2026 Thomas Wolfe Prize and Lecture, Tift Merritt
Tift Merritt, 2026 Thomas Wolfe Prize Recipient, will perform on Tuesday, September 29 at 7:30pm in Moeser Auditorium (145 E Cameron Ave, Chapel Hill, NC 27514). The performance is free and open to the public. Doors open at 7:10pm. For more information, see our Thomas Wolfe Prize and Lecture Website.
“Tift stands out like a diamond in a coal mine.”—Emmy Lou Harris
In the song “Feeling of Beauty,” from her 2012 album Traveling Alone, Tift Merritt writes, “Every once in a while, the feeling of beauty / Catches my breath, runs right through me.” Which is a lot like how it feels to listen to Merritt’s music—it catches you, holds you, and, in the tradition of every great Southern storyteller, welcomes you to stay a while and listen. At the twentieth-anniversary release of her Grammy-nominated album Tambourine, INDY Week wrote, “Merritt has a soulful charisma and classic country soprano that invites you to lean against a doorway and linger for another number.”
For listeners here in Carolina, this feels even more true. Merritt’s songs—deeply poetic and emotionally resonant—evoke the landscapes of the South, and her native North Carolina most of all: the simmering heat and sweetness of summer, driving through back roads and small towns, swimming in lakes and dreaming of the coast. She writes about leaving and staying, about love and losing, about traveling alone and longing for home. About time passing, and the landscapes of our past changing along with it; about moving forward even as we glance back in the rearview, holding on to what we’ve left behind. Her songs do what the best writing does—they transport us; take us somewhere. For all of us here, Merritt’s songs—and the stories they tell—feel a lot like coming home.
Born in Houston and raised in Raleigh, Merritt studied creative writing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, working under the legendary Doris Betts and Bland Simpson. In the late 90s, she joined a band called the Carbines and played small clubs in and around Chapel Hill and Raleigh. Since then, Merritt has released seven studio albums; her 2002 debut, Bramble Rose, hit top ten lists for Time and The New Yorker, and was called the best debut of the year by the Associated Press. Her 2004 follow-up, Tambourine, received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Album and was nominated for the Americana Music Association’s Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, and Song of the Year. Merritt’s latest album, Sugar—her first in nearly a decade—was recorded live in Nashville and released in June 2026.
Beyond the stage, Merritt’s work spans storytelling, archival research, and artist advocacy. A Practitioner-in-Residence at Duke University, she explores creative process and cultural memory through archival work and projects like The Spark, an artist-to-artist interview series. She serves on the board of the Artist Rights Alliance and has organized a number of local benefit concerts, including Sing Out, a 2022 project drawing together local musicians to raise money for reproductive rights, structured as an old-fashioned singing circle outside Carrboro’s Cat’s Cradle. She lives in Raleigh, where she recently renovated the Gables, a historic motor lodge, as an artist retreat and community gathering space for readings and live music—one more way that Tift Merritt calls travelers home.
