Welcome
LSU English is home to world-renowned faculty, innovative course offerings, and talented students. At the heart of our work is an attention to verbal communication in spoken and written form – what humans do with language, how we do it, why we do it, and to what effects. Through the study of literature, linguistics, rhetoric, film, theory, and the craft of writing in a variety of genres and forms, we challenge students to ask questions of texts, to read beyond literal meanings, to understand how context and text interact, and to create compelling texts of their own. The value of an English degree is that the person who can write with elegance and precision, and who has the skills to interpret and analyze texts, is needed – and valued - in every area of work and life.
Go to Undergraduate and Graduate Course Descriptions to see examples of what our Department has to offer and browse “About Us” to learn about our faculty, graduate students, publications, events, and more.
Professor Sue Weinstein
Chair, Department of English
Creative Writing Director
LSU English is excited to welcome Associate Professor Adam Clay as our new Director of LSU Creative Writing. Adam comes to us from the University of Southern Mississippi, where he directed the Center for Writers. He is the editor of Mississippi Review and the author of 5 collections of poetry, 4 with the prestigious Milkweed Editions. His most recent book is Circle Back, published this year by Milkweed. You can learn more about Adam at his website, http://adamclay.org/.
LSU Creative Writing Presents
Boyce Upholt, author of The Great River
in Conversation with Dr. Clint Willson
September 26 at 6pm | LSU Center for River Studies
On September 26, LSU’s LSU Creative Writing welcomes journalist and essayist Boyce Upholt, who will read from his debut book The Great River, a sweeping history of the Mississippi River—and the centuries of human meddling that have transformed both it and America.
Published by Norton this past summer, The Great River has been widely acclaimed, receiving praise from the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly, among many others. Historian John M. Barry, author of Rising Tide, calls it “easily one of the best books ever written about the Mississippi.”
Following the reading, the author will participate in a conversation with Dr. Clint Willson, Dean of LSU’s College of the Coast and Environment and Director of the LSU Center for River Studies.
The event will be held on September 26 at 6pm at the LSU Center for River Studies (100 Terrace Ave.) and is free and open to the public. During the course of the event, attendees will be able to tour the Center’s Lower Mississippi River Physical Model, one of the world's largest models of its kind.
The event is presented by LSU’s Department of English and the Creative Writing program and is co-sponsored by LSU’s College of the Coast and Environment and the Center for River Studies.
Boyce Upholt is a nature critic whose writing probes the relationship between humans
and the rest of the natural world, especially in the U.S. South. His writing has appeared
in the Atlantic, National Geographic, the Oxford American, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among other publications. He is the winner of a James Beard Award for investigative
journalism and is the author of The Great River (Norton 2024). Originally from Connecticut, he earned an MFA from the Program for
Writers at Warren Wilson College and currently lives in New Orleans.
3rd Annual Welcome Week Pride Mixer
The Department of English participated in the 3rd Annual Welcome Week Pride Mixer on Friday, August 23 at the LSU Union Ballroom. The Welcome Week event was for members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies. This provided an opportunity to network and connect with other students and campus/community organizations.
Pictured from L to R:
Cole Connelly,
Kyler Carter,
Meghan Sullivan,
Sussette Housel
English Department News
Congratulations to Distinguished Instructor Ann Martin on being named a CxC Teaching Fellow. Ann directs our English Dual Enrollment Program and is an invaluable member of LSU English.
Congratulations to Distinguished Instructor Nolde Alexius, who has been awarded the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society of Louisiana State University 2024 Outstanding Instructor Award! Nolde has been a valued member of the English Department for many years and we are thrilled that her many contributions to students and to English have been recognized with this prestigious award.
Congratulations to Michael Bibler, who has been awarded the LSU Distinguished Faculty Award. This award recognizes faculty members with sustained records of excellence in teaching, research, and service. Michael will be recognized alongside other university faculty award winners at a reception to be held on Tuesday, April 23 at the Shaw Center for the Arts.
Congratulations to Ariel Francisco, who has been awarded the LSU Alumni Association Rising Faculty Research Award. This award recognizes faculty at the rank of assistant professor who have outstanding records of scholarship and published research. Ariel will be recognized alongside other university faculty award winners at a reception to be held on Tuesday, April 23 at the Shaw Center for the Arts.
New Faculty (Coming Fall 2024)
Adam Clay will be joining the Department of English in Fall 2024 as the Director of Creative Writing. He is coming to us from the University of Southern Mississippi. He has a PhD in English and an MFA in Creative Writing and was the director of USM's Center for Writers and the editor of Mississippi Review.
