Winter 2026: Undergraduate English Courses
ENG 201 001 SHAKESPEARE
Instructor: Daniel Pollack-Pelzner
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Shakespeare may be Hollywood’s most prolific screenwriter, as well as the world’s most-performed playwright and best-known author. This course will examine the lives of his plays on the page, on the stage, and on the screen, introducing you to a representative sampling of his work, as well as the varied ways they have been imagined and reconstructed over the past four hundred years. We will begin each play with an examination of its text (or texts, in many cases) as a script for performance. Then we will explore how these texts have been realized and adapted on stage, considering casting, production design, and performance scripts in their cultural context. Weekly film viewing will also allow us to discuss screen versions of the plays as we develop a vocabulary for analyzing cinematic choices. In all media, we will explore the inseparability of performance and interpretation, focusing on questions of genre, gender, theatricality, and the elusive notion of the “authentic” Shakespeare. Student performance (with practice) will be a central part of the course as well.
ENG 205 001 SURVEY OF BRITISH LIT II
Instructor: Alastair Hunt
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 300 001 LITERARY FORM AND ANALYSIS
Instructor: Jonathan Walker
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
As the title for English 300 suggests, our course of study will concentrate on analyzing the major forms that English literature takes, including lyric poetry, drama, the short story, and the novel. Although we will not discuss other prominent forms such as the epic and the essay, we will screen and discuss a film adaptation of a piece of drama. We will also analyze both premodern and modern literature originating from England and the United States, ranging from William Shakespeare to Jeanette Winterson.
Without thinking much about it, most of us could differentiate a poem from a short story and a play from a novel, but when we examine literary “form,” what is it exactly that we’re looking at? One way of thinking about form is essentially the physical or material shape that a piece of literature takes. By “shape” I mean, at the most basic of levels, the disposition of the text upon the page and the mode or process by which a piece of literature creates its imaginative world for a reader or listener. Another word for “form” is “structure,” which involves both the various parts that make up the whole as well as the relationship between those parts. Other ways of thinking about “form” include who speaks in a literary text, who listens or spectates, and what and how the literary representation creates and then fulfills and/or frustrates the audience’s expectations. Our job during this class will be to learn the formal characteristics of the literature we read and to analyze it in order to produce and formulate coherent literary meanings.
You will be expected to have read each day’s material carefully, to have ideas and questions prepared when you come to class, and to participate actively in class discussions.
ENG 300 002 LITERARY FORM AND ANALYSIS
Instructor: M Hines
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
What is literature? How have we determined what is "great" literature? Do we need to know "what the author intended"? Is there more than one way to find "meaning" in a story? "Aren't we reading too much into it?" Questions like these will guide us throughout this course, which is designed as an introduction to literary theory. Rather than surveying particular schools or movements, we will focus on central questions and problems. This is a “crash course” in interpretive strategies—the goal is introduction, not mastery. Our primary texts will be ghost stories, from a genre that foregrounds interpretive acts and moves toward revelation of things “hidden.”
ENG 301U 001 TOP: SHAKESPEAREAN COMEDY
Instructor: Jonathan Walker
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
In this course we will read and discuss four Shakespearean comedies: Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, and Measure for Measure. All of these fit within the genre of “comedy,” but the resolution of each successive play’s conflicts grows increasingly problematic. Twelfth Night is a pretty conventional comedy, featuring disguise, cross-dressing, mistaken identity, and a compelling love triangle. Measure for Measure sits at the other end of the continuum and is often called a “problem play” because the traces of “comedy” seem all but to have vanished from the action. While Much Ado About Nothing and The Merchant of Venice occupy somewhat of a middle ground, they both flirt with tragic outcomes for their characters.
Our guiding questions in this class will center on the generic or formal identities of these plays, that is, why they qualify as “comedies.” What did early modern audiences expect to see when they attended a comedy in the theater? Why did depictions of emotional and social crises surrounding love, sex, communal turmoil, and social reconciliation draw people out to watch comedies? And why did comedy’s formal traits—a particular plot structure, a misunderstanding or mistake, a marriage—appeal to Renaissance audiences? We will examine how the literary form of comedy predisposes us as readers and playgoers to interpret dramatic action in certain ways, and, in turn, how the plays’ disruption or frustration of our formal expectations transforms the possibilities of interpretation. We will likewise give attention to questions of social class, economics, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender (among other issues) as they are posed by these four plays and by the early modern English culture from which they come.
