UMD English

Congratulations to M.F.A. student Tega Oghenechovwen, who was awarded the Elizabeth George Foundation Grant earlier this spring! The grant will support him after graduation as he continues researching and writing his upcoming collection of short stories. Read more: english.umd.edu/news/tega-og...

Please join us this Wednesday, May 7, at 6 pm in Ulrich Recital Hall for a Writers Here and Now event featuring our graduating MFA students! This event is free and open to the public.

Distinguished University Professor of English @mkirschenbaum.bsky.social has emerged as a leading voice on AI. Read our Q&A to learn more about how AI is transforming the way we communicate, educate and govern: english.umd.edu/news/how-matthew-kirschenbaum-sees-ais-impact

English Professor Amanda Bailey argues that Shakespeare's plays help us confront today's urgent debates about race, gender and power—not by offering easy answers, but by asking hard questions. Read more in our Q&A: english.umd.edu/news/why-we-still-read-shakespeare

Please join us next Wednesday, April 30 to hear Professor Cecilia Shelton speak about her book in progress! This talk discusses a case study analysis from Shelton's forthcoming manuscript, "Act Like You Know: Black Feminist Methodology in Technical and Professional Communication."

Join UMD English at Maryland Day this Saturday, April 26 at Tawes Plaza! We're hosting an abundance of fun literary-themed activities this year, including a banned book giveaway, word blocks, friendship bracelets and temporary tattoos. See the full schedule: english.umd.edu/events/umd-e...

Coming up tomorrow! Please join the Creative Writing MFA Program and the Center for Literary and Comparative Studies for "The Lyric Essay as Poetic Praxis," a craft talk by Camonghne Felix.

Join us tomorrow for a Vambery Lecture featuring Mauro Resmini! Titled "Affect of the Frontier: Resentment in the Postwar Hollywood Western," the lecture will interrogate cinema to trace the genealogy of one of the most ubiquitous affects in our contemporary socio-political landscapes: resentment.

Coming up this Wednesday: a Writers Here and Now event featuring alumni! Join us for a book launch, taking place at 4:30 p.m. in 2115 Tawes Hall, and a reading, at 6 p.m. in Ulrich Recital Hall. This event is free and open to the public.

Join us on Thursday, April 10, for an invited talk by Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nahs Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA, titled “‘Freedom is a Place’: On War, Displacement, and Genocide in the 21st Century.” english.umd.edu/events/robin...

This Friday, a Local Americanists Works-in-Progress event featuring Professor Jennifer James (George Washington University), who will discuss her paper "Swamp Fever: W.E.B. Du Bois, Afro-optimism, Abolitionist Ecology and the Black Commons." More info: english.umd.edu/events/local...

Rescheduled from February! Please join us this Thursday for "Blackout in Gaza," a talk by Professor Nadia Yaqub of UNC Chapel Hill. This talk is co-sponsored by @wgss-umd.bsky.social, Persian Studies and Arabic Studies. More info: english.umd.edu/events/blackout-gaza

Please join us on Zoom this Wednesday, March 26, for "Apocalyptic Ecologies: Medieval Literature at the End of the World" by Professor Shannon Gayk of the University of Indiana. More info: english.umd.edu/events/marsh...

AI? Ecology? Poetics? Black joy? Sign. me. up.

Join us this week as we welcome the renowned artist and technologist Curry Hackett to AADHum, for a campus workshop + the second event in our ongoing series at @busboysandpoets.bsky.social Hyattsville!

