Fannie Flagg

Sixteen publishers turned down Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe before Random House decided to publish it.

Fannie considers Santa Barbara "to be the most beautiful place in the world." She splits her time between California and Alabama.

Fannie's favorite play is The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. She met Mr. Williams on opening night of one of his plays while she was performing in New York.

In 1999, Fannie was inducted into the Alabama Stage and Screen Hall of Fame.

In 1991 for Fried Green Tomatoes, Fannie Flagg and Carol Sobieski were nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay from the Writer's Guild Awards and for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. They won Best Realization of a book adapted to Film from the USC Scripter Awards.

In 2007, Fannie was voted Alabama's Top Pop Culture Icon by readers of the Birmingham News. She received 57 percent of the vote.

Fannie entered the Miss Alabama pageant as a teenager. Her talent was stand-up comedy. She won on her sixth attempt.

Fannie has been a vocal advocate for the Equal Rights Amendment.

When writing her first novel, Fannie's editor told her it should be about 400 pages. So, she weighed 400 pages of paper (which was around 2 lbs). Then, she kept weighing what she wrote until it equaled the weight of 400 pages.

She is diagnosed with dyslexia.