News and Events

Save the Date: 2025 Author Postcard Auction

I feel like the only person still sending postcards, but a pantheon of best-selling authors is taking up the practice for a good cause.”

          —Ron Charles, The Washington Post
  

postcard auction save the date  

This holiday season, you could hear from one of your favorite authors—or have them write a missive to the book nerd on your gift list—all thanks to The Common. Authors will write and send postcards in time for the holidays, which in the past have featured personal anecdotes, original poems, and even doodles, making them a perfect gift for readers.

Bidding opens November 10!
 

This one-of-a-kind online auction, as featured by The Washington Post’s Book Club newsletter and BookRiot, gives book lovers around the world the opportunity to bid on handwritten, personalized postcards from their favorite writers (plus a few actors and musicians too!). The postcards make great gifts for the literature-lovers in your life. Winning bids are tax-deductible donations. Our eleventh annual Author Postcard Auction runs from November 10 to December 1. We’ll link our auction site for bidding as soon as it’s open!

 

Save the Date: 2025 Author Postcard Auction
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Join Us for a Brooklyn Book Festival BookEnd Event!

We think 15 years of The Common is worth celebrating, and we want you to be there when we do! Join us for a conversation, Q&A, and book signing at the Brooklyn Book Festival this September.
 

Friday, September 19, 7pm
Books Are Magic Montague
122 Montague St., Brooklyn, New York
Official Brooklyn Book Fest BookEnd Event
 

Our special guests will include Emily Everett, TC managing editor and author of the Reese’s Book Club Pick All That Life Can Afford; Olivia Wolfgang-Smith, former TC social media editor and author of the novel Mutual Interest; Annell López, author of the story collection I’ll Give You a Reason; and Ananda Lima, author of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil. Come hear these writers discuss how themes of home, immigration, and belonging reverberate in their recent work. After the conversation, we’ll have an audience Q&A and book signing.
 

Promo for 15 Years of The Common reading event

 
Tickets are free, but be sure to RSVP here to reserve your spot. Please share this with anyone who might be interested. We’d love to have a full house.

Not local? Don’t worry! The entire event will be live-streamed on Youtube, so you’ll be able to hear these amazing authors speak from wherever you are in the world. We hope to see you there!

 

Join Us for a Brooklyn Book Festival BookEnd Event!
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Broadening Access: A Fee-Free Submissions Week

Inspired by the mission and role of the town common, an egalitarian gathering place, The Common aims to foster the global exchange of diverse ideas and experiences. As such, we welcome and encourage submissions from writers who are Black, Indigenous, people of color, disabled, LGBTQIA+-identifying, immigrant, international, low-income, and/or otherwise from communities underrepresented in U.S. literary magazines and journals.

In an effort to remove barriers to access, The Common will open for fee-free submissions for one week, from August 15-22. Outside of that time, submitters with any financial hardship can contact us at info@thecommononline.org for a fee waiver.

Broadening Access: A Fee-Free Submissions Week
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Announcing The Common’s Sixth Literary Editorial Fellow

(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.

Announcing The Common’s Sixth Literary Editorial Fellow
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The Common Magazine Announces 2025-26 David Applefield ’78 Fellow

(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.

Headshot of Aidan Cooper

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.”

 

The Common Magazine Announces 2025-26 David Applefield ’78 Fellow
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Celebrating The Common in Amman, Jordan

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. 

Celebrating The Common in Amman, Jordan
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NYC Anniversary Party: Celebrating 15 Years of The Common

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!

NYC Anniversary Party: Celebrating 15 Years of The Common
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Join Weekly Writes This Summer For Motivation and Accountability

Weekly Writes Summer 2025 signups have closed. To hear about our next round of Weekly Writes when it opens, please register your interest here.


Need some summer writing motivation? We’ve got you covered! Weekly Writes is a ten-week program designed to help you create your own place-based writing, beginning July 14.

We’re offering both poetry AND prose, in two separate programs. Whether you’re the next Dickinson or Dostoevsky, pick your program, sharpen your pencils, and get ready for a weekly dose of writing inspiration (and accountability) in your inbox!
 

Join Weekly Writes This Summer For Motivation and Accountability
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