The Common
@commonmag.bsky.social
The Common is a print and online literary magazine publishing stories, essays, poetry, and art with a modern sense of place. Based at Amherst College, we highlight writers and work from around the world.
There are few things better than hearing from those you admire. If you, like us, were captivated by Rabih Alameddine’s The Wrong End Of The Telescope, you have the chance to win a handwritten postcard from the PEN/Faulkner award-winning author in our Postcard Auction. Bid today! buff.ly/2rMVj9J
November 27, 2025 at 8:01 PM
There are few things better than hearing from those you admire. If you, like us, were captivated by Rabih Alameddine’s The Wrong End Of The Telescope, you have the chance to win a handwritten postcard from the PEN/Faulkner award-winning author in our Postcard Auction. Bid today! buff.ly/2rMVj9J
"Changes, changes, these interminable changes scar the soil. / Those who do survive such progress are obliged to praise the spoil."
"My Wallonia" is our November Poetry Feature! In tight couplets, Dylan Carpenter walks the memories, sunsets, and excesses of a world in disrepair.
"My Wallonia" is our November Poetry Feature! In tight couplets, Dylan Carpenter walks the memories, sunsets, and excesses of a world in disrepair.
November 2025 Poetry Feature: My Wallonia: Welcoming Dylan Carpenter
DYLAN CARPENTER <br> I have heard the symptoms play upon world’s corroded lyre, / Pictured my Wallonia and seen the waterfall afire.
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November 27, 2025 at 7:04 PM
"Changes, changes, these interminable changes scar the soil. / Those who do survive such progress are obliged to praise the spoil."
"My Wallonia" is our November Poetry Feature! In tight couplets, Dylan Carpenter walks the memories, sunsets, and excesses of a world in disrepair.
"My Wallonia" is our November Poetry Feature! In tight couplets, Dylan Carpenter walks the memories, sunsets, and excesses of a world in disrepair.
Only a few days left! Charmaine Wilkerson, author of novels Black Cake and Good Dirt, both published by @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social, is participating in this year's postcard auction. Bid for a chance to win a personalized note from your favorite writers!
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November 27, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Only a few days left! Charmaine Wilkerson, author of novels Black Cake and Good Dirt, both published by @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social, is participating in this year's postcard auction. Bid for a chance to win a personalized note from your favorite writers!
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buff.ly/dKbqJFi
Imagine: You open the mail and find a handwritten, personalized postcard from your favorite author with your name on it. Place your bid in this year’s Postcard Auction for a chance to hear from best-selling authors like Jessica Francis Kane and make your dreams a reality! buff.ly/RbbGfon
November 27, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Imagine: You open the mail and find a handwritten, personalized postcard from your favorite author with your name on it. Place your bid in this year’s Postcard Auction for a chance to hear from best-selling authors like Jessica Francis Kane and make your dreams a reality! buff.ly/RbbGfon
There are only FOUR DAYS left to win a personalized postcard from George Saunders, #1 New York Times Bestselling author @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social! Click the link below to secure a unique and special holiday gift from one of your favorite authors!
George Saunders
Receive a handwritten note from George Saunders, #1 New York Times bestselling author.
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November 27, 2025 at 3:04 PM
There are only FOUR DAYS left to win a personalized postcard from George Saunders, #1 New York Times Bestselling author @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social! Click the link below to secure a unique and special holiday gift from one of your favorite authors!
If your shelves hold Danticat next to Kincaid, Lahiri, and Alvarez, this is your dream moment: a personal postcard from Edwige Danticat herself. The Common’s Postcard Auction is live—claim a piece of literary tenderness for your mailbox. Link below.
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@graywolfpress.bsky.social
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@graywolfpress.bsky.social
November 27, 2025 at 2:02 PM
If your shelves hold Danticat next to Kincaid, Lahiri, and Alvarez, this is your dream moment: a personal postcard from Edwige Danticat herself. The Common’s Postcard Auction is live—claim a piece of literary tenderness for your mailbox. Link below.
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@graywolfpress.bsky.social
buff.ly/QVNu3XP
@graywolfpress.bsky.social
Time is running out to bid on a personalized postcard from Angela Flournoy, award-winning author of The Wilderness and The Turner House, and one of the most exciting new voices working in contemporary fiction today!
More information: buff.ly/pGcBXs6
@harpercollins.bsky.social
More information: buff.ly/pGcBXs6
@harpercollins.bsky.social
November 27, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Time is running out to bid on a personalized postcard from Angela Flournoy, award-winning author of The Wilderness and The Turner House, and one of the most exciting new voices working in contemporary fiction today!
