She holds degrees from Stanford, Oxford, and Brown, but it's her MFA from the School of Letters that Maggie holds most dear. Clearly a lover of learning, Maggie applied to Sewanee because she wanted to study and write poetry. Just five years later, in 2015, Maggie published her first chapbook, Bury the Lede, and in 2019 will publish her first full-length collection, Visitation. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize twice and her work can be found in Tar River Poetry, Still: The Journal, SWWIM, and others. She was also instrumental in establishing the John Grammer Fellowship through the Blake & Bailey Family Fund, which brings a noted writer for an extended stay during the summer session.

Nearly two decades after beginning his undergraduate degree at Sewanee, Clay returned to start his MFA. He was working on a memoir about an experience that happened to him during his earlier stint at Sewanee and was hoping to get it published. After surviving a head-on collision during his sophomore year, Clay underwent an experimental surgery to restore movement to his right arm, which had been injured in the accident. Following surgery, however, Clay suffered a massive brain-stem stroke. He was left completely paralyzed. Despite a grim prognosis, Clay’s condition began to very slowly improve. As he relearned to walk and speak, he also found his way to writing, calling it a “healing obsession.” Clay would eventually earn his undergraduate degree from Sewanee. At the School of Letters, Clay reconnected with essayist John Jeremiah Sullivan, his friend from undergrad who was also now his nonfiction instructor. Sullivan would go on to mentor Clay as he wrote Will & I, his debut memoir published in 2016. “The School of Letters is one of the undiscovered secrets of the literary world. It really helped shape my vision of what I could do.”

Retired from the U.S. Army, Dwight enrolled in the School of Letters because he had something to say. Dwight also came to the School of Letters to find a community of passionate readers and writers with whom he could discuss the writing life. Time with professors and fellow students outside of class and time alone in nature became just as meaningful as the work in the classroom. In this brief and intense six-week period, there was not a moment to be wasted. A poet, Dwight would go on to publish two books of poetry, including his debut collection Overwatch in 2011 followed by Contested Terrain in 2017. His work can also be found in the Sewanee Review, Appalachian Heritage, Still: The Journal, and others.

Part rigorous academic study, part creative hamlet—for Lindsey, the School of Letters was everything she didn’t know she needed. Within the first week of her first summer, though, she was sure she was somewhere special. A fiction writer, Lindsey spent her summers workshopping short stories with guidance from professors like Ellen Slezak, Michael Griffith, and Chris Bachelder. Since graduating, she’s written a novel and signed with a literary agent. She also completed a PhD in English from the University of Georgia, where she serves as director of the Writing Intensive Program. Her fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

Gordon’s goal was simple: to learn how to write well. An accomplished photographer who also boasts a BA in economics and an MBA in finance, he wanted to find ways to blend his images and stories. Today his photos and nonfiction have appeared in Paste Magazine, 35mm Magazine, and The Drake Magazine. Through relationships built at the School of Letters, Gordon has also executive produced two feature films. (Did we mention he’s also a fly fishing guide?) “My life has been blessed by some incredible educational opportunities, but Sewanee is hands down the best and most dear to me.”

It was an interest in the intersection of literature and folklore that brought Cory to the School of Letters. After completing his MA, he earned a PhD in American studies from Penn State. Cory is an expert on American folk religion, with an emphasis on folk magic and cosmology. His work has been published in the Journal of American Folklore, Journal of American Ethnic History, New Directions in Folklore, and more. “Passion and effort get the most rewards at the School of Letters, and taking risks is a good idea.”

Earning an MFA from the same university he graduated from in 1953 meant Henry was able to make good on a young man’s dream. Unable to pursue creative writing in undergrad due to the rigors of his pre-med program, returning to Sewanee to study poetry after 50 years as a cardiologist was its own special kind of homecoming. Henry was the Poet Laureate of Northwest Florida from 1999 to 2009, and his poetry can be found in many publications, including the Sewanee Review, Hurricane Review, and Panhandler Magazine, and he has published nine books.

As a full-time teacher, Darby craved time and space to write poetry. At the School of Letters, away from the day-to-day distractions of the classroom and life at home, she was able to immerse herself in a community of writers, hone her craft, and devote her attention fully to the creation of new work. Darby’s work has appeared in SWWIM Every Day, 8 Poems, Mud Season Review, and others. She also serves as senior editorial assistant at The Cincinnati Review.

A critically acclaimed visual artist with work hanging in the permanent collections at the High Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, and the Mobile Museum of Art, Donna longed for a return to an academic setting after years of solitary art making. She completed her MFA with a concentration in nonfiction and is currently at work on an essay collection on James Agee and his masterwork, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. “School of Letters offered the four best summers of my life. I would live each of them over in its entirety if given the chance.”

