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.
"They could have danced straight out / of a Brueghel painting into our basement"
A dance between mother and daughter becomes an entryway into shared trauma in Robert Cording's, "Polka," a poem examining how the past shapes who we are. Find it in Issue 30 or using the link below!
A dance between mother and daughter becomes an entryway into shared trauma in Robert Cording's, "Polka," a poem examining how the past shapes who we are. Find it in Issue 30 or using the link below!
Polka
ROBERT CORDING <br> my mother and her mother, / four heart attacks and two open-heart surgeries / between them, breathing heavily, / but still going, arms and hands dipping / and rising, their feet…
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January 24, 2026 at 7:01 PM
"They could have danced straight out / of a Brueghel painting into our basement"
A dance between mother and daughter becomes an entryway into shared trauma in Robert Cording's, "Polka," a poem examining how the past shapes who we are. Find it in Issue 30 or using the link below!
A dance between mother and daughter becomes an entryway into shared trauma in Robert Cording's, "Polka," a poem examining how the past shapes who we are. Find it in Issue 30 or using the link below!
"Before my mother can return to her life and stop watching me eat, she says she must give me a dog."
Cory Beizer's debut story, "Smith," is a frenetic warning that encompasses a dog, a glass cow, and a chokehold of control. Read it below!
Cory Beizer's debut story, "Smith," is a frenetic warning that encompasses a dog, a glass cow, and a chokehold of control. Read it below!
Smith
CORY BEIZER <br> Eventually everything falls into disorder. That was what my physics minor taught me in college. When I met with the dietitian, I wanted to explain the law of entropy to her. That the…
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January 24, 2026 at 3:02 PM
"Before my mother can return to her life and stop watching me eat, she says she must give me a dog."
Cory Beizer's debut story, "Smith," is a frenetic warning that encompasses a dog, a glass cow, and a chokehold of control. Read it below!
Cory Beizer's debut story, "Smith," is a frenetic warning that encompasses a dog, a glass cow, and a chokehold of control. Read it below!
"It is a daring story that seamlessly blends fiction with autobiographical elements, creating a narrative that is both emotionally raw and poetic."
Britta Stromeyer reviews Edy Poppy's novel "Anatomy. Monotony."
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Britta Stromeyer reviews Edy Poppy's novel "Anatomy. Monotony."
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January 23, 2026 at 3:02 PM
"It is a daring story that seamlessly blends fiction with autobiographical elements, creating a narrative that is both emotionally raw and poetic."
Britta Stromeyer reviews Edy Poppy's novel "Anatomy. Monotony."
buff.ly/x51dm3v%E2%8...
Britta Stromeyer reviews Edy Poppy's novel "Anatomy. Monotony."
buff.ly/x51dm3v%E2%8...
"Like Adam walking from paradise, we are made strangers, our senses sharpened to look at the world anew. In this way, we can come to appreciate the everyday, the worldly."
Jill Pearlman (jillpearlman.bsky.social) describes the peculiar feeling of emptiness in her poem "U-topia."
Jill Pearlman (jillpearlman.bsky.social) describes the peculiar feeling of emptiness in her poem "U-topia."
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January 22, 2026 at 7:03 PM
"Like Adam walking from paradise, we are made strangers, our senses sharpened to look at the world anew. In this way, we can come to appreciate the everyday, the worldly."
Jill Pearlman (jillpearlman.bsky.social) describes the peculiar feeling of emptiness in her poem "U-topia."
Jill Pearlman (jillpearlman.bsky.social) describes the peculiar feeling of emptiness in her poem "U-topia."
"Why do I keep wanting from the world when I haven’t made use of what I already have?"
Neysa King explores lived sexuality and sensuality -- desire, identity, and the creation and potential limitation of sexual labels -- in "Juiced," an excerpt from her novel "How to Be Loved."
Neysa King explores lived sexuality and sensuality -- desire, identity, and the creation and potential limitation of sexual labels -- in "Juiced," an excerpt from her novel "How to Be Loved."
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January 22, 2026 at 3:04 PM
"Why do I keep wanting from the world when I haven’t made use of what I already have?"
Neysa King explores lived sexuality and sensuality -- desire, identity, and the creation and potential limitation of sexual labels -- in "Juiced," an excerpt from her novel "How to Be Loved."
