Moveable Feast brings iconic Savannah author Flannery O’Connor to life
Four Georgia Southern University faculty from the College of Arts and Humanities will come together to highlight Savannah native and renowned author Flannery O’Connor during the next installment of the Moveable Feast Lecture Series at 6 p.m. April 13 at St. Vincent’s Academy in Savannah.
The free event will feature professors Benjamin Drevlow, Tony Morris, Christina Olson and Laura Valeri leading a discussion on how O’Connor’s unique Georgia roots inspired her work and how her writing continues to inspire today’s writers.
“I’m drawn to O’Connor again and again because of who she was: an unrepentant iconoclast in a time and place where such rebellion wasn’t typical,” said Olson, professor of creative writing. “She is always on the short list of authors I recommend to Georgia Southern students. Aspiring authors need to be aware of the rich literary history that they themselves work right in the middle of.”
A core element of the Moveable Feast series is creating an immersive experience by hosting lectures in places that directly connect with the subject. O’Connor grew up on Charlton Street near St. Vincent’s Academy where she was a student for several years. Professor of writing Valeri said hosting the discussion inside the very walls where a young O’Connor learned to write is a unique treat.
“It’s a rare privilege to be able to discuss such an influential literary genius in her own stomping grounds,” said Valeri. “We get to soak up Savannah’s loveliness in the beautiful St. Vincent’s gardens, and right as spring blooms.”
Surrounded by the beauty of Savannah’s parklike squares and the architecture of the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist, senior English lecturer Drevlow said attendees will appreciate how the city’s distinctive culture produced O’Connor’s signature style of Southern literature. He noted that O’Connor’s status as somewhat of an outsider, and being a devout Catholic in a largely Protestant region, gave her a unique lens to view Southern society, something he personally connected with.
“I have a unique outsider’s perspective on all this with my Midwestern roots — growing up on a farm in rural northern Wisconsin and with my family’s roots in Minnesota; ‘Minnesota nice’ being very comparable to ‘Southern hospitality,’” said Drevlow. “When I got down here and saw all the things I’d read about going to school in Minnesota and Wisconsin, it almost became bingo for me. I might be from the cold, cold North, but in so many ways, rural is rural, and religion is religion.”
Attendees can begin the evening at the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home Museum, which will open at 5 p.m. for self-guided tours. Moveable Feast organizer Bill Dawers noted it is a fitting prelude to the lecture, given the strong connection between the author’s home and the Georgia Southern Armstrong Campus.
“The work to establish her home as a museum was led by Armstrong State faculty,” noted Dawers. “Professor Bob Strozier brought the idea to Armstrong President Bob Burnett, and they teamed with Professor Hugh Brown to set up a foundation to preserve the home. Since then, many faculty have served on the board because it’s an important piece of Savannah’s history.”
