From July 17 through 29, 2007, the University of the South hosted the seventeenth session of the Sewanee Writers' Conference.

The regular faculty included fiction writers Richard Bausch, John Casey, Tony Earley, Diane Johnson, Randall Kenan, Alison Lurie, Jill McCorkle, and Claire Messud; and poets Brad Leithauser, Charles Martin, Mary Jo Salter, Alan Shapiro, Mark Strand, and Greg Williamson. Lee Blessing and Melanie Marnich worked with participants interested in playwriting.

In addition, a group of distinguished writers, critics, agents, and visitors took part. Those who discussed writing from the point of view of editing or publishing included David Barber (Atlantic Monthly), Georges and Anne Borchardt (Georges Borchardt Literary Agency), Gary Fisketjon (Alfred A. Knopf), Mary Flinn (Blackbird and New Virginia Review), Gail Hochman (Brandt & Hochman Literary Agency), Edward Hower, David Lynn (Kenyon Review), Jon Meacham (Newsweek), Elisabeth Schmitz (Grove/Atlantic), Willard Spiegelman (Southwest Review), Deborah Treisman (New Yorker), Robert Wilson (American Scholar), and David Yezzi (New Criterion). New Dramatists' Emily Morse, director of artistic development, visited to meet with playwrights. Poets Andrew Hudgins, Mark Jarman, Wyatt Prunty, and Dave Smith gave readings, as did fiction writer Barry Hannah, while critic James Wood delivered a lecture on literature.

The Conference offered its customary Walter E. Dakin Fellowships and Tennessee Williams Scholarships, as well as awards in memory of John N. Wall, Father William Ralston, Howard Nemerov, Peter Taylor, and Stanley Elkin. Additional scholarships were made possible by Georges and Anne Borchardt and Gail Hochman.