On behalf of everyone at On the Commons, I am thrilled to announce the six poets whose work has been selected to be published over the coming months in our new commons-inspired poetry column, UNCOMMON/WORD. The poets include Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, Laura Hansen, Elizabeth C. Herron, Roger Higgins, Rumit Pancholi, and Mike Rollin.
The theme for our inaugural call for submissions to UNCOMMON/WORD was “all that we share,” and we received many excellent poems addressing this topic. Together, Poet Advisors Sarah Browning, Douglas Kearney, Juliet Patterson, Crystal Ann Williams, and I sifted through countless submissions until we narrowed the field down to the six that will be published in the coming months. The poems we have selected address a diverse set of shared experiences: water, the quest for answers, life in community, death and grief, and a society scarred by war.
As you read these poems within the framework of our larger conversation about the commons, we hope they will bring you new insight into the commons and inspire you to see the world in a new way.
A new submission period is now open, and we will be accepting work on the theme of “water,” one of our most essential commons, through December 31st. We invite you to learn about our work in the Great Lakes region and participate in our I AM WATER project as you prepare your submission.
