Course bulletin view / download PDF:
Gateway Course Required for the Beginning Major
Engl 25000
Introduction to Literary Study
20540 sec. E Harold Veeser M, W 2:00 – 3:15pm
20539 sec. F Ker Hsu M, W 3:30 – 4:45pm
20538 sec. G Harold Veeser M, W 5:00 – 6:15pm
20542 sec. M Elizabeth Mazzola T, TH 11:00 – 12:15pm
20541 sec. R Elizabeth Mazzola T, TH 3:30 – 4:45pm
This course offers an introduction for beginning English majors to the practices and concepts in the study of literature. We will think carefully about literature as a form of representation – about what literary texts mean as well as how they mean. The course will help students to develop a critical vocabulary and method for reading and writing about literature, as well as introduce them to the cultural contexts and backgrounds of various literary traditions. Our readings will explore a variety of genres and styles – short fiction, the novel, narrative poetry, lyric poetry, and forms of drama. Above all, this is a class in reading and (frequent) writing which will emphasize close reading techniques, interpretive approaches, the making of arguments, and the development of individual critical voices in order to prepare students to succeed in advanced English elective courses.
Literature Courses
200- Level courses
Please note: These 200-level courses are designed to introduce beginning students to literary history, critical approaches, and formal terminology. They typically have a minimum of 3-5 shorter assignments, a variety of in-class writing tasks, and assume no prior background in the discipline. For this reason, majors are not permitted to take more than four (4) 200-level classes.
Engl 21300
Grammar
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. in sociolinguistics)
20556 sec. G Danny Katch M, W 5:00 – 6:15pm
20557 sec. S TBA T, TH 5:00 – 6:15pm
This class will provide an overview of the rules of applied grammar, syntax, and sentence structure; an introduction to social and critical theories about “Standard” English and language diversity; and strategies and techniques for teaching grammar and writing.
Engl 25100
Historical Survey of British Literature
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. for either historical survey or pre-1900 literature)
20455 sec. E Mark-Allan Donaldson M, W 2:00 – 3:15pm
English 25100 is a Creative Expressions Pathways course designed for majors and non-majors, introducing students to the British literary tradition. Much like Britain itself, this tradition is a varied and complex mix of cultures and influences (including modern day Italy, Scandinavia, Germany, Iceland, France, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and of course England). This course will chart the development of the tradition as well as its use as a repository, reflection, and creator of cultural and artistic concerns and identity. We will study the earliest surviving texts in English, move through a medieval period filled with abstract adventure and the foundations of English humor, and end by examine the literature of an England transitioning from a world of myth and pseudo-history into one of industry, empire, and colonization. In addition to studying the texts themselves, we will also examine how the literary world changes over time in terms of the creation and commissioning of texts, who was writing and reading, and how and why some texts are canonized as representatives of English and British literature.
Engl 26000
Studies in Genre: Introduction to Novel
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. for historical survey)
20551 sec. L Robert Higney T, TH 9:30 – 10:45am
“I am a novelist, and my goal in writing a novel is to leave the reader not knowing what to think.” –Teju Cole, author of Open City (2013).
Novels—long works of prose fiction—are at the center of English-language literature, and have been for over two hundred years. Novels still sell in the millions and are regularly adapted into even more widely consumed forms, particularly movies and television series. But why is this the case? Where does the novel as an art form come from, how has it developed, and how can we approach novels critically? And what exactly is a novel (a more difficult question that it seems)? We will try to begin to answer these questions historically, reading a set of novels spanning the 17th century to the present day. We’ll read one novel per century; works may include, for example, Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (1688); Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719); Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1764); Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice (1813); Nella Larsen, Quicksand (1928); Mohsin Hamid, Exit West (2017). Throughout the course, we will work to develop a critical vocabulary for discussing novelistic character, narration, plot structure, themes, symbolism, and other aspects of the form. There will be multiple short essay assignments, a midterm and final exam.
Engl 26000
Studies in Genre: Short Stories of the Americas
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. for ethnic/minority literature)
20276 sec. P Lyn Di Iorio T, TH 2:00 – 3:15pm
Course description is forthcoming.
