Troubled Waters

‘Coral Reefs’
By Bryan P. Galligan, SJ

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Life Sentences

For National Book Award winner Alice McDermott, being a writer is a lot like being a believer. You get comfortable living in the dark.
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Must Reads

Politics

An Unwinnable War

Biden is right to pull us out of Afghanistan. But he’s wrong to absolve us of blame in the country’s ongoing struggle.
By The Editors
August 19, 2021
Culture

The Art of Survival

An HBO docuseries and a new memoir reimagine popular accounts of abusive artists from the perspective of survivors.
By Hannah Gold
August 12, 2021
Books

Things

Objects in a novel or story are created, chosen, and hand-delivered by the author, and as such they all quiver with meaning.
By Alice McDermott
August 7, 2021
Collections

National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month. To celebrate, we’re collecting poems and writings about poetry, with new additions by our literary critic every Friday.
By The Editors
April 7, 2021
Collections

Fiction in Commonweal

To celebrate the publication our summer fiction issue, a new collection of short stories from our archives.
By The Editors
July 30, 2019
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