Conrad Aiken was honored by Georgia as Poet Laureate in 1973. The Savannah native was the first Georgia-born writer to win a Pulitzer Prize (in 1930, for his Selected Poems). Inducted: 2003

Elias Boudinot edited the first Native American newspaper, The Cherokee Phoenix, at New Echota from 1828 to 1832. His courageous example is commemorated by the Native American Journalists Association, which periodically awards the Elias Boudinot Award to a tribal nation or government "for furtheing the cause of freedom of the press in Indian country." Inducted: 2003

Erskine Caldwell published sixty books, including Tobacco Road, an influential novel about poor Georgia tenant farmers that The Modern Library named as one of the 100 most influential novels of the 20th century, and God's Little Acre, another novel of the rural Georgia poor that sold over fourteen million copies. Charter Member

Jimmy Carter served as governor of Georgia and president of the United States , received the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, and is the author of books on many topics, ranging from political memoirs and spiritual essays to a children's book, an historical novel, and a collection of poetry. Inducted: 2006

Pat Conroy grew up as the oldest son of an autocratic military man and a mother who instilled in him a love of literature and language. Torn by conflicting loyalties and emotions, Conroy's heroes rebel against oppressive situations and institutions that are ruled by exclusive, rigid concepts of manhood, school and race. Inducted: 2004

Harry Crews has been described as "a dark chronicler of human vanity and folly," an artist in depicting "the world of the misbegotten, the freaks and misfits and malcontents in whose strange doings Crews is able to locate a genuine if quirky humanity." Inducted: 2002

James Dickey was one of the nation's most important and active literary figures. He left a broad and deep literary legacy, a full body of poetry, prose, and criticism characterized by an intense, imaginative exploration of the relations between nature and humanity. Charter Member

W.E.B. Du Bois' writings and his intellectual guidance as teacher, researcher, and editor at Atlanta University contributed immensely to its reputation as a preeminent resource for the study of race in America. Charter Member

Henry W. Grady rose to national prominence in the late nineteenth century as a correspondent and editor of The Atlanta Constitution. Grady not only edited but also contributed regular "Man About Town" columns on themes political and civic, as well as interpretative news stories and essays on politics, temperance, and other issues. Inducted: 2004

Joel Chandler Harris, the chronically shy, red-headed, illegitimate son of an Irish day-laborer began his work as a typesetter and book reviewer, which led to editorial positions on papers in Forsyth, Savannah, and ultimately The Atlanta Constitution. Charter Member

Terry Kay followed an Atlanta newspaper career with several best selling novels by drawing on his memories of life in rural Georgia. Inducted: 2006

John O. Killens was an influential essayist, screenwriter and teacher. He co-founded the important Harlem Writers Guild and worked as a teacher and lecturer at many schools and universities, including Fisk, Howard, and Columbia. Charter Member

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a true American hero, a martyred man of action and a sculptor of words who became the most influential author/orator to emerge from the Civil Rights movement's deep ranks of eloquent clergymen and fiery organizers. Charter Member

Sidney Lanier's poems overwhelmingly transcend their immediate setting and explore and reveal themes that are universal -- like Man's faith, his relation to his fellows and to the natural world. Charter Member

Augustus Baldwin Longstreet is often described as the common Georgian's first literary portraitist. His work drew the contemporary praise of Edgar Allan Poe for its penetrating understanding of Southern character. Charter Member

Carson McCullers drew upon her empathy and life experience to compose resonant, ballad-like stories about the inner lives of marginal, often physically or psychologically scarred characters who were tormented by loneliness. Charter Member

Ralph McGill combined an omnivorous literary intellect, a keen storyteller's sense, and a crack reporter's speed to become Georgia's most influential journalist of the twentieth century. Inducted: 2004

Caroline Miller Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and Prix Femina, the novels of Caroline Miller are deeply rooted in the soils of her native south Georgia. Inducted: 2007

Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind , with its heroine Scarlett O'Hara and the film it inspired made ex-Atlanta Journal reporter Margaret Mitchell a twentieth-century cultural phenomenon. Charter Member

Flannery O'Connor's stories are often identified with Georgia settings of religious imagery, bizarre characters, and violent episodes. She believed good writing begins with an "experience, not an abstraction," and her writing reflects this by being firmly rooted in Middle Georgia. Charter Member

Byron Herbert Reece produced an enduring body of poetry and fiction from the sounds and spirits of his homeland. His volumes of verse draw deeply from the lyrical wellsprings of Nature and the Bible, twin legacies of an upbringing in the agricultural uplands of North Georgia. Inducted: 2001

Ferrol Sams mixes nostalgia and humor in his insightful explorations of coming of age in the rural South. Inducted: 2007

Celestine Sibley Award winning reporter, novelist, and columnist, Celestine Sibley chronicled Southern life throughout her career with truth as well as charm. Inducted: 2007

Anne Rivers Siddons is a native Atlantan whose best-selling fiction focuses on the concerns of her urban, contemporary Southern roots. Inducted: 2007

Lillian Smith wrote and spoke openly against racism and segregation long before the civil rights era. Her ongoing theme was that while segregation demeaned and destroyed the lives of blacks, it also poisoned and killed the souls of whites. Charter Member

John Stone brings humanity to medicine through his genre-spanning literary works. Inducted: 2007

Jean Toomer spent barely eight weeks of his life in Georgia, but this short visit inspired him to write the Middle Georgia county of Hancock into American literary history. Inducted: 2002

Alice Walker listened intently to the whispered memories, dreams, joys, complaints, and sufferings that swirled around her as a child. A longtime advocate for social change, she has received numerous prizes and awards for her contributions. Inducted: 2001

Bailey White Since the 1990s Grady County native Bailey White has touched innumerable readers and fans of National Public Radio with her rich, often comic stories of life in her south Georgia home. Inducted: 2008

Calder Willingham Calder Willingham's novels have been credited with inspiring the "black comic" school of postwar American literature, and the Rome writer's screenwriting for some of Hollywood’s best directors produced several of the most memorable films of the twentieth century. Inducted: 2008

Frank Yerby created a bestselling body of work that made him one of the most popular authors of the twentieth century and the very first African-American author to have a work adapted for the movies. Inducted: 2006