Awards, prizes, and scholarships:

Undergraduate majors are eligible for departmental awards, prizes, and scholarships.Graduate students are eligible for the Outstanding Graduate Student Award, among other opportunities.

Literature major Ellen Stenstrom with her publication

 I think most literature lovers have a book that suddenly and dramatically changed everything. For me, it was The School Story by Andrew Clements: a children’s novel about a young girl who dreams of being an author, writes a book, and gets it published while still in elementary school. I read The School Story for the first time in third grade, and it was then that I knew I wanted to be an author. After countless fruitless attempts and long years of hopelessness, I was finally published for the first time (aside from small school newspapers) this fall. When my creative nonfiction piece was published in the Ohio Journal of English Language Arts, I truly believed for the first time since third grade that I might actually have what it takes to reach my dream. It all started with a book, and hopefully one day soon, it’ll all come full circle with a book of my own. –Ellen Stenstrom

Study Abroad:

Literary London

Live and learn in London! Walk in Shakespeare’s footsteps. See great plays at the Globe Theatre. Study avant-garde art at the Tate Modern. Read in the British Library or Hyde Park. Tour the East End’s rich cultural heritage!  We have gained an excellent reputation for offering a comprehensive, genuinely enriching academic and cultural experience in London and Stratford since 2006.

 

Paris Cultural Capital

Through a combination of excursions, seminar-style discussions, small group collaborative projects, and lectures, students learn about French and American expatriate cultural works in a broad socio-historical context and reflect about literature, travel, and the great works of art inspired by the diverse cultural contexts of Paris today.

Katie Evers at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris as part of the Paris Cultural Capital J-term program

“I am so happy and lucky that I got to study abroad in Paris with this three-week program. After my time in Paris, the memories of it as a city, the people, and my experiences will stay with me forever and follow me wherever I go. Thus, my memories have become a moveable feast and I will always be able to draw inspiration from them.” –Katie Evers, Paris Cultural Capital student, Winter 2018

Lit Down Under

Lit Down Under is a new study abroad program led by Department of English professors Anita Mannur and Jason Palmeri, launching May-June 2019. The program is based in the harbor city of Sydney for four weeks. All of this will be linked through two courses, ENG 269: Indigenous and Migrant Writing in Australia and ENG 310: Travel Writing and New Media in Sydney.

Lit Down Under students will take classes in both literature and professional writing that reflect on the diverse ways that literature and new media operate in one of the most beautiful places in the English-speaking world.

Other Opportunities:

• Develop a senior Literature Honors project on a topic that interests you
• Conduct independent research with the supervision of Literature faculty
• Participate in special Miami University Humanities Center seminars
• Apply for the Geoffrion Family Undergraduate Fellows (Altman Program) or Altman Graduate Fellows with the Humanities Center
• Apply for an Undergraduate Summer Scholars program grant. The USS program enables Miami undergraduates to conduct research or other creative scholarly activities in close collaboration with a faculty mentor during the summer term
• Internships with Miami University Press, College of Arts and Sciences, the Literature Program, and more
• Intern on a film set in Cincinnati.

Happy Captive Magazine is a printed and online publication for students and faculty across campus. They are on the lookout for a great story, regardless of the form it takes; they are open to writing, art, video, music, and more.

As the university’s principal undergraduate literary arts magazine, Inklings publishes undergraduate work annually. All members of the editorial staff are undergraduates, and many are English majors.

The Miami Student Magazine, found both in print and online, is run by students who believe in the power of a true story, especially one that is artfully told. The Magazine acts as a sister publication to The Miami Student newspaper, and complements it by publishing written and multimedia content that wouldn’t typically be found in newsprint. 

Segue is the online literary journal of Miami University-Middletown, and the big brother to Illuminati, the literary print journal on Middletown’s campus.

Oxford Magazine, is a national literary magazine edited by students in the graduate program in the department. Since publishing its first issue in 1984, the magazine has featured both celebrated and new writers working in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Interviews, photography, and other visual art have also occasionally appeared in the journ

College Composition at Miami, the handbook for first-year composition students, describes department composition courses and policies and includes award-winning essays by undergraduate students.

After Graduation:

Miami Literature majors have enjoyed substantial career success. Our students find that the coursework and academic rigor of a BA in Literature prepares them for a number of career paths. Many graduates join the workforce right away and go into fields like teaching and publishing; editing and writing; film and social media; publicity and marketing; consulting and management; and library science and law. Some students go on to pursue graduate degrees in the humanities, while others enter professional schools in fields like law, medicine, library science, and business. A number of recent literature graduates have placed into top ten law schools (Columbia, University of Pennsylvania) as well as prestigious English graduate schools (Johns Hopkins, Brown, Stanford). As you explore your path after graduation, be sure to consult with many resources, including your professors, and resources like Miami’s Center for Career Exploration and Success and Internship and Job Resources for Literature.