English & Creative Writing

Academic Department Introduction

We believe literary study to be creative and critical in equal measure. Our courses range from introductory writing to in-depth studies of influential writers, genres, historical periods, theories, and themes in English, American, and world literatures in English. Critical courses span a broad range of topics and approaches, from Shakespeare to the Harlem Renaissance to speculative fiction. Numerous courses in creative writing include poetry, creative nonfiction, writing for children, and writing for film, television, and video games. Our creative writing and critical courses are not separated from each other but closely intertwined and mutually supportive. In all courses, we foster and develop a deep, complex, passionate response to literary language.

Learning goals

Acquire a knowledge of English literary history, including canonical and contemporary works from diverse traditions.
Recognize and demonstrate an ability to work with critical methodologies employed in the discipline of literary studies.
Read literature with deep attention and responsiveness to content, language, and form.

Programs of study

English major and minor

Students form and develop the skills of analysis, interpretation, and argument through the intensive study of writers and their works in literary, cultural, and historical contexts.

Major requirements

Minor requirements

English & creative writing major

In addition to acquiring the skills of analysis, interpretation, and argument, students develop a distinctive literary voice and study the history and cross-cultural diversity of the genres, traditions, and styles in which they are working.

Major requirements

Course highlights

Women in Love: American Literature, Film, Art, and Photography

ENG383

We will study three great American novels: Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (1881, rev. 1908); Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900); and Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country (1913). We also will consider two film adaptations: The Portrait of a Lady (1996; dir. Jane Campion, starring Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich); and Carrie (1952; dir. William Wyler; starring Laurence Olivier and Jennifer Jones). In addition: portraits of women by the painters John Singer Sargent, Thomas Eakins, and Mary Cassatt, and Alfred Stieglitz’s photographs of Georgia O’Keefe. Also: visits to the Davis Museum.

(AMST 383 and ENG 383 are cross-listed courses.)

Gotham: New York City in Literature, Art, and Film

ENG258

This course examines how that icon of modernity, New York City, has been depicted in literature and the arts, from its evolution into the nation’s cultural and financial capital in the nineteenth century to the present. We’ll consider how urban reformers, boosters, long-time residents, immigrants, tourists, newspaper reporters, journalists, poets, novelists, artists, and filmmakers have shaped new and often highly contested meanings of this dynamic and diverse city. We'll also consider how each vision of the city returns us to crucial questions of perspective, identity, and ownership, and helps us to understand the complexity of metropolitan experience. Authors may include Walt Whitman, Edith Wharton, Anzia Yezierska, Langston Hughes, Frank O’Hara, and Colson Whitehead. We’ll look at the art of John Sloan, Georgia O’Keeffe, Helen Levitt, Berenice Abbott, Andre D. Wagner, and others. We’ll close the semester with films set in New York. (AMST 258 and ENG 258 are cross-listed courses.)
Women* Write Weird Fiction

ENG119

From the mid-20th century to 2025, women writers have been major players globally in the upsurge of what is now referred to as speculative fiction--a literary supergenre or umbrella term for a spectrum of “what if” fictions: fairy tale, science fiction, horror, dystopian, magic realism, surrealism, fantasy. We will explore together short stories and novels written since 2000. Class discussions will aim at interpretation and appreciation of these peculiar and powerful literary texts as well as reflection on their particular historical and cultural context.In particular, we will be curious about how these authors play with a spectrum of gender - in their own lives and in their writing. The texts include fiction written in English and fiction translated into English; we will address the issue of reading works in translation. Speakers and students of languages other than English, are encouraged to offer their insights into the necessary friction between an original text and its English translation.. Among the authors to be read: Mansoura Ez Eldin, N.K. Jemisin, Samanta Schweblin, Eden Robinson, Vandana Singh. Fulfills the Diversity of Literatures in English requirement. (CPLT 119 and ENG 119 are cross-listed courses.)

Explore all courses

Places and spaces

The Department of English & Creative Writing has a common room with a terrace; both are used for quiet study, socializing, and department events.

English & Creative Writing Department Common Room

Research highlights

In her most recent book, The Natural Laws of Plot (Penn Press, 2022), Professor Yoon Sun Lee argues that plot cannot be considered merely as an abstract shape or form. In realist novels, plot is interested not only in human aims but in non-human forces, laws, and structures that operate at various scales independently of any character’s intention or desire. Emerging together with natural philosophy, the plots of realist novels helped envision a unified, objective world within and against which any action unfolds.
Professor Cord Whitaker’s research asks how the Middle Ages matter to the modern study of race and racism. His book, Black Metaphors (Penn Press, 2019), uses rhetoric, theology, and literature to establish the variety of medieval treatments of color and difference. Black Metaphors illuminates the process by which one interpretation among many became established as the truth, and demonstrates how modern movements—from Black Lives Matter to the alt-right—are animated by the medieval origins of the black-white divide.
Limerence (Rebel Satori Press, 2023), a poetry collection by Professor Tavi González, probes the inextricable tension, pain, pleasure, and danger in relationships between men. González’s experiences of love, sexual desire, and romance are not sentimental, as they are often intertwined with questions of consent and violence. Poignant and searing, the poems ask readers to appreciate and reexamine the meaning of love, trust, and safety.

Opportunities

Internships

The Writing Program and the Department of English & Creative Writing jointly sponsor funded summer internships at Slate, W.W. Norton & Company, Maven Screen Media, Calligraph, and Speculum.
Special Collections

The College owns first and early editions of many novels and poetry collections, illuminated manuscripts, and 573 love letters between the Victorian poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning, which students are invited to view.

Beyond Wellesley

Many of our alums work in publishing, journalism, media, education, and the tech industry. They hold positions as writers, editors, and teachers, among other professions. Recent employers include Hachette Book Group, Publicis Sapient, and City Year.