Sewanee Event Highlights

Sept. 19 & 20 at 7 p.m.
Studio Theatre, Tennessee Williams Center

When Libby inherits a wrecked 1961 Rolls Royce, she sets off on a journey to reassemble the car and pieces of the past her father left behind. In honor of her Alabama roots, she names the car after Zelda Fitzgerald. A little broken herself, Libby finds herself with a new understanding of marriage and family. From the playwright of Gee’s Bend and White Lightning, Zelda in the Backyard is a story of love and loss, and all the roads in between. 

Sept. 22 at 2 p.m.
Studio Theatre, Tennessee Williams Center

A reading of a new play in progress by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder. No reservation needed.

3 p.m. - 7 p.m. Monday - Friday 
Carlson Listening Room

The William Ralston Music Listening Library is located on the second floor of duPont Library at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. The Ralston Library boasts an expansive collection of physical format recordings—LPs and CDs—that seeks to be representative of the standard repertoire of Western art music.
The centerpiece of the Ralston Library is the Carlson Listening Room, a loudspeaker room that was designed to bring a stunning, life-changing sonic and aesthetic experience to every visitor. The Carlson Room is considered by many reviewers and audiophiles to be the best publicly available audio playback space in the world.

Through Oct. 30 
University Art Gallery

Arlyn Ende worked extensively with textiles, while Jack Hastings sculpted in concrete and metal. Ende explored liminalities and ephemeral states, while Hastings embodied archetypes. This exhibition builds on Tinney Contemporary’s prior exhibitions of Ende and Hastings’ work, folding in work generously loaned by the Tennessee State Museum, the William R. Laurie University Archives and Special Collections of the University of the South, and a private collector.  The University Art Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and noon until 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. 

Sept. 19 4:30 p.m.
Naylor Auditorium, Gailor Hall

Absorbing, charming, and intimate, Dayswork considers the blurry lines between life and literature, the slippage between what happens and what gets recorded, and the ways we locate ourselves in the lives of others. In wry, epigrammatic prose, Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel have crafted an exquisite and daring novel.

Sept. 17 at 5 p.m.
Convocation Hall

Join us for an engaging faculty panel discussion on “Liberal Arts, Democratic Citizenship, and the U.S. Constitution,” hosted by Sewanee Votes!, Dialogue Across Difference programs, and the Politics Department. Dive into how higher education can fortify our democracy and enrich democratic citizenship. Don’t miss this opportunity to explore the vital role of liberal arts in shaping a vibrant, informed democracy.

Sept. 16 at 5 p.m.
Carlos Gallery

Visiting Assistant Professor Caroline Minchew will give an artist talk in conjunction with her exhibition of large-scale photographic prints. Free and open to the public.

Sept. 10 at 8 p.m.
Mary Sue Cushman Room at the Wick

Watch and discuss the presidential debate with students, faculty, staff, and community members. Desserts and coffee will be provided. Register to vote or request your absentee ballot during the debate. All are welcome, regardless of political affiliation.

Sept. 9 at 4:30 p.m.
Convocation Hall

Step into the room with Stuart Weitzman, the visionary behind a global luxury footwear empire. With an eye for fashion and comfort, Weitzman designed and sold his shoes for more than 50 years. His entrepreneurial spirit and creativity launched his company into more than 70 countries with celebrities, such as Beyoncé, Kate Middleton, and Taylor Swift, wearing his shoes on the red carpet, on volleyball courts, in sold-out arenas, and beyond.

August 6 at 7 p.m.
Angel Park

Bill Miller is a world-renowned musician, singer, songwriter, storyteller, painter, and, most importantly, an instrument of peace. He has won eight Native American music awards and three Grammy awards, and has been named as one of the top 50 musicians from the state of Wisconsin to change the world. Miller was raised on the Stockbridge Munsee Mohican reservation. A Native American Flute Workshop will be at the Social Lodge at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 7, for beginners and all who are interested. Both events are free to the public, however, direct donations to the artist are welcomed.

July 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Guerry Auditorium

OperaFest Sewanee is an artist incubator program that brings together emerging artists and leading experts in opera from around the world. Directed by Laura Brooks Rice, OperaFest offers private coaching, masterclasses, various performance opportunities, and workshops exploring professional learning.