Carly Nations is a Northwestern University graduate and MA student at the School of Letters. A high school teacher, she has published both in the fields of education and literature, contributing monthly for BookPage and Sartorial Geek. Dedicated to all things British, feminist, and literary, she is currently working on publishing a work of lost Victorian fiction with School of Letters colleagues Anna Spydell and Dr. Barbara Black. Deeply interested in intersectionality, her thesis work seeks to connect the realms of the female, medieval devotional to 19th century New Woman fiction. She currently resides in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, two dogs, and a very dog-like cat.

Hannah believes the stars aligned the day she opened Oxford American and saw an ad for the School of Letters. After years in New York City working in publishing, she’d moved back to her childhood home of Atlanta where she was trying, without much success, to make more space for writing. Sensing the summers-only program perched atop the Cumberland Plateau was her next right move, Hannah applied. Instructors like John Jeremiah Sullivan and Angus Fletcher led Hannah’s nonfiction workshops and literary classes as she began what would become her thesis and eventually her debut memoir, Flight Path, published in 2017. Part memoir, part urban history, Hannah’s book examines the loss of her childhood homes in the wake of the expansion of Atlanta’s airport.

With a career in corporate marketing steadily on the rise for a decade, Kate decided to quit her job to return to school and become a full-time writer. Only she had no idea how to actually do that. More than anything, Kate came to the School of Letters to find community. While pursuing her MFA, she cultivated the discipline and persistence required of any successful writer, and also, more importantly, formed relationships that have opened professional doors and led to lifelong friendships. Her work can be found in Parade, SELF, GOOD, Teen Vogue, and others.

With a background in forestry and biology, Mary ventured over that imaginary line dividing the arts and sciences to begin work on her MA. Like any great scientist, she was drawn to unearthing and understanding the truths found in literature. In that pursuit, however, the creative writing bug caught her, and Mary finished with an MFA with a concentration in creative nonfiction. She went on to publish Fiery Gizzard: Voices from the Wilderness, a collection of essays about one of the Cumberland Plateau’s most famous trails. She remains on the hunt for more truth.

As a teacher, writer, and actor, Billy makes wearing many hats look easy. As a playwright, his one-act play won the Grand Festival Prize in New York City’s Theatre Row, and he received the Tennessee Williams Scholarship to attend the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. As a writer, his essays have been published in Narrative, PLOTS, and others. His memoir was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Most importantly to Billy, he was also named a Tennessee Teacher of the Year. Concentrating in creative nonfiction, he earned his MFA at the School of Letters.

Megan wanted to see if she could write a novel, so she applied to the School of Letters. Turns out that not only could she write a novel, but she could write a pretty excellent one, earning an honorable mention from the James Jones First Novel Fellowship. As important as advancing her writing skills, joining a supportive community of dedicated writers and thinkers was invaluable. “I knew the School of Letters faculty were accomplished, but I didn't know they would be so generous. My professors have become lifelong creative writing mentors.” Megan’s work can be found in NELLE, SLICE, and the Tulane Review.

After spending much of her life on vans and tour buses, Amanda, a singer-songwriter, fiddle player, and poet, craved the stimulation of school. In an interview with Southern Living, the Grammy Award-winning artist said of her decision to pursue an MFA at the School of Letters, “I am fascinated by words, down to the letters that make them up. I wanted to learn more about poetics and how to get better at writing.” Now with six solo albums (and an MFA) under her belt, Amanda is a seasoned storyteller and performer. She credits what she learned at the School of Letters for making her a more precise and intentional songwriter.

Anna Spydell received her BA in the Humanities with a literature concentration from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. While there, she served on the staff for the College's literary magazine and wrote her undergraduate thesis on sacred mother imagery in the work of Flannery O'Connor. She is currently a MA candidate at the Sewanee School of Letters, with an interest in 19th century British literature and the Gothic. She is a contributor to BookPage in their nonfiction department and a co-editor of Broadview Press' forthcoming edition of Olive Schreiner's Dreams, returning to print, after a long absence, in 2020. She is presently working on a novel about the Fox sisters and the spiritualist movement. She resides in Indiana with her three children, dog, and two cats, one tame and one utterly feral and loose in the house.

After earning her undergraduate degree at a large state school, Jacqui, a poet and spoken word artist, was pleasantly surprised by the relationships she developed with her professors and visiting authors at the School of Letters. Class hikes, generative workshops at an instructor’s home, or just a shared meal that transcended the traditional professor-student hierarchy, Sewanee offered Jacqui intimate access to those entrusted with guiding her work. Jacqui teaches both creative writing and performance art at Southern Word, helping her students find both their voice on the page and their stage legs. She has taught and performed at the International Youth Speaks Festival.

A current MFA candidate, Sam, who boasts bylines with The Awl, Epicurious, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Review of Books, and many more, started at the School of Letters to deepen his expertise in his current field of nonfiction writing. Through his coursework, however, namely the non-writing, literary criticism classes, fiction writing seems to have nosed its way into Sam’s world. It’s one of the unexpected benefits of the School of Letters experience: the flexibility to pursue emerging interests all while under the mentorship of brilliant professors and alongside equally curious, passionate classmates.