I began this academic year on research leave on the other side of the globe, away in Canberra, Australia’s capital. Each day at dusk, after I’d put the books aside and closed my laptop, I would go for long walks and marvel at the loud calls of the local birds, the clattering cockatoos, the chortling kookaburras, and, above all, the “bold, cruel and melodious” currawongs, “quarrelling, talking, crying so,” as the poet Judith Wright once put it. On New Year’s Day, 2017, I arrived back in Seattle… Read more
The English Department's graduate and undergraduate students have reeled off an impressive list of awards, prizes, and publications in 2016. Congratulations to all!
Graduate:
Nancy Bartley's script, The Boy Who Shot the Sheriff, based on her nonfiction book, was accepted into the Beverly Hill Film Festival and was the… Read more
Anis Bawarshi, co-editor, Genre and the Performance of Publics (Utah State/University of Colorado Press, 2016).
Genre and the Performance of Publics explores how genres such as blogs, vocational guides, jury instructions, petitions, news articles, dictionaries, public-health campaign websites, and various kinds of digital media… Read more
Perhaps surprisingly, interest in surfing among the UW English department community is considerable and manifests itself both as a community-building, sanity-restoring pastime and the object of serious academic study.
Recently minted Ph.D. Brian Gutierrez and his partner, local K-12 teacher Haley Rae Gutierrez, are avid surfers. “Growing up near the Central Coast in California, the ocean has… Read more
In Winter 2017, the English Department’s Visiting Lecturers Committee (Alys Weinbaum, Gillian Harkins, and David Shields) hosted a panel and conversation about the challenges to teachers and teaching in the wake of the post-election rise in hate speech, white supremacy, and criminalization of immigrants and refugees. The panel, moderated by professor Alys Weinbaum, featured Carmen Kynard (John Jay College for Criminal… Read more
The English department commends Frances McCue and Maya Sonenberg, finalists for this year's UW Distinguished Teaching Award. The Distinguished Teaching Award requires nomination by one’s students. All teachers selected as finalists exemplify mastery of their subject, innovative course design, are inspirational guides to students’… Read more
Mark Patterson recommends STRAIGHT MAN by Richard Russo. “A little self-referential, since it's about an English Department …. If alums want a funny novel about a beleaguered English Department chair and his assortment of faculty misfits and malcontents, then this novel is for them.”
Megan Callow recommends… Read more
Professor James Diedrick (Ph.D. 1978) of Agnes Scott College has just published a biography Mathilde Blind: Late-Victorian Culture and the Woman of Letters (University of Virginia Press). Dr. Diedrick's Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington carried him first to Chapman University in Southern California, then to Albion College in Michigan… Read more
Langdon Cook's (MFA 1994) passion for foraged foods germinated while studying creative writing in our English department. The College of Arts and Sciences recently took notice of Langdon's expertise on eating what grows naturally in the Pacific Northwest ecosystem. Along with his wife, poet Martha Silano (MFA 1993), and young family, Cook has travelled a unique and fascinating path from professional career to MFA to Amazon to homesteading to award winning books on foraging in the Northwest… Read more
We are thrilled to announce that three students from the University of Washington English Department have been selected to the elite club of 2017 Husky 100 Award recipients. Husky 100 recipients demonstrate active application of classroom training to better our campus and their communities. The University celebrates the passion and excellence these future leaders bring to campus. The English Department commends our Husky 100 recipients… Read more
The UW English Department’s Writing Programs’ third annual Praxis Conference was well-attended. Held in UW's scenic Haggett Hall conference center and made possible through generous support from the A&S College Writing Program, the Kollar Gift for Literacy, and the … Read more
For nearly 35 years, the University of Washington and English Department played an integral role in the success of the Puget Sound Writing Project (PSWP), inspiring effective writing teachers and student writers from Vancouver to Bellingham. PSWP’s writing consultants led writing institutes for K-12 faculty in Seattle, Tacoma, Burlington, South Whidbey Island, Peninsular, North Shore, and other districts. They consulted in local… Read more
Through support from Mary and Allan Kollar, the English department has over the past few years engaged in partnerships with public school literacy educators.
At the UW Center for Teaching and Learning’s Annual Symposium in 2015, UW English faculty Candice Rai and … Read more
UW in the High School (UWHS) is a university-wide program wherein UW departments partner with high schools in Washington State to train high school faculty to teach college courses at their home institutions. Since 1981, thousands of Washington high school students have exercised the option of enrolling in University of Washington classes for UW college credit.
The English department has played an active role in UW in the High School… Read more
Each year, College Spark Washington funds programs across Washington state that help low-income students become college-ready, transition successfully to college, and earn their degrees. For 2015-2017, the UW English department was selected to receive a $150,000 College Spark grant to extend its outreach and community partnership work, in this case by collaborating with high school English… Read more