Just Write

The Common Literary Journal

The Common is an award-winning print and digital literary journal published biannually, in the fall and spring. The Common includes short stories, essays, poems, and images that embody a strong sense of place. The Common Online publishes original content four times per week, including book reviews, interviews, personal essays, short dispatches, poetry, contributor podcasts and recordings, and multimedia features. MISSION To deepen our individual and collective sense of place through bold, engaging literature and art. VISION To serve as a vibrant common space for the global exchange of ideas and experiences. To be an essential destination for creative work that embodies particular times and places, both real and imagined. To mentor and promote the next generation of writers, editors, and publishers. Finding the extraordinary in the common has long been the mission of literature. Inspired by this mission and the role of the town common, a public gathering place for the display and exchange of…

Guest Bloggers

Guest Blogger Suzanne Murray

We are lucky to have Suzanne Murray as today’s guest blogger, encouraging our writing. Excerpt from Suzanne Murray’s Post, 2/14/2018 Are you feeling uninspired? Has your got-up-and-go got-up-and-went?  Say that three times! Then read Suzanne’s inspiring message:   FALL IN LOVE WITH CREATIVE PROCESS by Suzanne Murray. A lot of people think that when it comes to creativity, inspiration is the key. Yet those moments of insight or revelation never occur without the willingness to commit to the work and continue to show up. This perseverance is just as important. You get a creative flash. You show up to the work and what wants to be born becomes more clear. Nobel prize winning Canadian short story writer Alice Munro once said, “I threw away all my early writings and it wasn’t because I was the mother of three small children. It was because I was learning my craft and it took…

Guest Bloggers

Brad Yates Inspires Action

Note from Marlene: I have been helped and inspired by Brad Yates and his Tapping Videos. I hope you enjoy reading about his New Year’s Eve experience in Paris. Guest Blogger Brad Yates: Walking with a blind man From time to time we hear stories – or see videos – of differently-abled people doing remarkable things.  We may find these stories to be inspiring… and sometimes we might even find them challenging, as we confront how we may have allowed lesser hurdles than theirs to limit our lives.  We can allow ourselves to be shamed by these, or let them serve as wake-up calls to stop making excuses.  Naturally, I’d guide folks towards the second option. Most of the time, these stories come into our awareness in a fleeting way, and not a personal one.  More often, it’s someone we don’t know and will likely never meet, making it less…