Flannery O'Connor to grace a U.S. postage stamp

Writer Flannery O'Connor will be honored with a Forever postage stamp, the U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday.

The stamp for 3-ounce packages will debut on June 5 and feature peacock feathers, the Los Angeles Times reports, a nod to the fact that O'Connor raised peacocks on her family's farm in Georgia. O'Connor was born in Savannah in 1925, and wrote Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away. The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor won a 1972 National Book Award for fiction, and was named the Best of the National Book Awards 1950-2008 by a public vote.

O'Connor, who died in 1964 at the age of 39, primarily wrote in the Southern Gothic style. According to her autobiographer, Brad Gooch, "O'Connor said that modern writers must often tell 'perverse' stories to 'shock' a morally blind world. 'It requires considerable courage,' she concluded, 'not to turn away from the story-teller.'"

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