Department of English

Faculty AccoladeMay 13, 2025Chris Gavaler to Debut One-Act Play at the Live Arts Waterworks Festival

The professor of English’s show will screen on May 21 and 23 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Campus EventsApril 30, 2025Author Erin Crosby Eckstine to Give Glasgow Endowment Reading at W&L

Eckstine will read from her debut novel, “Junie,” at the May 6 event.

Lifelong LearningApril 16, 2025‘W&L After Class’ Podcast Releases New Episode Featuring Beth Staples

In this month’s episode, Staples speaks of the power of imagination and storytelling and the continuous, and evolving, legacy of the Shenandoah literary magazine.

Campus EventsMarch 28, 2025Authors Athena Dixon and Matthew Vollmer to Give Reading at W&L

The April 3 reading by the former Shenandoah contributors is part of the literary magazine’s 75th- anniversary celebrations.

Faculty AccoladeFebruary 21, 2025W&L’s Lesley Wheeler Publishes New Book

The English professor’s poetry collection explores natural and human transformation.

In Case You Missed It

Campus EventsJanuary 29, 2025Authors DW McKinney and Sylvia Jones to Give Glasgow Endowment Reading at W&L

The public reading by the former Shenandoah editorial fellows will take place Feb. 11 in Northen Auditorium.

Lifelong LearningJanuary 15, 2025‘W&L After Class’ Podcast Launches New Season With Episode Featuring Holly Pickett

In the podcast’s first episode of season six, Pickett, professor of English, discusses the power of humanities in a rapidly changing world and the life lessons that can be continuously unearthed in Shakespearean text.

Obituary January 14, 2025In Memoriam: Rod Smith, Editor of Shenandoah and Adjunct Professor of English

Smith served as the literary magazine’s editor for 23 years.

Campus EventsNovember 1, 2024Poet Matthew Zapruder to Give Glasgow Endowment Reading at W&L

The public reading will take place Nov. 12 in Northen Auditorium.

Campus EventsOctober 21, 2024Poet Yahya Ashour to Give Glasgow Endowment Reading at W&L

The public reading will take place Nov. 4 at 6:30 p.m. in Northen Auditorium.

Faces of W&LOctober 8, 2024Meet Darnell Pelzer Jr. ’25

Pelzer has enjoyed connecting with others with shared interests through the Gaming Club, University Singers, SABU and the Office of Sustainability.

Faculty AccoladeSeptember 27, 2024Chris Gavaler and Nathaniel Goldberg Publish Paper in the Canadian Journal of Philosophy

The professors co-authored an article that investigates the different ways comics are ordered.

Summer OpportunitySeptember 19, 2024From Shakespeare to Sci-Fi

While exploring the connections between “Station Eleven” and William Shakespeare, professor of English Holly Pickett and her crew of summer research students examined the foundational value of the humanities to society.

Campus EventsSeptember 17, 2024University of Chicago’s Professor Kaneesha Parsard to Give Annual Shannon-Clark Lecture at W&L

Parsard’s lecture on Sept. 26, titled “The Friending Plot: Sexual & Economic Freedoms in Early 20th Century Caribbean Fiction,” is free and open to the public.

Spring Term AbroadMay 3, 2024‘The Big Picture of Life’

As one of the first Spring Term abroad classes offered at W&L, The Play’s the Thing: Shakespeare in Performance continues to impact the cohort of alumni who took that initial trip to England.

Faculty AccoladeApril 30, 2024W&L Professor Awarded the David and Rosalee McCullough Research Fellowship

Edward Adams will use the funds to research decline narratives in West Virginia.

Campus EventsMarch 14, 2024Author Kaveh Akbar to Deliver Public Reading

Akbar will read from his debut novel “Martyr!” at the March 14 event.

Faculty AccoladeJanuary 23, 2024Wan-Chuan Kao Hosts Virtual Book Launch Event

‘White before whiteness in the late Middle Ages’ will launch via Zoom on Jan. 25 from 5-6:30 p.m.

Campus EventsOctober 10, 2023Author Qiana Whitted to Give Annual Shannon-Clark Lecture at W&L

Whitted’s lecture on Oct. 19, titled “All-New, All-Negro: Orrin C. Evans and the Golden Age of Comics,” is free and open to the public.

Faculty AccoladeSeptember 26, 2023W&L Professor Featured by Graywolf Press in 50th Anniversary Anthology

Leah Naomi Green’s essay on Kaveh Akbar’s poem “The Miracle” is anthologized in “Raised by Wolves.”

Faculty AccoladeApril 11, 2023W&L Visiting Professor Featured in Orion Magazine

Leah Naomi Green’s essay titled “Mourning Songs Are Love Songs” was excerpted from the anthology “Solastalgia: An Anthology of Emotion in a Disappearing World.”

HappeningsMarch 16, 2023Author Kevin Quashie to Give Annual Shannon-Clark Lecture at W&L

Quashie’s lecture on March 30, titled “Sentences and (Black) Beauty,” is free and open to the public.

Faculty FocusMarch 3, 2023Edward Adams to Deliver Endowed Professorship Lecture

Adams’s talk “Ozymandian Histories: Monuments, Ruins, and Landscapes of Decline in America” will be held on March 14.