Engl 26900
Introduction to Rhetorical Studies
20470 sec. B Olivia Wood M, W 9:30 – 10:45am
This course will move beyond the speaker/message/audience and ethos/logos/pathos triangles commonly encountered in composition courses to study major rhetorical theories and concepts in the ~2,300 years since Aristotle’s lifetime, including notions of propaganda, genre theory, the public sphere, identification, intersectional rhetorical traditions, and digital/surveillance rhetorics. This course is intended to provide an overview of the field as a bridge between composition courses and advanced courses on particular rhetorical themes, but is intended to be useful to students of any experience level with the topic.
Engl 27000
Literatures of Diversity: Women in Modern Jewish Fiction
Cross-listed with JWST 21900
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. for ethnic/minority literature)
20906 sec. L Amy Kratka T, TH 9:30 – 10:45am
In this course we will read short stories and novels by modern Jewish writers and we will keep a close eye on the characterization of the Jewish woman. We will discuss differences between the way male and female authors depict their fictional females, and we will explore what, if anything, constitutes the essence of the Jewish woman character. What qualities do these women soak up from their surroundings? What effect does history have on the formation of these women as strong or weak personalities? How do societal pressures exert themselves on a Jewish woman? How might the women be differently rendered if they weren’t Jewish? What role does gender as a social construct play? What about Jewish women of color? Does the woman as intellectual constitute a threat to her male counterparts? Is there such a thing as “the typical Jewish mother?” Our texts will be a jumping-off point for a provocative exploration of the centrality of the woman in modern Jewish literature and culture.
Engl 27000
Literatures of Diversity: Angels and Demons in Modern Jewish Fiction
Cross-listed with JWST 21400
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. forethnic/minority literature)
20907 sec. M Amy Kratka T, TH 11:00 – 12:15pm
This course, which has been “on the books” for 15 years, boasts a revamped syllabus with new opportunities to examine the presence of the angelic and the demonic in Jewish literature and culture. First, we’ll ground ourselves in Biblical examples of angels as messengers of God. Next, we’ll move to the literary incarnations of these godly beings and ask ourselves what purposes they might serve. Demons, the adversarial angels, are also in our purview in this class. We’ll examine novels, stories, and plays in which both of these figures appear. Do fictional examples of angels and demons underscore the need to see the beneficent and the malignant in our midst? Do these angelic and demonic aspects of texts teach us something about our humanity? Critical readings about morality, power, gender will round out our discussions.
Engl 27000
Literatures of Diversity: Introduction to Caribbean Literature
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. for ethnic/minority literature or historical survey)
20550 sec. S Kedon Willis T, TH 5:00 – 6:15pm
This course surveys the fiction, non-fiction and poetry of popular twentieth and twenty-first century Caribbean authors. Students will be introduced to the major themes of Caribbean literature, as well as the basic tenets of ideas such as postcolonialism and environmental criticism. Students can expect to interact with literature from the diverse cultural regions of the Antilles, including Jamaica, Haiti, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.
300- Level Courses
Please note: 300-level classes assume some background and prior experience at the 200-level. Students should complete two 200 level courses before embarking on 300 level work; however, they may register for a single 300 level course if they are still completing 200 level requirements. Generally, these classes require two shorter essays and one longer assignment or final paper involving research or reference to secondary materials.
Engl 35301
Shakespeare I
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. in Shakespeare)
20549 sec. R András Kiséry T, TH 3:30 – 4:45pm
This course offers a selective survey of Shakespeare’s plays up to around 1600, the middle of his career. We will be reading comedies and history plays, like The taming of the shrew, The merchant of Venice, Twelfth night, Richard III, and Henry IV, as well as the strangely violent tragedy Titus Andronicus. There will be regular quizzes and other in-class assignments, and a final.
Engl 35400
The Women of Medieval Literature: Patrons, Writers, and Characters
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. in pre-1900 literature)
20463 sec. D Mark-Allan Donaldson M, W 12:30 – 1:45pm
This course will examine the women who shaped medieval literature both within and beyond the narrative world of the text. We will examine women who did not write themselves, but who were the patrons who funded and commissioned the illustrious works of Chaucer and Chrétien de Troyes. We will read the works of Emma of Normandy, a queen whose stylized biography cast her in the best light while slandering her enemies; the mystic Hildegard of Bingen who communicated with the divine via poetry, music, and theatre; and Marie de France, a writer whose works range from werewolf adventures to tragic romances. We will also explore the presentation of women in the Middle Ages via some of the most prominent characters in medieval literature, such as the epic warrior Dhat Al-Himma; the enduringly ribald Wife of Bath; the princess turned knight Yde; and the ever-changing Guinevere. The course will seek to build an understanding of the textual world of the Middle Ages as well as an idea of how it viewed and was shaped by the women who inhabited it both historically and literarily.
