Malone Writers Series
Interact and learn from established and emerging authors
The Malone University Writers Series invites emerging and established writers to campus to offer masterclasses for students and to share readings with the wider community, which are open to the public and free of charge. The series features contemporary authors of various backgrounds in the belief that good literature tells truths about our relationships to God, one another, and the natural world.
Malone University Writers Series Mission Statement
One of Malone’s Foundational Principles notes that students are encouraged to “witness to the truth.” In the Gospels, Christ calls us to learn from and engage with not only like-minded people, but also those who think differently than us. He did this by example when He dined with Zacchaeus, when He engaged in discourse with Pharisees and Sadducees, when He told the parable of the Good Samaritan, and any time he showed us how to find good in others. Nowhere is the challenge to empathize more present than in literary texts that ask readers to know and understand experiences different from their own.
Through our Writers Series, we host readers who write texts that challenge students’ core beliefs and values. We give our students the chance to reaffirm not only what they believe, but why they believe it. Often these uncomfortable works are powerful reflections of the world around us. Reading these works can spark a call to action and service and ask us to grow not only as readers, writers, and scholars, but also as Christians.
Fall 2026 Author Lineup
The Malone University Writers Series will feature the following writers for Fall 2026. Public readings will occur on the specified dates, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Stewart Room of the Randall Campus Center, “The Barn.”
October 6: A. Muia, author of A Desert Between Two Seas
A. Muia is the author of A Desert Between Two Seas, a novel in linked stories set in 19th century Baja California, Mexico. The novel won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, was a finalist for the Iowa Short Fiction Award, and is a 2026 Top Pick for the Southwest Books of the Year. The novel is published by the University of Georgia Press. Muia’s stories and articles have appeared in literary journals across the U.S. Her work has been anthologized in the Orison Anthology, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
She facilitates writing workshops with youth in juvenile detention through Underground Writing, and co-founded New Earth Recovery, a nonprofit providing a residential program to those recovering from substance use disorder. For fourteen years she served as a chaplain in the Skagit County Jail, and for many years she worked as an advocate for immigrant farm workers in Skagit Valley, Washington.
She holds a degree in Spanish language, a master’s in teaching English to speakers of other languages, a post-graduate certificate in Writing Literary Fiction from the University of Washington, and an MFA in creative writing from Seattle Pacific University.
October 20: Sophfronia Scott, author of The Seeker and the Monk
Sophfronia Scott is a novelist, essayist, and leading contemplative thinker whose written works have received several reputable awards . She grew up in Lorain, Ohio, a hometown she shares with author Toni Morrison and holds a BA in English from Harvard and an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Sophfronia is also a popular public speaker and has delivered workshops and keynotes for the Episcopal House of Bishops, the Meditatio Center in London, the International Thomas Merton Society, the Mark Twain House & Museum, the Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop, and the Glen Workshop. As the founding director of Alma College’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, a low-residency graduate program based in Alma, Michigan, she curates a vibrant, artistic community for aspiring writers. Sophfronia lives in East Lansing, Michigan and is a PhD in Creative Writing candidate at Bath Spa University.
November 10: John Poch, author of The Future of Love
John Poch is an award-winning poet with eight collections of poetry published, including The Future of Love (Slant Books). He serves as a Professor of English at Grace College, where he co-directs the Winona Christian Writer’s Conference. He earned an MFA in Poetry from the University of Florida and a PhD in English from the University of North Texas. He was the inaugural Colgate University Creative Writing Fellow and served as the founding editor of the award-winning 32 Poems Magazine. He is currently the series editor for the Vassar Miller Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Paris Review, Yale Review, Iowa Review, Agni, and other literary magazines.
Past Authors
- Celeste Ng
- Hanif Abdurraqib
- Justin A. Reynolds
- Scott Russell Sanders
- Andrew Graff
- Gilbert King
- Beth Ann Fennelly
- Megan O’Giebly
- Taylor Byas
- Anjali Sachdeva
- Cameron Barnett
- David E. Yee
- Sara Moore Wagner
- Sarah Kay
- Ingrid DeSanctis
- Clint Smith
- Paula McClain
- Angie Estes