The OWU English Department Blog
When Dave Lucas became Ohio’s second-ever Poet Laureate on Jan. 1, 2018, he approached the position with a mission. Despite his impressive academic background–B.A. from John Carroll University, MFA from the University of Virginia, and MA and PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor–Lucas firmly believes poetry belongs outside the classroom as a staple of everyday life.…
I’ve always had an interesting relationship with writing. I often have periods of loving it so much that I can’t stop writing and then other periods of not liking it at all. The difficulty lies in what I like to write. Usually, when I come up with a story idea, I think of the exciting event that kicks off the story or that ends it.…
Kiese Laymon is a Black Southern writer and professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi. His writing has been featured in a plethora of major publications, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, ESPN The Magazine, Oxford American, and Ebony.…
When it comes to writing I have always done things differently than what teachers say to do–start with characters, plot, theme, et cetera. I don’t always think before I start writing. Once I’ve got the beginning, I go until I find the middle and the end. My mind flows so fast and I get lost in my own world it’s like when I get absorbed in TV.…
I don’t want to dwell on how terrified I was when I graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2012, but I had a lot of fears. And I don’t want to parse out which ones were irrational, but I was really, really afraid that I would stop writing.
Leaving the environment where writing is due and workshops full of people read my work regularly, it was hard to imagine other writing communities.…
One of the things that attracted me to OWU was the Small Project Grants program that allows students to request funding for off-campus projects to do things related to their major. I was excited when I had the chance to apply for one to go to New York, but I was even more thrilled when I learned that I got it!…
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Sarah Lucas. I graduated from OWU in 2016 with a double major in History and Ancient Studies and a minor in Classics. I currently work as a Circulation Team Leader at Worthington Libraries.
How did you become interested in librarianship?…
Who are you and where did you study abroad?
My name is Michael Wadsworth and I’m a graduating senior with a major in English and a concentration in nonfiction writing. I spent the Spring of 2018 in London, UK, through Arcadia University’s Study Abroad & Internship Program.
Why did you want to study abroad and how did you decide on a program?…
Who are you and where did you study abroad?
My name is Rebecca Gerrish (’19) and I’m an English major. I studied in Cork, Ireland, at the University College Cork through an Arcadia University program.
Why did you want to study abroad and how did you decide on a program?
The main thing that interested me about studying abroad was the opportunity to immerse myself in a culture that I was completely unfamiliar with.…
On her first semester of grad school: The greatest lesson I had to learn my first semester in graduate school was to make a place for myself in the program. I am in a Masters in Comparative Literature program at the University of Massachusetts — Amherst, and most people are doctoral students.…