University of Houston Creative Writing Program
Encyclopedia
The University of Houston
Creative Writing
program is a graduate fiction and poetry program located in Houston, Texas
. It was rated second in the nation by U.S. News & World Report
in its first annual ranking of writing programs in 1997. It rated 26th in the nation in Poets & Writers
2010 MFA Rankings: The Top Fifty and its PhD program was placed in the top 5 programs in the nation by The Atlantic. The Creative Writing Program offers a PhD
in Literature and Creative Writing and an MFA
in English: Creative Writing. The Creative Writing Program at The University of Houston was co-founded by the writer Donald Barthelme
.
and Cythia MacDonald founded The University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
Fellowships, National Endowment for the Arts
Poetry and Fiction Fellowships, Ruth Lilly
Poetry Fellowships, "Discovery"/The Nation
Prizes, a Prix de Rome
in Literature, Associated Writing Programs Award Series Prizes for the novel, Henfield Foundation Transatlantic Review Fiction Awards, Wallace Stegner
Fellowships, the Pablo Neruda
Prize for Poetry, the Norma Farber
First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America
, a National Poetry Series
selection, a Whiting Writers' Award
, and selections in Best New American Voices.
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...
Creative Writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
program is a graduate fiction and poetry program located in Houston, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. It was rated second in the nation by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
in its first annual ranking of writing programs in 1997. It rated 26th in the nation in Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers
Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organization in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers...
2010 MFA Rankings: The Top Fifty and its PhD program was placed in the top 5 programs in the nation by The Atlantic. The Creative Writing Program offers a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Literature and Creative Writing and an MFA
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...
in English: Creative Writing. The Creative Writing Program at The University of Houston was co-founded by the writer Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme was an American author known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston , co-founder of Fiction Donald...
.
Current faculty
- Robert BoswellRobert Boswell-Life:Robert Boswell is the author of eleven books. His stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories, Pushcart Prize Stories, Best Stories from the South, Esquire, Ploughshares, Harvard Review, Colorado Review.He has been faculty at the Bread Loaf...
- Chitra Banerjee DivakaruniChitra Banerjee DivakaruniChitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian-American author, poet, and the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program....
- Nick FlynnNick FlynnNick Flynn is an American writer, playwright, and poet. His most recent publication is a play, Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins...
- Tony HoaglandTony HoaglandAnthony Dey Hoagland is an American poet and writer. His poetry collection 2003, What Narcissism Means to Me, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Other honors include two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry, and a...
- Mat JohnsonMat JohnsonMat Johnson is an American writer of literary fiction.-Biography:Born and raised in the Germantown and Mount Airy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Johnson writes primarily about the lives of African-Americans, using fiction, nonfiction and graphic novels as mediums...
- James Kastely
- Ange MlinkoAnge Mlinko-Life:She graduated from Conestoga High School, St. John's College and Brown University.She edited the poetry ’zine Compound Eye. Her work has appeared in Boston Review, Colorado Review and Poetry Magazine...
- Antonya NelsonAntonya NelsonAntonya Nelson is an American author and teacher of creative writing who writes primarily short stories.-Life and education:Antonya Nelson was born January 6, 1961 in Wichita, Kansas....
- Kevin PruferKevin PruferKevin D. Prufer is an American poet, academic, editor, and essayist. His most recent books are In A Beautiful Country and National Anthem...
- Alexander Parsons
- Martha SerpasMartha SerpasMartha Serpas is a contemporary American poet.Serpas grew up in Galliano, Louisiana, and received her BA from Louisiana State University. She subsequently did graduate study at New York University , Yale Divinity School , and the University of Houston . Serpas formerly taught at the University of...
- Adam ZagajewskiAdam ZagajewskiAdam Zagajewski is a Polish poet, novelist, translator and essayist.In 1982 he emigrated to Paris, but in 2002 he returned to Poland, and resides in Kraków. His poem "Try To Praise The Mutilated World", printed in The New Yorker, became famous after the 11 September attacks...