Neysa King explores lived sexuality and sensuality -- desire, identity, and the creation and potential limitation of sexual labels -- in "Juiced," an excerpt from her novel "How to Be Loved."
Ready to write more in 2026? You can still sign up for Weekly Writes!
Each week, you get:
- 3 writing prompts from the editorial staff at The Common
- behind-the-scenes advice about writing, revising, and submitting your work
- an accountability incentive
*Sign ups close 1/26* buff.ly/TzkYEUY
Each week, you get:
- 3 writing prompts from the editorial staff at The Common
- behind-the-scenes advice about writing, revising, and submitting your work
- an accountability incentive
*Sign ups close 1/26* buff.ly/TzkYEUY
January 22, 2026 at 2:02 PM
Ready to write more in 2026? You can still sign up for Weekly Writes!
Each week, you get:
- 3 writing prompts from the editorial staff at The Common
- behind-the-scenes advice about writing, revising, and submitting your work
- an accountability incentive
*Sign ups close 1/26* buff.ly/TzkYEUY
Each week, you get:
- 3 writing prompts from the editorial staff at The Common
- behind-the-scenes advice about writing, revising, and submitting your work
- an accountability incentive
*Sign ups close 1/26* buff.ly/TzkYEUY
"Aren’t I the boss? Why was my mother (still!) telling me what to do?"
Our Editor in Chief reflects on a lifetime of working alongside her mother, now 80 and still a volunteer at The Common. Full article available on Substack at the link below!
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Our Editor in Chief reflects on a lifetime of working alongside her mother, now 80 and still a volunteer at The Common. Full article available on Substack at the link below!
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Me, My Mom, and 'The Common' Good
Literary magazine editor Jennifer Acker on her 80-year-old mother's contributions—past and present—to her magazine, now celebrating fifteen years.
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January 21, 2026 at 8:48 PM
"Aren’t I the boss? Why was my mother (still!) telling me what to do?"
Our Editor in Chief reflects on a lifetime of working alongside her mother, now 80 and still a volunteer at The Common. Full article available on Substack at the link below!
buff.ly/966Xy4p
Our Editor in Chief reflects on a lifetime of working alongside her mother, now 80 and still a volunteer at The Common. Full article available on Substack at the link below!
buff.ly/966Xy4p
"The problem was a question of narrative, the difficulty in lining up the facts in a story with so much nuance and so many shades of meaning."
Mar Gomez Glez's "Playing Chicken," translated by Sarah Thomas, explores a complex academic relationship and its troubles.
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Mar Gomez Glez's "Playing Chicken," translated by Sarah Thomas, explores a complex academic relationship and its troubles.
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January 21, 2026 at 7:01 PM
"The problem was a question of narrative, the difficulty in lining up the facts in a story with so much nuance and so many shades of meaning."
Mar Gomez Glez's "Playing Chicken," translated by Sarah Thomas, explores a complex academic relationship and its troubles.
buff.ly/ZSxnR0Y
Mar Gomez Glez's "Playing Chicken," translated by Sarah Thomas, explores a complex academic relationship and its troubles.
buff.ly/ZSxnR0Y
"I become a house lived-in. Living in my mother’s house, again, it’s easy to drift into the past. Blue bottle light, dust motes, a silver rattle. The sound of it: butterfly wings."
Read more from Evelyn Maguire's dispatch from Cape May, NJ.
Read more from Evelyn Maguire's dispatch from Cape May, NJ.
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January 21, 2026 at 3:03 PM
"I become a house lived-in. Living in my mother’s house, again, it’s easy to drift into the past. Blue bottle light, dust motes, a silver rattle. The sound of it: butterfly wings."
Read more from Evelyn Maguire's dispatch from Cape May, NJ.
Read more from Evelyn Maguire's dispatch from Cape May, NJ.
Keep your New Year's writing resolutions with Weekly Writes, a ten-week program designed to help you create original place-based writing in the new year with custom prompts and accountability benchmarks!
**Sign up before Monday, January 26!**
Learn more: buff.ly/TzkYEUY
**Sign up before Monday, January 26!**
Learn more: buff.ly/TzkYEUY
January 20, 2026 at 6:33 PM
Keep your New Year's writing resolutions with Weekly Writes, a ten-week program designed to help you create original place-based writing in the new year with custom prompts and accountability benchmarks!