Engl 36400
The Modern Literature, Illness, and Medicine
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. in American Literature)
20461 sec. T Keith Gandal T, TH 6:30 – 7:45pm
The meteoric rise of modern medicine, starting in the late 19th century, with its strictly “materialist” approach to health—and its separation from (what is now called) psychology—has greatly transformed the very conception of the human being. From that period until now, literature, which is of course centrally concerned with characters and human experience, has not only reflected but also contested this modern medical understanding of human illness. We will consider representations of illness and doctors—and their relation to the medical versions of these—in American works, as well as a couple of European works that were immediately imported to the US, from the 1890s to the present.
This class initiates a new project in literary studies, which will involve discussions usually outside the purview of literature courses: about the nature of the scientific method and the history of science. This is not the typical course on “Literature and Medicine,” which, even when it focuses on modern literature and medicine, does so in an ahistorical way. Standard courses might, for example, “raise questions about ethical behavior in the face of sickness” (to quote a random course description at another university) or discuss “narratives or metaphors of illness.”
But, as these phrases indicate, such courses take “sickness” as a given; in other words, they don’t raise questions about the modern medical construction of sicknesses themselves. Sicknesses for which we are still seeking a cure cannot be said to be fully understood. The treatments of sicknesses that have no cure have a significant social history because our medical ideas about such sicknesses are, by necessity, at an experimental stage, which is to say, they are not scientifically proven—as only a cure is scientific proof. To take perhaps the most important example, doctors have for centuries recognized cancer, but the conception of the cause of cancer is very different today from what it was even in the late 19th century.
Warning: “Chronic” and “terminal” illness, perhaps especially cancer and autoimmune disorders, is a troubling subject for many people. It can be a source of fear and post-trauma; a lot of us know people who have had cancer or have an autoimmune disorder; many of us fear it. Fear of cancer is a serious social issue and one we will be discussing; arguably, in fact, the promotion of fear is a major tactic deployed by the medical profession in the management of cancer. This course, by contrast, will not promote fear of cancer, but just the opposite. However, in this class, there is no getting around discussing cancer, heart disease, and other chronic illnesses; in fact, such discussions are central to the course. We can’t shy away from issues because they are disturbing. So, if you have a problem reading or talking about chronic illness—which is understandable—you should not take this course.
Literature:
Herman Melville, excerpt from Moby Dick
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”
Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour”
Sigmund Freud, Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (excerpt)
Willa Cather, One of Ours (excerpt)
Katherine Anne Porter, “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” (excerpt)
John O’Hara, “The Doctor’s Son”
William Burroughs, Junky (excerpt)
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (excerpt)
Norman Cousins, Anatomy of an Illness (excerpt)
Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals
Anatole Broyard, Intoxicated by My Illness (excerpt)
Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking
Engl 36600
Postcolonial Autobiography: Engaging Narratives of Identity, Resistance, and Transformation
20462 sec. C Harold Veeser M, W 11:00 – 12:15pm
Postcolonial memoir and autobiography offer unique personal accounts of self-transformation. Excruciating events (war, assault, injustice, discrimination), personal challenges (weight loss, disability, family tragedy), and LGBTQ+ issues often are foregrounded. This seminar will be given over mainly to discussions of these celebrated memoirs including the following:
Required books: Suad Amiry, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law (Anchor Books, 2007); Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis; and three books chosen by student vote from a list of books by Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood; Kwame Onwuachi, Notes from a Young Black Chef (2019); Shyam Selvadurai, Funny Boy (2015); Clemantine Mariyamah, The Girl Who Smiled Beads (2015); Diane Guerrero, In the Country We Love: My Family Divided (2016); Wangari Maathai, Unbowed: A Memoir; Arundhati Roy, Mother Mary Comes to Me. Other highly recommended candidates are Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malika Oufkir and Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade by Assia Djebar.
