Bestselling Author Jami Attenberg Selected as Spring 2026 Wilma Dykeman Writer-in-Residence

The University of North Carolina Asheville and the Wilma Dykeman Legacy are proud to welcome Jami Attenberg as the Spring 2026 Wilma Dykeman Writer-in-Residence.

This residency honors Wilma Dykeman, an extraordinary writer, speaker, activist, and teacher who was born near Asheville, NC and became a best-selling author and founder of Appalachian Studies.

“I’m thrilled to be the recipient of this fellowship in honor of this pioneering writer,” said Attenberg. “And I’m excited to connect with the writing community in Asheville.”

Attenberg is a New York Times bestselling author of ten books, including The Middlesteins, All Grown Up, the recently published A Reason to See You Again, and a memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home. She has been a finalist for The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction and the St. Francis College Literary Prize, and she was longlisted twice for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. Kirkus has dubbed her, “the poet laureate of difficult families.”

During her May and June residency, Attenberg will launch the ninth year of her annual online group writing accountability project #1000wordsofsummer, which inspired the USA Today bestseller 1000 Words:A Writer’s Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round. With her 1000 Words project, Attenberg hosts a community of 52,000 writers of all levels who support each other to write 1000 words a day for two weeks. This year, the program will run May 30 through June 12. 1000 Words is consistently cited in interviews and acknowledgments as a treasured resource for writers at all stages of their career—perhaps the greatest praise of all.

To promote 1000 Words, Attenberg will participate in a conversation with author Niina Polari at Malaprops Book Store on May 19, as well as events at Hub City in Spartanburg on May 30 and a conversation with author Tessa Fontaine at the Flatiron Writers Room on June 6. More information on these events can be found at 1000wordsofsummer.substack.com.

Attenberg is a resident of New Orleans. Her new novel, The Amnesiac, is forthcoming in 2027.

About UNC Asheville

Founded in 1927, UNC Asheville is a proud member of the University of North Carolina System. With award-winning faculty, small class sizes, and 60+ academic programs in the natural sciences, human sciences, humanities, arts, and social sciences, the University is recognized for its robust paid internship programs to prepare students to immediately enter the workforce. In the US News & World Report 2025 edition of Best Colleges, UNC Asheville is ranked No. #9 in Top Public Schools, and No. #7 in Princeton Review’s 2025 Top 50 Guide to Green Colleges. Known as the Bulldogs, UNC Asheville student-athletes compete in 16 NCAA Division I Teams in the Big South Conference. For more information, please visit: www.unca.edu.