The influence of Vanderbilt University writers on acclaimed author Flannery O'Connor-and the extensive reach of O'Connor's work on literature and beyond-are the subjects of a new Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries exhibit.
Here, There, and Yonder: The Limitless Circle of Flannery O'Connor is on view at Vanderbilt's Special Collections and University Archives through September 2025. The exhibit celebrates the 100th anniversary of O'Connor's birth through her writings and correspondence, as well as photographs and other artifacts that represent her relationships and interests.
O'Connor was a novelist, short story writer and essayist who posthumously won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1972. As a young student at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, she became acquainted with several writers and critics who taught or lectured in the program, including Robert Penn Warren and John Crowe Ransom, Vanderbilt alumni who were part of the Fugitive literary group. In the 1950s, O'Connor wrote that the Fugitives "are now here there and yonder," and she embraced a similar expansiveness in an essay that highlighted the dangers of writing for a "limited circle."
Other Vanderbilt associates became champions of O'Connor's work, which examines themes of morality and hypocrisy, faith and redemption, and family dynamics and racial tension. As editor of The Sewanee Review, alumnus Andrew Lytle frequently published her writing, and an appreciative review by alumnus Brainard Cheney of her first novel, Wise Blood, sparked an enduring friendship. O'Connor even stayed at the Cheney home rather than a hotel when she spoke at the university in 1959.
O'Connor's longtime mentorship by the novelist and literary critic Caroline Gordon, who was married to alumnus and poet Allen Tate, is explored in the exhibit, as is her lasting impact on contemporary writers and artists, from alumnus and humorist Roy Blount Jr. to filmmaker Ethan Hawke. "This exhibit explores the 'here, there and yonder' of O'Connor's own limitless circle, including her peers, mentors and those who continue to read and be changed by her work," writes Curator of Manuscripts Mary McSparran in her exhibit notes.
Here, There, and Yonder: The Limitless Circle of Flannery O'Connor is on display through Sept. 30 at Special Collections and University Archives, 1101 19th Ave. S. Viewing hours are Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
