Creative Writing
Union University has a vibrant creative writing community and a strong placement history among its graduates. Through the Creative Writing Workshop and the Annual Reading Series, Union students have the opportunity to hear from and workshop with some of the finest contemporary writers. Past readers at Union have included former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Wright, Mark Jarman, Kate Daniels, Dave Smith, Ann Patchett, Gregory Orr, Margaret Skinner, Li-Young Lee, Judson Mitcham, and Clyde Edgerton.
Upcoming Event
32nd Annual Creative Writing Workshop Reading featuring Courtney Miller Santo
Thursday, February 27, 2025, 1 p.m., Grant Event Center, Salon 2
Book signing and reception at 2 p.m.
Courtney Miller Santo is the author of two novels, The Roots of the Olive Tree and Three Story House, both published by HarperCollins. Translations of these works were published in German, Italian, Hungarian, Korean, Dutch, Spanish, Polish, Turkey, and Slovenian. In addition to her novels, her essay, "If/Then" was published in the Best American Essays 2023. Other essays and poetry have appeared in the Los Angeles Review, Swing, The Missouri Review, New Letters, Third Coast and elsewhere. Additionally, her work has been an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Semifinalist, won the Memphis Magazine Fiction Contest Grand Prize, been nominated for a Whitney and placed in the Porter Fleming Literary Contest. In 2018 the University of Memphis awarded her the Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Pinch.