These memoirs collectively address themes relevant to students at The City College of New York: migration, family, cultural identity, resistance, and the ongoing impacts of colonialism. Their diversity of voices and experiences offer opportunities for critical discussion and personal reflection. Course requirements: Attend the class meetings, read and discuss the books. Any required writing will be completed during the class periods.
Engl 36700
The Caribbean and the Modern Narrative
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. in ethnic/minority literature)
20460 sec. P Kedon Willis T, TH 2:00 – 3:15pm
The Caribbean’s turbulent modern history — shaped by revolution, migration, intervention, and disaster — has produced literary worlds where the everyday often feels surreal. This seminar examines how major Caribbean writers represent these realities through diverse narrative forms and techniques. Reading across multiple islands, students explore the region’s varied histories alongside movements such as modernism, the gothic, folklore, and the marvelous real within a global context.
Engl 36900
The Triangle Fire and Immigrant Solidarity Rhetoric
(instructor’s consent is required to register)
29783 sec. 4LM Olivia Wood TH 9:30 – 11:30am
This is a new class funded by the Mellon Foundation through the CCNY Division of Humanities and the Arts’s Humanities Experiential Learning Partnership Seminars (HELPS) program. Students enrolled in the class will also complete a paid internship with the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, developing and presenting guided tours with the Coalition’s Speaker’s Bureau and creating social media content to publicize the tours.
In parallel with the students’ work as interns, the seminar will critically examine and contextualize multiple narratives of understanding the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and how different groups (unions, socialists, government agencies, charities, women’s groups, etc.) in New York City responded to and used it rhetorically to advocate for their respective goals. We will then compare/contrast this event and time period of immigrant labor history with more recent events and public reactions to them, specifically Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis and St. Paul and the organizing that took place in support of immigrant neighbors in December 2025-February 2026.
Most internship hours will be flexible based on students’ schedules, but all students must share an hour of weekly availability to meet with the internship coordinator and be able to commute to midtown Manhattan (W 27th Street) for the meeting, as well as for some in-person internship hours at the Memorial (near Washington Square Park).
Pay is $3,000, and students will be expected to complete 50-75 internship hours over the course of the semester. Due to limited funding for the internship, a maximum of 5 students will be able to take the course.
To take this course, students must:
- Have a major in the Division of Humanities and Arts
- Have completed at least 30 credits
If you are interested, please email Prof. Olivia Wood (owood@ccny.cuny.edu) by April 9 (the end of spring break)with:
- A paragraph or two describing your interest in the class
- A summary of your anticipated general availability during the Fall 2026 semester (to ensure scheduling compatibility with each other and the internship coordinator) — this could be as simple as “Based on the other classes I plan to take in Fall 2026 and my other life obligations, I anticipate being available for the 1-hour in-person internship meeting Monday/Wednesday mornings before 11 or Tuesdays after 3pm”
Engl 37100
Making a Monster: Race and Monstrosity in American Film and Literature
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. in ethnic/minority literature or American literature)
20547 sec. M Janee Moses T, TH 11:00 – 12:15pm
How has mainstream, white audiences’ “fictitious” fear of angry black masses impacted the genres of horror film, fantasy, and science fiction? This seminar, which begins with D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, explores the making of racialized and gendered monsters in the aftermath of enslavement in the American cultural imagination through literature and film of the 19th and 20th centuries. Using the intervention of Christina Sharpe’s Monstrous Intimacies (2010) concerning the contemporary repetition of familiar and familial violence that shaped black and white life during colonial slavery. We will explore difference and otherness based on race, gender, sexuality, and power to consider the potential for the monster and the non-monster to be identified through formulations that resemble black and white subjects. The course ends with the critically acclaimed film, Get Out (2017), and the push for further conversations about the ways in which monstrosity and otherness continue to be recognizably black. Throughout the semester, students will learn to place literature and film into their corresponding historical contexts and complicate concepts of racial and national identities with attention to America’s histories of monstrous intimacies.
Engl 37900
Critical Perspectives on AI
20548 sec. F Pamela Stemberg M, W 3:30 – 4:45pm
In this course, we’ll explore how artificial intelligence is transforming society, education, and the workplace through critical analysis and inquiry. This course bridges literature and culture, beginning with early myths and philosophical ideas about created intelligences and tracing their evolution to modern AI. Through dynamic writing projects, case studies, and discussions, we’ll examine AI’s ethical challenges and broader societal implications. The course will review how AI works by examining the algorithms and data that power these systems, using metaphors and accessible analogies to make complex concepts clear and relatable. By studying AI’s development and analyzing its impact on culture and work, students will develop versatile communication skills to engage with these topics creatively and critically.
