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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.

1,294 Followers  |  823 Following  |  693 Posts  |  Joined: 20.11.2024  |  1.6227

Latest posts by commonmag.bsky.social on Bluesky

"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." buff.ly/QDBroLS

08.12.2025 13:30 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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“That fucking 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.

buff.ly/tXm6Ksv

08.12.2025 03:30 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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In Another Version ELIZABETH METZGER <br> 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…

"In the dream he promises / he will never desire another woman, and she wakes / into another woman’s life"

"In Another Version," Elizabeth Metzger's new poem, follows the changing attitudes of a relationship through hope, excitement, regret, and anxiety. Find it in Issue 30 or using the link below!

07.12.2025 19:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa ANNIE SCHUMACHER <br> 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.…

"It is as if I were seeing time / or the whole story I once knew / laid across the altarpiece of my mind"

In her latest poem, Annie Schumacher assembles fragments from everyday life and finds revelation within the self. Check it out below!

06.12.2025 19:01 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Moisei Fishbein: Poems from Ukraine MOISEI FISHBEIN <br> 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,…

"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.

06.12.2025 15:01 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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!
buff.ly/xGQoWbj

03.12.2025 13:01 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

“I go up— / to the empty middle of the gymnasium, put my teeth to the mesh / and invent a direction.”



Listen to Lauren Camp read her Issue 30 Poem “Small Mariners” in a brand new recording, available online now. buff.ly/qZaU4og

02.12.2025 14:03 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Our Postcard Auction closes today! Now is your last chance to win a personalized, handwritten note from award-winning writers and artists, like singer-songwriter Craig Finn, frontman of The Hold Steady! Place your final bids at buff.ly/jDYIFec

01.12.2025 16:03 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Bidding for our Author Postcard Auction closes today! Sneak in a last minute bid for a chance to win a personalized note from award-winning writers like Monica Wood, author of How to Read a Book, The One-in-a-Million Boy, and When We Were the Kennedys. Find more information at buff.ly/DQD6qXw

01.12.2025 16:03 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Today is your last chance to win personalized notes from acclaimed authors through our Postcard Auction! Place your bids on writers like Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow, Yiyun Li (@appletwigli.bsky.social), before the auction closes! Find more information at buff.ly/bvQAKSw

01.12.2025 15:30 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Viet Thanh Nguyen Receive a handwritten note from Viet Thanh Nguyen: Vietnamese-American author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Calling all fans of Viet Thanh Nguyen @viet_t_nguyen! Today is the LAST day to get a handwritten, personalized postcard from one of your favorite authors. Click the link below and treat yourself to the perfect holiday gift this season!

01.12.2025 15:03 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Stephen Graham Jones Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author of nearly thirty novels and collections.

Today is the LAST day to get a personalized, handwritten postcard from bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones @sgj.bsky.social. Click the link below and treat yourself to the perfect holiday gift!

01.12.2025 15:03 — 👍 4    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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Personalized postcards make great gifts. A personalized postcard from Chris Pavone, best-selling thriller author of Two Nights in Lisbon and The Doorman, is the best gift. Today (by 12PM) is the last day to bid on a handwritten postcard from Chris! buff.ly/Z4WLfn4

01.12.2025 14:03 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Vendela Vida is the award-winning author of six books, including The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty and national bestseller, We Run the Tides. Today (by 12PM) is the last day to place your bid in our Postcard Auction to win a handwritten postcard from the author!
buff.ly/PWwu1ah

01.12.2025 13:03 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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You could be the lucky recipient of a personalized postcard from New-York Times Best selling author Christopher Moore, writer of Lamb, Razzmatazz and most recently, Anima Rising. Today (by 12PM) is your last chance to bid in our Postcard Auction! buff.ly/LRRckyJ

01.12.2025 13:03 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The Sixteenth Brother A. J. BERMUDEZ <br> Now, Khalida notes, here’s where it gets interesting. She explains that, under Moroccan inheritance law, the vote on what to do with a property must be unanimous among…

It wasn’t love exactly, but Chakir did take to Naima. She found nothing to object to in his appearance or demeanor, and was in fact somewhat drawn to his air of placid gloom.

