(Amherst, Mass. July 14, 2026)—Award-winning, international literary journal The Common has announced Aidan Cooper ’26 as its seventh 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.

The LEF is designed to provide recently graduated students with a stepping stone between academic work and the greater publishing world. The full-time, postgraduate fellow assists the managing editor with print and digital production; edits and proofreads prose and poetry, working closely with contributors; creates multimedia web features; mentors current LPI students; and develops, organizes, and staffs innovative events on campus and across the country.

Aidan Cooper ’26 is the seventh Literary Editorial Fellow, following Kei Lim ’25, Sam Spratford ’24, Olive Amdur ’23, Sofia Belimova ’22, Elly Hong ’21, and Isabel Yao Meyers ’20. Cooper arrives at the position after one year as an editorial assistant for The Common and one year as the magazine’s David Applefield ’78 Fellow. They graduated from Amherst College as an English major, where they served as editor-in-chief of Amherst’s poetry club and poetry magazine, The Lilac, and worked in the archives of the Folger Library in Washington, D.C., investigating the relationship between mercantilism and horsemanship in Shakespeare’s England. In addition, they completed a creative-critical senior thesis about relational modes of meaning-making in contemporary “experimental” poetry, for which they were awarded summa cum laude. Their poem “Before They Traded Devers” was published online at The Common.

“The Common’s insistence on place-based writing has been instrumental to my development as a writer and thinker,” Cooper said. “This endlessly inspiring community of writers, translators, and artists makes The Common a haven in the literary world, and I can’t wait to take on more responsibility in nurturing it.” Cooper is eagerly anticipating learning about the operational aspects of The Common and sharpening their editorial eye. “I’m honored to be supporting this necessary and beautiful magazine as it has supported me,” they said, “and to have the chance to read and refine some great stories, too.”

“Aidan has had a notable role in the greater literary and editorial sphere at Amherst, including already at The Common,” said magazine founder and editor-in-chief Jennifer Acker. “I’m excited for them to work even more closely with authors and the intern team in service of The Common’s mission to publish the best place-based writing from around the world and mentor the next generation of writers and editors.” Since 2010, Acker has directed the Literary Publishing Internship, which employs eight to ten students annually. She also directs Amherst College LitFest, now in its twelfth year.

The LEF position is only one example of Amherst’s commitment to supporting hands-on learning, introducing students to practical and intellectual applications of its liberal arts curriculum. “The Common provides students with an opportunity to apply their humanistic education toward real-world publishing experiences, and the Literary Editorial Fellowship enables this learning to extend beyond graduation, as students take the first steps towards their careers,” said Martha Umphrey, Amherst College’s Provost and Dean of the Faculty.

About The Common

The Common is a print and digital literary journal published biannually. Issues of The Common include fiction, essays, poems and images that embody a strong sense of place. Each spring, the magazine features a rich portfolio of Arabic fiction in translation, introducing English-language readers to new and exciting voices from across the Middle East and North Africa. Since its debut in 2011, The Common has published more than 1,500 authors from 56 countries. Pieces from The Common have been awarded the O. Henry Prize, the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Award for Emerging Writers, and have been selections and notable mentions in multiple genres in the prestigious Best American series. The journal’s editorial vision and design have been praised in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Slate, The Millions, Orion Magazine, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Former Literary Publishing Interns have gone on to publish acclaimed novels, win Watson Fellowships, study English literature at top graduate programs, and work at nonprofit organizations and literary publishers around the world. Beyond mentoring undergraduates, The Common supports educators from high school to graduate levels through The Common in the Classroom and hosts summer writing courses for high school students via The Common Young Writers Program. Read more about the magazine’s programs here.