(on leave)
Past faculty
- Donald BarthelmeDonald BarthelmeDonald Barthelme was an American author known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston , co-founder of Fiction Donald...
- Rosellen BrownRosellen BrownRosellen Brown is an American author, and has been an instructor of English and creative writing at several universities, including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Houston...
- Sharon Bryan
- Kathleen Cambor
- Alan Cheuse
- Robert Cohen
- Ellen Currie
- Mark DotyMark DotyMark Doty is an American poet and memoirist.-Biography:He was born in Maryville, Tennessee, earned his Bachelor of Arts from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and received his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Goddard College in Vermont.In 1989, his partner Wally Roberts tested...
- Mary Gaitskill
- Vivian Gornick
- William GoyenWilliam GoyenCharles William Goyen was an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, editor, and teacher. Born in a small town in East Texas, these roots would influence his work for his entire life....
- Linda Gregg
- Edward HirschEdward HirschEdward Hirsch is an American poet and critic who wrote a national bestseller about reading poetry. He has published eight books of poems, including The Living Fire: New and Selected Poems , which brings together thirty-five years of work. He is president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial...
- Alan HollinghurstAlan HollinghurstAlan Hollinghurst is a British novelist, and winner of the 2004 Man Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty.-Biography:Hollinghurst was born on 26 May 1954 in Stroud, Gloucestershire, the only child of James Hollinghurst, a bank manager, and his wife, Elizabeth...
- Richard HowardRichard HowardRichard Howard is an American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and is a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied under Mark Van Doren, and where he now teaches...
- David Hughes
- Philip LevinePhilip Levine (poet)Philip Levine is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well...
- Phillip Lopate
- Beverly Lowry
- William MatthewsWilliam Matthews (poet)William Matthews was an American poet and essayist.-Life:Raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Matthews earned a bachelor's degree from Yale University, and a master's from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.In addition to serving as a Writer-in-Residence at Boston's Emerson College, Matthews...
- Gail Mazur
- Louise Meriwether
- Howard Moss
- Stanley Plumly
- James RobisonJames Robison (author)James Robison is an American novelist, short story writer, poet and screenwriter. The author of The Illustrator and Rumor and Other Stories , his work has frequently appeared in The New Yorker and numerous other journals...
- Mary RobisonMary RobisonMary Cennamo Robison is an American short story writer and novelist. She has published four collections of stories, and four novels, including her 2001 novel Why Did I Ever, winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction. Her most recent novel, released in 2009, is One D.O.A., One...
- Pattiann Rogers
- J. Allyn Rosser
- Ntozake Shange
- Bapsi Sidhwa
- Daniel SternDaniel Stern (writer)Daniel Stern was a Jewish American novelist, and Professor of English in the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.-Biography:Daniel Stern was raised on the Lower East Side and the Bronx in New York City....
- Pamela Stewart
- Mark StrandMark StrandMark Strand is an American poet, essayist, and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990. Since 2005, he has been a professor of English at Columbia University.- Biography :...
- David Wagoner
- Joy Williams
- David Wojahn
- Meg WolitzerMeg WolitzerMeg Wolitzer is an American writer, born on Long Island, New York. She is the daughter of novelist Hilma Wolitzer.She studied creative writing at Smith College and graduated from Brown University in 1981. She wrote her first novel, Sleepwalking, a story of three college girls obsessed with...
- Charles WrightCharles Wright (poet)Charles Wright is an American poet whose awards include the National Book Award Charles Wright (born August 25, 1935) is an American poet whose awards include the National Book Award Charles Wright (born August 25, 1935) is an American poet whose awards include the National Book Award (19830 for...
- Garrett Hongo
Past visiting writers
- Alice AdamsAlice Adams (writer)Alice Adams was an American novelist, short story writer, and university professor....
