The OWU English Department Blog
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.…
Skydiving and bungee-jumping a little daunting? Check out the first installment of our English Major Bucket List for fun, rewarding, and non-life-threatening activities to enhance your English major or minor. Then submit your own Bucket List entries!
1. Submit to the Owl
2. Complete a Sturges puzzle
3.…
This summer, I was strolling through the book section of the Costco near my house when a book titled I Was Anastasia caught my eye. I decided to buy the book, which was undoubtedly the best thing I have ever bought from Costco. Ariel Lawhon tells the story of Anastasia Romanav, the youngest daughter of the last Russain tsar, and her best known impersonator, Anna Anderson, compellingly enough to create the illusion of possibility that Anna is the real Anastasia.…
The story of how I came to minor in English is very different than the story of my major. I had to try several different majors before I found the right one. I came to OWU to be a Biology teacher, but I soon realized college Biology wasn’t like high school Biology–it was very hard, and I was grossed out by everything in the lab.…
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.…
Dear Mystery Novels,
I have missed you so much since our last meeting. My longing to be reunited with you only grows stronger each day, and I often find myself looking to our past for solace. It feels like only yesterday that I first laid eyes on you.
You appeared to me in the form of Encyclopedia Brown, and it was love at first clue.…
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!…
