Flannery Abroad: A Conference in Celebration of Flannery O'Connor's Centenary

John Davis Jr. is a poet and educator from Florida's Tampa Bay area. He is the author of five books of poetry, his latest being The Places That Hold (Eastover Press, 2021). He has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Disquiet International Literary Program, and other literary organizations. He holds an MFA and teaches English and Creative Writing for St. Louis University and Jesuit High School of Tampa.

John Hayes is an Associate Professor of History at Augusta University. He has written on O'Connor for the Critical Insights volume (May, ed.) and has a chapter in the forthcoming Reckoning with Racism in Flannery O'Connor collection (Cheney and Szczesiul, eds.). His first book, Hard, Hard Religion: Interracial Faith in the Poor South (UNC Press, 2017), excavated the real-world folk religious milieu that O'Connor's fiction so vividly evoked. He periodically dresses as Hazel Motes and walks the streets, and he is restoring an old farm 30 miles up the road from Andalusia.

John-Paul Heil is a Core Fellow at Mount St. Mary’s University, where he teaches in the Catholic anthropology, history, philosophy, English, and theology departments. He received his PhD with distinction in history from the University of Chicago in 2022 and has received multiple awards from the U.S. and Italian Fulbright commissions. His writing has appeared in Time, Smithsonian, The Week, and Los Angeles Review of Books. He is the books editor at Dappled Things.

Kathleen Lipovski Helal earned a Ph.D. in English Literature from Indiana University Bloomington, specializing in twentieth-century American and British Literature with a concentration in literary theory. She has published articles in journals from LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory and Women’s Studies to The South Central Review and The Flannery O’Connor Review. Dr. Helal has taught at Indiana University, Texas Christian University, Southwestern University, and St. Edward's University, and has been nominated multiple times for Outstanding Teacher of the Year. After over twenty years of university teaching, she joined the Harry Ransom Center in 2023, where she focuses on archival research and presents and publishes her work internationally. Her article on an uncatalogued mystery box of O’Connor material at the HRC will appear in the 2025 edition of the Flannery O’Connor Review, and her research inspired her to begin work on a book devoted to mystery in O’Connor’s writing.

Katie Simon, Georgia College, is Associate Professor of English and Interim Executive Director of the Flannery O’Connor Institute for the Humanities. She has formerly coordinated the Program in Women's and Gender Studies and the MA Program in English. She is an Assistant Editor of the Flannery O’Connor Review. She earned her PhD and her BA in English from U.C. Berkeley, and her MA in English from Mills College. Her teaching and research interests examine the intersections between American literature, social justice, and the environment. Her work on Thoreau appears in ESQ, her work on O’Connor in Women’s Studies, and she’s published pedagogy pieces in Bad Subjects: Political Education for Everyday Life. She is co-editing a collection of essays, Forgotten Spaces: Environment and Social Justice in the U.S. South.

Liam Callanan’s novel, Paris by the Book, a national bestseller, was translated into multiple languages and won the Edna Ferber Prize. More recently, his novel When in Rome was a finalist for Christianity Today’s fiction book of the year. He’s also won the Hunt Prize, and his first novel, The Cloud Atlas, was a finalist for an Edgar Award. Liam has written for The Wall Street Journal, Slate, The New York Times, and he's recorded numerous essays for public radio. He’s on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Linda Crenshaw is Professor of English at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee. Her dissertation (Vanderbilt, 1989) was on Flannery O’Connor’s use of the New Testament as a narrative paradigm. She has published and presented on O’Connor and other southern writers (Walker Percy, Lee Smith, Reynolds Price), and most recently has studied 20th-century writers who lived and worked in the Clarksville, TN area, including Robert Penn Warren, Allen Tate, Caroline Gordon, and Tom Mabry.

Mark Bosco, S.J., is Vice-President for Mission & Ministry at Georgetown University and teaches in the English and the Theology departments. His research focuses on theological aesthetics and the intersection of religion, culture, and art, with special focus on the 20th-century Catholic literary tradition. He is the author of Graham Greene’s Catholic Imagination (Oxford, 2005); Revelation and Convergence: Flannery O’Connor and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CUA, 2017) and Reading Flannery O’Connor in Spain: From Andalusia to Andalucía (CUA, 2020). He is a co-producer and co-director of the award-winning documentary film, Flannery: The Storied Life of the Writer from Georgia, which was nationally broadcasted in the United States on the PBS series, American Masters, in 2021.

