Flannery O'Connor

An item at American Writers Museum

Although shy, Flannery O'Connor was nonetheless ambitious. Once she determined fiction, not journalism, was her métier, she decided to attend the now world-famous lowa Writers' Workshop. From then on, she wrote prodigiously. Even as she struggled with lupus-the disease that killed her father and would cause her own death at 39-she remained prolific.

Informed by the community surrounding her Georgia home and her Catholic faith, O'Connor's short fiction is rich with complex antiheroes and ironic moral turns. "I write," she said, "because I don't know what I think until I read what I say."

AMERICAN VOICES

An exhibit at American Writers Museum

American writing is distinctive, diverse, and comes in many forms from across the nation. The 100 authors featured here represent the evolution of American writing. Learn more about each writer on the timeline by turning the panels below their portraits. Explore centuries of writing by pulling, turning, and touching the interactive elements on the counter.

This is not meant to be a list of the greatest or most influential writers. Instead, we present authors and works as part of the American story as it grows and changes. Taken together, this rich literary heritage reflects America in all of its complexity: its energy, hope, conflict, disillusionment, and creativity.

American Writers Museum