The Common

The Common The Common is a literary journal based at Amherst College. We publish literature and visual art. In short, we seek a modern sense of place.

Finding the extraordinary in the common has long been the mission of literature. Inspired by this mission and the role of the town common, a public gathering place for the display and exchange of ideas, The Common seeks to recapture an old idea. The Common publishes fiction, essays, poetry, documentary vignettes, and images that embody particular times and places both real and imagined; from deser

ts to teeming ports; from Winnipeg to Beijing; from Earth to the Moon: literature and art powerful enough to reach from there to here. Used for decades to describe the tangible local environments and rootedness in works by authors like Faulkner, Frost, and Welty, the idea of a sense of place has fallen out of fashion. Some may think the notion of place outdated or unimportant given our globally mobile populations and technology-driven careers. But these characteristics mean that sense of place is more important now than ever. In our hectic and sometimes alienating world, themes of place provoke us to reflect on our situations and both comfort and fascinate us. Sense of place is not provincial nor old fashioned. It is a characteristic of great literature from all ages around the world. It is, simply, the feeling of being transported, of “being there.” The Common aims to renew and reenergize our literary and artistic sense of place. The Common is published in print biannually from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Ours is a small community with far-reaching ideas. We’re a place of farmers, professors, immigrants, liberals, conservatives, dairy cows, to***co plants, strip malls, and Victorian and Brutalist architecture. We have a rich literary history and support a vibrant diversity of artists and authors. The Common fosters regional creative spirit while stitching together a national and international community through publishing literature and art from around the world, bringing readers into a common space. Contact us at [email protected]

"Home remains for me a word without a clear referent."In the aftermath of a divorce, Martha Cooley's blooming friendship...
12/14/2025

"Home remains for me a word without a clear referent."

In the aftermath of a divorce, Martha Cooley's blooming friendship with a painter forces her to question the meaning of home and life. Read Cooley's essay below!

MARTHA COOLEY Despite all my jiggling, the key didn’t work. My husband had had the locks changed a few months earlier, when our tenants left, and neither of us had remembered I’d need a new key.…

Take a moment and take a breath before diving into Tamas Dobozy’s “Faction of None,” an Issue 30 story that routes the r...
12/13/2025

Take a moment and take a breath before diving into Tamas Dobozy’s “Faction of None,” an Issue 30 story that routes the riveting dynamics of one family with a firecracker at its center, available online now.

TAMAS DOBOZY My other aunt, Lilian, has towering black hair, like a cross between a 1950s country singer and a still of a vampire’s mistress from silent-era horror. Po*******hy, she sneers, is…

"Katica only saw her sister angry once. That was a long time ago, she must have been seven or maybe eight. Her father wa...
12/11/2025

"Katica only saw her sister angry once. That was a long time ago, she must have been seven or maybe eight. Her father was still alive"

Aaron Carpenter's translation of Theodora Bauer's novel, Chikago, hauntingly details the persecution of a Croatian family living in Austria. Check out an excerpt of the translation, "Raid on the Roma Camp," below!

THEODORA BAUER "Katica only saw her sister angry once. That was a long time ago, she must have been seven or maybe eight. Her father was still alive. It was a cold winter evening, it got dark…

“In Another Version” is a treat for the tender-hearted—a rendering of the favor that love is and how rare of a promise i...
12/10/2025

“In Another Version” is a treat for the tender-hearted—a rendering of the favor that love is and how rare of a promise it can be to keep.

Listen to Elizabeth Metzger read her Issue 30 Poem in a brand new recording available online now.

ELIZABETH METZGER Part of her knows he will withdraw again / once they get home. Part of her thinks / this is the new love she’s pined for. / They swing their real invisible children between…

"The kinds of tales I like to tell—or seem to wind up telling, whether I want to or not—are those of isolation, alienati...
12/08/2025

"The kinds of tales I like to tell—or seem to wind up telling, whether I want to or not—are those of isolation, alienation, disaffection, solitude, and loneliness"

In a new interview, Jenna Grace Sciuto and Nathaniel Ian Miller discuss Miller’s latest book “Red Dog Farm." https://buff.ly/QDBroLS

Welcome to The Common’s new website. Please try the website search bar above to find what you’re looking for. If you still can’t find it, please contact us. Thank you for visiting, and happy reading. Page Not Found04.10.2017

“That fu***ng guy? He couldn’t spell God / if you spotted him the G and the D”Matt W. Miller's Issue 30 poem, "Oblation,...
12/08/2025

“That fu***ng guy? He couldn’t spell God / if you spotted him the G and the D”

Matt W. Miller's Issue 30 poem, "Oblation," makes peace with paternity. Read the full piece online at the link below.

https://buff.ly/tXm6Ksv

"You’ll feel the song and dream of sorrowful voices. / and that tear-drop beneath your fingertips— / like a string stret...
12/06/2025

"You’ll feel the song and dream of sorrowful voices. / and that tear-drop beneath your fingertips— / like a string stretched to the heavens."

In Issue 30's Ukraine Portfolio, Moisei Fishbein's work has been translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin with all its tenderness intact.

MOISEI FISHBEIN And stay like that, and live / until you’re fully alive, / live in your skin, and live / as in strange primordial times / when waves and the wind heard / no voices between them,…

Transport yourself to the dinner table in Søgne, Norway, the fresh start apartment in Ditmas Park, New York and the perf...
12/03/2025

Transport yourself to the dinner table in Søgne, Norway, the fresh start apartment in Ditmas Park, New York and the performance venue of Temple, New Hampshire with Julia Toro’s recently published dispatch, available on The Common now!
https://buff.ly/xGQoWbj

Welcome to The Common’s new website. Please try the website search bar above to find what you’re looking for. If you still can’t find it, please contact us. Thank you for visiting, and happy reading. Page Not Found04.10.2017

"They walk to the ocean, talk about all the relationships / that have fallen apart around them"Elizabeth Metzger's Issue...
11/30/2025

"They walk to the ocean, talk about all the relationships / that have fallen apart around them"

Elizabeth Metzger's Issue 30 poem, "In Another Version," carefully and painfully examines the ways in which relationships permit and restrict individual change. Find it in Issue 30 or check it out below!

ELIZABETH METZGER Part of her knows he will withdraw again / once they get home. Part of her thinks / this is the new love she’s pined for. / They swing their real invisible children between…

"I’ve never been content with less than / God."Annie Schumacher's latest poem pierces the mind and body with the spear o...
11/29/2025

"I’ve never been content with less than / God."

Annie Schumacher's latest poem pierces the mind and body with the spear of Saint Teresa, offering a glimpse of revelation. Check it out at the link below!

ANNIE SCHUMACHER It is as if I were seeing time / or the whole story I once knew / laid across the altarpiece of my mind / as piercing and startlingly beautiful / as the glance of the beloved.…

“Small Mariners” is a grand gust of wind in your sails, sure to startle you alive. Listen to Lauren Camp read her stunni...
11/25/2025

“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.

LAUREN CAMP 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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