Award-winning and nationally recognized writers will visit UTC from April 9-11 for the Spring 2026 Meacham Writers’ Workshop, a series of free readings, discussions and literary events open to the campus and Chattanooga communities.
This year’s workshop will be held in conjunction with the Southern Literary Festival, which UTC is hosting for the first time.
UC Foundation Professor Sybil Baker, associate chair of the UTC Department of English and director of the Meacham Writers’ Workshop, said the public events provide an opportunity for the community to hear from accomplished writers working across different genres.
“This year’s workshop brings together a group of writers whose work has been recognized nationally while also maintaining strong ties to the region,” Baker said. “Events like these give students, writers and readers in the community a chance to hear from authors about their work and the writing process.”
A highlight of the workshop will be a keynote reading by bestselling author Kevin Wilson from 7:30-8:30 p.m. on Friday, April 10, at Derthick Hall on the UTC campus.
Wilson is the author of seven books, including the New York Times bestsellers “The Family Fang” and “Nothing to See Here.” His most recent novel, “Run for the Hills,” was published in 2025.
Wilson’s fiction has appeared in numerous journals as well as Best American Short Stories and The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories. He lives in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he is an associate professor in the English and Creative Writing Department at the University of the South.
The workshop will also feature a reading and Q&A with Jamie Quatro at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 9, in Derthick Hall.
Quatro is the author of “I Want to Show You More,” a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, and “Fire Sermon,” the recipient of numerous Book of the Year honors. Her most recent novel, “Two-Step Devil,” won the 2024 Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing and was recently named a finalist for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize.
Her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Harper’s and the New York Review of Books. She lives in Chattanooga and teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program.
Additional events will take place Saturday, April 11, including a generative writing workshop led by poet and editor Leigh Anne Couch from 10:30-11:45 a.m. in Lupton Hall. Couch will also participate in a visiting writers reading from 1:30-2:30 p.m. in the UTC Library’s Roth Reading Room alongside nationally recognized writers Christian J. Collier and Matthew Hubbard.
Baker said the combination of readings, workshops and discussions allows attendees to engage with writers in different ways.
“Some people come to hear authors read their work, while others want the chance to ask questions or participate in a workshop,” Baker said. “The Meacham Writers’ Workshop has always been about creating space where writers and readers can connect and talk about the craft of writing.”
Created through an endowment established by the late Jean Meacham in memory of her husband, Ellis K. Meacham, the Meacham Writers’ Workshop connects nationally recognized authors, local voices, students and readers through a shared appreciation of literature and storytelling.
Books by visiting authors will be available for purchase at several events. For additional information and a full schedule, visit go.utc.edu/meacham.