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… 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:
This book was… 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
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… Read more
English Matters regrets reporting the passing of Professor Emeritus Colleen McElroy. Department Chair Anis Bawarshi shares the following in memoriam. (ed).
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.… Read more
Megan Butler, a doctoral candidate in the Department of English who teaches composition in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, has published an article in the New York Times describing an assignment sequence from her composition course focused on the use of investigative journalism, audience and genre translation, and public writing. Read More.