Engl 39200
Paradox in Jewish Film and Literature
Cross-listed with JWST 31197
(fulfills Secondary English Education conc. req. forethnic/minority literature)
20905 sec. B Dalia Sofer M, W 9:30 – 10:45am
This course will examine the paradoxes of the Jewish experience in the works of 20th century Western and Central European writers and filmmakers. Through novels, short stories, and films, we will address acculturation and estrangement, the tension between faith and doubt, and the ambiguities of Jewishness, not understood as a simple identity but as a complex set of experiences expressed though language, form, and memory.
Capstone Seminars – recommended after 24 credits in the major
These courses are strongly recommended upon completing 24 credits in the major and can only be registered with an English Advisor.
Engl 49000
Women and Epic: Beowulf to Toni Morrison
20459 sec. 2NP Elizabeth Mazzola TU 12:30 – 2:30pm
In this seminar we will explore the role of women in epics, a genre traditionally associated with male violence, nation-building, and state power. Alongside explorations of Beowulf, Sundiata, The Faerie Queene and Paradise Lost, we will consider a handful of works by Toni Morrison, focusing on the ways she rethinks history, memory, genealogy, and community, borrowing from African epics, attending to trauma and loss, and describing conflicts among mothers, sisters, and daughters in terms once reserved for war, heroism, and brute force.
Engl 49000
Theory on Stage
20458 sec. 3FG Daniel Gustafson W 3:30 – 5:30pm
Over centuries and across continents, theater has been theorized in a variety of ways by its own practitioners as well as by philosophers, political thinkers, and cultural critics: theater is an aesthetic medium for the mimetic representation of reality, a socially transformative ritual, a dangerously libidinal force, a vehicle for capitalist mass culture, a disseminator of hegemonic ideals of race, class, gender, and sexuality, a rehearsal space for radicalism and revolution. Many of these theories turn on some vexed questions of representation. How does theatrical performance represent its world, and what are the implications? What does it mean that theater partakes of both written representation (the script) and staged representation (the performance)? As a public institution, who does theater represent, socially and politically? How are theater and performance related to identity politics? In this course, we will explore how such questions of theater, drama, and representation (both aesthetic and political) have been central to some of the driving interests of literary and cultural studies over time. Our readings will cover works of critical theory, philosophy, cultural and political criticism, as well as a number of plays.
Creative Writing Courses
Engl 22000
Introduction to Creative Writing
20537 sec. B TBA M, W 9:30 – 10:45am
20535 sec. C TBA M, W 11:00 – 12:15pm
20534 sec. E TBA M, W 2:00 – 3:15pm
20533 sec. F TBA M, W 3:30 – 4:45pm
20532 sec. G TBA M, W 5:00 – 6:15pm
20531 sec. H TBA M, W 6:30 – 7:45pm
20536 sec. L TBA T, TH 9:30 – 10:45am
20528 sec. M TBA T 11:00 – 12:15pm (online mix)
20527 sec. P TBA T 2:00 – 3:15pm (online mix)
20530 sec. R TBA T, TH 3:30 – 4:45pm
20529 sec. S TBA T, TH 5:00 – 6:15pm
This course is an entry-level overview of creative writing, introducing students to various genres and techniques as they learn to produce creative work. Above all, students will be required to write extensively, learning the craft through experience and instructor feedback.
Engl 22005
Autobiography and Creative Non-Fiction
Cross-listed with JWST 31183
19601 sec. E Sarah Seltzer M, W 2:00 – 3:15pm
This course will provide a comprehensive practical introduction to the craft of creative nonfiction through reading and discussing notable examples of the genre and by writing a substantial creative work. Over the course of the semester, students will undertake all of the stages of the creative nonfiction process, from conception to completion: developing the initial idea conducting and organizing research, shaping and reshaping the narrative, writing, and revising. Readings will comprise a wide variety of creative nonfiction forms, from a broad diversity of authors; a special emphasis will be placed on the work of Jewish-American authors.
