Popular Electives
- Advanced Creative Nonfiction
- Black Ecopoetics
- Elegy and the Environment
- Filming the '70s
- Irish Literature
- Milton
- Native American Literature
- The Queer Nineteenth Century
- Representations of Disability
- Shakespeare and Kurosawa
- Travel Writing
Hands-on Experiences
- Tutor at the Writing Learning Center
- Student affiliate in the Center for Digital Learning
- Teaching assistant in English and creative writing courses
- Edit and produce SUNY-wide literary magazine
Recent Internships
Alumni Spotlight
Amy Bishop-Wycisk '15
Major: English (Creative Writing)
Career: Literary agent with Trellis Literary Management
Bishop-Wycisk represents various writers and acts as liaison between author and publisher, pitching writers' ideas and negotiating book deals. With a special interest in underrepresented voices, she represents an extensive catalog of fiction, nonfiction, and young adult titles. Her clients have been NYT, USA Today, and Indie Bestsellers, Indie Next picks, a Reese’s Book Club pick, and winners of the James Beard Award and Edgar Awards.
English
Why study English at Geneseo?
You can do many things with an English degree from Geneseo! Pairing it with Adolescent Certification means you can become a 7–12 English teacher. A track in creative writing has produced poets, screenwriters, and alums who work in editing and publishing. The department also helps students gain admittance to top law schools, programs in library information science, and graduate study in English. Award-winning teachers (all courses are taught by faculty, not graduate students) and small class sizes (25 or smaller) mean you get the attention of a private liberal arts school at the cost of a public university.
Students learn critical thinking and how to write clearly and compellingly as well as how to self-diagnose their writing and revise effectively toward specific goals. They are exposed to a wide range of literary production and literary history with special attention to context, genre, interpretation and identity. The major foregrounds social justice and responsible citizenship, with regularly offered classes on race, ethnicity, LGBTQ+ authors, disability studies, and global literatures. Creative writing students learn how to write and revise fiction, nonfiction, and poetry manuscripts, and education students get introduced to a broad range of literary traditions, forms, and periods. Finally, because Geneseo is home to the SUNY-wide literary magazine , majors in both tracks can take a class that teaches them the basics of literary publishing.
Program Options
Partnership Program
Additional Options
Program Highlights
- Award-winning faculty (SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor)
- , SUNY’s undergraduate literary magazine, edited and produced by Geneseo students
- Opportunities for community, leadership, and national conference presentations through English honor society Sigma Tau Delta
- Award-winning English majors (Richard Roark Award—the highest honor given annually a student who combines excellence in academics with a commitment to community service—has gone to an English major seven of the past 11 years)
Example Careers
- English Educator
- Government Administrator
- Journalist
- Lawyer
- Librarian
- Publisher
- Screenwriter
- Technical Writer
Recent Grad Schools
- Boston College
- Brown University
- Columbia University
- Cornell University
- Duke University
- Durham University, England
- Emory University
- Harvard University
- Iowa Writers’ Workshop
- Rutgers University
- Stanford University
- University of Edinburgh, Scotland
- University of St. Andrews, Scotland
Contact Info
Alice Rutkowski, Department Chair
rutkowsk@geneseo.edu
Welles Hall 222A
585-245-5290
