The River in the Dark
By Lauren Groff ’01
“It has been 20 years since I graduated from Amherst, and if I focus my mind and coax them, all the small memories of classes or hanging out in someone’s common room can begin to shyly return to me with their strong flavors of giddiness or humiliation or tedium or joy.”
Read Lauren Groff’s Essay
Reaching Back to Frost
By Rand Richards Cooper ’80
“First as an undergraduate, then as writer-in-residence and more recently as a writer for Amherst magazine, I have again and again refreshed myself, and my life, from the College’s deep well.”
Read Rand Richards Cooper’s Essay
Revise, Revise, Revise
By Jennifer Acker ’00
“At Amherst, I began to understand how the writing is inseparable from the ideas. If the ideas are murky, the writing will be clear as mud.”
Read Jennifer Acker’s Essay
Begin on Page 85
By Debby Applegate ’89
“Yet, even now—older, perhaps wiser, certainly more realistic—I am not inclined to give up that utopian vision that first drew me to Amherst, and that I shared with so many of my classmates.”
Read Debby Applegate’s Essay
The Equation, Given
By Rafael Campo ’87
“When I first arrived at Amherst College, having applied “early decision” and been miraculously admitted, I made my way straight to Memorial Hill, feeling queasy and excited at once.”
Read Rafael Campo’s Essay
A Little House and a Lot of Love
By Carmella de los Angeles Guiol ’09
“I think about what has endured from my time at Amherst, the most valuable treasure that I took away from those four years, what immediately springs to my mind are my friends.”
Read Carmella de los Angeles Guiol’s Essay
Samovars, Hope and Promise
By J.M. Holmes ’12
“Throughout my time at Amherst and far beyond, these inexplicable generosities have accrued and coalesced into something larger than the sum of their parts.”
Read J.M. Holmes’ Essay
The Last Line of the Poem
By William H. Pritchard ’53
“I look back on my early days as a teacher at the College and find that remote as adjective can modify all sorts of activity.”
Read William H. Pritchard’s Essay
The Return Visit
By Helen Wan ’95
“No matter which road you take, that first sighting of the College is breathtaking. On each return visit, I literally take in a breath when the Octagon comes into view.”
Read Helen Wan’s Essay