Celebrating 15 YearsI-Italy features The Common in the City 2014 in their April-May issue.
I-Italy (2014)
May 31, 2014
News and Events
Alaskan Baselines
May 28, 2014
Dispatches
We saw them first from a small knoll among the massive spruces and the cedars. They darkened the water of the creek, turning it reddish black and opaque where it widened and slowed among the rocks. “Are those all fish?” I said.
The Word and Its Afterlife
May 27, 2014
Essays
By AMYE DAY ONG
I spend an hour opening envelopes every day in the basement of the American Library Association. Past the freight elevator and the official mailroom with its mechanized sorting machines is a room that looks like a cage because of the metal fencing that covers its entrance from floor to ceiling. A door is built into the fencing and a paper sign reading “Do Not Close” has been affixed, tape looped through the wires so that it adheres to the back of the paper. This long narrow room is divided lengthwise down the middle by metal shelving containing what appears to be every archived publication the Association has ever produced. I do my work in the back corner at two tables covered in razor marks.
Various Horizons: Western Expanses and a Sum of Parts
The $14 manhattans were terrible. We drank them anyway. Las Vegas, Lost Wages, whatever you call it, it was the gateway to our West(ern vacation—three canyons, eight days). The next morning, we ate gigantic omelets beneath a mirrored ceiling, amid fake trees lush in fake pink bloom, pulled out the map and headed through the wide open landscape: straight road, big sky, dry scrub, tumbleweeds.
May 2014 Poetry Feature
May 23, 2014
Poetry
It’s time for our monthly poetry feature! Today, we are publishing eight new poems from The Common print contributors.
When Not in Rome: Tips for Touring Middle Italy
May 19, 2014
Essays
Getting Around:
When your cousin offers to meet you at the airport and drive you to Abruzzo, don’t even pretend to defer. As you will learn from the passenger seat, to say “driving” in Italy is to say “a lot of close calls.” A tunnel on a two-lane road may admit just one car. Passing’s no fun senza risk. In small towns, main roads are closed on Sundays so neighbors can chat in the street. Memorize multiple routes.
Poetry at Amherst (A New Crop)
May 17, 2014
News and Events
Event Date:
Saturday, May 31, 2014 – 4:30pm – 6:30pm
Location:
Amherst College, Merrill Science Center, Lecture Hall 1
Perhaps it’s the close attention to reading, the classic New England landscape or reverberations in the air left by Dickinson and Frost. Whatever the reason, Amherst has long been a wellspring for poetry, and generations of Amherst alums have achieved remarkable success in the literary world. In this reading and discussion, moderated by Jennifer Acker ’00, founder and editor-in-chief of The Common, six emerging and established poets, critics, and essayists read from their work and talk about the ways their literary lives thread through Johnson Chapel and beyond. Featuring Rafael Campo ’87, Rachel Nelson ’99, Brian Simoneau ’99, and Tess Taylor ’99. A book signing will follow. Presented by the Class of 1999.
Nella Citta Nuda: Two Subway Stories
May 14, 2014
Fiction
Today, The Common is featuring two translated short stories from the book Nella Citta Nuda by Antonio Monda. The Common in the (Eternal) City on May 21 features Monda in conversation with Larissa MacFarquhar.
Touring History
May 13, 2014
Essays
Disposable ponchos and white tennis shoes, cotton beach dresses worn without bras, sunglasses dangling from nylon cords, and a way of walking that is, in spite of the gray sky and the drizzling rain, ponderous. On a whole, they are younger than I expected, larger, and much more interested in cover bands. Almost all of them are couples.
Why I Love the MFA
May 12, 2014
Essays
BY JAMES FRANCO
I love MFA programs, because they are a purified space where the love of art is nourished.
*
This is an essayistic love poem written to MFA programs. It is a form that I learned from my mentor, Frank Bidart. Frank is a poet, but he is also a lover of film, acting, theater, music, pop-culture, Hollywood history, food, and sex.
Frank is old and doesn’t have sex anymore. At least I don’t think he does. But his poems are full of deep life, and sexual connotations.