**Sign up before Monday, January 26!**
Learn more: buff.ly/TzkYEUY
**Sign up before Monday, January 26!**
Learn more: buff.ly/TzkYEUY
“I think of the Southwest as a kind of palimpsest, or a place where the languages of governance, extraction, mapping, militarization, and belonging sediment over one another to produce the hyperreal.”
Read more from Daisy Atterbury’s interview with July Westhale.
Read more from Daisy Atterbury’s interview with July Westhale.
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January 19, 2026 at 7:02 PM
“I think of the Southwest as a kind of palimpsest, or a place where the languages of governance, extraction, mapping, militarization, and belonging sediment over one another to produce the hyperreal.”
Read more from Daisy Atterbury’s interview with July Westhale.
Read more from Daisy Atterbury’s interview with July Westhale.
"playing ghost & turning beneath the sheet, I felt like a cannonball, I felt like nothing else speeding through darkness"
In his prose poem "A Small Price & Without Warning," Michael Robins moves through the page with the quickness of boyhood. Check it out below!
In his prose poem "A Small Price & Without Warning," Michael Robins moves through the page with the quickness of boyhood. Check it out below!
A Small Price & Without Warning
MICHAEL ROBINS <br> The boy circles once more through the kitchen, past the ledge of photographs & the St. Francis tin, inside of which sleeps whatever’s left of the dog. My boy shows no signs of…
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January 18, 2026 at 3:01 PM
"playing ghost & turning beneath the sheet, I felt like a cannonball, I felt like nothing else speeding through darkness"
In his prose poem "A Small Price & Without Warning," Michael Robins moves through the page with the quickness of boyhood. Check it out below!
In his prose poem "A Small Price & Without Warning," Michael Robins moves through the page with the quickness of boyhood. Check it out below!
Rebecca Worby thrashes in the space before and after loss in her Issue 30 essay “Body Stories: On Miscarriage and Cancer,” available to read online now.
Body Stories: On Miscarriage and Cancer
REBECCA WORBY <br> Red, red blood, not the dark red of a period. I know this immediately even though I have only just had my first period in years, and as alarm bells go off in my mind, I begin to…
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January 18, 2026 at 2:01 PM
Rebecca Worby thrashes in the space before and after loss in her Issue 30 essay “Body Stories: On Miscarriage and Cancer,” available to read online now.
"One of the cows must be her cow, / survivor of the occupation"
Sasha Burshteyn's new poems focus on the people, a cow, and the environment to reflect the current state of Ukraine from different vantages. Find them in Issue 30's Ukraine Portfolio or using the link below!
Sasha Burshteyn's new poems focus on the people, a cow, and the environment to reflect the current state of Ukraine from different vantages. Find them in Issue 30's Ukraine Portfolio or using the link below!
Sasha Burshteyn: Poems
SASHA BURSHTEYN <br> The slagheap dominates / the landscape. A new kurgan / for a new age. High grave, waste mound. / To think of life / among the mountains— / that clean, clear air— / and realize…
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January 17, 2026 at 7:01 PM
"One of the cows must be her cow, / survivor of the occupation"
Sasha Burshteyn's new poems focus on the people, a cow, and the environment to reflect the current state of Ukraine from different vantages. Find them in Issue 30's Ukraine Portfolio or using the link below!
Sasha Burshteyn's new poems focus on the people, a cow, and the environment to reflect the current state of Ukraine from different vantages. Find them in Issue 30's Ukraine Portfolio or using the link below!
"Utopia, in its original definition, means no place. This poem posits itself at the edge of place ... the possibility that the search we enact in wandering will leave us empty-handed."
Jill Pearlman (jillpearlman.bsky.social) discusses "U-topia," from this month's poetry feature.
buff.ly/eIRyfGV
Jill Pearlman (jillpearlman.bsky.social) discusses "U-topia," from this month's poetry feature.
buff.ly/eIRyfGV
Jill Pearlman (@jillpearlman.bsky.social)
Poet, fellow traveler. Chaos & Beauty. C.D. Wright, Alice Oswald. Chaps: Diaspora of Things (FLP, upcoming) Capital G (Ravenna Press). "Studying the beautiful is a duel where the artist cries out in…
jillpearlman.bsky.social
January 15, 2026 at 3:03 PM
"Utopia, in its original definition, means no place. This poem posits itself at the edge of place ... the possibility that the search we enact in wandering will leave us empty-handed."
