Fellowship of Southern Writers

The **Fellowship of Southern Writers** is a group of writers from the southern states of America. In 1987 twenty-one writers (charter members) had a meeting in Chattanooga, Tennessee where they decided to honor good writing from their part of the country. They wanted to help young writers by giving them awards of money and chances to improve their writing skill.

Awards and prizes are given for very good writing of fiction, poetry, drama, criticism, and history.
## Members
It is a small group. The Fellowship can only have 50 members at one time. New members of the group are chosen by election and invited to join. All members must be born or have lived for a long time in the American South. Other members have written works that say important things about southern life.

## Charter members
* A.R. Ammons    
* Cleanth Brooks 
* Fred Chappell
* George Core 
* James Dickey    
* Ralph Ellison    
* Horton Foote    
* Shelby Foote 
* John Hope Franklin    
* Ernest J. Gaines
* George Garrett    
* Blyden Jackson 
* Madison Jones    
* Andrew Nelson Lytle    
* Walker Percy    
* Reynolds Price 
* Louis D. Rubin, Jr.   
* Mary Lee Settle    
* Lewis P. Simpson    
* Elizabeth Spencer 
* William Styron   
* Walter Sullivan    
* Peter Taylor 
* Robert Penn Warren 
* Eudora Welty    
* C. Vann Woodward

## Elected members
* Wendell Berry (1990) 
* Ellen Douglas (Josephine Haxton) (1990) 
* C. Eric Lincoln (1990) 
* Romulus Linney (1990) 
* Lee Smith (1993) 
* Monroe Spears (1993) 
* Charles Wright (1993) 
* Doris Betts (1995) 
* Marsha Norman (1995) 
* James Applewhite (1997) 
* Richard Bausch (1997) 
* Clyde Edgerton (1997) 
* Gail Godwin (1997) 
* William Hoffman (1997)
* Donald Justice (1997) 
* Dave Smith (1997) 
* Joseph Blotner (2001) 
* Allan Gurganus (2001) 
* Beth Henley (2001) 
* Josephine Humphreys (2001) 
* Bobbie Ann Mason (2001) 
* Henry Taylor (2001) 
* Madison Smartt Bell (2003) 
* Kaye Gibbons (2003) 
* Barry Hannah (2003) 
* Yusef Komunyakaa (2003) 
* Jill McCorkle (2003) 
* John Shelton Reed (2003) 
* Ellen Bryant Voigt (2003) 
* Allen Wier (2003) 
* Larry Brown (2005)
* Percival Everett (2005) 
* Robert Morgan (2005) 
* Lewis Nordan (2005) 
* Sam Pickering (2005) 
* Wyatt Prunty (2005) 
* Dorothy Allison (2007)
* Roy Blount, Jr. (2007)
* Andrew Hudgins (2007)
* Randall Kenan (2007)
* Shannon Ravenel (2007)
* Alfred Uhry (2007)
* Will D. Campbell (2009)
* Rita Dove (2009)
* Percival Everett (2009)
* Jim Grimsley (2009)
* Edward P. Jones (2009)
* Fred Hobson (2009)
* Rodney Jones (2009)
* Eleanor Ross Taylor (2009)
* Natasha Trethewey (2009)
* Al Young (2009)
* Tony Earley (2010)
* Claudia Emerson (2011)
* George Singleton (2013)
* Maurice Manning (2013)
* Tayari Jones (2014)
* Steve Yarbrough (2015)

* Silas House (2017)

## Awards and honors
* The Hillsdale Prize for Fiction 
* The Hanes Prize for Poetry 
* The Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction 
* The Bryan Family Foundation Award for Drama 
* The Cecil Woods, Jr. Prize for Non-Fiction 
* The Fellowship's New Writing Award for Fiction 
* The C. Vann Woodward-John Hope Franklin Prize for the Writing of Southern History
* The James Still Award for Writing About the Appalachian South 
* The Fellowship's New Award for Poetry 
* The Cleanth Brooks Medal for Distinguished Achievement in Southern Letters

## References
## Other websites
*The Fellowship of Southern Writers  official website
*Arts & Education Council website
*Oral History Interview with Blyden Jackson from Oral Histories of the American South