Mary McCarthy’s Clarity

by Richard T. Whittington

Mary McCarthy's caustic wit and command of language elevated her nonfiction to the first rank.   Continue Reading »

30 Jan 2018

Flannery O’Connor’s Genius and Grace

by William Doino Jr.

One of the fascinating revelations of Uncommon Grace is how endearing and childlike O’Connor’s faith was—just as Jesus said the faith of his disciples should be. Continue Reading »

10 Oct 2016

Flannery O'Connor and Catholic Realism

by George Weigel

From this vale of tears, one can never be sure about the boundaries of acceptable behavior at the Throne of Grace. Is laughter at earthly foibles permitted? Encouraged? I like to think so. Which inclines me to believe that, this past June 3, Miss Mary Flannery O’Connor of Milledgeville, Georgia, was having herself a good cackle. Continue Reading »

22 Jul 2015

Flannery O'Connor: Stamped but not Cancelled

by Ralph C. Wood

On June 5, 2015, the U.S. Postal Service published a commemorative stamp in honor of Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor is an anomalous candidate for such acclaim, since her work stands at a critical distance from the American project, both in its older and more recent iterations. Precisely in her . . . . Continue Reading »

16 Jun 2015

Too Good to be True

by Franz Klein

Earlier this month the United States Postal Service honored Flannery O’Connor by placing her image, garlanded by peacock feathers, on a 93-cent postage stamp, the 30th stamp in their “literary arts” series. New York Times columnist Lawrence Downes has already chided the USPS for choosing an . . . . Continue Reading »

10 Jun 2015

We Need Freaks

by Dale M. Coulter

When Flannery O’Connor called the south Christ-haunted, she was thinking not least of its freaks. The role of the freak takes on a theological tone in grotesque southern fiction because “it is when the freak can be sensed as a figure for our essential displacement that he attains some . . . . Continue Reading »

24 Jul 2014