Renowned Crime Novelist Returns to the Scene At Campus Event, George Pelecanos ’80 Discusses Writing Craft and UMD Memories

George Pelecanos's advice to new and aspiring writers: read voraciously and live a full life! Read more takeaways from the UMD alum, an acclaimed crime novelist and co-producer of “The Wire” and other HBO series, who visited UMD yesterday!
today.umd.edu/renowned-cri... @umdenglish.bsky.social

Announcing the 2025 DC Queer Studies Symposium 🌈🎓 LAG: Labor, Aesthetics, Geopolitics, invites scholars @asliz.bsky.social, Kwame Edwin Otu, Lucina Ramberg, Cole Rizki, and Tara Asgar on April 3-4 to focus in on geopolitics in queer studies. Learn more and RSVP at go.umd.edu/DCQS2025 #academicsky

Give to The Writing Center - English Department | Giving Day I’m ready to support The Writing Center - English Department on March 5, 2025 during Giving Day. Learn more about The Writing Center - English Department

The Writing Center Fund, which supports undergraduates across all majors and disciplines in acquiring the writing skills they need to succeed academically and professionally: go.umd.edu/1x20

Give to Center for Literary and Comparative Studies | Giving Day I’m ready to support Center for Literary and Comparative Studies on March 5, 2025 during Giving Day. Learn more about Center for Literary and Comparative Studies

The Center for Literary and Comparative Studies Fund, which supports collaboration within and beyond the department and cross-disciplinary dialogues in the humanities and the arts: go.umd.edu/1x1z

Give to Your Choice - College of Arts and Humanities | Giving Day I’m ready to support Your Choice - College of Arts and Humanities on March 5, 2025 during Giving Day. Learn more about Your Choice - College of Arts and Humanities

The BookLab Fund (please write in "BookLab"), which supports @umdbooklab.bsky.social through student & community workshops, visits from artists & scholars, and hands-on, immersive activities such as bookbinding, printing with traditional metal and wood type, papermaking, & much more: go.umd.edu/1x1y

Give to Department of English | Giving Day I’m ready to support Department of English on March 5, 2025 during Giving Day. Learn more about Department of English

The Department of English Fund, which supports curriculum development, programming, and new initiatives for undergraduate and graduate students: go.umd.edu/1x1x

Today is UMD Giving Day! The Department of English has four great funds to support this year:

Coming up next Friday: the 18th annual GEO Conference! The conference will be held in person in Tawes Hall from 9 am to 6 pm. More info: english.umd.edu/events/geo-c...

📷: The Processional, Romare Bearden (1983). Courtesy of The Driskell Center, University of Maryland.

Please join us next Thursday at 5 pm for a lecture by Professor Ulka Anjaria of Brandeis University titled "Language as Violence or Possibility: Caste and Gender in the Writings of Urmila Pawar." This event is part of the Bebe Koch Petrou Lecture Series. More info: english.umd.edu/events/langu...

Join us for a Writers Here and Now event featuring Karen Solie and LaToya Watkins next Wednesday, February 26! The reading will take place at 6 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. More info: english.umd.edu/events/writers-here-and-now-karen-solie-latoya-watkins

John Ernest, the Judge Hugh Morris Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English at the University of Delaware, will deliver the Stringer lecture next Tuesday! More info: english.umd.edu/events/john-ernest-art-impossible-african-american-and-american-literary-studies-threatening-times

Banned Book Madness 2025 has begun! Visit our Instagram Stories @umdenglish and vote for your favorite banned books. More info: english.umd.edu/banned-book-madness-2025

‘Quantum Steampunk’ Creative Writing Course Explores the Science of… Physics, English Faculty Combine Futuristic Themes With Victorian-Era Aesthetics

An interdisciplinary creative writing workshop co-taught by English Lecturer Edward Daschle is immersing students in the world of quantum energy and steampunk science fiction.

today.umd.edu/quantum-steampunk-creative-writing-course-explores-the-science-of-science-fiction

Made possible by a 2024 Teaching Innovation Grant, NarraSpace at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities is a new immersive storytelling lab redefining scholarship with VR, spatial audio, gaming and more.

english.umd.edu/news/step-na...

Happy first day of classes! We're ready to kick off a great spring semester! 📚

Congratulations to English Ph.D. student Lisa Osei, who was selected to receive the Edward Guiliano Global Fellowship by the Modern Language Association! Osei's project is titled “Sankofa’s Cosmic Adansikro: Mapping out Afrofuturist Worlds through Interactive Web Game Design.”