Spring 2020
Fall 2019
*The critics roundtable event was postponed due to travel complications. Please check back for a rescheduled date.*
Spring 2019
Fall 2018
Spring 2018
Fall 2017
Spring 2017
Fall 2016
Spring 2016
We invite you to join us for a festival of events honoring William Shakespeare. All are free and open to the public; reservations for the theatre performance are recommended.
- By Yohangza, an internationally acclaimed company from Seoul, Korea. Performed in Korean with English Surtitles.
April 23, 2016 7:00 PM, Alumnae Hall
Event and reservation information: Yohangza
Keynote Panel
- "Shakespeare on the Globe stage," Professor Tiffany Stern (Oxford University)
- "Shakespeare on the Global stage," Professor Hyonu Lee (Soon Chun Hyang University)
April 23, 4:15-6:00 PM, Collins Cinema
Reception to follow in the Davis Museum Lobby
More Information: Global Panel
Distinguished Thinkers at the Newhouse Center Lecture:
- "Traveling Shakespeare: Plays in Motion," Professor Stephen Greenblatt (Harvard University)
April 27, 7:00 PM, Collins Cinema
More Information: Greenblatt
Qs: Lisa Easley, English Department
Fall 2015
For a select bibliography of works about global literature discussed in Prof. Sabin's colloquium, click here.
Spring 2015
Fall 2014
ENG112X: Shakespeare on the Page and in Performance Begins Oct. 1
It's time to brush up your Shakespeare... online! The latest WellesleyX course begins in October, exploring Shakespeare on the page and in performance. See more at: http://www.wellesley.edu/news/2014/09/node/48546
Spring 2014
Happy Valentine's Day!
Fall 2013
Faith & Justice: The Force & Focus of the African American
Civil Rights Revolution
El Dia de los Muertos, Nov. 6th
Babel Rousers: The 900-year Quest to Build a Better Language
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror: Dan Chiasson and Elaine Mehalakes
Siddhartha Deb: Distinguished Writer at the Newhouse Center
Ethic Studies Conference: In Theory and Practice
Spring 2013
Poetry Reading: New Poems from Frank Bidart
n+1: Panel Discussion with Editors of n+1 Magazine
DMSAC Presents: Dan Chiasson at the Davis Museum
Tuesday, March 7th, 4:15 p.m., Davis Museum Lobby. A gallery talk with Associate Professor Dan Chiasson, poet and essayist, on "Bells for Sylvia Plath" by Jenny Olivia Johnson.
Fall 2012
Congratulations to David Ferry, 2012 National Book Award Winner, Poetry
David Ferry, the Sophie Chantal Hart Professor Emeritus of English, Wellesley College, won the prestigious 2012 National Book Award, Poetry, for his new book of poems, Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations. Click here for more information about the book and the competitive Awards and an interview with David Ferry. Congratulations!!
Everybody's a Critic! A Panel Discussion on the Art of Criticism
Tuesday, October 23rd, 4:30 p.m., Newhouse Center for the Humanities, Green Hall.
At a time when anyone can write a review on Amazon or express her opinion in a variety of public venues, what does it mean to be a professional critic? How do critics form their opinions? What makes a good review? The event is free and open to the public.
Sebastian Smee, the English Department's 2012 Robert Garis Fellow, is the art critic for the Boston Globe and winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. He joined the paper's staff from Sydney, where he worked as national art critic for The Australian. James Wallenstein, the Newhouse Visiting Professor of Creative Writing in the English Department, is the author of a novel The Arriviste and of essays and stories that have appeared in GQ, The Believer, Tikkun, The Antioch Review, The Boston Review, and The Hudson Review. Claudia La Rocco is the founder and artistic director of thePerformanceClub.org, which won a 2011 Arts Writers Grant. She writes about performance for theNew York Times, and is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts’ graduate program in Art Criticism and Writing.
