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Friday Reads: October 2018

October 19, 2018 Reviews

October Friday Reads has arrived, which means Issue 16 is not far behind! This month, check out reading suggestions from a selection of contributors from this month’s upcoming issue. Then, be sure to preorder to get Issue 16 in your mailbox.

Recommendations: Shameless Woman by Magdalena Gómez, Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination by Sarah Schulman, The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud, A Portrait of the Self as Nation: New and Selected Poems by Marilyn Chin, and This Little Art by Kate Briggs.

Breaking Night

October 16, 2018 Podcasts & Audio, Poetry

By WILLIE PERDOMO

In that year of a shot to the head where were you the first time you broke night?

When you break night, you learn that one puff, under the right circumstance, can give you the right perspective.

You learn to pick up stories that fall & slip on the right side of knowing.

Blaenavon

October 11, 2018 Essays

By RALPH SNEEDEN

We thought it was just going to be a tour of the defunct coal mine’s aboveground facility, which was already troubling enough. The winding wheels and framework for the conveyor system at the “pit head” were like the superstructure of an abandoned carnival, like the one I’d read about near Chernobyl.

Hot Potato

October 10, 2018 Dispatches

By LEATH TONINO

Colorado Springs, Colorado

His business card is cut from the corner of an old photo. One side is the chopped image of a carpeted floor, a screen door, a chubby toddler’s left arm and hand. I flip the card over.

TC Alumni Spotlight: JinJin Xu

October 9, 2018 News and Events

Curated by: SARAH WHELAN

This month, enjoy a new feature that celebrates the wonderful former interns and employees that have worked at The Common over the years. Though we miss seeing them everyday, we’re continually impressed by what they go on to accomplish. This month, we’re catching up with former Editorial Assistant JinJin Xu, an Amherst College alumna, Watson Fellow, and most recently, recipient of the Lillian Vernon Fellowship at NYU.

Books Can Help Us Feel Seen: an interview with Crystal Hana Kim

October 8, 2018 Interviews

MELODY NIXON interviews CRYSTAL HANA KIM

Crystal Hana Kim’s If You Leave Me is a poignant, lucidly written intergenerational story that will leave you aching. The novel takes a clear-eyed look at the ways adults can end up with the lives we didn’t think we would have—how we deal with the mismatch between dream and reality determines our fate.

The Common’s Issue 16 Events

October 7, 2018 News and Events

November 5, 5:30 pm
Community Reception & Meal
Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke, MA
Reception 5:30 pm, Reading and Conversation 7 pm

Join The Common for a Puerto Rican meal, and stay to hear writers and translators Ana Teresa Toro, Sergio Gutiérrez Negrón, María José Giménez, and María Luisa Arroyo Cruzado discuss their work in The Common‘s special portfolio: De Puerto Rico: Un año después de la tormenta/ From Puerto Rico: One Year after the Storm. Filmmaker Michelle Falcón will showcase her documentary film PROMESA, which tells the stories of people affected by Puerto Rico’s economic crisis. The independent short documentary examines the economic crisis in Puerto Rico, before Hurricane Maria, by exploring how its colonial relationship with the US has had both political and personal impact on the islanders. From this documentary, Reclaim Puerto Rico was created to help the Puerto Rican community overcome the Hurricane Maria devastation by awarding mini-grants to support entrepreneurship on the island. Donate to Reclaim Puerto Rico here.

Free and open to the public. Dinner provided.

238 Cabot Street, Holyoke MA

Little Wonder

October 3, 2018 Fiction

By KAT GARDINER

Sunlight and Shadows

The sunlight filtered through the window of our cafe. Golden sweet, it wove around the trees, the garden, over the stage, through the window and onto the railroad tie floor. I didn’t mind sweeping, because I got to dip my feet in it.

There was music on, and in the late spring air, it sounded perfect. Gram Parson’s Brass Buttons. Like it was made for right there right then, even though we all knew it was made a long time ago, back when parents were young and happy and we were only a microscopic part of them.

Uncommon Literature: Reading at Frost Library

September 28, 2018 News and Events

Join the staff and interns of The Common for a celebration of uncommonly good literature! Come to hear readings from our most recent issue and enjoy wine and cheese in the Center for Humanistic Inquiry at Amherst College.

Free and open to the public – students, parents, and local lit lovers all welcome!

Friday, October 26, 5 p.m.

CHI – Center for Humanistic Inquiry

Frost Library, 2nd Floor

Amherst College

[Preorder your copy of Issue 16 here.]

September 2018 Poetry Feature: CP Surendran

September 28, 2018 Poetry

Poems from Available Light: New and Selected Poems

By CP SURENDRAN

In advance of the U.S. publication of AVAILABLE LIGHT: New and Selected Poems (forthcoming from MadHat Press), we welcome CP Surendran to The Common.

November 5, 5:30 pm Community Reception & Meal Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke, MA Reception 5:30 pm, Reading and Conversation 7 pm

November 5, 5:30 pm
Community Reception & Meal
Wistariahurst Museum, Holyoke, MA
Reception 5:30 pm, Reading and Conversation 7 pm