Our Fall Lecture Series

This fall we are continuing our long tradition of offering free Sunday lectures and readings at 3:00 p.m. in the Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home parlor

We've got a great lineup, and we hope to see some of you there.

Here you go:

Flannery O’Connor Fall Lecture SeriesChildhood Home

207 East Charlton Street

Sundays at 3:00 pm in the O’Connor Parlor

October 19
Starkey Flythe, Jr., re-founding editor of The Saturday Evening Post in the 1980’s and winner of the University of Iowa Press award for a collection of short stories, Lent: The Slow Fast, will read from his fiction and discuss Flannery O’Connor’s influence on his writing. Flythe’s poetry draws from life experiences that include Army service in Africa, editor for two national magazines, and a student of the classics. His poem, “I once took a shower with Dan Rather” is based on one of those life experiences.

October 26
Bill Dawers will speak on “Flannery O’Connor and the Popular Imagination.” Bill, president of the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home Foundation, is a professor of English at Armstrong Atlantic State University and for the last eight years, has been writing the “City Talk” column for the Savannah Morning News.

November 2
Kalenda Eaton, a professor of English at Armstrong Atlantic State University will guide a reading group discussion titled, "Mother, Son, and Holy Ghost" based on Flannery O'Connor's story “Everything that Rises Must Converge.” Dr. Eaton earned her Master’s and Doctorate degrees in English with an emphasis in 20th Century African American Literature from Ohio State University. Attendees are obviously encouraged to read the story beforehand.

November 9
Sarah Gordon and Craig Amason will discuss A Literary Guide to Flannery O'Connor's Georgia, published last spring by the University of Georgia Press. Sarah Gordon, editor, is a professor emerita of English at Georgia College and State University. For many years she chaired GC&SU’s internationally renowned symposia on O’Connor and has authored two books on O’Connor. Craig Amason, consulting editor of the Guide, is executive director of Andalusia, the Flannery O’Connor house museum and the Flannery O’Connor-Andalusia Foundation.

November 16
Mary Villeponteaux, a professor of Literature at Georgia Southern University and a Renaissance scholar, will draw us back into the 16th Century with her talk: "Cruel Queens and Tender Maidens: The Gendering of Mercy in Shakespeare's Plays." Dr. Villeponteaux earned her PhD at Louisiana State University.

December 14
Bob Strozier, a former AASU prof and one of the founders of the O'Connor Home 20 years ago, will give his traditional holiday reading of Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory"

Lecture Series coordinated by Dr. James Smith