English & Creative Writing

UW’s Department of English promotes cultural understanding and participation through extensive reading, thoughtful intellectual inquiry, and rigorous academic, professional, and creative writing. 

The English department touches every UW undergraduate by providing required writing-intensive University Studies courses, including College Composition and Rhetoric (or English1010); Literature, Media, and Culture; and Professional and Technical Writing, among many others. In addition to general education courses, we have a vibrant undergraduate and graduate programs in literary studies, English studies, creative writing, and more—including a low-residency part-time online master’s degree for working professionals and a Ph.D.

Our aim in each of our campaigns is to get students excited to work on a shared project together and to promote a better shared understanding.

• English Writing Programs – This campaign supports students and instructors in our English writing and literary studies programs. As part of the campaign, students and instructors are invited create a short video around the theme “The Top 10 Things About Being a Freshman, Sophomore, or Upper-Division Student at UW.” These short films will show donors the day-to-day lives of students at UW. 

• Undergraduate English Major – This campaign supports our majors and their professional development and travel abroad experiences, as well as the department’s broader goals.  As part of this campaign, students in the courses Gateway to the English Major and Senior Seminar are asked to develop videos on the theme of "Why Become an English Major?" They will receive a specially designed “Ask Me Why I Became an English Major” hoodie. 

• MFA in Creative Writing – This campaign supports students who write fiction and nonfiction, as well as in hybrid forms. We also have award-winning faculty who write novels, story collections, public dialogues, and philosophical meditations. We prepare our graduates to release books with prominent commercial and small-press publishers and to bring their prose passions to writing for scientific communities, for public radio, for political campaigns, and much more.

• Graduate Programs and Ph.D. in the Public Humanities – This campaign supports all of our graduate students but particularly students pursuing degrees in our exciting new doctoral program in the public humanities. Your gift to this campaign supports research and travel experiences of doctoral students and the public humanities projects that they develop. For over a decade, English has been planning a Ph.D., and we are excited to launch the program this fall. We are developing a distinctive cutting-edge doctorate focused on public humanities, seeking to extend the humanities beyond the ivory tower by including the public in conversations that inform contemporary debates, magnify community perspectives, preserve local cultures, and expand educational access. 

Thank you for supporting the students and programs of the UW Department of English!