DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

The American Comparative Literature Association has selected Allie Gibeily (PhD candidate in English)  as the recipient of the 2025-26 A. Owen Aldridge Prize for her paper "Aleppo’s Other Storybooks: Scottish Physicians, Maronite Ḥakawātīs, and Improvisational Literature." The paper will be published in an upcoming volume of Comparative Literature Studies.

Assistant Director of Creative Writing Colin Pope is the winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry from the University of Wisconsin Press for his poetry collection Losers: Poems. The book is slated to be released with the press’s Fall 2026 catalog.

Professor Daisy Hernández was recently interviewed by NPR’s Science Friday about her book The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease, which was also selected for the show’s book club.

Professor Sarah Dimick's Fall course "Toxic Rhetoric" was featured on the CBS News "Eye on America" segment from December 30, 2025. Prof. Dimick and several students are interviewed about the relation of the state of the environment to how students see their lives and futures.

Jon Won Lee, a second-year poet in the Litowitz Program in Creative Writing and English, is the winner of the Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction from the Bellevue Literary Review.  "Running Deep" will be published in Issue 50 of BLR, coming Spring 2026.

On November 13, Professor Chris Abani joined award-winning author Salman Rushdie to discuss Rushdie's newest novel, The Eleventh Hour, as part of the 2025 Chicago Humanities Festival.

Litowitz MFA+MA in English and Creative Writing

This program offers intimate classes, the opportunity to pursue both creative and critical writing, and close mentorship by renowned faculty in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Our three-year curriculum gives students time to deepen both their creative writing and their study of literature. Students complete two degrees concurrently --an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in English.

• About the MFA+MA degree program
• Writing Faculty publications

MA in English Literature

Designed to be completed in one year and flexible in its requirements, our Master's in Literature allows students considerable freedom in choosing courses in English and in related disciplines. Most are planning to move on to Doctoral study elsewhere, improve their credentials as teachers in secondary schools and community colleges, or to take their experience into the business and publishing sectors.

• About the Master's degree program

PhD in English Literature

Our PhD program offers advanced study and research in literary history, criticism, and theory, with excellent opportunities for study between both disciplines and departments. Courses within the department cover major genres, periods, authors, and a broad range of methodological and theoretical approaches. Significant support in professional development and on the job market are cornerstones of the program.

• About the Doctoral program