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Flannery O’ConnorFlannery O’Connor was a 20th-century American writer who wrote 31 short stories and two novels. She was awarded three O. Henry Awards, the most prestigious honor for a short story writer, and posthumously awarded the National Book Award for her “Collected Stories.” O’Connor’s stories often feature Southern outcasts thrust into bizarre situations. The Deep South is presented as a shadowy place, filled with scheming figures posing as upstanding citizens and smug intellectuals receiving their comeuppance. O’Connor’s faith also informed her writing. Prophets, preachers, and vocal nonbelievers often clashed in her fiction, with strange stories that explored the ways the “Christ-haunted” South was reckoning with its legacies of slavery and segregation. While her private views on race have led some to discount her writing, O’Connor’s work is still widely taught in high school and college classrooms, with many critics contending that she is among the greatest American writers.Explore Flannery O’Connor

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Alice Walker admired Flannery O’Connor for her honest portrayal of the SouthWalker wrote “The Color Purple,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making her the first Black woman to win the award. In her essay “A South Without Myths,” she calls O’Connor “the first great modern writer from the South,” particularly because her work abandoned nostalgia for the antebellum world. University of Buffalo Flannery O’Connor’s recommended readingO’Connor was a rabid reader and a prolific letter writer, often suggesting (and sometimes criticizing) books to friends and admirers. This list distills those recommendations into a compact list, praising Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe, and National Geographic. It’s a good reading list and a fascinating window into O’Connor’s influences. Lapham's Quarterly Flannery O’Connor believed the South was ‘Christ-haunted’O’Connor was a lifelong Catholic who spent most of her life in the Protestant Bible Belt, the setting for nearly all her fiction often infused with Catholic themes. “I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted,” she wrote. Teaching American History Flannery O’Connor is a major figure in American literatureIn her lifetime, O’Connor wrote 31 short stories and two novels. She was awarded three O. Henry Awards, the most prestigious honor for a short story writer. In 1972, she was posthumously awarded the National Book Award for her “Collected Stories.” Flannery O'Connor Home A film crew captured a 5-year-old Flannery O’Connor and her talented chickenBritish Pathé, an international news program, ventured out to Georgia to film O’Connor (then known by her given name, Mary) and her chicken, whom she’d taught to walk backward. O’Connor would later joke that it was the highlight of her life. British Pathé In 2020, Loyola University Maryland removed O’Connor’s name from a dormitoryThe decision was made after a student petition, citing private letters using racial epithets. Hundreds of writers and academics wrote an open letter criticizing the move, including novelist Alice Walker, who said, “We must honor Flannery for growing. Hide nothing of what she was, and use that to teach.” Angela Alaimo O'Donnell O’Connor’s caretaker Emma Jackson had an early impact on her viewsFlannery O'Connor had conflicting views on race. She criticized racism and mocked segregationists, yet made racist jokes. Scholars recently unearthed details from the O’Connor archive about Emma Jackson, a Black woman hired young Flannery's caretaker. O'Connor recounted learning about racism after being scolded for spending too much time with Jackson. The American Scholar O’Connor’s mother insisted her daughter’s corpse smileAt 39, Flannery O’Connor died from lupus. Sally Fitzgerald privately recounted that Regina O’Connor asked a mortician to have the deceased Flannery’s face be fixed in a smile “with the teeth showing.” Ironically, it was a detail that would’ve been at home in one of her daughter’s stories. The Georgia Review Flannery O'Connor originally wanted to be a cartoonistIn college, the famed writer worked as a cartoonist for the school newspaper and literary magazine, using surreal black-and-white linoleum prints to comment on everything from student life to World War II. The Marginalian In Iowa, Flannery O'Connor decided to pursue creative writingO’Connor enrolled in a master’s program in journalism at the University of Iowa, intending to pursue political cartooning, but quickly switched to creative writing. Her thesis was a collection of stories called “The Geranium.” The title story was eventually her first published piece. American Literature 'The grotesque' describes a feature of Gothic literatureThe term harkens back to decorative aspects of Gothic architecture, including mythical creatures like gargoyles. In literature, the grotesque describes similarly monstrous characters and situations. The Gothic Library Watch a Yale professor’s take on O’Connor’s ‘Wise Blood’O’Connor’s first novel is about Hazel Motes, a World War II veteran who returns home and sets out to form an anti-religious congregation. It’s a striking debut and one that Yale professor Amy Hungerford taught in her course “The American Novel Since 1945.” YaleCourses O’Connor despised romantic portrayals of the South1939’s “Gone With the Wind” presented a rosy image of the Old South, something a 14-year-old O’Connor allegedly despised. Later, she wrote “A Late Encounter With the Enemy,” a story mocking how Confederate Army veterans were honored at the film’s premiere. American Masters PBS O'Connor believed grotesque fiction was realisticO'Connor argued that although the style might not be recognizable to all readers, "the grotesque" attempts to reckon with life's inherent mystery. "Of course, I have found that anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader," she said, "unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic." Open Culture O’Connor’s stories feature Southern outcasts thrust into bizarre situationsThe Deep South is presented as a shadowy place, filled with scheming figures posing as upstanding citizens, like the conniving door-to-door Bible salesman of “Good Country People,” and smug intellectuals receiving their comeuppances, like the condescending college graduate of “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” TED-Ed Listen to Flannery O'Connor read her story 'A Good Man Is Hard To Find'"A Good Man Is Hard To Find," published in 1953, is O'Connor's most well-known story—and the most representative of her style and themes. This recording, from a 1959 appearance at Vanderbilt University, features the author reading to a live audience. ByWayofBeautyDotCom Bruce Springsteen's 'Nebraska' was influenced by writer Flannery O'ConnorSpringsteen became obsessed with the "Southern gothic" writer when he began working on the songs for "Nebraska," inspired by O'Connor's tragic characters and grotesque imagery. Literary Hub Scholars allege the CIA funded the prestigious Iowa Writers' WorkshopThe graduate program—which instructed legendary writers like Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver, and John Berryman—received funding from several CIA fronts. Some academics suggest this was in the service of promoting a realist American literature as a counterpoint to Soviet fiction. Open Culture A selection of author Flannery O'Connor's witty lettersFlannery O'Connor wrote darkly humorous novels while cultivating a richly devout Catholic faith. One of the most renowned American authors of the 20th century, she also wrote many letters in a very charming and witty style. Read a selection of her best epistles here. Letters of Note

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