Mercer University - Emerging Student Writers

Join us in the Fourth Floor Gallery & Event Space at the Decatur Library for the Emerging Student Writers Stage! This special event features talented student writers from Georgia colleges reading their original work in 45-minute sessions throughout the day. The stage will be situated alongside The Book As Art v.13: Mixed Messages exhibit, creating a vibrant atmosphere where visual art and creative writing come together.

This event will be held on the Fourth Floor of Decatur Library. To reach the Fourth Floor, you'll need to take the elevator on the right (when you're facing the elevators--it's labeled). If the other elevator opens when you call, please take it to the third floor, exit, and press the up button again to call the correct elevator.

About the Mercer Emerging Student Writers

Mack McDonald is a black, queer poet hailing from Atlanta, GA and attending Mercer University. His poems often engage mental health issues. He finds comfort in the macabre, disturbing, and strange, and he often draws on music for inspiration–indie cabaret rock, folk, and pop. 

Maret McWhorter is a student at Mercer University graduating with B.A. in Creative Writing and a double major in Communication Studies in May 2026, with plans to go on to pursue an M.F.A. They’re an author fascinated with using weird forms to tell stories. Their work fuses fantastical elements with the conversation between love and death.

Marques Muscott, a sophomore and psychology/creative writing double major with a minor in music at Mercer University is from Milton, Georgia, and hopes to become a therapist who also writes novels and poetry. Some favorite books are The Secret History, by Donna Tartt, Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys, and Goodnight Tokyo, by Atsuhiro Yoshida.

Ava Pifer was raised in Decatur and fondly remembers marching down to the Decatur Book Festival in her bright red “Clairemont Elementary School” t-shirt. After being encouraged to pursue a writing career by her high school English teacher, Mrs. Coffin, she is now an aspiring poet and Creative Writing Major at Mercer University. Her favorite topics to write about include disability activism, the LGBTQIA+ community, and her love of nature.

Aryell Pullin, of Decatur, Georgia, enjoys writing poetry, short fiction, and long fiction, and hopes to write more in the future. Favorite books include Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, and Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. 

Isabella Ragsdale is a student at Mercer University graduating with a B.A. in Creative Writing and a double major in English in May 2026 with plans to pursue an M.F.A. in fiction. While her focus is in poetry, her favorite genre to write is experimental fiction and sci-fi. Much of her work draws from religion or natural history as a method of making sense of everyday life.

Korie Watkins is a Mercer student with roots in Evansville, Indiana, but grew up in Brunswick, Georgia, right next to the Atlantic Coast. Heartbreak and matters of love are a key subject in her writings. Her stories also depict the lives of dancers and other performers.

Gordon Johnston (emcee) has taught literature and writing at Mercer University since 1996. He has published two books of poetry, Scaring the Bears and Where Here Is Hard to Say, and a collection of short stories, Seven Islands of the Ocmulgee–River Stories, that was a finalist for the 2025 Townsend Prize.

Full Schedule:

• 10:00 – 10:45 AM: Emory University

• 11:00 – 11:45 AM: Mercer University

• 12:00 – 12:45 PM: Kennesaw State University

• 1:00 – 1:45 PM: Agnes Scott College

• 2:00 – 2:45 PM: Georgia State University

• 3:00 – 3:45 PM: University of Georgia

• 4:00 – 4:45 PM: Georgia College & State University

  
  

Come celebrate the next generation of writers as they share their work!