• English Dept Group Photo

    Welcome to the Harvard English Department

    Take a look at this year's course offerings.

    Learn more

  • Harvard flags

    Join the English Department

    Looking to declare English or change your concentration?

    Learn more

  • Sam Marks Workshop

    Creative Writing Workshops

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

    Learn more

englsih_debates_activism_flatscreen_display_april_2024.png
undergradaute students

Undergraduates

Learn more
Graduate Students

Graduate Students

Learn more

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.

Read More

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...

Read more about Stratis Haviaras Poetry Reading with Sherwin Bitsui and Rowan Ricardo Phillips

Featured Faculty

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...

Read more about Teju Cole
Office: Lamont Library 403
p: 617-496-2032
Office Hours: Mondays 3–6pm
deidre lynch

Deidre Shauna Lynch

Harvard College Professor. Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature.
(On leave Fall 2023)

Education: B.A. Hons., University of British Columbia (1983)
A.M., Ph.D., Stanford University (1992)

Interests: Eighteenth-century and Romantic-...

Read more about Deidre Shauna Lynch
She/her
Office: Barker 145
(On leave Fall 2023)

Zoom Office:
(starting August 29th)
https://harvard.zoom.us/j/2547063872
Meeting ID: 254 706 3872
2547063872@zoomcrc.com

p: 617-384-9336
All faculty
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. 

Visit the Website

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. 

Visit the Website

faculty bookshelf

Faculty Bookshelf

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

Visit the Bookshelf