A close-up of a Spanish-style red-tiled roof. The tiles are warped with age, and scraps of vegetations poke out of the grooves.

Bungalow Boogie Countdown

REBECCA BAUMANN
The house is a Matriarch. A figurehead between rows of since-razed craftsman figureheads on a once tree-lined street that now belongs to various HOAs. She looks ancient next to the metal condo garages and stucco siding and shades of beige trim.

Tomato on tomato plant

A Tomato Behind a Glass Cage

SARAH WU
Through the glass, we watch her pour a pale yellow substance from a small white bucket. It splashes against spots of red tomatoes. She’s using urine! the alumna says excitedly. I wonder at how easily this old woman in the glass cage has become foreign. How ancient, and how strange.

cover of HEIRLOOM

March 2025 Poetry Feature: Catherine-Esther Cowie’s Heirloom

CATHERINE-ESTHER COWIE
Her eye-less eye. My long / longings brighten, like tinsel, the three-fingered / hand. Ashen lip. To exist in fragments. / To exist at all. A comfort. / A gutting. String her up then, / figurine on the cot mobile. / And I am the restless infant transfixed.

Julian Zabalbeascoa's headshot. A bald man with facial hair poses in front of a body of water, looking into the distance.

Finding Hope in Horror: Blake Hammond Interviews Julian Zabalbeascoa

JULIAN ZABALBEASCOA
The world’s democracies had abandoned those fighting to defend the Second Republic. Meanwhile, the insurrectionists had the backing of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Despite being outmatched and suffering one loss after another, they maintained hope and continued fighting to realize it in their world.

Dispatches from Mullai Nilam, Marutha Nilam, and Neithal Nilam

VIJAYALAKSHMI
There is fire everywhere, / both inside and outside. / Unaware of the intensity of the fire, / they maintain silence / like the serenity of a corpse. / From the burning fire / bursts out a waterfall tainted in red. / All over the shores have bloomed / the flaming lilies of motherhood.

cover of theft

What We’re Reading: March 2025

JAY BOSS RUBIN
To be denied the ability to determine one’s fate and fulfill one’s potential is sometimes a societal theft, sometimes an imperial one, sometimes both. But ambition that holds no regard for others is also a theft—a self-inflicted one.

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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