A Writer's Guide to Amherst

Amherst's public library is working from a temporary site on University Drive during its building project. Its Special Collections cover Amherst authors along with local and regional history and genealogy.

Northampton's public library houses the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum, and it keeps collections for local history and genealogy. Study rooms and meeting rooms can be reserved online.

The research center fills the 25th floor of the W. E. B. Du Bois Library, and the W. E. B. Du Bois Papers are among its collections. Send an Ask an Archivist request before a planned visit. The staff can have materials ready when you arrive.

The archives are on the A-Level of Robert Frost Library and open to the public on weekdays. They hold major collections of Emily Dickinson and Richard Wilbur books and manuscripts, and a Robert Frost collection. The college counts its collection of Native American literature among the largest in the United States.

The reading room on the third floor of Neilson Library is open to everyone on weekdays, and the library strongly encourages an appointment. Holdings include the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History. The Mortimer Rare Book Collection keeps papers and drafts by Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf.

Amherst Books sells new and used books near the campuses, with plenty of poetry, philosophy, and literary fiction. Check its events calendar before a visit. It is closed Sundays.

Broadside sells fiction and poetry, with a children's section and a book search service. Authors can place their books here on consignment, and they read in the store too. Broadside is open daily.

Odyssey is a woman-owned independent in South Hadley. It sells mainly new books, along with signed copies and a First Editions Club. Its calendar lists in-person author events, and the store is open daily.

Raven sells used books and specializes in scholarly and university-press titles. Philosophy and religion have large sections, and so do Black studies and radical studies. Rare books are kept off the shelves. It is open daily.

Fiction writer Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant, who run Small Beer Press together, own Book Moon. It sells new and used books and makes room for small-press titles and local writers.

Booklink Booksellers keeps its shop inside Thornes Marketplace in downtown Northampton.

High Five calls itself an inclusive kids' community bookstore, and it is also a creativity center. It is known for graphic novels, middle-grade books, and picture books. Its collections give space to BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ books, to local creators, and to books on disability and neurodivergence. Book clubs and a Creatives Club meet here. With Odyssey, it runs the summer Pioneer Valley Bookstore Crawl, and it is closed Sundays.

Writers in Progress calls itself the Valley's literary arts studio, and author Dori Ostermiller founded it in 1992. Its weekly, one-day, and half-day workshops meet on Zoom or in person at the Florence studio. Writers with a book underway can apply to the year-long Manuscript Intensive.

Amherst Coffee is in the historic Amherst Cinema building. It serves espresso drinks and loose-leaf teas with baked goods made on site. From Tuesday through Saturday a full bar runs into the evening.

Futura serves specialty coffee and food at its Mill District café on Cowls Road. It is open daily and stays open later on weekends.

Woodstar bakes its own bread, with a different featured loaf each weekday. Seating is indoors and out, and it is open daily.

The Iron Horse is a live music room with a bar and a kitchen led by an executive chef. The bar opens two hours before showtime, so you can eat before the performance. Its sister venue, The Parlor Room Music Club, shares 32 Masonic St. with the Musician's Workshop.

The museum keeps Dickinson's Homestead and The Evergreens. Its Studio Sessions give writers time to work in the poet's own creative space. The museum also hosts the Tell It Slant Poetry Festival, online and in person, and the Phosphorescence Contemporary Poetry Series, along with discussion groups and tours.

Straw Dog is a volunteer-run nonprofit for writers of every genre in western Massachusetts. It holds craft workshops and open mics and puts on the WriteAngles Conference. Its programs include a Black Writers Guild and Social Justice Writing.

The Juniper Initiative at UMass Amherst calls itself a regional home for literary art. Each fall the MFA for Poets & Writers' Visiting Writers Series brings authors to read from their latest books at free evening events. The two-day Juniper Literary Festival is free as well and includes conversations with agents, editors, and publishers. Adult writers can spend a summer week at the Juniper Summer Writing Institute, in workshops in poetry, fiction, and memoir.

