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Important Dates
March 14: Deadline to DROP a full semester course
March 14: Deadline to elect GRADE REPLACEMENT for a full semester course
March 15-23: SPRING BREAK
Spring Writing Contests–DEADLINE TODAY!
Deadline: Noon, Friday, February 28, 2025
The English Department is pleased to announce its annual undergraduate literary competition in Short Fiction and Poetry. Prizes range from $100 to $1500 with multiple awards in each category.
Contest rules are as follows:
Short Fiction: Submit no more than one unpublished story (7500 words, maximum length)
Poetry: Submit up to 5 unpublished poems in a single document.
Only University of Illinois undergraduate students are eligible. To be considered for a prize, submissions must adhere to the following rules:
●All submissions must be sent via email as an attachment to: jdudek4@illinois.edu.
●The subject line of your email message must read as follows: “UNDERGRAD POETRY: Last name” or “UNDERGRAD FICTION: Last name”
●If you enter in both categories (poetry and fiction), you will need to send separate emails.
●In the body of your email, please include your name, address, phone number, email, status (undergraduate), and UIN.
This year, we are also able to offer new scholarships worth $1000 in both Fiction and Poetry. These scholarships will be distributed to students based on merit, with preference given to students displaying financial need and who graduated from an Illinois high school.
If you would like to be considered for one of these scholarships, please also include a brief note on your financial need and the name of the Illinois high school from which you graduated.
Your entry itself is to be contained in one attached .docx file. The name of this file must be the contest category followed by your last name, such as “FICTION JONES.docx” or “POETRY JONES.docx” Your name should not appear within the document itself.
Winners will be announced Early April. Please direct any questions to John Dudek at jdudek4@illinois.edu.
Submit to Montage–DEADLINE TODAY!
Montage publishes work by undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is now accepting submissions through February 28, 2025.
See this page for more details or email montagejournal@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.
Calling All Graduating Seniors!
If you expect to graduate in May or August you are invited to participate in the English & Creative Writing Convocation in May. Please read on to ensure that you know all about when, where, and how you can register for our ceremony and/or the universitywide ceremony and order regalia.
English & Creative Writing Convocation: Saturday, May 17, 5 pm, Smith Memorial Hall
Universitywide Commencement: Saturday, May 17, 9:30 am, Memorial Stadium
Please note that you must have regalia (aka “cap and gown”) to participate in any ceremony. Information about how to rent your cap and gown can be found here.
Questions about the English department ceremony should be sent to englishadvising@illinois.edu. Questions about the universitywide ceremony, or about regalia, should be sent to commencement@illinois.edu.
Upcoming LAS Career Events
- Having Difficult Conversations about Your Future March 6, noon-1:30 in 2043 Lincoln Hall. Choosing a major that your family disapproves of? Discovering that med school/law school/Ph.D. is not in your future? Developing goals that differ from what the people who love you want for you? Pursuing a path that you struggle to explain? Figuring out your future often entails difficult conversations with parents, partners, and family mentors. Join the embedded counselors for LAS for a workshop about preparing for those conversations. Limited space, a waitlist will start at 20 students.
- Career Lab: Seniors, Jumpstart Your Future March 11, 12:30-2:30 in 2043 Lincoln Hall. LAS SENIORS: get help with your year search! (Register for a light lunch). Not sure what you’re doing after you graduate in December or May? Need help getting started? Bring your laptop, your questions, your uncertainty, drafts of documents you’re working on (resumes, cover letters, grad school statements). Staff is on hand to answer questions and offer guidance. Have lunch and meet others wrestling with the same challenges! We will provide a light lunch for those who attend. Register in Handshake to help us estimate food for this event.
Help with Research
SKY Happiness Retreat–STARTS TODAY!
SKY Happiness Retreat is a total well-being training offered to thousands of university students, faculty, and staff across the country. A recent study at Yale University found that SKY Happiness Retreat significantly reduces stress, depression, and has a long-lasting impact on mental health, mindfulness, positive emotion and social connectedness. The SKY Happiness Retreat introduces SKY Meditation, an evidence-based meditation practice integrated with breath work that can significantly increase one’s well-being and calmness and significantly reduces anxiety and stress markers. The course features interactive group processes, experiential learning, emotional intelligence training, breath-work, yoga, and evidence-based meditation. It’s a place to connect with yourself, destress, and most importantly, have fun.
SKY Happiness Retreat is fully funded for University of Illinois students, with partial funding available for University staff/faculty. Availability is first-come-first serve, by registration only and requires attendance to all sessions. Limited spots are available.
Location: On campus (TBD)
February 28th (Fri) | 6pm – 9pm
March 1st and 2nd (Sat & Sun) | 12pm – 4.30pm
Apply here: https://forms.gle/
Research Opportunity–DEADLINE APPROACHING
Los Angeles Review of Books Publishing Workshop
June 23 – July 25, 2025: Online
ONLINE INFO SESSIONS MARCH 3, 9 a.m. PST & MARCH 12, 5 p.m. PST
The Los Angeles Review of Books is now accepting applications for the 2025 LARB Publishing Workshop.
