Honors Programs in English and Creative Writing

Honors in English allows students to work on a critical thesis in their chosen periods or areas of theoretical focus during their senior year, under the guidance of a faculty advisor.

Students are eligible if they meet the following requirements:

•have completed at least six major courses by the end of their junior year, and

•have a grade point average (GPA) in the major of 3.5 or higher, and an overall college GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Students apply by submitting their college record to the Honors Directors along with a formal proposal of an honors thesis. The thesis is to be completed during two terms of ENGL 98 and ENGL 99. ENGL 99 constitutes a twelfth course in the major.

Students must satisfy two further requirements in order to graduate with Honors in English:

•must complete a senior-level seminar in English and Creative Writing (ENGL 71-75, CRWT 60, 61, or 62 (formerly ENGL 86)) prior to the first term of ENGL/CRWT 98/99, and

•must satisfy the theory requirement of the major (Course Group IV) before the term in which they complete the Honors thesis and submit it for evaluation.

There is a bi-weekly seminar during the winter and spring terms for Honors students.

For more information, including sample proposals, deadlines, and advice, please consult the Directors of English Honors and the Department of English and Creative Writing Guide to Honors.

2022-2023 Honors Director: George Edmondson

English Honors proposals for the 2022-23 academic year are to be submitted to the Department Administrator no later than 4 PM on October 31, 2022.

Honors in Creative Writing in the English major allows a student concentrating in Creative Writing to work on a creative thesis in their chosen genre during the senior year, under the guidance of an advisor in creative writing. The creative thesis may take the form of a short story collection, novella or novel, poetry collection, literary nonfiction collection, mixed media, or a hybrid project as approved by the Director of Creative Writing.

Students who have completed at least four courses in the creative writing concentration and six major courses by the end of their junior year and have a grade point average in the major of 3.5 or higher (and a college GPA of 3.0 or higher) are eligible to apply for Honors in Creative Writing.

Applicants will be notified of their status by the end of fall classes. Students who are approved for Honors work will be paired with an advisor from Creative Writing and, over the course of two terms, will work toward the successful completion of a manuscript-length body of work. During the first term of Honors work, the student will enroll in CRWT 98. This course is the culminating experience in the major. During the second term of Honors work, the student enrolls in CRWT 99. This course may count as a twelfth course in the major.

Students should submit their completed application along with a writing sample (15-20 pages of fiction/creative nonfiction; 6-8 poems) to the Department Administrator. The writing sample should speak to the student's intended project.

2022 Creative Writing Honors applications are due by 4 PM on Monday, October 24, 2022

Fall 2022 Creative Writing Director: Professor Peter Orner

More information about the Creative Writing Concentration

• Department of English and Creative Writing Guide to Honors
• Creative Writing application

2022-23 Honors Thesis Deadlines and Due Dates

• May 24, 2023, 4:00 PM: Digital copy (PDF) of honors thesis due to the Department Administrator, Katherine Gibbel, and to the student's advisor.

• May 30, 2023, 4:00 PM: Three (3) printed and bound copies of the thesis are due to the Department Administrator, Katherine Gibbel, in Sanborn 202. Printing instructions will be sent to students in April 2023.

Creative Writing

**Amanda Johnson, The Sun City and Other Stories. Advisor: Professor Peter Orner.

Betty Kim, Misbegotten: A Graphic Novel. Advisor: Professor Michael Chaney.

Natalia McLaren, Falling Skyward. Advisor: Professor Thomas O'Malley.

Isabel Parks, Cambio and Alejamiento: A Novella. Advisor: Professor Alexander Chee.

Kylee Sibilia, The Knowledge of True Things: A Collection of Short Stories. Advisor: Professor William Craig.
 

English

Sofía Carbonell Realme, "Binding Curses: Form and Corporeality in the Cursed Dancers of Colbeck." Advisor: Professor Monika Otter.

*Katherine Carithers, "Sexuality in Slippages: First-Person Narrators and Female Desire in Villette and David Copperfield." Advisor: Professor Christie Harner.

Jean Fang, "Comparative Analysis of Animal Characters in East Asian and Anglo-American Children's Media." Advisor: Professor Christie Harner.

Arunav Jain, ""The Separation Which Exists": The Real and Imaginary Geographies of Two Postcolonial Novels." Advisor: Professor Alysia Garrison.

Cameron Pfaffle, "Verlaine's Cathedral and Tintern Abbey: Adorno's Ruin in Wordsworth's Haunted Landscapes." Advisor: Professor Andrew McCann.

Natalie Vaughan, ""It Is My Spirit That Addresses Your Spirit": Charlotte Brontë's Project of Narrating Female Psychic Trauma." Advisor: Professor Carolyn Dever.

*Feinstein Prize Winner

** Sidney Cox Memorial Prize Winner

Creative Writing

**Isabelle Blank, Inheritance, A Novel. Advisor: Professor Alexander Chee.

**Rebecca Flowers, Shark's Eye. Advisor: Professor Jeffrey Sharlet.

Maanav Jalan, Itch. Advisor: Professor Peter Orner.

**Anna Staropoli, Fata Morgana. Advisor: Professor Peter Orner.

**Michael Sun, Forms of Weakness. Advisors: Professors Vievee Francis and Matthew Olzmann.
 

English

Audrey Bransfield, "The Words That Made Islanders of Them: Mapping the Desert Island Narrative." Advisor: Professor Aden Evens.

*Kendall Christensen, "Forms of Failure: Reading the Uncanny." Advisor: Professor George Edmondson.

Victoria Corwin, "A Bumblebee Dons Achilles' Helmet: Emily Dickinson's use of Classical Mythology and Imagery." Advisor: Professor Ivy Schweitzer.

Lexington Foote, "Political Melancholia and Ethical Masochism." Advisor: Professor Azeen Khan.

Samuel Stockton, "Faulkner's Whiteness: A Wittgensteinian Reading of The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!" Advisor: Professor Patricia McKee.

*Feinstein Prize Winner

** Sidney Cox Memorial Prize Winner