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Recent News
April 7, 2024
On the occasion of the publication of E.J. Koh's (PhD 2023) debut novel, The Liberators, the University of Washington Magazine celebrates Koh's remarkable, award-winning achievements as an artist and scholar:
During her time as a UW graduate student, Koh published a critically acclaimed memoir, completed her novel and worked as a writer adapting the best-selling novel by Min Jin Lee, “Pachinko,” for an Apple TV+ series. “These works, combined with her dissertation, demonstrate a writer... Read more
April 4, 2024
The UW English Department welcomes celebrated poet Kaveh Akbar in conversation on Thursday, April 25, 3:30 p.m. in the Alder Auditorium, followed by a reception.
Kaveh Akbar's poems appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the author of two poetry collections: Pilgrim Bell (Graywolf 2021) and Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James 2017), in addition to a chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry 2016). He is... Read more
February 28, 2024
Professor Jesse Oak Taylor is quoted in a recent Seattle Times article titled "Frank Herbert’s Dune is a climate and environment story. Are you paying attention?" Read more here.
February 1, 2024
Brian Christian's (MFA 2008) most recent book of nonfiction, The Alignment Problem has been named as one of the "5 Best Books About Artificial Intelligence" by The New York Times. As the NYT reviewer writes:
If you’re going to read one book on artificial intelligence, this is the one. Though it was published in 2020, which in terms of A.I. is practically prehistory, I still think it’s fairer and more illuminating than almost anything published since. Its chief value is its... Read more
January 16, 2024
After winning the 2023 Thomas J. Lyon Award for Best Book in Western American Literary and Cultural Studies, Professor Chadwick Allen's book Earthworks Rising: Mound Building in Native Literature and Arts (University of Minnesota Press, 2022) has also won the 2024 Beatrice Medicine Award for Best Monograph from the Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures, for its contribution to the field of Native American literary, cultural and linguistic studies.
Typically... Read more
January 2, 2024
It is with sadness that we share the news that Professor Emeritus Colleen J. McElroy passed away on December 12.
Dr. McElroy was a titan: a gifted writer of poetry, prose, creative non-fiction, and plays. After earning a PhD in ethnolinguistic patterns of dialect differences and oral traditions from the University of Washington, Dr. McElroy joined the faculty of the English department and our creative writing program in 1973 until her retirement in 2006. From 1973 to 1981 she supervised first... Read more
November 27, 2023
As colleagues are likely tired of listening to me say, one of my favorite words is articulation. It has a useful double meaning. In one sense, its verb form means to express. But at the same time, it also means to conjoin. This suggests that how something is expressed depends on how it is held together. As a genre scholar, I have long been interested in how genres are forms of articulation: conventional ways of holding together formal, rhetorical, and aesthetic... Read more
November 21, 2023
With mixed emotions we announce the retirement of our esteemed colleague, Professor Emeritus Robert "Bob" Abrams, after an illustrious career spanning more than five decades with the University of Washington English Department. Professor Abrams will leave an indelible mark on both our department and the countless lives he has touched throughout his tenure. Through his passion for literature, dedication to students, and diverse, innovative scholarship, Bob Abrams has set a high standard that... Read more
November 16, 2023
Promotion, Retention, and New Leaders
The English Department would like to extend special congratulations to Professor Stephanie Kerschbaum for her promotion to the rank of Full Professor. Congratulations Stephanie on this landmark career achievement.
We are proud to announce that ... Read more
November 16, 2023
This fall English Matters has the pleasure of introducing you to four new reading recommenders, recruited from the ranks of our newest faculty. Freshly minted professors Chris Holstrom, Jonathan Issac, Jonathan Radocay, and Alex Ramos are here to say hello to you, the English Department’s greater community, via sharing some of their favorite books. English Matters thanks our new faculty for contributing to our readerly alumni’s winter shelves, and thanks our alumni for... Read more