Porter Yelton

Senior | Shelby, North Carolina

Why did you decide to become an English major? 

My mom was an English teacher, so the idea was somewhat ingrained in me from the beginning. However, I was the typical stubborn teenager and pushed against what was logical, thinking I'd pursue something like law or even chemistry (not sure what I was thinking there). But then I read The Bell Jar in high school and thought, "Wow, I want to do that." As in, I want to learn to write something that moves people and shapes the way they think about things like that book did for me. English seemed the best major to get closer to that goal.

What are you reading right now? 

I'm writing my thesis this year on post-9/11 literature, so mainly a ton of that. Specifically for these past couple of weeks, I'm bouncing back and forth between Jess Walter's The Zero and Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. 

You are a Writing Center Tutor. Can you talk a little bit about your experience tutoring in the department? 

This job came out of my experience in Writing the Essay, so at the beginning I was tutoring for that class specifically--but now I've moved onto tutoring for English-specific classes like Brit Lit I and the Shakespeare seminar. It's really interesting to see how so many other students view the same texts that I read for my own classes, and it's nice to have a sub-level of learning in between primary texts and critical sources. I've also learned that above all, other English majors are almost always genuinely nice people who always want to make the most of their learning in a positive way.

What are your fields of interest? 

I love contemporary literature--as in, most literature after WWII but with a primary focus on literature post-2000. I'm also interested in ecocriticism and queer theory.

If you could create a class in the department, what would it be? 

I would create a class of, as I mention above, post-2000 literature. Perhaps because of my own interests, I imagine it would be centered largely around post-9/11 literature, but not entirely. I don't think we're given enough of an opportunity in the department to read literary texts that are of our own time, and I'd like to see that change.

What advice would you give to anyone considering being an English major? 

You have to love to read. You can get around pretty much any other issue you might have with the idea of the major--as long as you love to read.