Southern Literary Trail - Trail Towns, Writers & Houses

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Standing there knocking on Flannery O'Connor's door, I do not think of her illness, her magnificent work in spite of it; I think it all comes back to houses. To how people live.

Alice Walker
Beyond the Peacock from
IN SEARCH OF OUR MOTHERS' GARDENS
Photo Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Alice Walker - Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution

THE SOUTHERN LITERARY TRAIL: A HISTORY

Flannery O'Connor

Perhaps nothing unites Southerners more than their literature, unless it's their houses. The homes of classic fiction writers from the South of the 20th Century have been preserved for visitors to see how they lived. Landmarks that

inspired writers - courthouses, parks, churches, stores, banks - have been saved for contemporary readers to enjoy as settings for festivals and tours.

In April 2005, the Fitzgerald House in Montgomery - a home for Scott and Zelda - hosted the first meeting of Southern Literature enthusiasts, festival organizers and museum directors from Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi to begin work on the Southern Literary Trail, a project uniting homes of writers and literary landmarks into one tri-state pathway. The Trail's organizers dedicated three years to meetings in each state for making the difficult choices of the writers and the

Andalusia Farm, Milledgeville

destinations that would be right for this unique collaboration, a map of novel journeys stretching from Natchez to Savannah.

Click on a state below to learn about the destinations along that section of the Trail.

MISSISSIPPI

ALABAMA

GEORGIA