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
William Faulkner once said that few wish to write; most wish to have written. Pitt was where I fell in love with writing. Chuck Kinder was Director of the program, and he’d host legendary parties at his house in Squirrel Hill. It’s hard to explain how hanging out with Tobias Wolff or Lorin Stein, editor of The Paris Review, affected me as a 23-year old writer. The program also brought Maxine Hong Kingston, ZZ Packer, and George Saunders to campus while I was there. Being around all these writers (in some cases, eating pizza with them at the scarred wooden table in the secret poker room of the Panther Hollow Inn) was intimidating, but I learned several things, chiefly that these successful people were much more well-read (and well-practiced) than I was, and I’d better get with the program.
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