Engl 22100
Prerequisite: English 22000
Intermediate Creative Writing: Reading as Writers
20555 sec. D Estha Weiner M, W 12:30 – 1:45pm
Reading and Writing go together. This Intermediate Creative Writing Workshop links reading and discussing poems, short stories (fiction), and drama with improving your own writing in those three genres. You will read the texts as readers and writers, becoming more aware of the tools of each genre, as you do so. The readings should act as a catalyst/prompt for your own work. Be prepared to discuss those readings. Then comes presentation of your own first drafts in a workshop format, culminating in a final manuscript, and a required Reading Day. We’ll also ask you to bring in a poem from your culture, in the original language, and in its translation.
Workshopping will usually be in alphabetical order, to be fair. If we are able to workshop or privately meet about your final drafts, we will. Please attend readings at CCNY and throughout our five boroughs, and consider submitting your own work to college literary magazines.
20554 sec. R TBA T, TH 3:30 – 4:45pm
Section description is forthcoming.
Engl 23000
Prose Writing Workshop
20526 sec. B TBA M, W 9:30 – 10:45am
20525 sec. E TBA M, W 2:00 – 3:15pm
20524 sec. H TBA M, W 6:30 – 7:45pm
20523 sec. L TBA T, TH 9:30 – 10:45am
20522 sec. NP TBA T 12:30 – 1:45pm (online mix)
20457 sec. S TBA T, TH 5:00 – 6:15pm
In this course the varieties of prose writing, excluding fiction, will be practiced. The class is devoted to exploring such nonfictional forms as personal essay writing, reportage, memoir and biographical writing, sketches and opinion pieces. Throughout the semester students will read exemplary works from each area of nonfiction and will also spend considerable time practicing the genre through continuous exercises given by the instructor each week. Students will also learn to revise their works, respond to their peers’ writing, and work toward one to two major papers assigned for the semester.
Engl 32000
Prerequisite: English 22100
Workshop in Fiction
20544 sec. C TBA M, W 11:00 – 12:15pm
Section description is forthcoming.
20543 sec. R Keith Gandal T, TH 3:30 – 4:45pm
Students in this advanced workshop course will develop the art of writing and rewriting stories. It is only to be taken by those who have already completed English 220 and 221 — Intro. and Intermediate Creative Writing. Students will read a variety of exemplary published short stories over the course of the semester, learning the elements of short fiction and using the critical vocabulary of the craft. Students will also read each others’ work: they will submit their own original works for discussion and learn to critique their peers’ writing. The workshop trajectory of the class will be to move from short writing exercises to a rough draft of a short story to a polished story.
Just a reminder that Creative Writing differs from almost all other courses in several basic ways. First, you the student are a large part of the subject matter of the course. Your thoughts, feelings, experiences, and perceptions are the stuff out of which your stories must be written. Second, your willingness to know yourself and explore who you are and how you understand the world are basic to developing as a writer. If you are not willing or able to engage in this kind of exploration, share it with other students, receive commentary on your writing, or give (honest yet constructive) reactions to other students’ writing, this course is not for you. Third, anything of value you may have to say is, in this course, directly dependent on your skill in using the English language. Thus much of the course will center on helping you to find what you have to say that is worth saying and then discovering the best way to say it. Finding fresh ways to see and to say things is absolutely essential to good writing. Superficial perceptions and clichés are touches of death in creative writing.
Texts:
Isaac Babel, Red Cavalry and Other Stories
Other short stories — online
Engl 32100
Prerequisite: English 22100
Workshop in Poetry
20546 sec. G Michael Montlack M, W 5:00 – 6:15pm
Sometimes the muses just don’t show up. Or not as often as we’d like. This workshop is designed to lure them to your door and keep them coming back—through reading contemporary poets, discussing their techniques and styles, then incorporating them in some fashion into your own poems, even if it’s just as a source of inspiration. Drafts will be workshopped and revised on a weekly basis. Topics will include Portrait, Form, Imitation, Narrative, Repetition, and Direct Address. In addition, there will be some time spent on ways to revise more bravely, going beyond line edits and actually re-seeing poems.
There will be occasional in-class writing exercises and prompts to get things started. While each assignment is meant to develop an element of craft, you will be encouraged to forge your own voice and style. One aim might be to create a foundation for a chapbook or series. By the end of the semester, five (or more) revised poems will be submitted with a process paper that reflects on what you experienced and learned while creating them—whether it’s about poetry, craft, or yourself as an artist.
