spotlight
2024 Academy of American Poets Prize Winner and Honorable Mentions Announced
Apr. 17, 2024—2024 Academy of American Poets Prize Contest Winner and Honorable Mentions Congratulations to this year’s winner of the 2024 Academy of American Poets Prize Contest, Sydney Mayes, and to the students receiving honorable mentions for their work, Carson Colenbaugh and Ajla Dizdarevic. Winner: Sydney Mayes, GS, MFA, for “the walker system” Honorable Mentions: Ajla Dizdarevic,...
MFA Alum Claire Jiménez’s Novel Wins 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
Apr. 17, 2024—Vanderbilt MFA Alum Claire Jiménez’s novel What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez (Grand Central) has been selected as the winner of the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. This year’s finalists included Jamel Brinkley’s Witness, Henry Hoke’s Open Throat, Alice McDermott’s Absolution, and Colin Winnette’s Users. The judges—Xochitl Gonzalez, Alan Michael Parker, and Lynn Steger Strong—considered 445 eligible novels and short...
Lorrie Moore’s Novel ‘I Am Homeless if This Is Not My Home’ Named Winner of National Book Critics Circle Award
Jan. 29, 2024—Lorrie Moore’s novel, I Am Homeless if This Is Not my Home, has been announced as the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. The novel was also named a “Best Book of 2023” by The New Yorker, as part of a list “of the most captivating, notable, brilliant, thought-provoking, and talked-about...
Akshya Saxena Awarded MLA First Book Prize
Dec. 6, 2023—Akshya Saxena’s Vernacular English has been awarded the MLA First Book Prize! The prize committee writes of Vernacular English: A highly original contribution to postcolonial studies and comparative literary studies, Akshya Saxena’s Vernacular English: Reading the Anglophone in Postcolonial Indiaargues that English in India has, since Independence, served as a language of everyday life and...
Major Jackson Wins 2023 Academy of American Poets Fellowship for Distinguished Poetic Achievement
Sep. 21, 2023—Congratulations to Major Jackson, who has received the Academy of American Poets Fellowship for distinguished poetic achievement! Prof. Jackson is a Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program in the English Department at Vanderbilt University. He also serves as the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities. Click here to see the...
MFA Alumnus Interviewed by NPR
May. 17, 2023—This Spring, alumnus Claire Jiménez (MFA, 2014) was interviewed on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition about her debut novel What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez. Set during the 2008 recession, the novel is about a Puerto Rican family in Staten Island who discover that their long-missing sister is potentially alive and a reality TV show contestant....
Congratulations Class of 2023!
May. 3, 2023—Congratulations to the 2023 Graduating English Majors and Minors!
Class of 2023: Lucy Kim
May. 2, 2023—English PhD Student Lucy Kim was one of 28 students selected by Vanderbilt for a spotlight profile as part of Commencement 2023. Read a little about Lucy’s time at Vanderbilt here, and see all of the profiles here. Congrats to Lucy in all she has accomplished in her time here at Vanderbilt!
Major Jackson – Newly Elected Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Apr. 20, 2023—Congratulations to Major Jackson, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities, Professor of English for being elected as a new member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Academy is both an honorary society that recognizes and celebrates the excellence of its members and an independent research center convening leaders from across disciplines, professions, and perspectives...
2023 Academy of American Poets Prize Winner – Caroline Stevens
Apr. 20, 2023—Congratulations to MFA third year student Caroline Stevens for winning the 2023 Academy of American Poets prize. Alumnus and poet Edgar Kunz, author of Fixer and Tap Out, was the judge for this year’s contest. Honorable mention goes to third year MFA student, John Mulcare.