- Julia AlvarezJulia ÁlvarezJulia Alvarez is a Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist. Born in New York of Dominican descent, she spent the first ten years of her childhood in the Dominican Republic, until her father's involvement in a political rebellion forced her family to flee the country.Alvarez rose to...
- Yehuda AmichaiYehuda AmichaiYehuda Amichai was an Israeli poet. Amichai is considered by many, both in Israel and internationally, as Israel's greatest modern poet. He was also one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew....
- Roger AngellRoger AngellRoger Angell is an American essayist. He has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker and was its chief fiction editor for many years...
- John AshberyJohn AshberyJohn Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...
- Margaret AtwoodMargaret AtwoodMargaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
- Russell BanksRussell BanksRussell Banks is an American writer of fiction and poetry.- Biography :Russell Banks was born in Newton, Massachusetts on March 28, 1940. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in upstate New York, and has been named a New York State Author. He is also...
- Charles Baxter
- Ann BeattieAnn BeattieAnn Beattie is an American short story writer and novelist. She has received an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and a PEN/Bernard Malamud Award for excellence in the short story form. Her work has been compared to that of Alice Adams, J.D. Salinger,...
- Frank BidartFrank BidartFrank Bidart is an American academic and poet.-Biography:In 1957, he began to study at the University of California at Riverside and went on to Harvard, where he was a student and friend of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop...
- Amy BloomAmy BloomAmy Bloom is an American writer. She has been nominated for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.-Biography:...
- Eavan BolandEavan Boland-Biography:Boland's father, Frederick Boland, was a career diplomat and her mother, Frances Kelly, was a noted post-expressionist painter. She was born in Dublin in 1944. At the age of six, Boland's father was appointed Irish Ambassador to the United Kingdom; the family followed him to London,...
- A. S. ByattA. S. ByattDame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...
- Rafael CampoRafael CampoRafael Campo Pomar was President of El Salvador 12 February 1856 - 1 February 1858. Campo was elected president on 30 January 1856. He turned over power to his vice president, Francisco Dueñas, on 12 May of the same year, but resumed the presidency on 19 July...
- Raymond CarverRaymond CarverRaymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....
- Nina CassianNina CassianNina Cassian is a Romanian poet, composer, journalist and film critic.. , The Independent She is noted for her translating abilities, and has rendered into Romanian the works of William Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Christian Morgenstern, Yiannis Ritsos, and Paul Celan...
- Lorna Dee CervantesLorna Dee CervantesLorna Dee Cervantes is an award-winning Chicana-Native American poet who is considered one of the major Chicana poets of the past 40 years. She has been described by Alurista, as "probably the best Chicana poet active today." Lorna Dee Cervantes was born in 1954 in California. She grew up in San...
- Lucille CliftonLucille CliftonLucille Clifton was an American writer and educator from Buffalo, New York. From 1979–1985 she was Poet Laureate of Maryland...
- J. M. Coetzee
- Robert CooverRobert CooverRobert Lowell Coover is an American author and professor in the Literary Arts program at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation and metafiction.-Life and works:...
- E. L. DoctorowE. L. DoctorowEdgar Lawrence Doctorow is an American author.- Biography :Edgar Lawrence Doctorow was born in the Bronx, New York City, the son of second-generation Americans of Russian Jewish descent...
- Rita DoveRita DoveRita Frances Dove is an American poet and author. From 1993-1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now popularly known as "U.S. Poet Laureate"...
- Stephen DunnStephen DunnStephen Dunn is an American poet. Dunn has written fifteen collections of poetry. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 2001 collection, Different Hours and has received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Dunn completed his B.A. in English at...
- Deborah Eisenberg
- Carlos FuentesCarlos FuentesCarlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...
- Ernest J. Gaines
- William Gass
- Dagoberto GilbDagoberto GilbDagoberto Gilb is an American writer born in Los Angeles, California, whose reputation, after years between L.A. and Texas, is as one of the leading voices from the American Southwest....
