Exciting News and A Literary Controversy: Flannery O'Connor Gets Her Own Postage Stamp!

Image from US Postal Service

I was excited to read the news that Mary Flannery O'Connor, one of my top three favorite short story writers, is getting her own postage stamp. According to a report in Crux, the 93-cent stamp will be released on June 5.

Also according to Crux, the image is based on a black and white photo of O'Connor taken in 1945 when she was a student at Georgia State College for Women. The background image is peacock feathers, a signature symbol of O'Connor and representative of the birds raised on her home in Georgia.

The image the artist used of O'Connor has already created controversy.

According to an article in Entertainment Weekly, another favorite short story writer, Joyce Carol Oates, tweeted earlier this week that she doesn't think the stamp resembles any photos she has ever seen of O'Connor and wonders if the artist who created the stamp had ever seen an image of O'Connor or read any of the iconic writer's work. 

While I agree with Oates that the image doesn't resemble any I've seen of Flannery -- most photos I've seen show her wearing dark glasses -- I think the image is flattering.

And I will be in line next month to buy my O'Connor stamps.