Engl 32300
Prerequisite: English 22100
Film and TV Writing Workshop
20545 sec. 1DE Marc Palmieri M 12:30 – 3:15pm
We will examine the storytelling possibilities of writing for this highly technical and collaborative art form. Students will develop a script for the large or small screen – either film, television or webseries, and participate in brief “read-alouds” of portions of the drafts, and feedback discussions of classmates’ work. Those interested in adapting one of his or her works of fiction, non-fiction or poetry to a screenplay form are encouraged to do so. This process comes with its own interesting set of expectations and strategies, and can be an enlightening exercise in the general honing of your story structure.
List of Interdisciplinary Electives that will be counted toward major requirements
Only one course offered outside of the English Department will count toward the English major requirement
ANTH 20200 – Language in Cross-Cultural Perspective
ANTH 21505 – Narrative Power in the Black Radical Tradition
ARAB 30100—Selected Topics in Arabic Literature
ASIA 31104 – Modern Japanese Literature and Films
ASIA 31914 – Contemporary East Asian Film
BLST 31157 – Blackness and the Arts
BLST 31182 – Food & Identity in Literature
CLSS 32100 – Classical Mythology
FREN 31111 – Mystery and Horror in Literature
HIST 23900 – 20th Century Europe Through Film
JWST 31713 – Culture of Resistance in New York
MCA 26000 – Topics in Cinema Studies, African and African American Film
MCA 32300 – Screenwriting Workshop 1
PHIL 20600 – Philosophy of Science Fiction
PSC 31053 – Legal Writing
SOC 33500 – Special Topics in Culture & Media, Journalism & Society
THTR 33100 – Playwriting 1
WS 39100 – Sexuality & Cinema
Fall 2026 Publishing Certificate Program Courses
NOTE: English majors and minors enrolled in the Publishing Certificate Program (PCP), can use one of the ENGL PCP courses toward both their major/minor and the Certificate. Publishing courses are open to students from all majors and require no prerequisites for registration. Students who intend to complete the Publishing Certificate must “add plan” in iDeclare.
The Publishing Certificate requires 15 elective credits (Introduction to Publishing +3 PCP-approved courses + Internship/Independent Study OR Introduction to Publishing + 4 PCP-approved courses.
PCP-approved courses may include 1 select course in art, marketing, public relations, advertising, or economics.
Engl 32501
Introduction to Publishing
20404 sec. 2ST Cherise Fisher T 5:30 – 8:00pm
This required course offers students a dynamic overview of the book publishing industry, including book acquisitions, editing, design and production, sales, marketing, advertising, corporate management, law and finance.
Engl 32800
Fundamentals of Copyediting & Proofreading
20402 sec. 3FG Pamela R. Maines W 2:00 – 4:30pm
An intensive course focusing on a variety of texts including fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks and references. Students will employ universal copyediting/proofreading symbols in type-marking manuscripts and learn design coding; drafting of style sheets; querying; and preparing a manuscript for author review, etc.
Engl 32803
Global Publishing
20403 sec. 4ST Edison García TH 5:30 – 8:00pm
This course delves into the dynamic realm of global publishing, emphasizing practical examples and concepts in international sales, particularly within the context of book distribution. Students will gain insights into the foundational aspects of sales, marketing, production of international printed and digital books.
Engl 39300
Special Topics: From Audio Books to A.I.: Understanding Publishing in the Digital Age
29794 Sec. 1BC Brigid Martin M 9:30 – 12:00pm
This course delves into the transformative impact of the digital revolution on the publishing industry and reader behaviors over the past 30 years. Topics include digital marketing, production and design, self-publishing, metadata and workflows, eBooks and audiobooks, social media impact and strategies, and generative A.I.
Engl 31003 – Independent Study (3 credits)
The capstone of the Publishing Certificate Program is an internship in the publishing industry in conjunction with a 3-credit independent study with the Program director. In the semester prior to the internship and independent study, students work with the director on their applications, usually a resume and cover letters. The independent study should ideally take place in conjunction with the internship and in advance of or during the student’s last semester of study. The independent study consists of check-ins with the director and a final 8-page paper on the student’s internship experience, including a discussion of how their PCP courses prepared them for their work in publishing.