Most of our in-class time will involve discussing such questions in these four texts, along with four other critical readings. There will be very few lectures. The course will therefore require you to have read the plays and articles carefully and to be prepared to discuss and ask questions during class meetings. Because of the course’s discussion-based format, its success will depend upon everyone’s active participation as we seek to answer these various questions together.
This class may count toward the Historical Literacy requirement of the English and Creative Writing majors (and may also be taken as an English elective).
ENG 304 001 CRITICAL THEORY OF CINEMA
Instructor: Matthew Ellis
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
ENG 305U 001 TOP IN FLM: MIDCENTURY MODERN
Instructor: Dan DeWeese
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 305U 002 TOP IN FLM: APOCALYPSE CINEMA
Instructor: Matthew Ellis
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
ENG 306U 001 TOP: UTOPIA
Instructor: Alastair Hunt
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 309U 001 INDIGENOUS NATIONS LITERATURE
Instructor: Ted Van Alst
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
ENG 316 001 THE SHORT STORY
Instructor: Joel Bettridge
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course will survey of the history of the American short story, from its beginnings in the 19th century to the early 21st century. It will also develop students’ critical reading and writing skills through weekly critical responses.
ENG 320U 001 THE ENGLISH NOVEL I
Instructor: Bill Knight
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This class may count toward the Historical Literacy requirement of the English and Creative Writing majors (and may also be taken as an English elective).
ENG 327 001 CULTURE, IMPERIALISM, GLOBAL
Instructor: Sarah Lincoln
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
Though there have been many attempts to identify the start of modern globalization, most agree that its origins lie in the experience of imperial conquest and expansion that began in the fifteenth century. Even now, pundits continue to debate whether to describe today’s world in terms of “globalization” or “neo-imperialism,” whether what defines our planet today is a utopian model of connection, mobility, and opportunity, or a dystopian structure of domination, infection, and exploitation. Partially, this depends on your position within these structures, but our attitudes and opinions are also naturally shaped by the cultural texts that seek to represent this era: the films, novels, tv shows, and other efforts to make sense of the experiences, structures, and modes of thinking that are shaped by, and help shape, our material relations.
In this fun and challenging class, we will work to consider the intersections of globalization and imperialism, and the continued relevance of “postcolonial” perspectives to our current era. Reading novels, films, and theoretical works from Africa, India, the Caribbean and beyond, we will grapple with topics like: economic dependence and domination; education, language, and culture; the environment, climate change, and slow violence; political conflict and the legacies of violence and war; migration and mobility; and the work of art in our time.
Required Texts:
- Adiga, The White Tiger (9781416562603)
- Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism (9781583670255)
- Conrad, Heart of Darkness (9780393264869)
- Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (9781644450710)
This course fulfills the Culture, Difference, and Representation requirement for the English and Creative Writing majors (and may also be taken as an English elective).
ENG 345U 001 MODERN BRITISH LIT
Instructor: Rodney Koeneke
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
ENG 352U 001 AFRICAN AMERICAN LIT II
Instructor: M Hines
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
This course is an introduction to African American literature from the mid-nineteenth century to the beginnings of the “Black Arts” movement. It is the second in a three-part survey of African American literature. In addition to short stories, poetry, and novels, we will look at essays, journals, autobiographies, audio-recordings, fine art, photography, and performance.
ENG 360U 001 AMERICAN LIT AND CULTURE I
Instructor: Elizabeth Duquette
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
This class may count toward the Historical Literacy requirement of the English and Creative Writing majors (and may also be taken as an English elective).
ENG 367U 001 TOP: US IMPERIALISM AND LIT
Instructor: Elizabeth C. Brown
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
In a recent article, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and scholar Viet Thanh Nguyen argues, as the article’s title states, that “Most American Literature is the Literature of Empire.” For Nguyen, approaching U.S. literature as imperial literature not only provides a framework for interrogating the frequently obscured history and politics of canonical U.S. literature but also creates an entry point for thinking about literature, politics, and publishing in our contemporary moment. In this class, we will practice strategies for reading U.S. imperialism and literature. How do we define imperialism and imperial culture, especially in the context of the United States? What are some ways to think critically about the relationship between art and politics, including in literary works that are generally treated as apolitical? How have authors drawn upon specific literary forms or conventions to treat historical processes of slavery, colonization, immigration, war, and global expansion? How has literature been a site of contestation, even solidarity building, vis-a-vis U.S. imperialism? To explore these and other related questions, we will read a selection of literature from the 19th to the 21st centuries. Instead of gaining a comprehensive overview of U.S. imperialism and literature, the goal of the course is for you to develop strategies to think critically about U.S. history, politics, and culture.
