Department Of English

Engaging in thoughtful dialogue is not only essential in today’s society, but also is a trademark of the Vanderbilt experience, which begins with the first-year experience on The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons. On Sunday, Sept. 14, author Jacqueline Woodson spoke to a packed Langford Auditorium for the 19th Annual Lawson Lecture and offered a master class for the Class of 2029 on using storytelling to foster discourse and find connection, continuing the 2025–26 first-year programming theme of “Stories that Connect Us.”   Read More

Learn about the newest faculty head of house and his special ties to Vanderbilt long before he became a professor. Read More

Printer’s Fist, by Melissa Range, has been selected as the 2025 winner of the Vanderbilt University Literary Prize. The prize competition received more than 250 submissions. Printer’s Fist is scheduled for publication in March 2026 from Vanderbilt University Press. Range will be in residence for a week in spring 2026 to engage students, faculty and the greater community with her work. Read More

In this episode of Quantum Potential, Amanda Little, writer-in-residence at Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science, joins Provost C. Cybele Raver to discuss how journalism can highlight the tipping points humanity faces and how people-first storytelling can move us from observation to action. Read More

Vanderbilt-New York City's first foray into public programming invited New York City residents to engage with the university in a three-event series titled “Vanderbilt in the City: Conversations on America.” The series, held between March and May, convened faculty and thought leaders for conversations that explored what it means to be an American today as our role in the world is shifting. Each event drew several hundred attendees, filling the venue to capacity—a strong signal of the enthusiasm for Vanderbilt’s debut programming. Read More

The upper-division residential colleges will welcome Jesús Ruiz, who will lead Moore College, and The Martha Rivers Ingram Commons will welcome Gilbert Gonzales as faculty head of Crawford House and Justin Quarry as faculty head of East House.   Read More

The image of a writer often conjures up visions of an author sequestered away crafting the perfect poem or buried under stacks of paper finishing their next novel. However, award-winning poet and Gertrude Conaway Professor of English Major Jackson believes it is a deeply collaborative process that relies heavily on community. Read More

Read about the special environment (and delicious food!) Jeong Oh Kim and his family plan to create within Zeppos College as the new residential faculty. Read More

A panel of jurists selected Niu’s I Would Define the Sun, a collection of poems about resisting scarcity through language. The inaugural prize drew more than 300 submissions and honors Vanderbilt University’s strong connection to the arts. Read More

Thirteen outstanding faculty members from across the university have been selected for the 2024 cohort of Chancellor Faculty Fellows. This group is composed of highly accomplished, recently tenured faculty from a wide variety of disciplines and areas of expertise.    Read More

Six faculty have been appointed as residential leaders in shaping student learning experiences beyond the classroom. Dean of Residential Colleges and Residential Education Melissa Gresalfi announced the appointments for the 2024–25 academic year. Read More

The distinguished faculty members and deans representing eight colleges and schools were presented with medallions that symbolize the attainment of their positions and will become part of their official academic regalia. Chair holders contribute their expertise to real-world challenges, including climate change, political inequality and access to justice, artificial intelligence and ICU trauma.   Read More

Lorrie Moore, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English, won a National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction for her novel I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home. The award, considered to be among the most prestigious literary prizes in the country, adds to the lengthy list of accolades that her novel has received since it was published last fall. Read More

Avery Carpenter Forrey, BA'11, says Vanderbilt was the first place where she felt she could make a career out of writing. With a double major in in English and communications, her latest writing journey has led to the publication of her novel 'Social Engagement' (Mariner, 2023). Read More

Professor of English Lorrie Moore’s newest novel, I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home, has been named one of the best books of 2023 by The New Yorker and received year-end praise from NPR and New York Magazine. Read More

Vanderbilt University will be well represented at the 2023 Southern Festival of Books: A Celebration of the Written Word, where a significant number of faculty and authors with ties to the university will discuss their works Oct. 18–22. Read More

"Spring Procession," a poem by Didi Jackson, assistant professor of English, read at Vanderbilt's Sesquicentennial launch in March. Read More

Mason Richards, BS'97, continues his quest to turn 'The Seawall' into a feature film. Read More

Derrick R. Spires, an associate professor of literatures in English at Cornell University, has a talent for making 19th-century newspapers and pamphlets feel as accessible as the latest social media feed. He explores the culture of the early 19th-century Black press in his 2019 book 'The Practice of Citizenship: Black Politics and Print Culture in the Early United States' (University of Pennsylvania Press), which was recently released in paperback. Read More

A poem by Bryan Byrdlong, BA'15 Read More