Books burning 3:39 a.m.
Chapter 6, Don Quixote.
Touch-me-nots
Wilting-in-progress.
Dead-of-Night Blossoms
April 15, 2017
Issue 13, Issue 13 Poetry, Poetry
Obituary
April 15, 2017
Issue 13, Issue 13 Poetry, Poetry
In your obituary I concluded, “Muriel lives on in…”
and went on to name myself, my two brothers,
and your eleven grandchildren. I may have been thinking
of Pasternak who said something like our life
in others is our immortality, or I may have just been
looking for a way to make your life continue
even as I announced that it was already finished.
Embraceable
April 15, 2017
Issue 13, Issue 13 Poetry, Poetry, Translation
Translated by ILAN STAVANS
Abrazable
A Piedad Bonnett
Irremplazable tú,
voz tú vacía
de mi vacío en ti
inconsolable.
Mi tú irremediable
tu mí espejo
de tu reflejo
Living in the Past
April 14, 2017
Fiction, Issue 13, Issue 13 Fiction, Translation
From The Baghdad Eucharist
By SINAN ANTOON
Translated by MAIA TABET
1
“You’re just living in the past, Uncle!” Maha burst out as she ran from the living room after our argument. Luay, her husband, was upset and he called out after her, his face flushed.
“Hey, Maha, where are you going? Come back! Maha!” But she was already hurtling up the stairs that led to the second floor. He looked downcast as he apologized.
“Forgive her, Uncle. You know how much she loves and respects you.” In a voice speckled with shame, he added, “She’s a nervous wreck and can’t help herself.”
Photos of LitFest 2017
April 13, 2017
News and Events
What Hanife Knows
April 12, 2017
Dispatches
One morning we hike a few miles to a nomad’s camp on an isolated island off Turkey’s southern coast. The hike is uphill, hot, and arduous. We pass the ruins of a Roman cistern and a dry-land tortoise headed downhill. After an hour the path levels out into a broad valley and we arrive. Only the woman is home. Her name is Hanife.
Current Obligations
April 7, 2017
Essays
Dear Brian:
I hope you don’t mind my addressing you this way. You addressed me as P., after all—no last name. Although we’ve never met, you offered condolences for my loss.
Sample Lesson Plan for Writing & Publishing: Encountering the Literary Journal
March 31, 2017
Lesson Plans, Teach
Learn more about teaching The Common and request a free sample issue.
Discussion Questions:
What is your first encounter with this magazine, as an object?
What do you think about the physical and aesthetic features of the magazine: the weight, the paper stock, the cover, the cover art, the font? What, if anything, would you change?
How do you read it? In order? Piecemeal? How do you think this affects your reaction to the magazine?
How do pieces (poems, essays, stories, images) relate to each other? What is the effect of their placements on you as a reader?
Sample Lesson Plan: Exploring Place through Literary Homage
March 31, 2017
Lesson Plans, Teach
Asking students to create homages to several of the works in The Common Issues 01 and 07 promotes a further exploration of the city in which they live. In fact, it requires it of them.
In Issue 01 of The Common, Ted Conover delivers an immersion essay in which he delves into the past and present of a nearly forgotten road near his home in New England. The first prompt of the semester, therefore, compels the students to write their own Conover-esque immersion essay by walking/exploring a street, building, or landmark in their city or town, seeking out written resources on this place, and gathering up the courage to probe living memory. The second prompt, handed out several months later, encourages them to become creative with what they have so far discovered in their town or city by selecting the works that most interested them inThe Common and emulating these.
Sample Lesson Plan for Personal Essay: Developing Voice, Exploring Roots
March 31, 2017
Lesson Plans, Teach
Assignment:
Using these essays from The Common as inspiration, bring your completely current voice to an exploration of history; write a concise personal essay exploring your personal history or the history of a place.
“Coastlines” by Teow Lim Goh (may also be presented in conjunction with other California authors: Fante, Didion, Jeffers, Hong Kingston, Mori, Himes, etc.)
“The Teak House” by Lamtharn Hantrakul
“The Town with the Golden Future” by Will Preston (Issue 14)
