All,

It’s going to be an exciting November with several events lined up—both events that we’ll be hosting and some that we’ll be attending.

I’ll be speaking at the Rome International Film Festival in Rome, Georgia on November 3, where I’ll be on the panel for "Flannery!," the documentary. They will also be debuting "WildCat," the new Flannery O’Connor biopic. Colin Cutler’s new album, "Tarwater," will be released on November 3 too, with songs inspired by the work of Flannery O’Connor. We are going to be hosting Colin for a special Andalusia Institute digital release party on November 9.

If you haven’t seen, we are making progress on our website (thanks to Tammie Burke), and the Andalusia Institute is making great progress in the community, all thanks to Jess McQuain’s work with Writing for Success grant. Finally, Dr. Stefanie Opperman is hosting workshops and seminars on oral history as part of our Oral History project. The institute has been hard at work and continues to stay active. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to us.

Dr. Jordan Cofer, Interim Director

The NEH Oral History project "Flannery O'Connor and Milledgeville: Collecting the Past" will host a virtual kick-off event Thursday, November 2. Dr. Stephanie Opperman will speak with Sandra Worsham, a writer and retired high school teacher, about the oral history project she directed with Baldwin High School students. The Milken Family Foundation published the collection of stories in Everybody Has a Story to Tell: Stories of Flannery O’Connor’s Milledgeville (1999).

The event will take place virtually from 6:00-7:00 p.m. To register and receive the Zoom link, sign up on our Smartsheet.

Dr. Stephanie Opperman will host an in-person oral history workshops in Milledgeville on Thursday, November 9 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. at the Andalusia Interpretive Center. This free, hour-long workshop will introduce participants to preparation, recording, transcription, and archival organization of oral histories.

If you have any suggestions for people to interview and/or your own experiences with Milledgeville and/or Flannery to share, please email stephanie.opperman@gcsu.edu.

We're thrilled to offer writing and podcasting workshops to fifth graders this fall! Through our partnership with CREATE, Inc. and Twin Lakes Libraries of Middle Georgia Regional Library System, we offer classes in the evenings and Saturdays for students to explore their creativity.

CREATE:

Tuesday 6:00-7:00 p.m., Thursday 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Contact CREATE to register

Mary Vinson Memorial Library:

Tuesday/Thursday, 5:30-6:30 p.m. (creative writing)

Saturday, 1:00-2:00 p.m. (podcasting)

Register online or show up to the children's theater!

Parents/guardians should attend workshops with students. Registration is free and materials are provided!

Featuring storytelling by local fifth grade students as well as interviews with authors like Mary Carpenter, Chika Unigwe, Kerry James Evans, Laura Newbern, Kerry Beth Neville, and more!

We will meet in person at the Georgia Writers Museum on the square in Eatonton, Georgia, to discuss Flannery O'Connor's letters as published in "The Habit of Being and/or Flannery O'Connor: Collected Works." You should find that these books are readily available, and I'm confident that the GWM will soon be able to sell you a copy of either or both. It won't matter (much) whether you are reading from "Flannery O'Connor: Collected Works" or from "The Habit of Being: Letters" (a longer, fuller collection), since what we'll be doing is sharing thoughts on our favorite O'Connor letters as we try to figure out how O'Connor's correspondence reveals her personality and teaches us things about her fiction.

Hope to see you in Eatonton! The coffeeshop next to the GWM is open until 2:00 p.m., so I hope you'll join me in buying some coffee and pastry before they close. Feel free to bring along a friend; our book club meetings are free and open to the public.

If you would like to join the afternoon (4:30-5:30 p.m.) or evening (7:00-8:00 p.m.) sessions to discuss these letters, contact Tammie Burke of Andalusia Institute at tammie.burke@gcsu.edu so she can send you the Zoom link.

Bruce Gentry, Andalusia Institute Fellow

To purchase, send checks made out to: Flannery O'Connor Review

Price $15 for individuals, $16 for institutions

Mail to:

Bruce Gentry

Flannery O'Connor Review

English, CBX 44

Georgia College

410 W. Greene St.

Milledgeville, GA 31061