The Writing College
Amherst College is one of the world’s premier writing colleges, with an enviable literary legacy. Throughout our 200-year history, our faculty and alumni have included influential and award-winning authors, including Robert Frost, Richard Wilbur ’42, James Merrill ’47, Sonia Sanchez, Alexander Chee, David Foster Wallace ’85, Dan Brown ’86, Rafael Campo ’87, Debby Applegate ’89, Kirun Kapur ’97, Min Jin Lee, Lauren Groff ’01 and many others.
Today, we enjoy a thriving literary life on campus with talented faculty, numerous literary events and prominent publications. Our faculty teach creative writing in small, intensive classes. Our events include an annual literary festival and a visiting writers series, which bring to campus distinguished authors for readings, conversations and master classes. The College’s Emily Dickinson Museum offers programming celebrating the poet’s work and life, while our Folger Shakespeare Library remains the world’s preeminent institution for the study of Shakespeare. The College’s literary journal, The Common, publishes an international array of established and emerging writers.