I got most of my creative writing and literature education in Florida, so the works of Flannery O’Connor, the author at the center of Ethan Hawke’s new movie Wildcat, were heavily featured in my curriculum. Her Southern Gothic short stories, with their regionally specific character and settings and often violent scenarios, were staples of my classes from high school through college. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” shocked my classmates in AP English Literature with its bleak ending, but I was fascinated. My college creative writing workshops usually featured at least one O’Connor story in the curriculum, with a focus on how she conveys strong themes in the limited space of a short story, and on her sharp grasp of hypocritical human behavior.

Many of my peers strove to emulate her unflinchingly brutal content and style, which directly led to them critiquing my work for not having the dark, gritty quality they associated with stories like “Greenleaf” or “A Circle in the Fire.” Personally, I love O’Connor’s short stories because of her strong characterization and the unflinching look at the American South. And I love to read dark stories, even though I don’t enjoy writing them........

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