Poetry Reading: David Ferry, Professor Emeritus
Tuesday, October 2, 4:15 p.m., Founders 120. Reception to follow in Founders 106. The English Department invites you to a poetry reading by David Ferry, acclaimed American poet and translator and the Sophie Chantal Hart Professor Emeritus of English, Wellesley College. Prof. Ferry's new books of poems are Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations, and On This Side of the River: Selected Poems. Copies of Bewilderment will be available for purchase. The event is free and open to the public.
Prof. Ferry's many prizes and awards include the 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize from the Poetry Foundation “for lifetime achievement,” the 2007 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award and the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Teasdale Prize for Poetry, an Academy Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and 60th Fellow of the Academy of American Poets. He currently teaches as “Distinguished Visiting Scholar” at Suffolk University.
Spring 2012
Daniyal Mueenuddin: "In Pakistan, Out of Pakistan: Writing from the Edge"
Monday, March 26th, 4:30 p.m., Library Lecture Room. Daniyal Mueenuddin is a Pakistani-American author of the critically acclaimed short-story collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, finalist for the 2009 National Book Awards and selected among the 10 top books of the year by numerous journals and prize-giving anthologies. Sponsored by the English Department, South Asia Studies Progam, and the Committee on Lectures and Cultural Events. Free and open to the public.
Fall 2011
In Fact and Fiction
Thursday, December 8th, 6:30 p.m., Collins Cinema. NewYorker Fiction editor, Deborah Treisman will discuss her work as an editor of fact and fiction with two of her writers, each of whom works in both genres: the Bosnian-American novelist and MacArthur fellow, Aleksandar Hemon and New Yorker staff writer and 2011-12 Newhouse Visiting Professor in Creative Writing, Hilton Als. Free and open to the public.
Author Kamala Nair, '03: The Girl in the Garden
Friday, November 11th, 12:30 p.m., Founders 106. Join us for a reading and comversation with Kamala Nair, '03, author of The Girl in the Garden. "[A]n auspicious first novel, set in India, featuring a delightful young herione/sleuth."-- Star Tribune. "The redemptive journey of a young woman . . . who revisits in memory the events of one scorching childhood summer when her beautiful yet troubled mother spirits her away from her home to an Indian village untouched by time . . . " -- Amazon. Free and open to the public.
Young Adult Author Dana Reinhardt: The Things a Brother Knows
Thursday, November 10th, 12:30 p.m., Founders 120. Dana Reinhardt, the author of five young adult novels, will read and discuss her novel, The Things a Brother Knows. "With exceptional sensitivity, Reinhardt chronicles a soldier's troubling homecoming, in this timely novel told from his younger brother's point of view . . . Reinhardt personalizes a soldier's traumas in terms civilians can understand. Levi's growing comprehension of Boaz's internal turmoil is gracefully and powerfully evoked, " Publishers Weekly, Starred Review. Free and open to the public.
Reading: Tim Parks, Teach Us to Sit Still
Monday, October 17th, 4:30 p.m., Knapp Atrium. Tim Parks -- British author, translator, and essayist -- will read from his new memoir, Teach Us to Sit Still, a profound narrative on health, illness, and meditation. The reading will be followed by a conversation with the author and a question and answer period. He is the author of several works of fiction (Europa was short-listed for the Booker Prize in 1997) and non-fiction, and he's a regulator contributor to the New York Review of Books and London Review of Books. Additionally, he has worked as a translator. He has lived near Verona in Italy since 1981, and currently runs a post-graduate degree program in translation at IULM University in Milan. Free and open to the public.
Reading: Hillary Jordan, '84
Wednesday, October 12th, 4:30 p.m., Newhouse Center for the Humanities. Wellesley alum Hillary Jordan, Class of 1984, will read from her second novel, When She Woke. The reading will be followed by a conversation with the author and a question and answer period. Her debut novel, Mudbound, won the Bellwether Prize for fiction, as well as several other awards. Free and open to the public.
To M.F.A. or Not?
Wednesday, October 12th, 12:30 p.m., Founders 106. Come talk with award-winning novelist and alum, Hillary Jordan '84, author of Mudbound and When She Woke, about the M.F.A. experience and a writing career. Pizza lunch provided.
