All posts tagged: news and events
The 2023 Author Postcard Auction is Open!
The holidays are almost here, but before then, it’s time to bid in The Common’s tenth annual author postcard auction for a chance to receive a handwritten, personalized postcard from your favorite writers (plus, actors and musicians!). The postcards make great gifts for the literature-lovers in your life. Online bidding is open now, and closes at noon on December 4th.

The 2023 Postcard Auction features recipients of the Pulitzer Prize, the Man Booker Prize, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and Guggenheim Fellowships, as well as multiple New York Times bestsellers. Returning authors include literary powerhouses David Sedaris, Jonathan Franzen, Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, and Viet Thanh Nguyen. Newcomers to the auction include acclaimed novelists, essayists, and poets Tracy K. Smith, Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, and Chang-rae Lee.
In the past few years, authors have famously gone all out with their postcards: expect to receive anything from long letters to drawings and doodles to haikus. This year, we also have singer-songwriters, cartoonists, and more!

Winning bids are tax-deductible donations. All proceeds go to The Common Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to publishing and promoting art and literature from global, diverse voices, and will support The Common’s mission to deepen society’s sense of place, nurture the careers of new and international writers, and mentor future voices within the publishing world.
If you’re interested in supporting The Common but don’t want to bid, click here to donate.
The Common Magazine Announces Inaugural David Applefield ’78 Fellow
(Amherst, Mass. November 2, 2023)—The award-winning, international literary journal The Common announced today that Sam Spratford ’24 will be the inaugural 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 organized by David Whitman ’78, in honor of his late classmate and roommate, who was a literary polymath, international activist, media entrepreneur, and the founder of Frank, an eclectic English-language literary magazine based in Paris.
The Common On Campus: November 9th and 10th
This fall, in its 26th issue, Amherst College’s award-winning literary magazine The Common will publish a special portfolio of writing and art from the farmworker and farm laborer community: the migrant, seasonal, and often immigrant laborers who make up much of the US agricultural workforce.
Co-edited by Miguel M. Morales, the portfolio includes work by twenty-seven contributors with roots in this community, most of whom started work in the fields as children. It reflects their diverse experiences—long hours and low pay, protests and picket lines, the fierce resilience of their families, the warmth of their communities, and the satisfaction of doing hard work will, among loved ones.
The Common is a print and online literary journal with a mission to deepen our individual and collective sense of place: to reach from there to here. Since its debut in 2011, The Common has published nearly 1900 emerging and established authors from 53 countries, developed unique workshops and educational programs, and built a local and global community of writers and readers of all ages, all from our office in Frost Library.
On November 9th and 10th, as a part of this mission, we will host two events on the Amherst College campus celebrating our Issue 26 farmworker portfolio and exploring the relationship between its questions of land, migration, and belonging and our home here in Western Massachusetts. Contributors Nora Rodriguez Camagna and Julián David Bañuelos, as well as portfolio co-editor Miguel M. Morales, will be guests at both events.
The Common Adds Attorney Meredith Dodd plus Business Leader Emilie Eliason ’99 to Board of Directors
(Amherst, MA—September 15, 2023)—The Common, Amherst College’s award-winning, international literary magazine, announces the addition of two new members to its Board of Directors: Meredith Dodd and Emilie Eliason ’99.
The Common Magazine Announces Fourth Literary Editorial Fellow
(Amherst, Mass. August 4, 2023)— The Common, the award-winning, international literary journal based at Amherst College, has announced its fourth Literary Editorial Fellow: Olive Amdur ’23. 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 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 full-time, postgraduate fellow writes, edits, and proofreads prose and poetry; creates multimedia web features; writes and designs publicity materials; manages print and digital production; and develops, organizes and staffs innovative events on campus and across the country. The fellow also helps to mentor and train current interns.
The Common Magazine Announces 2023-24 Thomas E. Wood ’61 Fellow
Award-winning, international literary journal The Common has announced Sarah Wu ’25 as its 2023-24 Thomas E. Wood ’61 Fellow. The fellowship was created in 2018 with a $50,000 gift from Sally Wood, whose daughter and late husband, Thomas E. Wood, an avid reader and gifted poet, attended Amherst College. The fund annually supports one student intern who possesses exceptional editorial promise and leadership skills.
The Common Awarded 2023 Amazon Literary Partnership Grant
We are pleased to announce that The Common is among the 93 literary nonprofit organizations awarded a 2023 Literary Magazine Fund Grant by the Amazon Literary Partnership Literary Magazine Fund, in conjunction with the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses. Since 2017, funding from the Amazon Literary Partnership has helped further The Common’s mission of publishing and promoting emerging and diverse authors who deepen our individual and collective sense of place. In 2023, the Amazon Literary Partnership awarded nearly $1M in funds.
Issue 25 of The Common is Here!
Here are all the ways to experience Issue 25:
Click here to purchase your print or digital copy, starting at just $7.
Click here to browse the Table of Contents, including online exclusives.
Love Issue 25’s portfolio of stories and art from Kuwait? Donate to support The Common’s mission to feature new and underrepresented voices from around the world.
Interested in teaching Issue 25 in your class? Click here to explore your options and resources.
The Common Young Writers Program Opens Applications for Summer 2023
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 17-28.