Pat Schneider founded Amherst Writers & Artists. Its AWA Method shapes supportive, generative workshops centered on each writer's own voice. Find a certified workshop leader in its directory, or join a monthly online writing session. AWA Press publishes the annual journal Peregrine.

The Carle collects, preserves, and presents picture books and picture-book illustration. Its exhibitions rotate. The museum also has libraries and an art studio.

The state's Center for the Book promotes reading and access to books and libraries. It keeps a Writers Directory and runs the Massachusetts Book Awards.

ISI runs a year-long seminar on a set theme. Its faculty fellows come from across disciplines and ranks and lead discussion of their own projects. The institute also holds an annual lecture and working groups.

The Kahn supports collaborative, multidisciplinary research. Its long-term projects bring about 14 faculty fellows together with student fellows in a weekly seminar. Smith fellows receive research grants, and Five College fellows receive honoraria. Short-term projects range from workshops to public lectures and symposia.

Mass Humanities, the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, has offices in Northampton and Holyoke. It makes grants to nonprofits for public humanities projects. Its programs include the Clemente Course in the Humanities and Reading Frederick Douglass Together.

The consortium joins Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges with UMass Amherst. For faculty it supports more than 35 cross-campus seminars and a faculty exchange, and it funds events across the campuses.

UMass Press publishes scholarship, literature, and books for general readers. Its list centers on American life, from civic affairs and the arts to the natural world. The press also runs the Juniper Prizes.

Small Beer publishes under three imprints: Small Beer Press, Big Mouth House for children's books, and Peapod Classics. It also puts out occasional chapbooks and the zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. The press runs Book Moon, a new and used bookshop in Easthampton.

Interlink is an independent publisher with a global perspective. Its list runs from literature in translation to history, politics, and cookbooks, under imprints such as Olive Branch Press and Crocodile Books.

The American Sociological Association calls ASR its flagship journal. Founded in 1936, it is a peer-reviewed bimonthly that welcomes work from every area of sociology, with an emphasis on quality and general interest. Its four co-editors are all at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Preparing an article for American Sociological Review

Mass Cultural Council gives these grants to artists, culture bearers, and creative practitioners who are 18 or older and have lived in Massachusetts for the full year. Literature is an eligible discipline, open to creative writers of every genre and format.

The Massachusetts Center for the Book runs these awards for books written, illustrated, or translated by current Massachusetts residents. Categories cover fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, plus translated literature and children's and young adult books.

UMass Press runs the Juniper Prizes with the UMass Amherst MFA for Poets & Writers. Poetry has two prizes, one for a first book and one for a previously published poet, and MFA faculty judge them. Fiction has two as well, for a novel and a story collection. A fifth prize goes to creative nonfiction. Winners receive a publication contract with UMass Press.

Straw Dog's year-long fellowship is for women of color and gender-expansive writers of color, 18 or older, who live in Hampden, Hampshire, or Franklin County and have not yet published or contracted a book. Fellows get a grant for writing expenses, Guild membership, mentoring, and a professional website. They also read and teach at Guild events.

Straw Dog and The Mount, Edith Wharton's home in Lenox, offer one-week residencies to emerging poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. Residents get a private workspace at The Mount and lodging at a nearby inn. The residency pays a stipend and reimburses travel.

This page collects grants and writing resources for University of Massachusetts Amherst students and researchers.

Zea Mays is a studio and research center for safe, sustainable printmaking. You can join as a member or buy studio access on its own. Its workshops have included a class that turns prints into hand-bound journals. The studio is open Tuesday through Sunday.

Collective Copies is a worker-owned digital print and binding shop, and its workers belong to UE Local 274. Ask about its self-publishing service. The shop also carries titles from its affiliated Levellers Press.

Paradise Copies is a full-service print shop in downtown Northampton. It handles digital and offset printing as well as large-format work, and it offers graphic design and an expanded bindery. Customers park in the shop's own lot, close to I-91.