Spring 2011
Professor Emeritus David Ferry wins the prestigious 2011 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for Lifetime Achievement
Awarded annually, the $100,000 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize honors a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition. Established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly, the Prize is one of the most prestigious awards given to American poets.
Professor Susan Meyer receives Sydney Taylor Book Award
Black Radishes, English Professor Susan Lynn Meyer's debut novel, was named a Sydney Taylor Honor Book for Older Readers. The award honors new books for children and teens that exemplify the highest literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience.
Wellesley College Alumna Awarded Prestigious Creative Writing Fellowship
WELLESLEY, Mass. — January, 20, 2011— As a first-year student at Wellesley College, Nina Schloesser ’02 quickly drew notice for her writing. She won one of the Writing Program’s “Three Generations” prizes, awarded to students whose work demonstrates the qualities of the best writing: clarity, eloquence and engagement with the subject.
“My time at Wellesley was tremendously important to my growth as a writer— and as a person,” she said.
Today, she stands among great authors— including Raymond Carver, Samantha Chang and Tobias Wolff— as a recipient of a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Fiction. She is among 10 fellows chosen from a pool of 1,800 applicants.
“The two-year fellowship is the most prestigious writing fellowship in the United States,” said Marilyn Sides, creative writing director in the English Department at Wellesley.
Originally from Guatemala City, Guatemala, Schloesser pursued a double major in computer science and English and completed a creative writing thesis at Wellesley. She received an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University in 2010.
“Her senior thesis, a collection of stories that take place in Guatemala and the United States, remains one of the best creative writing theses undertaken in the English Department,” Sides said.
Named after the writer who founded Stanford University’s creative writing program, the fellowship provides each fellow with a stipend, in addition to covering tuition and health insurance.
While a fellow, Schloesser hopes to finish her first novel about two young women sharing an apartment in Manhattan.
Fall 2010
Open class with young adult author Francisco Stork
Tuesday, November 30th, 7:00 p.m., Founders 106: Francisco Stork is "one of the most promising young adult authors of the decade,” says Horn Book magazine. He has written several highly acclaimed novels, including Marcelo in the Real World, narrated from the point of view of a teenager with Asperger's syndrome. Marcelo has won many awards, including the ALA Schneider Family Book Award, has been translated into 16 languages, and was praised by The New York Times as a “brisk, brilliant, unsentimental novel.” Stork’s latest novel, The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, also features, as Horn Book noted, “unforgettable characters confronting . . . big philosophical questions.” Sponsored by the English Department, the Young Memorial Fund for American Literature, and Disabilities Services.
Graduate school information session!
Thursday, November 11th, 12:30-1:30 p.m., Founders 106: Interested in graduate study in literature? Considering whether to pursue an M.A. or a Ph.D.? Wondering what makes a strong application? Thinking about classes you should take to prepare for graduate school. Please join us for a panel discussion, hosted by Assistant Professor Sarah Wall-Randall, with Katy Miller '05 (Brown University Ph.D. candidate) and other special guests.
Distinguished Writers Series: Russell Banks & Maryse Conde
Russell Banks, Tuesday, October 26th, 4:30 p.m. Russell Banks's novels include The Darling, The Sweet Hereafter, Cloudsplitter, Rule of the Bone, Affliction, and Continental Drift. His novels Affliction and The Sweet Hereafter were adapted into feature films. Mr. Banks's awards include the Ingram Merrill Award, the John Dos Passos Award. and the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Continental Drift and Cloudsplitter were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize; Affliction and Cloudsplitter were finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award.
Maryse Condé, Tuesday, November 09, 2010, 4:30 p.m. Maryse Condé's literary honors include the Grand Prix Litteraire de la Femme (1986) for I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem the Prix Marguerite Yourcenar (1999) for Tales from the Heart, True Stories from my Childhood and the Prix Carbet de la Caraibe (1997) for Desirada. She is native of Guadeloupe, and she has taught at the University of Virginia, Harvard and, most recently, at Columbia University, where she founded the French and Francophone Studies program.
