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!
Maryam Dajani’s “Sufi Trance,” trans. Addie Leak* Jordan
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!
Weekly Writes Summer 2025 kicks off on July 14 to keep you motivated and meeting your writing goals all through the late-summer heat! Sign up now!
Weekly Writes Summer 2025 includes our new accountability angle, alongside brainstorming prompts and writing advice. Committing to a regular writing practice can be difficult, but we’re here to help keep the pen moving! During these ten weeks, participants will turn in one page of writing per week via Google Classroom, and will receive an email from us acknowledging that they have completed their writing for that week. At the end of the program, all participants will receive an email letting them know how many weeks they submitted work. Writing will not be read and no feedback will be provided, but we will help you stay on track and celebrate your success!
Past participants, please note that prompts and advice for our Summer 2025 program are built on those from previous programs. So if you’ve participated in Weekly Writes before, you might see familiar material here. Prose prompts are from Weekly Writes Vol. 7, and poetry prompts are from Weekly Writes Vol. 8. If you have participated before but aren’t sure which volume you completed, feel free to email us at info@thecommononline.org so we can check for you!
The program costs just $25 for 10 weeks (that’s only $2.50 per week!). This fee includes one free, expedited* submission via Submittable after program completion.
Want to learn more about the program and how it works before you sign up? Visit our FAQ page.
Each week participants receive:
⇒ Three writing prompts appropriate for both beginning and advanced writers.
For prose writers, two prompts each week will focus on generating new material and the third will guide participants through the process of writing a longer story.
For poets, the three weekly prompts will be a mix: generative prompts for creating brand new work, and prompts to guide revision on previous compositions.
⇒ Examples and readings to accompany some prompts, which were directly inspired by content from our magazine.
⇒ A look behind-the-scenes from our editors and contributors, with advice about writing, revising, and submitting, in addition to insights into what we’re looking for when selecting work for The Common.
⇒ An accountability incentive: upload one page per week to our system, and receive acknowledgment of your commitment to your writing practice (pages will not be read).
Join Weekly Writes This Summer For Motivation and Accountability
Applications are now 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.
Level I is for beginners and anyone excited to try their hand at fiction. Level II is for students who have already completed a creative writing class or workshop, and past TCYWP participants.
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.
The Common’s 15th Birthday Party!
Founder and Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Acker and Amherst College President Michael Elliott raise a toast to The Common.
One highlight of the busy weekend was a champagne toast honoring The Common’s 15th year in print. Complete with cakes decorated as some of our iconic issue covers, the gathering celebrated The Common’s growth over the past decade-and-a-half into the thriving hub for international and emerging literary voices that it is today.
Each of the magazine’s 28 (and counting!) issues features an object from one of its stories or essays on the cover.
The Common’s 15th anniversary tote bags, designed by one of our interns and featuring sketches of objects from our issue covers, were on full display.
Later in the weekend, Everett led a masterclass for Amherst College students on the craft of fiction.
In a panel discussion about American Fiction, Jefferson gushed about the influence of Everett’s Erasure on the film.
Percival Everett, author of James and other acclaimed novels, was a fan of The Common’s new merch, as was Cord Jefferson, writer and director of American Fiction!
Wright, who starred in American Fiction, fielded countless photo requests from fans over the course of the night.
In between rounds of drinks and hors d’oeuvres, TC interns also got a chance to chat with renowned creatives about their craft, like actor and Amherst College alumnus Jeffrey Wright.
The Common’s full-time staff and student interns are, from left to right: Literary Editorial Fellow Sam Spratford, Editorial Assistants Alma Clark, Kei Lim, and Aidan Cooper, and Managing Editor Emily Everett (back); Editor-in-Chief Jen Acker, and Editorial Assistants Sarah Wu, Sophie Durbin, and Siani Ammons (front).
Readings from The Common’s Interns and Amherst College Alumni
On Saturday, March 1, Editorial Assistants at The Common read excerpts from their prose and poetry alongside Amherst College alumni who had recently published their first book. The reading was followed by a brief conversation with the alumni, who offered advice for current students.
Sam Spratford ’24 (Literary Editorial Fellow) gave introductory remarks, followed by readings from Kei Lim ’25 (David Applefield ’78 Fellow), Sarah Wu ’25, Alma Clark ’25, and Aidan Cooper ’26.
Conversations With Dr. Anthony Fauci and Teju Cole
Tremor uses non-linear narration as it follows the life of Tunde, a West African man teaching photography in New England.
LitFest 2025 featured three sold-out events in Amherst’s Johnson Chapel. One of them, a Q&A with photography critic, novelist, and multidisciplinary scholar and professor Teju Cole, was moderated by The Common’s very own Jennifer Acker. Teju shared his perspective on autofiction in the context of his most recent novel, Tremor, and his signature intermingling of photography and prose in his myriad essays and criticism. (Cole’s first experiment with pairing text and images was published in The Common in 2015.)
