Jennifer Acker's Blog, page 93
September 23, 2020
Dr. Hope
EMILY CATANEO
The train noses through fields of yellow flowers, which to me are eternal reminders of Europe in spring, but which are actually new additions, planted in recent decades for the rapeseed harvest. On the way to Warsaw, we sit in a car with a classical musician, our age, with a confident nose and sculpted, striking eyebrows. “She looks like Anna Karenina,” we whisper.
The train noses through fields of yellow flowers, which to me are eternal reminders of Europe in spring, but which are actually new additions, planted in recent decades for the rapeseed harvest. On the way to Warsaw, we sit in a car with a classical musician, our age, with a confident nose and sculpted, striking eyebrows. “She looks like Anna Karenina,” we whisper.
September 21, 2020
Reading Black Voices: TC Staff Picks V
TC STAFF
This is the fifth in a series of features highlighting the Black writers our editors and staff have been reading. To read The Common’s statement in support of the nationwide protests against anti-Black racism, white supremacy, and police brutality, click here.
This is the fifth in a series of features highlighting the Black writers our editors and staff have been reading. To read The Common’s statement in support of the nationwide protests against anti-Black racism, white supremacy, and police brutality, click here.
September 17, 2020
The Common Receives $10,000 Grant from The Literary Arts Emergency Fund
The Common, the award-winning literary journal based at Amherst College, is a recipient of The Literary Arts Emergency Fund, which provides aid to nonprofit literary arts organizations, magazines, and presses that have experienced severe financial losses due to COVID-19.
Princess Ixkik’
ILAN STAVANS
Xibalba is the site of fear, a magisterial city, with palaces and a torture-dome, gardens, and an oracular window where time comes to a standstill. Those unfortunate eyes who have been fated to see it describe the oracular window as irradiating unbearable darkness... The underworld is made of countless roads leading everywhere and nowhere.
Xibalba is the site of fear, a magisterial city, with palaces and a torture-dome, gardens, and an oracular window where time comes to a standstill. Those unfortunate eyes who have been fated to see it describe the oracular window as irradiating unbearable darkness... The underworld is made of countless roads leading everywhere and nowhere.
September 15, 2020
Fragments of Shame and Pride
RAED RAFEI
In the living room of my parents’ home in Tripoli, Lebanon, an elaborate family tree is displayed in a golden frame. It is a constant reminder of a fatalistic vision of life’s ultimate purpose: reproduction. Males are depicted as branches; females as leaves. The thriving of the tree relies on branches like mine.
In the living room of my parents’ home in Tripoli, Lebanon, an elaborate family tree is displayed in a golden frame. It is a constant reminder of a fatalistic vision of life’s ultimate purpose: reproduction. Males are depicted as branches; females as leaves. The thriving of the tree relies on branches like mine.
September 14, 2020
Free Expression Under Tyranny: an Interview with Colette Bahna
COLETTE BAHNA
I haven’t written any fiction since the revolution. It has been difficult. I have tried repeatedly to write stories and failed—perhaps because serious and painful events still weigh on my soul. Many thoughts boil inside me but have not found an outlet yet.
I haven’t written any fiction since the revolution. It has been difficult. I have tried repeatedly to write stories and failed—perhaps because serious and painful events still weigh on my soul. Many thoughts boil inside me but have not found an outlet yet.
September 11, 2020
The Common is Hiring: Be Our Next Interviews Editor
The Interviews Editor organizes and edits a monthly interview feature for The Common Online. (Examples of recent interviews can be found here or here.) Additional interviews may be coordinated by TC’s central editorial team, in consultation with the Interviews Editor. A biannual honorarium is available for this position.
September 10, 2020
Review: Water & Power
ELLY HONG
Most of water & power resembles a novella in flash, written in prose that comes in bursts no longer than a page. Yet there are also moments of poetry, as well as photographs, found documents, and collages.
Most of water & power resembles a novella in flash, written in prose that comes in bursts no longer than a page. Yet there are also moments of poetry, as well as photographs, found documents, and collages.
September 9, 2020
Balconies, Anachronisms, Lamentations
By NATALIE BAKOPOULOS
Here in Ann Arbor, unable to travel, I am missing the Greek balcony, a private and public space: it’s neither in nor out but something in between. Poet Alicia E. Stallings, who lives in Athens, notes on Twitter: “Very Athenian neighbor quarrel tonight: we fired up the grill in the yard to pretend like it was a Friday, but it turns out lady upstairs had just done her laundry. Words were had.”
Here in Ann Arbor, unable to travel, I am missing the Greek balcony, a private and public space: it’s neither in nor out but something in between. Poet Alicia E. Stallings, who lives in Athens, notes on Twitter: “Very Athenian neighbor quarrel tonight: we fired up the grill in the yard to pretend like it was a Friday, but it turns out lady upstairs had just done her laundry. Words were had.”
September 8, 2020
Poems From The Life Assignment
RICARDO ALBERTO MALDONADO
I feel from dignity and calm. I, / anxiety grabbed me // with sciatica, although I recited poems / at a stone’s throw, inside the machine // elevator. The clattering of the empire / its capital / an arsenal of pain, it made for a rough // odor. Now can you see the monument?
I feel from dignity and calm. I, / anxiety grabbed me // with sciatica, although I recited poems / at a stone’s throw, inside the machine // elevator. The clattering of the empire / its capital / an arsenal of pain, it made for a rough // odor. Now can you see the monument?
