Writing for Success grant brings author Mary Carpenter to Milledgeville

Mary Carpenter, author of "Flannery O’Connor: A Girl Who Knew Her Own Mind" will visit Midway Hills Academy and Lakeview Academy for a two-week writing residency as part of the Writing for Success grant through the Andalusia Institute. The Writing for Success Grant is a 100% federally funded project that aims to increase reading, writing, speaking and listening skills in the Milledgeville/Baldwin County community. The $385,000 grant supports local educators in crafting a responsive 5th grade literacy curriculum by providing resources including text sets, classroom supplies, field trips, podcasting and GCSU mentor support. Project Director Dr. Jordan Cofer says, “We are very excited about hosting Ms. Carpenter. Her book has made O’Connor accessible to a whole new audience who will be able to enjoy and appreciate not just O’Connor’s writing but the important contributions she has made in her life.” 

"Flannery O’Connor: A Girl Who Knew Her Own Mind" is the anchor text for the fourth unit of study for the 5th grade of Baldwin County Schools. This high-low text is about renowned American author, Flannery O’Connor: her rural southern upbringing, her relationship to race, her chronic lupus and her Catholic faith. Through her fiction, O’Connor became a role model for unconventional girls everywhere and for anyone who dreams of becoming a writer. High-low texts are written for readers with a high interest level and low reading skill level. Mary Carpenter has written three high-low texts, inspired by her son’s struggle to find interesting books while learning to read. 

Carpenter will visit with 5th grade students and teachers at both academies to discuss her writing process and answer questions. She’ll lead students through a writing exercise and encourage them to find inspiration in the place they live, much like Flannery O’Connor was inspired by the sights, sounds and settings of Milledgeville during her time writing at Andalusia Farm in the 1950s and 1960s. Carpenter states, “Much of what I say about Flannery and my biography of her is connected to Georgia. Even after she was compelled at age 25, because of her lupus, to return to Georgia and to move back in with her mother, Flannery said, "The best of my writing has been done here."  I’m looking forward to my own return to Milledgeville, to the places where Flannery lived and wrote most of her fiction -- and where so much of her life and work are preserved, at Andalusia and at Georgia College.” 

The community is invited to attend a Book Signing co-sponsored by Allied Arts and the Andalusia Institute Wednesday, April 26 from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Marlor House and a Meet the Author event at Mary Vinson Memorial Library children’s theater Thursday, April 27 at 4 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.