About Us

Writing and critical thinking are foundational skills for all majors on campus. Our department's First-Year Writing program and Writing Center offer innovative and collaborative instruction across the curriculum, employing our brightest graduate and undergraduate students as teachers and tutors in training. 

• The Normal School, our nationally recognized literary magazine staffed by graduate students, continues to earn accolades and is ranked alongside the most respected publications in the country such as the New York Times Magazine, the Paris Review, and the Harvard Review.
• The Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, our nationally recognized book contest named in honor of our beloved late U.S. Poet Laureate and Professor Emeritus Philip Levine, accepted a record 945 entries in 2015, keeping its grad student staff deeply engaged.
• Our five student organizations actively produce multiple publications of their own, and they take the lead in planning and presenting the department's dozens of scholarly and literary events, all open to the public.

• Career development in all of our degree programs is actively encouraged as our students present their scholarly and creative work at conferences.
• Our annual Young Writers' Conference brings 400+ high school students and teachers from the community to campus, with our grad students leading writing workshops and producing a youth journal.
• Our Undergraduate Conference on Multi-ethnic Literatures of the Americas is planned by grad students who provide an annual platform for undergrads to present their research.

As U.S. Poet Laureate emeritus Juan Felipe Herrera says, the Central Valley's rich literary history serves as an inspiration to readers worldwide. Our department takes that storytelling legacy seriously as it continues to train new readers, writers, and teachers of literature.