Welcome
LSU English is home to world-renowned faculty, innovative course offerings, and talented students. At the heart of our work is an attention to verbal communication in spoken and written form – what humans do with language, how we do it, why we do it, and to what effects. Through the study of literature, linguistics, rhetoric, film, theory, and the craft of writing in a variety of genres and forms, we challenge students to ask questions of texts, to read beyond literal meanings, to understand how context and text interact, and to create compelling texts of their own. The value of an English degree is that the person who can write with elegance and precision, and who has the skills to interpret and analyze texts, is needed – and valued - in every area of work and life.
Go to Undergraduate and Graduate Course Descriptions to see examples of what our Department has to offer and browse “About Us” to learn about our faculty, graduate students, publications, events, and more.
Professor Sue Weinstein
Chair, Department of English
Upcoming events:
The English Department Talk Series on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access in Pedagogy presents:
Monica Huerta
Thursday, March 2, 2023
3:00-4:00 p.m. on Zoom
Cameron Awkward-Rich
Monday, April 17, 2023
3:00-4:00 p.m. on Zoom
The first event featured a zoom conversation between Ashley Jones, the current poet laureate of Alabama, and Sue Weinstein, Chair of the English Department at LSU. The discussion and the Q & A afterward covered poetry, social justice, and pedagogy, among many other topics.
Watch Zoom Event
For more information contact: bkahan@lsu.edu
Congratulations to LSU English MFA Ana Reyes for her New York Times best-selling novel: The House in the Pines!
Ana Reyes has an MFA from Louisiana State University (2015) and a BA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her work has appeared in Bodega, Pear Noir!, The New Delta Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and teaches creative writing to older adults at Santa Monica College. The House in the Pines is her first novel.
She wrote her first book, “The House in the Pines,” while a student at LSU. Now it is No. 2 on The New York Times best-seller list and is being praised by Reese Witherspoon, among others, who chose it for her book club.
More information about Ana Reyes and her new book can be found on her website: www.anareyeswriter.com
Delta Mouth Literary Festival
Since 2009, the annual Delta Mouth Literary Festival has been a flagship event for the literary arts here in Baton Rouge. In partnership with the Louisiana State University Department of English, The Southern Review, New Delta Review and the English Graduate School Association, Delta Mouth brings together nationally acclaimed writers, artists, and performers from across the state and throughout the nation for a three-day public event that includes readings, panels, food, drinks, music, and a unique gathering of Baton Rouge's creative community.
Friday, April 21st: Delta Mouth Literary Festival opening night with Taylor Scott, Skye Jackson, and Ana Reyes! (6:30 p.m., Design Building Auditorium, 102 Design Building)
Saturday, April 22nd: Delta Mouth Literary Festival reading and a panel discussion featuring Jordan LaHaye and Alison Pelegrin! (12:00 p.m., LSU Coastal Ecosystem Design Studio, 1110 S. River Road, first floor of building by the river)
Saturday, April 22nd: Delta Mouth Literary Festival reading with Pritha Bhattacharyya and Dorothy Chan (6:30 p.m., LSU Center for River Studies, 100 Terrace Ave.)
Sunday, April 23rd: Delta Mouth Literary Festival — Reading and crawfish boil featuring Tiana Nobile and Xero Skidmore (12:00 p.m., Red Stick Reads, 541 S. Eugene St.)
Creative Writing News
We Were Angry, the third short story collection by Jennifer S. Davis, is a finalist for a 2022 INDIES Book of the Year Award in the "Short Fiction" category. We Were Angry was the winner of the 2021 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction.
Taylor Denton published her first full-length novel, Antlers of Bone, with Running Wild Press in May. The surrealist novel follows Lily, an ex-ballerina, who is sent to Meadowlark - a top new-age mental institution - where she struggles to distinguish fantasy from reality. At Meadowlark, Lily journeys through the surrealistic landscape of her own mind and must decide, once and for all, if her own life is worth fighting for.
Maurice Carlos Ruffin sold his second novel, The American Daughters, to One World, an imprint of Random House. Publisher's Marketplace describes the novel as "following a fierce network of Black women spies in Civil War-era New Orleans, who undermine, sabotage, and eventually overthrow the Confederates, centering a fearless protagonist, who finds spiritual and sexual liberation while claiming freedom for herself and her community." The American Daughters follows Ruffin's story collection The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You, which was chosen as the 2023 One Book One New Orleans selection. One Book One New Orleans is a citywide reading and literacy campaign that chooses one book per year to be read by New Orleans residents at the same time. The campaign works with nonprofits to increase literacy, remove any barriers to access of the book, and develops programming inspired by the book selection throughout the year. Ruffin has called the selection of The Ones Who Don't Say They Love You, which was longlisted for The Story Prize in 2022, "one of the great honors of my life."
Ariel Francisco published work in The New Yorker, The Indianapolis Review, and South Florida Poetry Journal, and curated and introduced a folio of international writing for the latest issue of Tupelo Quarterly. Francisco's translation of a poem by Bolivian poet Melissa Sauma, published in the print journal Denver Quarterly, was nominated for the anthology series, Best Literary Translations 2024. Francisco was included in the anthology 100 Poems That Matter, compiled by The Academy of American Poets.