ENG 367U 002 TOP: CONTEMP AM WOMEN'S LIT
Instructor: Susan Reese
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 371 001 THE NOVEL
Instructor: Kathi Inman Berens
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Jane Austen & adaptations. We'll read Pride & Prejudice and Emma and learn techniques for reading long-form fiction. We'll study various adaptations and inspirations: Clueless, Bridgerton (no sub required), Jane Austen's house, cosplay, Lizzie Bennett Diaries, Pride and Prejudice & Zombies. Comparative media, close reading and text mining. Fun!
ENG 383U 001 TOP: WITCHES AND FEMINISTS
Instructor: Moshe Rachmuth
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 385U 001 CONTEMPORARY LIT
Instructor: Susan Reese
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 413 001 TCHG & TUTORING WR
Instructor: Dan DeWeese
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 422 001 AFRICAN FICTION
Instructor: Christopher Foster
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 428 001 CANONS AND CANONICITY
Instructor: Elisabeth Ceppi
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course examines how traditions of great works have been established, contested, and creatively appropriated. It focuses on questions of literary value and its relation to national identity, cultural encounter, and power. It also investigates how categories of social difference such as gender, race, and class have shaped the criteria by which works and authors have been included and excluded from dominant traditions. We will explore these issues by taking Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter as a case study of “classic” American literature, tracing its critical and cultural history. We will read it alongside Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, a work with similar themes published a decade after Hawthorne’s novel, which has become a critical text in multiple “revisionist” canons. We will consider the afterlives of these texts, and the effects of canonicity on artistic creation and cultural reception, in three contemporary works: Suzan-Lori Parks’ play Fucking A, the film Easy A, and Percival Everett's 2024 novel, James. Pre-requisite: ENG 300; Co-Requisite: WR 301.
Course Objectives:
This course will:
- Introduce students to key concepts and issues in debates about canon formation and revision
- Identify criteria for distinguishing great and important works and authors, understand how those have changed over time, and interpret the vocabulary used to express those distinctions
- Examine how these works embody, express, and transmit multiple forms of value, and how those values shape—and are themselves shaped by—institutions like schools, publishers, media, and the market
- Consider how the meaning and value of these works emerge from their encounters with students, teachers, scholars, and artists who adapt and are influenced by them
Required Texts:
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (Dover)
- Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Dover)
- Percival Everett, James (Picador)
This course fulfills the Culture, Difference, and Representation requirement for the English and Creative Writing majors (and may also be taken as an English elective).
ENG 441 001 ADV TOP: RENAISS WOMEN'S LIT
Instructor: Keri Behre
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This class may count toward the Historical Literacy requirement of the English and Creative Writing majors (and may also be taken as an English elective).
ENG 480 001 ADV TOP: THE HUNGER ARTISTS
Instructor: Sarah Lincoln
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
The masses battle with the same poverty, wrestle with the same age-old gestures, and delineate what we could call the geography of hunger with their shrunken bellies.
–Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, 23
To speak, and above all to write, is to fast.
–Deleuze & Guattari
From the ancient Greeks to medieval Christianity; from Jewish and Hindu rituals of fasting to online “ana” communities; from Ireland to India, from suffragettes to South Africa; the “fasting girls” of 19th-century Europe to today’s “thinfluencers,” voluntary self-starvation has long been a scene of potent symbolic, philosophical, and political meaning. In this class, we will take a comparative perspective to the literature, history, and theory of fasting, focusing on anti- and postcolonial contexts and exploring the complex connections amongst “disorderly eating,” gender; sexuality; race; colonialism; language, writing, and reading; performance; and ecology in twentieth- and twenty-first century literatures.
Texts will include Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K; Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions; Atwood’s The Edible Woman; Oyeyemi’s White is for Witching; poetry by Louise Gluck and Eavon Boland; Kang, The Vegetarian; Steve McQueen’s film Hunger, and more, along with theoretical perspectives by Plato, Gandhi, Susan Bordo, Lesley Heywood, Maud Ellmann, Patrick Anderson, Roxane Gay and others.
Students will be welcome, throughout, to present on or write about works we’re not reading in the class (we need some vampires in here somewhere…), or to draw connections between course materials and other areas of interest.
Required Texts:
- J.M. Coetzee, Life and Times of Michael K (9780140074482)
- Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (9781644451632)
- Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman (9780385491068)
- Han Kang, The Vegetarian (9781101906118)
- Helen Oyeyemi, White Is for Witching (9781594633072)
- Ruth Ozeki, My Year of Meats (9780140280463)
ENG 491 001 HST OF LITERARY CRIT & THRY I
Instructor: Bishupal Limbu
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
This class may count toward the Historical Literacy requirement of the English and Creative Writing majors (and may also be taken as an English elective).
