“When people have told me that because I am a Catholic, I cannot be an artist, I have had to reply, ruefully, that because I am a Catholic, I cannot afford to be less than an artist.” —Flannery O’Connor
Flannery O’Connor intentionally misspelled words like “Catholic” and “intellectual” to wear away any veneer of elitism. When she considered what it meant to be a Catholic writer, she preferred showing to telling, the concrete to the abstract. If you asked her about her college years, O’Connor quipped that her skill at non-retention kept her education from burdening her. However, O’Connor praised her time at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop where she moved from being an amateur to a craftswoman of the highest order. During that season of her life, she studied under such writers such as Robert Penn Warren and learned how to move from talent to practice. It seems what she missed as an undergraduate was the right education, which she found as a graduate student.
We have a handful of colleges and universities sponsoring the Catholic Imagination Conference, in addition to the University of Dallas hosting this event, that offer education which O’Connor may have desired for herself; at least their programs run counter to the experimental, progressive education she received early on and which she often derided. For instance, one of our sponsors, Wyoming Catholic College desires to immerse students in tradition, beauty, and Catholic thought. It is the only college I know where the president is a Catholic novelist! President Glenn Arbery will be reading from his Wiseblood Books novel Boundaries of Eden, and his son, the Pulitzer Prize-finalist, Will Arbery will be answering questions following a reading of “Heroes of the Fourth Turning,” a play that suggests a fictionalized version of Wyoming Catholic as its backdrop.
Other university sponsors include Loyola University Chicago’s Hank Center for Catholic Intellectual Heritage, the University of St. Thomas-Houston’s MFA program for Catholic writers, Fordham University’s Francis and Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, and Georgetown University. For those eager to send their students to Catholic universities or to find graduate programs that focus on the Catholic imagination, these universities represent the best offerings out there.
The Flannery O’Connor Lifetime Achievement Award
In recognition of Flannery O’Connor, whom Angela Alaimo O’Donnell wittily deems the conference’s patron saint, we bestow a lifetime achievement award on a living Catholic writer. In 2019, the inaugural one was presented to Paul Mariani, who has attended all three previous events, and will be bestowing the award to the 2022 recipient at the opening night’s banquet on Friday. His newest collection of poems All That Will Be New was recently published by Slant Books.
CIC 2022 Logistics
As we near the time of the 2022 Catholic Imagination Conference, people are asking about hotel, transport, and meals. If you have dietary restrictions, please send those to our cic2022@udallas.edu email. The speakers are lodging at the Marriott Las Colinas Hotel (also where we are hosting Friday’s banquet) near the University of Dallas campus. There is a Dallas Area Rapid Transit line that runs between the two locations, which is accessible for those without cars, as well as between DFW airport and the hotel. While there is not a conference rate for the hotel for those who are attending but not presenting, there are other hotels in Irving near the campus. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
We look forward to welcoming you to Dallas in the fall!