News and Events | The Common

Celebrating The Common in Amman, Jordan

June 30, 2025 Amman Portfolio, Issue 29, News, News and Events

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.

NYC Anniversary Party: Celebrating 15 Years of The Common

June 24, 2025 News and Events

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!

Join Weekly Writes This Summer For Motivation and Accountability

May 29, 2025 News and Events

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!

Celebrate 15 years with us in NYC!

May 12, 2025 News, News and Events

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.

The Common x Sant Jordi Book Festival: Arabic Fiction Readings

April 30, 2025 News, News and Events

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!

The Common Young Writers Program is Open for Applications!

April 10, 2025 News, News and Events

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.

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.

Click here for more information and details on how to apply.

LitFest 2025: Recapping A Milestone Celebration

March 13, 2025 News and Events

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 to Receive $12,500 Award from the National Endowment for the Arts

January 14, 2025 News and Events

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 Most-Read Pieces of 2024

December 21, 2024 News and Events

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.

January 2024 Poetry Feature: Part I, with work by Adrienne Su, Eleanor Stanford, Kwame Opoku-Duku, and William Fargason

“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.”

—William Fargason on “Holy Saturday”