Hampshire’s Literary and Arts Magazine Is Relaunched After Nine Years
Recent graduate Kaihla Laurent 17F was inspired to bring back The Reader while looking for a place to publish her own writing. She oversaw the publication of the first new issue, “Equinox,” as the magazine’s editor-in-chief.
“The Reader was a student-led, on-campus literary magazine that published poetry, prose, and visual art by students,” explains Laurent. “It functioned as a creative outlet for student work before eventually becoming inactive. Faune Albert 02F [co-director of the Writing Program and a faculty associate] showed me past issues of The Reader and mentioned that it was no longer running. My immediate reaction was ‘Why doesn’t this exist anymore?’”
Albert calls Issue 1 “a diverse and wonderful array of fiction, creative nonfiction, art, and poetry from current and recently graduated Hampshire students.” Laurent did a “really remarkable job rallying folks and putting this together,” she says. Albert, with Co-director of the Writing Center and Senior Faculty Associate Alex Cuellar 00S and Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and U.S. Literature Caoimhe Harlock, is advising The Reader staff.
The first run of The Reader dates back to at least the early 1990s; it stopped publishing in 2017. “When I came to the Hampshire Writing Program, in 2021, I knew I was interested in trying to revive The Reader,” says Albert. “Hampshire has The Omen and other, more newsy publications like The Leapfrog, but those tend not to be literary, per se, and there is so much great writing that happens at the College. The idea was that it might be one way of continuing to build community, particularly around writing. It took a few years before we were able to dedicate the time and energy to get it off the ground.”
“I received a grant to research contemporary literary magazines, particularly the shift toward online platforms and current operations of student-run publications,” says Laurent. “I used that research to develop a study focused on rebuilding The Reader, including its digital site and editorial structure. After establishing that foundation, I began working on the relaunch independently, and then brought on a team of student editors to manage submissions.”
Laurent studied creative writing with a focus on poetry; her Div III was a collection of her work centered on themes of grief, love, identity, womanhood, and generational storytelling. She graduated in December 2025.
Amelie Dimitre F23, one of the editors of the first issue of The Reader, has stepped in as editor-in-chief for the second. The theme will be “Remnants: What’s Left Behind,” and submissions are open to current Hampshire students through April.
Artwork by Katy Sullivan F23
Article Tags
