Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference

Our workshops are led by writers of significant accomplishment and promise: our former workshop leaders have won the Roerich poetry prize, had their books named “Notable Books of the Year” by the New York Times, been recognized by The New Yorker as among the twenty best young American novelists, and been featured by “Oprah’s Book Club” and The Today Show.

Founded in 1994, the conference meets for two weeks each July, offering to high school students from all over the U.S. some of the resources brought to campus by the adult Sewanee Writers' Conference. In small workshops devoted to poetry, fiction, playwriting or creative nonfiction, serious young writers are able to polish their craft with the help of instructors who are themselves writers of significant accomplishment, and to form friendships with like-minded peers. There are also lectures by members of Sewanee’s English Department and special appearances by such major writers as Horton Foote, Ernest Gaines, Jill McCorkle, Alice McDermott, Andrew Hudgins, and many others.