Introducing Dispatches

Today we are proud to launch Dispatches, a weekly column that will feature news, notes, and impressions from around the world. Some of our dispatches will be posted with great speed, to reflect recent experience. Others, like today’s installment from Jock Doubleday, might be a postcard of a season gone by.

We’ll post something new every Wednesday, so check back next week for our second dispatch, “Ethiopian Notes.” Although our first two pieces are from a traveler’s point of view, we will also publish vignettes from local perspectives.

The Common is all about exchanging ideas and impressions, especially those regarding place. No locale is too small or too big; no observation too prosaic or too abstract. So, go on—send your 250-500 word stories through our online submissions system here.

We look forward to hearing from you. Your voices will shape this column.

Introducing Dispatches

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Chair against the window

Susan

SARAH DUNPHY-LELII
I visit with a friend as she works to empty her mother’s house, who died just days before Christmas, and each object holds a tiny piece of Susan. I come away with several treasures lovely (a hand knitted scarf, a clay donkey to hold my garlic) and practical.

Mala Beads

MAW SHEIN WIN
When she wakes, I offer water. She sips from the glass. I ask if she needs more pillows behind her head. I look into her eyes and notice that she has deep blue lines that circle her almost black pupils. Why hadn’t I seen that before? I think of the nazars that I bought in Athens fifteen summers ago.