July 7, 2003

Contact Michael Cinelli for information on the Mitchell gift announcement at 713/743-8155

Attained national prominence since its founding in 1979… consistently ranked number two in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in its ranking of graduate writing programs.

Affords students the opportunity to study under the tutelage of an award-winning faculty composed of world-renowned poets, novelists, and playwrights… its doctoral curriculum is one of the few graduate programs in the nation that successfully integrates creative writing with the scholarly study of literature.

Permanent and visiting faculty have published over 200 books and have won 4 Pulitzer Prizes, 3 National Book Awards, 1 Prix de Rome, 19 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, 10 Guggenheim Fellowships, 3 MacArthur Fellowships, and many other awards.

Latest MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as “genius grant,” awarded to Colson Whitehead, the third faculty member in the Creative Writing Program to hold this prestigious honor.

Fosters an active literary community in Houston, developing diverse audience for contemporary literature… sponsors the Margarett Root Brown Houston Reading Series, the premier series in the nation, in cooperation with Inprint, Inc.

Faculty and students participate in many national and local readings… its students are a dynamic force in spreading creative literacy throughout the community by their participation in such programs as WITS (Writers in the Schools).

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.