Mary Ann Carr of Mathews was recently awarded first place for her short story “Aunt Etta’s Last Ride” in a short story contest honoring the irony of Flannery O’Connor’s writing. The Judith McGinn Short Story Award was one of 17 categories in the National League of American Pen Women’s 2024 National Biennial Letters Competition.

The story, set on the day that prohibition is lifted in Texas and told in a tone akin to that of O’Connor, recalls a visit by bossy Aunt Etta to the home of her nephew and his wife and child. Patiently listening to the old woman harangue against the evils of alcohol, family members endure her visit until, thanks to a turn of fate, they no longer have to.

The National League of American Pen Women, an organization of professional female artists, composers, and writers, was founded in 1897 to promote and support women in the arts. Marian Longfellow O’Donoghue, Henry Longfellow’s niece and a journalist in Washington, D.C., organized the first meeting when she...