ENG 496 001 COMICS THEORY
Instructor: Susan Kirtley
Instructional Method: Hybrid
Comics, graphic novels, comic strips, cartoons. There are many terms for them, but they are all names for innovative storytelling done through some combination of words and images. While picture-images date as far back as the Egyptian tombs and the caves of Lascaux, our course will consider the development of the modern comic in twentieth- and twenty-first- century America. This course will focus on comics theory, understanding and applying theory to primary texts.
Back to Top
Winter 2026: Graduate English Courses
ENG 507 001 SEM: ANGLOPHONE MODERNISM
Instructor: Tom Fisher
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course satisfies the seminar requirement for the MA in English.
ENG 518 001 COLLEGE COMP TEACHING
Instructor: Keri Behre
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
ENG 541 001 ADV TOP: RENAISS WOMEN'S LIT
Instructor: Keri Behre
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This class may count toward one of the following requirements of the MA in English: (a) pre-1800 British or American literature; or (b) pre-1900 literature/rhetoric.
ENG 580 001 ADV TOP: THE HUNGER ARTISTS
Instructor: Sarah Lincoln
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
The masses battle with the same poverty, wrestle with the same age-old gestures, and delineate what we could call the geography of hunger with their shrunken bellies.
–Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, 23
To speak, and above all to write, is to fast.
–Deleuze & Guattari
From the ancient Greeks to medieval Christianity; from Jewish and Hindu rituals of fasting to online “ana” communities; from Ireland to India, from suffragettes to South Africa; the “fasting girls” of 19th-century Europe to today’s “thinfluencers,” voluntary self-starvation has long been a scene of potent symbolic, philosophical, and political meaning. In this class, we will take a comparative perspective to the literature, history, and theory of fasting, focusing on anti- and postcolonial contexts and exploring the complex connections amongst “disorderly eating,” gender; sexuality; race; colonialism; language, writing, and reading; performance; and ecology in twentieth- and twenty-first century literatures.
Texts will include Coetzee, Life & Times of Michael K; Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions; Atwood’s The Edible Woman; Oyeyemi’s White is for Witching; poetry by Louise Gluck and Eavon Boland; Kang, The Vegetarian; Steve McQueen’s film Hunger, and more, along with theoretical perspectives by Plato, Gandhi, Susan Bordo, Lesley Heywood, Maud Ellmann, Patrick Anderson, Roxane Gay and others.
Students will be welcome, throughout, to present on or write about works we’re not reading in the class (we need some vampires in here somewhere…), or to draw connections between course materials and other areas of interest.
Required Texts:
- J.M. Coetzee, Life and Times of Michael K (9780140074482)
- Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (9781644451632)
- Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman (9780385491068)
- Han Kang, The Vegetarian (9781101906118)
- Helen Oyeyemi, White Is for Witching (9781594633072)
- Ruth Ozeki, My Year of Meats (9780140280463)
Back to Top
Winter 2026: Undergraduate Writing Courses
WR 121Z 001 COMPOSITION I
Instructor: Rebecca Nelson
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 121Z 002 COMPOSITION I
Instructor: Nathan Chu
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 121Z 003 COMPOSITION I
Instructor: Daniela Sherrill
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 199 001 SPST: INTRO CREATIVE WRITING
Instructor: Paul Collins
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
An introduction to writing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, as well as to the community of writing events and literary quarterlies. Majors and non-majors alike are welcome; no prior experience is required.
Text:
- Bird by Bird -- Anne Lamott (978-0385480017)
WR 212 001 INTRO FICTION WRITING
Instructor: Margaret Muthee
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 212 002 INTRO FICTION WRITING
Instructor: Leni Zumas
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 212 003 INTRO FICTION WRITING
Instructor: Thea Prieto
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 213 001 INTRO POETRY WRITING
Instructor: Richard Afriyie
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 213 002 INTRO POETRY WRITING
Instructor: Consuelo Wise
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 214 001 INTRO NONFICTION WRITING
Instructor: Lisa Wells
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
The essay is the core of nonfiction writing, a literary form that tries to mimic the movements of a mind as it lingers here, obsesses there, probes old trauma, new love, or nagging questions. In this course we will explore different forms of the literary essay, including personal essay, profiles, lyric, travelogues, journalism, and cultural criticism. By reading great examples of essays we will learn how published writers use style, structure, voice, and perspective to create our reading experiences. Then we’ll experiment writing our own essays in order to develop our skills on and off the page—from sharpening our observations of places, to developing strong "characters," capturing dialogue, and finding precise and imaginative language to express the movements of our minds. Please note: by and large this will be an analog class, and while there will be no assigned books you will be expected to print out hard copies of assigned pdfs, annotate them, and bring them to each class session for discussion.
