The Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home is pleased to announce the line-up for the 2018 Fall Lecture Series, which is free and open to the public.
 
All lectures take place in the parlor of the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home, located at 207 E. Charlton Street on Lafayette Square in downtown Savannah.  
 
The Fall 2018 Lecture Series schedule is as follows:
 
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 3 p.m.
Patrick Samway, S.J. – “Flannery O’Connor and Robert Giroux: A Publishing Partnership”
Presented in partnership with The Book Lady Bookstore, this lecture by Professor Emeritus Father Patrick Samway, S.J., will shed new light on an important area of Flannery O’Connor’s life — her relationship with her editors — that has not been well documented or narrated by critics and biographers. Samway will discuss O’Connor’s personal and professional relationship with Robert Giroux, who guided her to become an internationally acclaimed writer of fiction and nonfiction, especially during the years when she suffered from lupus at her home in Milledgeville, Georgia. This topic serves as the focus of Samway’s new book, Flannery O’Connor and Robert Giroux: A Publishing Partnership. Samway’s biography of Walker Percy was a New York Times Notable Book.
 
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21, 4 p.m.
Olivia Stiffler – “Poetry: Why Read It? Why Write It? Who Cares?”
Poet Olivia Stiffler will use her personal journey of becoming a poet to discuss why people tend to shy away from the genre, but nevertheless search it out in times of grief.  She will reflect on what she sees as a renaissance of the modern narrative poem and its power to renew and enlighten through story. Stiffler is the author of two books of poetry. Her first book, Otherwise, we are safe was included the Writer’s Almanac Best of 2014. Poet James Tolan called her second book, Hiding in Plain Sight, a “gorgeous and important work.” Stiffler’s poems are included in the anthology Realms of the Mothers and in the 2018 Furman University anthology Archive: South Carolina Poetry Since 2005.
 
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 4 p.m.
Courtney Hargrave – “BURDEN: A True Story for Our Times”
Courtney Hargrave is the author of Burden: A Preacher, A Klansman and a True Story of Redemption in the Modern South, published August 2018. Hargrave has written more than a dozen books, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. Her most recent work, Burden, recounts the true story of an unlikely friendship between a former Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, Michael Burden, and S.C. African American preacher, Reverend David Kennedy, and has been made into a critically acclaimed film starring Forest Whitaker and Usher. Burden explores many of the same themes that resonate in Flannery O’Connor’s work, most notably, grace and redemption. Hargrave’s talk will expand on the events described in this meticulously researched work, as well as examine the story’s current relevance and importance.
 
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 4 p.m.
Lecture by Bertice Berry, Ph.D.   
Sociologist Bertice Berry, PhD., a best-selling author and award winning lecturer, has been named Comedian of the Year, Lecturer of the Year and Entertainer of the Year. She has published 11 best-selling books and has won numerous awards and accolades for both her writing and presentations. Berry has had her own nationally syndicated television show and has hosted, interviewed and made numerous appearances on a variety of venues including The Tonight Show, Oprah Winfrey, Between The Lions, Crossfire, 20/20, NPR, PBS, Comedy Central and CNN.