Jill Pearlman (jillpearlman.bsky.social) discusses "U-topia," from this month's poetry feature.
buff.ly/eIRyfGV
Jill Pearlman (jillpearlman.bsky.social) discusses "U-topia," from this month's poetry feature.
buff.ly/eIRyfGV
Sarah Thomas translates Mar Gómez Glez's "Playing Chicken," a Spanish fiction piece about a young student navigating an overwhelming, complex relationship with her professor -- his power over her, her need for financial aid, and how she can break free from it.
buff.ly
January 14, 2026 at 3:01 PM
Sarah Thomas translates Mar Gómez Glez's "Playing Chicken," a Spanish fiction piece about a young student navigating an overwhelming, complex relationship with her professor -- his power over her, her need for financial aid, and how she can break free from it.
“Body Stories: On Miscarriage and Cancer,” is a testament to the tragedy of motherhood and the resilience of women.
Rebecca Worby reads her Issue 30 essay in a brand new recording now available on our website.
buff.ly/Uq0jUPA
Rebecca Worby reads her Issue 30 essay in a brand new recording now available on our website.
buff.ly/Uq0jUPA
January 13, 2026 at 7:02 PM
“Body Stories: On Miscarriage and Cancer,” is a testament to the tragedy of motherhood and the resilience of women.
Rebecca Worby reads her Issue 30 essay in a brand new recording now available on our website.
buff.ly/Uq0jUPA
Rebecca Worby reads her Issue 30 essay in a brand new recording now available on our website.
buff.ly/Uq0jUPA
“It’s not that I imagine I’ve literally been to the moon, but that I came of age in a place where the imaginary and the material continually displaced one another.”
Daisy Atterbury discusses their debut book with poet and translator July Westhale in a new interview online now.
Daisy Atterbury discusses their debut book with poet and translator July Westhale in a new interview online now.
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January 12, 2026 at 3:02 PM
“It’s not that I imagine I’ve literally been to the moon, but that I came of age in a place where the imaginary and the material continually displaced one another.”
Daisy Atterbury discusses their debut book with poet and translator July Westhale in a new interview online now.
Daisy Atterbury discusses their debut book with poet and translator July Westhale in a new interview online now.
"That denouement when I too was a spinning child & my head tripped down its irreversible path into the solid corner of the piano bench"
Michael Robins's prose poem, published in our newest issue, muses on the irrefutable momentum of boyhood. Check it out below!
Michael Robins's prose poem, published in our newest issue, muses on the irrefutable momentum of boyhood. Check it out below!
A Small Price & Without Warning
MICHAEL ROBINS <br> The boy circles once more through the kitchen, past the ledge of photographs & the St. Francis tin, inside of which sleeps whatever’s left of the dog. My boy shows no signs of…
buff.ly
January 11, 2026 at 3:01 PM
"That denouement when I too was a spinning child & my head tripped down its irreversible path into the solid corner of the piano bench"
Michael Robins's prose poem, published in our newest issue, muses on the irrefutable momentum of boyhood. Check it out below!
Michael Robins's prose poem, published in our newest issue, muses on the irrefutable momentum of boyhood. Check it out below!
"It seems all the light of morning / has descended here where it’s usually dark"
So begins Marc Vincenz's quick poem, "A Meeting on Waterways," a delightful exaltation of the web of life in which we find ourselves. Read it and other Issue 30 poems at the link below.
So begins Marc Vincenz's quick poem, "A Meeting on Waterways," a delightful exaltation of the web of life in which we find ourselves. Read it and other Issue 30 poems at the link below.
A Meeting on Waterways
MARC VINCENZ <br> It seems all the light of morning / has descended here where it’s usually dark / and frogs raise their heads in the bulrushes, / where the last sounds swarm among the oaks. /…
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January 10, 2026 at 7:00 PM
"It seems all the light of morning / has descended here where it’s usually dark"
So begins Marc Vincenz's quick poem, "A Meeting on Waterways," a delightful exaltation of the web of life in which we find ourselves. Read it and other Issue 30 poems at the link below.
