Amherst Writers & Artists Press Inc

Amherst Writers & Artists is a non-profit arts organization committed to the belief that a writer is someone who writes and that every writer has a unique voice. 

We spread this belief by training people to lead writing workshops in the method developed by Pat Schneider, as described in her book, Writing Alone and With Others (Oxford University Press).

The AWA method has been used successfully with experienced writers as well as beginners, writers who have confidence as well as those who are uncertain. It has been equally effective in helping those whose voices have traditionally been silenced by poverty, discrimination, illness, age or other obstacles to achieve the powerful combination of language and confidence needed to overcome social barriers. The AWA method brings people together and helps create a supportive community in which they can learn the strength of their own voices.

Those who have been trained to use this method go on to do deeply meaningful work, including starting non-profits of their own. Some of the populations with whom AWA-certified workshop leaders write include: incarcerated women (Voices from Inside), people experiencing homelessness (New York Writer's Coalition), women and girls in Malawi (VoiceFlame Writers), women of color in Brooklyn (IMANI HOUSE), LGBT elders, domestic violence survivors, veterans, people experiencing life-threatening illnesses, doctors, service providers, and more.

While the AWA method is not therapy, it has great healing potential for writers from all backgrounds. Writers who have used the AWA method have published major works and taken top prizes and awards in the U.S. and Ireland, and over a thousand have completed the AWA training program in workshop leadership.

AWA is also a publisher, producing books and a yearly journal, Peregrine, which is dedicated to sharing a diversity of voices. We run a poetry contest annually for which the first prize is $1000.