Department of English

Welcome

The English Department of the University of Alaska Fairbanks is the oldest in the state and one of the largest departments in the College of Liberal Arts.  Our faculty's emphasis on the creation and critical analysis of literature and on the importance of good writing makes our contribution to the college's liberal arts mission unique. We offer several vibrant programs that lead to degrees in literature and creative writing:  the B.A. in English, the M.A. in English, and the M.F.A. in Creative Writing, as well as the M.F.A./M.A. combined degree.  We also make essential contributions to UAF's Core Curriculum for undergraduates.
 
Our M.F.A. in Creative Writing is ranked in the top 100 of programs in the nation and continues to grow and flourish, bringing into its ranks award-winning poets, fiction writers, and filmmakers who offer courses at both the graduate and the undergraduate levels.  The Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series hosts an impressive array of visiting writers from around the country.
 
Our Literature and Linguistics courses offer UAF's English majors, minors, graduate students, and general education students a wide range of options in literature and linguistics, many taught by internationally known scholars.  We offer our students courses in Literature of Alaska and the North, Native American Literature, Environmental Literature, Postcolonial Literature, Women’s Literature, Linguistics, Theory, and Film, as well as the traditional array of period courses in British, American, and Comparative Literature.  Our 200-level course in World Literature, an important part of UAF's Core Curriculum, fosters our undergraduates' abilities to compare literature from a variety of cultures and historical periods.  UAF's Humanities Research Colloquium is based in the English Department and features cutting-edge research by faculty and graduate students.
 
We also offer a sequence of courses in Composition that fulfill part of UAF's Core Curriculum for undergraduates. These courses extend the department's liberal arts mission to the larger university by teaching all UAF undergraduates essential skills in critical reading, thinking, and writing that they will later transfer into the contexts of their own major disciplines.  The Writing Center similarly offers tutoring in writing to the entire university community.
 
We are especially proud of our students, who have won major awards for both their abilities as students of literature and as creative writers. Among the awards won by our students are the Whiting Award for new writers, the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and the Fulbright graduate award, as well as fellowships from the Jacob K. Javits fellowship competition and the National Endowment for the Arts.
 
For more information on our offerings, please click on the Programs bar on the left.

Recent News

Assistant Professor Gerri Brightwell's The Dark Lantern was published in March 2008. Set in Victorian London, the  novel dramatizes how a household's many secrets wreak havoc on the household's master and his study of anthropometry, the science of establishing identity through body measurements. Crown Publishing plans a national booktour and world-wide promotion.


 

Associate Professor Derick Burleson's new book, Never Night, was published by Marick Press in 2008. Adam Zagajewski calls Never Night "a hymn to life, a meditation on day and night, on the seasons, on nature and on love. "


 

Assistant Professor David Crouse's second collection of short fiction, The Man Back There, was published by Sarabande Books in 2008. The collection, winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction, consists of 9 stories, all told from the perspective of various male characters.  Judge Mary Gaitskill selected Professor Crouse's manuscript from a pool of more than 400 book-length submissions.

 

Former Graduate Student Publishes Collection of Essays. Jennifer Brice, a graduate of the MFA Program, recently published her second collection of Creative Nonfiction. Unlearning to Fly: a Memoir was recently published by the University of Nebraska Press. Another collection of essays, The Last Settlers (Duquesne U), was released in 1998. Her work has appeared in Iron Horse Literary Review, River Teeth, The Gettysburg Review, The Sonora Review, and others. She received her BA from Smith College and her MFA from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Jennifer Brice will be a visiting writer in the UAF English Department in spring, 2009.

 

Assistant Professor Chris Coffman publishes Insane Passions: Lesbianism and Psychosis in Literature and Film (Wesleyan UP, December 2006).  Insane Passions traces the now-discredited myth of the lesbian-as-madwoman from its introduction in early twentieth-century psychoanalysis and literature through to its startling reappearance in contemporary film.



 

New Program


Combined MFA/MA in Creative Writing and Literature

 
Combining the MFA and MA Programs gives you the unique opportunity to work with talented and dedicated teaching writers, while at the same time working with specialists in American and British Literature in preparation for a PhD program. This degree is designed for students who wish to pursue the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, but who are, at the same time, seriously considering going on for the PhD. By carefully coordinating your Literature and Creative Writing courses, you receive the combined MFA/MA degree in the same time it normally takes to receive the MFA alone.

For more information see catalog or contact: Burns Cooper, Chair, English Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks, P.O. Box 757500 | Fairbanks, AK 99775 | (907) 474-5303 | email: ffgbc@uaf.edu.

For more information about the application process please see the "Combined MFA/MA" section under Programs on the left menu bar. 

Events Calendar

 
CONGRATULATIONS CORWIN NIELSON
Albert H. Dickey Memorial Scholarship Freshman Writing Contest Winner!
 
THANKS TO ALL WHO SUBMITTED ENTRIES TO THE 2009 UAF WRITING CONTESTS! 
For results, click HERE.
__________________________
Thursday, December 2, 1 PM
Gruening 405 
Humanities Research Colloquium:
Richard Carr, Associate Professor of English 
______________________________
 
Thursday, December 9, 1 PM
Gruening 405
Humanities Research Colloquium:
Trina Mamoon, Associate Professor of Foreign Languages
______________________________
 
Spring 2009
 
Friday, February 6, 7:00 PM
Woods Center Ballroom
Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series
Reading by Eva Saulitas
______________________________
 
Friday, February 27th 7:00 PM
UAF Museum of the North
Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series
Reading by Philip Gerard
______________________________
 
Friday, April 17, 7:00 PM
Wood Center Ballroom
Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series
Reading by J.T. Dutton 
______________________________
 
Friday, April 10, 7:00 PM
UAF Museum of the North
Midnight Sun Visiting Writers Series
Reading by Sean Hill & Ed Skoog