English Department News
Annual English Department Alumni Newsletter
Every year English graduates enter many fields: they become teachers, lawyers, doctors, community organizers, curators, editors, publishers, agents, art program directors, screenwriters, film directors, game designers, reviewers, essayists, novelists, scholars, poets, environmentalists, publicists, historians, musicians, and mountain climbers. They generously offer us their hard-won knowledge.
Whatever endeavor has engaged you, all of you are contributing to our global social, political, and cultural conversation. Thank you!
We'd Love to Hear from You!
Are you a Western English Alum with exciting news to share? Keep us updated using this form today!
Check Out these Publications!
Jeopardy Magazine
Jeopardy is an annual publication out of Western Washington University, featuring poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and visual art. First published in 1965, it has a long legacy of presenting contemporary joys and anxieties, as well as themes that transcend decades.
Bellingham Review
Bellingham Review publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid work on a now fully digital platform. Established in 1977, Bellingham Review has earned a reputation for publishing both established and emerging writers who successfully employ innovative form and content.
Retiring Professor Brenda Miller Endows Two New Creative Writing Scholarships
Professor Brenda Miller and Barnaby
Retiring professor Brenda Miller has endowed two creative writing scholarships: one for undergraduate students writing creative nonfiction, and one for MFA students specializing in creative nonfiction. (Read the entire story on the English Alumni Newsletter here!)
2024 New English Faculty
The English Department is excited to highlight our new faculty in the 2024 English Alumni Newsletter! Learn more about these impressive scholars and their professional and personal interests in this article by Professor Jenny Forsythe.
Professor Theresa Warburton Awarded 2024 Outstanding Faculty Leadership Award
Associate Professor of English Theresa Warburton is an educator, scholar, and community member. She is interested in the role that stories play in social movements. At Western, she teaches courses across a variety of topics related to US multiethnic literatures and social movements which often focus on Native literatures, prison abolition, and gender studies. She has also served in a number of supportive capacities, including most recently as the president of the United Faculty of Western Washington. (Read more on the WWU President's Office webpage!)
WWU grad student Wilson Sackett researching Jewish prayer books in Germany
Sometimes, the journey your research takes you on leads you to uncover unexpected and hard-to-answer questions. Wilson Sackett, an English graduate student at WWU, discovered this when a research trip to Germany to study Jewish prayer books shifted and complicated his studies and opened new possibilities. (Read the full Western Today article here!)
Keep in Touch: The English Department is now on Instagram!
Hello English Majors and Minors,
Summer is just around the corner, and we hope you will keep in touch! You can follow the English Department on Instagram now at https://www.instagram.com/wwu_english/. We’ll keep you updated on local literary events, campus journals, alumni news, and published works by students and faculty in the department.
We’d love to hear from you too! Tag us with your reading and writing projects this summer or use #WWUEnglish to keep us updated. Together, let’s celebrate this talented community here at Western.
Recent MFA Grad Caity Scott Wins Distinguished Thesis Award for Their Game, 'Bitter Roots'
by Allie Spikes
WWU Graduate School
Caity Scott (they/them), a recent graduate of Western’s MFA in Creative Writing program, was recently announced as the Western Association of Graduate Schools (WAGS) and ProQuest winner for Distinguished Master’s Thesis and/or Final Master’s Capstone Project Award in the Creative, Visual, and Performing Arts for their student project, a horror computer game called "Bitter Roots." As the winner, Scott will receive a $1000 prize and an invitation to the 65th Annual WAGS Conference in Portland, Oregon.