Literary Amherst

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tune without the words – and never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson

The Writing College

“Amherst is often called a singing college, but I was drawn here, in part, because it’s also known as a writing college. Literary arts remain at the core of the liberal arts at Amherst, and I’m confident they always will.”

—Biddy Martin, 19th President of Amherst College

Amherst College is one of the world’s premier writing colleges, with an enviable literary legacy. Our outstanding faculty and alumni include influential and award-winning novelists, poets, journalists and critics, and our renowned literary publications are read around the world.

Throughout its 200-year history, Amherst has been closely associated with writers such as Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Richard Wilbur ’42, James Merrill ’47, David Foster Wallace ’85, Dan Brown ’86 and Lauren Groff ’01, among many others. Each year we welcome to campus distinguished authors of fiction, nonfiction and poetry for readings, conversations and master classes as part of the Visiting Writer’s Series and LitFest, the College’s annual literary festival.

Creative Writing at Amherst College

Judith Frank talks about what it takes to succeed as a writer and touches on what students can expect from the creative writing program at Amherst College.

Six people posing together 3 sitting on a couch, 3 standing, all holding books and smiling

Top Five LitFest Moments

LitFest turns 5 this month, and to celebrate, we asked Jennifer Acker ’00, editor-in-chief of The Common and the festival’s lead organizer, to pick her favorite moments from prior years of LitFest.

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A row of five books: A Burning; Fantasia for the Man in Blue; Postcolonial Love Poem; Twilight of Democracy; Interior Chinatown

LitFest 2021

LitFest: Illuminating Great writing and Amherst College’s Literary Life. Thursday, February 25–Sunday, February 28, 2021 online.

LitFest 2021 Details

Amherst Authors

Brief Interview with a Five Draft Man

David Foster Wallace ’85 penned his debut novel, The Broom of the System, as a student at Amherst. In 1999, Amherst magazine interviewed Wallace by mail.

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The Poet and the President

In October 1963, President John F. Kennedy attended the groundbreaking of Amherst’s Robert Frost Library and gave a speech honoring the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Frost, who taught at Amherst on and off for more than 40 years.

Write Like a Shark

Lauren Groff ’01 is author of the New York Times best-selling novel Fates and Furies, a National Book Award finalist and President Obama’s “favorite book of 2015.” In an interview with Amherst’s literary magazine, she discusses her hobbies: running, reading and, of course, writing.

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Proust, Plays and Poetry

James Merrill ’47 became one of the greatest poets of his generation, but first he was a student at Amherst, where he developed an obsession with memory and a transformative interest in Proust.

Comfort With Discomfort

During a recent visit to campus, screenwriter Susannah Grant ’84—whose screenplay for the critically-acclaimed Erin Brockovich earned her an Oscar nomination—discussed the rewards of embracing discomfort.

Black and white portrait of young Richard Wilbur wearing a gray suit and black tie

“The Splendor of Mere Being”

Poet Richard Wilbur ’42 served as the nation’s second poet laureate and won two Pulitzer Prizes for his meticulously passionate body of work that celebrated, to quote one of his poems, “the splendor of mere being.”

Sonia Sanchez at a podium in Johnson Chapel, delivering the keynote address at the second annual Dr. Martin Luther King Legacy Symposium.

Reactivating Activism

Poet and activist Sonia Sanchez—who taught English at Amherst from 1972–75 and was the founding chair of the Black Studies department—recently delivered the keynote address at Amherst's second annual Dr. Martin Luther King Legacy Symposium.

Treasure Hunting

Dan Brown ’86 is the acclaimed author of The Da Vinci Code and numerous other bestsellers. In an interview with Professor Rick Griffiths, he spoke about Dante’s vision of hell, writing reluctant heroes and playing cat and mouse with bloggers.

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The Path-Breaker

Widely recognized for her path-breaking work in the field of gay and lesbian studies, feminist icon and author Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick taught English at Amherst from 1984–89, including one of the first courses in gay and lesbian literature to be taught in the United States.

An Open Book

In an interview with Amherst magazine, Professor of English Judith Frank discusses her award-winning novel All I Love and Know, her intro fiction class, her pet peeves and what it’s like to be a twin.

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Of Ministers and Madams

Debby Applegate ’89’s research of Amherst’s archival collections led to her career as a historian, and her Pulitzer Prize-winning biography The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher.

Portraits of Tess Taylor and Rafael Campo

Ambivalent Spaces

In a review for Amherst magazine, poet Tess Taylor ’00 discusses the work of Rafael Campo ’87, a poet-physician whose poems explore “the strange, fumbling ways we attempt to heal others and ourselves.”

The Creative Writing Center: Visiting Writers

The Creative Writing Center organizes the Visiting Writer’s Series, which brings high profile authors of fiction and poetry to the College for readings and book signings throughout the academic year.

Creative Writing Center Literary Readings

THE COMMON Literary Magazine

A global, award-winning publication based at Amherst College.

The Common publishes place-based literature and art from around the world in handsome print and digital editions, and mentors 12 Amherst students each year as part of its Literary Publishing Internship Program.

The Common

The Emily Dickinson Connection

Amherst College is home to the largest and most varied holdings related to poet Emily Dickinson anywhere in the world. The College’s Archives and Special Collections and the Emily Dickinson Museum contain thousands of her manuscripts, letters and personal objects. The holdings also highlight the faculty, students and other members of the College community who played some role in Dickinson’s social and intellectual development.

The College also maintains the Emily Dickinson Museum, which consists of the poet’s own home, where she wrote almost all of her poetry, and her brother’s house next door. The Museum hosts guided tours and special events, including the annual Amherst Poetry Festival in which all 1,789 of Emily Dickinson’s poems are read. Newly available is a virtual tour of the poet’s bedroom.

Emily Dickinson Collection

Emily Dickinson Museum

Amherst Poetry Festival

Virtual Bedroom Tour

Archives and Special Collections

A trove of rare books and materials.

Since 1851, Archives and Special Collections has amassed the physical history of Amherst College, including major collections of works by Emily Dickinson and Richard Wilbur ’42, and extensive holdings of works by alumni and other poets and writers.

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Folger Shakespeare Library

The world’s preeminent institution for the study of Shakespeare.

Amherst College administers the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., founded in 1930 by Amherst alumnus Henry Clay Folger, class of 1879.

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By the Numbers

126

Number of student literary magazines, journals and publications created since the College’s founding in 1821

1,855

Number of published alumni and faculty authors featured in the Amherst Reads catalogue

30,000

Number of plays in Amherst’s Samuel French Collection, one of the largest theater collections in the world, held in Archives and Special Collections

Become part of the tradition...

From creative writing courses to prestigious internships and fellowships, here are a few ways students can engage with the literary arts at Amherst.

Conduct Research in Amherst's Archives

Archives and Special Collections holds over 80,000 books and 11,000 linear feet of archival materials, including major collections of works by Emily Dickinson and Richard Wilbur.

Archives and Special Collections