Southern Catholic author Flannery O’Connor is known for her gothic “Christ-haunted” short stories and novels. During her years as a creative writing student, she lifted her vocational desires, spiritual questions, and personal longings up to her Lord in this prayer journal. Her heartfelt prayers surely resemble those many readers have uttered. “Dear God please help me be an artist,” she writes; “please let it lead to you.”
Although O’Connor fills many pages with her fears of the trappings of pride and laziness, she also burns with the grateful confidence of a young writer who knows she has been gifted by God. She admits that all of her requests “melt down to one for grace.” This slight but powerful book captures the interior life of a sensationally talented artist committed to mastering her craft and doing justice to her Maker through her life’s work. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
