Undergraduate
Welcome from the Director of Undergraduate Studies
Welcome to English! Our department is passionate about literature, in all its forms and varieties. As a concentrator, you’ll read great works that were written in the past, and ones that are being written right now; you might even write your own. You will sharpen your skills as a critical reader, deepen your capacity for empathy, and plunge into the complex moral choices that literature allows us to explore. Above all, you’ll find yourself in a community of readers and writers—people to inspire you and cheer you on.
We invite you to find your college home in English, where you’ll read, discuss, and create. Please come and meet our teachers, read and write with us, and grow.
- Professor Leah Whittington
A Student's Perspective
Program Administration
Lauren Bimmler
lbimmler@fas.harvard.eduUndergraduate Program Administrator
Lauren oversees the administration of the undergraduate concentration, and is a resource to concentrators and prospective concentrators on matters of program requirements, creative writing, advising, course selection, honors opportunities (senior thesis...
Tara K. Menon
taramenon@fas.harvard.eduAssociate Professor of English
Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies
*Currently accepting graduate student advisees
(On leave AY 2026-27)
Education: B.A., Columbia University (2011) M.A., New York University (2014) Ph.D., New York University (2019) I Interests: the novel; realism; narrative theory; nineteenth-century British literature; contemporary fiction, climate fiction Selected Works:...
Tara K. Menon, ADUS
taramenon@fas.harvard.eduAssistant Professor of English
Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies
Education: B.A., Columbia University (2011) M.A., New York University (2014) Ph.D., New York University (2019) I Interests: the novel; realism; narrative theory; nineteenth-century British literature; contemporary fiction, climate fiction Selected Works:...
Laura van den Berg, DCW
laura_vandenberg@fas.harvard.eduSenior Lecturer
Director of Creative Writing
Education: B.A., Rollins College (2005) M.F.A., Emerson College (2008) Interests: Fiction Writing Selected Works: State of Paradise (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2024); I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020); The Third Hotel...
Laura van den Berg
laura_vandenberg@fas.harvard.eduSenior Lecturer
Director of Creative Writing
Education: B.A., Rollins College (2005) M.F.A., Emerson College (2008) Interests: Fiction Writing Selected Works: State of Paradise (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2024); I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2020); The Third Hotel...
Nick White
nwhite@fas.harvard.eduAssociate Senior Lecturer on Fiction
Assistant Director of Creative Writing
Education: B.S.E., Delta State University (2007) M.A., Mississippi State University (2009) M.F.A., Ohio State University (2013) Ph.D., University of Nebraska (2016) Nick White is the author of Sweet & Low and How to Survive a Summer . His short stories...
Nick White, ADCW
nwhite@fas.harvard.eduAssociate Senior Lecturer on Fiction
Assistant Director of Creative Writing
Nick White is the author of Sweet & Low and How to Survive a Summer . His short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in a variety of places, including The Kenyon Review , Guernica , Catapult , The Hopkins Review, The Florida Review The Literary Review...