Established in fall of 1978, the membership has averaged ten members. NWA meets every week and members critique each others' works in progress. The group also shares information about the publishing industry, personal down times, and individual successes. There have been quite a few of those, too.

Over the years, the membership has shifted and changed, but NWA still maintains a dedicated writing community aimed at writers' improvements and networking.

Leading by example is founding member Phyllis Gobbell who continues to be active with the group. Goebbel and another NWAer, Mike Glasgow, released their True Crime book An Unfinished Canvas in October 2007. Also look for Gobbell's short stories In 2004, her short story "Primates," published by Bellevue Literary Review, was nominated for a Pushcart. In September 2002 she won the short fiction prize from the annual Tennessee Writers Alliance competition. Phyllis teaches several writing and literature courses at Nashville Technical University.

Rita Welty Bourke has been with the group since 1999. She has published more than twenty-five stories in various literary magazines, including Shenandoah, Witness, Chelsea, North American Review, and North Atlantic Review. She's been nominated three times for the PUSHCART Prize; stories are forthcoming in the South Carolina Review, Antietam Review, and Crucible.

Essays continue from current NWA founding member mainstay Jim Young. and newer members of the group. NWA members also give workshops in the public schools of Metro Nashville and in other parts of Tennessee and Kentucky.

Sallie Bissell has made headlines with her blockbuster suspense novels Call the Devil by His Oldest Name (2004), In the Forest of Harm (2000), and the 2002 release A Darker Justice. Sallie divides her time between her hometown of Nashville and Ashville, NC where she is at work on a fourth book.

• One-time member Squire Babcock is currently a professor of English at Murray State University (Kentucky).
• Absentee member Ronna Wineburg-Blaser consistently has short stories in national publications. Ronna moved with her family to New York City a few years ago, but keeps in touch. She was selected as a 2004 fellow in Fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and her short story collection, Second Language, was a winner of the 2003 New Rivers Press MVP literary contest. The book was released in 2005.
• Absentee founding member K Follis Cheatham's tenth book, Blood and Bond was selected by the Montana State Library to be read for the Talking Books catalogue. Kansas Dreamer was released as an audio book by Books in Motion in 2005. Dennis Banks: Native American Activist, published in 1997 was a Finalist for the 1998 Spur Award. Her middle-school nonfiction Crocodiles is available from Lucent Books for schools and libraries. She has also published numerous articles and poetry.
• Founding member Martha Whitmore HIckman has moved to California. She has published more than twenty-four books, including the successful nonfiction book, Healing after Loss from AVON. 1999 generated two hallmarks for Hickman. Her book A Day of Rest (1999, Avon Books) was an Alternate Selection of the Literary Guild Book Club, and children's book A Baby Born in Bethlehem had a starred review in Publisher's Weekly.
• Founding member Nancy Hite (now living in Virginia) collaborated on the book Prisoner of Peace. This book was on of 50 Finalists in the Writers Digest Award for self-published books. She also publishes articles.
• Michael Jackman now lives in Louisville, Ky., and is a freelance writer and a radio essayist broadcasting each week on WFPL Louisville 89.3 FM, and WUKY Lexington 91.3 FM.
• Watch for articles by founding member Madeena Spray Nolan in national publications. Nolan's books include Burning Ground, The Gift, and children's My Daddy Don't Go to Work.
• Former regular Michael Sims 2003 book Adam's Navel was released in paperback in 2004. His first book Darwin's Orchestra covers natural history and the arts is, and Sims is busy on his next fact-loaded book.
• Sacagewea by Alana White (founding member) was published in March of '97 by ENSLOW publishers. Look in your libraries for her earlier book Come Next Spring, which was reprinted in 2002, or find both books at at her Web site.
• Mystery writer Steven Womack's 2005 title is By Blood Written. He also writes screenplays for TV and movies, teaches script writing at Watkins Institute film school in Nashville, and has still managed to produce two mystery series, including six Harry Denton books set in Nashville, Tennessee. Of these, Dead Folks Blues was the 1994 Edgar Allen Poe paperback mystery of the year. Way Past Dead was nominated in '97 for a Shamus Award, and the 1998 release Murder Manual won the 1999 Shamus Award.