A small plant sprout pokes through cracked, dry earth.

The Children of the Garden

ANNIE TRINH
He removed the soil from the newborn babies, took them into the kitchen, and placed them in the sink. Monoecious plants, one boy and one girl. Her father cleared all the dirt from their bodies. With a fresh towel, he cleaned their tiny hands, wiggling feet, faces.

man in a white hat weeding a celery field

My Grandfather’s Songs

ALONDRA AGUILAR RANGEL
Three years ago, I left my parents' house in California to go study on the other side of the world. I can travel only once a year. The distance and time make me miss my family a lot. I question why we are constantly moving: Why do we keep looking for a better life somewhere else?

Hall of Mirrors

November 2023 Poetry Feature: Virginia Konchan and Gabriel Spera

GABRIEL SPERA
Gracefully we hold each other / architects and optimists / always at arm’s length like / congenital dreamers / tango masters slinkily coiled / bright candles in a hall of mirrors / whatever I propose you propose / to conquer repeating and repeating / the opposite.

Headshot of Vauhini Vara

This Is Salvaged: Vauhini Vara in conversation with Talia Lakshmi Kolluri

VAUHINI VARA
I find loss incomprehensible, and I think the incomprehensible is fertile ground for fiction—maybe short fiction, in particular. In these stories, I just kept writing toward that incomprehensible place, as if I was searching for comprehension while knowing that was an impossible goal.

Filipino immigrants at a farm labor camp

The Ghost of Jack Radovich 

TERESA B. WILSON-GUNN
Mama saw her boss, Jack Radovich, standing in her row during a sweltering San Joaquin afternoon. She was picking table grapes alone when he suddenly appeared, several yards away, gazing off in the direction of the blue-gray Sierra mountains.

Cover of Sandra Cisneros's Woman Without Shame

Friday Reads: October/November 2023

OLIVE AMDUR
After a brief Friday Reads hiatus, to get you excited about the issue, we return this month with recommendations from Issue 26 contributors Ned Balbo and Nora Rodriguez Camagna. Keep reading to see what’s been on their shelves this fall! 

Using The Common in my first-year seminars has been fun, fruitful, and helpfully startling for these classes.”

—Martha Cooley, Associate Professor of English, Adelphi University Receive classroom subscription discounts, lesson plans, and more when you TEACH THE COMMON »

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