Outstanding opportunities exist both on and off campus.
Through the Visiting Writers Series , award-winning novelists and poets such as Lee Smith, Fred Chappell, Charles Simic, Leslie Marmon Silko, Shelby Foote, Afaa Weaver, and Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney read from their works and share personal reflections. Students have the chance to meet and talk with writers at informal receptions after the readings. Some English majors serve as peer consultants in the college Writing Center . For those majors in the journalism track, internships are available. English majors also enjoy membership in the Literary Society, which sponsors such events as a coffeehouse to showcase creative talents, a birthday party for Shakespeare, or a trip to an off-campus play.