Amherst College hosts annual literary festival

From Feb. 27 to March 1, Amherst College hosted its annual literary festival, LitFest. The school brought authors, poets and editors to its campus to celebrate the written word.

Now in its fifth year, LitFest has continued to be a rousing success. According to its mission statement, the event aims to “celebrate the college’s extraordinary literary life by bringing to campus distinguished authors and editors to share and discuss the pleasures and challenges of verbal expression — from fiction and nonfiction to poetry and spoken-word performance.”

This year, the festival featured speakers such as Ben Rhodes, a speechwriter and foreign policy advisor to the Barack Obama administration. His book, The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House, was the subject of a panel with his editor Andy Ward.

Another panel hosted by Judith Frank, Amherst’s Eliza J. Clark Folger Professor of English, featured Laila Lalami and Susan Choi. The two celebrated authors answered audience questions on writing, editing and the difficulties of a literary career.

Bates College produces most Fulbright Awards

In February, the Chronicle of Higher Education announced that Bates College has produced the most Fulbright Award-winning students out of all the liberal arts colleges in the United States. With 24 recent graduates engaged in research and teaching programs sponsored by Fullbright located all around the globe, Bates has placed at the top of the list for the second time in three years.

First founded in 1946, the prestigious Fulbright program sends carefully selected American students to more than a dozen countries in order to conduct innovative research, continue their studies, and teach.

The program is sponsored by the United States Department of State and focuses on promoting international understanding and fostering a greater sense of cultural exchange.

Fulbright was founded by Senator J. William Fulbright. He said of the program, “[Its] mission is to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs and thereby increase the chance that nations will learn at last to live in peace and friendship.”