Fellowship of Southern Writers

Kaye Gibbons attended North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Novels include Ellen Foster, A Virtuous Woman, A Cure for Dreams, Charms for the Easy Life, Sights Unseen, On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon, and The Rose Window.  Honors include the Sue Kaufman Prize, a special citation from the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, the PEN/Revson Award, the Heartland Prize for Fiction, and the Critics' Choice Award from the Los Angeles Times.



Gail Godwin has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants for fiction and libretto writing, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Three of her novels, The Odd Woman, A Mother and Two Daughters, and Violet Clay, were nominated for National Book Awards. Her other novels include Evensong, Evenings at Five, and Queen of the Underworld.





Allan Gurganus, born in North Carolina, is the author of many works of fiction including Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, White People, and Plays Well With Others.  His latest book is The Practical Heart: Four Novellas.  Honors include the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, PEN/Faulkner finalist, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.





Barry Hannah was raised in Clinton, Mississippi and is Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.  His first novel, Geronimo Rex, won the William Faulkner Prize and a nomination for the National Book Award.  His short story collection, Airships, won the Arnold Gingrich Short Fiction Award and the Award for Literature from the American Institute of Arts and Letters.  Hannah’s latest novel, Yonder Stands Your Orphan, has twice been nominated for the National Book Award, and his recent short story collection High Lonesome was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.





Beth Henley was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and Dramatist Critics Circle Award for her play Crimes of the Heart, as well as Tony and Academy Award nominations.  Her other works include The Miss Firecracker Contest, The Wake of Jamey Foster, The Debutante Ball, Abundance, and Impossible Marriage, which debuted off-Broadway in 1998 starring Holly Hunter. Her work has been produced internationally and translated into over 10 languages.   



William Hoffman is the author of over a dozen novels, including The Trumpet Unblown, Yancey’s War, Furors Die, A Death of Dreams, Tidewater Blood, Wild Thorn, and most recently, Lies.  His story collections are Virginia Reels; By Land, By Sea; Follow Me Home; and Doors. He has received a National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, a Best American Short Stories Award, an O. Henry Prize, the Fellowship of Southern Writers’ Hillsdale Prize for Fiction, and the Hammett Prize.