65 winners, 63 original books, 53 paperback editions, 43 ebooks, two series editors, numerous judges, thousands of submissions, uncountable readings and panels and author events, 4 anthologies, and 30 years later, we find ourselves at the close of the "30 Days of the Flannery O'Connor Award." Thanks for joining us everyday to re-visit these short story collections, old and new. Thank you, too, to all of you who have participated and will continue to participate in honoring this milestone.
We kicked off our anniversary celebrations at this year's AWP annual meeting in Boston in early March. E. J. Levy (LOVE, IN THEORY), Jessica Treadway (PLEASE COME BACK TO ME), Hugh Sheehy (THE INVISIBLES), Lori Ostlund (THE BIGNESS OF THE WORLD), and Amina Gautier (AT-RISK), awed listeners at a panel, which was followed by a Q&A with series editor Nancy Zafris. (Shout out to E. J. Levy for organizing a great event!) Several previous winners were in the audience as well as aspiring short fiction writers. Love for the FOC award lives on!
Next we raised our glasses at the UGA Press booth while panelists signed books. Being a first time
AWP-er and relatively new to the Flannery O'Connor Award, I was especially pleased to meet so many award winners and FOC award fans. It's a welcoming and supportive community of people.
If you are an Athens local, feel free to drop by the Press's open house on April 18th from 2:00-6:00pm to see the Flannery O'Connor series books on display. Also, stay tuned for Flannery O'Connor Award readings across the country in the months to come.
For more on the 30th anniversary, please visit the Flannery O'Connor Award 30th anniversary page.
The 2013 contest is now accepting submissions at https://georgiapress.submittable.com/submit.
Sydney Dupre is assistant to the director and development coordinator at the University of Georgia Press. She also coordinates the annual Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction competition.
