English Department Course Preview – Spring 2024

Advising week starts October 16th Registration begins October 30th Take a look at our upcoming offerings as you begin to plan. Be sure to make an appointment with your advisor if you are not sure which English classes to take in the Spring.

New Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Michael Van Dyke

What class(es) are you teaching this year? ENG 113; ENG 110; ENG 210. What do you love about teaching? It’s gratifying when a student reads a book in my class that they would not have chosen to read themselves and end up loving it. Do you have a favorite book or author? I wrote my …

Poetry, Prose, and Pretzels: A Preview of Opus Soup

Written by Lindsay Jankowski, co-editor of Opus Hi everyone! I’m Lindsay Jankowski, one of this semester’s Co-Editors for Hope College’s Opus Literary & Arts Magazine. Unfortunately, this will be my first and last semester as an Opus Co-Editor. In three short weeks, I will be walking across the graduation stage, shaking hands with President Scogin, …

Leaving the Comfort Zone: Alumni Spotlight with Kelsie Cavanaugh (’20)

Submitted by Hope College senior, Piper Daleiden What do you do now? And we’d love to hear a bit about how you got there as well. I am an editorial assistant for the Business, Computing, and Career Education team at Goodheart-Willcox in Tinley Park, Illinois. Graduating from Hope in 2020 made finding a job a …

Does “Christian” actually mean anything?

By Dr. Kristin VanEyk, Assistant Professor of English, Hope College Hello! My name is Kristin VanEyk and I’m a recent addition to the English Department faculty where I teach writing and secondary English education courses. I’m a lifelong Christian educator. I’ve been teaching in Christian schools since 2006, first as a high school English teacher, and …

An Act of Remembrance: Visiting Writers Sumita Chakraborty and Noé Alvarez

Written by Elsa Kim, Creative Writing major Sumita Chakraborty—essayist, scholar, and author of Arrow—strode to the podium. Setting down her sheaves of notes, she held up her phone. “I’ve set a duck noise timer,” she told us with a smile, “When the duck quacks I know I’ve run out of time.” Having introduced us to …

Faculty Spotlight: On Martyrdom…and the Research Process

By Dr. Marla Lunderberg, Associate Professor of English, Hope College What words or images come to mind when you read the word “martyr”? Lions? Gladiators? Jeering crowds and public amphitheaters? Burning at the stake? A crucifix?  The images you draw on probably depend on the context behind your quest. If you’re in a religion class, …

Speaking Truth: Visiting Writers Melissa Valentine and Michael X. Wang

Written by Anna Snader, a freshman at Hope studying Social Studies Education with an interest in English Accompanied by soft piano music and the warm lights of Winants Auditorium, Michael X. Wang and Melissa Valentine read us their stories for the 40th anniversary of The Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series.  First, we heard from Michael …

From Literature to Lawyers: How I Used My English Degrees

Written by Ben Opipari, Ph.D., a Hope alum and business owner. What I really wanted to be was a rock star. I settled on starting a business helping attorneys at some of the most powerful law firms in the world perfect the art of clear writing. I wanted to be a rock star because I …