
Honoring Professor Richard McCann
Beloved professor of literature and Mother of Sorrows author memorialized in annual benefit reading.
Contact:
Cruz, Amber
Sr. Administrative Assistant
The literature BA program offers students the chance to choose one of four exciting tracks, or focuses of study. In the Literary Studies track, students come to understand why literature matters: how it defines culture, the human, and our values, and how it facilitates empathy. The Cinema Studies track allows students to study literature alongside cinema and to discern the ways that cinema as a language and art shapes our society. In our new Transcultural Studies track, students focus on various cultural texts (such as literature, theater, film, television, and social media) in a global and multicultural context. Lastly, the Creative Writing track gives students the opportunity to hone their craft and improve their poetry or prose in close-knit workshops. In each of the tracks, students work with dedicated, award-winning faculty who pay close attention to the needs of each individual.
The department also offers minors in Cinema Studies, Creative Writing, Literature, and Transcultural Studies.
A combined BA/MA is also available.
See more MFA alum publications in the program Wall of Fame.
Literature majors garner excellent writing and communication skills. They know how to learn, to analyze and comprehend other viewpoints, and to argue for ideas. Literature majors have a range of employment and internship opportunities. Ninety percent of our majors hold internships. In terms of careers, they work in publishing, public radio, law, education, advocacy, and politics.
Employers in all sectors are increasingly saying that they need employees who can write well and communicate. Lit majors find themselves well prepared for the competitive job market. They also take advantage of a wide array of study abroad opportunities. See our full list of literature course offerings in the Course Catalog.
Explore our campus community and local outreach efforts.
Folio is a nationally recognized literary journal sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences at American University in Washington, DC. Since 1984, we have published original creative work by both new and established authors. Past issues have included work by Michael Reid Busk, Billy Collins, William Stafford, and Bruce Weigl, and interviews with Michael Cunningham, Charles Baxter, Amy Bloom, Ann Beattie, and Walter Kirn. We look for well-crafted poetry and prose that is bold and memorable.
Café MFA is the the online journal of the Creative Writing Program at American University. Produced in conjunction with Visiting Writers Series and other program events, the blog features student, faculty, and visiting author interviews and excerpts.
Anita Sherman's Skepticism in Early Modern English Literature arrives in March 2021.
Rachel Louise Snyder discussed domestic violence in an interview with The Sun.
Creative Writing MFA alum Sarah Katz wrote about the subminimum wage for people with disabilities for The Atlantic.
Creative Writing MFA student Cristi Donoso Best published a poem in [PANK] magazine, "Quiteña Etymologies."
Creative writing MFA alum Jen Coleman wrote about schools reopening from her perspective as a high school English teacher in Alabama.
David Keplinger won the 2020 Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award by the Poetry Society of America for best poem inspired by the work of Emily Dickinson.
Richard Sha published an article about Hume on PSYCHE.
Richard Sha's book, Imagination and Science in Romanticism, was chosen for the NEH Open Book Award Program.
Sarah Bea Katz published an article on the Lyme disease epidemic for Al-Jazeera.
Kyle Dargan shared his poetry from the pandemic in the Washingtonian.
Melissa Scholes Young has been appointed editor of Furious Gravity.
MFA candidate Bailey Blumenstock is a featured poet in Cathexis Northwest Press.
Patricia Park wrote an essay for The New Yorker on working at her father's Brooklyn grocery store during the coronavirus pandemic.
Melissa Scholes Young discussed Furious Gravity, an edition of a literary journal she edited featuring the work of DC-area women writers, on WAMU-FM's The Kojo Nnamdi Show.
Rachel Louise Snyder won the 2020 College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Award for Exceptional Impact for her writing on domestic and gender-based violence, including No Visible Bruises.
Chuck Cox won the 2020 College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Award for Exceptional Impact for his work as Faculty Director of Complex Problems and University College.
Rachel Louise Snyder was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2020.