(JANUARY 5, 2009) The Fellowship of Southern Writers will recognize achievements in Southern letters by inducting 10 additional writers to membership during the 15th biennial AEC Conference on Southern Literature, April 2-4, 2009, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 

The Fellowship will also award literary prizes to eight newly-emerging writers and honor Wendell Berry with the 2009 Cleanth Brooks Medal for Lifetime Achievement.  Honorees will give readings and participate in school residencies during the Conference on Southern Literature. 

New Fellowship members include the following:

• Will D. Campbell of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee
• Rita Dove of Charlottesville, Virginia
• Percival Everett of Los Angeles, California
• Jim Grimsley of Decatur, Georgia
• Edward P. Jones of Washington, D.C.
• Fred Hobson of Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Rodney Jones of Carbondale, Illinois
• Eleanor Ross Taylor of Charlottesville, Virginia
• Natasha Trethewey of Decatur, Georgia 
• Al Young of Berkeley, California

The Fellowship will also bestow the following prizes during the Conference:

• 2009 Cecil Woods, Jr. Award for Nonfiction
  Fred Hobson of Chapel Hill, North Carolina

• 2009 Hillsdale Award for Fiction
  Michelle Richmond of San Francisco, California

• 2009 George Garrett New Writing Award for Poetry
  Kevin McFadden of Charlottesville, Virginia

• 2009 James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South
  Michael McFee of Durham, North Carolina

• 2009 Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction
  Moira Crone of New Orleans, Louisiana

• 2009 Bryan Family Foundation Award for Drama
  Marco Ramirez of Miami, Florida

• 2009 Hanes Award for Poetry
  Maurice Manning of Bloomington, Illinois
• 2009 Donald Justice Award for Poetry
  Claudia Emerson of Fredericksburg, Virginia

Since 1987, the Fellowship has been holding its biennial meetings during the Conference on Southern Literature in Chattanooga, the city in which its archives are held at the University of Tennessee Lupton Library.  The 2009 Conference celebrates 20 years of this collaboration.

“The Conference is without doubt the leading literary event in the South,” says Dr. Louis D. Rubin, Jr., past Chancellor of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.  “It draws visitors not only from throughout the region but from all over the United States. To be invited to take part is an honor coveted by the South's leading authors."

For more information on the  Conference on Southern Literature or to register, call 1.800.267.4232 or visit www.ArtsEdCouncil.org.