sad grownups cover

Day Hike

AMY STUBER
The deer watches them from behind the tree, blink, step, blink. The world right then is circles in circles in circles, and time is a stupid bee buzz you don’t ever want to hear again. Make it good, make it mean something, make it matter, Renee’s ghost mom says.

Memories of the Rise and Fall of VICE China, 2015-2022

RUONAN ZHENG
Amidst glittering disco balls, fast drum beats, and fake US dollars tossed around by a random rapper, I am introduced to a guy who used to work for Vice China, making short documentaries. His exact greeting was: "Send my best regards to the bosses; I too graduated from there."

Skyline with buildings.

Translation: Two Poems by Edith Bruck

EDITH BRUCK
Pretty soon / When people hear a quiz show master / Talk about Auschwitz / They’ll wonder if they would have guessed / That name / They’ll comment on the current champion / Who never gets dates wrong / And always pinpoints the number of dead.

Book cover for Unreliable Narrator.

Am I a Fraud? Are We All? An Interview with Aparna Nancherla

APARNA NANCHERLA
Frequently, imposter syndrome showed up when I was given an opportunity or neared a goal. I would think, “Do I really deserve this? Why was I given this? Am I like everyone else here?” Some people get opportunities and their first thought is, “Finally, you guys took long enough.” For me, I thought, “Why?”

Forbes and Martha

SARAH CARSON
What’s to be scared of in a world without ending? It’s those of us who don’t get to stay, that is, who want answers. As if fear is a kind of desire, the most desperate kind of want.

cover of "Last Acts": a desert street corner with a cactus, convenience store, streetlight, and blazing blue sky.

What We’re Reading: September 2024

HILDEGARD HANSEN
For me, to read is often to go in search of something extremely specific but inarticulable, and to be dissatisfied if it is not there. In G. H., Lispector articulates it for me: "a kind of quaking happiness all over my body, a horrible happy unease in which my legs seemed to vanish, as always when the roots of my unknown identity were touched."

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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