Isabel Meyers

imeyers20

Ask a Local: Melissa Kwasny, Jefferson City, MT

April 16, 2015 Interviews

Your Name: Melissa Kwasny

Current city or town: Jefferson City, Montana

How long have you lived here? I live four miles up a dirt road from Jefferson City, a stage stop that has seen better days, hence the unlikely name Jefferson City. It consists of a post office, a bar that closes and reopens depending on the fortunes of a nearby gold mine, and a hall for the volunteer fire department, wherein we vote. I have lived in this particular canyon for 25 years, and in the shade of these particular mountains, on and off, for 40.

Real Life Analogs: An Interview with James Hannaham

April 7, 2015 Interviews

MELODY NIXON interviews JAMES HANNAHAM

James Hannaham is a writer of fiction and nonfiction, an MFA teacher, and the author of the novel God Says No, which was a finalist for a Lambda Book Award and a semifinalist for a VCU First Novelist Award. Hannaham’s work interweaves social critique and strong characterization with robust plot, and he was recently praised by The New York Times for the way he makes “the commonplace spring to life with nothing more than astute observation and precise language.” Melody Nixon met with Hannaham in downtown Manhattan the day before his latest novel, Delicious Foods, was released from Little, Brown and Company. They discussed place, politics, and “racism as a curse.”

Amherst College (2015)

April 3, 2015 News and Events

Amherst College covers The Common‘s recent NEA literature grant, highlighting The Common in the Classroom.

INDIA New England (2015)

April 3, 2015 News and Events

India New England features The Common in the City 2015.

MassLive (2015)

April 3, 2015 News and Events

MassLive announces that Amherst College will match the NEA’s $10,000 grant to The Common to increase the magazine’s reach to students in 2015.

NEA Grant (2015)

April 3, 2015 News and Events

NEA Grant 2015: In its first year of eligibility, The Common has been awarded a 2014 Artworks Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. NEA funds will help to bring The Common‘s place-based literature into classrooms around the country, to develop and promote its online presence, and to grow its readership. Starting in 2015, The Common will work vigorously to reach more students, of all ages, across the humanities and interdisciplinary fields such as architecture. The Common will also develop and promote its free, multimedia online content to a wider global readership.

The Amherst Bulletin (2015)

April 3, 2015 News and Events

The Amherst Bulletin covers the NEA’s recent $10,000 grant to The Common, highlighting the magazine’s increasing presence in the classroom.

“New” Arabic Writing: Cataclysm in Fast-Forward

March 24, 2015 Essays

By HISHAM BUSTANI

One might ask: “What is this ‘new’ writing in the Arab World?”

Is it a “new generation” of writers? Is it an unprecedented form of writing? The new writing that this essay wants to explore has nothing to do with the age of the writer, nor does it claim that “new writing” suddenly dropped—rootless and without precursors—into the vast space of literature. Rather, “new” writing is an evolution in the techniques of the literary form; in the themes and subjects that correspond with societal change in “real-time”; and in the relationship between the writer, the “cultural authority,” and the official cultural sphere designated by governments and institutions. “New” Arabic writing is also the result of a struggle between the writer and his exploding surroundings.

Ask a Local: Elizabeth Bradfield, North Truro, MA

March 19, 2015 Interviews

With ELIZABETH BRADFIELD

Your name: Elizabeth Bradfield

Current city or town: North Truro, MA

How long have you lived here: Well, that’s not an easy one. There were a few years in Provincetown and then the five or seven years—depending on how you count two of them—I was connected but away. Perhaps it’s simpler to say that I began belonging to this place 17 years ago.

On Redeeming Beauty from the Insatiable Destruction of Man: An Interview with Brian Sholis

March 3, 2015 Interviews

S. TREMAINE NELSON interviews BRIAN SHOLIS

Brian Sholis is Associate Curator of Photography at the Cincinnati Art Museum. He writes about photography, landscapes, and American history, all of which topics are combined in his essay “Our Poor Perishable World,” appearing in Issue 08 of The Common. In this chat with Oregonian S. Tremaine Nelson, Sholis touches on the American West, beauty and destruction, and the similarities between fiction and photography.