WR 222 001 WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS
Instructor: Madeline Mendiola
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 222 002 WRITING RESEARCH PAPERS
Instructor: Kyle Nunes
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 227Z 001 TECHNICAL WRITING
Instructor: Elle Wilder
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 227Z 002 TECHNICAL WRITING
Instructor: Julie Kares
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 227Z 003 TECHNICAL WRITING
Instructor: Jacob Tootalian
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 300 001 TOP: PODCASTING
Instructor: Sid Patcha
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
Podcasting introduces you to the basics of narrative podcasting. The course provides a theoretical and practical framework of producing narrative podcasts for the growing podcast field. This class focuses on the essential skills for podcast production – from research to audio interviewing techniques, workflow and organization, structuring episodes, script writing, postproduction mixing and critical review.
You will also explore how to identify an audience, distribute, and market podcasts and get an understanding of analytics, metrics, and monetization practices, all within a framework of ethical production. Due to the hands-on workshop style of this class, you can expect to have an audio portfolio by the end of this class.
WR 301 001 WIC: CRITICAL WRTING ENGLISH
Instructor: Anoop Mirpuri
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 301 002 WIC: CRITICAL WRITING ENGLISH
Instructor: Josh Epstein
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
One of two core classes for the PSU English major (along with ENG 300), WR 301 is entitled "Critical Writing in English." Like so many things we study, this title has multiple meanings. Our main goal is to grow as critical writers: to develop skill and confidence at formulating written arguments (focusing primarily, though not exclusively, on academic essays about literary texts). This class reinforces the skills of interpretation and close reading taught in ENG 300 (the two classes may be taken in either order)—skills that involve the full scope of the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, research, revision, peer-review, citation, etc.).
We will also talk about "critical writing" as a genre of text, and the strategies we employ when researching, reading, and creating in this genre. The critical writing we read and the critical writing we do will sharpen our efforts to read closely, formulate interpretive and research questions, build on existing scholarly conversations, and refine our writing voices.
What about "in English"? Well, we're reading texts written in the English language—but we're also considering English as a field of study, with considerable mobility within and beyond the university. The class is central to the English major but open to all students—those of you with friends and family who keep asking you what it means to "study English" will, I hope, develop good answers to that question, for them and for yourselves.
In addition to a few short stories and poems, our main texts will be:
- Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men (Knopf; ISBN 9780375706677)
- Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (9780385721677)
- debbie tucker green, trade and/or generations (Nick Hern Books, 9781854599124)
- Cathy Birkenstein and Gerald Graff, They Say / I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, 6th ed. (Norton, 9780393631678; earlier editions are ok)
This course will be taught online (asynchronously). Students will be asked to schedule at least two writing conferences via Zoom.
WR 312 001 INTERMED FICTION WRITING
Instructor: Leni Zumas
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 312 002 INTERMED FICTION WRITING
Instructor: Janice Lee
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Building off of fiction writing techniques introduced in WR 212, students will engage with topics related to craft (point of view, character, narrative, setting, etc.), look more closely at their own relationship with language and narrative structure, and aim to produce two completed works of original fiction. Students will also participate in workshops and provide written critical engagements of the works of their peers. Our work will be guided by various writing & revision exercises, as well as readings by diverse contemporary authors.
WR 313 001 INTERMEDIATE POETRY WRITING
Instructor: John Beer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 323 001 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Brett Bolstad
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 323 002 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Brett Bolstad
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 323 003 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Kate Comer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 323 004 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Kate Comer
Instructional Method: Hybrid
WR 323 005 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Keri Behre
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 323 006 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Perrin Kerns
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 323 007 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Amy Harper Russell
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
In this course, we will learn how to identify as a writer, how to establish tone, stance and purpose, and how to research, synthesize, and cite information in the process of writing a research paper. Additionally, we will discuss AI’s role in the classroom. Also, we will learn more about ourselves and others by writing and sharing personal narratives. To round out the course, we will focus on translating writing to the real world by writing résumés and cover letters. Be ready to collaborate with others in workshops that involve critical peer reviews.
