University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

I was always drawn to books authored by women with strong female leads. But when I read my first Flannery O'Connor short story, I can remember just feeling punched in the gut by her writing. Her blunt, brutal perspective lets no one and nothing off and she did it in such a way that we are forced to see ourselves even when we don't want to. O'Connor was my first experience reading a writer who didn't just tell a story; she also told the awful truth while she was doing so.