Meacham Writers’ Workshop

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**Books available for purchase at most events.**

Save the Dates!

Fall 2025 Meacham

Sept 24-27, 2025

Spring 2026 Meacham (co-sponsored with the Southern Literary Festival)
April 1-4, 2026

Meacham Writer's Workshop Videos

About the Meacham Writers' Workshop

The Meacham Writers' Workshop, established in 1985 by UTC Professor Emeritus and Founding Director Richard Jackson, is supported primarily by an endowment funded by the late Jean Meacham in honor of her husband, Ellis K. Meacham to promote writing as an expressive art, and to draw together university and community writers and readers. Her ideal, which we maintain today, was to create an informal atmosphere where nationally known writers, local writers, students, and novice writers and their readers could freely, and on an equal basis, exchange ideas, works, and readings. In order to promote this she asked that the workshops be free and open to all. The program consists of readings, panels and generative workshops at UTC and in the Chattanooga community. The philosophy of the workshop is to provide access to the literary arts to UTC students and underserved members of our community. The conference welcomes non-writers who are avid readers of contemporary prose and poetry, as well as school groups. The conference is open to persons of all age, race, religion, sex, veteran status, national origin, or disability.

Workshop Support

In the past, the Meacham Writers' Workshop has received additional support from the Tennessee Arts Commission, Allied Arts of Chattanooga, the UTC English Department, UTC Honors Program, UTC Speakers and Special Events Committee, and Chattanooga State.

Visiting Writers

Click here to view the list of all MEACHAM visiting writers.

Alumni Impact

UTC Alumni who have benefitted from and participated in the Meacham Writers’ Workshop include MacArthur Genius Award, National Endowment for the Arts and Whiting Award winners, and professors. The Spring 2022 UTC magazine (on page 32) features a profile of Professor Emeritus Richard Jackson, the former Director of Meacham, in which he describes his role in developing the Meacham and its impact on students. In addition, this article in Chapter16.org also details the impact Meacham has had on students and the community.

Meacham Today and Beyond

As we work toward Meacham’s 40^th anniversary in 2025, we want to deepen our impact in the Chattanooga community, forming partnerships with schools and youth programs that benefit all of Chattanooga. We hope that Meacham continues to make lasting partnerships with the Chattanooga community and increases access to UTC's  distinctive model of education, impacting our community and enhance the educational experience of our students by sustaining the scholarly, creative and entrepreneurial activity of our faculty and students.