English majors at Rider enjoy an exciting intellectual atmosphere and can participate in many literary activities.

• Rider’s creative writing club, Writer’s Block, gives students the opportunity to discuss the art of writing. Among other activities, members give feedback on each other's work, attend readings, and play writing games.
  
  
• Students may also participate in the publication of Venture, the university’s literary magazine, as contributors and editors. Venture offers students a chance to gain valuable experience putting together a first-rate literary journal while enjoying the friendship of some of Rider’s most creative students. You can read issues of Venture by picking up a copy from the department office or by visiting http://www.rider.edu/~venture.
  
  
• Sigma Tau Delta, the national English Honor Society, has a chapter at Rider, which qualified students are invited to join.
  
  
• Many Rider writing students attend the annual Writer’s Conference held at The College of New Jersey, the spring and summer writers’ conferences at Rutgers' Camden campus, and the annual Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway in Cape May.
  
  
• Students who join the department’s Alternative Film Club gather on the Rider campus to watch independent, foreign, and alternative movies or travel to New York City to attend press screenings of movies yet to be released.
  
  
• Outstanding writers who have read their works on campus include John Edgar Wideman, Derek Walcott, Michael Dirda, Ernest J. Gaines, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Stephen Dunn, Alicia Ostriker, Joyce Carol Oates, bell hooks, and Sonia Sanchez.
  
  
• The Movies in America Guest Speaker Series has film scholars and filmmakers visit campus to discuss their work.
  
  
• In addition, the Department of English has an annual writing contest that offers prizes for the best critical essay and the best creative writing submitted.
  
  
• The Gender Studies Program at Rider participates in an annual colloquium to which students may submit critical papers and creative works.

Writing Opportunities

Several writing opportunities are available for students:

• Feedback from experienced faculty writers (NEA fellow in prose Robbie Clipper Sethi, poet Matthew Boyd Goldie, author Katherine Maynard, playwright and screenwriter Rebecca Basham, reviewers Jack Sullivan and Mary Morse).
  
  
• Workshops and readings by students and professional writers (which have included Derek Walcott, Michael Dirda, Ernest J. Gaines, Edwidge Danticat, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Stephen Dunn, Alicia Ostriker, Rachel Hadas, Joyce Carol Oates, bell hooks, and Sonia Sanchez).
  
  
• Publication and editorial experience on Venture, Rider's literary magazine.
  
  
• Feedback and discussion in Writers Block, Rider's creative writing club.
  
  
• Participation in local readings and writers' workshops (including The College of New Jersey's annual Writers' Conference, Cape May Getaway Weekend, and the Princeton Barnes & Noble readings).
  
  
• Annual writing contest in critical essay and creative writing—entrants are decided by faculty nominations, and the best writing in the department receives a $100 prize.
  
  
• Annual Gender Studies Colloquium, at which students present their research and writing.
  
  
• Participation in Sigma Tau Delta, the national English honor society.
  
  
• Publication in The Rectangle, national publication of Sigma Tau Delta.
  
  
• Publication in local literary magazines, such as the Kelsey Review and the New Jersey Review of Literature.