WHY EVANGELICALS CAN’T WRITE,

And How Flannery O’Connor Can Help us Learn Better

Donald T. Williams, PhD

A version of this essay appeared as “Writers Cramped: Three Things Evangelical Authors Can Learn from Flannery O’Connor,” Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity 20:7 (Sept., 2007): 15-18.

There is a certain irony in the fact that I, an Evangelical, am now offering to you words I wrote down about why Evangelicals can’t write.  Whether I am the exception that proves the rule, Posterity will have to judge (if the publishing industry ever offers it the opportunity).  At the very least, the ironic presence of this paper in your hand is an opportunity for exegesis.  It suggests that my title is not to be taken literally.  Evangelicals obviously do write, and publish, reams upon reams of prose.  What they have not tended to write is anything recognized as having literary value by the…