Readings to be followed by a conversation with series curator, Colin Channer, Newhouse Visiting Professor of Creative Writing, and an open question-and-answer session. All events held in the Newhouse Center for the Humanities, Green Hall.
Amit Chaudhuri: Reading & Lecture
Thursday,October 21st, 4:30 p.m., Library Lecture Room. Join us to hear this internationally acclaimed novelist, essayist, and musician. His latest novel, The Immortals, was The New Yorker Book of the Year, and Critics' Choice, Best Books of 2009, in the Boston Globe and Irish Times. He is currently teaching Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, UK. Sponsored by the South Asia Studies Program, English Department, and the Committee on Lectures and Campus Events.
Shakespearean Character on Trial
Friday,October 15th, and Saturday, October 16th. Join us for a two-day symposium of performance and criticism. Actors, scholars, and directors will share the same stage in this two-day symposium. Through panels, a performance, and a hands-on workshop, leading figures in the worlds of theatre and scholarship will explore how Shakespeare's characters are made and remade -- both then and now. The symposium, organized by the Newhouse Center for the Humanities, is co-chaired by English professor YuJin Ko.
Event highlights include:
Keynote lecture: "What is Character?" by Marjorie Garber, Harvard University, and Carey Perloff, American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco. October 15, 4:15 p.m., Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall. Reception to follow.
Performance: Women of Will performed by Tina Packer, Founding Artistic Director, Shakespeare & Company. October 15, 7:30 p.m., Diana Chapman Walsh Alumnae Hall.
Symposium on Theatre Criticism and Practice, October 16, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Collins Cinema. Participants include: Tina Packer, Oskar Eustis (New York Public Theatre), Joanne Akalaitis (Bard College), Meredith Anne Skura (Rice University), Tiffany Stern (Oxford University) and Diego Arciniegas (Boston Publick Theatre).
Spring 2010
Debra Spark: Good for the Jews
Friday, April 23rd, 4:15 p.m., Founders 120: Debra Spark is author of the novels Coconuts for the Saint and The Ghost of Bridgetown and editor of the anthology Twenty Under Thirty: Best Stories by America's Young Writers. Her novel, Good for the Jews, won the 2009 Michigan Literary Fiction Award.
Fall 2009
Poetry Reading: Louise Glück
Thursday, December 3rd, 6:00 p.m., Founders 120: The Wellesley College Department of English presents a poetry reading by Louise Glück. "I cannot image the world of contemporary poetry without Glück's work, which is a way of saying that without her work I cannot imagine the world." -- Wayne Koestenbaum
Melanie Kroupa: "An Editor at Work:
Transforming a Manuscript into a Book"
Monday, November 23rd, 1:30-2:30 p.m., English Department Common Room (Founders 106): Melanie Kroupa, who has edited books for children and teens for many years, most recently under her own imprint at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, will discuss what she looks for in taking on a manuscript and the dialogue that evolves between author and editor as that manuscript becomes a book.
Malinda Lo '96: Ash
Thursday, November 12th, 12:30-1:30 p.m., English Department Common Room (Founders 106): Malinda Lo, Class of '96, comes back to campus to read from her just published young adult novel, Ash. "A rich and darkly moving tale I couldn't put down. Malinda Lo is an exciting and welcome new voice in YA." -- Meg Cabot, bestselling author of The Princess Diaries series.
Nahid Rachlin: Persian Girls
Thursday, November 12th, 4:30 p.m., Newhouse Center for the Humanities: Nahid Rachlin, author of the critically acclaimed novels Jumping Over Fire, Married to a Stranger, and The Heart's Desire, reads from her memoir: Persian Girls. "Nahid Rachlin grew up in Iran in the days of the shah, and the details of her difficult life in this sorrowful novel reflect the recent history of that conflicted country." -- Carolyn See, The Washington Post. Event sponsored by the Newhouse Center for the Humanities, the English Department, and the Writing Program.
