Heidi Siegrist is a visiting assistant professor at the University of the South. Attending the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference is one of her happiest memories from her teenage years. She received her B.A in Psychology from the University of Chicago, her M.F.A from the Sewanee School of Letters, and her Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia, where she served as the assistant editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review. Her area of focus is contemporary American literature. She is the author of All Y’all: Queering Southernness in U.S. Fiction 1980-2020 (UNC Press, 2024). In addition to reading and writing, she enjoys swimming, learning the banjo, and playing board games with her family.

 

Becca Hannigan earned an M.F.A. in fiction from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where they served as fiction editor for Ecotone and taught undergraduate courses. They also taught online workshops after completing a residency with the Sundress Academy for the Arts; facilitated writing classes at Urban Peak, a center for youth experiencing homelessness; and worked as an editorial intern for Brink Literacy Project. In 2016, they attended the Sewanee Writers' Conference as a scholar, and they have worked with the Sewanee Young Writers' Conference as both an administrator and a faculty member. Their work has been featured in 303 Magazine, the Rumpus, Story Quarterly, and is forthcoming in the North Carolina Literary Review. You'll find them in Denver, continuing to work on essays, short stories, and grant writing. 

 




Kilby Allen is a writer and teacher who holds an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from Florida State University. Her work has appeared in CutBank, The Nashville Review, Day One, and elsewhere. A chapbook, The Feral Syllables of Affection (In Short Publishing, 2017) was published in Australia and sold almost exclusively in train station vending machines, which is why it's nearly impossible to find now (thank god). After teaching for many years at many different colleges, Kilby is now a postulant for holy orders in the Episcopal Church and will begin seminary at Sewanee's School of Theology in the fall.

Cecilia Blackledge is a graduate of Sewanee and a seasoned camp administrator. She is currently working her dream job as an Upper Elementary school teacher at Woodsong Forest School. Outside of teaching in the forest, she also loves climbing, riding her bike, and looking for critters in the creek. She is so excited to join the Sewanee Young Writers Conference this summer and support everyone throughout this wonderful experience.