Mary Grace Mangano is a poet, writer, and professor. Having taught in several major cities, she now lives and works in her home state of New Jersey, teaching and advising students at Seton Hall University. She has published essays, reviews, and poems in various outlets such as Comment, Plough, America, Literary Matters, Ekstasis, The Windhover, and others, and received her MFA from the University of Saint Thomas in Houston. With Dana Gioia, she co-edited the poetry anthology Homage to Søren Kierkegaard: Poems in Memory of Reverend Ronald Marshall, published by Wiseblood Books in 2023. Mary Grace is an associate editor at New Verse Review and she received a 2025 Individual Artist Finalist award from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Nathan Kilpatrick is an Associate Professor of English and Catholic Studies at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. There, he teaches courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the interdisciplinary study of Catholicism’s intellectual and artistic traditions. His research focuses on post-Vatican II American Catholic fiction with occasional forays in the twentieth century Catholic Renaissance, with work appearing in Religion and Literature, Christianity and Literature, The Flannery O’Connor Review, and Logos. At the University of Mary, he also serves in an additional role as primary mentor for an intentional community of young men called the Fraternity of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.

Penny Dearmin teaches English in a small Southern town. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Georgia College as the recipient of the Flannery O'Connor Scholarship. Her creative nonfiction can be found in JuxtaProse Literary Magazine, Bodies of Words, Madcap Review, Vine Leaves Literary Journal, and elsewhere. She is also the host and producer of the true-crime podcast Blood Town.

Professor Graw Leary is a Professor of Law at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. A former federal prosecutor, Professor Graw Leary's scholarship examines the intersection of criminal law, technology, and contemporary victimization. She focuses on the exploitation and abuse of women, children, and the marginalized. She currently directs the Law School Modern Prosecution Program as well as the Bakhita Initiative for the Study and Disruption of Modern Slavery. In addition to her scholarship on exploitation, she is the lead author of Perspectives on Missing Persons Cases and also has written extensively about the role of religion in combatting human trafficking and the need for victim rights in clergy abuse cases.

Ranjini George holds a PhD in English Literature from Northern Illinois University, USA, an MA in English from St. Stephens College, New Delhi, India, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She was an Associate Professor of English at Zayed University, Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. She currently teaches in the Creative Writing and Arts & Humanities programs at the School of Continuing Studies, University of Toronto, where she received the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2019. She won the Arnold B. Fox Award for Research Writing, a Canada Council for the Arts grant for her novel-in-progress Blue Flowers and three Ontario Arts Council Recommender grants for her memoirs Miracle of Flowers and Days and Nights in Tokyo: The 33-Kannon Edo Pilgrimage. She completed a collection of stories, Dream Girls of Meena Bazaar. Her book, Through My Mother’s Window, was published in Dubai (2016).

Robert Donahoo is a professor of English at Sam Houston State University where he focuses on American literature, Southern literature, and American drama. He has co-edited two collections of essays on O'Connor, most recently Approaches to Teaching the Works of Flannery O'Connor, published by MLA. He has also co-directed with Bruce Gentry two NEH Summer Institutes on O'Connor and published numerous journal articles on her fiction in journals and essay collections. Most recently, he has been working on the recently made public paintings by O'Connor, attempting to explain their connection to her life and fiction.

Roger Stanley taught 20th-century American literature, creative writing, and core classes for the Union University (TN) Department of English from 1990-2018. Post-retirement, he has maintained a strict regimen of attending both Flannery O'Connor conferences and Lucinda Williams concerts. Recent work has included peer review duties for the Flannery O'Connor Review and a pair of book reviews which have appeared in that publication. Paper presentations and articles while teaching reflected his interest in mental illness/"The Partridge Festival"; the early "Iowa 8" MFA stories; and O'Connor's stylistics in relation to Willa Cather.

Rosemary M. Magee served for four decades in wide-ranging roles at Emory University as a faculty member, dean, and vice president. While Director of the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library (2012-2018), she was closely involved with the acquisition of the Flannery O’Connor collection, papers of Harper Lee, and letters of former U.S. President Barack Obama—and at the same time expanding African American and Irish literary collections. Her publications include Conversations with Flannery O’Connor: Selected Interviews, Friendship and Sympathy: Communities of Southern Writers, and “The Good Guide: A Final Conversation with Sally Fitzgerald.” She recently completed a collection of short stories, Fantasy Impromptu, and was co-curator of the exhibition At the Crossroads with Benny Andrews, Flannery O’Connor, and Alice Walker. Her current project focuses on literary friendships. She holds a Ph.D. from Emory in Southern literature and religion.

Rosie Hall recently graduated from Ave Maria University with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature. While at the University, she presented a paper at the Conference on Christianity and Literature, and worked as the Managing Editor of the school's creative journal. Her studies focus on the intersection between religion and feminism in 20th-century female authors, with a special interest in the poetry of Sylvia Plath. This fall, Rosie will begin her Master of Studies in English at the University of Oxford.

Shannon Skelton teaches at Georgia College and State University in Flannery O’Connor’s hometown, Milledgeville, Georgia. She holds an MFA in fiction from Georgia College and State University and an MAE in English education from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She taught middle and high school English before returning to school to study creative writing. Her fiction has been published in Image Journal, Relief, and Ruminate Magazine. Her critical work has been published in the Flannery O’Connor Review. In 2016, she won the Sarah Gordon Award for her essay, “An Argument for the Salvation of George Rayber in The Violent Bear It Away.” She recently presented her creative writing at the 2024 NEH Flannery O’Connor's Second Century Conference.