July 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Guerry Auditorium

Arthur Foote—At Dusk

Sergei Prokofiev—Overture on Hebrew Themes

Christopher Farrell—Trio for Flute, Viola, and Double Bass

Franz Schubert—Piano Trio in E-flat major

July 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Guerry Auditorium

The Cumberland Orchestra is a pre-professional symphony orchestra for advanced pre-college and college students. Led by gifted educators and supported by the Sewanee Summer Music Festival's dedicated faculty, the Cumberland Orchestra offers these participants the opportunity to learn and grow as orchestral performers, exploring significant literature from the symphonic canon as well as contemporary works. Musical selections for this Friday include: Louise Farrenc—Overture #1; Dvorak—Serenade for winds; Ottorino Respighi—Pini di Roma.

July 3 at 4:30 p.m.
Gailor Hall

Justin Taylor's latest novel, Reboot, was published in April. A review by author Joshua Ferris made the cover of the New York Times Book Review, where he called Reboot a “performance full of wit and rigor freed of the familiar polarizing semantics." Taylor directs the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program. 

Emily Adrian is the author of the novels Everything Here Is Under Control and The Second Season, a novel about a former women’s college basketball star who becomes the first female NBA announcer, which Kareem Abdul-Jabaar called “riveting, insightful, and touching.” Her memoir, Daughterhood, will be published by Autofocus Press in 2024. Adrian has joined the School of Letters for her first summer, teaching a nonfiction workshop.

June 30 at 3:30 p.m.
Guerry Auditorium

The Sewanee Symphony is a pre-professional ensemble of college and select pre-college students that will study core literature, explore contemporary works, and collaborate with faculty soloists. Festival faculty will guide weekly sectionals and attend rehearsals to reinforce fundamentals of orchestral performance. This Sunday's music includes: Gabriela Lena Frank—Escaramuza, and Dimitri Shostakovich—Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47.

June 29 at 7:30 p.m.
Guerry Auditorium

Igor Stravinsky—Pastorale for Violin and Wind Quartet

Gabriel Faure—Piano Quartet No. 1 C minor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—Horn Quintet in Eb Major, K 407

Ludwig v. Beethoven—Quartet in F Major, Op. 18 No. 1

June 28 at 7:30 p.m.
Guerry Auditorium

The Cumberland Orchestra is a pre-professional symphony orchestra for advanced pre-college and college students. Led by gifted educators and supported by our dedicated faculty, the Cumberland Orchestra offers these participants the opportunity to learn and grow as orchestral performers, exploring significant literature from the symphonic canon as well as contemporary works. Musical selections this Friday include: Higdon—Machine; Faure—Pavane; Saint Saens—Samson et Delila: Bacchanale; Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov—Capriccio Espagnol, Op. 34.

June 26 at 6 p.m.
St. Luke's Chapel

STARTALK—Sewanee Chinese Language Camp, and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival are excited to host Wu Fei, a classically trained composer, singer, and master of the guzheng, the 21-string Chinese zither. She has performed around the world at venues including New York’s MoMA, Paris’ Quai Branly Museum, and the North Sea Jazz Festival.

She plays in the guzheng’s vernacular—a musical language at least 2,500 years old – mixing Western classical and Chinese traditions with a contemporary, idiosyncratic sound.

June 26 at 4:30 p.m.
Gailor Hall

Tiana Clark's next poetry collection, Scorched Earth, will be published in March of next year. Clark is currently working on, Begging to be Saved, a memoir-in-essays reckoning with Black burnout, millennial divorce, faith, art making, and what lies on the other side of survival. 

Ryan Chapman's newest novel, The Audacity, was released in April of this year. Vanity Fair called it a “delicious satire,” and fellow author Kevin Nguyen described the novel as “a satire that hits on the line level, sparing none of its characters or observation from its skewering wit.” 

Jamie Quatro’s next novel, Two-Step Devil, will be published by Grove Press in September, followed by her story collection, Next Time I’ll Be Louder, in 2025. Her debut novel, Fire Sermon, was selected as one of the Top Seven Novels of 2018 by The Economist, and named a Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, Bloomberg, and the Times Literary Supplement.

June 23 at 3:30 p.m.
Guerry Auditorium

The Sewanee Symphony is a pre-professional ensemble of college and select pre-college students that will study core literature, explore contemporary works, and collaborate with faculty soloists. Festival faculty will guide weekly sectionals and attend rehearsals to reinforce fundamentals of orchestral performance. This Sunday's music includes: Johannes Brahms—Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80; Richard Strauss—Der Rosenkavalier Suite; J. Strauss—Radetzky March; Brahms—Hungarian Dance No. 5; J. Strauss II—Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka.