AJ Bermudez' The Sixteenth Brother tells a lush tale of family and betrayal in Morocco. Issue 30.

30.11.2025 19:02 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Win a handwritten, personalized postcard from Ben Shattuck, author of Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, the New Yorker magazine Best Book of 2022, Wall Street Journal Best Book of Spring, and New York Times Best Book of Summer. Bid now before Dec. 1! buff.ly/UJLE0gq

30.11.2025 19:01 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Jayne Anne Phillips is one of the best authors working today. If you are a fan of her sweeping stories on family, identity, and memory, you can win a handwritten, personalized postcard in this year's Postcard Auction. Learn more at the link below! buff.ly/QkIfnwR

30.11.2025 19:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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If you loved In the Time of Butterflies or How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, then you'd love a handwritten postcard from their author, Julia Alvarez (@writerjalvarez.bsky.social). You can still place bids in our Author Postcard Auction, which closes tomorrow! Find more info at buff.ly/9ULqmOz

30.11.2025 19:01 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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If you love John Irving as much as we do, we know you'll be interested in our Author Postcard Auction! Enter now for a chance to win a handwritten note from the prolific voice behind A Prayer for Owen Meany and, most recently, Queen Esther. Bidding closes soon, so enter now at buff.ly/UmwS6po

30.11.2025 15:02 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Elizabeth Strout Receive a handwritten note from novelist Elizabeth Strout, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Time is running out to get a personalized postcard from beloved author Elizabeth Strout @lizstrout.bsky.social! These postcards make unique and special gifts for you or a literature-loving friend for this holiday season!

30.11.2025 15:02 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Katie Kitamura Receive a handwritten note from Katie Kitamura, bestselling author and art critic.

Time is running out to get a personalized postcard from bestselling author Katie Kitamura @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social! Click the link below for a chance to win a unique and literary holiday gift!

30.11.2025 15:02 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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In Another Version ELIZABETH METZGER <br> 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…

"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!

30.11.2025 15:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Sayaka Murata's dreamlike novels from have ensnared the hearts and imaginations of readers everywhere. Until December 1st, you can win a personalized note from the author herself, just in time for the holiday season!

Click below to participate before time runs out!

buff.ly/VdUJVLf

30.11.2025 13:45 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Anne Tyler, author of "Redhead by the Side of the Road," is one of the many authors participating in our postcard auction, and time's running out to win a personalized note from any one of them! Click the link below to participate!

Don't forget: the auctions close December 1st.

buff.ly/O0DsMoR

29.11.2025 23:00 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Vermeer ALBERTO DE LACERDA <br> The architecture of the sleeves— / White— / As she composes her response / To a letter / (On the marble floor / The seal / Jumps / From the crumpled letter) // …

"But no one knows what it is / Only he who painted reality / In all its nakedness"

Maria de Caldas Antão renders Alberto de Lacerda's poem "Vermeer" with precise and haunting lines in our latest issue. Explore the metaphysical and transcendent place Lacerda builds on our website.

29.11.2025 19:01 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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This year’s Postcard Auction is a special one, with a brilliant slate of participating authors. You can win a handwritten personalized postcard from Allegra Goodman, author of Sam, The Family Markowitz, and most recently, Isola. Place your bid today! buff.ly/fg6LyZt

29.11.2025 19:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The Postcard Auction is up and running! Bid now for a chance to receive a handwritten postcard from Whiting Writer’s Award-winner, Manuel Muñoz!
buff.ly/YcTTczg

29.11.2025 19:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Our postcard auction closes December 1st! Hanif Abdurraqib's poetry and essays show how attention, gratitude, and grace bring us closer to the world, and you can win a personalized note from him, just in time for the holidays! Click the link below to bid!

buff.ly/EH8eIPx

29.11.2025 18:45 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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The window to bid in our Author Postcard Auction is closing soon! Don't miss out on your chance to win a personalized postcard from award-winning writers like Catherine Newman, author of Sandwich and Wreck! Place your bid by December 1st at the link: buff.ly/0p2uML3

29.11.2025 18:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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