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Andrea Lara '26 studies Biology, Latin American Studies (Spanish), and Creative Writing at Bennington. Following her education and writing internship at Uptown Stories, Lara was offered a part-time position as development assistant for the arts organization. 

Exhibition offers visitors the rare opportunity to interact with Arion Press fine edition artist books at the Robert Frost Stone House Museum May 8–October 31, 2025.

51�������� alumni and faculty members are publishing novels, memoirs, short story collections, non-fiction books, and poetry books. Check out the round up below to learn who was published this spring.

Nine students from high schools around the country and the world were selected as winners of 51��������’s 2024-2025 Young Writers Awards.

Faculty member Mariam Rahmani’s fiction debut, Liquid: A Love Story, has garnered significant attention as a Book of the Month Club selection, one of Oprah Daily’s 25 Most Anticipated Books of 2025, and as an excerpt in New York Magazine.

In celebration of Black History Month, 51�������� is compiling a spotlight of the community's favorite Black authors and favorite books by Black authors.

Elizabeth Richter Zimmer '66 is a freelance writer who has worked in numerous print and digital spheres throughout her career. She shared how her Bennington education prepared her for working in and writing for arts spaces and offers her advice to current Bennington students.

51�������� is pleased to announce it has been recommended for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $10,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The award will help fund the production of a literary journal housed at 51��������.

Amanda Spooner Eppers '92 is the director of alumni and special events at Brimmer and May School in Chestnut Hill, MA. She shared how her Bennington education and Field Work Term experiences inspired a love of working in an educational setting.

51�������� alumni are publishing novels, memoirs, short story, non-fiction, and poetry books. Check out the round up below to learn who was published this winter. 

How Bennington's Unique Writing Class Transforms Student Creativity and Confidence

Students present at the first International Multilingual Creative Writing Conference in New York.

51�������� is the only college Michael Pollan ’76 applied to. Pollan’s mother had attended Bennington in the fifties, and he remembered reading through her college papers, which were kept in the attic of his childhood home, and thinking about how extraordinary it was to have been taught, as she was, by poet Howard Nemerov and literary critic Kenneth Burke.

More than 100 people attended the Ben Belitt Colloquium on Arts and Literary Culture in Tishman Auditorium on 51��������’s campus on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. They joined panelists Pulitzer Prize Winner Jericho Brown, the MacArthur Award-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem ’86, celebrated poet Camille Rankine, and moderator and Bennington faculty member Benjamin Anastas to learn about the life and work of Queer Black poet and essayist Reginald Shepherd ’88, an underrecognized member of the Bennington literary community in the eighties. Below is a piece Lethem wrote for and read at the event.

51�������� alumni are publishing novels, memoirs, non-fiction, poetry, and photography books. Check out the round up below to learn who is publishing, winning awards, and appearing in paperback this fall. 

Poetry at Bennington, an endowed program of short-term residencies that brings established and emerging poets to 51�������� for public readings and close work with students, has announced its Fall 2024 lineup of featured poets. All Poetry at Bennington events are free and open to the public. They take place in various locations on the College’s campus.

This fall, 51�������� welcomes two new faculty members: Alex Creighton, who teaches Critical Writing, and Kaolack Ibrahima Ndiaye, who teaches Africana Dance.

The Spring 2024 issue of (m)othertongues has launched, featuring student works in prose, poetry, and the visual arts. 

Those who knew Reginald Shepherd and those who know his work shared their insights at the 2024 Ben Belitt Colloquium on Arts and Literary Culture.

Winston Foundation grant funds $1,000 prizes for three students.

Poet and Memoirist Safiya Sinclair ’10, author of the memoir  a National Book Critics Circle Award Winner and one of the most notable books of the year according to the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, TIME Magazine, and many others, will address the 89th graduating class at the conferring of degrees on Saturday, June 1. We connected with her to learn more about her time at Bennington and how it influenced her career.

The Robert Frost Stone House Museum launches the 2024 season. 

Nine students from high schools around the country were selected as winners of 51��������’s 2023-2024 Young Writers Awards.

Winston Foundation Grant funds 2024 Ben Belitt Colloquium on Arts and Literary Culture

51�������� is pleased to announce that poet and memoirist Safiya Sinclair ’10 will address the class of 2024 at Commencement.

Poetry at Bennington, an endowed program of short-term residencies that brings established and emerging poets to 51�������� for public readings and close work with students, has announced its Spring 2024 lineup of featured poets.

The Literature discipline at 51�������� has received a grant from the Winston Foundation to fund a new course and reading from 2024 Ben Belitt Distinguished Visiting Writer .  

The latest additions to Bennington’s rich literary history have hit bookstore shelves. Their authors join Bennington notables, including Donna Tartt '86, Kiran Desai '93, Michael Pollan '76, ​Ann Goldstein '71, Anaïs Duplan '14, Anne Waldman '66, Cynthia Sweeney MFA '13, Jamie Quatro MFA '09, Amy Gerstler '01, Morgan Jerkins MFA '16, and Charles Bock '97.

Bennington Review—a national biannual print journal of innovative, intelligent, and moving poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and film writing housed at 51��������—has released its twelfth issue, around the theme of “A Flash of Beauty.”

51�������� congratulates Bruna Dantas Lobato ’15 who won the National Book Award for her translation of Stênio Gardel’s The Words That Remain in a ceremony on the evening of Wednesday, November 15.