For one week each year, the Hamilton English Department's Writer-in-Residence Program brings a distinguished poet or fiction writer to campus, usually in the spring semester. He or she works with creative writing students in classes and individual conferences, giving feedback and suggestions for projects written both for class and independently. The Writer-in-Residence also gives a formal reading, usually from new work.

Recent Writers-in-Residence have included the novelist Brett Lott (author of Jewel) and the poet Robert Dana.