Why Teach The Common?
Teach The Common in your classroom and receive discounted subscriptions, a free desk copy, and lesson plans.
A classroom subscription includes two issues for every student, and an in-person or Skype visit from Editor in Chief Jennifer Acker or a participating author.
Learn more about teaching The Common or contact us for more options.
Supplementary materials for teaching Issue 06 are listed below.
Interviews
Listen to Editor in Chief Jennifer Acker discuss The Common, the role of place in literature, and the editorial process.
Benjamin Anastas and Melody Nixon talk about his skepticism for social media, the role of the writer in society, and memoir as fiction’s “whiny and embarrassing stepchild.” Anastas’ essay “Boys with a Synth” appears in Issue 06.
Ron Welburn and S. Tremaine Nelson discuss poetry, New York City, Native American listerature, and two authors whom they both very much admire, Ralph Ellison and Leslie Marmon Silko. Welburn’s poems “Seeing in the Dark” and “When You Know a Hard Sky” appear in Issue 06.
Eleanor Stanford and fellow Philadelphian Zinzi Clemmons talk about poetic form, the importance of language, and ways to feel at home in the world. Stanford’s essay “Geology Primer (Fogo, Cape Verde)” was published in Issue No. 06.
Joshua Mehigan and S. Tremaine Nelson discuss the visual and sonic elements of poetry, translation, dead writers, and New York City. Mehigan’s poems “How Strange, How Sweet” and “Believe It” appear in Issue 06.
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Zinzi Clemmons talk about “deadlines as flexible soul mates,” lessons in artistic humility, consulting “the passing herdsmen” on the art of reading the landscape, and the up-and-coming literary world of Kenya. An excerpt of Owuor’s novel, Dust (Knopf, January 2014), was published in Issue 06.
ArabLit’s M. Lynx Qualey chats with Editor in Chief Jennifer Acker and contributor Hisham Bustani about translation, editing, Arabic Fiction, and Bustani’s “Freefall in the Shattered Mirror,” which was published in Issue 6.
Recordings
- Paula Bohince reads “The Nature of a Hedge.”
- Brendan Galvin reads “Mayhem.”
- William Wenthe reads “Error Upon Me Proved.”
- Peter Filkins reads “O.”
- Andrea Scott reads “Arab Springs.”
- Jeffrey Harrison reads “A Drink of Water.”
- Joshua Mehigan reads “How Strange, How Sweet.”
Contributors in Conversation
Megan Staffel and Helen Hooper discuss their stories “Mischief” and “Meetings.”
Paula Bohince and Joshua Mehigan discuss their poems “The Nature of a Hedge” and “How Strange, How Sweet.”
Oliver de la Paz and L.S. Klatt discuss their poems “Labyrinth 76” and “Apple.”
Leigh Newman and Tyler Sage discuss Newman’s essay, “Big Not-So-Bad Wolves” and Sage’s story, “They Called it Shooting Then.”
Hisham Bustani and Jamie Edgecomb discuss their stories “Freefall in a Shattered Mirror” and “Blue Mountains.”
Rowan Moore Gerety and Eleanor Standford discuss “Well-Armed” and “Geology Primer (Fogo, Cape Verde).”
Literary Translation
Explore these collected resources on literary translation, and focused readings and lesson plans to accompany our portfolios of Arabic literature in translation.
See all of Issue 6.
Don’t miss: Genre-based Anthologies | Participating Authors | Lesson Plans | FREE Sample Issue | What Teachers Are Saying
