Welcome to the Department of English at Washington University in St. Louis
The Department of English at Washington University offers an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate study with a first-rate faculty, and within a community of distinguished poets and fiction and non-fiction writers, enabling the student to become familiar with both critical and creative endeavors. The departmental programs reflect the interplay of artist, critic, and teacher. Graduate programs in the department emphasize broad training in the traditions of English and American literature and encourage a variety of critical and historical approaches to literary study. The department offers the M.A., the M.A. in Literature and History, the M.F.A. in Writing, and the Ph.D. in English and American Literature. Presently the department has approximately 130 undergraduate English majors, 95 graduate students, and 24 students in the Writing Program.
Information regarding the various programs offered by the English Department and described in these web pages can be requested here.
Special Notice: The department will host a commemoration for Jarvis Thurston Monday, March 24th at 4 pm in the Mendle Room of Special Collections. Longtime professor and former chair of the department, Thurston died February 4th at the age of 93. He was instrumental in establishing the Creative Writing Program, and with his wife, Poet Laureate Mona Van Duyn, helped expand the university library's Modern Literature Collection. His contributions to the department and university will be remembered Monday afternoon by Chancellor Mark Wrighton; Willam Gass, the David May Professor of the Humanities Emeritus; Chancellor Emeritus William Danforth; Shirley Baker, Vice-Chancellor for Scholarly Resources and Dean of University Libraries; and our Hurst Senior Writer in Residence, Kathryn Davis. Professor Emeritus Dan Shea will lead the event. Contact the department for more information: 314.935.3190.
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Tom Finkel, son of Donald Finkel and Constance Urdang, has written an excellent
personal remeberance of Van Duyn and Thurston following news of Thurston's passing.
Follow this link for the River Front Times to read the essay.