Fannie Flagg, is an American actress, comedian and author. She is best known as a semi-regular panelist on the 1973–1982 versions of the game show Match Game and for the 1987 novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, which was adapted into the 1991 motion picture Fried Green Tomatoes. She was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay adaptation.

Fannie came to the Santa Barbara Writers Conference to hear Eudora Welty speak and ended up sticking around and entering the fiction contest under the name of Edna Furber. Not only did she take first place, but that story became Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, and the rest as they say is history!

Here is her talk from the 2018 Santa Barara Writers Conference.

Thank you to Lisa Angle of Ninety Degrees Media for recording and sharing Fannie's talk.