David Nee will be joining the Department of English in Fall 2024 as an assistant professor in the Early Modern/Renaissance area. He earned his BA in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University and his PhD in English from Harvard University.
Ashlynn Wittchow will be receiving her PhD in Spring 2024 from Teachers College, Columbia University and will be joining the English Department in Fall 2024 as an assistant professor in the area of English Education.
Jessica Valdez will be joining the Department of English in Fall 2024 as an assistant professor of 19th Century British Literature. She comes to us from the University of East Anglia and previously worked at the University of Hong Kong.
Alexandra Meany will be coming from the University of Washington where she will be receiving her PhD. She will be joining the Department of English in fall 2024 as an assistant professor in the area of Multi-Ethnic Literature.
Faculty Accomplishments
Pallavi Rastogi's new book, Teaching South Asian Anglophone Diasporic Literature, co-edited with Nalini Iyer, has been published by MLA. From the publisher: "Teaching South Asian Anglophone Diasporic Literature embraces an intersectionality that attends to the historical and material conditions of cultural production, the institutional contexts of pedagogy, and the subject positions of teachers and students. Encouraging a deep engagement with works whose personal, political, and cultural insights are specific to South Asian diasporic consciousness, the volume also provokes meaningful reflection on other literatures in an age of increasing migration and diaspora."
Congratulations to English instructor Cole Connelly on the release of the guide for his Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, The Baedran Compendium. Cole writes, "At over 2,500 pages, the Baedran Compendium details the entire world of Baedran, including its continents, nations, cultures, and conflict! The Guide also contains hundreds of spells and items, two Campaigns that run from level 1 all the way to level 20, and myriad Character Creation options, such as Subclasses, Feats, and Backgrounds!
Associate professor Joshua Wheeler has a newly inked book deal for his novel, The High Heaven, which will be published by the prestigious Graywolf Press. The book is slated for Fall 2025 release.
According to "Publishers Marketplace," The High Heaven follows the life of a woman who grew up in a New Mexico UFO cult and is rescued by a rancher near White Sands, where space exploration meets manifest destiny meets cowboy entertainment, which then launches her on a restless quest across the Southwest. (February 27, 2024)
Irina Shport has co-authored "Kyoo, This Word Sounds Weird: A Case Study of a Cajun English Interjection" with 2019 Graduate Lauren Vidrine. It has been selected as the winner of the Roger W. Shuy Award for the Best Essay in the journal American Speech for 2023. The article got a good bit of attention when it first came out, including this press release from the LSU Media Center and this article in The Advocate.
Graduate Student Accomplishments
Erin Little published work in Olney Magazine and Crab Creek Review. Erin was also announced as the 2023 Poetry Chapbook winner by Chestnut Review for chapbook, Personal Injury. Her debut chapbook, described as "crucial, painful, and innermost," will be available later this year. An interview with Erin discussing writing about and into trauma was published in Chestnut Review in October.
Taylor Thompson (M.A. 2023) started this Fall as a Visiting Lecturer of English with Specialization in Rhetoric, Writing, and Digital Media Studies at Northern Arizona University while completing her PhD at LSU.
Seohye Kwon (Ph.D. candidate) was selected as one of the LSU representatives of the 2023 SEC Emerging Scholars program. She will receive an increase in her graduate assistantship stipend for one year and join students from across the SEC at the University of Arkansas this October for the multi-day 2023 SEC Emerging Scholars Program and Career Preparation Workshop. Seohye also published a book review of Judgment and Mercy by Martin J. Siegel titled "Irving Robert Kaufman's American Dream.” She has received a Korean Honor Scholarship from the Korean government, an award given to outstanding students of Korean heritage to encourage high achievement of academic performance and the development of leadership qualities for their future professional careers.
Nuha Fariha (MFA candidate) published her first poetry collection, God Mornings Tiger Nights, with Game Over Books in August 2023. This collection is “an ode to the enduring spirit of the Bengal tiger and a love letter to an immigrant's journey.”
Sunny Rosen (MFA candidate) received a Best of the Net nomination for a poem published with Taco Bell Quarterly. She published a book review with Current Magazine on Alba de Céspedes’s 1952 novel Forbidden Notebook. Sunny was also received a scholarship in the summer to attend the Convivio Writer’s Conference in Umbria, Italy.