Appalachian writing has long had a home at East Tennessee State University. Now, it has a new series all its own.

ETSU’s Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative will launch the Tamara Sessions in Appalachian Writing on Monday, Sept. 28, a new series honoring ETSU alumna, author and educator Tamara M. Baxter and her decades of work strengthening the literary community in Northeast Tennessee.

The inaugural event will bring together West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman, one of the region’s most established literary voices, and debut novelist Erin Miller Reid for an afternoon of conversation and readings.

The free public event will take place in the Performance Lab, room 106, of ETSU’s new Academic Building.

Light refreshments and a performance by ETSU student musicians will begin at 1 p.m. Harshman and Reid will join ETSU faculty members Dr. Jesse Graves and Lacy Snapp for a roundtable discussion with the audience from 1:40-3 p.m. The authors will read from their recent work from 3:10-4:30 p.m.

An alumna honored

“The Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative is happy to announce a new series of visiting authors titled ‘The Tamara Sessions in Appalachian Writing,’” said Graves, ETSU’s poet-in-residence and a professor in the Department of Literature and Language. “This series of events honors the many literary and financial contributions of ETSU alumna and author Tamara M. Baxter."

“Appalachian writing has been a big part of the Bach Written Word program for more than a decade now, but we haven’t dedicated events to it before, and we are proud to bring in one of the region’s most acclaimed poets, Marc Harshman, and one of its most promising emerging novelists, Erin Miller Reid, for the first of our Tamara Sessions.”  

Baxter grew up on Punkin’ Bloom Farm along the Nolichucky River in Greene County and studied English and journalism at ETSU before embarking on a career as an educator and writer.

During three decades at what became Northeast State Technical Community College, Baxter taught courses ranging from Appalachian and American literature to creative writing. She also sponsored Word Smith, a program that brought visiting writers to campus for community workshops and public readings, and founded the student literary magazine Echoes and Images.

Her own literary career spans decades. Her short fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, and her fiction collection, “Rock Big and Sing Loud,” received the Morehead State University and Jesse Stuart Foundation’s First Author’s Award for Fiction. Her work has also earned national and regional recognition in fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

Spotlighting the writers

The writers featured in the first Tamara Sessions reflect both the depth and continued evolution of Appalachian literature.

Harshman has served as Poet Laureate of West Virginia since 2012. His poetry collections include “Woman in Red Anorak,” winner of the Blue Lynx Prize; “Believe What You Can,” winner of the Weatherford Award; “Following the Silence”; and his recent “Dispatch from the Mountain State.”

He is also the author of 14 nationally acclaimed children’s books, including “The Storm,” named a Smithsonian Notable Book for Children. In 2024, Shepherd University named Harshman its Appalachian Heritage Writer.

Reid brings a different intersection of disciplines and experiences to the conversation. A physician, writer and narrative medicine practitioner originally from southeastern Kentucky and now living in Tennessee, she is the author of the debut novel “But for Fortune.”

Drawing from Reid’s family history and experiences as a physician, the novel follows two women separated by 50 years as they seek to give voice to silenced experiences, exploring mental illness, discrimination and family secrets across generations.

Reid’s work has also appeared in North Carolina Literary Review, Still, Appalachian Review, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, 100 Days in Appalachia and the anthology “Troublesome Rising: A Thousand-Year Flood in Eastern Kentucky,” among other publications.

The Tamara Sessions build on the Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative’s longstanding work to connect ETSU students and the wider community with significant writers and literary voices.  

Housed within the Phil and Martha Bachman College of Arts and Sciences, the initiative honors the legacy of longtime ETSU faculty member and administrator Dr. Bert C. Bach.

Learn more about the Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative and view upcoming events at https://bit.ly/4iy7U2x.