We at The Common are pleased to announce the receipt of our seventh award from the Amazon Literary Partnership’s Literary Magazine Fund.
(Amherst, Mass. July 10, 2025)—Award-winning, international literary journal The Common has announced Kei Lim ’25 as its sixth Literary Editorial Fellow. The fellowship launched in 2020 with support from the Whiting Foundation and is sustained by the generosity of Amherst College alumni donors.
The Literary Editorial Fellowship (LEF) was introduced with three goals in mind: to strengthen the bridge between The Common’s existing Literary Publishing Internship (LPI) for undergraduates and the professional publishing world; to provide real-world literary experience for an Amherst graduate, transferable to a wide range of fields; and to increase the capacity of The Common’s publishing and programming operations.
(Amherst, Mass.) — Award-winning, international literary journal The Common announced today that Aidan Cooper ‘26 will be the third recipient of the David Applefield ’78 Fellowship. The fellowship, the magazine’s first endowed student internship, was established in 2022 by a group of friends and family of David Applefield, a literary polymath who attended Amherst College and founded Frank, an eclectic English-language literary magazine based in Paris.
The David Applefield ’78 Fellowship funds one student intern annually who possesses exceptional editorial and leadership skills to work alongside the magazine’s other student interns and magazine staff on editorial and promotional assignments. Among other responsibilities, the Applefield Fellow coordinates the Weekly Writes Accountability program, leads the Level I section of the Young Writers Program for high school students, and provides research and production support for podcasts. In addition, the Applefield Fellow trains and mentors other interns, and organizes events for the Amherst College community.
Aidan Cooper ‘26 enters the role following a year as an editorial assistant. They’re the acting President of Amherst College’s Poetry Club, Editor-in-Chief of The Lilac magazine, and a bearer of various literary positions around the college and beyond. They’re in the midst of many writing projects, from a research paper on early modern horsemanship and mercantilism begun at the Folger Shakespeare Library, to an English thesis on nothingness in avant-garde poetry.
Cooper thanks the more than fifty friends, classmates, and family members of David Applefield who contributed to the fellowship fund for their generosity and trust, as well as the magazine’s staff for their mentorship. “The Common, through its mission and care, champions such a worldly and passionate writing community,” Cooper said, “and I’m so thankful to immerse myself in it.”
This May, contributors featured in The Common’s latest issue, Issue 29, gathered in Amman to read their work. The event was organized by HISHAM BUSTANI, guest editor of the issue’s Amman portfolio, to celebrate the portfolio’s publication by creating a space where these writers could share their pieces aloud. Having translated many of the featured pieces, ADDIE LEAK read excerpts from her work. HALEEMAH DERBASHI, author of the enigmatic essay-portrait of Amman, “Serious Attempts at Locating the City,” was interviewed about the event by the University of Jordan Radio. HUSAM MANASRAH, whose photos artfully capture the practices of various tradespeople in Amman, spoke to Aljazeera after the reading.
On June 12, contributors, readers, and friends of The Common gathered in New York to celebrate the magazine’s 15th anniversary. The vibrant reception was a testament to The Common’s decade-and-a-half growth into a global literary community.
Scroll on for a gallery of selected images from the event!
Weekly Writes Summer 2025 signups have closed. To hear about our next round of Weekly Writes when it opens, please register your interest here.
You’ve heard the good news — The Common is celebrating 15 years in 2025. Now here’s the best part: we’re throwing a party in New York, and you’re invited! Join us for an evening of refreshments, conversation, and mingling in honor of our 15th year in print.
Some of The Common’s Arabic fiction contributors, MARYAM DAJANI, ESTABRAQ AHMAD, and ISHRAGA MUSTAFA HAMID, made virtual appearances at the Sant Jordi Book Festival last week! The hybrid celebration, sponsored by the eponymous Sant Jordi in New York, is held annually in New York City to raise awareness of literature in translation, and pays homage to the famous Sant Jordi Book Festival in Barcelona, where the streets are lined with bookstands and flower stalls in honor of “the St. Valentine’s day of Catalonia.” The Farragut Fund for Catalan Culture in the United States sponsors the festival and is led by MARY ANN NEWMAN, a renowned Catalan translator and contributor to TC’s Issue 28 portfolio of Catalan women’s literature in translation.
It might be too late to grab a book and a rose, but you can get a feel for the beautiful festival by checking out the readings of Dajani, Ahmad, and Hamid’s stories below—which includes a sneak peek at our Issue 29 Amman portfolio, launching next week!
Applications closed May 18 but you can register your interest in next summer’s session here.
Applications are open for The Common Young Writers Program, which offers two two-week, fully virtual summer classes for high school students (rising 9-12). Students will be introduced to the building blocks of fiction and learn to read with a writer’s gaze. Taught by the editors and editorial assistants of Amherst College’s literary magazine, the summer courses (Level I and Level II) run Monday-Friday and are open to all high school students (rising 9-12). The program runs July 21-August 1.
Full and partial need-based tuition waivers are available for both levels; we hope that no student will let financial difficulty prevent them from applying. Tuition waivers will be awarded to students with strong applications who cannot attend the program without financial assistance. In the application, students will have the opportunity to briefly describe their financial circumstances and state the amount they could afford to pay, if any, if accepted into the program. No tax returns or other documentation is required.
With guest talks from physician Dr. Anthony Fauci and actor Jeffrey Wright, student and alumni readings, and a birthday party for The Common, this year’s 10th-anniversary LitFest was a celebratory occasion. From February 28 to March 2, 2025, attendees flocked to sold-out events in Amherst College’s Johnson Chapel, went behind the scenes with award-winning writers like Percival Everett, read poetry in the shadow of Emily Dickinson’s house, and celebrated the life and legacy of Amherst’s literary community.
Read on for a gallery of selected images and videos from LitFest 2025, and view all the event recordings here.
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