Alabama Writers Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2016

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nine distinguished Alabama authors will be inducted into the 2016 Alabama Writers Hall of Fame at The University of Alabama’s Bryant Conference Center Sept. 29.

This year’s inductees include Edward O. Wilson, Fannie Flagg, Rodney Jones, Rebecca Gilman, Truman Capote, T.S. Stribling, Margaret Walker, Mary Ward Brown and Sequoyah.

A reception will be held in their honor at 6 p.m. Dinner will follow at 7 p.m.

Wilson is a UA graduate and Birmingham native who works as a research professor and emeritus in entomology for the department of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner who has written numerous books including “Anthill” set in Alabama. He is considered to be the world’s leading expert on the study of ants.

Flagg is also a Birmingham native. She is an actress, comedian, producer, screenwriter and best-selling author whose work focuses on southern personalities. Her novel “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe” was adapted into a film. She attended The University of Alabama. In 2012, she won the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer of the Year.

Jones is a UA graduate and native of Falkville. He’s taught poetry at public schools in Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia. From 1985 until 2015 he taught at the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where he was a professor of English. He teaches in the Warren Wilson low-residency MFA Writing Program. He’s published numerous poetry collections including “Elegy for a Southern Drawl,” which was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. He received the 2003 Harper Lee Award.

Gilman is a Trussville native who’s been recognized as an American playwright and in London where she’s produced several plays. She teaches at Northwestern University and is a graduate of Birmingham Southern College. She received the 2008 Harper Lee Award.

Being inducted posthumously are Capote, Stribling, Walker, Brown and Sequoyah.

Stribling is a Clifton, Tennessee native who graduated from Florence Normal School (now the University of North Alabama) and the UA School of Law. He wrote magazine articles and was a reporter for the Chattanooga News. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1934 for his novel “The Store,” part of a trilogy that was set in Florence.

Capote is a New Orleans native who grew up partially in Monroeville where he became friends with Harper Lee. He was an author, actor, playwright and screenwriter. He is known for writing “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “In Cold Blood.”

Brown is a native of Hamburg in Perry County. She graduated from Judson College and published many short stories. She has received the Harper Lee Award, the Alabama Author Award and the Hillsdale Fiction Prize.

Walker is a Birmingham native, poet and author. She graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor’s and received a doctorate in English from the University of Iowa. She is best known for her poetry collection “For My People and her novel “Jubilee,” which is based on her great-grandmother’s life during slavery.

Sequoyah was a Cherokee Native American living in North Alabama. He wrote a syllabary making it possible for the Cherokee language to be codified.

The Alabama Writers Hall of Fame was founded in 2015 by the Alabama Center for the Book, housed in University Libraries at The University of Alabama, and the Alabama Writers Forum to honor Alabama’s best literary artists.

To purchase a ticket, contact Emily Burnett at ekmims@ua.edu or 205/348-5543.