A five-week intensive summer course, the LARB Publishing Workshop prepares students to succeed in careers in the ever-changing, seemingly inaccessible business of publishing. From June 23 – July 25, Workshop Fellows will learn from the industry professionals shaping print and digital publishing today. Speakers include N Rebecca Saletan (Riverhead), Christie Henry (Princeton University Press), Lori Dorr (The Paris Review) Katie Dublinski (Graywolf), Jamia Wilson (Penguin Random House), Gerald Maa (The Georgia Review), Adam Levi (Transit Books), among others.
In addition to participating in lectures and workshops featuring over 50 guest speakers, Fellows will have the opportunity to join one of two practical tracks dedicated to magazine and book production. These will culminate in the publication of our online magazine PubLab or books of their own design. This combination of practical skills, industry insights, and creative networks have helped Workshop Fellows start their own ventures or build careers in publishing. Since our inaugural program in 2017, alumni have gone on to jobs at journals, agencies, and presses such as Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Bookends Literary Agency, Harvard University Press, Penguin-Random House, Harper’s Magazine, Stanford University Press, The Getty Research Institute, The PEN Faulkner Foundation, and many more.
The program is open to undergraduates completing their degree by December 2025, those who have recently graduated, current graduate students, and people with relevant experience and interest in entering the publishing industry. Need-based scholarships are available, in keeping with our mission of accessibility, and we regularly partner with colleges and universities to provide fellowships for their students to attend. The Publishing Workshop is conducted virtually and does not require travel to Los Angeles.
Apply now through April 1. For more information and applications visit www.larbpublishingworkshop.org.
You can listen to 2024 Fellows talk about their experience here: https://youtu.be/TXTV_5W-haY?si=ogx7GBoBKRu6r20A
LARB staff and recent alumni will hold info sessions with time for Q&A on Monday, March 3 at 9 a.m. PST and Wednesday, March 12 at 5 p.m. PST. Register here: https://larbpublishingworkshop.org/how-to-apply/info-sessions/
For questions about the workshop, please contact us at publishingworkshop@lareviewofbooks.org.
Summer Language Learning
• June 16th – August 8th, 2025 •
Session includes
• Arabic, Persian, Swahili, Turkish, and Wolof courses
• Small class sizes and dedicated faculty and staff
• Immersive experience, complete with instruction
• Cultural activities, opportunities for language practice, conversation tables,
cooking classes, movie nights, and more!
Program registration timeline
April 24th – May 12th, 2025
Application & Registration
For more information contact silmw@illinois.edu
Networking Opportunity
This annual program, formerly known as Imprint, now know as Networking and Personal Brand Development-Featuring Illinois Alumni Coaches, is returning for 2025. We have invited back approximately 20 Illinois Alumni ranging from nearly every academic college background and a diverse set of graduating classes ranging from the 70’s to 2017!
This event is designed for students to meet alumni who are established in their careers and share valuable insights into networking and creating opportunities to land students their first internships or post-graduation positions. Students will be given deliberate free time throughout the program to meet and network with any specific alumni they would like to. The event runs from 10 am to 4 pm on March 1st and will be held in the Campus Instructional Facility (CIF), room 035. Sign up here: https://cglink.me/2sM/r381413
Call for Submissions
The Madison Journal of Literary Criticism, an undergraduate-run literary magazine based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is now accepting submissions for the MJLC’s Spring 2025 edition Care.
The deadline for written submissions is March 3rd at 11:59pm and for artwork it’s March 7th at 11:59pm. More information on the theme and submissions process can be found below and on our website. Any questions can be directed to the MJLC staff at mjlc@rso.wisc.edu.
Translating Arabic Poetry
CAS Food for Thought Event
Author’s Corner Event
Gilman Scholarship–New Drop-In Advising Event
Are you a Pell grant recipient who wants to study abroad or do an international internship? If so, the Gilman Scholarship is for you!
Eligibility
Freshmen through Seniors who are U.S. citizens or nationals, Pell grant recipients, in good academic standing, and will be participating in a credit-bearing study abroad program or international internship are eligible to apply.
The U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship provides enrolled students, who are Pell grant recipients, up to $5,000 for either study abroad or an internship abroad. If you plan to study a language critical to U.S. national security while abroad, you can apply for an additional $3,000. If you plan to conduct STEM-related research while studying abroad, you can apply for an additional $1,000.
Get tips about applying from recent Illinois Gilman Scholars.
The national deadline is March 6, 2025.
For more information, contact the scholarships office at topscholars@illinois.edu or visit our website at www.topscholars.illinois.edu
A Conversation with Darcie Little Badger
Wednesday, March 12, 7-8:30pm
Urbana Free Library, Lewis Auditorium
210 West Green Street, Urbana
Meet Lipan Apache author Darcie Little Badger as she discusses her novels Elatsoe and A Snake Falls to Earth and what inspires her. An audience Q&A and a book signing will follow the discussion.
