Celebrating 15 Years
Brooklyn, New York
After Darkness, a Neighbor Turns the Lights On
April 6, 2022
Dispatches
Friday Reads: April 2022
April 1, 2022
Reviews
Curated by ELLY HONG
Here at The Common, our incisive volunteer readers are the first to review fiction and nonfiction submissions to the magazine. In this month’s round of Friday Reads, they recommend three exciting new works of speculative fiction.
March 2022 Poetry Feature
March 31, 2022
Poetry
New poems from our contributors JORDAN HONEYBLUE, ROBERT WOOD LYNN, BENJAMIN PALOFF, and LYNNE THOMPSON.
Table of Contents:
Jordan Honeyblue | free it.
Robert Wood Lynn | Peepers in February
Benjamin Paloff | Of Vanity
Lynne Thompson | Paradise: 579
A Memorandum of My Several Senses: Chloe Honum’s The Lantern Room
March 28, 2022
Reviews
Reviewed by REBECCA GAYLE HOWELL
On a Sabbath day in 1855, Emily Dickinson wrote a letter to her dear one, Mrs. Holland. Mrs. Holland was the poet’s chosen sister, a mentor and friend in gardening and recipes, householding and womanhood. They were correspondents for more than 30 years, sharing their litanies of living a life. This particular letter concerned the disorienting process of moving house. The Dickinson family was returning to their homeplace. It was the house where Emily was born and it would be the house where she died. But in that moment, having lived fifteen years elsewhere, she felt pillaged and lost, a kind of expat from her country of knowns.
Podcast: Shubha Sunder on “A Very Full Day”
March 25, 2022
Podcast, Podcasts & Audio
Transcript: Shubha Sunder Podcast.
Shubha Sunder speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about her story “A Very Full Day,” which appears in The Common’s fall issue. In this conversation, Shubha talks about writing stories set in India, and how she built out the insular world of Indian retirees that “A Very Full Day” centers on. She also discusses teaching creative writing to undergrads, her revision process, and her forthcoming collection of stories Boomtown Girl, which won the St. Lawrence Book Award.
From Lviv In March
March 23, 2022
Dispatches
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Before: An Excerpt from Here Lies
March 22, 2022
Fiction
The following is an excerpt from Here Lies by Oliva Clare Friedman, out now from Grove Press. Click here to purchase.
From before I began, I loved her. This was what I knew. Before the beginning, before I was born from her, before bones and blood and body, before egg.
My mother Naomi was dead and not buried. Dead in fact for half a year. Her body burned to ashes by the state, bones, heart, feet, eyes burned to dust, against her wish, against mine, and that was that. I was trying to understand.
Craft Masterclasses: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry & Translation
March 16, 2022
News and Events
Give your writing a boost this spring. Join The Common for a series of craft classes with these literary luminaries.
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Bruna Dantas Lobato: No Two Snowflakes Are Alike: How to Translate Style [register]
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Karen Shepard on Fiction: The Children’s Hour [register]
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Willie Perdomo on Poetry: The City and the Poet, the Street and the Poem [register]
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Suketu Mehta on Nonfiction: Writing the City [register]
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Each class includes a craft talk and Q&A with the guest author, generative exercises and discussion, and a take-home list of readings and writing prompts. Recordings will be available after the fact for participants who cannot attend the live event.
Each class is $125, or $85 for current subscribers or current and past Weekly Writes participants.
We Insist on a Godliness, a Mystery, a Laughter: An Interview with Patrick Rosal
March 14, 2022
Interviews
PATRICK ROSAL interviewed by WILLIE PERDOMO
Patrick Rosal is an interdisciplinary artist and author of five full-length collections of poetry. Former Interviews Editor Willie Perdomo connected with Patrick over email this winter, and in this lively exchange, they discuss the spirit realm and its ability to breathe life into writing. Rosal shares his perspective on music and performance in his work, as well as the importance of honoring rituals, ancestors, and legacy.
Podcast: Tom Sleigh on “Last Cigarette” and “Apology to My Daughter”
March 11, 2022
Podcast, Podcasts & Audio
Transcript: Tom Sleigh Podcast
Tom Sleigh speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about his poems “Last Cigarette” and “Apology to My Daughter,” which appear in The Common’s fall issue. In this conversation, Tom talks about his time as a journalist in Syria, Lebanon, Somalia, Kenya, Iraq, and Libya, and how that experience comes out in his poetry. He also discusses the process of putting together his new poetry collection from Graywolf, The King’s Touch, and how he sees the current Ukrainian refugee crisis playing out differently than crises in other parts of the world with less established infrastructure.
