Contact the Admissions Office
Call 314-246-7800 or 800-753-6765 or email admit@webster.edu
Contact the Admissions Office
Call 314-246-7800 or 800-753-6765 or email admit@webster.edu
Your classes and writing workshops will be small, dynamic, and designed to foster discussion and interaction, and the English Department's cozy Pearson House will become your home away from home. You’ll be part of a lively literary community, with opportunities like The Green Fuse, our student literary magazine; The Mercury, our yearly publication of outstanding student work; Surfacing, our annual festival where students write, direct, and produce their own one-act plays; and the brand new Student Reading Series. Along the way, you'll develop the critical reading, thinking, and communication skills required for success in any professional role.
Our creative writing major offers classes in poetry, literary fiction, fantasy and science fiction, creative nonfiction, and playwriting. The curriculum includes writing workshops (limited to 15 students apiece) and literature classes that provide you with new creative influences and a variety of strategies for your own writing. Under the guidance of faculty who are published, award-winning writers, you'll widen the range of what's possible on the page.
In this major, you'll choose from courses on a range of literatures written in English as well as literature in translation from all eras. Many of these courses will span cultures, time periods, and aesthetic approaches to explore particular themes or genres such as "The History of the Novel," "Oppression and Resistance," "Human-Animal Transformations," and "Myth and Classical Literature." You'll also have the chance to study literary criticism and theory, linguistics, and film adaptations of literary texts, and to take seminars on authors like Jane Austen and Toni Morrison.
The English major with an emphasis in drama and playwriting provides students with the literary and analytical skills they will need as teachers, writers, scholars and theatre professionals.
Experiential education is a hallmark of strong academic programs and a key factor in college graduates' success. In the Webster University English Department, our practicum courses provide academic credit for experiential education opportunities. These can be off-campus internships (LINK to list of recent internships, with links ) or on-campus activities like editorships, research assistantships, event-planning, communications and media, promotions, recruiting, and mentoring. Students can develop their own ideas for practicum courses as well. See your advisor or contact Associate Professor Murray Farish for more information about experiential education in the Webster University English Department.
Graduating seniors in the English Department must complete the Portfolio Review in their last semester. Here's the process:
With the English Department's approval, an English major may earn recognition as an outstanding student in the English Department by completing the additional requirements listed below:
- For English majors, an original scholarly essay
- For English majors with an emphasis in Drama & Playwriting, an original scholarly essay on dramatic
literature or an original play
- For Creative Writing majors, original creative work by the student
Potential Honors students must fill out a petition to write the Honors Thesis in the semester prior to graduation, and set up a plan with their thesis advisor for completing the thesis. This plan should include the topic and range of the scholarly work or the type of creative work, and should leave time to turn in multiple drafts of the thesis before the due date.
Honors theses are due the Monday following the semester break in the final semester of study. These due dates are not flexible.
The Literature Club
Our mission is to encourage and engage with the art of the written word both amongst
ourselves and within the greater community. We are open to anyone and everyone who
shares a love for literature and wishes to join in the promotion of reading and writing.
Join us for our regular meetings, for the Halloween Scary Story Night, the Dickens-
themed Christmas Party, and our other events throughout the year.
The Student Reading Series
One evening each Fall, we pack Pearson House to celebrate the work and words of some
of our outstanding student writers with readings of their fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.
Get there early—this event is typically standing-room-only.
The Green Fuse
Webster University's literary magazine is student-written, student-edited, and student-
produced. Since 1982, student editors have chosen the best fiction, poetry, drama,
nonfiction, and translations submitted each year by Webster students at the home campus
and around the world. See samples of past editions at The Green Fuse.
The Lit-Mag Lending Library
Our Lit-mag Lending Library is located in the basement level of Pearson House, and
contains hundreds of editions of some of America's finest literary magazines. Students
can "check out" one magazine at a time, read and return, and get another one.
The Mercury
The Mercury is the English Department's annual publication for faculty-selected papers
and honors theses. See samples of past editions at The Mercury.
The English Department at Webster is committed to literature as a living, growing
presence in American life. Since 1986, we have hosted the Visiting Writers Series,
a mainstay of the Saint Louis literary scene that is popular with students and readers
throughout the community.
As part of this series, each year we bring to Webster some of the finest writers working
today—writers already prominent in contemporary literature as well as emerging voices
that promise to keep literature vital into the future. Among the writers Webster
has hosted are fiction writers George Saunders, Lynda Barry, Jim Shepard, and Lee
K. Abbott and nonfiction writer Kathleen Finneran. Poets include former U.S. Poet Laureates Philip Levine and Billy Collins as well
as Beth Ann Fennelly and Quincy Troupe.
Along with the many venues for students to showcase their own literary, dramatic,
and creative work, the Visiting Writing Series at Webster offers students another
unique, personal experience of literature today.
Webster University's English Department graduates are a highly successful group. Among our alumni, we list CEOs; business owners; attorneys; corporate officers; educators; writers; managers; government workers; executives in IT, finance, marketing and advertising, social media, non-profits, public relations, staffing and human resources, sales, development and fundraising; and the list (available to all current and prospective students LINK TO CONTACT MURRAY FARISH) goes on.
Our graduates succeed because they're smart and talented, but also because our degree programs prepare them for success. In your courses, you'll learn how the skills you're developing in reading, analysis, and writing translate into meaningful, profitable 21st-century careers. Our experiential learning program gives you demonstrable practical experience you can show to prospective employers. And there's more we do to prepare you for life after graduation. All Webster University English Department students have access to:
And if you're still concerned that a degree in English won't lead to a rewarding career, click on the following links:
Libraries Open Whole New Worlds
Located in the basement level of Pearson House, our lit-mag lending library contains hundreds of editions of some of America's finest literary magazines. Students can "check out" one magazine at a time, read and return, and get another one.