University of Minnesota
Department of English
612-625-3363


Welcome to the Department of English

The scholarship and other creative work and teaching of English faculty cover a broad range that includes literature, language, creative writing, literacy and rhetorical studies, linguistics and cultural inquiry, as well as the theories and documents that inform and critique these disciplines. Based on the study and practice of writing and speech, the explorations of histories and cultures, and the examination of languages, literatures, and aesthetics, our scope is international and our approach is interdisciplinary.

News & Announcements

  • Professor Katherine Scheil on the Macbeth Curse

    Professor Scheil talked with MPR about historical origins for the belief that productions of "the Scottish play" will be cursed. Possible causes include the occult content in the play, economics, and the play itself: "You know the play has a lot of violence and a lot of sword play. . . . And a lot of scenes in the dark, which increases the possibility for something to go wrong." A production of Macbeth opened last weekend at the Guthrie Theater.

     02/08/10

  • MFAs Win SASE/Jerome Grants

    Congratulations to 2010 SASE/Jerome Grant recipients Brian Laidlaw (MFA candidate), Margie Newman (MFA alumna), and Mike Rollin (MFA alumnus), who received between $2000-3000 as emerging writers.

     02/08/10

  • Minnesota Book Award Finalists

    Faith Run.jpgProfessor of English Ray Gonzalez, MA alumna (1992) Alison McGhee, and MFA alumnus (1998) Scott Muskin have been nominated for 2010 Minnesota Book Awards. Professor Gonzalez is up for his third Minnesota Book Award with the poetry collection Faith Run (University of Arizona Press). McGhee's Song of Middle C (Candlewick Press) is nominated for best children's literature, and Muskin's The Annunciations of Hank Meyerson, Mama's Boy and Scholar (Hooded Friar Press) for best novel and short story. Winners will be announced April 17.

     02/01/10

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