3 Emerging Writers Series

The Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative

Three Emerging Writers

We welcomed Karen Babine, Caleb Johnson, and Valerie Smith to campus for the fall 2024 installment of the series. 

The Three Emerging Writers:

Photo of Karen Babine

Karen Babine

Karen Babine is the two-time Minnesota Book Award-winning author of Water and What We Know: Following the Roots of a Northern Life (University of Minnesota, 2015), and All the Wild Hungers: A Season of Cooking and Cancer (Milkweed Editions, 2019). Her third book, The Allure of Elsewhere is forthcoming from Milkweed Editions in May 2025. She is currently a UC Foundation associate professor of English at the University of  Tennessee-Chattanooga, where she was recognized with a UTAA Outstanding Teaching Award in 2023.

Photo of Caleb Johnson

Caleb Johnson

Caleb Johnson is the author of the novel Treeborne (Picador), which received an honorable mention for the Southern Book Prize. His nonfiction has been cited in Best American Essays, and appears in Garden & Gun, Southern Living, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications. Caleb studied journalism at The University of Alabama and earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of Wyoming. He has received fellowships from the Longleaf Writers Conference, The Jentel Foundation, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Currently, he teaches at the University of South Alabama. 

Photo of Valerie A. Smith

Valerie A. Smith

Valerie A. Smith is the author of Back to Alabama, her debut poetry collection released this May from Sundress Publications. She is the 2024 Solstice MFA Spotlight Poet, a 2022 Sewanee Writers' Conference Scholar and 2020 Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts Fellow. She earned her PhD in English from Georgia State University and Master's from Kennesaw State University. Her poems appear in South Carolina Review, Radix, Aunt Chloe, Weber, Spectrum, Obsidian, Crosswinds, Dogwood, Solstice, Oyster River Pages, and Wayne Literary Review. Above all, she values spending quality time with her family.

Water and What We Know All the Wild Hungers Tree Borne Back to Alabama
3 Emerging Writers Event 2024

On Monday, February 12th, 2024, we were proud to welcome Halle Hill, Anna Laura Reeve, and Annie Woodford to campus to speak to students and the public about their writing.

There was an "In Conversation" panel from 1:40-3 PM. Then, a reading at 4 PM.

Both events were free and open to the public, and were in the Reece Museum in the Embodying Culture: Women in Appalachia exhibition.  

  • Valencia Robin, Leah Naomi Green, and Lisa J. Parker spent the afternoon at ETSU for a roundtable discussion, poetry reading, and Q&A with students and the public for the 3 Emerging Writers' Event.
  • Leah Naomi Green holds up The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume IX: Virginia​ during her reading. All three of the 3 Emerging Writers appear in this collection edited by Dr. Graves and Dr. Amy Wright, the former ETSU Basler Chair.
  • A packed house of students, faculty, and the public for the 3 Emerging Writers' Event.
  • Valencia Robin answers crowd questions during the roundtable discussion.
  • Lisa J. Parker reads from her latest collection, The Parting Glass: Poems, which won the 2021 Arthur Smith Poetry Prize.
  • Dr. Jesse Graves welcomes the crowd for the 3 Emerging Writers' Event.
  • Dr. Bert C. Bach and other attendees listen to the visiting writers read their poetry.