Department of English at Arizona State University

🌿 Fiction Friday: "My first word was mother. Not ma-ma like other babbling babies. I said the word out loud and with texture."

—An excerpt from "Kin," the new novel by ASU alum Tayari Jones, a 2026 selection for Oprah's Book Club. 🎉

Read more: https://ow.ly/qJ5b50YpINa #ASUHumanities

An ASU lab led by ASU English alum Emilia Gracia uses immersive technology to teach international students how to navigate real-world conversations, cultural nuance and everyday interactions.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/VIYt50YoUGY #ASUHumanities

Founders’ Day 2026 celebrates ASU’s legacy and bold future | ASU News More than 700 business and community leaders, ASU supporters, students, faculty and staff filled a sold-out ballroom at the Omni Tempe Hotel on Tuesday, Feb. 17, to honor the university’s journey — from a simple schoolhouse established in 1886 to a leading public research institution guided by a charter centered on excellence, access and inclusion.

For her entrepreneurial shift from collegiate tennis player to co-founder of Ink'd Greetings, English grad Sammi Ekmark received the Young Alumni Achievement Award at the ASU Alumni Association Founders' Day celebration on Feb. 17.

More: https://ow.ly/O3lr50YoUlO #ASUHumanities

Considering graduate school? The College Graduate Expo on Mar. 5 features info on 150+ grad degree programs plus a chance to meet with ASU academic advisors. (Bonus: coffee and cookies served.) ☕🍪

Register: https://ow.ly/vaFU50Yob8q #ASUHumanities

ASU's BA in English (narrative studies) is now offered on the Tempe campus and online.

➡️ 2025 grad Audra Poe talked about how the program helped her discover her love of working “behind the scenes” to help others find their voices.

Watch: https://ow.ly/rat950YnkKv #ASUHumanities

Periodic Table of Fitness

🏃‍♀️ (Non)Fiction Friday: "Will run for free shirts."

From "Periodic Table of Fitness" by ASU professor Cecilia Savala. Read/view the visual poem in Bending Genres Journal, LLC: https://ow.ly/tLVF50YkzzV #ASUHumanities

Today 2/26 from 11am-12:30pm: Find out what rhetoric's got to do with it! Join us at a Writing, Rhetorics & Literacies Spring Mixer in Ross-Blakley Hall room 101 for refreshments and prizes. All welcome.

Info: https://ow.ly/p9mc50YmwuT #ASUHumanities

Congrats 🥳 to ASU Professor Nnedi Okorafor, PhD whose novel "Death of the Author" is the winner of the 2026 NAACP Image Award for a Literary Work in Fiction! 🏆

Learn more: https://ow.ly/oZfQ50YlV9h #ASUHumanities

For Tayari Jones, All Roads and All Novels Lead to Atlanta In “Kin,” the follow-up to the best-selling “An American Marriage,” she looks back on the place and the people that forged her.

Feb. 24 is the launch day for "Kin," the latest book by ASU alum Tayari Jones. It's Jones's first historical novel and showcases her singular literary voice: "a piquant blend of friction, tenderness and heat."

Learn more in The New York Times: https://ow.ly/F2JU50YioGb #ASUHumanities

ASU researchers, scholars and writers—including English grad student Andrew Dana Hudson—are using constructive and speculative approaches to address the nation's nuclear waste dilemma.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/4Luc50YiYGI #ASUHumanities

Sundance 2026: Documentary ‘Silenced’ Exposes How Defamation Suits Muzzle Survivors and Journalists Feat. Amber Heard, Brittany Higgins and Gisèle Pelicot, feminist documentary Silenced shows defamation suits used against survivors and reporters.

(Non)Fiction Friday: "This story drives home...that survivors are often subject to trials in the court of public opinion regardless of the outcome of their judicial proceedings."

ASU's Aviva Dove-Viebahn reviews the film "Silenced" for Ms. Magazine.

More: https://ow.ly/qScx50Yii9e #ASUHumanities

Congrats 🥳 to ASU creative writing alum R Dean Johnson, runner-up for the 2026 International Voices in Creative Nonfiction Competition. His book "Poser: A Mostly-True Memoir-in-Essays" will be published by Vine Leaves Press.

Learn more: https://ow.ly/B4ne50YhR4T #ASUHumanities

The Washington Post said kalani pickhart's Ukraine novel "I Will Die in a Foreign Land" was "intensely moving." With ASU Library, we are looking forward to hosting this English alum at the next ASU Book Group Meeting, Feb. 26.

Please join us: https://ow.ly/I7f350YfpJI #ASUHumanities

Join us Feb. 25 for a crosstalk on censorship featuring Josh Coleman, David Hawkes, Joe Lockard, Krista Ratcliffe, Kevin Sandler and Peter Joseph Torres—experts in the fields of linguistics, education, rhetoric, film and literature.

Details: https://ow.ly/n6oC50YfhNm #ASUHumanities

ASU launches ‘AI-Informed Writing Classroom’ | ASU News “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”This question, attributed to novelist E.M. Forster, alludes to the role of writing in discovery and cognition.

Our Writing Programs just launched "The AI-Informed Writing Classroom." Hinged on the premise that "writing is thinking," it acknowledges two facts: 1. Students need writing instruction & 2. Students need to learn to navigate the shifting AI terrain.

