DURHAM— This Thursday, October 2, the recurring Writers Series kicks off with UNH graduate Elise Juska, a writer with notable publications in fiction and nonfiction. Her most recent novel, Reunion, released by Harper Collins in 2024, follows a group of friends in their forties who reunite during a college reunion in Maine, grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, generational divides, and the realities of growing older. This novel has been recognized as an Editor’s Choice in The New York Times and one of People Magazine’s ‘Best New Books.’
Juska is currently a visiting professor of creative writing at Bryn Mawr College. She was the founding director of the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, from which she received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. She grew up just outside Philadelphia, where she now lives with her husband and son, and began writing stories at the age of five.
As an undergraduate, Juska studied English at Bowdoin College, and she continued her education with the graduate writing program at UNH. Throughout her career, she has published several novels, including The Blessings and If We Had Known, alongside short fiction and essays that have appeared in journals such as Ploughshares and The Gettysburg Review. In 2013, she was awarded the Alice Hoffman Prize from Ploughshares.
In her return to campus, she will share selections from her work and discuss her experience in the creative field. This event takes place at 5 p.m. in 210 Hamilton Smith Hall and is open to students and the public.
