Jennifer Acker's Blog, page 77
June 16, 2021
64-West & KY State Fair
D.S. WALDMAN
And how, / if we keep going, pushing ourselves farther / from ourselves, we’d see, eventually, the blankness / we were one day born into. / I forget what you / told me after—I think it had something to do / with loneliness.
And how, / if we keep going, pushing ourselves farther / from ourselves, we’d see, eventually, the blankness / we were one day born into. / I forget what you / told me after—I think it had something to do / with loneliness.
June 14, 2021
This Way Back: An Interview with Joanna Eleftheriou
CAMERON FINCH
In this insightful interview with Cameron Finch, Joanna Eleftheriou provides readers with a mini-manual on how to engage in the dialectic of identity, confront the privilege of choosing an identity, and how writers prioritize discovery.
In this insightful interview with Cameron Finch, Joanna Eleftheriou provides readers with a mini-manual on how to engage in the dialectic of identity, confront the privilege of choosing an identity, and how writers prioritize discovery.
June 9, 2021
Film Review: Holler
HANNAH GERSEN
In Tara Westover’s bestselling 2018 memoir, Educated, a wildly intelligent young woman finds herself stuck working in her family’s junkyard, unable to leave her isolated Idaho town even as she longs to go to college. Public school is forbidden by her fundamentalist Mormon father, so she is homeschooled with her siblings and forced to scrap metal in illegal and unsafe conditions.
In Tara Westover’s bestselling 2018 memoir, Educated, a wildly intelligent young woman finds herself stuck working in her family’s junkyard, unable to leave her isolated Idaho town even as she longs to go to college. Public school is forbidden by her fundamentalist Mormon father, so she is homeschooled with her siblings and forced to scrap metal in illegal and unsafe conditions.
June 8, 2021
Hunters’ Gate
JONATHAN LEE
The difference, in the end, between life and death is perhaps nothing more than movement? Life on the farm had taught him this, even if he did not quite know how to express such a truth, and Andrew decided to move on the dog’s behalf. He said to the gunman, Wait!
The difference, in the end, between life and death is perhaps nothing more than movement? Life on the farm had taught him this, even if he did not quite know how to express such a truth, and Andrew decided to move on the dog’s behalf. He said to the gunman, Wait!
June 4, 2021
The Common Awarded 2021 Amazon Literary Partnership grant
The Common, the award-winning literary journal based at Amherst College, is a 2021 Literary Magazine Fund Grant Recipient, awarded in alliance with the Amazon Literary Partnership Literary Magazine Fund and the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses.
Exclusive Fee-Free Submission Period for BIPOC Writers
Inspired by the mission and role of the town common, an egalitarian gathering place, The Common aims to foster the global exchange of diverse ideas and experiences. In an effort to remove barriers to access, The Common will open exclusively for BIPOC writers for two weeks, and waive submission fees, from June 14 – June 28.
June 2021 Friday Reads
Curated by ISABEL MEYERS
In the June edition of Friday Reads, our Managing Editor and two of our volunteer readers recommend books that have inspired and engaged them as the start of summer creeps closer.
In the June edition of Friday Reads, our Managing Editor and two of our volunteer readers recommend books that have inspired and engaged them as the start of summer creeps closer.
Podcast: KC Trommer on “The Couple”
KC TROMMER
KC Trommer speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her poem “The Couple,” which appears in The Common’s fall issue.
KC Trommer speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her poem “The Couple,” which appears in The Common’s fall issue.
June 3, 2021
Translation: Hong Kong Poet Chung Kwok-keung
CHUNG KWOK-KEUNG
I scour my memories for your place / Patterns on the tiles blur more and more / Shadows of feet sway between unextinguished cigarette butts / Discrete chewing sounds have vanished around the corner / How do I verify the month and year /
Of the tea stains that remain...
I scour my memories for your place / Patterns on the tiles blur more and more / Shadows of feet sway between unextinguished cigarette butts / Discrete chewing sounds have vanished around the corner / How do I verify the month and year /
Of the tea stains that remain...
June 2, 2021
Anticipating, Zebra Finches
JOHN KINSELLA
Just below, a roo doe digs into the softest / soil it can find — avoiding rocks — to make / a hollow for itself and the joey heavy in its pouch; / it lifts, digs, turns drops lifts digs turns drops.
Just below, a roo doe digs into the softest / soil it can find — avoiding rocks — to make / a hollow for itself and the joey heavy in its pouch; / it lifts, digs, turns drops lifts digs turns drops.
