Ben Tamburri

Ben Tamburri

Smith

Smith

October 27, 2025 , ,

By CORY BEIZER

Before my mother can return to her life and stop watching me eat, she says she must give me a dog. She swears a companion is the only way she’ll feel safe leaving me alone. It makes no sense. How can I take care of a dog if I am failing to take care of myself? She says that’s the point, to learn how to care, and if the dog dies, well, then she’ll know when to come back. I tell her no. My beloved cow figurine is companion enough. Its thick apotropaic horns will fend off the evil that is sure to return.  

Smith
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Mermaid of Longnook

Mermaid of Longnook

October 27, 2025 , ,

By LAURA GERINGER BASS

Carla wore a mask while trudging down the precipitous dune that shadowed Longnook Beach, her heaven on earth. She had brought from her city stash a colorful assortment of boldly patterned Mexican face coverings to make the necessity of protecting herself from airborne viral droplets less depressing. But bright flowers and butterflies, stout yellow ears of corn, and iconic unibrow Frida Kahlo faces made it no easier to breathe on the descent.  

Most days, Carla used the shaft of her sheathed sun umbrella to steady herself while maneuvering over uneven ground. Today, Tom wasn’t there to help her carry her beach chair, so she had left the heavy umbrella at home. She wasn’t one of those old ladies who needed a cane, was she? A grinding creak from her arthritic left knee followed by an aching twinge and throb of pain from her right hip warned her that the uphill return would be a challenge.  

Mermaid of Longnook
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Some Kind of Corporate Retreat

Some Kind of Corporate Retreat

October 14, 2025 ,

By TERAO TETSUYA
Translated by KEVIN WANG

The piece appears below in both English and the original Chinese.

 

Translator’s Note

“Some Kind of Corporate Retreat” is collected in Terao Tetsuya’s Spent Bullets (HarperVia, 2025), a book of nine linked short stories about Taiwanese prodigies turned disillusioned Big Tech engineers. In official American narratives, immigrant experiences often become flattened into palatable arcs of resilience. But this story insists on being wounded, unresolved, and playfully deviant in its exploration of hollow relationships and a simmering desire for destruction.

Some Kind of Corporate Retreat
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On the Shores of Baileys Harbor

On the Shores of Baileys Harbor

October 1, 2025

By BEN TAMBURRI

Shore of Baileys Harbor

Photo courtesy of author

Baileys Harbor, WI

Baileys Harbor has always felt like a place that is eternally old, eternally in the past. It is a destination for quiet summers on the Wisconsin peninsula, where the insignia of range lights and lighthouses decorate the bathroom of every home, and Dala horses wreath the doors. It was the place of my youth, even if it was only for a week each year. As a kid, when my family visited, I felt at home among the retired condo-dwellers. 

On the Shores of Baileys Harbor
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Raspberries

Raspberries

September 17, 2025

By PHOEBE HYDE

The family are in the kitchen waiting to eat as the enemy soldiers approach the house. It’s already dark, and the man and child are restless at the table, waiting for the woman to pronounce the eggs set. She’s an excellent and exacting cook who will not be rushed. As the soldiers step onto the porch outside, the grandmother distracts the child with a joke: what did the rooster say to the wolf? and in the pause before the punchline, the first knock on the door falls—boom—and explodes—boomboomboomboom!

Raspberries
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Join Us for a Brooklyn Book Festival BookEnd Event!

Join Us for a Brooklyn Book Festival BookEnd Event!

August 12, 2025 ,

We think 15 years of The Common is worth celebrating, and we want you to be there when we do! Join us for a conversation, Q&A, and book signing at the Brooklyn Book Festival this September.
 

Friday, September 19, 7pm
Books Are Magic Montague
122 Montague St., Brooklyn, New York
Official Brooklyn Book Fest BookEnd Event
 

Our special guests will include Emily Everett, TC managing editor and author of the Reese’s Book Club Pick All That Life Can Afford; Olivia Wolfgang-Smith, former TC social media editor and author of the novel Mutual Interest; Annell López, author of the story collection I’ll Give You a Reason; and Ananda Lima, author of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil. Come hear these writers discuss how themes of home, immigration, and belonging reverberate in their recent work. After the conversation, we’ll have an audience Q&A and book signing.
 

Promo for 15 Years of The Common reading event

 
Tickets are free, but be sure to RSVP here to reserve your spot. Please share this with anyone who might be interested. We’d love to have a full house.

Not local? Don’t worry! The entire event will be live-streamed on Youtube, so you’ll be able to hear these amazing authors speak from wherever you are in the world. We hope to see you there!

 

Join Us for a Brooklyn Book Festival BookEnd Event!
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