2026-2027 Courses

Below you will find a list of courses taught by Lannan Center affiliated faculty, including the Lannan Center Director and Visiting Lecturers. Most of these courses count towards the Creative Writing Minor. For more information, please visit the Creative Writing Minor website or contact Professor Phil Sandick, Director of Creative Writing. In order to view the complete list of English course offerings, please visit the University Registrar’s page.

Fall 2026

Literature of AIDS | ENGL 4188
Rabih Alameddine (Lannan Foundation Visiting Chair)
Schedule: Mondays, 10:00AM-12:30PM

What can the literature/art of previous pandemics tell us about how we will write about future ones? Will the writing about the AIDS epidemic be able to shed any light on how we will be writing about Covid-19? What are the differences and similarities? In this course, we will look at various works that deal with AIDS. We will read across genres: fiction and nonfiction, journalism and poetry, film and theater. We’ll study Tony Kushner’s play, Angels in America, Thom Gunn’s incredible poems in The Man with Night Sweats, Marlon Riggs’s film Tongues Untied, Susan Sontag’s story The Way We Live Now, among many others.

Spring 2027

Adv. Fiction Writing | ENGL 4275
Tope Folarin (Lannan Lecturer)
Schedule: Thursdays, 6:30-9:00PM

The aim of this workshop is to intensively study the craft of fiction by evaluating texts, completing writing exercises, and producing fiction. In this course, students will become familiar with many styles and forms of fiction; students will further define their voices as writers and learn to critically regard their own work as well as the work of their colleagues. Stories will be discussed, critiqued, and revised through weekly workshops; by the end of the semester students will possess a broad awareness of the strategies and styles employed by successful contemporary writers of fiction.

Lannan Prose Seminar | ENGL 4260/ENGL 6500
Aminatta Forna (Lannan Center Director)
Schedule: Tuesdays, 3:30-6:00PM

The Lannan Prose Seminar encourages dynamic critical thinking and creativity with a view to examining literary forms and practices; the work of individual authors; the relationship between writing and other arts; and the place of writing in contemporary culture. Fellows study and discuss the work of the year’s scheduled guests in the Lannan “Readings and Talks” series, participate in conversations with the guests, and attend their readings and performances. Fellows then produce an independent final project (creative or critical) under the guidance of the instructor. There are also opportunities for students to develop and share their own writing in several genres. Enrollment in this seminar is limited to the Lannan Fellows.

Lannan Poetry Seminar | ENGL 4260/ENGL 6500
Rabih Alameddine (Lannan Foundation Visiting Chair)
Schedule: Tuesdays, 3:30-6:00PM

The Lannan Poetry Seminar encourages dynamic critical thinking and creativity with a view to examining literary forms and practices; the work of individual authors; the relationship between writing and other arts; and the place of writing in contemporary culture. Fellows study and discuss the work of the year’s scheduled guests in the Lannan “Readings and Talks” series, participate in conversations with the guests, and attend their readings and performances. Fellows then produce an independent final project (creative or critical) under the guidance of the instructor. There are also opportunities for students to develop and share their own writing in several genres. Enrollment in this seminar is limited to the Lannan Fellows.