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    Welcome to the Harvard English Department

    Take a look at this year's course offerings.

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    Join the English Department

    Looking to declare English or change your concentration?

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  • Sam Marks Workshop

    Creative Writing Workshops

    Fall 2024 Application Deadline: 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, April 7

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Undergraduates

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Graduate Students

Graduate Students

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Creative Writing

The English Department is proud to be a home for creative writing at Harvard. The vital presence of creative writing in the department is reflected by our many distinguished authors who offer small, intensive workshops each term in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, screenwriting, playwriting, and television writing. Concentrators may also apply to work on a year-long creative senior thesis with our faculty.

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Upcoming Events

2024 Apr 16

Stratis Haviaras Poetry Reading with Sherwin Bitsui and Rowan Ricardo Phillips

6:00pm

Location: 

Thompson Room, Barker Center and Livestream (see below for Livestream)

Picture of Sherwin Bitsui Rowan Ricardo Phillips The Harvard Department of English presents the Stratis Haviaras Poetry Reading with Sherwin Bitsui and Rowan Ricardo Phillips. Join us at 6pm in the Thompson Room at 12 Quincy St. for a poetry reading and Q and A from the authors with an introduction by Professors Christopher Pexa and Tracy K. Smith. Books will be available for purchase and signing. This...

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Featured Faculty

Tracey K. Smith

Tracy K. Smith

Professor of English and of African and African American Studies
Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute
Interim Director of Creative Writing

Education: B.A., Harvard College (1994) 
M.F.A., Columbia University (1997)

Interests: 20th and 21st century poetry; African...

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She/her/hers
Barker Center 214
12 Quincy St.
p: 617-496-0573
Office Hours: By appointment
Teju Cole

Teju Cole

Gore Vidal Professor of the Practice of Creative Writing

Education: B.A. 1996 Kalamazoo College
M.A. 2000 SOAS, University of London
M. Phil. 2006 Columbia University

Interests: Fiction writing...

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Office: Lamont Library 403
p: 617-496-2032
Office Hours: Mondays 3–6pm
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Arts and Humanities Division

Arts and Humanities Division

The Division seeks to optimize both the ability of its faculty to pursue knowledge through the study of the arts and humanities and the opportunity of its students to share in that pursuit. 

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Child Memorial Library

Child Memorial Library

Named for Francis James Child, Harvard's first Professor of English, Child Memorial Library is the English Department research library. 

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faculty bookshelf

Faculty Bookshelf

Explore our faculty's publications and discover their many research interests and creative works.

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