The Common

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  • About this Magazine:

    The Common publishes fiction, essays, poetry, and images that evoke a modern sense of place.

  • Editor(s): Jennifer Acker
  • Contact Information:

  • Organization (if applicable): Frost Library
  • Address 1: Amherst College
  • City: Amherst
  • State Code: MA
  • Postal Code: 01002-5000
  • Phone: (413) 542-5453
  • Email: [email protected]
  • Submission/Subscription Information:

  • Format: E-pub, Online, Print
  • Genres: Art, Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry
  • Simultaneous Submissions: yes
  • Postal Submissions: no
  • Email Submissions: no
  • Online Submissions: yes (see website)
  • Subscription (individuals): $24 (print), $12 (digital), $30 (print + digital)
  • Reading Period: 3/1-6/1; 9/1-12/1
  • Response Time: 4 months after submission
  • Payment: yes (see website)
  • Contests: no
  • Founded: 2010
  • Issues Per Year: 2

Publisher’s description: The Common is an award-winning print and online literary magazine publishing literature and images with a strong sense of place. Inspired by the mission of the town common—a gathering place for the display and exchange of ideas—we publish original narratives, characters, and language that reflect the worlds of the speakers and narrators. In the pages of The Common, the setting, real or imagined, impacts states of heart and mind.

In The Common, readers discover brand new writers and artists from around the world published alongside established favorites. Issues include fiction by Lauren Groff, Jennifer Haigh, Stephen O’Connor, and Terese Svoboda, poetry by Mary Jo Salter, Tom Sleigh, and Major Jackson, and essays by Ted Conover, Marisa Silver, and Claire Messud, as well as work by many debut and emerging authors.

The Common, based at Amherst College, publishes two print issues per year and maintains an active website featuring original essays, poetry, reviews, interviews, art, and audio content. The Common is available in print, PDF, Kindle, and Epub editions.

Find more great literary magazines at the NewPages Guide to Lit Mags.