Spring 2009
English Department Celebration: Lindy Williamson
Tuesday, May 12th, 4:15 p.m., English Department Common Room (Founders 106): It's the end of the year and the end of an era! Please join us to celebrate the remarkable career of Lindy Williamson. We'll also welcome spring and salute our seniors.
English Department Colloquium: Sarah Wall-Randell
Thursday, May 7th, 4:15 to 6:00 p.m., English Department Common Room (Founders 106): The English Department is pleased to hold its faculty colloquium. Assistant Professor Sarah Wall-Randell will discuss her work, "Dreaming of the Book in Cymbeline ." All are welcome.
Creative Faculty Reading
Wednesday, May 6th,7:00-9:30 p.m., Punch's Alley: Join us to hear distinguished faculty -- Frank Bidart, Margaret Cezair-Thompson, Collin Channer, Dan Chiasson, Susan Meyer, Adam Schwartz, and Marilyn Sides -- read from their work.
Book Party for Larry Rosenwald
Friday, February 13th, 4:15 p.m., English Department Common Room (FND 106): Join us to kick-off the second semester and to celebrate publication of Multilingual America: Language and the Making of American Literature by Larry Rosenwald, the Anne Pierce Rogers Professor of American Literature.
Fall 2008
Book Party for Paul Fisher and Susan Meyer
Friday, November 21st , 4:15 p.m., English Department Common Room (FND 106): Join us to celebrate publication of two new books written by Wellesley faculty: House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family by Paul Fisher, Assistant Professor of American Studies, and Matthew and Tall Rabbit Go Camping, a children's picture book by Susan Meyer, Professor of English.
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra: "The World of Arun Kolatkar"
Tuesday, October 28th, 4:30 p.m., Newhouse Center for the Humanities (Green Hall): Please join us for a poetry reading and discussion of modern Indian poetry in English. Mr. Mehrotra is a poet, translator, critic, editor, and professor of English at Allahabad University.
Journalism Lecture: Mark Oppenheimer
Tuesday, October 21st, 12:30 p.m., Founders 120: Come here Mark Oppenheimer talk about opportunities in journalism. Mr. Oppenheimer is currently a Visiting Professor at Wellesley, teaching the Robert Garis Seminar, and a lecturer in the Political Science and English Departments at Yale. A prolific writer, Mr. Oppenheimer is the editor of the New Haven Review and a regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine, Slate, The Boston Globe, The Forward, and many other publications.
Distinguished Faculty Lecture: Cappy Lynch
Friday, October 3rd, 4:0 p.m., Jewett Auditorium: During Parents and Friends Weekend, English Professor and Department Chair Kathryn (Cappy) Lynch delivered the 10th annual Distinguished Faculty Lecture, "Getting Medieval: What to Do about the Missing Millennium?" If you missed Cappy's lecture, in which she discussed medieval literature as well as the use of the term "medieval" in such pop culture standbys as Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, check out Wellesley College on iTunes U.
Spring 2008
Spring Celebration & Farewell to Alicia Erian
Thursday, May 8th ,5:00-7:00 p.m., English Common Room (FND 106) and Founders Terrace: It's finally spring! Come celebrate with your friends in the English Department! And help us bid a fond farewell to Visiting Professor of Creative Writing Alicia Erian as she heads off to conquer bigger and better territories.
Davis Museum Literary Series: Frank Bidart
Thursday, April 17th, 4:30 pm,Collins Cinema: Bollingen Prize-winner and English professor Frank Bidart will read from from his new book of poems, Watching the Spring Festival, as part of the Davis Museum Literary Series. Sponsored by the Department of English in conjunction with the Davis Museum and Cultural Center. Reception and book signing to follow. Free and open to the public.
Professor Susan Meyer reads from her children's novel
Tuesday, March 11th, 12:30 p.m., Newhouse Center for the Humanities: Professor Susan Meyer will read from her work-in-progress, Black Radishes, a children's novel set in Nazi-occupied France. Prof. Meyer teaches ENG 205 "Writing for Children." Please join us.
