English

Choose from two majors: Creative Writing & Literary Studies. Create everything from poetry to podcasts by working together in a lively and supportive community.

Explore
English

<div class="hero-header-image" style="background-image:url(/live/image/gid/64/height/670/1887_Beloit_9-12-18_0836_3.rev.1565724615.jpg)"/>

Here Now and There Later

A degree in Creative Writing or Literary Studies at Beloit will prepare you for all kinds of directions after graduation. Learn to think critically and creatively, communicate effectively, and collaborate productively, and you will always be better for it in your chosen path.

An English degree for you

We offer an innovative, flexible and integrated curriculum that combines literary study and creative writing with strong ties to our media studies and journalism programs. You can take English courses in topics like Victorian Garbage, Graphic Novel and Comics, Medieval Love, Horror in Film and Fiction, Video Essay, and Music Journalism.

Many opportunities

When you study Creative Writing and Literary Studies at Beloit, something is always happening. Creative writing contests. Visiting writers. Student readings. Zine-making workshops. Literary balls in your favorite character costume. Going to a national conference to represent the Beloit Fiction Journal, which you helped edit.

Be active

Hands-on campus opportunities like editing the student newspaper and putting together a museum exhibit will help you prepare for you. So do experiences like an internship at a national newspaper like USA Today or a literary press like Milkweed Press. Then comes the Fulbright in Korea, the MFA in Iowa, or even making The New York Times bestseller list with your fantasy book series.

These are our stories. Come to Beloit and start a new one all your own.

Request Info Apply Search Courses

ALUMNI IN ACTION

Poet Sasha Debevec-McKenney’12 published in The New Yorker

Creative writing and American studies graduate Sasha Debevec-McKenney’12 combines history and politics with the personal — an approach to writing that she developed at Beloit. Her poem, “Kaepernick,” was just published in The New Yorker magazine. She talks about her process and her new project: a memoir about visiting presidential graves.

Next 1 (3 total)

Cartoonist Lynda Barry is 2023’s Mackey Chair in Creative Writing

Graphic novelist and educator Lynda Barry has been named 2023’s Mackey Chair. The 2019 MacArthur Fellow researching the role of words and pictures in encouraging creative output in young children will teach the Mackey Workshop half-semester course for students in the spring of 2023, as well as host a creativity workshop with faculty and staff. Her much-anticipated reading is slated for February.

A collection of previous Beloit Fiction Journal covers going back to 1985.

Beloit Fiction Journal behind the scenes

Beloit College has a rich history of producing literary publications, from Blue Moon to Pocket Lint, but only the annual Beloit Fiction Journal features professional works of fiction submitted by writers across the country and edited by Beloit students. Through creative writing courses, students consider more than 1,000 submissions, choose the journal’s cover, design the pages, and hold a celebratory reading on campus each spring.

Next 2 (10 total)