaks away from my cabin toward the more serious waters of Lake Superior. My guide, Tom, cranes his neck to view the shore as if he’s never seen it before, though he knows these bends and inlets well. We pass the outer islands.
