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Beowulf. Readings. Beer.

September 9, 2013 News and Events

Event Date:

Thursday, September 26, 2013 – 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Location:

High Horse

Break out the beer and mead! As part of the Amherst Poetry Festival (Sept. 20-27), The Common has partnered with the Emily Dickinson Museum and Amherst Business Improvement District to bring you a night of Beowulf, readings, and beer at the High Horse upstairs pool hall on Thursday, September 26 from 6-8pm. From 6-7pm, contributors and friends of The Common will read poetry and fiction inspired by the epic poem. Then, from 7-8pm, UMass English Professor Stephen Harris will discuss Beowulf with epic readings in English and Old English to the beat of a drum. Indulge your inner medievalist and join us for a night that will “fill Heorot with head-clearing voice, / gladdening that great rally of Geats and Danes.”

Featuring readings by The Common contributors Brad Leithauser and Naila Moreira.

beowulf_0913_brbflyer

Angels Landing

September 6, 2013 Essays

By MARIAN CROTTY

It’s summer in Zion National Park, and I am thinking about water. Thunderstorms have felled trees and left silt in the air, and the river slicing through the center of the canyon rushes high and murky, the warm red brown of long-brewed chai. Sagebrush sweetness mixes with evergreen; cedar leaves rustle; and in the morning cool below mountains of rock, it doesn’t feel like Utah.

Browning

September 4, 2013 Dispatches

By JACOB SCHEPERS

A handmade dress passed down

from your mother finds space

in the cedar chest at the foot

of the bed. The chest, a relic

of your father’s, bore a new

The Writer as Foreigner: An Interview with Terese Svoboda

September 3, 2013 Interviews

ZINZI CLEMMONS interviews TERESE SVOBODA

Terese Svoboda is the author of several books of poetry and prose, most recently the novel Bohemian Girl, which Booklist named one of the ten best Westerns of 2012. Her fourth novel, Tin God, was re-issued this year. Zinzi Clemmons caught up with her during a mild August to discuss Sudan, life in foreign cultures, and multi-genre writing.

Zinzi Clemmons (ZC): Your story “High Heels,” in Issue 05 of The Common, is set on an unnamed island in the Indian Ocean where Swahili is spoken. Which country is this? Did you intend for the reader to gain a sense of a specific location through the story?

Terese Svoboda (TS): It’s Lamu, off the coast of Kenya. It should evoke the disorientation of an extreme change of location for the characters — and, of course, of an island in the Indian Ocean.

Flood Control

August 23, 2013 Fiction

This week, as an end-of-summer treat, we present you three stories by The Common contributors originally published in our special Summer Fiction Issue. Enjoy!

Flood Control

By OLIVIA WOLFGANG-SMITH

Here, The Weather Is Lovely

August 21, 2013 Fiction

This week, as an end-of-summer treat, we present you three stories by The Common contributors originally published in our special Summer Fiction Issue. Enjoy!

Here, The Weather Is Lovely

By LAURI ANDERSON ALFORD

The Servant

August 19, 2013 Fiction

This week, as an end-of-summer treat, we present you three stories by The Commoncontributors originally published in our special Summer Fiction Issue. Enjoy!

The Servant

By BIPIN AURORA

August 2013 Poetry Feature

August 16, 2013 Poetry

It’s our pleasure to bring you new poems by four poets whose work will also appear in an upcoming print issue of The Common.

From “Mañana Means Heaven”

August 13, 2013 Essays

By TIM Z. HERNANDEZ

Excerpt from the forthcoming novel Mañana Means Heaven:

Wednesday, October 22, 1947

The workers couldn’t stop talking about it. Especially that whole first day after it happened. According to the paper, a “wetback” was found strung up in a sycamore tree near Raisin City. From his neck dangled a cardboard sign:

PARASITE

The Fresno County Coroner confirmed that because nowhere on the body were there bruises or scrapes the only logical explanation was suicide. A common occurrence among braceros. Naturally. They missed their families back home. Depression was inevitable. Fear was constant. The food too bland. A bottle of whiskey was found half emptied nearby. And for Xixto María Martínez, all the signs were there. On this very day his contract was up. As for the brief poem found on his person, the paper offered no explanation, except to say: Mr. Martínez had a way with words. It was imminent now. Xixto dying the way he died was only a suggestion.

How Should I Care For?

August 12, 2013 Essays, In House

By ELIZABETH WITTE

1. Consider what damages

Yes, light, pests, dirt, but also the whole climate, and pets and people. Don’t forget the stress of storage or display. Whether to be “used and enjoyed” or “saved and preserved” – you must decide. There is no quick or simple answer. I was given this, but how should I make sure it is safe? That it does not begin to decay, then all but disappear. There are basic measures that anyone can take. Preserving fibers will prolong life.

Ultraviolet light from the sun and fluorescent lights cause permanent damage. Be alert to how the sunlight might be reflecting off a wall or mirror.