Featured Faculty

Our English literature and creative writing faculty describe their recent research and publications.

VV Ganeshananthan, a woman with brown skin and black hair, smiles in front of trees

‘Don’t read just one book about Sri Lanka’: V. V. Ganeshananthan on her civil war novel

Associate Professor Ganeshananthan speaks to The Guardian about her novel "Brotherless Night," which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

Head and shoulders of person with brown hair to shoulders and brown skin, wearing grey top, smiling, and holding two grey fluffy dogs; windows behind

Ganeshananthan Wins Major Literary Prizes

The professor's second novel Brotherless Night is honored internationally.

Head and shoulders of person with short brown hair and light skin, wearing wire-rimmed glasses and grey suitcoact with blue shirt and tie; on right, colorful book cover with text Early Modern Improvisations

A Festschrift for John Watkins!

The literary and cultural historian is honored with a new volume of essays on the early modern world, co-edited by Professor Katherine Scheil and alum Linda Shenk.

Art of a cloud surrounded by gears, a path of paper clips linking the cloud to the word 'AI'

AI or Not AI?

A professor, lecturer and graduate student analyze two versions of the same paragraph-length Shakespeare biography, one written by AI and the other by a student.

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Siobhan Craig Wins Top Teaching Prize

The professor is the recipient of the 2023-24 Horace T. Morse-University of Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education for her…

To left, head and shoulders of person with dark hair to shoulders and light skin, wearing lavender-rimmed glasses and black shirt; to right, book cover with inverted umbrella in British flag stripes with text The English Experience Julie Schumacher

Julie Schumacher Wraps Up the Dear Committee Members Trilogy

The Regents Professor this fall published The English Experience, the final novel in the bestselling series starring campus curmudgeon Jason Fitger.

Close up color head and shoulders photo of Associate Professor Douglas Kearney

Douglas Kearney Wins Two Book Prizes

Creative Writing professor receives recognition for 2022 collection Optic Subwoof.

Julie Schumacher’s Funny Pages

The final tome in the Regents Professor's best-selling comedic trilogy is no mere laughing matter. Schumacher speaks to Mpls.St.Paul Magazine about her latest novel.

Julie Schumacher Publishes Final Book in Campus Trilogy

Dear Committee Members, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, kicked off the comic series in 2015.

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Remembering Tom Clayton

The Regents Professor was a beloved, decorated teacher and influential scholar across five decades at the U.