Jessica L. Anthony
Senior Lecturer in English
About
Jessica Anthony is the author of four books of fiction, including the novel The Most, which was longlisted for the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Prix Fitzgerald and the Clark Fiction Prize. Her novel Enter the Aardvark was a finalist for the New England Book Award, and her novel The Convalescent won the inaugural Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award from McSweeney’s. Her short stories have appeared in Best American Nonrequired Reading, Best New American Voices, McSweeney’s, The Idaho Review, and elsewhere.
Anthony is a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow and has received the Creative Capital Award for Literature. Other fellowships include support from the Maine Arts Commission, MacDowell, Ucross, and the Bogliasco Foundation. In 2017, Anthony spent three months serving as the 41st Bridge Guard, guarding the Mária Valéria Bridge between Štúrovo, Slovakia, and Esztergom, Hungary, and she has been a Fellow in Residence at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington.
Her books have been translated into ten languages and have been featured in Time, Newsweek, NPR, The Washington Post, and The New York Times as an Editor’s Choice, as well as internationally in Le Monde, Der Spiegel, El País, and Il Manifesto.
Current Courses
Winter Semester 2026
Fiction Writing
A course for students who wish to have practice and guidance in the writing of prose. Admission by writing sample. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level English course.
Senior Thesis
Students register for ENG 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both ENG 457 and 458.
Fall Semester 2026
Postmodern Short Stories
Focusing on short stories published from 1945-2015, this discussion-based course examines the international phenomenon of postmodern short fiction both as a natural sequence of modernism, and an expression of a new kind of post-WWII cynicism. Students are introduced to central aspects of postmodern…
Advanced Fiction Writing
Prerequisite(s): English 291.
Advanced Topics in Creative Nonfiction
In this advanced workshop, students build upon previous coursework in the genre by reading, analyzing, and discussing a range of creative nonfiction topics, and developing individual literary projects in nonfiction. The prerequisite is waived for Seniors. Students should contact the course instructo…
Senior Thesis
Students register for ENG 457 in the fall semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both ENG 457 and 458.