WR 323 008 WRITING AS CRITICAL INQUIRY
Instructor: Travis Willmore
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 327 001 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
Instructor: Sid Patcha
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 327 002 TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING
Instructor: STAFF
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 398 001 TOP: WRITING COMICS
Instructor: Brian Bendis
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 412 001 ADVANCED FICTION WRITING
Instructor: Gabriel Urza
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 413 001 ADVANCED POETRY WRITING
Instructor: Consuelo Wise
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 416 001 SCREENWRITING
Instructor: Thom Bray
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
This is a class about the process of writing for a SCREEN.
We will be examining three different screen structures: One Hour Broadcast TV, Broadcast Sitcom, and Traditional Three Act Film. I'll teach you the process I learned working professionally, to stand up a story in any of these forms. After you learn the building blocks of this process, including understanding genres, loglines and two part outlining, you will use those tools to stand up your own story in whichever of the three structures interests you.
WR 420 001 WRITING STUDIO
Instructor: Justin Hocking
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 424 001 GRANT WRITING FOR PROF WRITERS
Instructor: Sarah Read
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
Introduces students training for careers as professional writers to the best practices in writing grants and managing the grant writing process across multiple sectors of the non-profit world and in academia. Students will work collaboratively and individually to develop business plans, identify potential funding sources, and begin preparing grants. This is an online course. No previous experience writing grants required.
WR 433 001 RESEARCH METHODS FOR TECH WRIT
Instructor: Sid Patcha
Instructional Method: Online - Scheduled Meetings
A great resume builder for students finishing an English degree! Introduces students to the research methods commonly practiced by professional technical writers. These methods include interviewing subject-matter experts, researching genre conventions, user research, website content analysis, and usability testing. Students will practice methods via client-projects with local community partners, so the methods taught in any given section of the course will be shaped by the needs of the client-project. Students will produce professional-quality project deliverables for the client and the program portfolio. Required course for the MPTW. Great course for students interested in UX-related skills and careers. No previous experience necessary. Format is remote with synchronous meetings.
WR 456 001 FORMS OF NONFICTION
Instructor: Justin Hocking
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 460 001 INTRO TO BOOK PUBLISHING
Instructor: Rachel Noorda
Instructional Method: Hybrid
WR 462 001 BOOK DESIGN SOFTWARE
Instructor: Jessica Reed
Instructional Method: Hybrid
WR 463 001 BOOK MARKETING
Instructor: Robyn Crummer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
The objective of this course is to understand the role of marketing and publicity in book publishing, both traditional and self-publishing, and to obtain the necessary skills to position a title, create sales materials, and develop a marketing and publicity plan. Your goal is to end the course able to demonstrate skills in target audience analysis, copywriting, metadata management, author platform building, media and reviewer outreach, budgeting and scheduling, email and social media marketing, and metrics and analytics that are directly applicable to a career in book publishing.
WR 466 001 DIGITAL SKILLS
Instructor: Kathi Inman Berens
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Build websites—no coding experience required. Learn HTML and CSS through class discussion & workshops; W3Schools; LinkedIn Learning tutorials; Google Gemini. Study the media history of print culture, early internet, and AI. Study data feminism and learn how data is constructed. Write about tech transformations in publishing, creative writing and other creative industries.
WR 471 001 TYPOGRAPHY, LAYOUT, PRODUCTION
Instructor: Elaine Schumacher
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 473 001 DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING
Instructor: Katie Van Heest
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 474 001 PUBLISHING STUDIO
Instructor: Robyn Crummer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course is no-cost.2
Publishing Studio & Lab are cross listed and split listed courses, which means they run concurrently. Enrollment depends on whether you need a one-credit or four-credit course as an undergraduate or graduate student for your individual degree requirements. There are no prerequisites.
Publishing Studio & Lab are the courses for hands-on learning at Ooligan Press. Designed to give students the freedom and responsibility of running a real-world trade book publishing house, students are assigned to projects where they will work on a variety of publishing tasks. Project teams will work collaboratively to assess, plan, and execute editorial, design, digital content, marketing, and sales tasks throughout the term.
Publishing Studio: Graduate students in Publishing Studio should expect assignments to take approximately 12 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Studio should expect 9 hours per week.
Publishing Lab: Graduate students in Publishing Lab should expect assignments to take approximately 4 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Lab should expect 3 hours per week.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- explain and understand the book production cycle;
- competently use industry-standard terminology;
- analyze disruptions to their project as they arise and actively problem-solve to address issues;
- track, maintain, and update project management software, in the form of Trello;
- communicate efficiently through email and face-to-face meetings;
- complete assigned tasks efficiently as an individual and within a group; and
- perform various tasks at a professional level, as assigned by a team manager.