- Albert GoldbarthAlbert GoldbarthAlbert Goldbarth is an American poet born January 31, 1948 in Chicago. He is known for his prolific production, his gregarious tone, his eclectic interests and his distinctive 'talky' style. He has been a Guggenheim fellow and won the National Book Critics Circle award in 1991 and 2001, the only...
- Günter GrassGünter GrassGünter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author, poet, playwright, sculptor and artist.He was born in the Free City of Danzig...
- Thom GunnThom GunnThom Gunn, born Thomson William Gunn , was an Anglo-American poet who was praised both for his early verses in England, where he was associated with The Movement and his later poetry in America, even after moving toward a looser, free-verse style...
- Marilyn HackerMarilyn HackerMarilyn Hacker is an American poet, translator and critic. She is Professor of English at the City College of New York....
- Michael S. HarperMichael S. HarperMichael Steven Harper is an American poet from Brooklyn, who was the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island from 1988 to 1993. He has published ten books of poetry, two of which, "Dear John, Dear Coltrane" and "Images of Kin" , have been nominated for the National Book Award. A great deal of his poetry...
- Robert HassRobert HassRobert L. Hass is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He was awarded the 2007 National Book Award and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Time and Materials.-Life:...
- John Hawkes
- Seamus HeaneySeamus HeaneySeamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
- Anthony HechtAnthony HechtAnthony Evan Hecht was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the Second World War, in which he fought, and the Holocaust being recurrent themes in his work.-Early years:Hecht was born in New York...
- Amy HempelAmy HempelAmy Hempel is an American short story writer, journalist, and university professor at Brooklyn College.-Life:Hempel was born in Chicago, Illinois...
- Bob HicokBob Hicok-Life:Hicok is an associate professor of creative writing at Virginia Tech. He is from Michigan and before teaching owned and ran a successful automotive die design business...
- Brenda HillmanBrenda HillmanBrenda Hillman , is an American poet. She was educated at Pomona College, and received her M.F.A. at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. She is the Olivia Filippi Professor of Poetry at Saint Mary's College in Moraga, California...
- Alan HollinghurstAlan HollinghurstAlan Hollinghurst is a British novelist, and winner of the 2004 Man Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty.-Biography:Hollinghurst was born on 26 May 1954 in Stroud, Gloucestershire, the only child of James Hollinghurst, a bank manager, and his wife, Elizabeth...
- John HolmanJohn Holman (writer)John William Holman is an American short story writer, novelist, and academic.-Life:He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973, from North Carolina Central University with a MA in 1977, and from the University of Southern Mississippi with a PhD in 1983.He teaches at Georgia State...
- Miroslav HolubMiroslav HolubMiroslav Holub was a Czech poet and immunologist.Miroslav Holub's work was heavily influenced by his experiences as an Immunologist, writing many poems using his scientific knowledge to poetic effect. His work is almost always unrhymed, so lends itself easily to translation...
- Gish JenGish JenGish Jen is a contemporary American writer.-Background:...
- Denis JohnsonDenis JohnsonDenis Hale Johnson is an American author who is known for his short-story collection Jesus' Son and his novel Tree of Smoke , which won the National Book Award. He also writes plays, poetry and non-fiction.- Biography :...
- Janet KauffmanJanet KauffmanJanet Kauffman is an American novelist, poet, and mixed media artist.-Biography:Kauffman was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She has taught in the English Department at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan since 1988...
- Brigit Pegeen KellyBrigit Pegeen KellyBrigit Pegeen Kelly is an award-winning American poet.-Life:She is married to , a poet and fiction writer.She taught at the University of California at Irvine, Purdue University, and Warren Wilson College....
- Jamaica KincaidJamaica KincaidJamaica Kincaid is a Caribbean novelist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in the city of St. John's on the island of Antigua in the nation of Antigua and Barbuda...