Susan Srigley, PhD is a professor of Religions and Cultures at Nipissing University, Ontario, Canada. Her research focuses on ethics, imagination, and literature. She has published two books (Flannery O’Connor’s Sacramental Art & Dark Faith: New Essays on Flannery O’Connor’s The Violent Bear It Away) and several articles on Flannery O’Connor. Her teaching and research has more recently expanded into death studies, and she is developing curriculum in death education for postsecondary students. She is currently working on a book about Flannery O’Connor and death.

The Rev. Fr. Steve Macias serves as Rector of Saint Paul’s Anglican Church (REC) and Headmaster of The Canterbury School in Los Altos, California, where he also teaches Latin. He is the author of Reformed Monasticism: The Influence of English Asceticism on Prayer Book Spirituality (2021) and a regular contributor to Kuyperian Commentary, The Anglican Institute (Dallas), and various theological conferences, writing on Anglican theology and Classical education. His theological background includes graduate studies at Trinity Anglican Seminary and Cranmer Theological House. Before entering ministry, Steve worked in the California State Legislature and with nonprofit organizations in both California and Washington, D.C. He lives in California’s Silicon Valley with his wife, Sarah, and their four children. Learn more about his work at stevemacias.com.

W. F. “Bill” Monroe retired as professor of English and O’Connor Professor and Dean of the Honors College at the University of Houston in 2022. His monograph, Power to Hurt, was selected as an outstanding academic book of the year, and in 2023, a staged reading of Primary Care, a play about Alzheimer’s disease that Monroe wrote and directed, was presented by the UT Medical School for a “Healthcare and the Arts” conference. In addition to O’Connor, his teaching and research interests include T. S. Eliot, Vladimir Nabokov, Walker Percy, and other 20th Century writers as well as medical humanities and modern and contemporary classic texts. He received the annual UH Teaching Excellence Award and served for 25 years as a seminar leader and director of the Common Ground Teachers Institute, a collaborative endeavor between university faculty and secondary school teachers. He was a participant in an NEH Summer Institute on Narrative at the University of Iowa and an NEH Institute on Flannery O’Connor in Milledgeville. In 2024, Monroe presented papers on O’Connor in Milledgeville and at the American Literature Association in Chicago. He is currently teaching at Texas State University and the University of St. Thomas and working on a book-length manuscript, The Vocation of Affliction: Flannery O’Connor and the Myth of Mastery.

Yuka Sato, Waseda U, is Research Associate of International House of Literature (Haruki Murakami Library). She is also a third-year PhD student in the Graduate Program in English and American Literature at Keio U. Her research focuses on 20th-century American Southern women’s literature, particularly the transition from sentimental fiction to grotesque realism. She is especially interested in how these literary shifts reflect broader cultural and historical transformations in the American South. Her primary authors of study include Flannery O’Connor, Katherine Anne Porter, Ellen Glasgow, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, and Pearl S. Buck. Through her study, she explores themes of gender, regional identity, and the evolving narrative techniques that characterize Southern women’s writing.

William Gonch is assistant professor and director of literature at Ave Maria University. A scholar of 20th and 21st-century American literature, his research addresses the creative exchange - the "translation" - between secular and religious styles and modes of imagination. He holds a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Maryland and has served as the Cornerstone Fellow in English at The Catholic University of America. He writes on religion, imagination, and culture for a variety of publications, including The Hedgehog Review, Public Discourse, and The European Conservative, and he has presented at academic conferences including the American Literature Association and the Conference on Christianity and Literature. He participated in the NEH Scholarly Institute "Reconsidering Flannery O'Connor" in June 2023.

KenYatta Rogers (Actor, Panelist) is an actor and director with over 150 theatre, voiceover, film, and television credits. Directing credits include productions with Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Constellation Theatre, Mosaic Theatre, African Continuum Theatre Company, IN Series, and Young Playwrights Theatre. Acting credits include productions with Compagnia de’ Colombari, Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Baltimore Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Signature Theatre, Round House Theatre, Everyman Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Folger Theatre, and Shakespeare & Company. An alum of Clark Atlanta University and the University of Pittsburgh, Rogers taught at South Carolina State University and Montgomery College (where he was named the 2014 Maryland Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching). He is currently a faculty member in the University of Maryland’s School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies where his primary area of research is applying embodied theatre practices from the African diaspora to actor training for the 21st century.

Débora Barcala is an assistant professor (tenure-track) at São Paulo State University (Brazil), teaching mainly English Language Literature. She holds a PhD in Literature, and the focus of her dissertation was the female grotesque as an instrument of subversion in Flannery O’Connor’s work. Part of this research was conducted at Georgia College and State University. Southern women writers, grotesque, and feminist criticism are her main research interests.