Amherst, MA, September 17, 2020 — The Common, the award-winning literary journal based at Amherst College, is a recipient of a grant from The Literary Arts Emergency Fund, which provides aid to nonprofit literary arts organizations, magazines, and presses that have experienced severe financial losses due to COVID-19. The fund, launched and administered by the Academy of American Poets, the Community of Literary Magazine & Presses (CLMP), and the National Book Foundation, will be distributing more than $3.5 million to literary organizations and publications across the country.
Leaders of the three national literary organizations—Jennifer Benka, Mary Gannon, and Lisa Lucas—united to raise funds and establish the Literary Arts Emergency Fund in response to the lack of institutional support for the nonprofit organizations and publishers that sustain literary culture in the U.S. by presenting poets and writers at events and by publishing and distributing thousands of poems, stories, and essays in books, magazines, and through open online archives.
“We are immensely grateful for these emergency funds, which will allow the magazine to continue paying our editors and contributors,” said The Common editor in chief Jennifer Acker. “The advocacy of these arts administrators means our organization can advance our core work of supporting emerging and international authors despite the economic fallout of COVID.” The Common is one of 282 literary nonprofits to receive funding, out of 500 applicants. The Common plans to use the emergency funding to continue its mission of publishing diverse, place-based writing from around the world.
About The Common
The Common is an award-winning print and digital literary journal published biannually. The nonprofit magazine is based at Amherst College in Massachusetts. Since its debut in 2011, The Common has published nearly 1400 authors from 52 countries. Pieces from The Common have been awarded the O. Henry Prize, the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Award, The Pushcart Prize, and have been selections and notable mentions in multiple genres in the Best American series. The journal’s editorial vision and design have been praised in The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, Slate, The Millions, Orion Magazine, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Visit www.thecommononline.org.
