Jennifer Acker's Blog, page 84
February 23, 2021
LitFest 2021 Excerpt: Interior Chinatown
CHARLES YU
Ever since you were a boy, you’ve dreamt of being Kung Fu Guy. You are not Kung Fu Guy. You are currently Background Oriental Male, but you’ve been practicing. Maybe tomorrow will be the day. Ever since you were a boy, you’ve dreamt of being Kung Fu Guy. You are not Kung Fu Guy. You are currently Oriental Guy Making A Weird Face, but you’ve been practicing.
Ever since you were a boy, you’ve dreamt of being Kung Fu Guy. You are not Kung Fu Guy. You are currently Background Oriental Male, but you’ve been practicing. Maybe tomorrow will be the day. Ever since you were a boy, you’ve dreamt of being Kung Fu Guy. You are not Kung Fu Guy. You are currently Oriental Guy Making A Weird Face, but you’ve been practicing.
February 19, 2021
LitFest 2021 Goes Virtual
We hope you'll join us for the sixth annual LitFest, hosted in conjunction with Amherst College. This year’s festival features 2020 National Book Award for Fiction winner Charles Yu and finalist Megha Majumdar, National Book Award for Poetry finalists Natalie Diaz and Tommye Blount, and Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum, among others.
LitFest 2021: Poems by Tommye Blount and Natalie Diaz
Amherst College’s sixth annual literary festival will take place virtually this year, from Thursday, February 25 to Sunday, February 28. Among the guests are 2020 National Book Award poetry finalists Tommye Blount and Natalie Diaz. The Common is pleased to reprint four of their poems here. Join Tommye Blount and Natalie Diaz in conversation with host John Hennessy...
February 17, 2021
The Language of the Body
SARA ELKAMEL
We pull the black of Rum over our eyes / like skin. God’s earth is vast, vast, vast—but by day / she wrapped her limbs around my limbs and drew / my air. I follow her into the dark, consider saying: Please, / I don’t know what you need—but all I see is red. / At the foot of the dunes I push her, soft as the sin
We pull the black of Rum over our eyes / like skin. God’s earth is vast, vast, vast—but by day / she wrapped her limbs around my limbs and drew / my air. I follow her into the dark, consider saying: Please, / I don’t know what you need—but all I see is red. / At the foot of the dunes I push her, soft as the sin
February 16, 2021
Neighbors
NICK STORY
When my marriage ended I moved to an apartment building that was mostly uninhabited. I never saw the other tenants. There were traces of them here and there—a sock left in a dryer, muted weeping down the hall, ambulances flashing out front—but I couldn’t have told you what any of my neighbors looked like.
When my marriage ended I moved to an apartment building that was mostly uninhabited. I never saw the other tenants. There were traces of them here and there—a sock left in a dryer, muted weeping down the hall, ambulances flashing out front—but I couldn’t have told you what any of my neighbors looked like.
February 12, 2021
Podcast: Jethro Soutar on Portuguese Translations
JETHRO SOUTAR
Translator Jethro Soutar speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about three pieces he translated from Portuguese for Issue 20 of The Common magazine. These pieces appear in a special portfolio of writing from and about the Lusosphere.
Translator Jethro Soutar speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about three pieces he translated from Portuguese for Issue 20 of The Common magazine. These pieces appear in a special portfolio of writing from and about the Lusosphere.
February 11, 2021
Writers on Writing: David Moloney
DAVID MOLONEY
I tried to write true stories but fictionalize them by merely changing names. I didn’t want to betray the truth. But I found that the stories were coming off as if a stranger sat down next to you at the bar and started telling you about their life. They were annoyingly uninteresting.
I tried to write true stories but fictionalize them by merely changing names. I didn’t want to betray the truth. But I found that the stories were coming off as if a stranger sat down next to you at the bar and started telling you about their life. They were annoyingly uninteresting.
February 9, 2021
Pandemic Diaries
JINJIN XU
For the past few days, I’ve vacillated between panic, helplessness, and feeling like a prophetic, burning witch. I spent the first two months of this year watching the pandemic take hold of China—from the arrest of Dr. Li WenLiang for spreading “false rumors,” to Wuhan and the whole country going into lockdown.
For the past few days, I’ve vacillated between panic, helplessness, and feeling like a prophetic, burning witch. I spent the first two months of this year watching the pandemic take hold of China—from the arrest of Dr. Li WenLiang for spreading “false rumors,” to Wuhan and the whole country going into lockdown.
February 5, 2021
Friday Reads: February 2021
Curated by ISABEL MEYERS
Like du Maurier’s more famous Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel takes place in a manor house in the British countryside and involves wealthy people with dark secrets. Main character Phillip despises his deceased cousin’s wife, Rachel—for isn’t she simply trying to steal his fortune?—until he falls in love with her, until he comes to despise her again, because perhaps she is trying to steal his fortune after all.
Like du Maurier’s more famous Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel takes place in a manor house in the British countryside and involves wealthy people with dark secrets. Main character Phillip despises his deceased cousin’s wife, Rachel—for isn’t she simply trying to steal his fortune?—until he falls in love with her, until he comes to despise her again, because perhaps she is trying to steal his fortune after all.
February 4, 2021
The Common to Receive $15,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
The Common will receive its fifth grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2021. The Art Works grant of $15,000 will be awarded to The Common to help it publish diverse writers, expand its readership, and support The Common’s international portfolios.
