弗蘭納裏•奧康納（1925-1964），美國南方文學代錶人物，與麥卡勒斯齊名的美國天纔女作傢，美國國傢圖書奬六十年唯一最佳小說奬得主，被公認為是繼福剋納之後美國南方最傑齣的作傢，在世界文壇中影響巨大。

奧康納齣生於美國佐治亞州，1945 年畢業於佐治亞州女子學院，原本打算成為一位職業政治漫畫傢的她，在獲得瞭州立大學提供的研究生奬學金之後，進入瞭著名的依阿華大學作傢培訓班，從此也將事業的重心轉嚮瞭文學作品的創作。1946年，奧康納在《音調》雜誌上發錶瞭人生的第一個短篇小說——《天竺葵》，並因此獲得瞭萊因哈特（Rinehart）奬學金，之後她的創作便一發不可收拾，在一年之內寫下瞭《理發師》《野貓》《警察》《火雞》《火車》等多部短篇小說，並於1948年開始創作被後世奉為經典的長篇小說——《智血》。1950年，因被確診患上紅斑狼瘡，奧康納隻得迴到傢鄉農場靜養，一邊飼養她最愛的孔雀，一邊孜孜不倦地繼續創作文學作品。39歲英年早逝時，奧康納已創作瞭兩篇長篇小說和三十一篇短篇小說，多次獲得歐•亨利短篇小說奬。美國評論界稱她的逝世是“自菲茨傑拉德去世以來美國文壇最重大的損失”。

奧康納的主要作品有短篇小說集《好人難尋》《上升的一切必將匯閤》，長篇小說《智血》《暴力奪取》，散文書信集《生存的習慣》。

This collection of nine short stories by Flannery O'Connor was published posthumously in 1965. The flawed characters of each story are fully revealed in apocalyptic moments of conflict and violence that are presented with comic detachment. The title story is a tragicomedy about social pride, racial bigotry, generational conflict, false liberalism, and filial dependence. The protagonist, Julian Chestny, is hypocritically disdainful of his mother's prejudices, but his smug selfishness is replaced with childish fear when she suffers a fatal stroke after being struck by a black woman she has insulted out of oblivious ignorance rather than malice. Similarly, ''The Comforts of Home'' is about an intellectual son with an Oedipus complex. Driven by the voice of his dead father, the son accidentally kills his sentimental mother in an attempt to murder a harlot. The other stories are ''A View of the Woods,'' ''Parker's Back,'' ''The Enduring Chill,'' ''Greenleaf,'' ''The Lame Shall Enter First,'' ''Revelation,'' and ''Judgment Day.''

Flannery O'Connor was working on Everything That Rises Must Converge at the time of her death. This collection is an exquisite legacy from a genius of the American short story, in which she scrutinizes territory familiar to her readers: race, faith, and morality. The stories encompass the comic and the tragic, the beautiful and the grotesque; each carries her highly individual stamp and could have been written by no one else.