So begins Marc Vincenz's quick poem, "A Meeting on Waterways," a delightful exaltation of the web of life in which we find ourselves. Read it and other Issue 30 poems at the link below.
"this is not the fault of the people but it is / the people’s problem"
Sasha Burshteyn's triad of poems featured in Issue 30's Ukraine portfolio recount memories of pastoral scenes, industrial decay, and the effects of the Russian invasion. Pick up a copy of Issue 30 or find them at the link below!
Sasha Burshteyn's triad of poems featured in Issue 30's Ukraine portfolio recount memories of pastoral scenes, industrial decay, and the effects of the Russian invasion. Pick up a copy of Issue 30 or find them at the link below!
Sasha Burshteyn: Poems
SASHA BURSHTEYN <br> The slagheap dominates / the landscape. A new kurgan / for a new age. High grave, waste mound. / To think of life / among the mountains— / that clean, clear air— / and realize…
buff.ly
January 10, 2026 at 3:02 PM
"this is not the fault of the people but it is / the people’s problem"
Sasha Burshteyn's triad of poems featured in Issue 30's Ukraine portfolio recount memories of pastoral scenes, industrial decay, and the effects of the Russian invasion. Pick up a copy of Issue 30 or find them at the link below!
Sasha Burshteyn's triad of poems featured in Issue 30's Ukraine portfolio recount memories of pastoral scenes, industrial decay, and the effects of the Russian invasion. Pick up a copy of Issue 30 or find them at the link below!
Weekly Writes Vol. 10 kicks off on January 26, just in time to help you stay accountable on your New Year’s resolutions and 2026 goals! Sign up below!
buff.ly/dJXKM5T
buff.ly/dJXKM5T
January 9, 2026 at 7:32 PM
Weekly Writes Vol. 10 kicks off on January 26, just in time to help you stay accountable on your New Year’s resolutions and 2026 goals! Sign up below!
buff.ly/dJXKM5T
buff.ly/dJXKM5T
Alex Behm's dispatch from Copenhagen snags on the details of daily life: a snapped tree limb, the changing of seasons, things bought at the store.
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January 7, 2026 at 2:42 PM
Alex Behm's dispatch from Copenhagen snags on the details of daily life: a snapped tree limb, the changing of seasons, things bought at the store.
Reposted by The Common
The wait is over. Welcome to the 2026 Virtual Writers Retreat Faculty! 🥳
Check the 🔗 in our bio to read more about our faculty and the bright future of the Writers Retreat!
Applications will open November 21, 2025-January 8, 2026.
Don't miss this one. Things may never be the same. 👀
Check the 🔗 in our bio to read more about our faculty and the bright future of the Writers Retreat!
Applications will open November 21, 2025-January 8, 2026.
Don't miss this one. Things may never be the same. 👀
November 18, 2025 at 8:18 PM
The wait is over. Welcome to the 2026 Virtual Writers Retreat Faculty! 🥳
Check the 🔗 in our bio to read more about our faculty and the bright future of the Writers Retreat!
Applications will open November 21, 2025-January 8, 2026.
Don't miss this one. Things may never be the same. 👀
Check the 🔗 in our bio to read more about our faculty and the bright future of the Writers Retreat!
Applications will open November 21, 2025-January 8, 2026.
Don't miss this one. Things may never be the same. 👀
"How strange, to see behind what I’d taken to be solid. A hidden space, suddenly exposed."
Listen to Rebecca Worby read her Issue 30 essay "Body Stories: On Miscarriage and Cancer," in a new recording available online now.
Listen to Rebecca Worby read her Issue 30 essay "Body Stories: On Miscarriage and Cancer," in a new recording available online now.
Body Stories: On Miscarriage and Cancer
REBECCA WORBY <br> Red, red blood, not the dark red of a period. I know this immediately even though I have only just had my first period in years, and as alarm bells go off in my mind, I begin to…
buff.ly
January 6, 2026 at 3:01 PM
"How strange, to see behind what I’d taken to be solid. A hidden space, suddenly exposed."
Listen to Rebecca Worby read her Issue 30 essay "Body Stories: On Miscarriage and Cancer," in a new recording available online now.
Listen to Rebecca Worby read her Issue 30 essay "Body Stories: On Miscarriage and Cancer," in a new recording available online now.