Wellesley College English Department

02/05/2026

We hope you can join us!

Author Event: Dan Chiasson - "Bernie for Burlington" and Kellie Carter Jackson - "We Refuse" Fri, 2/6/2026 - 7:00pm - 8:00pm Place: Wellesley Books 82 Central St Wellesley, MA 02482-5714 Buy tickets to Author Event: Dan Chiasson - "Bernie for Burlington" and Kellie Carter Jackson - "We Refuse" We ar...

01/20/2026

A wide-ranging review of Dan Chiasson's "revelatory" new book, Bernie for Burlington: The Rise of the People's Politician and the Transformation of One American Place (Knopf), out on Feb. 3.

Early in his life, Sanders left the streets of Brooklyn for the woodlands of Vermont. What did the man bring to the state—and what did the state bring to the man?

11/10/2025

A fun time was had by all at the Fridays@4 event last week, on similes.

One epic simile, delivered by a prof, came from Henry Fielding's novel, Joseph Andrews:

As when a hungry tigress, who long has traversed the woods in fruitless search, sees within the reach of her claws a lamb, she prepares to leap on her prey; or as a voracious pike, of immense size, surveys through the liquid element a roach or gudgeon, which cannot escape her jaws, opens them wide to swallow the little fish; so did Mrs. Slipslop prepare to lay her violent amorous hands on the poor Joseph, when luckily her mistress's bell rung, and delivered the intended martyr from her clutches.

09/30/2025

Fridays@4 kicks off on Oct. 17th with Laura Goode, "How to Be a Writer." How do you convince an editor, agent, or gatekeeper that your idea is compelling, relevant, and deliverable? Join this free session with Stanford Public Humanities’ Laura Goode to find out!

05/23/2025

Cheers to the green Class of 2025!

10/07/2024

09/18/2024

A standing-room-only audience generated lots of interesting questions and insights at yesterday's roundtable discussion on literary criticism and close reading with Jonathan Kramnick of Yale University, author of the important recent book Criticism and Truth: On Method in Literary Studies, moderated by Prof. Yoon Sun Lee and Prof. Dan Chiasson.

04/16/2024

A National Poetry Month event with Tavi González!

04/04/2024

Kiya Watson, English and Creative Writing major, directed "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning" written by Katori Hall.
Set in the final days of the Second World War at Miss Mary’s Press and Curl beauty parlour and women’s boarding house in Memphis, Tennessee, a group of young women's lives have been affected by the loss of men to the war and the upheaval of social attitudes that followed. The photo is of the cast and crew after the last performance. Before the performance, Kiya made an impassioned plea for Black Creatives at Wellesley to come together from all across campus and showcase their immense talents.

04/04/2024

In collaboration with the History Dept., we hosted two novelists who read from their new books: Saskya Jain Geeta, Rahman at Championship Point, and Michelle Min Sterling, Camp Zero.