Magazine Stand :: The Common – Issue 28

Ahead of their 15th anniversary next year, the Amherst College-based, Whiting Award-winning literary magazine The Common presents Issue 28, featuring a portfolio of contemporary writing by Catalan women in translation. Editor in Chief Jennifer Acker says, “So few books published in the US are translations, only about 3%, with works from German, French, and Spanish making up a full 45% of that. We wanted to showcase vibrant stories and poems from a tradition that our readers might be wholly unfamiliar with. These Catalan authors are award-winning, established women, but some have never before been published in English.” This issue marks a continuation of the magazine’s commitment to publishing translated works for English-language readers.

Each spring for the past eight years, The Common has published an Arabic fiction portfolio in translation. The spring 2025 issue will feature work from Amman, Jordan. Beyond the portfolio, Issue 28 contains writing from Disquiet Prize-winning poet Iqra Khan, MacArthur Fellow Brad Leithauser, environmental economist James K. Boyce, and fiction and essay writer Douglas Koziol, among others.