Students are encouraged to submit to our annual department writing contests. Prizes in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and critical essay are now open for submissions. Prizes are broken up into undergraduate and graduate divisions. Please read full details HERE and share widely!
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NEA and McDowell fellow Ally Ang will be on campus for a poetry reading and discussion at 2:00pm on Tuesday, January 27th in Swan Hall’s Hoffmann Room. Ally is the author of the 2025 collection Let the Moon Wobble. You can find out more about them by visiting their website.
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Professor Mok’s interview appears alongside those of other renowned theater critics. According to her: “The value of criticism is directly connected to the audience because theater, going to the theater, experiencing theater, is a kind of provisional act of community.” You can see the entire interview by following this link.
Continue reading "Professor Christine Mok appears on “Critical Minded” video series on theater criticism"
The department would like to congratulate Nina King Sannes, as her essay “Redneck Folk Medicine,” originally published in the Colorado Review, has been named a “Notable Essay” in the 2025 edition of Best American Essays (guest ed. Jia Tolentino). Best American Essays is a renowned anthology published yearly that compiles nonfiction writing from the best […]
Continue reading "Congratulations to PhD Candidate Nina King Sannes for her Notable mention in Best American Essays 2025"
The department would like to congratulate Dr. Nancy Caronia on her appointment at Loyola University Chicago as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of English. She will hold the Paul and Ann Rubino Endowed Professorship of Italian American Studies. Nancy earned her PhD in English and Cultural Studies from URI in 2015. See Loyola’s […]
Continue reading "PhD Alum Dr. Nancy Caronia lands tenure track position at Loyola University Chicago"
The department would like to congratulate Professor James Haile, whose new book “The Dark Delight of Being Strange: Black Stories of Freedom” has been named a finalist for the PEN Open Book Award. You can find a link to purchase his book here.
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The department would like to congratulate PTF & Admin Assistant Jeffrey Barbieri for publishing his lyric essay “Cosmoline” in the Spring 2025 edition of the Seneca Review (Volume 55, Issue 1). The journal is available now for purchase through Submittable.
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PhD Candidate Rachel Rothenberg has won the 2025 the Jabberwock Review Nancy D. Hargrove Editors’ Prize in Poetry for her poem: “half sister as suburban blight with Viola tricolor and cleft palate.” Rachel has also recently published work in Salt Hill, Crab Creek Review, and Shenandoah.
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This week PhD student and Woolf scholar Leanne Oden has published four blog posts on the “Blogging Woolf” site that reflect on her trip to last year’s Woolf conference. Her reactions to the conference’s workshops, panels, and keynotes are all recounted. Follow this link to the “Blogging Woolf” site to read her posts.
Continue reading "Read PhD student Leanne Oden’s new blog posts on her experience at the 33rd annual Virginia Woolf Conference!"
Students, colleagues, administrators, and past winners of the award gathered last Thursday to honor Dr. Andrea Yates, who has taught courses in the English department (as well as other humanities courses) for nearly 20 years. Department Chair Carolyn Betensky, Dean Jen Riley, and adoring former students were among those who took to the podium to […]
Continue reading "Dr. Andrea Yates wins 2025 Part Time Faculty Teaching Excellence Award"