AEC Announces Conference on Southern Literature

"The biennial Conference on Southern Literature is without doubt the leading literary event in the South."
For almost three decades, well-known and widely acclaimed Southern authors have converged on Chattanooga for the AEC Conference on Southern Literature, a biennial celebration that brings hundreds of avid readers and writers together for three days of discussion, speakers and fellowship with the great literary minds of the time.

The 2007 Conference will be held in Chattanooga on March 29, 30 & 31. Kicking off the Conference on Thursday is Chattanooga native and Newsweek managing editor Jon Meacham, whose latest best-selling work of non-fiction is American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation. Wendell Berry, award-winning author of over 30 works of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, will provide the keynote address on Friday evening, and Robert Hicks (Widow of the South) will speak to attendees at the Saturday luncheon. Other guest speakers include Catherine Landis (Harvest and Some Days There’s Pie); William Henry Lewis, a 2005 PEN/ Faulkner finalist and the author of I Got Somebody in Staunton; and poet Greg Williamson (The Silent Partner and Errors in the Script).

Additional participants include members of the prestigious Fellowship of Southern Writers. New Fellowship inductees and recipients of the Fellowship’s literary prizes will also participate in the Conference by giving readings and engaging in panel discussions, all centering on the Conference theme, “The Southern Writer: Exploring the Life Within.”

Registration for the Conference will begin in January. Cost is $110 for all three days, and early registration discounts will be offered through February 28.

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Visit the Conference web page.