English invites us to learn how to read with attention and care in order to develop insight into the process of literary creation and the representation of meaning, thus enabling us to join a human conversation that spans centuries.

Why study English at Sewanee

When you study English here at Sewanee, you’ll be part of a truly storied program. The vibrancy and range of courses will transform you into a closer reader, a more insightful critic, and a superior writer. Explore texts from classical to contemporary, Shakespearean to African American, and all the stories in between.

Under the instruction of faculty and noted visiting writers, you’ll be immersed in the University’s historic and esteemed literary tradition. Sewanee is home to both the Sewanee Review, the country’s oldest continuously published literary quarterly, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, a yearly gathering of writers that has included Pulitzer and Nobel prize winners.

FIRST DESTINATIONS: english MAJORS

Sewanee graduates secure positions in a variety of fields. While some are what you would expect, others are a bit of a surprise. Sewanee prepares you for your profession and your passion. Below is a sampling of recent graduates' first jobs.

  • Legislative correspondent, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C.
  • Marketing executive assistant, Dow Jones, New York, New York.
  • Writing and editorial assistant (travel section), U.S. News & World Report, Washington, D.C.
GRADUATE SCHOOL & PRE-PROFESSIONAL PROGRAMS: english MAJORS

Sewanee graduates enjoy extraordinary acceptance rates to top graduate and pre-professional programs–about 95 percent to law school and over 85 percent to medical school. Below is a sampling of where Sewanee grads continue their education.

  • M.A. in English, Georgetown University.
  • M.F.A. in Fine Arts, Parsons School of Design
  • J.D., University of South Carolina Law School.
  • Ph.D. in Medieval Studies, Yale University.
  • J.D., College of William and Mary.

Finding Beauty Among the Wreckage

A memoir from Kelly Grey Carlisle, C’98, tells the story of an abandoned baby, a murdered mother, and an unorthodox childhood in a Los Angeles marina.

The only time Kelly Grey Carlisle remembers meeting the LAPD homicide detective who lifted her three-week-old body from the half-opened dresser drawer of a seedy motel room, she was eight years old, in her Easter dress, with a stack of report cards arranged neatly in her lap. Her grandfather wanted to show the detective that the baby he had carried from the motel room that night had, against all odds, turned into a bright, happy young girl. The detective had investigated the murder of Carlisle’s mother—a murder that, to this date, remains officially unsolved.

Carlisle, C’98, a professor of English and writing at Trinity University in San Antonio, has just published We Are All Shipwrecks, a lively and lyrical memoir documenting her unorthodox childhood and her effort to come to terms with her upbringing. In the shadow of her mother’s tragic murder and her father’s absence, Carlisle was raised by her maternal grandfather, Richard, and his second wife, Marilyn, who together ran a profitable porn shop in Los Angeles. When her mother was killed, Carlisle’s maternal grandmother, Spence, was given custody, but she died of a stroke when Kelly was only four. For much of her childhood and adolescence, Carlisle lived with her grandfather and Marilyn on a boat docked in an L.A. marina.

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A Sampling of Courses

The Novel in the Global Age
English

This course explores the contemporary Anglophone novel since 1989. Written largely from transnational perspectives that defy traditional national boundaries, the novels in this course share a concern with capturing global experience and analyzing the cultural and economic impact of globalization. Potential readings include works by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Teju Cole, Amitav Ghosh, Michael Ondaatje, and Ruth Ozeki.

ENGL 316
The Life and Literature of Tennessee Williams
English

A study of the major dramatic works of Tennessee Williams, as well as his poetry and fiction. The course also examines Williams' life and his impact on 20th-century American literature and theatre.

ENGL 330
Gothic Literature
English

By turns terrifying, melancholy, and bizarre, gothic literature channels real anxieties in monstrous forms. This course features literature of the mysterious, uncanny, supernatural, and grotesque. The specific focus of the class may vary from year to year (e.g., a special focus on American gothic fiction or literature of the sublime, or others).

ENGL 389
Modern Drama
English

An exploration of the development of modern drama from Ibsen's groundbreaking naturalism to contemporary drama's new variations. The course emphasizes the relationship between the theater and society and issues of performance, as well as close study of the plays themselves. Authors covered may include Wilde, Shaw, Beckett, Williams, Stoppard, and others.

ENGL 390
American Environmental Literature
English

A study of writings from the colonial era to our own day reflecting diverse ways of imagining humanity's relation to the natural environment. Readings include both traditional literary texts by authors such as Thoreau, Cather, and Frost and seminal nonfiction by figures such as Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Rachel Carson, and Wendell Berry.

ENGL 396
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English

Programs of Study & Related Programs

Requirements for the Major in English

Requirements for the Minor in Shakespeare Studies | Website

Requirements for the Certificate in Creative Writing | Website

Dr. Bill Engel Creates Joy in the Classroom

By Oliver Heffron, C'21, writer for Sewanee Purple

 

"His passionate energy in a classroom is intoxicating, like a talented preacher whose passion can bring together a congregation. While describing his love for teaching, Engel revealed, 'I do have a kind of proselytizing zeal about what I do, because I love it. I want that enthusiasm to be palpable because it’s sincere.'"

