The Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home will present a lecture by acclaimed author Ann Hood on Friday, September 1 at 7 p.m. at Trinity United Methodist Church, located at 225 W. President St. on Telfair Square. A reception and book signing will immediately follow the lecture at 8 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.
 
Hood is the author of The Obituary Writer, The Book That Matters Most, The Knitting Circle, The Red Thread, Comfort and An Italian Wife, among other works. This best-selling author is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, a Best American Spiritual Writing Award, a Best American Food Writing Award, a Best American Travel Writing Award and the Paul Bowles Prize for Short Fiction. She currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
 
“We’re thrilled to bring Ann Hood to Savannah for a free lecture,” said event organizer Joseph Schwartzburt, a member of the board of directors for the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home. “The Savannah community will appreciate her literary talent and engaging style.”
 
Hood will read from her latest book, Morningstar, a personal memoir that explores the transformative power of literature. Growing up in a mill town in Rhode Island, Hood discovered the transformative power of books and learned to channel her imagination, ambition and curiosity through literature. In Morningstar, this gifted author recollects how The Bell Jar, Marjorie Morningstar, The Harrad Experiment and The Outsiders influenced her teen psyche and introduced her to topics ranging from sexuality to madness.
 
The Ursrey Lecture Series is endowed in memory of the brothers Terry and Ashley Ursrey, native Georgians who, like Flannery O'Connor, were lifelong devotees of all things Southern, particularly the art of storytelling. The series officially debuted in 2008 with a talk by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham and has included illustrious contemporary authors like Roxane Gay, Robert Olen Butler, Luis Alberto Urrea, Jaimy Gordon and Allan Gurganus.