WR 475 001 PUBLISHING LAB
Instructor: Robyn Crummer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This course is no-cost.2
Publishing Studio & Lab are cross listed and split listed courses, which means they run concurrently. Enrollment depends on whether you need a one-credit or four-credit course as an undergraduate or graduate student for your individual degree requirements. There are no prerequisites.
Publishing Studio & Lab are the courses for hands-on learning at Ooligan Press. Designed to give students the freedom and responsibility of running a real-world trade book publishing house, students are assigned to projects where they will work on a variety of publishing tasks. Project teams will work collaboratively to assess, plan, and execute editorial, design, digital content, marketing, and sales tasks throughout the term.
Publishing Studio: Graduate students in Publishing Studio should expect assignments to take approximately 12 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Studio should expect 9 hours per week.
Publishing Lab: Graduate students in Publishing Lab should expect assignments to take approximately 4 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Lab should expect 3 hours per week.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- explain and understand the book production cycle;
- competently use industry-standard terminology;
- analyze disruptions to their project as they arise and actively problem-solve to address issues;
- track, maintain, and update project management software, in the form of Trello;
- communicate efficiently through email and face-to-face meetings;
- complete assigned tasks efficiently as an individual and within a group; and
- perform various tasks at a professional level, as assigned by a team manager.
Back to Top
Winter 2026: Graduate Writing Courses
WR 507 001 SEM: MFA FICTION
Instructor: Janice Lee
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Beyond the Liminal Space: Expanding Possibilities in Language:
Liminal spaces usually refer to those spaces in-between, such as transitions, thresholds, and crossings. This way of thinking, though, prioritizes categories, separation, geographic distance between objects, and spaces as something that are locatable, such as the space between your fingers, or the space between two letters on the page. Another way to conceptualize a liminal space is to think of it as a realm of possibility, a threshold or crack or small gesture where rupture or creation happens. It's not the big event, but the space around the event, the energy of potentiality that makes an action or decision possible. It's a way of thinking non-binarily, but also non-categorically, non-strategically. This seminar invites us to locate ourselves on the thresholds and cracks that we are already occupying, to rethink boundaries and context altogether, and to think about overlap, spillage, contamination, and nonseparation in our writing. In this class, we will explore intricacies and possibilities in the structure of language by examining grammar, syntax, and narrative structures, as well as investigate how texts open up spiritual, relational, and multi-sensory dimensions of engagement via discussions on readings, guided meditations, generative writing prompts, and self-inquiry of our own writing. We'll be reading contemporary texts from all genres. The reading list will include texts by Renee Gladman, Bayo Akomolafe, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Teresa Carmody, Lara Mimosa Montes, Prageeta Sharma, Kim Hyesoon, Grace M. Cho, Christina Sharpe, JJJJJerome Ellis, Jake Skeets, and Leslie Marmon Silko.
WR 520 001 WRITING STUDIO
Instructor: Justin Hocking
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 522 001 MFA CORE WORKSHOP POETRY
Instructor: John Beer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 523 001 MFA CORE WORKSHOP NONFICTION
Instructor: Paul Collins
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
This workshop is focused on science and nature – writing in, around, and about these subjects through creative nonfiction. The course doesn't assume academic experience in these areas, but it does assume personal experience; our lives are directly affected by medical care, by the environment, and by technology. We'll examine approaches to science and nature while drafting, workshopping and revising new work. Your final project will be open in both length and genre.
Texts:
- The Kissing Bug – Daisy Hernandez (ISBN 9781953534194)
- Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025 – Susan Orlean (ed.) (9780063414211)
WR 524 001 GRANT WRITING FOR PROF WRITERS
Instructor: Sarah Read
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
Introduces students training for careers as professional writers to the best practices in writing grants and managing the grant writing process across multiple sectors of the non-profit world and in academia. Students will work collaboratively and individually to develop business plans, identify potential funding sources, and begin preparing grants. This is an online course. No previous experience writing grants required.
WR 533 001 RESEARCH METHODS FOR TECH WRIT
Instructor: Sid Patcha
Instructional Method: Online - Scheduled Meetings
Introduces students to the research methods commonly practiced by professional technical writers. These methods include interviewing subject-matter experts, researching genre conventions, user research, website content analysis, and usability testing. Students will practice methods via client-projects with local community partners, so the methods taught in any given section of the course will be shaped by the needs of the client-project. Students will produce professional-quality project deliverables for the client and the program portfolio. Required course for the MPTW. Great course for all students interested in UX-related skills and careers. No previous experience necessary. Format is remote with synchronous meetings.
