Nationally recognized undergraduate and graduate programs.

In 2009, Poets & Writers ranked Hollins' graduate program in creative writing in the top 25 in the nation. Creative Writing In America described the program as "pound for pound, the most productive writing program in America." Hundreds of its graduates have published books.

Opportunities abound for English majors to practice their craft. Undergraduate writers publish poetry and fiction in the student periodical, The Album, or the student literary journal, Cargoes. The creative writing program even has its own anthology, Elvis in Oz, to which undergraduate writers contributed.

In addition to writing classes, the English department offers a full complement of courses, including Eighteenth-Century Literature, Seventeenth-Century Poetry, Modern Novel, Contemporary Poetry, United States Literature, Film as Narrative Art, and courses on Chaucer and Shakespeare.

The relationship between students and faculty is a special one. Students are more like colleagues than pupils. "We are all students and teachers alike," says longtime English professor Richard Dillard. One former student described it this way: "We were encouraged to be endlessly curious rather than circumscribed in our approach to literature. It seems clear to me now that we were being taught an approach to life, an approach that invites, perhaps even invokes, mystery and delight."

Another student puts it like this: "The Hollins environment is especially conducive to learning and creativity. The academic experience downplays competitiveness and stresses the benefits of discussion, interaction, and support from both professors and fellow students."