The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on Thursday, August 14, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured novelist will be Michael Spake, author of Life Close to the Bone.

Open Mic will also include short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.

When: Thursday, August 14, 2025 at 6 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Price: Free · Duration: 1 hr 30 min
Where: Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.)

Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org

We want to build our community of writers and an appreciation for the art and talent of new, emerging, and long-time writers. Thank you for supporting this partnership!

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About our featured author:
Michael Spake is the author of Life Close to the Bone, his debut novel exploring the intricate layers of the past and the challenge of connecting them to the present. Inspired by his experience playing junior tennis in South Carolina and his career as a healthcare attorney, the novel delves into themes of memory, heritage, and personal transformation.

In addition to Life Close to the Bone, Michael has published short stories in Well Read Magazine’s Best of 2023 and 2024, capturing the culture and history of his hometown, Anderson, SC in Well Read Magazine’s Best of 2023 and 2024. Michael graduated from The Citadel in 1994 where he received the Granville T. Prior Award for his exploration of Christian Mysticism in the works of T.S. Eliot. Michael lives in Lakeland, Florida with his wife Mary Lucia Spake. Together they have four children: Henry, Mary Clare, Kathryn, and Vivian.

“In Life Close to the Bone, debut novelist Michael Spake skillfully explores the complexity of the past and the impossibility of ever escaping its impact on the present. As protagonist John Greenburn, a former tennis star turned pharmaceutical ethics attorney, struggles to uncover the potential danger of a new drug, he is drawn back into a past that threatens to undermine all he’s worked to achieve. Despite his reluctance to revisit old traumas, John’s only hope for redemption is to face headlong the long-buried demons he has yet to acknowledge. Ultimately, John’s journey in connecting the past to the present belongs to all of us.”–Cassandra King, author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy

This program and others like this would not be possible without your financial help for which, as always, Pat Conroy Literary Center gratefully thanks you.