English

At Hanover, English majors read, write and study literature in order to investigate the basic human impulse to make sense of life through art. You will study traditional literary works as well as underrepresented voices that may be new to you. Our award-winning faculty and visiting scholars will challenge you with new ideas. Develop your own creative writing and contribute to the student-run literary magazine, newspaper or coffee house readings. Travel abroad to discover your literary roots. As you advance in your studies, take one of our unique, in-depth seminars focused on a literary master. The major culminates with an independent research or creative project you design yourself.

Are you hungry?

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and Hanover alumna Carol Shields coined the term “narrative hunger,” the human need to understand human experience by shaping it into literary form. Hanover English students share this hunger.

A bridge to the future

Hanover English graduates are well prepared for graduate school and to pursue careers in:

• Law 
• Teaching 
• Business 
• Journalism 
• Publishing

What do English majors study?

• Literary analysis 
• Early literature 
• English Literature 
• American Literature 
• Other topics that interest you, from Shakespeare to poetry to Arthurian literature to non-fiction

Sample graduate school placements: 

• University of North Carolina 
• Boston College 
• Duke University Law School 
• Miami of Ohio 
• William and Mary 
• University of Kentucky 
• University of Chicago 
• University of Iowa Writers Workshop 
• Indiana University 
• University of Illinois

Our alumni become professionals such as:

• Actors 
• University English professors 
• Peace Corps volunteers 
• Editors 
• Playwrights 
• Novelists 
• Lawyers 
• Business professionals 
• Web designers 
• High school teachers