In 1983 Tennessee Williams, American playwright and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, left the residual portion of his estate to Sewanee as a memorial to his grandfather, the Reverend Walter E. Dakin, who had studied at the University of the South’s School of Theology in 1895. Mr. Williams directed in his will that a fund be established to encourage “creative writing.” This fund supports the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and a growing number of residencies during which writers have both conducted workshops in the college and pursued their own writing. These include Mark Richard, Elizabeth Dewberry, Tony Earley, Ann Patchett, Roberta Allen, Ron Fitzgerald, Daniel Anderson, A. Manette Ansay, Lisa Shea, Jessica Goldberg, Josip Novakovich, Claire Messud, Stephanie Fleischmann, William Gay, Thomas Moran, Daisy Foote, Richard Schmitt, Elwood Reid, Dan O’Brien, Tom Franklin, Leah Stewart, Hilary Bell, Kent Nelson, Arlene Hutton, Joe Osterhaus, Ellen Slezak, Dominic Taylor, Andy Bragen, and Thomas Lakeman.

The Walter E. Dakin Memorial Fund has made possible two other undertakings. The Sewanee Writers’ Series (1998–2004) published novels, plays, and collections of poetry or short stories by John Bricuth, Philip Stephens, Greg Williamson, Charles Martin, Andrew Hudgins, Daniel Mueller, Adrianne Harun, Lily Tuck, Richard Schmitt, Brent Benoit, Greg Williams, and Horton Foote. In 1998, the Tennessee Williams Performing Arts Center opened in Sewanee. This adaptable 150-seat theater further memorializes Mr. Williams’s art and testifies to his vision for writers.