News | Literatures in English

French university honors Jonathan Culler for literary contributions

On March 26, the University of Paris 8 on March 26 recognized Culler for his contributions to literary and theoretical studies and his close ties with French intellectual movements.

Rosenberg named Poet Laureate of Tompkins County

“I believe poetry offers us valuable opportunities to slow down, to reflect, and to extend our empathy, and I’m excited to share these gifts with our whole community,” Rosenberg said.

Alumna’s book wrestles with society’s expectations of women

From Kate Chopin to Maya Angelou to Shakespeare, Nicole Lipson ’98 uses literature to grapple with gender roles.

Person sitting high in a tree, reading a book with a large college building in the background

Your March 2025 reads

This month’s featured titles include a debut novel and a nonfiction book about the comedy troupe Firesign Theater, both by A&S authors.

War, love and loyalty: The ‘Iliad’ in Ithaca on March 12-13

A virtual event with translator Emily Wilson and a daylong community reading of portions of Homer’s epic poem highlight the spring Arts Unplugged event.

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Your February 2025 reads

This month’s featured titles include books by A&S faculty and alumni: poetry, a kids’ book about Bali, and a short story collection.

Remembering Molly Hite, professor emerita of English

Hite taught at Cornell from 1982 until her retirement in 2013.

Prof’s new novel imagines a U.S. without Texas

Charlie Green’s new novel, “The Shah of Texas,” published Feb. 18 from Gold Wake Press.

Brittani Samuel, head tilted to the right, smiling broadly, with long hair in small tight braids, wearing a flowered sleeveless dress

Freelance Theater Critic and Editor Brittani Samuel Wins George Jean Nathan Award

The award committee praised Samuel for her “impressive breadth of address to the playgoing public,” foregrounding “the critic’s own social position in an effort to promote more thoughtful and empathetic theatergoing.”

Bohannon, Manne event focuses on female body image, evolution

"Is Fat Female? Evolution, Feminism, and Getting the Story Right” takes place in person March 5; a virtual conversation between the two will be livestreamed March 6.

Alumna playwright honored with Dramatists Guild award

Playwright Gloria Oladipo '21 is also an award-winning cultural critic and journalist with The Guardian.

promotional poster showing a blue ball marked with black cross-hatches and the words "Media Objects

Media Objects podcast releases 'sonic essays' based at Cornell

The series features the voices and research of 13 Cornell faculty members, more than half from A&S.

Frederick Ahl, innovative classics scholar, dies at 83

A scholar of Greek and Roman epic and drama and the intellectual history of Greece and Rome, Ahl was a member of the Cornell faculty for more than 52 years.

Two people wearing fashionable red, white and black winter clothing sit back to back on a large rock, each holding a book. They are surrounded by snow

Your January 2025 reads

This month’s featured titles – most by A&S authors – include a work of nonfiction about honeybees, a kids’ picture book, and a novel set in rural Nova Scotia.

Magazine cover, "Cornell Review," bearing an abstract design in red, blue and yellow

The ‘marvelous, turbulent times’ when a literary magazine was born

A fellow alum’s passing sparked vivid memories of launching the Cornell Review, a cutting-edge journal of ideas, in the late 1970s.

Barry Adams, former vice provost and literature scholar, dies at 89

Barry Banfield Adams, professor of literatures of English emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences, died Dec. 31 at home in Brooktondale, New York. He was 89.

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Exhibit highlights art/tech intersections in student work

The event invited undergraduate and graduate students from all disciplines to display their projects at the historic A.D. White House.

Book cover: Never on Time, Always in Time

In ‘Fun Home’ and other books, queer narratives rework time

In “Never On Time, But Always in Time,” Kate McCullough of the College of Arts and Sciences examines four books to explore how queer narratives focus on the body and its senses to find alternative ways of experiencing and presenting time.

Person sits on a porch with one hand on a blue historic marker

Historic marker celebrates Pearl S. Buck’s stop in Ithaca

Years before writing “The Good Earth” and winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, the aspiring novelist received encouragement and a master’s degree at Cornell.

New student awards honor Medieval studies faculty

Medieval Studies has created new prizes for students. Submissions for both prizes are due Jan. 31 and will be judged by a faculty panel in the Medieval Studies Program.

Sophomore's organization fosters conversations on racial justice, mental health

"Poetry and artwork were my ways of processing the world around me."

Two people in casual clothes stand in a room full of bric-a-brac, holding professional grade recording equipment

Crowdfunding launch supports Ways of Knowing podcast at Cornell

A crowdfunding campaign launched Nov. 1 to support a Cornell-based season of "Ways of Knowing,” a new podcast created by The World According to Sound.

Poet pictures ‘a place where a woman may find some peace’

In “Purchase,” a new collection of poems from Associate Professor Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, the author seeks consolation for grief by turning to specific sources of beauty.

‘Icon of national femininity’: Beyoncé to appear at VP Harris Houston rally

As Election Day closes in, a Cornell expert in Black feminism sees 'deep meaning and significance' in superstar Beyoncé's support for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Sigrid Nunez reading Nov. 7 concludes fall 2024 Zalaznick series

“Sigrid Nunez’s novels meditate on life and the world with unfussy clarity and lightness. Today she is one of the most profound living American writers."

Blue sky, clock tower, fall foliage on a college campus seen from above

University celebrates top faculty for outstanding teaching, mentoring

Eleven teaching faculty from across the university have been awarded Cornell’s highest honors for graduate and undergraduate teaching, Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff announced Oct. 22.

Your October 2024 reads

This month’s titles, featured in Cornellians, include "Invisible Labor: The Untold Story of the Cesarean Section" by A&S alum Rachel Somerstein ’04.

Firesign Theatre made lowbrow, high-concept media critique

In his new book, Prof. Jeremy Braddock explores the history of the Firesign Theatre, which used multitrack audio and avant-garde collage to put a countercultural spin on the comedy album in the 1960s and ’70s.

A&S announces membership in MLA Strategic Partnership Network

“We felt this is an important resource that should be available to our humanists at all levels, whether they have the resources to pay for membership or not,” said Peter John Loewen, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences.

Poet and sportswriter Rowan Ricardo Phillips to read Oct. 17

“Rowan Ricardo Phillips is a renowned sportswriter, and has written extensively on baseball, soccer, and tennis. He is, however, first and foremost a poet of the highest order, full of formal sophistication, lyrical possibility, and musical syncopation."