June 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Guerry Auditorium

Toru Takemitsu—Between Tides

Edward Gregson—Quintet for Brass

Alyssa Morris—Mathematics

Sergei Prokofiev—Quintet in G minor, op. 39

June 21 at 4:30 p.m.
Guerry Auditorium

The Cumberland Orchestra is a pre-professional symphony orchestra for advanced pre-college and college students. Led by gifted educators and supported by our dedicated faculty, the Cumberland Orchestra offers these participants the opportunity to learn and grow as orchestral performers, exploring significant literature from the symphonic cannon as well as contemporary works. Musical selections this Friday include: Strauss—Die Fledermaus Overture, Nkeiru Okoye—Voices Shouting Out, and Edvard Grieg—Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Op.46.

June 20 at 5:30 p.m.
Sewanee Inn

Jill McCorkle has the distinction of having published her first two novels on the same day in 1984. Of these novels, The New York Times Book Review said: “One suspects the author of The Cheer Leader is a born novelist. With July 7th, she is also a full grown one.” Since then she has published five other novels—most recently published is Hieroglyphics (2020, Algonquin Books)—and five collections of short stories (Old Crimes, 2024). Five of her books have been named New York Times notable books, and four of her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories.

June 19 at 4:30 p.m.
Naylor Auditorium

Nickole Brown's book Fanny Says won the Weatherford Award for Appalachian Poetry in 2015. To Those Who Were Our First Gods, a book of nine poems, won the 2018 Rattle Prize. Her essay-in-poems, the Donkey Elegies, was published by Sibling Rivalry Press in 2020. She's also a fellow of the Black Earth Institute and is the president of the Hellbender Gathering of Poets, an annual environmental literary festival set to launch in Black Mountain, North Carolina in October 2025. Lindsey Harding, L'11, directs the Writing Intesive Program at the University of Georgia where she earned her Ph.D. in English in 2015. Her novel Pilgrims 2.0 follows four passengers on a luxury cruise line that promises complete reinvention through plastic surgery.

June 16 at 3:30 p.m.
Guerry Auditorium

Adrien Barthe: Passacaille

Jessie Montgomery: Duo for Violin and Cello

Jorge Variego: Fuego y Duende

Edmund Rubbra: Sonata in C for Oboe and Piano, Op. 100

Sergei Rachmanioff: Two Etudes - Tableaux 

Ivan Trevino: Wildings

Maurice Ravel: Pièce en forme de habanera

Kevin McKee: Vuelta del Fuego

June 12 at 4:30 p.m.
Naylor Auditorium

Tracy O’Neill is the author of the novels The Hopeful, and Quotients, a “stunning, and deeply disquieting, literary techno-thriller”. “O’Neill’s sentences are expertly crafted marvels of economy. Her prose almost feels redacted, as if someone has cut out just the right bits to keep you guessing and thinking and feeling,” says Charles Yu. Her memoir, Woman of Interest is “a compulsively readable, genre-bending story of finding her missing birth mother and, along the way, learning the priceless power of self-knowledge.” The former editor-in-chief of Epiphany journal, her writing has appeared in Granta, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Bookforum, and other publications. She is an assistant professor at Vassar College.

June 12 at 7 p.m.
Convocation Hall

Dr. Hannah Matis, associate professor of Church History, will deliver a lecture entitled, “Daring the Wilderness: The Preaching and Theology of the Beguines.” In her lecture Matis will illuminate the religious lives of this diverse group of lay religious women who lived in the high and late Middle Ages. Beguines included some of the most innovative and radical vernacular theologians of their day and influenced other theologians and forms of religious life on the eve of the Reformation. 

June 5 at 4:30 p.m.
Naylor Auditorium

Adam O’Fallon Price is the author of two novels, The Grand Tour and The Hotel Neversink, which won the 2020 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original. Meera Subramanian is an award-winning independent journalist whose book A River Runs Again: India's Natural World in Crisis, from the Barren Cliffs of Rajasthan to the Farmlands of Karnataka was short-listed for the 2016 Orion Book Award. 

June 3 at 5:30 p.m.
The Sewanee Village Bookstore

Ryan Chapman’s latest novel, The Audacity, was released April 2 and has been described as “a bracing satire about the implosion of a Theranos-like company, a collapsing marriage, and a billionaire's philanthropy summit.’’ School of Letters Director Justin Taylor’s new book, Reboot, “a raucous and wickedly smart satire of Hollywood, toxic fandom, and our chronically online culture,’’ was released on April 23.