Local Literature Event Open to All!

Every other year Chattanooga's Arts & Education Council brings
accomplished Southern  writers to Chattanooga for the Conference on
Southern Literature. If the name of the event conjures up visions of
hours-long lectures and stodgy topics, then you may want to check out
the AEC web site at  and find out what this premier Chattanooga event
is really all about. It is a writers' conference, but it's a writers'
conference for readers. There will be interesting and entertaining
panel discussion, book signings, a Friday night keynote address by
beloved writer Reynolds Price, and a Saturday luncheon with Pulitzer
prize winner Edward P. Jones. Nearly thirty writers will be
participating in the three-day event including Kaye Gibbons, Dorothy
Allison, Allan Gurganus, George Garrett and Fred Chappell. On the AEC
web site you can see the event schedule, find out all the writers
who'll be coming, and read about the history of the Fellowship of
Southern Writers whose archives are kept right here in Chattanooga at
UTC's Lupton Library.

While the writers are in Chattanooga, they will be conducting
residencies at all area high schools the week of the conference and
spend time with students studying fiction and nonfiction writing.
Over 2,300 area students have also submitted their work to the Young
Southern Student Writers contest being held in conjunction with the
conference, and the winners will be honored during the event.  The
AEC is grateful to Verbie Prevost and the English Department for
judging the contest.

The event is scheduled for March 31 through April 2, 2005. All
sessions will be open to the public and three-day as well as daily
tickets are available. Please see  for details on how to register.
Additionally, the Reynolds Price keynote address, scheduled for 6:30
PM at the Tivoli on Friday April 1, is billed as a community event.
The AEC is asking for a $10 donation at the door if you are not a
conference ticket holder. Immediately following the address, all
writers will be available for book signings at the Tivoli.
--

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Linda T. Collins
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN  37403

[log in to unmask]
423-425-4797 (office)
423-425-2285 (fax)