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Flannery O'Connor Institute
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Flannery O'Connor Institute for the Humanities May Newsletter
Director's Message
Dear All,
As the Spring semester comes to a close here at GCSU, and all of Milledgeville is surrounded by the constant hum of cicadas, it is bittersweet for me as I will be leaving GCSU and starting a new position as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Minnesota Morris in July. However, I am leaving the Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities in great shape and I am excited for Dr. Katie Simon, who will be taking over as the Interim Executive Director, starting this Fall. I’m confident that she will do a great job leading the Institute.
In the meantime, we have been extremely busy. In the past few weeks, we’ve been able to hire Lani Daniel, our new coordinator for the Oral History grant (through the National Endowment for the Humanities), student workers for the grant, and host our first oral history event with Dr. Opperman’s excellent students. We are also nearing completion on our Writing for Success grant (through the Department of Education), and Jessica McQuain has done an amazing job putting together resources, events, and support for teachers who are using Flannery O’Connor in the classroom. Meanwhile, Dr. Bruce Gentry has been hard at work on the Flannery O’Connor in the 21st Century conference, taking place in Milledgeville this September. Finally, we have had several success online events, including our monthly book club, and great presentations about Flannery O’Connor and Race. Join us next week (virtually), as we welcome two of our NEH Summer Institute alums, Ashley Massey and Dr. Timothy R. Vande Brake, who will be sharing some of their work with us on May 9th at 7:00 p.m. eastern (please email tammie.burke@gcsu.edu to get the Zoom link). Finally, if you have suggestions for what the book club should tackle next year, please email jordan.cofer@gcsu.edu or bruce.gentry@gcsu.edu.
Jordan Cofer, Interim Executive Director for the Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities
Flannery O'Connor and Milledgeville: Collecting the Past
Thank you to all who attended the recent Collecting the Past celebration. We had a wonderful time listening to diverse stories of Milledgeville and Flannery O’Connor, collected by GCSU students. We would once again like to thank our project team, Georgia College History Department, HIST 4010: Local History students, and of course, our great group of narrators that make this project possible. During the event, highlights from the interviews of Sarah Gordon, Gwynedd Webster, and Mary Dean Lee were shown.
For those who want to be added to our email list for more information on events and published content from the Collecting the Past grant, please sign up using this form.
Writing for Success Symposium Registration Now Open!
Writing for Success Symposium: Creative Writers & Writing in the K12 Classroom
Please register using Smartsheet for this free hybrid event. This symposium will reflect on lessons learned from the project, support educators interested in bringing creative writing and podcasting into the classroom, and showcase the project results including the open source curriculum and digital humanities resources. We'll hear from writers Mary Carpenter, Amy Alznauer, Acree Graham Macam, Natalie Nelson, Kerry Neville, Kerry James Evans, and Sandra Worsham.
Thursday, Jun 6, 2024, 10:00 AM
Russell Library, North Clarke Street, Milledgeville, GA, USA
Featuring storytelling by local 5th-grade students as well as interviews with authors like Mary Carpenter, Chika Unigwe, Kerry James Evans, Laura Newbern, Kerry Beth Neville, and more!
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute
Flannery O’Connor and Andalusia
Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities presents a Zoom meeting on Thursday, May 9, from 7 to 8 p.m., on Flannery O’Connor and Andalusia
Our presenters for the evening are two veterans of the 2023 Flannery O’Connor Summer Institute at Georgia College, “Reconsidering Flannery O’Connor.” with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Views expressed at this event do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Ashley Massey holds an MA in Literature and writes academically in the fields of Southern Gothic literature and Critical Prison Studies. She teaches writing and literature courses in jails and prisons, including through the University of North Alabama’s Restorative Justice Lab. She works on a farm in Middle Tennessee, where she is a small business owner, cattle caretaker, and community organizer. Her poetry has appeared in numerous small presses, and she recently released a gothic farm-themed poetry book, Keep the gate open.
Timothy R. Vande Brake is Professor of English at Roberts Wesleyan University in Rochester, New York. Among his publications are articles on Wole Soyinka and Flannery O’Connor (including work in the Flannery O’Connor Review). He holds degrees from Calvin University (BA), the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (MA), and the University of Alabama (PhD).
To get the Zoom link for this event, contact Tammie Burke at tammie.burke@gcsu.edu
https://www.taraatlanta.com/movie/wildcat-w-ethan-hawke-2 There are only 150 seats in the theater, so buy your tickets as soon as possible! And please share this link with anyone who might be interested.
POETRY READING by LAURA NEWBERN and ALICE FRIMAN
Books by Newbern and Friman will be available for purchase.
Laura Newbern’s new poetry collection, A Night in the Country, was selected by Nobel Laureate Louise Glück as a winner of the Changes Book Prize. Newbern is also the author of Love and the Eye, selected by Claudia Rankine for the Kore Press First Book Award, and the recipient of a Writer’s Award from the Rona Jaffe Foundation. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, The Southern Review, New England Review, and The Atlantic, as well as in other journals and anthologies. Alice Friman has written that Newbern has “A haunting, once-upon-a-time voice, as if a wide-eyed child lost in the woods forever and a day emerged, finally, to speak.” Newbern’s website is lauranewbern.com.
