Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track--Creative Writing: Poetry with Specialty in a Secondary Area

The College of Charleston’s Department of English invites applications for a tenure-track position as Assistant Professor in English (Creative Writing: Poetry) beginning August 16, 2025. The department seeks candidates who can broaden the English department’s curricular diversity and who can contribute to the intellectual and professional life of the academic community. The English department offers a BA in English with three concentrations: Creative Writing, Literature & Film, and Writing, Rhetoric, & Publication. The department also offers an MFA in Creative Writing, which includes two curricular tracks: Studio and Arts & Cultural Management.

We seek applicants with an MFA or a PhD in Creative Writing who have expertise in poetry and a secondary area in either creative nonfiction, fiction, or another field in English studies. We seek applicants with an established publication record—at least one poetry book published, or under contract, with a nationally recognized press—and a record of achievement in teaching. Enthusiasm for community-building and an interest to serve eventually as a creative writing program director and an editor for our national literary journal, swamp pink, is highly desirable.

Duties will include teaching introductory to graduate-level creative writing courses, mentoring MFA theses, contributing to first-year writing on occasion, and developing courses in a potential secondary area. The department would welcome courses on identity-based literatures as well as a range of genres such as hybrid forms, the lyric essay, the graphic novel, or YA, among others.

Faculty are encouraged to pursue interdisciplinary affiliations with programs such as African American Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Medical Humanities, and there are opportunities to teach in the English summer study abroad program in Spoleto, Italy. The typical teaching assignment is 3/3 with the possibility of course reassignments for serving in administrative or editorial positions.

Founded in 1770 and located in the heart of historic Charleston, South Carolina, the College of Charleston is a public liberal arts institution with a strong commitment to the teacher-scholar model for faculty. Charleston is a thriving city with abundant culture. The College of Charleston, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Department of English have a deep commitment to increasing the diversity of our faculty, staff, and students, and to sustaining an inclusive work and learning environment. Applicants from underrepresented communities are highly encouraged to apply.

Applicants should submit: (1) a cover letter; (2) a CV that includes the names and contact information for three references; and (3) a teaching philosophy by December 1, 2024 to https://jobs.cofc.edu/postings/15975

Contact Department Chair Dr. Anton Vander Zee (vanderzeeal@cofc.edu) with questions about applying. Additional materials will be requested after the initial review and preliminary interviews will be conducted on Zoom.

The College of Charleston is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any individual or group on the basis of sex, gender (including gender identity and/or expression), pregnancy, race, religion, color, national origin, age, disability, military or veteran status, sexual orientation, genetic information, and other classifications protected by applicable federal, state, and local laws. For more information, please visit eop.cofc.edu.