More information: buff.ly/pGcBXs6
@harpercollins.bsky.social
More information: buff.ly/pGcBXs6
@harpercollins.bsky.social
"Inside the tub, there is the outline of a body, inside of which there is burning"
Tola Sylvan's piercing meditation in an onsen town wanders from nail art to the relationship between wonder and danger. Check out her dispatch below!
Tola Sylvan's piercing meditation in an onsen town wanders from nail art to the relationship between wonder and danger. Check out her dispatch below!
Nails, Tooth, and Tub
TOLA SYLVAN <br> here is the outside of myself, my hardshell exterior, with its wily and yet decipherable messages
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November 26, 2025 at 7:03 PM
"Inside the tub, there is the outline of a body, inside of which there is burning"
Tola Sylvan's piercing meditation in an onsen town wanders from nail art to the relationship between wonder and danger. Check out her dispatch below!
Tola Sylvan's piercing meditation in an onsen town wanders from nail art to the relationship between wonder and danger. Check out her dispatch below!
There’s no question that Chris Pavone, best-selling author of thrillers Two Nights in Lisbon and The Doorman, knows how to make your hair stand on end, but did you know that he writes a mean postcard? Bid now in our Postcard Auction! buff.ly/Z4WLfn4
November 26, 2025 at 7:01 PM
There’s no question that Chris Pavone, best-selling author of thrillers Two Nights in Lisbon and The Doorman, knows how to make your hair stand on end, but did you know that he writes a mean postcard? Bid now in our Postcard Auction! buff.ly/Z4WLfn4
Only a few days left to win a personalized note from Sayaka Murata, author savant rocking any and all social conventions in contemporary prose. If any of her books are shelf mainstays, you can bid until December 1st on a postcard from her!
Click below to participate!
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Click below to participate!
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November 26, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Only a few days left to win a personalized note from Sayaka Murata, author savant rocking any and all social conventions in contemporary prose. If any of her books are shelf mainstays, you can bid until December 1st on a postcard from her!
Click below to participate!
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Click below to participate!
buff.ly/VdUJVLf
If Cisneros’s words shaped your coming-of-age, your sense of voice, or your understanding of what a story can hold, imagine receiving a handwritten note from her. She’s part of The Common’s 2025 Postcard Auction. Bid now through Dec 1—link below.
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November 26, 2025 at 5:04 PM
If Cisneros’s words shaped your coming-of-age, your sense of voice, or your understanding of what a story can hold, imagine receiving a handwritten note from her. She’s part of The Common’s 2025 Postcard Auction. Bid now through Dec 1—link below.
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Lauded writer Yiyun Li (@appletwigli.bsky.social) is participating in our Author Postcard Auction this year! Don't miss your chance to win a handwritten postcard from the author of Things in Nature Merely Grow, Wednesday's Child, and The Book of Goose! Place your bids at buff.ly/bvQAKSw
November 26, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Lauded writer Yiyun Li (@appletwigli.bsky.social) is participating in our Author Postcard Auction this year! Don't miss your chance to win a handwritten postcard from the author of Things in Nature Merely Grow, Wednesday's Child, and The Book of Goose! Place your bids at buff.ly/bvQAKSw
Calling all Anne Tyler fans! Only a few days left to participate in The Common's postcard auction! Bid to win a personalized note from your favorite writers.
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November 26, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Calling all Anne Tyler fans! Only a few days left to participate in The Common's postcard auction! Bid to win a personalized note from your favorite writers.
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Jayne Anne Phillips “brings these theaters of peace and loss, death and transcendence together with a remarkable alchemy” (Ken Burns) in her Pulitzer-prize winning novel Night Watch. Bid now for a personalized postcard from the author extraordinaire! buff.ly/QkIfnwR
November 25, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Jayne Anne Phillips “brings these theaters of peace and loss, death and transcendence together with a remarkable alchemy” (Ken Burns) in her Pulitzer-prize winning novel Night Watch. Bid now for a personalized postcard from the author extraordinaire! buff.ly/QkIfnwR
Novelist, memoirist, and playwright, Monica Wood can seemingly do it all—including write postcards! Enter our Author Postcard Auction for a chance to win a personalized note from the writer of How to Read a Book, The One-in-a-Million Boy, and When We Were the Kennedys at buff.ly/DQD6qXw
November 25, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Novelist, memoirist, and playwright, Monica Wood can seemingly do it all—including write postcards! Enter our Author Postcard Auction for a chance to win a personalized note from the writer of How to Read a Book, The One-in-a-Million Boy, and When We Were the Kennedys at buff.ly/DQD6qXw
There's less than a week to get a handwritten postcard from Katie Kitamura @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social! Get a personalized gift from an award-winning author and one of Obama's favorite writers.
Katie Kitamura
Receive a handwritten note from Katie Kitamura, bestselling author and art critic.
