 The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction was established by Charles East, then the editor-in-chief of the UGA Press, in 1983 to recognize gifted young writers.The Press is also a long-time publisher of creative writing through books published in conjunction with the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Association of Writers & Writing Programs|Associated Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction, and other literary competitions and series.The publishing program has been nationally recognized, and in recent years a number of books published by the Press have won major awards.