English
What can you do with English?
But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.
- Toni Morrison, Sophie Kerr Visiting Writer and Nobel Prize Winner
At Washington College, you can do everything and anything with words: critical and creative writing; journalism, editing & publishing; analysis of literature and media, both old and new; how to read a book and how to make one. You will learn from celebrated visiting writers and scholars who join your classes or read at the Rose O'Neill Literary House. (Toni Morrison visited in 1987 and read from an unpublished novel titled Beloved). You will engage in a variety of experiential learning opportunities, from class trips to study abroad programs to internships in communications, editing, journalism, publishing and other fields. You will be guided by a faculty mentor and develop independent research for your Senior Capstone Experience. As a critic, editor, essayist, journalist, poet, and storyteller you will become knowledgeable and skilled in analysis, creativity, inquiry, and persuasion. You will do langauge.
Washington College is also home to the largest undergraduate literary award in the country: the Sophie Kerr Prize. The prize is awarded each year to a graduating senior chosen for their "promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor." In a world of expanding communication, we need intelligent readers and artful writers to make meaningful connections. Graduates in English, Creative Writing, and Journalism, Editing & Publishing make meaning of the world in words.
The Sophie Kerr Legacy
Sophie Kerr, a successful writer in the early 20th century from Denton on the Eastern Shore, created an endowment for the English department. This endowment enables us to bring to Chestertown and to your classroom well-known writers, editors, and scholars and host literary events and readings throughout the year. Take a look at one full year of events (2020-21) sponsored by Sophie Kerr and the O'Neill Literary House (as captured by the Pegasus Yearbook). The Sophie Kerr endowment also supports the nation’s largest undergraduate literary prize (large as in $63,000, larger than the Pulitzer Prize).
Our Core Values
Critical Knowledge
Creative Encounters
Prominent writers will visit your classes, host writing workshops, and read at Literary House and Sophie Kerr events. You will meet and talk directly with active writers and scholars. Visiting writers have included: Jericho Brown, Nick Flynn, Rebecca Makkai, Maggie Nelson, Lidia Yuknavitch, Jason Fagone, and many more!
Experiential Learning
What You Will Learn
Students will understand the breadth, variety, and depth of literature in English across a range of genres and time periods.
Students will employ a variety of analytic and interpretive skills to evaluate literary and non-literary texts.
Students will use information and research effectively and appropriately from a variety of sources.
Students will write and produce texts that are imaginative, intelligent, and persuasive.
Follow us on social media to stay up-to-date on all things English!
Declare Your Major or Minor
Email: eoconnor2@washcoll.edu to become an English major or minor, Creative Writing minor, or JEP minor!
Sophie Kerr Promise Grants
Apply now to receive funding for experimental learning and professional opportunities!
What's Different Here? Let Us Count the Ways
$65,580
The amount English major Justin Thomas Nash received in 2021 for winning the Sophie Kerr Prize, the largest undergraduate literary prize in the country.
That's more than the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, combined. In more than 50 years of the prize, over $1.5 million has been awarded. Watch 2020 Prize winner Mary Sprague, who also took home more than 63k, interviewd by CBS News. And that's only part of the story. Each year the other half of the endowment supports scholarships, books, events with writers and scholars, and experiential learning opportunities for all majors and minors.
95+
The number of internships English majors have completed since 2018.
Recent internship experiences: Apollo Theater (NYC), Capital Gazette (Annapolis), Copper Canyon Press (Port Townsend, WA), C-SPAN (DC), Delaware Today Magazine (Wilmington), Law Offices (various locations), Library of Congress (DC), Maryland House of Delegates (Annapolis), National Portrait Gallery (DC), Today Media Custom Communications (Baltimore) Triada Literary Agency (PA). On campus: Cherry Tree, The Elm, O'Neill Literary House, Pegasus, Washington College Review.
100%
The number of English majors completing a Senior Capstone Experience or thesis, independent research and writing guided by a faculty mentor.
Recent thesis topics: Weaponry and Thing Theory in Beowulf; Shakespeare in South Korea; Alt Lit and Authorship; Henry David Thoreau as Deep Ecologist; Toni Morrison and Magical Realism; Female Autonomy in The Hunger Games; Imperialism from Joseph Conrad to Tupak Shakur; Revising the Myth of Marianne Moore; Queer Continuity in Woolf and Cunningham; Nature and Poetry in José Martí’s Versos Sencillos. Read Sophie Grabiec's prize-winning thesis on Milton and gardens.
Emma Campbell's Plan
Class of 2022 • Annapolis, MD • English Major + Creative Writing & Journalism, Editing, and Publishing Minors
Dilyn Becker's Plan
Class of 2022 • Ephrata, PA • English Major + Secondary Education & Black Studies Minors • Men's Basketball
Julia Clifton's Plan
Class of 2022 • Bel Air, MD • English Major + Creative Writing & Journalism, Editing, and Publishing Minors
Teddy Friedline's Plan
Class of 2022 • Greenville, SC • English Major + Art/Art History and Creative Writing Minors
Erica Quinones's Plan
Class of 2022 • Fairplay, MD • English and German Studies Majors + Political Science Minor
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT
King Arthur: Myth to Modernity
Courtney Rydel's First-Year Seminar goes online.“I’m not doing online teaching,” remarks Courtney Rydel, Associate Professor of English. “I’m doing Washington College teaching; it just happens to be online.”
While no one anticipated swapping their lecture halls for virtual Zoom classrooms this fall, Rydel was certainly prepared. Trading in her traditional chalkboard for technology, she found new ways to engage her students, using tools she’ll continue to use when she’s back in the classroom.
The class, King Arthur: Myth to Modernity, explores original literature from the 12th through the 15th century, and compares it to modern day adaptations of King Arthur and Lancelot, including: film, documentaries, and written works. “It’s a great lens for students to think not only about the past,” she explains, “but also think critically and express ideas about the world around them.”
Traditionally, students were assigned films and documentaries to watch for homework, followed by in-class discussions. With the advent of streaming software and watch parties, the entire class can tune in to a livestream of a movie, with the option to live chat, pause a video anytime, and ask questions as they come up, rather than discussing it the next class period.
Another powerful collaboration tool, Google Docs, enables students to complete writing assignments together, while help is just a click away. Viewing their progress in real time, Rydel can identify students that are stuck on an assignment, before they even think to ask for help. In a traditional classroom setting, professors simply cannot be this proactive.
With Google Docs, collaborative note taking is also made possible; this is a feature she promises to bring back to the real classroom someday, too. Since all students have access to the group’s notes, “regardless of a student’s strengths,” she remarks, “they’re all helping each other.”
Since she no longer needs to be physically in her office to meet with students, Rydel is able to offer an extended schedule of office hours. Whether it’s later in the evening, early mornings, or after hours, it’s easy to hop on and answer student’s questions, anywhere and anytime. Being accessible to her students is now easier than ever. With screen share, she can easily look at a student’s writing during office hours and give feedback, just as she would in an office setting.
During class, it’s also much easier to share images or clips with her students, compared
to the daily hassle of setting up a projector and dealing with technology woes. While
she dearly misses seeing her students in person, she says, “I’m trying to make the
most of the technological environment that we’re in.”
And her students couldn’t agree more. “A little past halfway into my first semester of college, I am a complete and utter Arthurian geek,” Joshua Torrence ’24 exclaims. “I am eating up readings in my textbook and becoming inspired to include Arthurian characters and imagery in my own writing.”
While this year is surely not what any freshman expected their introduction to Washington College to look like, Rydel has managed to create a remote learning environment that’s not only engaging, but one that her first-year students truly enjoy.
Meet courtney rydel