The Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative and ETSU’s Creative Writing Society will present Three Emerging Writers on Monday, Feb. 9, at the Reece Museum.
Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative events are free and open to the public. The featured writers are Samantha Edmonds, Jeremy B. Jones and Maria Zoccola.
“The purpose of Three Emerging Writers is really, mainly, to introduce our student writers to published writers, published authors who are kind of at the beginning of their career, kind of still early in their career.” Dr. Jesse Graves shared.
Each author published a book in 2025. Edmonds released A Preponderance of Starry Beings. Jones published Cipher: Decoding My Ancestor’s Scandalous Secret Diaries, a nonfiction book. Zoccola released her poetry collection, Helen of Troy, 1993.
The roundtable conversation with these authors will take place from 1:40 to 3 P.M. The Public Reading and Audience Q&A will follow from 3:10 to 4:30 P.M.
“It is a really fun event… some of the questions that students ask are just amazing. They’re just so insightful.” Dr. Jesse Graves shares. “And you can just look around the room during these literary events, but especially with the Three Emerging Writers, and just kind of see the wheels turning in our students and just kind of see ideas, landing with them, and get some thinking about their own writing and their own creativity.”
While the event is based around writers, Dr. Graves encourages any ETSU student to attend the event.
“I’m always glad when our digital media students or students from the art program come to our events because I feel like there is a lot you can learn from people who have succeeded, even if the field is not exactly like your own.” Dr. Graves shared.
The Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative will continue to host events throughout the rest of the spring semester. On March 3, there will be the Wonderlands Exhibition featuring Charles Baxter. At the end of March, the Translation Symposium will take place on March 31 and April 1. The Spring Literary Festival is hosted on April 21 and 22. The semester will close out with the Women of Appalachia Project on May 2.
