Creative Writing Workshop & Competition
The annual Creative Writing Workshop offers students at 51社区, as well as regional high schools and home school students the opportunity to compete for prizes and learn from Union faculty and accomplished guest writers. Held every spring, the event consists of two parts - the literary competition and workshop - and has featured prominent writers such as Charles Wright, Mark Jarman, Kate Daniels, and Ann Patchett. For the competition, students are invited to submit entries for a number of genres such as poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction. The workshop section involves critiquing and analyzing a sample of the students' works. A learning experience for both college and high school students, the Workshop is another opportunity to recognize a cross-section of local writers.
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.
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.