SAVANNAH, Ga. () — Lafayette Square in downtown Savannah was filled with Flannery O’Connor fans Sunday to celebrate what would have been the author’s 100th birthday. The day was filled with music, dancing and reading. More than 40 local authors set up tables to greet festival goers and discuss O’Connor’s influence on them as writers.

Jessica Leigh Lebos, author of “Savannah Sideways,” says O’Connor is synonymous with Savannah and wonders what might have been had O’Connor not died of complications from lupus at age 39. “We lost her too soon. Who knows what kind of wonderful, eyebrow-raising Southern gothic stories she would have given us? But as a southern woman she really paved the way for all of us to be able to express ourselves…to be able to throw a little shade on what southern life really is.”

What is it about O’Connor’s writing that resonates with readers and scholars so many years after she died? Mary Villeponteaux, the president of the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home Museum Board of Directors, believes it’s the author’s vision but also her craftsmanship. “Her vision was troubling and dark and funny but even if you’re really not sharing that vision, you appreciate the craft because she is such an extraordinary writer. She makes you see what she wants you to see. And her gift of dialog…you hear those voices.”

Many of the writers participating in today’s festivities felt honored to be part of the centennial celebration. Amy Paige Condon says, “To even be on a day that celebrates her and her writing and her legacy — and have my own books here — is surreal.” Condon feels she continues to learn from O’Connor’s writing to this day.

Mary Villeponteaux hopes today’s event will spark interest in locals and tourists alike to visit the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home Museum. She says it’s a unique way to see what life was like in Savannah during the Depression, a time that deeply influenced O’Connor’s way of writing. “First of all, I think [visitors to the museum] come to understand that she was unusual from birth. That she was an eccentric little girl who knew her own mind at a very early age. And she was funny from a very early age. You know, with her love of chickens. She would dress her chickens up in clothes as though they were dolls! She also — at 6 years old — announced to her parents that she was no longer a child and she called them by their first names for the rest of her life. So [when you visit the museum] you really hear the stories, but you know, it’s also a house museum so you get a sense of what a middle-class family…what their home might have been like.”

If you’re new to the work of Flannery O’Connor, Villeponteaux offers this selection as an introduction: “I would probably suggest the one that is the most often anthologized which is “A Good Man Is Hard To Find.” But we always like to warn people that it’s not ‘beach reading’…that it’s troubling and shocking and also hilariously funny. So if you can wrap your mind around that then I think you will love “A Good Man Is Hard To Find.”