What is Fellowship of Southern Writers?
The '''Fellowship of Southern Writers''' is a group of writers from the [[Southern United States|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.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Fellowship of Southern Writers|url=https://www.fellowshipofsouthernwriters.org/|access-date=2022-12-30|website=fellowship|language=en|archive-date=2022-12-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221230154342/https://www.fellowshipofsouthernwriters.org/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Awards and prizes are given for very good writing of [[fiction]], [[poetry]], [[drama]], [[criticism]], and [[history]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Fellowship of Southern Writers|url=https://www.fellowshipofsouthernwriters.org/|access-date=2022-12-30|website=fellowship|language=en|archive-date=2022-12-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221230154342/https://www.fellowshipofsouthernwriters.org/|url-status=dead}}</ref> ==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.<ref>{{Cite web|title=A Literary Reunion|url=https://chapter16.org/a-literary-reunion/|access-date=2022-12-30|website=chapter16.org|language=en-US}}</ref> All members must be born or have lived for a long time in the [[Southern United States|American South]]. Other members have written works that say important things about southern life.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Fellowship of Southern Writers|url=https://www.fellowshipofsouthernwriters.org/|access-date=2022-12-30|website=fellowship|language=en|archive-date=2022-12-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221230154342/https://www.fellowshipofsouthernwriters.org/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Some well-known members of The Fellowship have been [[Wendell Berry]], [[Rita Dove]], [[Ernest J. Gaines]], [[Silas House]