wellesley college ENGLISH department
English, as a discipline, stresses the intensive study of writers and their works in literary, cultural, and historical contexts. It is keyed to the appreciation and analysis of literary language, through which writers compose and organize their poems, stories, novels, plays and essays. We offer a wide range of courses: introductory courses in literary skills, more advanced courses in influential writers, historical periods, and themes in English, American, and world literatures in English, and numerous courses in creative writing, including screenwriting and creative non-fiction.

Our course offerings strike a balance between great authors of past centuries and emerging fields of study. We teach courses on writers such as Shakespeare, Milton, Jane Austen, and James Joyce, and on Asian-American literature, writers from the Indian subcontinent, and film. We stress analysis and argument in paper-writing, critical thinking, and literary research, and we foster and develop a deep, complex, passionate response to literature.

department news
Assistant Professor Dan Chiasson, a poet and literary critic, has been named a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow for poetry and received a 2008 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters "to honor exceptional accomplishment." Congratulations, Dan!

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