Fellowship of Southern Writers

The Fellowship of Southern Writers is a literary organization founded in 1987 in Chattanooga, Tennessee by 21 Southern writers and other literary luminaries. The group meets in every odd-numbered year, usually during the Chattanooga Arts & Education Council Conference on Southern Literature.

In 2007, the fellowship formalized its own structure, electing its first board of directors and hiring its first executive director, Susan Robinson.

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)

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 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