The Byron Herbert Reece Lecture Series was established in 1966 in memory of Byron Herbert Reece (1917-1958), author, poet, and Young Harris College teacher. This lecture series honors his memory and contributions to the world of letters by bringing noted writers to campus. Past visiting writers include novelist Terry Kay, Irish poet Evan Boland, former Poet Laureate of the United States Billy Collins, novelist Sharyn McCrumb, and former Poet Laureate of Georgia Bettie Sellers.

Randall Kenan has taught creative writing at a number of colleges, including Columbia University, Vassar College, and Duke University. He is currently a member of the faculty at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His published works include A Visitation of Spirits, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, James Baldwin, A Time Not Here: The Mississippi Delta, Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century, and The Fire This Time. His works have been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction and the Southern Book Award. Let the Dead Bury Their Dead was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and was among The New York Times Notable Books of 1992. He is currently working on a novel, The Fire and the Baptism, set in North Carolina and New York City; and a book about the North Carolina hog industry.