Sarah Southern’s (26) Point Loma Nazarene University journey began nearly 2,000 miles away.
Attending a writing festival in Michigan, Southern had the chance to meet Katie Manning, a PLNU professor of writing. They briefly talked about PLNU’s Master’s in Writing program, but by the time Southern got to the airport to head home, she already talked herself out of applying for it. After all, the application deadline was coming up, and with her husband in the military, she wasn’t sure if she should commit to it.
But then Southern’s friend ran into Manning and Robbie Maakestad, the director of the master’s program. Prompted by her friend’s advice, Southern reached out to Maakestad. Learning she had only one week left to apply, she spent the seven days writing and editing, submitting her application to see what would happen. And she got in.
“The timing was perfect,” Southern said. “If it had been delayed by a year, I wouldn’t have been able to do it, because my husband and I are moving at the beginning of 2027.”
Southern spent her four years as an undergraduate studying journalism at Elon University in North Carolina. While she still loves journalism, she was hungry to learn more about creative writing and being surrounded by like-minded people in a graduate program.
“As time went on, as I kept writing in different ways, I just realized I was very drawn to a more personal narrative, essayistic style of writing,” Southern said. “I knew this was the kind of writing that I felt drawn to. That’s what I wanted to spend some time pursuing at a collegiate level.”
Southern said that one of her favorite parts of PLNU’s Master’s in Writing program were the workshops she was part of. Thanks to the class dynamic of constructing feedback, workshops are one of the ways writing students at PLNU are able to hone their craft.
“The timing was perfect. If it had been delayed by a year, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”
“I’ve told Robbie that I think workshop was the best thing that ever happened to my writing,” Southern said. “I think there’s a rawness you feel afterward that you have to come down from [after] three hours of hearing and giving feedback to other people. It’s a lot to grapple with, but it’s also so necessary for growth and seeing your own work in different ways that you can’t do on your own.”
An element of the program is teaching PLNU’s ENG 1010 Writing Composition course. In her classroom, she implemented these workshops as well. Through these lessons, Southern was able to help her students hone their writing skills as she continued to develop hers.
“[We saw] it go full circle,” Southern said. “We’re being workshopped and seeing why it’s beneficial, and then we’re making our students do it too. It just makes everybody better, and every single one of my students has said that it’s their favorite part of English 1010 because they’ve seen how necessary it is.”
Another full circle moment for Southern was near the end of her time at PLNU, when she learned she was the 2026 prose winner of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Intro Journals competition. Maakestad was only able to nominate one essay per category, and chose Southern’s piece “Resuscitated Fallow” for the non-fiction section. Southern said she remembers feeling so honored by this nomination.
“I honestly didn’t expect to win, and it’s still kind of a shock to me,” Southern said. “But that felt very affirming of the effect that this program had on my writing in a short time, in two years. Yet I could see so much growth, and I think a huge part of that is because critique[s] have always been done in a very kind and hospitable way.”
“I could see so much growth, and I think a huge part of that is because critique[s] have always been done in a very kind and hospitable way.”
Maakestad said he’s been impressed with Southern’s writing, and that her essay was selected from a pool of writing from graduate program writers; those seeking PhD and MFA degrees.
“This is the biggest prize awarded to students by our guild,” Maakestad explained. “Sarah’s such a talented writer, and this essay is truly deserving.”
Outside of her classrooms, critiques and workshops, Southern was also able to grow in her writing through PLNU’s Visiting Writers Series. As part of the program, Southern and her cohort were able to spend extra time with these authors, which Southern said was “a huge joy.”
During PLNU’s annual Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, Southern was able to learn from those writers as well, including George Saunders and R.F. Kuang.
“Getting to sit at the feet of these incredibly successful, brilliant authors and just hearing their perspectives on things, no matter what they said, it was gems of wisdom that I found helpful,” Southern said. “[It was] an immense opportunity to get to read somebody and then get to see them in the flesh and hear from them.”
Southern’s connections expand far beyond just these authors and her professors. Southern said that she became fast friends with those in her cohort. From a group text thread to activities outside of class and birthday celebrations, her classmates supported her even while she experienced a season of loneliness.
“Every single person that I had an opportunity to work with was above and beyond so gracious and kind,” Southern said. “They checked on me a lot, because my spouse has been deployed the majority of this time, which added another layer of difficulty. … My family is all on the East Coast, and most of my friends don’t live in California. … I think we all just connected to each other in different ways, and it was just really special.”
Although Southern has graduated, she said she hopes to stay in touch with her cohort and keep those relationships going, because they’re the people she wants to always have in her life. As far as her career is concerned, she wants to continue the teaching and writing skills she learned during the Master’s in Writing program.
“My goal is to keep up [journaling and writing time] to stay active in it and not to lose that momentum,” Southern said. “I plan to keep teaching. I hadn’t ever thought I would be teaching; that came up with the program, and I ended up really enjoying it, and I think I’m going to keep at it for the foreseeable future.”
