O'Connor Institute

This talk by scholar-in-residence, Dr. Farrell O'Gorman, will detail how Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023), one of the most acclaimed American novelists of the last 50 years, is inextricably linked to Flannery O’Connor. He repeatedly praised her in the early years of his career–most substantially in his correspondence with Robert Coles, an influential Harvard child psychiatrist who wrote extensively on O’Connor while also acting as a patron to McCarthy. In his fiction, McCarthy, like O’Connor,...

It's National Picture Book Month! The Flannery O'Connor Book Club with read and discuss two picture books based on O’Connor’s life: Acree Graham Macam and Natalie Nelson’s "The King of the Birds" and Amy Alznauer’s "The Strange Birds of Flannery O’Connor." We will meet in person at 2 p.m. at the Georgia Writers Museum in Eatonton and online via Zoom at 7 p.m. Sign up to get the Zoom link.  

Join us on Zoom to with guest speakers Irwin Streight and Monica Miller to discuss O'Connor and music. Streight examines O'Connor's influence on the art and vision of multiple Grammy Award winners Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, R.E.M. and U2, along with celebrated songwriters Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Sufjan Stevens, Mary Gauthier, Tom Waits and others. Miller presents about O'Connor's punk sensibility. Register at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/6c77d07456884fa1b190dbce55a75d19.

We will meet to discuss Jessica Hooten Wilson’s new book, Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress. This is a recent publication of an unpublished manuscript that O’Connor left behind, along with notes and ideas she had documented. It takes her thinking about race far beyond what she had done in her short life, and presents the opportunity for tantalizing speculation. (2 p.m. in person in Eatonton, Georgia, at the Writer’s Museum;...

The Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities will host a second symposium in support of its oral history project. Undergraduate students interviewed community members who lived in Milledgeville during the heart of Flannery O’Connor’s writing career (1951-1964) to provide important insights on life in rural Georgia, and they will share these highlights. The project has gathered information regarding experiences with class, gender, race, disability, the Cold War, religious beliefs,...

Guest Lecture on Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do the Heathen Rage?: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress. Guest speakers Colleen Warren and Thomas Haddox will discuss Jessica Hooten Wilson’s book, which creatively reconstructs the manuscript that scholars consider Flannery O’Connor’s third novel in progress. Register online at https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/2cfcb3d405654dd290945079a13c92e6.