Afterword

Bruce Gentry, the editor of  Flannery O’Connor Review , reflects on the state of O’Connor studies. He shares the story of why and how the National Endowment for the Humanities Institutes on O’Connor came about, reviews a few of the struggles and successes, and shares a few thoughts about the future of O’Connor scholarship. He argues that while he no longer thinks we will ever fully figure out O’Connor as a Catholic writer, he believes O’Connor wanted to be taken seriously, first and foremost, as a writer, and, therefore, he has defined his mission as working to expand O’Connor studies beyond the southern and beyond the Catholic. He then discusses O’Connor’s broad appeal in disciplines beyond English. He celebrates the increasing diversity in approaches to her work and anticipates that the trend will continue as we find new answers to old questions and answers to brand new questions too.