Emma Crowe

ecrowe19

Free Copy of the 2012 Summer Fiction Issue

January 31, 2013 News and Events

Event Date:

Friday, February 1, 2013 (All day) – Thursday, February 28, 2013 (All day)

We’re always searching for stories by new writers that transport in a moment. Last August we published three such pieces in our first digital issue. We want to share this ebook with you, to load onto your new holiday e-readers. From today until the end of February, any new subscription includes a free copy of our 2012 Summer Fiction Issue. Already a subscriber? Give a year of The Common for Valentine’s Day, and receive three great stories for yourself. Join us in celebrating new talents and a new year of place-based writing.

Spices, Butter, and Earth

January 30, 2013 Dispatches

By LEE GULYAS

The chicken vendor’s stacked cages combine manure and death. Flatbread browning in the baker’s oven wafts smoke and flour. Metallic hints of thrown-out bean cans, misty exhaust of diesel trucks, heady tangs of eucalyptus trees. Even from inside our house the smell of fire is usual, from water pipes for smoking dried fruit and tobacco, whiffs of the neighbor’s incense, a sniff of matches and candles each time the electricity blacks out. Once we watched neighborhood kids chase after a rolling tire set afire, orbiting whirls of black and flame until the blaze consumed the tire, which wobbled in circles, then lay motionless on the ground. Children watched while acrid plumes of soot spread, lingering bitterness infusing the air.

“Widening the World: Editors and Writers Discuss the Art of Bringing Far-Flung Places to Readers’ Fingertips”

January 27, 2013 News and Events

Event Date:

Saturday, March 9, 2013 – 10:30am – 11:45am

Location:

AWP Conference, Boston, MA

This panel features Jennifer Acker, Curtis Bauer, Susan Harris, Aviya Kushner, and Anne McPeak in conversation about strategies for bringing international perspectives to the readers. Located in Room 103, Plaza Level.

“Bored Board: Rethinking Your Most Important Volunteers”

January 27, 2013 News and Events

Event Date:

Saturday, March 9, 2013 – 9:00am – 10:15am

Location:

AWP Conference, Boston, MA

Join Jennifer Acker alongside Jeffrey Lependorf, David Lynn, and Anna Moschovakis for a discussion on building and utilizing boards. Located in Room 102, Plaza Level.

2013 AWP Conference & Bookfair

January 27, 2013 News and Events

Event Date:

Wednesday, March 6, 2013 (All day) – Saturday, March 9, 2013 (All day)

Location:

Boston, MA

We’re excited to take part in the annual AWP Conference & Bookfair. Please stop by The Common, space AA19, to chat and check out our wares. This year’s conference will take place in Boston at the Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Boston Hotel.

The Road to Thunder Bay, Pt. 3

January 23, 2013 Dispatches

By JAMES A. GILL

This is the final installment part of a three-part dispatch. Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 can be found on The Common’s website.

The first order of business was to find the source of the leak. I went downstairs to the parking lot and started the car. Water pooled on the ground in the time it took me to get out and raise the hood. Finally, I nailed it down to a blown intake gasket. A spot about six inches long between the engine head and the intake manifold that bled water and antifreeze.

Brother, Three Steps from Cipro

January 16, 2013 Dispatches

By OPHELIA HU

Shick-a-shawing down Linea A, three stops from Cipro, Rome, I overheard a violin poorly played. Now and again, I curse my perfect pitch. A quarter tone drawled between D and D#, pulled headlong from a heavy-held bow like a dead rabbit from a hat. It was a nuisance. But I looked over to behold a blue-eyed boy crowned with thick brown hair and matching freckles.

Off-Season

January 9, 2013 Dispatches

By DEBRA S. LEVY

When we first moved to Ludington we spent days on the beach wandering along the sandy shores that stretched north to Manistee, south to Pentwater. Even in winter, when all the Fudgies (as tourists are known up north) had left town, having migrated to points south, we got out and hiked the hard-packed frozen beach, which provided a firm footing rather than the summer’s soft, fatiguing sand. But we had to cut against the strong gusts off Lake Michigan, and sometimes it was all we could do to walk upright, gripping our woolen caps over our red, nearly frostbitten ears. We spit grains of sand out and hunkered down, pushing against the wind.

The Year in Dispatches, Prose

January 2, 2013 Dispatches

Looking back on a year of dispatches, I’m proud to report that we’ve had essays from five continents. I heard from writers in places both famous and obscure, as well as some remote areas that were unknown to me. More than once, I found myself zooming in on Google maps, trying to get a glimpse of the locations described. My hope is that some of this year’s dispatches inspired the same curiosity in you. Here are a few highlights from throughout the year, ones you may have missed the first time the around:

Samantha Ender confronts a snake in Rwanda;

Aaron Gilbreath forages for vintage bottles in the Californian desert;

Noreen McAuliffe dissects fish in Mongolia;

Elizabeth Abbott inspects a war zone in Balad Ruz, Iraq;

and finally, Julian Hoffman finds a birding bridge between Greece’s Prespa Lakes and Ottawa, Canada.

Photo from Flickr Creative Commons

Amherst College Press

January 1, 2013 News and Events

Event Date:

Tuesday, January 1, 2013 (All day)

The Common is pleased to be a part of the Amherst College Press. Learn more about the Amherst College Press here.