SMU Department of English

Thursday!
D-CLAIM is a Dallas-based jazz & literature collective founded by poet/bassist J.D. Debris, backing contemporary poets with hypnotic live-band grooves. Sponsored by Project Poëtica at SMU English, D-CLAIM brings together hip-hop tinged jazz with a poetry reading on the third Thursday of every month, highlighting an improvisational confluence of words and music.

Randall J. Tyrone holds an MFA from the University of Wyoming. His poems have appeared in Electric Literature’s Okey-Panky, Oversound Poetry, Indiana Review, Southern Indiana Review, Gulf Coast and Nomadic Press. He has been anthologized in the Bodies Built For A Game Anthology by Prairie Schooner. He has been a Tin House Summer Workshop Scholar and a Bentley-Buckman Poetry Fellow for the Writers Week at the Idyllwild Arts Foundation. His collection City of Dis was released in November 2025 by Texas Review Press and was an Honor Winner of the Naomi Shihab Nye Award for Best First Book of Poetry by Texas Institute of Letters. City of Dis was also an Eric Hoffer Award Finalist. Currently, he leads Writers Who Aren’t Writing, a collective where Houston-area writers and artists gather to workshop their writing, exchange ideas, and find community support. He’s very excited for you.

Ste’fon Landers — Saxophone
Manny Galindo — Piano
Nicholas Rothouse — Percussion
J.D. Debris — Bass

This event is free and open to the public.

Last week’s graduation reception was one to remember!🎓 Grateful to celebrate our SMU English graduates with their family and friends.❤️

Big news for SMU English!

We’re thrilled to welcome acclaimed literary scholar, cultural critic, and bestselling author Adam Bradley as the next Duwain E. Hughes, Jr. Distinguished Chair of English at SMU, effective August 1, 2026.

His groundbreaking work connects literature, music, and culture, and at SMU he will help launch a song lyric initiative centered on those intersections.

Please join us in welcoming Adam Bradley to the Hilltop!

We are now accepting submissions for the inaugural Charles Francis Guittard & Nancy Davis Labastida Endowed Writing Prize.

This award recognizes distinguished nonfiction, including biography, memoir, journalism, history, and related forms.
The prize is open to SMU students, alumni, faculty, and retired faculty in humanities fields. The winning book will receive a $5,000 award and will be featured in a departmental interview.

📅 Submissions due June 15, 2026
📚 Eligible books published between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025

A proud tradition, reawakened!

Recently, we celebrated the revival of Sigma Tau Delta at , welcoming a new class of Rho Theta members and honoring their outstanding work in literary study and creative expression.

Led by Professor with support from Director of Undergraduate Studies Dan Moss, this chapter is creating new opportunities for connection, scholarship, and recognition across our community.

Here’s to our students and the next chapter!

It was an evening of storytelling, celebration, and community!

We gathered in the Dallas Hall Rotunda to honor our Creative Writing award winners. Students whose work reflects imagination, insight, and a deep commitment to their craft.

These writers are shaping their voices and sharing their work with others.

Congratulations to this year’s award recipients:

Manha Ahmad, Zander Crowns, Wes Hafer, Russell Herndon, Jody Keahey, Maham Khan, Hunter Lento, Kori Nelson, Tolu Oyesanya, Nichole Wyre, and Cora Yokoyama.

We are proud to celebrate their work and the stories still to come.