The 'Common' Partners with Penguin Classics On Annual Postcard Auction

The Common, the literary magazine and recipient of the 2019 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize, opens its seventh annual Author Postcard Auction this month, inviting bids on handwritten, personalized postcards from major writers and other celebrities to be sent by the holidays. Participating writers include André Aciman, Edward Ball, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Anne Carson, Susan Choi, Antonia Fraser, Amity Gaige, Ross Gay, Alexander Hemon, Phil Klay, Rachel Kushner, R.O. Kwon, Laila Lalami, Min Jin Lee, Valeria Luiselli, Natalie Merchant, Rebecca Makkai, Rajesh Paremeswaran, Ann Patchett, David Sedaris, Jenny Slate, Elizabeth Strout, Pitchaya Sudbanthad, Laura Van den Berg, Claire Vaye Watkins, Chris Ware, Edmund White, and Paul Yoon. Online bidding is open to the public as of 10 am EST on November 9. 

In celebration of The Common’s 10th anniversary this year, some bidders will also receive rewards from Penguin Classics; the first and every fifth bidder, plus the highest bidder and top two underbidders, will receive one of a handful of books from Penguin's the Deluxe or Vitae series. Choices include F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, with an introduction by postcard auction participant Min Jin Lee; George Elliot’s Middlemarch; and the autobiography of Frederick Douglass. All proceeds directly benefit The Common and will be matched by the Whiting Foundation, and support payment to and mentorship of emerging authors as well as The Common’s postgrad editorial fellowship.