I’m looking into Amherst as a potential applicant, but I’m dismayed by their apparent lack of any creative writing club, literary magazine, or literary/book related organizations. Is it simply missing from the website, or is this niche nonexistant? With such a relatively small population, would it be difficult to start a group such as that?
I’m also interested in music groups for guitar/stringed instruments, but did not notice anything like that on their directory either.
Amherst actually does have a literary magazine on campus, called Circus: Circus Magazine at Amherst College
In general, I’ll warn people that the Amherst website is rather bad in terms of documenting on-campus activities. There are quite a few legitimate clubs/organizations on campus that have virtually no web presence, so I’m glad you asked.
In addition, I’ll note that it’s incredibly easy to found your own clubs/organizations at Amherst, for whatever subjects you’re interested in. The college administration is remarkably supportive about these matters, and in my experience, they’ll basically throw money at anybody interested in starting anything. In my time at Amherst, I swear there was one new magazine being launched on campus like every semester (though editors seem to rapidly lose interest after 1-2 publications…). I don’t think we actually have a creative writing club at the moment, but if you get accepted to Amherst and want to start one, the only thing you really need to do is find 2-3 other interested people, and you’re basically guaranteed at least a couple hundred dollars in funding (and free meeting spaces) from the administration.
The site linked above is blocked by CC. It’s FB. Or check this link: https://issuu.com/amherstcircus/docs/final_pdf
There are a number of publications, you can decide if they’re what you are looking for.
https://amherstmuckrake.com/ is hysterical, it is invite-only and secret but i’m sure you could make it known that you want to write for it.
https://acvoice.com/ might be a good fit -
There’s also the school paper - http://amherststudent.amherst.edu - may not be what you are looking for but there it is.
IDK about guitar/stringed instrument groups but the arts house (Marsh) hosts an open mic. It’s every week, I think.
As someone said, Circus is our literary magazine. We accept submissions in poetry, prose, and art. You can also join any or all of the editing teams and help select what submissions get published.
Starting in your second year, you can live in the previously mentioned arts house. I lived there this past year, and there were tons of writers. We had a writer’s circle type group that met occasionally. Coffeehaus is every other week, and plenty of guitarists play. You can also do poetry or prose reading there if you are interested. It’s open to all students; you just have to let the DJs know you want to perform and they give you a slot.
If you want to start your own club, it’s pretty easy. I think you need a certain number of students to express interest (5, maybe?) and fill out some request-type forms.
Good luck! If you have any questions as a prospective student, I’d be happy to help.