Recent News
The UW Alumni Magazine, Viewpoint, published an article about the 50th anniversary of Shawn Wong's anthology, Aiiieeeee! along with 50 years of UW Press publishing Asian American writing, mentioning many English Deptment graduates who published books as well. To read the article click here:… Read more
With an internal search for the next department chair underway, this Spring marks the end of my six-year term as department chair (one year as interim). Being chair of English has been among the most rewarding and challenging and transformative experiences of my life.
The work we have done together has affected nearly every aspect of the department: undergraduate curriculum, graduate curricula, writing programs (including a new technical and professional writing program), hiring planning and… Read more
Over the years, Mary and Allan Kollar have generously supported the UW English department. Their most recent gift, the Kollar Teacher Community Support Fund, provides broad-based support for K-12 and post-secondary teacher education programming and activities. The fund is a major investment in teacher education and professional development for our department and writing programs.
The Kollar Teacher Community Support Fund addresses… Read more
This year’s roll call of exceptional student achievements features variety! Sure, you will see the standard publications of criticism, poetry and fiction. But also: an award-winning stage play, speculative fiction, a study of the impact of English language requirements on Turkish undergraduates, and an audio/visual project set in Piper’s Creek. The range of work our talented graduate students produce is truly remarkable. Congratulations to all (and various) hats in the ring!… Read more
Derek Sheffield (BA ’90, MFA ’99) wanted to let you know about the book he recently published with C Marie Fuhrman and Elizabeth Bradfield (BA ‘98): Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry. Cascadia Field Guide features select UW English Alums and faculty, including Colleen J. McElroy, Linda Bierds, David Wagoner, and Frances McCue.
Says Derek:… Read more
Here we are again at English Matters’ semi-annual reading recommendations. We promise recommendations are coming! Scroll down to get right to them. Or, if you please, first indulge a goodbye in the form of preamble.
After a nearly decade long run as editor of the UW English Department Newsletter English Matters, I, Henry Laufenberg, will be retiring from higher education. This decision comes with, I suppose, the usual mix of emotions. I feel great fortune at having had the… Read more
Recognizing the power of stories, Assistant Professor Cristina Sánchez-Martín and PhD candidate Taiko Aoki-Marcial created a storytelling workshop and course for community members learning English as a second language (ESL). Grants from the Simpson Center for the Humanities in the UW College of Arts & Sciences, and Humanities Washington, supported the project, titled “Translationships: stories, languages, and communities." … Read more
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
The UW English Department welcomed celebrated poet Kaveh Akbar in conversation on Thursday, April 25, 3:30 p.m. in the Alder Auditorium. It was a wonderful, inspiring event; you can read more about it in this UW Daily article.
Kaveh Akbar's poems appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and… Read more
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.