Amy Greene’s (Fiction/2007) debut novel, Bloodroot, was released in January, and it is already receiving some incredible praise from critics. Kirkus Reviews said the book was “Bound to be a huge hit,” and Booklist wrote, “This stunning debut novel is a triumph of voice and setting.” Amazon has also selected the novel as an editors’ pick for January. We are very happy to see such a talented writer garner such well-deserved reviews and it was wonderful to read Amy’s comments about the conference in a blog post that can be found here. Greene had this to say about her time at Sewanee:

Having poured so much effort and so much of my heart into the manuscript, I was nervous about sharing it. But there came a time when I felt a need for constructive feedback, so I applied to the Sewanee Writers’ Conference n 2007. I was glad to be accepted, but a little intimidated by the notion of a workshop. I couldn’t have known then how the experience would change my life.

The Sewanee Writers’ Conference is held each summer on the campus of the University of the South. Over two weeks, I had the opportunity to learn about the craft of writing from authors like Richard Bausch and Jill McCorkle, benefiting from the advice they gave not only to me, but to the other writers in the workshop. I was lucky enough to meet with Jill for a one-on-one manuscript evaluation and she gave me some invaluable suggestions. Bloodroot needed revising, but Jill saw promise in my rough draft and offered to put me in touch with a literary agent once it was ready to be submitted.

Not long after, Knopf purchased the rights to Bloodroot, and now you can read this incredible book.