Writing.Com General Discussion

I'd approach the problem by Googling then attending some public events to meet people:

https://www.writebynight.net/tennessee/
https://tennesseewritingworkshop.com/
https://etcwa.wordpress.com/
https://tmwi.org/

You'll have to figure out if any of those are near to you. But at least one of them will have a hook to get you closer. This is all about networking. Also look to the colleges (4 year and 2 year). Anything with an English department is likely to form a group of writers.

I call baloney on the "hiding" because groups that don't recruit don't last. That has its uses, but generally they form after certain writers meet, which only happens at school, clubs or conferences because everybody starts alone. :)