For the inaugural issue of Common Forms, the editors and fellows collaborated to find a venue for their peers’ creative and critical work that might not have otherwise had a chance to see publication—they asked for students’ and alumni’s “Side Pieces”: “side projects, minor obsessions, hobby interests, and secret loves.” The call for papers emphasized that the aim of Common Forms was to capture some of the breadth and creativity of MAPH students, who enter the program with academic *and* other interests: here, a student scholar of 20th century literature exhibits some of her poetry; an alumnus who worked in philosophy provides an insight into working in animal medicine through memoir. The many passions of MAPHers are what nurture our community, whether they be Dungeons and Dragons; home photography; B movies; comic book illustration; food science; or romance novels. This issue provides a tiny slice of the excellent work that MAPH students and alumni produce that exceeds the boundaries of strict academic or creative-academic categories, and it shows how our journal can encourage our student colleagues to follow their weird.
“Imprints of the Past” & other poems
Carla Nunez-Hernandez (’22)
“Gordes [Diptych] 2022″ & other photos
Claire Rich (’23)
“One to Another” & other poems
Joseph Stevens McClure (’19)
“Decapitation”
Brent Fergusson (’16)
“Queer Appalachia Rising”
Lauren Suzanne (’21)
“Death, Thou Shalt Die: Cyclicality, Regeneration and the Refusal of Finality”
Rameen Saad (’23)
Selected Photos
Colin Lavery (’23)
“There’s Glitter in My Hippocampus”
Mouse Rikala (’23)
“A Portrait of a River” & “An Angel’s Fart”
Muhammad Dirgantara Esa Valentino Am (’23)
“White Rabbit” & other poems
Teresa Brickey (’23)
“Revising Queerness in Tennessee Williams’ The Parade, or Approaching the End of a Summer”
William DeVito (’23)
“Monk poem & other poems
Isak Saaf (’24)
EDITORIAL TEAM
Advisors
Darrel Chia
Megan Tusler
Editors
Richard Hwang
Brooklyn Rue
Noa Stolzenberg-Myers
Fellows
Faith Lane
Colin Lavery
Simon Lenoe
Wes Mills
Jenna Novosel
Charlotte Sechrist
Lewis Sherman
Cam Wade
Jamie Yu
Graphic Design
Brooklyn Rue