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Our Upcoming Events

Grant project celebration and podcasting giveaway November 12

Did you know “The Strange Birds of Flannery O’Connor” by Amy Alznauer and illustrated by Ping Zhu, “The King of the Birds” by Acree Graham Macam and Natalie Nelson, and “Flannery O’Connor: A Girl Who Knew Her Own Mind” by Mary Carpenter are all featured in the Writing for Success curriculum? Join us on Tuesday, November 12 at 2:00pm for a special info session on how these books bring a local author to life in the Flannery O’Connor and Storytelling unit of study for fifth grade English Language Arts. We will also discuss how the skills GCSU undergrad and grad students brought to the grant made it a success. This event will be in the Russell Library Museum Education Room. #NationalPictureBookMonth

At 5:00 we will gift 10 podcasting units to community organizations and educators and at 5:30 the library will host a free podcasting workshop. Please RSVP to win a podcasting bundle! 

A stuffed peacock and two picture books arranged in front of a bale of hay featuring the GCSU bobcat logo

Scholar in Residence Farrell O'Gorman gives lecture on “Cormac McCarthy and Flannery O’Connor: Links, Likeness, Legacy.”

This talk will detail how Cormac McCarthy (1933-2023), one of the most acclaimed American novelists of the last fifty 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 continually addressed certain recurrent philosophical and religious questions (e.g., regarding gnosticism) that are essential to understanding the two of them as not only Southern Gothic but American Gothic authors. Finally, their legacies have frequently overlapped in critically acclaimed films from the 1970s to the present, perhaps most complexly in the Oscar-winning Coen brothers film No Country for Old Men (2007). 

Farrell O'Gorman smiles at the camera on a graphic advertising the lecture event

Please join us on Zoom starting in August for new discussions on Flannery O'Connor. Recorded sessions from 2024 are available on our YouTube channel. 

See the following to register:

FALL 2024 ZOOM SESSIONS:

All events open to the public. Virtual events are co-sponsored by The Georgia Writers Museum and Allied Arts of Milledgeville. 

Thursday, November 21 Book Club: This month we celebrate National Picture Book Month! 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. (2 PM in person in Eatonton, GA at the Writer’s Museum; on Zoom at 7PM) 

Tuesday, December 3 Guest Lecture at 7pm: “Driving While Black?: Mobility, Race, and Travel in ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find,’” Katie Simon, Interim Director, the Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities (Register via Smartsheet)

Thursday, December 12 Book Club: Join us to discuss Dear Regina by Monica Miller. Miller has collected O’Connor’s letters home during her years in the MFA Program in Writing at the University of Iowa. (2 PM in person in Eatonton, GA at the Writer’s Museum; on Zoom at 7PM)

Thursday, January 23 Book Club: Join us to discuss Brad Gooch’s widely acclaimed biography of O’Connor, Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor (2009). Read the Prologue, and Chapters 1-3. (2 PM in person in Eatonton, GA at the Writer’s Museum; on Zoom at 7PM) 

Thursday, February 20 Book Club: Join us to continue discussing Brad Gooch’s widely acclaimed biography of O’Connor, Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor (2009). Read chapters 4-7. (2 PM in person in Eatonton, GA at the Writer’s Museum; on Zoom at 7PM) 

Thursday ,March 20 Book Club: Join us to continue discussing Brad Gooch’s widely acclaimed biography of O’Connor, Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor (2009). Read chapters 8-10.  (2 PM in person in Eatonton, GA at the Writer’s Museum; on Zoom at 7PM) 

Thursday, April 17 Book Club: Join us to discuss O’Connor’s famous essay “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction.” (2 PM in person in Eatonton, GA at the Writer’s Museum; on Zoom at 7PM) 

Thursday, May 15 Book Club: Join us to discuss Flannery O’Connor’s Introduction to the Memoir of Mary Ann, about which O’Connor said “nobody will ever understand me unless they read this essay.”  (2 PM in person in Eatonton, GA at the Writer’s Museum; on Zoom at 7PM) 

