Amherst College has a number of places on campus that offer writing support and opportunities--and provide students the opportunity to reflect on their writing goals for college and beyond. The following locations provide writing support and writing opportunities on campus. Click the link for each site to show the precise location on the campus map.
Intensive Writing Sites of Writing
Skip to Main ContentSites of Writing Support
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Where are we exactly?
The Writing Center
Students meet with the Writing Center's professional staff about writing assignments and projects, presentations and public speaking, and active reading strategies. The Center cultivates a community in which students develop skills, voice, confidence, and fluency at their own pace. Students book appointments with staff–including specialists in multilingual writing and science communication–for facilitated brainstorming, organizing, revision, and reflection. Students are also invited to drop by the Center's new space in the Learning and Teaching Commons to write and study.
Visit the resources on the Writing Center's website and follow the Writing Center on Instagram @AmherstWritingCenter.
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Where are we exactly?
The Intensive Writing Program
The Intensive Writing Program offers courses to students who would like to practice academic writing in a classroom setting over the course of a full semester. Students may be recommended for Intensive Writing classes after a writing experience survey, which gives them a voice in their own placement process.
The program is an excellent resource for students in humanities, STEM, arts, and social sciences alike–the courses aim to teach transferable writing skills that will help students clearly communicate to a variety of scholarly audiences.
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The Research Librarians
Research & Instruction librarians can help you get started with or past a stuck point in a research project, strategize about finding sources, and offer approaches to incorporating writing into your research. Librarians for each department have online guides that point to useful resources in specific areas, including steps of the research process. You might meet us when we come to your class to teach a research session; research librarians also offer support for thesis work and citation management/annotation with Zotero. Help is available at the Reference Desk in Frost, online via library chat (look for the mammoth), or by appointment.
Where are WE exactly?
- Find the Frost Library location on the College's digital map.
- Find the Science Center location on the College's digital map.
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Where are we exactly?
The Loeb Center
The Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning regularly offers guidance and resources for students writing resumes, cover letters, and networking outreach emails.
The center runs workshops and clinics on writing skills for the internship and job search, and highly trained peer career advisors hold drop-in resume review clinics and appointments, bookable via Handshake, throughout the academic year. The pre-law advisor and health professions team can offer feedback on personal statements for law and medical schools, respectively, and the science and technology career advisor can assist with personal statements for graduate school applications in the sciences.
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Where are we exactly?
The Strategic Learning Center
The Strategic Learning Center (SLC) promotes student academic success, enriches academic experiences, and encourages holistic student development. Through a student-centered and growth mindset approach, we help students identify and implement individualized strategies, behaviors, and actions to achieve self-defined goals throughout all stages of life at Amherst.
With access to one-on-one academic coaching sessions, group workshops, and key learning resources, we aim to provide students with the means necessary to fully experience the transformative magnitude of an Amherst College liberal arts education.
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Where are we exactly?
The Writing Studio
The Writing Studio is a communal writing event that happens 1-2 times a month in the library, co-sponsored by Intensive Writing, The Creative Writing Program, The Common, and The Writing Center. No programming–just time and space to write in the solidarity of others. Bring your laptop and join us! Snacks provided.
Sites of Writing Opportunities
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1. The Amherst Student
The Amherst Student is the official student-run newspaper of Amherst College. They are always looking for staff to fill a variety of roles, ranging from writers and photographers to podcasters and web designers. No prior experience is required to join.
2. The Common
The Common is a professional literary magazine based at Amherst College. It publishes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry with a strong sense of place, and offers internships for current students interested in publishing. Visit The Common in the basement of Frost and read more about the magazine online.
3. The Creative Writing Center
The Creative Writing Center is a home for all creative writers on campus. We offer courses in a wide range of genres, including fiction, poetry, playwriting, creative nonfiction, hybrid forms and translation. Students from any major, discipline or background are welcome to enroll in creative writing classes. We host a reading series each semester, facilitate co-curricular writing activities and support a variety of campus-wide literary events, providing opportunities for students to further their writing and connect with other writers beyond the classroom. Our goal is to bring together a diverse literary community to deepen and support the creative work of all our students.
4. The Poetry Club
The Poetry Club aims to provide a safe and encouraging place for Amherst College students to explore and practice the art of poetry, learn from established poets, and experiment with spoken word. The club structure is based on three interconnected prongs. Firstly, the club hosts events such as Poetry Parlor where writers can come to share their work in a low-stakes, comfortable and supportive environment. Secondly, club members get the opportunity to volunteer at the Jones Library, teaching middle school-aged children about diverse poets and helping them with their own personal creative writing. Last but not least, there is also our literary magazine, The Lilac, which publishes a wide range of work such as poetry, illustrations, photography, plays, etc, and celebrates all artists who submit during our semesterly launch party.
5. Asian American Writers’ Group
A space for Asian/Asian American identifying writers to come together and create original works and read literature by Asian/Asian American authors. Exploring the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and the arts and their impacts on Asian/Asian American narratives. We hope to use creative writing as a medium for expressing our stories and educating others of the Asian/Asian American experience.
6. Bolt Magazine
Bolt welcomes any student looking for experience on a print magazine in fashion, the arts, and culture. If you are interested in writing, photography, modeling, or anything related to visual storytelling, join us! Check out @bolt_mag for old issues and other bits.
7. Bullet Journal Club
Bullet Journal Club is for anyone who is interested in journaling. If you like stationery, paper crafts, or writing, this club is for you! Come by to decorate your journal pages, try new materials, and share your favorite ways to use your notebook.
8. The Indicator
The Indicator has been Amherst College’s student-run literary and arts magazine since 1848. Every semester, it publishes themed works of poetry and prose. Unlike most literary magazines, The Indicator does not operate on an external submissions-based model, instead emphasizing a close working relationship between editors and writers.
Contact Intensive Writing director Kristina Reardon to be added to this list of Amherst sites of writing.