- Galway KinnellGalway KinnellGalway Kinnell is an American poet. He was Poet Laureate of Vermont from 1989 to 1993. An admitted follower of Walt Whitman, Kinnell rejects the idea of seeking fulfillment by escaping into the imaginary world. His best-loved and most anthologized poems are "St...
- Carolyn KizerCarolyn KizerCarolyn Ashley Kizer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet of the Pacific Northwest whose works reflect her feminism.-Life and work:...
- Yusef KomunyakaaYusef KomunyakaaYusef Komunyakaa is an American poet who currently teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, for Neon Vernacular and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also received the Ruth Lilly...
- Maxine KuminMaxine KuminMaxine Kumin is an American poet and author. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1981-1982.-Early years:...
- Stanley KunitzStanley KunitzStanley Jasspon Kunitz was an American poet. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress twice, first in 1974 and then again in 2000.-Biography:...
- Norman ManeaNorman ManeaNorman Manea is a Jewish Romanian writer and author of short fiction, novels, and essays about the Holocaust, daily life in a communist state, and exile. He is a Francis Flournoy Professor of European Culture and writer in residence at Bard College...
- Bobbie Ann MasonBobbie Ann MasonBobbie Ann Mason is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and literary critic from Kentucky.With four siblings Mason grew up on her family's dairy farm outside of Mayfield, Kentucky. As a child she loved to read, so her parents, Wilburn and Christina Mason, always made sure she had...
- Peter MatthiessenPeter MatthiessenPeter Matthiessen is a two-time National Book Award-winning American novelist and non-fiction writer, as well as an environmental activist...
- Heather McHughHeather McHugh-Life:Heather McHugh, a poet, translator, and educator, was born in San Diego, California, to Canadian parents, John Laurence, a marine biologist, and Eileen Francesca . They raised McHugh in Gloucester Point, Virginia. There, her father directed the marine biological laboratory on the York River...
- Rick MoodyRick MoodyRick Moody is an American novelist and short story writer best known for the 1994 novel The Ice Storm, a chronicle of the dissolution of two suburban Connecticut families over Thanksgiving weekend in 1973, which brought widespread acclaim, became a bestseller, and was made into a feature film of...
- Sandra McPhersonSandra McPhersonSandra McPherson is an American poet.Born in San Jose, California, McPherson received her B.A. at San Jose State University, and studied at the University of Washington, with Elizabeth Bishop and David Wagoner....
- James MerrillJames MerrillJames Ingram Merrill was an American poet whose awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Divine Comedies...
- W. S. MerwinW. S. MerwinWilliam Stanley Merwin is an American poet, credited with over 30 books of poetry, translation and prose. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thematically characterized by indirect, unpunctuated narration. In the 1980s and 1990s, Merwin's writing influence derived from...
- Leslie Adrienne MillerLeslie Adrienne MillerLeslie Adrienne Miller is the author of five collections of poems.Professor of English at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, Miller holds a B.A. from Stephens College, an M.A. from the University of Missouri, and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a Ph.D...
- Czesław Miłosz
- Susan MitchellSusan MitchellSusan Mitchell is an American poet, essayist and translator who wrote the poetry collections Rapture and Erotikon.-Life:...
- Mary MorrisMary MorrisMary Morris was a British actress.-Life and career:She was the daughter of Herbert Stanley Morris, the botanist, and his wife Sylvia Ena de Creft-Harford. She was educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.She made her stage debut in Lysistrata at the Gate Theatre, London, in 1935...
- Walter MosleyWalter MosleyWalter Ellis Mosley is an American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los...
- Tim O'BrienTim O'BrienTim O'Brien may refer to:* Tim O'Brien , American author* Timothy O'Brien , Irish professor* Timothy L...
- Michael OndaatjeMichael OndaatjePhilip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...
- Cynthia OzickCynthia OzickCynthia Ozick is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist. She is the niece of the Hebraist Abraham Regelson.-Background:Cynthia Shoshana Ozick was born in New York City, the second of two children...
