Our City
The City of Pittsburgh—ranked "America's Most Livable City" several times—is a hub of top-notch cultural, educational, and medical institutions situated at the confluence of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers. The second largest city in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh has shed its soot-covered, "Steel City" stereotype through a major cultural renaissance, emerging as a decidedly modern city with nearly 90 exciting and diverse neighborhoods. The city is thriving like never before. It's also been called "the perfect city for writers."
In Pittsburgh, there's a reading almost any night of the week. And the Writing Program benefits from our linkage to City of Asylum/Pittsburgh. Exiled writers-in-residence (such as China’s Huang Xiang and El Salvador's Horacio Castellanos Moya) regularly teach writing and literature courses here at Pitt.
From professional sports stadiums PNC Park and Heinz Field on the North Shore, to Lawrenceville's New York Times-reviewed Butler Street, Pittsburgh offers much to visitors and residents alike. The University of Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood embraces the city's atmosphere of arts and culture, with the Carnegie Library's main branch, and the Carnegie Museums of Art and Natural History only a short walk from the famed Cathedral of Learning.
For more information on where to live, eat, and play in Pittsburgh, visit Cool Pittsburgh, a comprehensive collection of everything you'd ever want to know about Pittsburgh. You can also read the New York Times Travel article “36 Hours in Pittsburgh” to get an outsider's take on how “livable” Pittsburgh truly is.
Our city is home to these publications:
Our city is home to these readings series:
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh
FROM THE DIRECTOR
PittWriters is a large and diverse community of poets, novelists, short story writers, essayists and journalists interested in traditional forms and emerging media. Read More >
Graduate Testimonials
research assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh
Some time after I completed my MFA at the University of Pittsburgh, an interviewer asked me how my writing career began, and my rather lengthy response ended with a description of my time in the program. During the three years of my MFA, I said, “I felt like I was always ripping apart and reinventing my practice, as muscles rip when we exercise in order to grow.” This was largely thanks to the mentorship of Pitt’s outstanding poetry faculty, who challenged me continuously while still affirming belief in my writing.
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