NewPages reviews Issue 08, finding it “entertaining, informative, thought-provoking, and above all else … comforting.”
NewPages (2014)
January 5, 2015
News and Events
Isabel Meyers
NewPages (2014)
January 5, 2015
News and Events
NewPages reviews Issue 07, highlighting “lines that prick like needles wedged in the cotton of concrete, everyday objects.”
The Deal with Discomfort: Claire Messud on “Likeability,” the Subjective Self, and Choosing an Artist’s Life
December 17, 2014
Interviews
MELODY NIXON interviews CLAIRE MESSUD
Claire Messud is the author of six novels, including The Emperor’s Children, a New York Times bestseller that was shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize. Her sixth novel, The Woman Upstairs, was released by Knopf in April 2013 to much critical acclaim and a long listing for the Canadian Scotiabank Giller Prize. As December temperatures plummeted Melody Nixon caught up with Claire Messud over the phone about fiction, philosophy, and that comment about the “likeability” of literary characters.
Often from Kansas: A Conversation with Sarah Smarsh on the Privilege of Rootedness in Midwestern America
December 9, 2014
Interviews
MARNI BERGER interviews SARAH SMARSH
Sarah Smarsh has reported on social justice, the environment, culture, and class for Harper’s, The Huffington Post, Guernica, The Pitch, Aeon, and others. She holds an MFA in nonfiction from Columbia University, as well as degrees in journalism and English from the University of Kansas, and has taught at Washburn University, Columbia, and elsewhere. A fellow of the Center for Kansas Studies, earlier in her career she wrote about her home state for everything from airline magazines to pop-history paperback series. Her essay “Death of the Farm Family” appears in Issue 08 of The Common. Marni Berger and Smarsh discussed the privilege of rootedness in America and what it means to be “often from” a place.
Ask a Local: Christine Byl, Healy, AK
December 4, 2014
Interviews
With CHRISTINE BYL
Your name: Christine Byl
Current town: Healy, AK, just north of Denali National Park
How long have you lived here? 10+ years
Arabic Literature (in English) (2014)
November 22, 2014
News and Events
Arabic Literature (in English) has announced that Issue 06 contributor Hisham Bustani is a co-winner of the University of Arkansas Award for the Translation of Arabic Literature, for his third book, The Perception of Meaning, translated by Thoraya El-Rayyes.
Ask a Local: Jane Satterfield, Baltimore, MD
November 20, 2014
Interviews
With JANE SATTERFIELD
Your name: Jane Satterfield
Current city: Baltimore, MD
How long have you lived here? Except for years in Iowa and England, I’ve lived in Maryland most of my life. Though I’ve lived in Charm City for 23 years, I’m a bit of a homebody so my imagination runs backward to the places I lived growing up: the sprawling farmland of Frederick county that runs along the Catoctin Mountain chain; the sprawl of suburban tract land along the D.C. Beltway.
David Lehman on Literary New York, the KGB Bar, and His New and Selected Poems
November 5, 2014
Interviews
S. TREMAINE NELSON interviews DAVID LEHMAN
David Lehman, born and raised in New York City, is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection New and Selected Poems, published by Scribner. He is Series Editor of The Best American Poetry anthology and co-founder of the KGB bar poetry reading series. His poems “Mother Died Today,” “Remember the Typewriter,” and “The Bronze Décor”appeared in Issue No. 05 of The Common.
The Overachieving Underachiever: An Interview with Benjamin Anastas
November 1, 2014
Interviews
MELODY NIXON interviews BENJAMIN ANASTAS
Benjamin Anastas is the author of Too Good to be True, a memoir described by The New York Times as “smart and honest and searching,” and “so plaintive and raw it will leave most writers… with heart palpitations.” He has written two novels, An Underachiever’s Diary, and The Faithful Narrative of a Pastor’s Disappearance, as well as multiple reviews and essays, one of which, “Boys with a Synth,” is published in Issue 06 of The Common. Melody Nixon talked with Anastas about his skepticism for social media, the role of the writer in society, and memoir as fiction’s “whiny and embarrassing stepchild.”
Ask a Local: Jason Hardung, Fort Collins, CO
October 9, 2014
Interviews
With JASON HARDUNG
Your name: Jason Hardung
Current city or town: Fort Collins, Colorado
How long have you lived here? I moved here from Cheyenne, Wyoming in 2003. Although, some family members have lived here my whole life, so I wasn’t brand new to Ft. Collins. I have been coming here to visit my whole life.