- Grace PaleyGrace PaleyGrace Paley was an American-Jewish short story writer, poet, and political activist.-Biography:Grace Paley was born in the Bronx to Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside, who anglicized the family name from Gutseit on immigrating from Ukraine. Her father was a doctor. The family spoke Russian and...
- Molly PeacockMolly PeacockMolly Peacock is an American-Canadian poet, essayist and creative nonfiction writer. She is an alumna of Binghamton University.-Career:...
- Jayne Ann Phillips
- Evangelina Piñon
- Robert PinskyRobert PinskyRobert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poetry...
- Richard PriceRichard PriceRichard Price was a British moral philosopher and preacher in the tradition of English Dissenters, and a political pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the American Revolution. He fostered connections between a large number of people, including writers of the...
- Francine ProseFrancine ProseFrancine Prose is an American writer. Since March 2007 she has been the president of PEN American Center. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968 and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1991....
- E. Annie ProulxE. Annie ProulxEdna Annie Proulx is an American journalist and author. Her second novel, The Shipping News , won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for fiction in 1994, and was made into a film in 2001...
- Claudia RankineClaudia RankineClaudia Rankine is an American poet and playwright born in 1963 and raised in Kingston, Jamaica and New York City. She has taught at Case Western Reserve University, Barnard College, University of Georgia, and in the writing program at the University of Houston. As of 2011, Rankine is the Henry G...
- Adrienne RichAdrienne RichAdrienne Cecile Rich is an American poet, essayist and feminist. She has been called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century."-Early life:...
- Alberto RiosAlberto RíosAlberto Álvaro Ríos is an American author of nine books and chapbooks of poetry, three collections of short stories, and a memoir. He is a Regents' professor of English at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona...
- James SalterJames SalterJames Salter is an American novelist and short-story writer. Once a career officer and pilot in the United States Air Force, he abandoned the military profession in 1957 after successful publication of his first novel, The Hunters.After a brief career at film writing and film directing, Salter...
- Gjertrud SchnackenbergGjertrud SchnackenbergGjertrud Schnackenberg is an American poet.-Life:Schnackenberg graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1975. She lectured at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Washington University, and was Writer-in-Residence at Smith College and visiting fellow at St...
- Grace SchulmanGrace Schulman-Life:She studied at Bard College, and graduated from American University in 1955, and from New York University with a Ph.D.She is Distinguished Professor of English at Baruch College, CUNY...
- Mary Lee SettleMary Lee SettleMary Lee Settle was an American writer and winner of the National Book Award for her 1978 novel Blood Tie...
- Jane SmileyJane SmileyJane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.-Biography:Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained an A.B. at Vassar College, then earned an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the...
- Charlie Smith
- Lee SmithLee Smith (author)Lee Smith is an American fiction author who typically incorporates much of her home roots in the Southeastern United States in her works of literature. She has received many writing awards, such as the O. Henry Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Fiction, and the North...
- W. D. Snodgrass
- Susan SontagSusan SontagSusan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
- Elizabeth Spencer
- David St. JohnDavid St. John-Biography:Born in Fresno, California, he was educated at California State University, Fresno, where he studied with poet Philip Levine, and at the University of Iowa, receiving an M.F.A. in 1974...
- Gerald SternGerald SternGerald Stern is an American poet. His work became widely recognized after the 1977 publication of Lucky Life, which was that year's Lamont Poetry Selection, and of a series of essays on writing poetry in American Poetry Review. He has subsequently been given many prestigious awards for his...
- William StyronWilliam StyronWilliam Clark Styron, Jr. was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work.For much of his career, Styron was best known for his novels, which included...
- Peter TaylorPeter Matthew Hillsman TaylorFor other people named Peter Taylor, see Peter Taylor.Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor was a U.S. author and writer.-Biography:...
