This lecture by Michael Kreyling is part of a series about the writer Flannery O'Connor sponsored by the Religion in the Arts and Contemporary Culture Program at Vanderbilt Divinity School.

All the events are open to the public and free, except for a concert Feb. 19 at the Mercy Lounge, which costs $15.
O'Connor (1925-1964), one of America's greatest fiction writers, was a staunch Roman Catholic and many of her stories focused on fundamentalist Protestants. She wrote the novels Wise Blood and The Violent Bear it Away and short story collections including All That Rises Must Converge. She won the National Book Award posthumously for The Complete Stories .

Other events that are part of the series: 

A concert featuring Mary Gauthier, Old Black Kettle, Over the Rhine, Minton Sparks and actor Denice Hicks will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, at the Mercy Lounge, 1 Cannery Road. The concert, which benefits the Flannery O’Connor-Andalusia Foundation, is titled “The Enduring Chill: Remembering Flannery O’Connor.” Tickets will be available at the door.

The series concludes on Friday, Feb. 20, with a roundtable discussion featuring Gauthier, Sparks, Linford Detweiler and Karin Berquist of Over the Rhine, and Julie Lee. The musicians will discuss “Shadows of the Word: Songwriters and Literary Legacies of Religion and Place.” The 1 p.m. discussion in the Art Room (G-20) of Vanderbilt Divinity School is free and open to the public.

Video of the Jan. 26, Feb. 2 and Feb. 20 events will be taped for podcast on VUCast, the Web site of Vanderbilt News Service, at www.vanderbilt.edu/news/.