News and Events
Amherst College Literary Festival 2017
Amherst’s annual literary festival celebrates the College’s extraordinary literary life by bringing to campus distinguished authors and editors to share and discuss the pleasures and challenges of verbal expression—from fiction and nonfiction, to poetry and spoken-word performance.
This year’s festival features award-winning novelist Zadie Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, and 2016 National Book Award Fiction Finalists Chris Bachelder and Jacqueline Woodson, among others.
Author Postcard Auction 2016
Bid for a chance to win a postcard from your favorite author, handwritten for you or a person of your choice. A wonderful keepsake, just in time for the holidays.
All proceeds will go toward The Common‘s programs. These include publishing emerging writers, mentoring students in our Literary Publishing Internship Program, and connecting with students around the world through The Common in the Classroom.
Explore the auction here: http://bit.ly/TheCommonPostcardAuction2016. Bidding opens on Monday, November 7th.
The Common Issue 12 Launch Party
The Common at the Mead
Join the staff of The Common for an evening of readings from Tajdeed, our special issue of Middle Eastern fiction, plus a sneak peek at the next issue. Readings will take place in the Mead Art Museum’s beautiful Rotherwas Room, with light refreshments to follow.
National Endowment for the Arts Awards $10,000 to The Common
Amherst, MA. Dec. 8, 2015—For the second year in a row, The Common literary magazine has been awarded an Art Works Grant of $10,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts. Based at Amherst College, The Common is one of 80 organizations across the country to receive an NEA Literature grant in 2015. The NEA funds will be matched by $20,000 from Amherst College and support:
- A special issue of contemporary Arabic fiction, Tajdeed (Renewal), to be published in April 2016
- The Common in the Classroom, an educational outreach program providing resources for educators to bring the magazine’s diverse, place-based literature into classrooms across the country
The Common Wins Firecracker Award
The CLMP Firecracker Award 2016. The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) has named The Common a finalist for the Firecracker Award, an award dedicated to celebrating independent literary publishers.
Watch LitFest Videos
Amherst College posts videos from the various Lit Fest 2016 events. The videos feature Angela Flournoy, Lauren Groff ’01, Deborah Treisman, Harold Augenbraum and Jen Acker ’00.
Author Panel at Forbes Library
On Wednesday, April 13, at 7 PM, the Forbes Library will host a panel discussion and Q&A with The Common, featuring novelist Edie Meidav, podcast editor Steven Tagle, and Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Acker. Each will read briefly from recent work, discuss balancing the writing and teach life, and talk about The Common‘s role in the literary landscape here in the Valley and around the world.
Arabic Night at Amherst College
On Friday, April 8, from 6-9 PM, The Common and the Five College Arabic Initiative will co-host the Fifth Annual Arabic Night. The night will feature the launch of The Common‘s eleventh issue, Tajdeed (Renewal), a special issue dedicated solely to translated contemporary Arabic fiction. In addition, the night will feature Professor John Eisele, professor and Director of the Arabic Studies Program at the College of William and Mary, as well as live Arabic music performed by the Layaali Music Ensemble, a Middle Eastern dinner and various student performances.