Acker likened Fauci’s efforts to unite the public via science to The Common‘s mission to build global literary community.
Perhaps the most anticipated event of LitFest 2025 was a talk by Dr. Anthony Fauci about his career in public service, as told in his new memoir, On Call. In her opening remarks, Jennifer Acker reflected on the significance of his visit to LitFest:
”One of my motives for developing LitFest at Amherst was a desire to bring people together, to build a bulwark against forces that push us apart. Since Covid, we have unfortunately become more broken as a society, but when I think back to those days of 2020, 2021, and 2022, while I remember the isolation, I also remember communal, uplifting moments that stand out like stars against an otherwise black night sky. And one of those moments was watching and listening to Dr. Tony Fauci […] When Dr. Fauci took the microphone, we uttered a collective sigh of relief. We thought ‘Here’s someone who’s going to tell it to us straight.’”
Fauci spoke about how his upbringing in an Italian Catholic family in Brooklyn profoundly shaped his worldview.
Dr. Fauci both took to and left the stage with prolonged standing ovations from the audience. You can view his full conversation with TC Board Member Cullen Murphy ’74 here.
Thank you to Amherst College and all who made this milestone LitFest such a memorable one! The Common is delighted to have now officially kicked off our 15th anniversary year. Stay tuned for more celebrations in the coming months.
Amherst, MA —The Common is pleased to announce its ninth award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The award approved for 2025 will support The Common in publishing and promoting global writing, thereby broadening American audiences’ exposure to international voices, and in elevating the work of debut and emerging authors.
The Common to Receive $12,500 Award from the National Endowment for the Arts
Before we close out another busy year of publishing, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the unique, resonant, and transporting pieces that made 2024 memorable. The Common published over 175 stories, essays, poems, interviews, and features online and in print in 2024. Below, you can browse a list of the ten most-read pieces of 2024 to get a taste of what left an impact on readers.
“I wrote this poem on Holy Saturday, which historically is the day after Jesus was crucified, and the day before he was resurrected. That Spring, I was barely out of a nervous breakdown in which I had intense suicidal ideation … The moments of quiet during a time like that take on more meaning somehow, reminders I was still alive. And that day, that Saturday, I saw a bee.”
Weekly Writes Vol. 9 signups have closed. To hear about our next round of Weekly Writes when it opens, please register your interest here.
Is your New Year’s resolution to write more?
To write beyond your comfort zone?
To stay accountable to your goals and projects, every week?
The Common is here to help!
Weekly Writes is a ten-week program designed to help you create original place-based writing and stay on track with your goals in the new year, beginning January 27.
We’re offering both poetry AND prose, in two separate programs. What do you want to prioritize in 2025? Pick the program, sharpen your pencils, and get ready for a weekly dose of writing inspiration (and accountability) in your inbox!
Weekly Writes Volume 9 is here to keep you accountable!
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
This holiday season, you could hear from one of your favorite authors—writers like Sandra Cisneros, Rumaan Alam, and Stephen Graham Jones—or have them write a missive to the book nerd on your gift list, all thanks to The Common. Our tenth annual Author Postcard Auction runs from November 11 to December 4. 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. Bid here!
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.
The 2024 Author Postcard Auction is open till Dec. 4!
On the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing:
We are thrilled to announce the finalists chosen for this year’s Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing in fiction. In this ninth year of the prize, it has never felt more important to highlight themes of migration, displacement, unrest, alienation, self-determination—of seeking home, and all the reasons one leaves home to find a better way.
As it has since the beginning in 2015, the prize seeks tosupport writers whose work examines, with fresh urgency, how immigration shapes our countries, our communities, and ourselves.The winner will receive $10,000 and publication by Restless Books.This year’s judges—authors Priyanka Champaneri, Rivka Galchen, and Ilan Stavans—have selected the following four finalists. Please join us in celebrating their work.
Read Excerpts by Finalists for the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing 2024
For the rest of the world, China’s 2008 Summer Olympics—with its $40 billion budget, dramatic “Bird’s Nest” stadium, and the lavish spectacle of its opening ceremony—marked the ascension of a new economic superpower onto the modern stage. Since then, new generations of Chinese youth have grown up into a society constantly rippling with changes, inundated with globalization, technology, and consumerism.
Beijing, China – The national stadium built for the 2008 Summer Olympics & Paralympics
Today, the West views China with curiosity, suspicion, and a sense of enigma and threat. Chinese literature translated into English is still predominantly written by older authors from the period of World War II, Maoism, and the Cultural Revolution. This leaves the up-and-coming generation of Chinese artists, now dealing with wholly different lifestyles and a wholly new set of concerns, all too often neglected.