More: https://ow.ly/Hpax50Yfh96 #ASUHumanities

The Delicate Art of Section Hopping - The Twin Bill By Jonathan Danielson

⚾ Fiction Friday: "What matters is you promised him a game, and you don’t intend to strike out looking."

From "The Delicate Art of Section Hopping" by ASU alum Jonathan Danielson.

Read the Sidd Finch Fiction Prize-winning story in The Twin Bill: https://ow.ly/hhRc50Yc0Fy #ASUHumanities

1424: White Hot Star by W. Todd Kaneko Today’s poem is White Hot Star by W. Todd Kaneko.

"Neither of us understands / the science of gravity, but I know how it feels..."

From "White Hot Star" by ASU creative writing alum W. Todd Kaneko.

Read the poem and hear it read by Maggie Smith on The Slowdown. https://ow.ly/SPQI50Y7JW8 #ASUHumanities

The Students’ Right to Write NCTE affirms students’ right to write with voice, choice, multilingual expression, ethical AI, and anti-censorship for all.

Two ASU English doctoral alumni—Monica Baldonado-Ruiz and Jason Griffith—contributed to the National Council of Teachers of English's position statement on intellectual freedom in ELA classrooms: "The Students' Right to Write."

Learn more: https://ow.ly/sJXX50Y7Lf2 #ASUHumanities

We're hiring—come work with us! Now seeking full-time Instructors for our Writing Programs courses. Great benefits, beautiful campus. 🌴☀️🌵 Details: https://ow.ly/n9re50YbZOM #ASUHumanities

Congrats to ASU English's Laura Cruser, winner of the 2025 Doris Betts Fiction Prize for her short story, "The Whittaker Wall," to be published later in 2026 in the North Carolina Literary Review.

Learn more via North Carolina Writers Network: https://ow.ly/1Gm850Y59Mu #ASUHumanities

Pursuant to the Agreement - Center for Science and the Imagination Pursuant to the Agreement Andrew Dana Hudson You are reading the HTML version of Our Radioactive Neighbors: Collaborative Imagination, Community Futures, and Nuclear Siting Practices. Visit the book’s home page to

☢️ Fiction Friday: "...Present-day institutions, governments, historical and geographical knowledge, and even languages would not exist for the duration of spent fuel’s dangerous lifecycle."

From a short story by ASU English student Andrew Dana Hudson.

Read: https://ow.ly/16Ka50Y3Ro8 #ASUHumanities

The Dangers of Pathologizing Administration (opinion) Treating administrators as the enemy only harms higher ed.

"Beyond popular culture, we tend to vilify and pathologize administrators even within academia."

—ASU English professor Lee Bebout with Jeff Crane of Cal Poly Humboldt.

Read the op-ed at Inside Higher Ed — https://ow.ly/r9ok50Y0iSb #ASUHumanities

We're hiring—come work with us! ASU English seeks an Academic Success Advisor to help guide and support our undergraduate students. 🫶 Apply by 2/9/26.

Info: https://asu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/ASUStaffCareers/details/Academic-Success-Advisor_JR117321 #ASUHumanities

A$AP Rocky Is Living His American Dream Hip-hop superstardom, a budding movie career, his own fashion line, and three kids with Rihanna. This is the new picture of success, and there ain’t a picket fence in sight.

💲"If this is not the peak of Rocky’s career, he is without doubt in the heights."

—ASU English Professor Mitchell Jackson, in a profile on rapper (+ Rihanna's better half) A$AP Rocky.

Read more in Esquire: https://ow.ly/yz2H50Y57Sx #ASUHumanities

Does having Bad Bunny as the 2026 Super Bowl halftime performer herald a new era in popular music? ASU's Luis Rivera-Figueroa discusses Bad Bunny’s boundary-crossing showmanship and why the musician is a cultural torchbearer.

Watch: https://ow.ly/GVyk50Y58CV #ASUHumanities

How accurate is Hamnet? The Shakespeare scholar’s verdict The award-winning film starring Jessie Buckley has left many viewers in tears, but this expert was upset for other reasons

(Non)Fiction Friday: "As a scholar and teacher of Shakespeare I have to be aware that many people believe what they see in the movies."

From ASU Professor Sir Jonathan Bate's review for accuracy of the film "Hamnet."

Read more in The Times & Sunday Times: https://ow.ly/ynYl50Y0qxj #ASUHumanities

HELLO AND YES THIS IS GOOD NEWS! We're ecstatic to share that @haydenmcasey13.bsky.social's story collection SHOW ME WHERE THE HURT IS has been named a FINALIST for the @penamerica.bsky.social 2026 Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection!

Fantastic news! 🙌

Congratulations to @asuenglish.bsky.social MFA alum @haydenmcasey13.bsky.social, whose debut collection SHOW ME WHERE THE HURT IS is a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection!

Staging Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen's House Visit Jane Austen's House - the Hampshire cottage at which Jane Austen lived and penned her novels, including the timeless Pride and Prejudice.

Attention, Austenites! ASU English Professor Devoney Looser has co-curated a new Jane Austen’s House exhibition in Chawton, Hampshire, U.K.: "Staging Pride & Prejudice."

Visit the exhibit in-person or online through Jan. 2027: https://ow.ly/xrpI50Y4ocw #ASUHumanities