Position Description

The English Department at Southern Methodist University welcomes applications for the Hughes Fellowship in Creative Writing (Poetry), for a two-year position beginning Fall 2025. Fellows will be expected to make significant progress on a major project, to teach one course in creative writing per semester, and to engage in the intellectual and creative life of the department and the larger Dallas literary community. This engagement will include a public reading of the fellow’s own work in the first year and, in the second year, a public conversation with an established writer about their creative practice. Fellows should also be available to mentor undergraduates on an informal basis.

SMU is an inclusive community of teachers and scholars. We seek bold, curious, and creative faculty to position our students for success. We offer the rare confluence of a comprehensive global research institution and a close-knit intellectual enterprise in the liberal arts tradition. Like our hometown of Dallas, our campus is vibrant. Here, innovative thinkers conduct research that has lasting impact and transform big ideas into new products, inventive technology and world-changing solutions. Our welcoming learning community of faculty and nearly 12,000 students in seven schools embraces a world of people and ideas. To learn more about the rich cultural environment of SMU, please see: www.smu.edu.

Qualifications

Annual compensation is $60,000 with full benefits. During the academic year, each Hughes Fellow will be expected to live in the Dallas area and hold no other professional or academic obligations. To be eligible, applicants must have completed—or be scheduled to complete by August 2025—an MFA or PhD in creative writing and published no more than one full-length book of creative work. A publishing record in nationally relevant periodicals is desirable but not required. As the Hughes Fellowships are meant to support emerging writers, applicants with second books in print or under contract will not be considered.

Application Instructions

To be ensured full consideration, applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. CST on February 10, 2025. Applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, a writing sample of poetry (maximum fifteen pages), and two letters of recommendation at http://apply.interfolio.com/160416. The cover letter should address what the applicant hopes to accomplish as a writer during the fellowship period at SMU. Questions about the position may be directed to the chair of the search committee, Richard Hermes (rhermes@smu.edu). Hiring is contingent upon the satisfactory completion of a background check.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

SMU will not discriminate in any program or activity on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression. The Assistant Vice President for Access and Equity/Title IX Coordinator is designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies and may be reached at the Perkins Administration Building, Room 204, 6425 Boaz Lane, Dallas, TX 75205, 214-768-3601, accessequity@smu.edu.

Southern Methodist University

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Hughes Fellow in Creative Writing (Poetry)