WR 540 001 TECH WRITING PORTFOLIO
Instructor: Sarah Read
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 550 001 PORTLAND REVIEW
Instructor: Michael Seidlinger
Instructional Method: Online - No Scheduled Meetings
WR 560 001 INTRO TO BOOK PUBLISHING
Instructor: Rachel Noorda
Instructional Method: Hybrid
WR 562 001 BOOK DESIGN SOFTWARE
Instructor: Jessica Reed
Instructional Method: Hybrid
WR 563 001 BOOK MARKETING
Instructor: Robyn Crummer
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
The objective of this course is to understand the role of marketing and publicity in book publishing, both traditional and self-publishing, and to obtain the necessary skills to position a title, create sales materials, and develop a marketing and publicity plan. Your goal is to end the course able to demonstrate skills in target audience analysis, copywriting, metadata management, author platform building, media and reviewer outreach, budgeting and scheduling, email and social media marketing, and metrics and analytics that are directly applicable to a career in book publishing.
WR 566 001 DIGITAL SKILLS
Instructor: Kathi Inman Berens
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
Build websites—no coding experience required. Learn HTML and CSS through class discussion & workshops; W3Schools; LinkedIn Learning tutorials; Google Gemini. Study the media history of print culture, early internet, and AI. Study data feminism and learn how data is constructed. Write about tech transformations in publishing, creative writing and other creative industries.
WR 571 001 TYPOGRAPHY, LAYOUT, PRODUCTION
Instructor: Elaine Schumacher
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 573 001 DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING
Instructor: Katie Van Heest
Instructional Method: In-Person Meeting
WR 574 001 PUBLISHING STUDIO
Instructor: Robyn Crummer
Instructional Method: Online - Scheduled Meetings
This course is no-cost.2
Publishing Studio & Lab are cross listed and split listed courses, which means they run concurrently. Enrollment depends on whether you need a one-credit or four-credit course as an undergraduate or graduate student for your individual degree requirements. There are no prerequisites.
Publishing Studio & Lab are the courses for hands-on learning at Ooligan Press. Designed to give students the freedom and responsibility of running a real-world trade book publishing house, students are assigned to projects where they will work on a variety of publishing tasks. Project teams will work collaboratively to assess, plan, and execute editorial, design, digital content, marketing, and sales tasks throughout the term.
Publishing Studio: Graduate students in Publishing Studio should expect assignments to take approximately 12 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Studio should expect 9 hours per week.
Publishing Lab: Graduate students in Publishing Lab should expect assignments to take approximately 4 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Lab should expect 3 hours per week.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- explain and understand the book production cycle;
- competently use industry-standard terminology;
- analyze disruptions to their project as they arise and actively problem-solve to address issues;
- track, maintain, and update project management software, in the form of Trello;
- communicate efficiently through email and face-to-face meetings;
- complete assigned tasks efficiently as an individual and within a group; and
- perform various tasks at a professional level, as assigned by a team manager.
WR 575 001 PUBLISHING LAB
Instructor: Robyn Crummer
Instructional Method: Online - Scheduled Meetings
This course is no-cost.2
Publishing Studio & Lab are cross listed and split listed courses, which means they run concurrently. Enrollment depends on whether you need a one-credit or four-credit course as an undergraduate or graduate student for your individual degree requirements. There are no prerequisites.
Publishing Studio & Lab are the courses for hands-on learning at Ooligan Press. Designed to give students the freedom and responsibility of running a real-world trade book publishing house, students are assigned to projects where they will work on a variety of publishing tasks. Project teams will work collaboratively to assess, plan, and execute editorial, design, digital content, marketing, and sales tasks throughout the term.
Publishing Studio: Graduate students in Publishing Studio should expect assignments to take approximately 12 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Studio should expect 9 hours per week.
Publishing Lab: Graduate students in Publishing Lab should expect assignments to take approximately 4 hours per week; undergraduate students in Publishing Lab should expect 3 hours per week.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- explain and understand the book production cycle;
- competently use industry-standard terminology;
- analyze disruptions to their project as they arise and actively problem-solve to address issues;
- track, maintain, and update project management software, in the form of Trello;
- communicate efficiently through email and face-to-face meetings;
- complete assigned tasks efficiently as an individual and within a group; and
- perform various tasks at a professional level, as assigned by a team manager.
Back to Top