Magazine Interns, College Alumni Read Their Work

Continued from page 4 metacognition, or using presentday knowledge to help write about the past. The group read passages from O’Rourke’s “The Invisible Kingdom” and works including Joan Didion's “Goodbye to All That” and James Baldwin's “The Fire Next Time.” O’Rourke advised the group to use language economically when writing nonfiction, and to both show and tell a story.

Readings by Amherst Alumni

Authors and The Common Student Interns

On Saturday, The Common hosted an event featuring their student editorial interns reading alongside Amherst alumni authors. Hosted by The Common’s Literary Editorial Fellow Sofia Belimova ’22, the reading began with Thomas E. Wood ’61 Fellow Olive Amdur ’23 reading from her yet-untitled creative thesis. Journalist Ted Conover ’80 followed with an excerpt from his newest book, “Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at

America’s Edge.”

Intern Sophie Durbin ’25 followed with part of her creative nonfiction piece “Inconvenience Store,” which she wrote over the summer. Author Marti Dumas ’98 then read from the first novel in her middle grade fantasy series, “Wildseed Witch.”

Intern Kei Lim ’25 read two parts of their three-part poem “Evergreen,” and author and Coordinator of the Creative Writing Center Catherine Newman ’90 read from her new novel, “We All Want Impossible Things.” Finally, Intern Sarah Wu ’25 followed with an excerpt from her story “The Tiger,” and author and journalist Mark Vanhoenacker ’96 finished the reading with three passages from “Imagine a City: A Pilot’s Journey Across the Urban World.” A reception and book signing followed.

Valeria Luiselli in Conversation with Jennifer Acker ’00

On Saturday evening, acclaimed author Valeria Luiselli joined Jennifer Acker ’00, founder and editor-in-chief of The

Common, for a conversation in Johnson Chapel. They discussed Luiselli’s writing process, creating a sense of place, and the role of her bilingualism in writing. Luiselli, a MacArthur Fellow, has written both fiction and nonfiction and has written in both English and Spanish.

Luiselli was born in Mexico City and grew up in South Korea, South Africa, and India. “It has always been through the process of writing a place that I am able to make myself at home in it, to some degree,” she explained. She extends this association with place to reading as well, often remembering the places where she read a book better than the plot itself.

She has found inspiration in “the electricity generated by children’s imaginations” — specifically, exploring how a child’s imagination processes reality and affects the adults around them. She was also moved by the refugee crisis in Europe in 2014, and felt that she “could not write about anything else” because the topic had overtaken her thoughts.

Her books are often written in short fragments, usually with several small sections on a single page. “I have made peace with the fact that I can concentrate very well on short fragments,” she admitted.

Luiselli described her sometimes years-long creative process: She writes countless “notes” in both English and Spanish, “take them apart and put them back together,” until one of these fragments captures her attention and she feels compelled to see it through. Ultimately, though, she said her piece-meal writing process is dictated by “real-life circumstances” and “how many minutes I might get [to write].”

The conversation was followed by a question-and-answer session and a book signing.

President’s Colloquium on Race and Racism

On Sunday, Assistant Professor of English Frank Leon Roberts led the President’s Colloquium on Race and Racism with Pulitzer Prize-winning essayist, curator, and theater critic Hilton Als. He is known for his contributions to The New Yorker, as well as his essay collections “White Girls” and “My Pinup.” The Mead is also currently showing his exhibition “God Made My Face: A Collective Portrait of James Baldwin.”

President Michael Elliott introduced him and Roberts, who began their discussion by talking about the impact of Baldwin on Als’s life. Als first came into contact with Baldwin through “Notes of a Native Son,” and his conversation with Frank, who teaches a course at Amherst about James Baldwin, was conversational and freeflowing. They discussed Black and queer identities through both the lens of Baldwin and in contemporary America. When asked about the state of Black writing now, and any advice for Black writers, Als simply answered: “Keep working.”

The conversation also had light-hearted moments, such as when Als described his encounters with the singer Prince and his morning routine, faithfully accompanied by The Wendy Williams Show. He discussed where his name came from, as described in “White Girls,” and then opened the floor for questions from the audience.