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Meet some professors

Virginia Craighill
vcraighi@sewanee.edu

Virginia Ottley Craighill has been teaching at Sewanee since 2001 and is also a graduate of the University of the South, C’82, the University of Georgia, and the University of Texas at Austin. Her interests range from 19th-century and modern American literature to literary journalism, creative nonfiction, and women’s literature.

Visiting Professor of English
William Engel
wengel@sewanee.edu

Professor Engel received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and specializes in medieval and Renaissance literature with an eye toward the history of ideas. He has published chapters in collections of essays on topics that include Chaucer’s use of Boethius, Shakespeare’s historical context, Milton’s use of Anglo-Saxon, and Poe’s cryptography.

Professor of English
Maha Jafri
majafri@sewanee.edu

Maha Jafri received a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University. She specializes in Victorian literature, with research and teaching interests in the history of the novel and narrative, psychology, ethics, and intellectual history.

Assistant Professor of English
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Contact

Jennifer D. Michael
Professor of English 

jmichael@sewanee.edu

Gailor Hall 111, Ext. 1865

News & Events

Othello Performance

6:30 PM
The Main Quad (Guerry in case of rain)

The American Shakespeare Company, a vibrant and diverse group of actors hailing from Staunton, Virginia, will be joining us virtually this semester.  A gender-bending Othello, featuring an acclaimed performance by Jessika Williams, will be live-streamed outdoors to an audience seated in the main quad (or in Guerry if it is rainy).  Following Othello, the company's actors will engage questions of race and performance; issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the ASC; and the performance of Othello as a call to racial justice.

Details

Dr. Macdonald's Milton Article Published

Dr. James Ross Macdonald's article, "Milton's Tutelary Angels" appears in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 vol 60, no. 1 (2020), pp. 113–132.  It explores Milton’s representations of the tutelary angel. While patristic tradition envisaged separate angels watching over each believer, John Calvin instead conceived them as a ubiquitous army, any of whom might be called upon to execute God’s will. As poet and theologian, Milton introduces Raphael and Michael as guardians with distinct identities at the same time that he declines to assign Adam’s or Eve’s care to any single angel. This pluralized vision of heavenly protection creates an affective theodicy, furnishing a social world about Eden that nevertheless skirts the characteristic Satanic error of interposing hierarchies between God and his creatures.



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Performance of "Twelfth Night"

6:30 PM
The Main Quad (Guerry in case of rain)

The American Shakespeare Company, a vibrant and diverse group of actors hailing from Staunton, Virginia, will be joining us virtually this semester.
On October 16, we’ll be treated to a live-stream of Twelfth Night.  The performance will begin with live (streamed) music at 6:30, followed by a 7:00 performance at the Blackfriars Theatre in Staunton.  The live stream will be followed by talk-backs with the actors, who will engage what it is to play Shakespeare in a time of pandemic.  Our Sewanee audience can participate in the talk-backs by sending questions (in real-time, via the chat function on Zoom or through an appointed moderator) to the actors. 






Details

Dr. Batkie's & Dr. Irvin's Summer Reading Group Featured in "The Paris Review"

During the summer quarantine, medievalists, Dr. Batkie and Dr. Irvin, conducted a virtual reading group to analyze William Langland's Piers Plowman.   Carlos Zayas-Pons describes the experience in The Paris Review.

Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder Play Reading

4:00 PM
Tennessee Williams Center

Looks Like Pretty examines who is seen and who is invisible, and how science and technology play a role in manipulating the narrative.

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Wilson's New Novel: "Nothing to See Here".

Sewanee Professor of English and acclaimed author Kevin Wilson has just published a new novel, Nothing to See Here.

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Writing Center
Sharpen your pencils, sharpen your skills

Need help with a paper? The Writing Center provides you with objective peer support and instruction for writing projects. The student tutors represent a wide range of majors, and they can help you at any stage in the writing process—topic development, rough drafts, final drafts, revisions, etc. They’re basically your cheerleader from brainstorming to final draft.

Write On
Shakespeare Studies
Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none

Shakespeare studies is a complementary minor for many programs. There’s a reason Shakespeare’s poems and plays have endured the test of time. His colorful characters give us a glimpse into specific and universal human experiences.

Pray tell more!
The Mountain Goat
Student Literary Magazine

The Mountain Goat, Sewanee's student-run literary magazine, is a periodical in which students can display their talent in creative writing. Featuring poetry, fiction, playwriting, and creative nonfiction, each issue of the magazine is available online. The final printed issue is the culmination of the year's submissions and immortalizes all of the pieces that were accepted.

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Sewanee Review
Flip through the pages of our storied tradition

Founded in 1892, the Sewanee Review is America’s oldest continuously published literary quarterly. Many of the 20th-century’s great writers, including T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Ezra Pound, have appeared in the magazine. The Sewanee Review also has a long tradition of cultivating emerging talent—like publishing some of Flannery O’Connor’s first work.

Explore the Collection