Athens State University’s Writing Center will host the 4th Annual Summer Writing & Arts Summit from June 25–26. This event brings together writers, artists, musicians, educators, and creatives from across the region for two days of workshops, performances, community engagement, and artistic exploration. The Summit is free and open to the public. Sessions will be held from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm each day on the Athens State University campus.
The Summit will feature a wide variety of sessions focused on storytelling, poetry, songwriting, music, performance, mindfulness, textile arts, writing groups, and creative workshops. Attendees will also enjoy an open mic, talent showcase, food truck picnic, and arts and authors fair. Featured guests include Jacqueline Allen Trimble, Alabama’s Poet Laureate, and musical artists Eric Essix and Lee Bains.
In addition, the event will offer a Youth Track for participants ages 13 and older. Integrated into the broader Summit experience, the track features youth-focused and youth-friendly sessions in creative writing, storytelling, poetry, visual arts, mindfulness, and mixed media. Participants will have the opportunity to develop their creative voices while learning alongside college students, educators, artists, and professional writers in a collaborative and welcoming environment.
Featured Guests
Jacqueline Allen Trimble is the Poet Laureate of Alabama, a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow (2021, Poetry), a Cave Canem Fellow, and a two-time Alabama State Council on the Arts Literary Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals including POETRY, The Louisville Review, The Offing, Salvation South and Poet Lore, has been widely anthologized, most notably in Kwame Alexander’s This is the Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poetry, and has been featured by the Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the Day, American Academy of Poets Poem-a-Day, and Poetry Daily. Published by NewSouth Books, American Happiness, her debut collection, won the 2016 Balcones Poetry Prize, and was recently re-released in paperback. Her newest collection, How to Survive the Apocalypse, was named one of the ten best poetry books of 2022 by the New York Public Library, and will be released in paperback by UGA Press in 2026. Trimble is Professor of English and chairs the Department of Languages and Literatures at Alabama State University.
Lee Bains is a songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama, who, since 2012, has released four studio albums of what Rolling Stone once called “Southern gospel punk.” His music has received acclaim from the likes of The New York Times, NPR, Mojo, Uncut, Sonic Magazine, and the Guardian. His most recent album, Old-Time Folks, was released by Don Giovanni Records in 2022, and explored stories of People’s movements in the Deep South. He will release a live solo album on Don Giovanni in 2026. He has collaborated in live performance and on recordings with artists including Lonnie Holley, Moor Mother, Pussy Riot, and Algiers. After first having his poems published by The New Yorker in 2021, Lee will see his debut poetry collection, WORK LUNCH, published by Hub City Press in October 2026. In addition to touring around the U.S. and Europe, Lee has lent his music to support striking coal miners, immigrants’ rights groups, abortion funds, and anti-racism organizations. He has performed and read at Emory University, the University of Mississippi, Tulane University, Auburn University, and The Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden).
Eric Essix is a Birmingham, Alabama, native guitarist, recording artist, and arts educator with a career spanning more than 38 years in contemporary jazz. A graduate of Berklee College of Music and a 1991 Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame inductee, Essix has released 29 albums and performed with artists including Peabo Bryson, Jeff Lorber, Gerald Albright, and Earl Klugh. In addition to his music career, he served as Director of Programming at UAB’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center from 2010 to 2023, presenting artists such as Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, and Yo-Yo Ma. In 2025, he released SOUTHBOUND: My Musical Journey Home, a book combining autobiography, music commentary, and photography. Essix is also widely recognized for his outreach work in Alabama schools, where he has spent decades educating students about jazz and American music history.
For additional information or to register, contact the Athens State University Writing Center at [email protected] or 256-216-6665.