Book party for Associate Professor Lisa Rodensky
Friday, March 14th, at 4:15 p.m., English Department Common Room (Founders 106): Join us to celebrate publication of Decadent Poetry from Wilde to Naidu, edited by Associate Professor Lisa Rodensky. All are welcome.
Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
Tuesday, February 26th, 8:00 p.m. in Collins Cinema: The English Department and the Newhouse Center for the Humanities are pleased to present, "Is Reading at Risk?" a lecture by Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. Dana Gioia will discuss the findings of the NEA's report, "To Read or Not to Read," and read from his poetry. All are welcome.
TOWELHEAD: Film Screening with director Allan Ball and writer Alicia Erian
Thursday, February 21st, 7:00 p.m., Collins Cinema: Alan Ball's adaptation of Alicia Erian's novel, Towelhead, will screen at Collins Cinema. A reception will be held before the film from 5:30-6:45 p.m. A Q&A will follow. Alan Ball is the creator of the HBO series Six Feet Under, and the Academy Award winning screenwriter of American Beauty. Alicia TeErian is the Newhouse Visiting Professor in Creative Writing, a three-year appointment. Her publications include The Brutal Language of Love, a collection of stories published in 2001 and the novel, Towelhead, that was published in the spring of 2005.
English Department Colloquium: Prof. Kathryn Lynch
Friday, February 8th, 4:15 to 6:00 p.m., English Department Common Room (Founders 106): The English Department is proud to present its second colloquium of the year. Professor Kathryn Lynch will discuss her work, "Reading Food in the Canterbury Tales." Please email Yoon S. Lee or Lindy Williamson for a precirculated paper. All are welcome.
Fall 2007
Book Party for Professor Margaret Cezair-Thompson
Thursday, December 13th, 4:30-6:30 p.m., Founders 106: Come and celebrate the publication of The Pirate's Daughter at the English Department's Caribbean-themed party.
English Department Colloquium: Prof. Larry Rosenwald
Monday, December 3rd, 4:30 p.m., Founders 106: The English Department is pleased to present Prof. Larry Rosenwald to discuss: " Multilingual America: Language and the Making of American Literature. " All are welcome.
John Ashberry kicks off the Davis Museum Literary Series
Thursday, November 29th, 5:00 pm,Collins Cinema: Celebrated writer John Ashbery, author of more than twenty books and recipient of nearly every major award for poetry, will read from from his work during the inaugural event of the Davis Museum Literary Series. Sponsored by the Department of English in conjunction with the Davis Museum and Cultural Center and the Poetry Society of America. Free and open to the public.
Colin Channer, author of The Girl with the Golden Shoes
Thursday, November 26th, 6:00 pm,Collins Cinema: Please join us for an evening of Caribbean literary culture. Jamaican author Colin Channer has been called a "'reggae writer" and even the Bob Marley of Jamaican literature," according to The Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Sponsored by the Department of English and the Writing Program. Free and open to the public.
Spring 2007
Book Party for Professors "Cappy" Lynch and Dan Chiasson
Tuesday, April 10th, 4:15 pm, Founders 106: Come and celebrate the publication of Dream Visions and Other Poems by Geoffrey Chaucer, edited by Katherine Lynch and One Kind of Everything by Dan Chiasson.
Elizabeth Turner Jordan Lecturer in the Humanities: Kirin Desai
Thursday, February 15th, 5:30 pm, Collins Cinema: Kiran Desai will be reading from her novel The Inheritance of Loss, winner of the Man Booker Prize 2006 and the National Book Critics Circle Award 2007. Free and open to the public.
The Globalization of Literature: The Making of an Illusion
Wednesday, April 18th, 5:00 pm, Collins Cinema: A lecture by novelist and journalist Pankaj Mishra, author of Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond; An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World; and The Romantics: A Novel. Free and open to the public.
Beyond the Postcolonial
Wednesday, April 18th, 12:30 pm - 2pm, Slater International House: An open conversation with Kiran Desai and Pankaj Mishra; buffet lunch provided. Open to the Wellesley College community.