- Christopher TilghmanChristopher Tilghman-Life:He graduated from Yale University. He served 3 years in the Navy.He worked at a sawmill in New Hampshire, moved back to Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a corporate copywriter and journalist...
- Tomas Transtömer
- Derek WalcottDerek WalcottDerek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
- David Foster WallaceDavid Foster WallaceDavid Foster Wallace was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California...
- Richard WilburRichard WilburRichard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....
- C. K. WilliamsC. K. WilliamsCharles Kenneth Williams is an American poet. Senior poet Paul Muldoon has described him as “one of the most distinguished poets of his generation.” -Biography:...
- John A. WilliamsJohn A. Williams (author)John Alfred Williams is an African American author, journalist and academic.Williams was born in Jackson, Mississippi, and, after naval service in World War II, graduated in 1950 from Syracuse University. His novels, which include The Angry Ones and The Man Who Cried I Am are mainly about the...
- Tobias WolffTobias WolffTobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff is an American author. He is known for his memoirs, particularly This Boy's Life , and his short stories. He has also written two novels.-Biography:Wolff was born in 1945 in Birmingham, Alabama...
- Jay WrightJay Wright (poet)Jay Wright is an African-American poet, playwright, and essayist. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he currently lives in Bradford, Vermont. Although his work is not as widely known as other American poets of his generation, it has received considerable critical acclaim...
History
Donald BarthelmeDonald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme was an American author known for his playful, postmodernist style of short fiction. Barthelme also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Houston Post, managing editor of Location magazine, director of the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston , co-founder of Fiction Donald...
and Cythia MacDonald founded The University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
Publications
- Glass MountainGlass Mountain (journal)Glass Mountain is a peer-reviewed undergraduate literary journal at the University of Houston that was established in 2006. The title is an allusion to a short story with the same title by Donald Barthelme. The journal is one of few that publishes poetry, fiction, non-fiction and art from a pool of...
, the undergraduate literary journal at the University of HoustonUniversity of HoustonThe University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of... - Gulf Coast, a journal of literature and fine arts
Past students
Student and alumni honors include GuggenheimGuggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
Fellowships, National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Poetry and Fiction Fellowships, Ruth Lilly
Ruth Lilly
Ruth Lilly was an American philanthropist. She was the daughter of Josiah K. Lilly, Jr., and Ruth Lilly, and the sole living heiress to the Eli Lilly and Company pharmaceutical fortune built by her great grandfather, Colonel Eli Lilly.Lilly made headlines in November 2002 when she pledged stock...
Poetry Fellowships, "Discovery"/The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
Prizes, a Prix de Rome
Prix de Rome
The Prix de Rome was a scholarship for arts students, principally of painting, sculpture, and architecture. It was created, initially for painters and sculptors, in 1663 in France during the reign of Louis XIV. It was an annual bursary for promising artists having proved their talents by...
in Literature, Associated Writing Programs Award Series Prizes for the novel, Henfield Foundation Transatlantic Review Fiction Awards, Wallace Stegner
Wallace Stegner
Wallace Earle Stegner was an American historian, novelist, short story writer, and environmentalist, often called "The Dean of Western Writers"...
Fellowships, the Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
Prize for Poetry, the Norma Farber
Norma Farber
Norma Holzmann Farber was an American children's book writer and poet. The Poetry Society of America presents the Norma Farber First Book Award; it is presented for a first book of original poetry written by an American.-Life:...
First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America
Poetry Society of America
The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists including Witter Bynner. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the have included such renowned writers as Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent...
, a National Poetry Series
National Poetry Series
The National Poetry Series is an American literary awards program.Every year since 1979 it has sponsored the publication of five books of poetry...
selection, a Whiting Writers' Award
Whiting Writers' Award
The Whiting Writers' Award is an American award presented annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The award is sponsored by the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation and has been presented since 1985. As of 2007, winners receive US $50,000.-External links:**...
, and selections in Best New American Voices.