The University of Georgia Press recently received a $100,000 endowment to strengthen its prestigious Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, an honor that Trinity University English and creative writing professor Andrew Porter, M.F.A., credits with launching his literary career. Porter won the award in 2017 for his debut story collection, The Theory of Light and Matter, after struggling to find an agent willing to represent his collection of short fiction.
“I was at a crossroads,” Porter told OnlineAthens, the web version of the Athens Banner-Herald. “I knew there were a couple of prestigious short story contests out there, one of which was the Flannery O’Connor Award. I decided to take matters into my own hands. I submitted it directly to the contest.”
The award, established in 1983 to encourage gifted emerging writers by bringing their work to a national readership, ultimately resulted in a two-book deal for Porter. Now an established author with a new collection, The Letters, forthcoming from Knopf Doubleday in spring 2027, Porter’s experience illustrates the significant role the O’Connor Award can play in bringing emerging short-story writers to a wider audience. The new endowment will help ensure that future winners receive similar support. Read the full OnlineAthens article here.