Fourth year for lecture series at Andalusia

The Flannery O’Connor-Andalusia Foundation is sponsoring the fourth annual February Lecture Series at the home of Flannery O’Connor, located on Highway 441 in Milledgeville.

Andalusia welcomed the start of the series on Sunday afternoon featuring Mr. Scott Daniel, winner of the 2005 Sarah Gordon Award for an essay by a graduate student.

A current high school teacher in Warner Robins, Ga., Daniel is a graduate of GCSU and once served as a volunteer at Andalusia while attending graduate school. He delivered his lecture, titled, “Mythologizing Place: Flannery O’Connor’s Contest with Dante Alighieri.”

“The first program in the February lecture series brought 15 guests to Andalusia on Feb.1 to hear Scott Daniel’s presentation.

The questions that followed indicated that his paper prompted thoughtful reflection on the various ways in which O’Connor’s work can be interpreted,” Mr. Craig Amason, Executive Director of The Flannery O’Connor – Andalusia Foundation said.

Guest speakers at the Sunday lectures will include Mr. Gilreath on Feb. 8, Dr. Dewey Kramer on Feb. 15, and Ms. Nancy Smith Fichter and Mr. Robert Fichter on Feb. 22.

Mr. Gilreath, President of the Ocmulgee Ornithological Society will discuss the pastime of birding as well as some of the species that consider Andalusia home.

Dr. Dewey Kramer, author of “Open to the Spirit: A History of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit” (1986), will talk about the history and significance of the Trappist monastery located in Conyers, Ga.

There, O’Connor and her mother visited the Holy Spirit monastery, becoming friends with the Abbot and several of the monks.

Ms. Nancy Smith Fichter and Mr. Robert Fichter, directors of the Lillian E. Smith Center for Creative Arts in Clayton, Ga., will discuss the life of Lillian Smith, a contemporary of O’Connor and author of the novel, “Strange Fruit” (1944).

Along with Andalusia, the Smith Center is located on the Southern Literary Trail as are many other literary landmarks in Ga., Ala., and Miss.

The lectures are held in the dining room of the main house each Sunday in February, beginning at 3 p.m., with a reception following each lecture. The February events are free and open to the public. For more information, please visit the Web site at http://www.andalusiafarm.org

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 6 2009. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry