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. No matter your focus as an English or Creative Writing 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 and Creative Writing FACULTY
Regardless of subject matter (from first-year writing to nineteenth-century American literary Romanticism) Dr. Diller works to incorporate online learning resources into his classes, including chat and discussion forums, blogs and forms of visual rhetoric that engage literary texts and analysis. An American studies scholar, Dr. Diller’s research engages both literary and non-literary texts. He is co-author of “Nathaniel Hawthorne in the College Classroom: Contexts, Materials, and Approaches”—the index for which was created by one of his students.
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 and Creative Writing 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 and Creative Writing LIVES
Berry creative writing major Alyssa Hollingsworth ’13 has landed a two-book, two-continent publishing contract with Macmillian (U.S.) and HotKey Books (U.K.). Her debut novel, “The Eleventh Trade” (about an Afghan boy named Sami who moves to the U.S. after the Taliban take over his country) will hit shelves in fall 2018, with another to follow in 2019. Alyssa credits much of her success to one-on-one instruction from her Berry literature and writing professors and the work ethic and sense of professionalism her mentors helped instill. These skills helped Alyssa win a national essay contest sponsored by the Elie Wiesel Foundation and admission to a prestigious graduate program at England’s Bath Spa University.
Related Programs
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