Aidan Cooper

Dead Man’s Association

April 24, 2026 Fiction, Issue 31, Issue 31 Fiction

Dead Man’s Association meets every Wednesday evening at Padiyappa’s Tea Stall & Smoke Shop. I am the president and the primary focus of the club. There is only one table at Padiyappa’s, but at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesdays, no local would dare take my spot. It’s been this way for the past fifteen years. The tea stall boy, a new chap, hands us stainless steel tumblers of piping hot tea and then hangs around to stare at me.

“Po da,” I say to him, eyeing his hairless chest, visible because his top two buttons are not fastened. “This is not a circus. Let me be.”

On the Farm

April 24, 2026 Issue 31, Issue 31 Art, Studio

By NINA FULLER

Nina Fuller is a Maine-based photographer, writer, counselor, and sheep farmer whose career spans more than five decades. Known for her evocative images of animals, landscapes, and rural life, Nina creates much of her work from her farm and carriage-house studio in Hollis, Maine. Her fine art photography often captures moments of stillness and natural light within the daily rhythm of farm life, bringing visual poetry to the textured reality of wool, wood, and pasture. Her work reflects a deep reverence for nature and animals. As Nina explains, “There is peace within the chaos—the sheep, the light in the barn, the feeling that this could be two hundred years ago.” Whether photographing a running lamb, a quiet flower, or a collapsing fence, Nina captures more than just image—she reveals emotion, texture, and timeless presence.

Courtesy of the Portland Art Gallery

[Purchase Issue 31 here.]

Nina Fuller is a Maine photographer, writer, and sheep farmer who captures the quiet poetry of rural life—from soft wool and morning light to the honest character of animals and place. With decades of experience behind the camera, her work blends fine art, storytelling, and deep reverence for the natural world.

My Wife Dreams of My Father

April 24, 2026 Issue 31, Issue 31 Poetry, Poetry

By GEOFFREY BROCK

Dream 1: In which he annoys her

It was New Year’s Eve when he showed up,
in the sleety weather, in his old flannels,
to knock on our door again. You’re back!

my wife cried. I missed you! He laughed,
and as they hugged he lifted her gently
into the air—that’s when she remembered

he was dead. She stopped crying, annoyed
at his ruse, annoyed that this was the day,
of all days, when the ruses of our dead

would be exposed. Still, for a full minute—
after waking but before opening her eyes—
she let him keep holding her in the air.

U N C O N T A I N A B L E

April 24, 2026 Issue 31, Issue 31 Poetry, Poetry

By L. S. KLATT

I leave the house unlocked & walk to the garage jacked to
The White Stripes. My mouth is a guitar; snow is in the sound hole.
Spring. I think it’s spring. The automatic door leaps

in its tracks & is music again. I record on my phone a soundwave
as the GTO convertible wheels out of its tomb, the driveway
chartreuse with maple wings. Tell White I’ll cut some garlic

The Grave Fox

April 24, 2026 Issue 31, Issue 31 Poetry, Poetry

By DANIEL TOBIN

Like a dog truant among the tended plots
it turns back toward us a considerate eye
as though sensing the disquiet of our being

lost here among all the unfamiliar graves
that would be landmarks proving the right way
if this were the way we’d believed it to be.

Podcast: Casey Walker on “Islands”

April 10, 2026 Audio, Issue 30, Podcast, Podcasts & Audio

Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Listen on Spotify.

Transcript: Casey Walker

CASEY WALKER speaks to EMILY EVERETT about his story “Islands,” which appears in The Common’s fall issue. Set at an old lake house rife with unresolved family tensions, the story explores the dynamics between three orphaned brothers, and between the narrator and his pregnant wife. Casey discusses how the piece evolved over more than a decade, and how he always hopes a story will take on a life of its own during the writing process. Also discussed is his forthcoming novel Mexicali, set in the US-Mexico borderlands during the first half of the 20^th century.

Podcast: Lauren Groff on “Brawler”

February 27, 2026 Audio, Podcast, Podcasts & Audio

Listen on Apple Podcasts.

