Read, write and rejoice.
Indulge your love of reading and polish your prose. When it comes to literary inspiration, our 27,000-acres of pure sublimity puts Walden Pond to shame. At the same time, the world’s largest campus is home to an intimate community built on mentorship and exchange. This means constant opportunities to have your work carefully considered—and to explore your fascinations to their fullest.
Reading critically and writing well are two of the most highly valued skills to any employer (in any profession). Understanding people and creative problem solving are two more. As an English major, you’ll distinguish yourself by the strength of your discernment and expression.
Small class sizes mean rare access to visiting writers and scholars—whether in workshops or one-on-one over lunch. Gain relevant experience through (paid) work for our newspaper, literary magazine, Writing Center, two campus museums or library.
English FACULTY
Dana Professor of English, Rhetoric and Writing Dr. Sandra Meek has taught writing at Berry since 1996 and is the founding member of Berry’s creative writing program. She has published more than 200 poems in literary journals and is the author of Still (Persea Books, 2020), named a “New & Noteworthy Poetry Book” by The New York Times Book Review. Other titles by Dr. Meek include An Ecology of Elsewhere (Persea, 2016), Road Scatter (Persea, 2012), Biogeography, winner of the Dorset Prize (Tupelo Press, 2008), Burn (2005) and Nomadic Foundations (2002), as well as an edited anthology, Deep Travel: Contemporary American Poets Abroad (Ninebark, 2007). A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, she has three times been awarded Georgia Author of the Year in Poetry and twice the Peace Corps Writers Award in Poetry.
With 88 miles of trails and forest, stream, lake and mountain ecosystems, our 27,000-acre campus is a boon to writers and readers alike. Archives, museums, libraries, a community of fellow scholars and writers and glorious nature—it’s all here.
English Courses
Learn the technical and rhetorical elements of writing in online environments, including how to present information in online formats for a variety of purposes, audiences and clients.
Selected readings and advanced work in creative writing, poetry or prose, centered on landscape and the environment. May be offered as a residential or a study abroad course.
Consider the work of Stephen King—popular and literary at the same time—to explore the increasingly blurred line between “literary” and “genre” fiction.
English LIVES
Erin Stewart was a non-traditional Berry student who finally reached her goal after persisting through many setbacks. Erin, who is 28 and married, graduated in May 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in English and Secondary Education. Before coming to Berry, she attended several different colleges and changed her major. “Dr. Christopher Diller in the English Department was my rock while I was at Berry. He was not only my English advisor, but also my go-to person any time I was dealing with a problem, a stressful situation, or needed to celebrate an achievement,” Erin says. “He has been incredibly supportive, as has the entire English department.”
Related Programs
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