PAST EVENTS

Thursday, May 9, 2024 -7:00-8:00pm (Eastern): Ashley Massey & Timothy R. Vande Brake lead a discussion on Flannery O'Connor and Andalusia
On Thursday, April 25, 2024 Dr. Bruce Gentry leads a discussion on Flannery O'Connor's Letters written in 1963 and 1964
Thursday, April 18, 2024 - 7:00-8:00pm (Eastern): The Flannery O'Connor Institute for the Humanities host a Zoom presenting three veterans of the 2023 HEH Summer Institute at Georgia College, "Reconsidering Flannery O'Connor". Bill Gonch, Matt Bryant Cheney, and Will Murray lead a discussion on "Flannery O'Connor and Race", with Dr. Bruce Gentry as emcee.
Tuesday, April 2 - 7:00-8:00pm (Eastern) Rosemary Magee and Amy Alznauer - the two O'Connor curators of the Emory exhibit "At the Crossroads with Benny Andrews, Flannery O'Connor, and Alice Walker" - shared the passions and curiosities that drew them to this archival work and shaped their curation.
Thursday, March 21 at 7:00 PM (Eastern) - Dr. Bruce Gentry leads discussion on O’Connor Letters written in 1961 & 1962 (in The Habit of Being, this involves pp. 425-503)
Thursday, March 14 - 7:00-8:00pm (Eastern): Carmine Palumbo and Jack Love lead a discussion on O'Connor and Other Authors
Feb. 15: Dr. Bruce Gentry leads a discussion on Flannery O'Connor Letters written in 1960, pp. 368-425 in The Habit of Being
February 1, 2024 - Andalusia Institute hosts NEH Summer Institutes results on Flannery O'Connor: Featuring Carole K. Harris, Jesse Swan, and Jennifer Renee Blevins
Thursday, January 25 - Dr. Bruce Gentry leads discussion on O’Connor Letters written in 1958 & 1959 (in The Habit of Being, this involves pp. 261-368)

2023 Book Discussions

2022 Book Discussions

2021 Book Discussions

2020 Book Discussions

Andalusia Institute & the National Endowment for the Humanities presents "Flannery O'Connor, Poetry & Us" - Hosted by Craig Martell, featuring poetry from Doni Wilson, Ann Ritter, Angela O'Donnell, Ashley Massey, and John Davis
Dr. Bruce Gentry leads discussion on Flannery O’Connor letters from the years 1956-57 (in The Habit of Being, pp. 126-261).
The Andalusia Institute hosts the digital release of Colin Cutler’s much-anticipated new album, Tarwater
Dr. Bruce Gentry leads discussion on O’Connor Letters 1953-55 (in The Habit of Being, this involves pp. 53-126).
On Thursday, September 21, 2023 Dr. Bruce Gentry leads discussion on O’Connor Letters 1948-52.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023 NEH Summer Institute on Flannery O'Connor - John Wharton Lowe Public Lecture: "Flannery O'Connor's Use of Humor"
On Tuesday, June 20, The NEH Summer Institute on Flannery O'Connor - Thadious M. Davis Public Lecture: "Framing Visual Spatiality, Scripting Spatial Geographies"
June14, 2023 NEH Summer Institute on Flannery O'Connor - Christina Bieber Lake Public Lecture: "Reading and Teaching Flannery O'Connor for Spiritual Transformation"
On Monday, June 12, 2023 The NEH Summer Institute on Flannery O'Connor - Thomas Haddox Public Lecture: "Flannery O'Connor Against 'Bare Life': The Violent Bear It Away and Biopolitics"
June 8, 2023 NEH Summer Institute on Flannery O'Connor - Sarah Gordon Public Lecture: "In Retrospect: Memorable One-Liners and the One Hard Line"
The NEH Summer Institute on Flannery O'Connor hosted a public lecture on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 by Farrell O'Gorman "'God and the Poor Await Us': O'Connor, Rose Hawthorne, and Dorothy Day"
on Monday, June 5, 2023 the NEH Summer Institute on Flannery O'Connor - Carol Loeb Shloss Public Lecture: "Regina and Flannery: The Andalusia Chronicles"

Monday, June 5 at 7:00pm @ Max Noah Recital Hall

Dr. Carol Shloss:  “Regina and Flannery: The Andalusia Chronicles”