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Transcript: Lauren Groff

Acclaimed TC contributor LAUREN GROFF speaks to managing editor EMILY EVERETT about her new story collection, Brawler, out this month from Riverhead, and her origins as a writer at Amherst College, where The Common is based. She also discusses how a story collection comes together over many years, how working with her longtime agent Bill Clegg has shaped her work, and what she’s working on now and next. Groff’s work appears most often in The New Yorker these days, but The Common published a story of hers in Issue 01, more than 15 years ago.

I/Teh Ran

February 18, 2026 Dispatches

By SARVIN PARVIZ

woman holding a sheet in front of the mountains

Photo courtesy of the author.

Tehran, Diaspora

I moved to the U.S. for a creative writing program with a luggage full of must-haves and gifts, to survive the at-once costs with one paycheck, memorabilia from each friend and close relatives to hold, on days of unbelonging and loss, to feel the connection to the ground back to a place. The largest collection of belongings is in my phone. More than twenty thousand photos of food on the table (always more than one plate), streets of Tehran at night through the car window, wet and bright after rain, harmonious, unlike the dust and chaos of the day. My daisy covered shoes on the curb, friends singing, tapping on the table, hugging, running all the way to the top of a hill. When I moved, the photos became similar, screen shots of Facetime or Zoom calls, us in squares next to each other, our joy breaking out of the frame, heart emojis flying, everyone laughing.

Podcast: Cush Rodríguez Moz on “Future Remains”

January 30, 2026 Audio

Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Listen on Spotify.

Transcript: Cush Rodríguez Moz

CUSH RODRÍGUEZ MOZ speaks to EMILY EVERETT about his essay “Future Remains: The Mysterious Allure of a Town in Ruins,” which appears in The Common’s fall issue. The piece chronicles a trip to Villa Epecuén: once a vacation destination for the wealthy in Argentina’s golden age, now a site for disaster tourism after salt-water flooding first ruined and then preserved it. Cush discusses how the piece evolved from simple travelogue to a complex personal essay examining national and personal decline, climate and political change, and our fascination with destruction and decay.

Cush Rodríguez Moz is a journalist, writer and photographer currently based in Madrid. His investigative articles and long-form narrative pieces cover an array of themes that include environmental issues, agriculture and urbanism. His work has appeared in El Malpensante, Altäir, The New Yorker and Climática, among other outlets. He also collaborates regularly with Revista Late. He holds degrees in history, geography and journalism. Prior to Spain, he lived in Italy and Argentina.

Read Cush’s essay in The Common at thecommononline.org/future-remains-the-mysterious-allure-of-a-town-in-ruins.

Read more from Cush at linktr.ee/cush.moz, and follow him on Instagram @cush.moz.

The Common is a print and online literary magazine publishing stories, essays, and poems that deepen our collective sense of place. On our podcast and in our pages, The Common features established and emerging writers from around the world. Read more and subscribe to the magazine at thecommononline.org, and follow us on Instagram, Bluesky, and Facebook.

Emily Everett is managing editor of the magazine and host of the podcast. Her new debut novel All That Life Can Afford is the Reese’s Book Club pick for April 2025. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Modern Love column, the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House, andMississippi Review. She was a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow in Fiction.

November 2025 Poetry Feature: My Wallonia: Welcoming Dylan Carpenter

November 20, 2025 Poetry

By DYLAN CARPENTER

This month we bring you work by Dylan Carpenter, a poet new to our pages. Dylan also has poetry in an upcoming print issue of The Common.

Let me, for a little longer, ponder that familiar place
I remember but would not, could not, and had refused to face

Wholly as a place unto itself, instead of an idea
That concealed a recherché emotion: My Wallonia.

How do I begin? The place that I endeavor to portray
Languishes, a somnolent geography, and slips away.

Aidan Cooper

Aidan Cooper

Dead Man’s Association

On the Farm

My Wife Dreams of My Father

U N C O N T A I N A B L E

The Grave Fox

Podcast: Casey Walker on “Islands”

Podcast: Lauren Groff on “Brawler”

I/Teh Ran

Podcast: Cush Rodríguez Moz on “Future Remains”

November 2025 Poetry Feature: My Wallonia: Welcoming Dylan Carpenter

Discover the extraordinary in The Common.

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