Alice Friman’s eighth collection is On the Overnight Train, a New & Selected from LSU Press. Her last books, also from LSU, are Blood Weather, The View from Saturn, and Vinculum, which won the Georgia Author of the Year Award in poetry. She's a recipient of three prizes from The Poetry Society of America and two Pushcart Prizes, as well as being included in Best American Poetry. She's been published in Poetry, Ploughshares, Plume, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, and others. Stephen Corey writes that “You have never read nor will ever read another poetry collection that can stop you so often in your emotional and musical tracks.” Friman’s website is alicefrimanpoet.com.
More info?: contact Bruce Gentry at bruce.gentry@gcsu.edu.
Tuesday, May 14, 2024, 05:30 PM
Blackbird Coffee, West Hancock Street, Milledgeville, GA, USA
Congratulations to these scholars!
Inaugural Laidlaw Junior Scholar Fellow Announced
GCSU’s Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities, which is dedicated to the study of Flannery O’Connor, proudly announces Mr. Alex Taylor as the inaugural recipient of the Jean M. and William C. Laidlaw Junior Scholar Fellowship. Taylor, a Ph.D. Candidate in Literature and Fellow for Criticism at the University of Dallas, brings a wealth of experience and expertise. He previously participated in the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute, “Reconsidering Flannery O'Connor,” held at Georgia College and State University in June 2023, and is working on a dissertation titled "Unreal Cities: The Political Vision of Evelyn Waugh and Flannery O'Connor."
Mr. Taylor’s research explores the political dimensions of authors Evelyn Waugh and Flannery O'Connor. According to Jordan Cofer, the institute’s Interim Executive Director, Taylor’s dissertation and his research interests, “offer a promising interdisciplinary approach to the field, which was why his application was so compelling.”
The Jean M. and William C. Laidlaw Junior Scholar Fellowship, founded by Mike and Wendy Laidlaw, represents a commitment to supporting emerging scholars dedicated to advancing the study of Flannery O'Connor's literary legacy. According to Mr. Laidlaw, “I am delighted to learn that Alex Taylor will be the inaugural recipient of the Jean M. And William C. Laidlaw Junior Scholar Fellowship. My mother and father, for whom this scholarship is named, and themselves avid readers, would warm quickly to this pairing of things literary and matters political. Mom taught American and British literature for many years; Dad was a civil engineer/politician. My enthusiastic congratulations, Alex!” This fellowship will allow Taylor to continue his research, working both in the Special Collections of the Ina Dillard Library as well as exploring the archives of Andalusia, the historic home of Flannery O’Connor and the new Interpretative Center.
Dr. Serafini awarded NEH Summer Stipend
Dr. Sidonia Serafini, Assistant Professor of English at GCSU, has been named the recipient of a 2024 NEH Summer Stipend Award. The award supports her book project, Cultivating Citizenship: Racial and Environmental Justice and African American Writing at Hampton and Tuskegee Institutes, 1890-1925. The same project was accepted to the summer 2024 First Book Institute at Penn State University's Center for American Literary Studies.
"Flannery O'Connor's Second Century: Looking Forward, Looking Back"
This conference on Flannery O'Connor's life and works, sponsored by the Andalusia Institute at Georgia College, by the Flannery O'Connor Review, and by Andalusia Farm: the Home of Flannery O'Connor, will be held September 12-15 on the Georgia College campus in Milledgeville. Our conference is part of the world-wide celebration of Flannery O'Connor's centennial.
Speaking slots are limited. Send your paper proposal of 100-200 words, on any aspect of O'Connor's life and works, to Marshall Bruce Gentry at bruce.gentry@gcsu.edu by May 15, 2024. The conference program will be finalized and announced by July, 1 2024.
Be on the lookout for updates about our conference planning by visiting the website of the Flannery O'Connor Institute. Please feel free to share the announcement by saving the poster below and sharing with your networks.
Conference Organizing Committee:
- Marshall Bruce Gentry, English Dept., Georgia College (Committee Chair)
- Jordan Cofer, FOIH, Georgia College
- Matt Davis, Andalusia: the Home of Flannery O'Connor, Georgia College
- Robert Donahoo, English Dept, Sam Houston State University
- Kerry Neville, Creative Writing, Georgia College
- Katie Simon, English Dept, Georgia College
Because of the generous financial support from NEH, we will not charge a fee for registration. This conference has been made possible by a major grant (EH-288088-22) from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Now hiring part-time assistance for the fall!
We need workers and volunteers to help with "Flannery O'Connor's Second Century: Looking Forward, Looking Back," the conference we will be hosting at Georgia College from Sept. 12 to Sept. 15, 2024.
We need help with such things as running the conference check-in table, escorting speakers, helping with technology in meeting rooms, and providing transportation. To apply for a job as a GCSU student worker, go to GCSUJobs and look for position no. 269308. To apply for a casual labor position (for those not currently enrolled at GCSU), look for position 269326. Questions and resumes may be sent to Bruce Gentry at bruce.gentry@gcsu.edu.