The Common
@commonmag
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Amherst, MA
Joined May 2010
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The Common is a print and online literary magazine based at Amherst College that publishes essays, short stories, poetry, and images with a modern sense of place. Sign up for our newsletter to find...
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The Common's Twitter account is no longer active. Please find us on Bluesky:
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"When he returned to the surface, his ears popped, and he swore he could hear the sky.". A heartbreaking story about the assemblage of relationships we have with nature and each other, Shane Castle's "Ponderosa" is not to be missed. Check it out below!.
thecommononline.org
SHANE CASTLE He recognized it for an absence—no, the absence of silence—a something. He would look back years later and remember it as a sub-rosa gnawing that seemed to come from everywhere and...
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"It was beetles, pine-bark beetles—thousands, maybe millions, gnawing their way through the brittle red bark of his trees. No, he said as if to someone.". In Shane Castle's "Ponderosa," the trees are everything — and they're in danger. Read below! .
thecommononline.org
SHANE CASTLE He recognized it for an absence—no, the absence of silence—a something. He would look back years later and remember it as a sub-rosa gnawing that seemed to come from everywhere and...
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Issue 28 poem "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Matthew Tuckner (@tuckner_matthew) contrasts a romantic memory with the stark, industrial imagery of a superfund site.
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MATTHEW TUCKNER In my favorite picture of you, the hair blown across / your face, obscuring your face, it’s easy to make out, / deep in the distance, the hangers of the air force base / classified as...
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Zoraida Burgos’s latest poems in Issue 28 span the ecology of relationships and language. Translated by Peter Bush, these pieces are live on The Common.
thecommononline.org
By ZORAIDA BURGOS Wearily, but firmly, we twisted / our feeble trunks / around a stump / alone but not sad amid other trees, / entangled roots / clinging till the last / to our rough stony ground.
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RT @seancarlson: I have read @commonmag since its very first issue, so it's especially sweet to see my conversation with @jarsofshine and @….
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SEÁN CARLSON with ERIN FORNOFF and GUSTAV PARKER HIBBETT You sometimes have to modulate these stories from home. Like, I would be at the pub, talking to Irish people, and mention that my childhood...
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"We thought our need was for the wild summer blackberries. But we were foraging for another memory to sustain us through the evil days to come." . Read @zackstrait's Issue 28 poem "Roadside Blackberries," a beautiful piece with an ominous undertone.
thecommononline.org
ZACK STRAIT We thought our need was for the wild summer blackberries. But we were foraging for another memory to sustain us through the evil days to come. And as we ate, the past ripened in clusters...
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"How wonderful, how the earth offers such goodness to us without cost. And how awful.". Read more from @zackstrait's Issue 28 poem "Roadside Blackberries.".
thecommononline.org
ZACK STRAIT We thought our need was for the wild summer blackberries. But we were foraging for another memory to sustain us through the evil days to come. And as we ate, the past ripened in clusters...
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"There are no paths on the asphalt. Only / a longing for wings.". Dive into Maria Josep Escrivà's (@MjEscriva) luscious poetry in our Issue 28 selection of her work.
thecommononline.org
MARIA JOSEP ESCRIVÀ There are no paths on the asphalt. Only / a longing for wings. Destiny or planet / of soap, fading pupils speculating / on foolish things: our evanescent lives.
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What do you do when you don't want to cook dinner but you still "Gotta Eat"? . Discover the cookbook that gives you some answers—and two other bite-sized book recs—in the January "What We're Reading" column!. . @AdrienneSu.
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AFTON MONTGOMERY The poem is a car with rear-wheel drive and the engine pushing it forward from the back is the notion that people just want something to believe in, whether that thing is God or...
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RT @oparkero: @commonmag weighs in on Proper Imposters and G v P, which is out today: "Each author manages, at various times, to pierce thr….
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"Danger, as in strangers, men or women; / as in twisters at night when you couldn’t / see them coming". Don't miss Angie Macri's forceful and resounding Issue 28 poem "Dominus.".
thecommononline.org
ANGIE MACRI Danger, as in strangers, men or women; / as in twisters at night when you couldn’t / see them coming; as in the machines that made work so easy you forgot / to watch what you were doing,
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"If you’ve never starved, the story will never seem plausible, even as fiction.". Tina Vallès' timeless story "Forever Red," published in Issue 28's Catalan Portfolio, finds at the intersection of one family's poverty, grief, and memory an apple tree.
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TINA VALLÈS Hunger can’t be explained. It’s always unbelievable, especially the hunger of a child. Imagining my father starving when he was younger than ten years old makes me want to time-travel...
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Enjoy Maria Josep Escrivà's (@MjEscriva) contemplations on temporality and nature in our Issue 28 sample of her poetry.
thecommononline.org
MARIA JOSEP ESCRIVÀ There are no paths on the asphalt. Only / a longing for wings. Destiny or planet / of soap, fading pupils speculating / on foolish things: our evanescent lives.
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Don't know where to start with your 2025 reading goals?. Check out "What We're Reading" in the January edition of the column for three bite-sized book recs from @AdrienneSu , Afton Montgomery, and Hema Padhu!.
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AFTON MONTGOMERY The poem is a car with rear-wheel drive and the engine pushing it forward from the back is the notion that people just want something to believe in, whether that thing is God or...
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Need help with accountability? Look no further! TC's Weekly Writes program is here to help you. The program costs just $25 for 10 weeks (that’s only $2.50 per week!). This fee includes one free submission to TC via Submittable after program completion.
thecommononline.org
Weekly Writes is a ten-week program designed to help you create original place-based writing and stay accountable to your practice in the new year, beginning January 27.
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Get a glimpse into THE OLD CURRENT, Brad Leithauser's first new poetry collection in over a decade, with this sample of three poems in our January poetry feature.
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Weekly Writes Vol. 9 kicks off on January 27, just in time to help you stay accountable for your New Year’s resolutions and 2025 goals! Sign-ups close up this Sunday.
thecommononline.org
Weekly Writes is a ten-week program designed to help you create original place-based writing and stay accountable to your practice in the new year, beginning January 27.
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"From beyond the waves, looking back at the shore, civilization betrays itself." . Explore the mysteries of a fiery mountainside in @ChristyTending 's lyrical new Dispatch from Japan.
thecommononline.org
CHRISTY TENDING And I plunge my foot into the scalding water, dropping my resistance to its intensity. I move toward it, inward. I move fast so that my body is unable to register the purposeful heat...
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