As Bayou City evolved, so did its literary scene
‘The great Houston book’ hasn’t been written - but that’s not for lack of trying
Mary Gaitskill taught in the program, too, as did Daniel Stern, Mark Doty, Philip Levine and Claudia Rankine. By the late 1990s, U.S. News & World Report ranked the University of Houston’s writing program second in the nation, just behind Iowa. It’s still highly ranked and still counts prominent writers among its faculty, including Chitra Divakaruni, Antonya Nelson, Mat Johnson and poet Tony Hoagland.