Waldorf Creative Writing

05/07/2026

05/07/2026

We're so proud of you, Arnaldur, and all of our 2026 graduates!

04/16/2026

If you're in Columbia for the Unbound Book Festival this weekend, be sure to stop by Shakespeare's Downtown of Saturday for the Waldorf x Mizzou Epic undergraduate reading! These are some talented folks, and it's a great way to end the day. See you soon!

03/24/2026

Join us this Thursday, March 26th, for our Distinguished Visiting Writer double feature: Bailey Gaylin Moore & Donald Quist!

The event will take place in the Johnson Ballroom in Salveson Hall between 5 - 7 p.m. on the 26th. This event is free and open to the public. We hope to see many of you there!

Bailey Gaylin Moore is the author of Thank You for Staying with Me, an IPPY Gold and International book awards winner. She has been featured in Poets & Writers, Oxford America, the Writer’s Chronicle, AGNI, Brevity, Pleiades, and other journals. She serves as the Editor-in-Chief of PAST TEN and edited The Past Ten: an Anthology, which has writers reflect on where they were ten years ago.

Donald Quist is author of two essay collections, Harbors, a Foreword INDIES Bronze Winner and International Book Awards Finalist, and To Those Bounded. He has a linked story collection, For Other Ghosts. His writing has appeared in AGNI, North American Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, and was Notable in Best American Essays. He is creator of the online nonfiction series PAST TEN. Quist has received fellowships from Sundress Academy for the Arts, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Kimbilio Fiction. He is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at University of Missouri.

02/18/2026

Join us tomorrow night at 5 p.m. to hear Tim Bascom read in the Johnson Ballroom!

In preparation for the event, check out English & Creative Writing senior Arnaldur Stefansson's review of CONTINENTAL DRIFT, Bascom's recent short story collection: https://www.waldorfliteraryreview.com/tim-bascoms-continental-drift-a-book-review-by-arnaldur-stefansson/

Tim Bascom, who spent half his childhood in East Africa, has served as Director of the Kansas Book Festival and, before that, as Director of Creative Writing at Waldorf University, Iowa. His books include The Boundless Game (nonfiction from University Press of Kansas, 2026), Continental Drift (fiction from Main Street Rag, 2025), Climbing Lessons (essays from Light Messages Press, 2020), Running to the Fire (memoir from University of Iowa Press, 2015), Chameleon Days (memoir from Houghton Mifflin, 2006), plus an earlier collection of essays from InterVarsity Press and a novel from New Day Press, Philippines. His writing has been chosen for the Bakeless Literary Prize in Nonfiction, recognized as a Finalist for the IndieFab Memoir of the Year, awarded editor’s prizes at The Missouri Review and Florida Review, and selected for the anthologies Best American Travel Writing and Best Creative Nonfiction. He lives, now, in Topeka, Kansas.

10/30/2025

Samantha Edmonds is reading tonight at Waldorf University in the Johnson Ballroom from 4-5 pm! The event is free and open to the public. Hope to see you all there!

10/13/2025

After an unfortunate cancellation in the spring due to weather, we are excited to bring Caylin Capra-Thomas to campus this Thursday, October 16th! She will be reading poetry between 5 - 6p.m. in Waldorf University's Johnson Ballroom. This event is free and open to the public.

Caylin Capra-Thomas is the author of Iguana, Iguana, out in July, 2022 from Deep Vellum Press, as well as two chapbooks: Inside My Electric City, available from YesYes Books, and The Marilyn Letters, available through dancing girl press. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including New England Review, 32 Poems, Pleiades, The Journal, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. She is the winner of Harpur Palate‘s Milton Kessler Memorial Prize, Raleigh Review’s 2019 Laux/Millar Prize, Fairy Tale Review‘s 2018 Poetry Award, The Baltimore Review‘s 2017 Summer Contest and Yemassee’s 2016 Nonfiction Prize. The recipient of fellowships and residencies from The Vermont Studio Center, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and The Studios of Key West, she served as the 2018-2020 poet-in-residence at Idyllwild Arts Academy and is now living in Columbia, MO, where she is a student in the University of Missouri’s PhD in English program, studying poetry and nonfiction.

10/09/2025

Happening in 15 minutes! We hope to see you there!

09/24/2025

Join us tomorrow night at Three Bells Books for our 2nd annual Town & Gown. Featuring Waldorf University creative writers, Jillian Kardoes, Grace Kobriger, Avery Herker, and Jennifer Edwards, alongside local writers in Mason City. The reading kicks off at 5:30! Rumor has it that Dr. Hayli Cox Estep will bring freshly baked cookies.

03/06/2025

Due to the inclement weather disrupting our heating systems, we unfortunately will have to cancel today's reading from Caylin Capra-Thomas and our Creative Writing Festival.

Stay tuned for a rescheduled event later this semester!

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