Graduate Programs in English

A leading national center for the study of literature, language, and writing, the Department of English welcomes qualified applicants who wish to pursue advanced study. Students take a varied curriculum to earn an M.A. or a Ph.D. degree in English and American literature, emphasizing literary history and criticism. The department offers creative writing students in fiction and poetry a choice between an M.A. degree in English with a concentration in creative writing or an M.F.A. degree.

Our distinguished faculty members have received international recognition for the excellence of their publications. In recent years, faculty in literature have won the Pulitzer Prize; the Bancroft Prize; Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities, and American Council of Learned Societies Fellowships; and the Explicator Award. Our creative writers have won the National Medal of Arts, MacArthur Fellowship, the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and several Lamont Prizes.

Students attend lectures, forums, readings, and discussions. Many advanced graduate students receive support to present their research and writing at national conventions and publish papers and creative writing in scholarly journals and national magazines.