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November 25, 2025 at 3:03 PM
There's less than a week to get a handwritten postcard from Katie Kitamura @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social! Get a personalized gift from an award-winning author and one of Obama's favorite writers.
Did you love Ann Patchett's Tom Lake from @parnassusbooks.bsky.social, or are you looking forward to her upcoming release, Whistler? One can only imagine what she might write to YOU next.
Only a few days left to bid in our postcard auction! Click the link below!
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Only a few days left to bid in our postcard auction! Click the link below!
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November 25, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Did you love Ann Patchett's Tom Lake from @parnassusbooks.bsky.social, or are you looking forward to her upcoming release, Whistler? One can only imagine what she might write to YOU next.
Only a few days left to bid in our postcard auction! Click the link below!
buff.ly/QOmwwUh
Only a few days left to bid in our postcard auction! Click the link below!
buff.ly/QOmwwUh
“Small Mariners” is a grand gust of wind in your sails, sure to startle you alive. Listen to Lauren Camp read her stunning Issue 30 poem in a brand new recording, available online now.
Small Mariners
LAUREN CAMP <br> What is it like to be found? All these years on, I’ve never before been / to the edge of this rocky square state. I drive 41 through aura and wither / and slip into Golden then…
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November 25, 2025 at 1:01 PM
“Small Mariners” is a grand gust of wind in your sails, sure to startle you alive. Listen to Lauren Camp read her stunning Issue 30 poem in a brand new recording, available online now.
Vendela Vida fans, this is for you! Enter the postcard auction to win a personalized note from the mind behind The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty. Bid today!
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November 24, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Vendela Vida fans, this is for you! Enter the postcard auction to win a personalized note from the mind behind The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty. Bid today!
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Calling all Hanif Abdurraqib fans! If you or someone you know is as obsessed with his work as we are, check out our postcard auction for a chance to win a personalized note from him! Click the link below to bid, but be quick: the auction closes December 1st!
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buff.ly/EH8eIPx
November 24, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Calling all Hanif Abdurraqib fans! If you or someone you know is as obsessed with his work as we are, check out our postcard auction for a chance to win a personalized note from him! Click the link below to bid, but be quick: the auction closes December 1st!
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buff.ly/EH8eIPx
Can't stop listening to Craig Finn's new album, Always Been? Enter our Postcard Auction for the chance to win a personalized handwritten note from the frontman of The Hold Steady! Place your bid at: buff.ly/jDYIFec
November 24, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Can't stop listening to Craig Finn's new album, Always Been? Enter our Postcard Auction for the chance to win a personalized handwritten note from the frontman of The Hold Steady! Place your bid at: buff.ly/jDYIFec
Make your holiday season extra special with a one-of-a-kind personalized postcard from O. Henry Award-winning author, Manuel Muñoz. Place your bid today! buff.ly/YcTTczg
November 24, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Make your holiday season extra special with a one-of-a-kind personalized postcard from O. Henry Award-winning author, Manuel Muñoz. Place your bid today! buff.ly/YcTTczg
Calling all Charmaine Wilkerson fans! Before December 1st, consider bidding in The Common's Postcard Auction for a personalized note from an author! Perfect for the holiday season, for yourself or for another Wilkerson fan in your life.
Click below to win!
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Click below to win!
buff.ly/dKbqJFi
November 24, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Calling all Charmaine Wilkerson fans! Before December 1st, consider bidding in The Common's Postcard Auction for a personalized note from an author! Perfect for the holiday season, for yourself or for another Wilkerson fan in your life.
Click below to win!
buff.ly/dKbqJFi
Click below to win!
buff.ly/dKbqJFi
If you loved Jen Hatmaker's new best-selling memoir, Awake, be sure to check out our Author Postcard Auction! Enter now for the chance to win a personalized postcard from Jen herself! Place your bids on Jen and other best-selling and award-winning authors at buff.ly/SGQUzc6
November 24, 2025 at 4:03 PM
If you loved Jen Hatmaker's new best-selling memoir, Awake, be sure to check out our Author Postcard Auction! Enter now for the chance to win a personalized postcard from Jen herself! Place your bids on Jen and other best-selling and award-winning authors at buff.ly/SGQUzc6
If you're a fan of Longbourn, we have something else you might be a fan of: a personalized postcard from author Jo Baker @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social! Click the link below for a chance to get a unique and personal holiday gift!
Jo Baker
Receive a handwritten note from bestselling author Jo Baker.
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November 24, 2025 at 3:04 PM
If you're a fan of Longbourn, we have something else you might be a fan of: a personalized postcard from author Jo Baker @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social! Click the link below for a chance to get a unique and personal holiday gift!