Fellowship of Southern Writers Benefit
Reading Series
In celebration of its 20th anniversary, the Fellowship of Southern Writers is presenting a Benefit Reading Series to expand its activities.
The Fellowship was founded in 1989 by Cleanth Brooks, George Garrett, Walker Percy, Eudora Welty, Louis D. Rubin Jr., and other distinguished writers to honor the rich legacy of Southern literature and the writers who make it. Fellows participate in the biennial Arts & Education Council Conference on Southern Literature in Chattanooga, where they elect new Fellows, bestow awards on established and emerging writers, and deliver readings and lectures.
Members of the Fellowship are now available year-round for readings, symposia, and book-signings at far less than their usual fees. Host institutions—universities, libraries, cultural centers, and other organizations—select three Fellows to appear as part of the series. For presentations by the three writers, the hosts will contribute $5,000 in support of Fellowship prizes and other activities that promote the literary arts in the South. Hosts will also pay the Fellows’ travel expenses. For an additional contribution, hosts may schedule a panel or other formal presentation.
For information on the Benefit Reading Series, visit www.thefsw.org or contact Susan Robinson, FSW Executive Director, at 423-267-1218.
Richard Howorth and Louis D. Rubin Jr. Receive Authors Guild Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community
Richard Howorth, founder of Square Books in Oxford, Mississippi, and the town’s current mayor, and Louis Rubin, distinguished professor of English emeritus at the University of North Carolina and founder of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, were honored with the Authors Guild Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community at the Authors Guild Dinner on Monday, May 5, 2008. The blacktie dinner, which was held at the Metropolitan Club in New York City, was a benefit for the Authors Guild Foundation and the Authors League Fund.
Well known and admired within the publishing community, both men have played important roles in the development of Southern writers and literature. Richard Howorth founded one of the nation’s most admired independent bookstores in 1979 and has served the American Booksellers Association as both president and board member.
Louis Rubin is an editor, novelist, essayist, teacher, and publisher who has helped nurture a generation of Southern writers. After 10 years at Hollins College, where he taught several writers who have gone on to literary or scholarly distinction, he joined the University of North Carolina faculty in 1967, where he served as a distinguished member of the English department for 22 years. He also founded, in 1982, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, a highly regarded publisher that showcases Southern writers.
The Authors Guild is the largest society of published book authors in the U.S. The Authors Guild Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting writing as a livelihood and promoting the importance of writing, publishing, free speech, and copyright. The Authors League Fund provides assistance to professional writers and dramatists who find themselves in financial need because of medical or health related problems, temporary loss of income, or other misfortunes.
