Mindy Misener speaks to Emily Everett about the excerpt of her debut novel Good Guys, which appears in The Common’s brand-new fall issue. The book follows a pair of sisters in New England in 2008, breaking open the secrets of small towns and complicated families in a time of growing patriotism, masculinity, and religious fervor. Mindy discusses the many years she spent drafting and revising the book, and how the excerpted section opens up questions the book then explores. Also discussed is Mindy’s debut short story “Baby Is Not Fine,” which was first published in The Common in 2018.
Mindy Misener grew up in Maine. She is a graduate of Williams College and the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. After teaching college writing for ten years, she made a career change and is currently enrolled in Yale Divinity School. Her prose has appeared in The Missouri Review, CrossCurrents, The Common, and many other outlets. Her debut novel Good Guys is out now from Melville House.
Read Mindy’s work in The Common at thecommononline.org/tag/mindy-misener.
Learn more about her at mindymisener.com, and check out Good Guys here.
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 2025 debut novel All That Life Can Afford was a Reese’s Book Club pick and an honoree for the Massachusetts Book Award. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Modern Love column, the Kenyon Review, Electric Literature, Tin House, and Mississippi Review. She was a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellow in Fiction.
