An Evening with novelist Dawn Tripp, author of Jackie
2025-04-15 17:00 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Tuesday, April 15, 2025 – 5:00-6:30 PM EDT
Price: Free
Registration: Seating is limited; please call to reserve your spot: 843-379-7025.
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St., Beaufort
Website: Facebook Event Page
In partnership with NeverMore Books, the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with novelist Dawn Tripp, author of Jackie, on Tuesday, April 15, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort).
Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and signing through NeverMore Books. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE BOOK AND AUTHOR
“An intimate, episodic narrative… Tripp’s wonderful, pointillistic skill with physical description and the deft, empathetic leaps she takes — jumping off from letters, contemporary memoirs and photographs snapped of the former First Lady — gives “Jackie” undeniable emotional punch. Tripp’s book stands out for its psychological acuity… notable for its admirable emphasis on the intelligence and grace of this valiant American woman.”—Washington Post
“Perfect for those who can’t get enough from one of the country’s most iconic couples.” —People
In this mesmerizing novel of the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, bestselling author Dawn Tripp has crafted an intimate story of love and power, family and tragedy, loss, and reinvention.
Jackie is the story of a woman who forged a legacy out of grief and shaped history even as she was living it—a deeply private person with a nuanced, formidable intellect. It is the story of a love affair, a complicated marriage, and the fracturing of identity that comes in the wake of unthinkable violence.
When Jackie meets the charismatic congressman Jack Kennedy in Georgetown, she is twenty-one and dreaming of France. She has won an internship at Vogue, and she thinks Kennedy is not her kind of adventure: “Too American. Too good-looking. Too boy.” Yet she is drawn to his mind, his humor, and his drive. The chemistry between them ignites. During the White House years, the love between two independent people deepens. Then, a motorcade in Dallas: “Three and a half seconds—that’s all it was—a slivered instant between the first shot, which missed the car, and the second, which did not. . . . A hypnotic burst of sunlight off her bracelet as she waved.”
This spellbinding novel is a window into the world of a woman who led many different lives: Jackie, Jacks, Jacqueline, Miss Bouvier, Mrs. Kennedy, Mrs. Onassis, Jackie O. It is at once a deeply human story and a captivating work of imagination that comes right up against what she was thinking and feeling, what she was afraid of, fought for, and believed in.
Dawn Tripp’s novel Georgia was a national bestseller, finalist for the New England Book Award, and winner of the Mary Lynn Kotz Award for Art in Literature. She is also the author of three previous novels: Game of Secrets, Moon Tide, and The Season of Open Water, which won the Massachusetts Book Award for Fiction.

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.
