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Review: Motherland

September 4, 2014 Reviews

Book by MARIA HUMMEL
Reviewed by SUE REPKO

motherland

The epigraph to Maria Hummel’s latest novel Motherland is a short poem of the same title by the German poet Rose Ausländer (in German “Mutterland”).

My Fatherland is dead
They buried it
In fire

I live
in my Motherland—
Word

—translation by Eavan Boland

The poem encapsulates the novel, set in Germany in the last year of World War II, in which a young German wife and stepmother repeatedly risks her own life to keep her new family intact. Motherhood—stepmotherhood in this case—becomes her reason for being.

Another Autumn

September 3, 2014 Dispatches

By BRIGIT KELLY YOUNG

New York wraps itself
in pea coats.
The trees match the colors
of the taxis,
and the ramblings
of cell phones

Sorting through a Dream World: An Interview with Valerie Duff

September 1, 2014 Interviews

MARNI BERGER interviews VALERIE DUFF

Valerie Duff

Valerie Duff is the author of the poetry collection To the New World. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Prague Revue, Ploughshares, Blackbox Manifold, Poetry Northeast, AGNI, Gulf Coast, and Issue 07 of The Common. She is poetry editor of Salamander Magazine. Marni Berger and Valerie Duff spoke long distance this summer about Mexico City, Virginia, Boston, and writing poetry as if you’re sorting through a dream world.

AWP Writers Conference in Minneapolis

August 22, 2014 News and Events

Event Date:

Thursday, April 9, 2015 – 9:00am – Saturday, April 11, 2015 – 11:59pm

Location:

Minneapolis Convention Center & Hilton Minneapolis Hotel

Are you attending AWP this year? Join our Facebook Group to stay updated on our events!

The Common will host a booth at AWP 2015 from April 9-11. Visit us at Booth 923!

Editor in Chief Jennifer Acker will also be speaking at two panels at AWP 2015: “Pinning Editors Down: Lit Mag Fiction Editors Define What Works” and “Periodically Speaking: How to Bring Lit Mags into the Classroom.” Stay tuned for more details.

Brooklyn Book Festival

August 18, 2014 News and Events

Event Date:

Sunday, September 21, 2014 – 10:00am – 6:00pm

Location:

Brooklyn, NY

The Common will share a booth with Restless Books at the Brooklyn Book Festival on September 21st (rain or shine). Visit us at Booth 205!

Location: Brooklyn Borough Hall and Plaza, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201

The Brooklyn Book Festival is the largest free literary event in New York City, presenting an array of national and international literary stars and emerging authors. One of America’s premier book festivals, this hip, smart diverse gathering attracts thousands of book lovers of all ages to enjoy authors and the festival’s lively literary marketplace. [Click here for more information]

Ask a Local: Caitlin Horrocks, Grand Rapids, MI

August 14, 2014 Interviews

With CAITLIN HORROCKS

Your name: Caitlin Horrocks

Current city or town: Grand Rapids, Michigan

How long have you lived here? Almost seven years

Yoshida and Tanaka

August 13, 2014 Dispatches

By CHRIS KELSEY

Each day during my week in Yokohama I played a game with Yoshida and Tanaka. They were responsible for the cleanliness of rooms on at least the 14th floor of a towering, fan-shaped, waterfront hotel. I was there for a geotechnical engineering conference.

Contributors in Conversation: Paula Bohince and Joshua Mehigan

August 10, 2014 Podcasts & Audio

In this episode of The Common’s Contributors in Conversation podcast, Issue 06 contributors Paula Bohince and Joshua Mehigan read and discuss Bohince’s “The Nature of a Hedge” and Mehigan’s “How Strange, How Sweet.”

Contributors in Conversation: Sarah Smarsh and Jonathan Moody

August 9, 2014 Podcasts & Audio

In this episode of The Common’s Contributors in Conversation podcast, Issue 08 contributors Sarah Smarsh and Jonathan Moody read and discuss Smarsh’s essay “Death of the Farm Family” and Moody’s poem “Dear 2Pac.”

Shatt Ghandoor

August 6, 2014 Dispatches

By TALINE VOSKERITCHIAN

In Aqaba City, on the Red Sea, between the stretches of swanky apartments and big names hotels is a tiny squeeze of shore called Shatt Ghandoor (Ghandoor Beach). On Fridays and holidays, Ghandoor is a picnic ground, amusement park, beach, and public bath all in one.