Darcie Little Badger is a Lipan Apache writer with a PhD in oceanography. Her critically acclaimed debut novel, Elatsoe, was featured in Time Magazine as one of the best 100 fantasy books of all time. Elatsoe also won the Locus award for Best First Novel and is a Nebula, Ignyte, and Lodestar finalist. Her second fantasy novel, A Snake Falls to Earth, received a Nebula Award, an Ignyte Award, and a Newbery Honor and is on the National Book Awards longlist. It is a breathtaking work of Indigenous futurism. Darcie draws on traditional Lipan Apache storytelling structure to weave another unforgettable tale of monsters, magic, and family.
Her third book, Sheine Lende, is the prequel to Elatsoe, which is centered on Ellie’s grandmother, deepens and expands Darcie’s one-of-a-kind world, and introduces us to another cast of characters who will wend their way around readers’ hearts.
Darcie is an Earth scientist, writer, and fan of the weird, beautiful, and haunting; she is married to a veterinarian named Taran.
This event is supported by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Native American House and generously sponsored by The Urbana Free Library Foundation.
Job Opportunities
Orientation Leaders
New Student and Family Experiences is looking for undergraduate students to serve as Orientation Leaders to help us welcome our Fall 2025 new students! The position description and application link are here.
Peer Advisors
The Division of General Studies (soon to be Exploratory Studies) is hiring Summer Peer Advisors! This is a great opportunity for undergraduate students looking to develop their leadership, communication, and mentorship skills while supporting incoming students during New Student Registration (NSR).
Applicants must be in good academic standing and available for training in May after final exams and to work during NSR in June–early July.
Students do not have to be former DGS students to apply, but an understanding of the ICT process is beneficial. More details, including the application link, can be found here: Summer Peer Advisor Information.
Applications are due Friday, March 7 at 5pm.
Undergraduate Research Symposium
The URS is the signature event of Undergraduate Research Week (April 20 – 26), which brings together students, faculty, and staff from all disciplines on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, as well as the public, to learn more about undergraduate research and its potential to change the world. Throughout the day, students will present their oral and poster presentations, creative performances, and interactive exhibits to members of the campus and local community.
- When: Thursday, April 24, 2025
- Where: Illini Union (A, B, C, South Lounge, and the 2nd Floor)
- Application Deadline: Friday, March 7, 2025 at 11:59 pm
Visit the URS webpage for more information, including answers to frequently asked questions.
Applications are currently being accepted. The deadline for applying to the URS is Friday, March 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm and no late submissions will be accepted. Please note, your presentation is not expected to be complete by the application deadline. On the application, you will only be asked to provide a tentative title that can be revised until March 19 and an abstract which will be used internally by OUR to create and organize thematic sessions. Your abstract will not be published or viewed by anyone other than OUR.
Image of Research Competition–Submit by 3/25
Don’t Forget These!
A New Way to Share Good News
Do you have good news to share? Have you published something? Won an award? Taken on a new role or had an adventure? If so, please let us feature you and your news on the department’s website and/or social media. Just send a message to engl-news@illinois.edu with whatever information you’d like to share. This is a great way for other students to learn about opportunities so please don’t be shy!
Certificate in Intercultural Competence
The Certificate in Intercultural Competence offers undergraduate students the chance to show future employers and potential graduate programs that they have the global and intercultural skills needed to succeed in and out of the classroom. Courses on the approved list for the Certificate include an introduction to the concept of intercultural competence, as well as elective courses that cover a wide variety of topics, from the study of ancient traditions to contemporary culture, the study of myths and fairy tales to modern literature, and more. Although the certificate will not appear on a student’s transcript, students completing the certificate should include this credential on a resume or application for advanced study.
To learn more, check out https://slcl.illinois.edu/graduate/intercultural-competence.
Preview of Spring 2025 Creative Writing Events
We’ll advertise these individually as they approach (with location info) but now would be a great time to get them all in your calendar.
Carr Visiting Author Series: Dante Micheaux
Thursday, April 10, 2025 | 4:30
Poetry Reading by Janice Harrington and Angie Estes
Thursday, April 17, 2025 | 6:00
Yard Show: Black Life, Prairies, and Place Making In the Midwest.
Reading and performance featuring Janice N. Harrington and Chip McNeill
Wednesday, March 26, 2025 | 4:30
MFA Public Reading
Saturday, May 3, 2025 | 1:00
Research Workshops
The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) announces its Spring 2025 workshop calendar. We are offering a variety of workshops to support you regardless of where you are in your research journey. Information for each workshop, including how you can register, can be found on our website . For all workshops, participation is by advanced registration only; there are a limited number of spots available for each workshop, so please sign up as soon as possible. Workshops will be added throughout the term based on demand.
Tuesday @7 Workshops with the Counseling Center
Confidential Advising Resources
The Women’s Resources Center (WRC) is the designated confidential campus resource related to sexual assault/rape, sexual harassment, stalking and abuse within a relationship (sometimes called dating or domestic violence). That means when we talk with students, staff, and faculty who have experienced harm, we make sure you get what you need and on your terms! There are several Confidential Advisors at the WRC who can provide you – or someone looking to support you – with support and advocacy services.
