Northwestern Mutual has honored James G. Huckabee of Carolina Condrey Group, based in Chapel Hill, with its 2009 Southern Region Leader Award.

The honor recognizes the managing director for an outstanding year of performance with the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, serving the financial security needs of clients and policyowners throughout the region.

The Fellowship of Southern Writers will honor two writers from Chapel Hill at the 2009 Conference on Southern Literature in Chattanooga, Tenn., in April.

Michael McFee will receive the 2009 James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South, and Fred Hobson will receive the 2009 Cecil Woods, Jr. Award for Nonfiction. Hobson will also be inducted into the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

McFee has published nine collections of poetry, most recently "The Smallest Talk." His first collection of essays is "The Napkin Manuscripts: Selected Essays and an Interview." He edited "This is Where We Live: Short Stories by 25 Contemporary North Carolina Writers," a companion anthology to his "The Language They Speak is Things to Eat: Poems by Fifteen Contemporary North Carolina Poets." He teaches at UNC.

Hobson is the author of "Mencken: A Life," "Tell About the South: The Southern Rage to Explain," "The Silencing of Emily Mullen" and "Off the Rim: Basketball and Other Religions in a Carolina Childhood." He has been a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Humanities Center and has won several literary awards, including the Jules Landry Award in Southern Studies and the Lillian Smith Award for Nonfiction. A native of North Carolina, Hobson is Lineberger Professor of the Humanities at UNC, editor of the LSU Press Southern Literary Studies and co-editor of The Southern Literary Journal.

Navy Seaman Andrew D. Redmond, son of Peggy A. Harris of Chapel Hill and Donald D. Redmond of Raleigh, recently completed U.S. Navy basic training at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Ill.

During the eight-week program, Redmond completed training which included classroom study and practical instruction on naval customs, first aid, firefighting, water safety and survival, and shipboard and aircraft safety.

Sam Hankins, a 2008 graduate of East Chapel Hill High School, has made the Chancellor's Achievement list at UNC-Wilmington for the fall semester.