Ellie Holcomb (’05) says UT English courses made her a better songwriter and author, and writing makes her a more attentive person.

Before Nashville-based Ellie Holcomb (’05) was an award-winning singer, songwriter, and author, she was an English major at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Given how much she loved her English classes in high school, it was a natural choice. “Because I was profoundly impacted by each of my English teachers as a high school student,” she said, “I thought, what if I could do for someone else what my teachers did for me?”  

After graduating with a BA in English and a master’s degree in secondary education, Holcomb taught for a year at East Literature Magnet School in Nashville before leaving to pursue a career as a singer-songwriter with the band her husband founded, Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors. In 2011, a year before the birth of their first child, she began her own musical career. Three years later, her debut studio album, As Sure as the Sun, earned her the Dove Award as New Artist of the Year from the Gospel Music Association.

For Holcomb, English and music have always been deeply entwined. “There’s always something when I read incredible literature that makes me want to sing,” she said. “It’s the way that I am wired. I’ve always sung my way through novels.”  When she played Feste in a high school production of Twelfth Night, she wrote melodies for many of her lines, and when she taught Shakespeare years later to her own students, she played the rapper Eminem to illustrate the rhythm of iambic pentameter.

English courses also made Holcomb a better writer and songwriter. “I’m a better writer when I read. And I honestly think I’m a better human when reading—more curious as a human and a participant in the world—because you’re being exposed to so many different perspectives.” She added, “When you are writing, you pay more attention to your own heart, to beauty, to nature, to other people’s stories, and so I’m very grateful for the way that being an English major helped me learn to pay attention to the world around me.”

In addition to songs, Holcomb has written one devotional and four children’s books. “One of my favorite things about children is that they’re endlessly curious,” she said. “I love writing children’s books that ask questions and invite children into the beauty of curiosity.” Not surprisingly, each of her children’s books was published in tandem with an EP recording of children’s songs.

When asked what she would say to someone who is considering majoring in English today, she responded, “Maybe now, more than ever, we need people who write what’s true in a way that grabs and holds people’s attention in a creative way. What I learned is how to communicate the truth in a beautiful, connected, and powerful way that draws people in, and I really can’t think of a better major to practice that than English.”