Department of English

Welcome

The English Department of the University of Alaska Fairbanks is the oldest in the State. We offer our students courses in Literature of Alaska and the North, Native American Literature, Environmental Literature, Post-Colonial Literature, Women’s Literature, and Film, as well as the traditional array of period courses in British, American, and World Literature.
 
Chief among the features of the Department is its Creative Writing Program which was ranked 17th when U.S. News and World Report last ranked Creative Writing programs in 2001. Since that time the Creative Writing program has grown and flourished, bringing into its ranks award-winning poets, fiction writers, and film makers, as well as an impressive array of visiting writers from around the country.
 
We are most proud of our students, who also 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, the Fulbright graduate award, as well as fellowships from the Jacob K. Javits fellowship competition and the National Endowment for the Arts.


Recent News

Assistant Professor Gerri Brightwell publishes The Dark Lantern 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, published by Marick Press. Adam Zagajewski calls Never Night "a hymn to life, a meditation on day and night, on the seasons, on nature and on love. "


David Crouse Publishes Second Collection of Short Fiction. Assistant Professor David Crouse's second collection of short fiction, The Man Back There, will be 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.

Assistant Professor Chris Coffman publishes Insane Passions: Lesbianism and Psychosis in Literature and Film (Wesleyan UP, December 2006).

New Program

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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: Michael Schuldiner, Chair, English Department, University of Alaska Fairbanks, P.O. Box 757500 | Fairbanks, AK 99775 | (907) 474-7193 | email: ffmjs@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

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Thursday, March 20, 1:00 PM
Gruening 405
Research Colloquium:
Professor Eric Heyne
"Truth or Consequences: Individuality, Reference, and the Problem of the Fiction/Nonfiction Distinction"
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Friday, February 22, 7:00 PM
Jill Osier and Joe Enzweiler
UAF Museum of the North
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Tuesday, February 19, 1:00 PM
Gruening 405
Research Colloquium:
Ph.D. Candidate Marion Arvilyn Jones
"'I Am a King's Daughter':
Laying Down the Law in Katerine Saga"
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Tuesday, December 4, 1:00 PM
Kayak Room
Research Colloquium:
M.F.A. student James Raines on Elegy
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Tuesday, November 13, 1:00 PM
Kayak Room
Research Colloquium:
Assistant Professor Chris Coffman
"Gertrude Stein and the Pleasures of Theory"
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Friday. October 22, 7:00 PM
Dead Writer's Reading
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Friday, October 5, 7:00 PM
UAF Museum of the North
Yusef Komunyakaa
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Friday, September 14, 7:00 PM
UAF Museum of the North
Peggy Schumaker and Jennifer Brice
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