In what we hope was the first of many on-campus literary evenings, The Common joined Circus, Amherst’s student-run literary magazine, for special Family Weekend readings in the Mead Art Museum. Visiting Writer Amity Gaige, acclaimed author of The Folded World and O My Darling, read from a recently published short story. Amherst creative writing students then stepped up to the podium to share original poetry and fiction before an enthusiastic crowd of family, faculty, and friends. Afterwards, we convened over snacks and drinks in the museum’s history-rich Rotherwas Room, a wood-paneled space built in the seventeenth century for an English knight and previously host to literary lights such as Robert Frost.  View pictures of this inaugural event below and on our Facebook page. More joint ventures that engage student literary life are in the works.