UTC will host the 2026 Meacham Writers’ Workshop from Sept. 23-26, bringing writers, readers and students together for four days of readings, conversations and workshops focused on Appalachian and Southern literature.
All Meacham Writers’ Workshop events are free and open to the public. A complete schedule, including locations and event times, is available at go.utc.edu/meacham.
Novelist Mesha Maren, author of “Sugar Run,” “Perpetual West” and “Shae,” will be the workshop’s featured visiting writer and Stove Works Fellow. Maren will participate in an Appalachian writers panel, meet with public school students and lead a writing workshop at Stove Works (1250 E. 13th St.) on Saturday, Sept. 26.
A South Arts grant will help bring Maren to Chattanooga. Headquartered in Atlanta, South Arts is a nonprofit regional arts organization that supports artists, organizations and communities across the South through grants, fellowships and programs.
“It is such an enormous honor to participate in the Meacham Writers’ Workshop, where so many of my literary heroes, like Larry Brown, have been before me,” Maren said. “It is particularly wonderful to be supported by South Arts, such a wonderful and necessary organization.”
Maren’s fiction, short stories and essays have appeared in Tin House, The Oxford American, The Guardian, The New York Times, Crazyhorse, TriQuarterly, The Southern Review and Ecotone. She is an associate professor of the practice of English at Duke University.
“We are very excited that the South Arts grant is allowing us to expand our offerings for this Meacham workshop,” said Sybil Baker, UC Foundation Professor and associate department head in the UTC Department of English, who directs the Meacham Writers’ Workshop. “Our focus for this Meacham is Appalachian writers, and most of the visiting writers have a connection with Appalachia.”
The workshop will feature an Appalachian writers panel with Maren; UTC alum J. Kasper Kramer, whose middle-grade novel, “Serpent on the Mountain,” is set in 1970s Appalachia; and Chattanooga-based novelist Susan Gregg Gilmore, winner of the 2025 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction.
Additional visiting writers include Stephen Moore, M. Randal O’Wain and Jessica Alexander. Herman H. Battle Professor of African American Studies Earl Braggs and UC Foundation Assistant Professor Justin Wymer—who serves as assistant director of the Meacham Writers’ Workshop—also will read from recently published books.
“The intelligence and humanity of the writers that Meacham brings to Chattanooga never cease to amaze me,” Wymer said. “Appalachian literature is alive and thriving. I can’t wait for the community to meet the visiting writers this fall.”
Workshop events include:
- Wednesday, Sept. 23: Sequoya Review Reading, Guerry Center Reading Room, 5-7 p.m.
- Thursday, Sept. 24: Justice-Affected Writing Panel, Guerry Center Reading Room, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
- Thursday, Sept. 24: Reception and Reading, Stove Works, 5-7 p.m.
- Friday, Sept. 25: Appalachian Writers’ Panel, Guerry Center Reading Room, noon-1:30 p.m.
- Friday, Sept. 25: Reception and Reading, Roth Reading Room, UTC Library (4th floor), 5-7 p.m.
- Saturday, Sept. 26: Morning Consultations, Lupton Hall (1st floor), 10-11 a.m.
- Saturday, Sept. 26: Generative Workshop and Potluck with Mesha Maren, Stove Works, 1-3 p.m.
Founded in 1985, the Meacham Writers’ Workshop was established through an endowment from the late Jean Meacham in honor of her husband, Ellis K. Meacham, to promote writing as an expressive art. The workshop’s mission is to provide greater access to the literary arts for UTC students and underserved members of the Chattanooga community.
Sponsors for the fall 2026 workshop include South Arts, Stove Works, the UTC Department of English, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Division of Advancement and Alumni Affairs.