Tributes

The Sessions family regrets to announce the passing of William A. Sessions of Atlanta, Professor Emeritus of English Literature at Georgia State University, scholar of English Renaissance Literature and of Southern Catholic author Flannery O'Connor, and a poet and playwright Dr. Sessions was born in Conway, South Carolina, in 1928, and graduated from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill in 1948. While there he developed a life-long interest in drama and literature and his achievements at that time included founding the Carolina Review of Literature. At Chapel Hill, he also joined the Southern Conference on Human Welfare, an early civil rights organization based in the South, to act against the racism he believed was poisoning the South - he would later assist in desegregating the DeKalb County public school system by serving as the PTA president of the first desegregated school. Following his graduation, he moved to New York where he earned his MA in English Literature from Columbia University. After this, he lived in 1950s Greenwich Village and was a member the Metropolitan Opera's Corps de Ballet. While there, he became a Catholic and decided to pursue an academic career as a vocation. He taught at West Georgia College and worked at the Archdiocese of Atlanta newspaper where he met and cultivated a friendships with Flannery O'Connor. During this period, he also developed friendships with other Southern writers such as Walker Percy. While there, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study philosophy at Freiburg University, Germany, with Martin Heidegger. While in Europe, he met his wife of 54 years, Jenny, in Athens, Greece. After completing his PhD studies at Columbia, he returned South and joined the English faculty of Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA, in 1966 where he taught English literature for over 30 years and published several books including The Liberating Form, Francis Bacon Revisited, Spencer's Georgics, and his most important academic work on the development of the poetic sonnet by Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey and Howard's influence on William Shakespeare. He also wrote the introduction to the Prayer Journal of Flannery O'Connor - a work that he discovered while sifting through the O'Connor archives while researching his final project. He had finished a larger biographical work on Flannery O'Connor that will be published posthumously. He was a noted Atlanta playwright and won the South Eastern Theater Conference's Best New Playwright award (1988) his play entitled A Shattering of Glass about the violence of racism. He also won Nikos Kazantzakis Medal (Greece) for literature for his work on Edmund Spenser. He is survived by his sons Andrew and Eric, and his grandson Nicholas who brought him much joy and happiness. He will buried in Conway, SC, with his wife of blessed memory. A memorial service will be held in Atlanta, GA, at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, GA. () Please sign an online guestbook at www.goldfinchfuneralhome.com

Tributes

William A. Sessions

August 4, 1928 - August 12, 2016