The Pat Conroy Literary Center's monthly Open Mic Night will be presented as a virtual event, live-streamed to our Facebook page, on Thursday, September 11, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured presenter is novelist Laura Leigh Morris, author of The Stone Catchers. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres, with host Melissa Whiteford St. Clair. Interested in reading as part of virtual Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org. About Our Featured [...]

Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will meet on Saturday, September 13, from 4:30 to 6:30PM at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). A relaxed and pressure-free space for readers of all types, this community gathering invites book lovers to enjoy their current reads in a welcoming and peaceful atmosphere. Silent Book Club Beaufort is co-sponsored by the Conroy Center and the student book club DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization). Unlike traditional book clubs, Silent [...]

In this two-hour writing workshop led by Tim Conroy, poets will explore approaches to revision, considering the content and sound of each word, line, and stanza of each poem. Do you need to lower expectations to generate your first draft? Do you allow the poem to discover its true beginning? Do the prepositional phrases stall the poem into a nosedive? Do your verbs disappoint your poems? Are the adverbs really necessary? Does the poem need its current chronology? Have you played Jenga with the poem [...]

"A library could show you everything, if you knew where to look."—Pat Conroy, My Reading Life The author of "The Prince of Tides," "The Great Santini" and "The Water Is Wide," Pat Conroy (1945–2016) is synonymous with the literature of the Lowcountry. Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt will discuss Conroy’s lifelong love of books and libraries—focusing on the roles public libraries, school libraries, and Pat's own personal library played in his writing life. Through video and audio clips, photographs, and published and [...]

SOLD OUT! Best-selling writer Pat Conroy (1945–2016) inspired a worldwide legion of devoted fans numbering in the millions, but none are more loyal to him and more committed to sustaining his literary legacy than the many writers he nurtured over the course of his fifty-year writing life. In sharing their stories, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on literary life in and well beyond the American South. Winner of 17 book awards, the anthology Our Prince [...]

How to Create Suspense: 5 Unforgettable Cliffhanger-Ending Techniques How do you keep the reader reading when the average adult's attention span is 8.25 seconds? Cliffhangers are a technique used by genre writers (who sometimes get a bad rap) to keep their readers reading. And isn’t that what we all aspire to, above everything? Because cliffhangers are sometimes associated with schlocky writing, that doesn't mean we should ignore their usefulness as a craft tool in all sorts of writing. We'll look at five chapter-ending cliffhanger techniques [...]

The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host our 9th annual Lowcountry Book Club Convention on Friday, September 26, at the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce in Beaufort, and Saturday, September 27, at the Culinary Institute of the South at the Technical College of the Lowcountry in Bluffton. Ideal for book club members, those interested in joining a book club, or anyone who simply loves the joy of reading, the Lowcountry Book Club Convention is presented in partnership with NeverMore Books and the student [...]

RSVP Required. Click the orange “Book a Program” button on our website to sign up! portroyalsoundfoundation.org We who live in the South Carolina Lowcountry are fortunate to be surrounded by its extraordinary nature – the marsh and its seasons, live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, 180 degrees of ever-changing sky, marsh and shore birds, crabs and dolphins and fish, the bright sunshine that lights this southern world, and of course, water…the ocean and rivers and their tides. In this workshop you’ll kayak on the Chechessee [...]

On the first Saturday of every month, you can join the student volunteers of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization for a Teddy Bear Picnic read-aloud at the Port Royal Farmers Market (1615 Ribaut Rd.). In collaboration with the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, high school and college student volunteers from the Beaufort-based chapters of DAYLO gather at the gazebo in Naval Heritage Park from 9:30 a.m. to noon to read diverse, inclusive picture books to children and their families, inspiring a love of stories, [...]

NeverMore Books and the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with visiting novelist Elaine Neil Orr, author of Dancing Woman, in conversation with fellow novelist Bren McClain, award-winning author of One Good Mama Bone. Free and open to public, this in-person event will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort) on Tuesday, October 7, from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., with books available for sale and signing through NeverMore Books. Seating is limited; please call the store to reserve your [...]

The Pat Conroy Literary Center's monthly Open Mic Night will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on Thursday, October 9, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured novelist will be Mary J. Nestor, author of Bus No. 7. Open Mic will also include short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres. Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org. About Our Featured Author Mary J. Nestor attended Marquette University in Wisconsin, [...]

“Here is all I ask of a book- give me everything. Everything, and don't leave out a single word.”—Pat Conroy, My Reading Life Update: Due to weather, this event will be held inside the Conroy Center. On Let Freedom Read Day, Saturday, October 11, the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the South Carolina chapter of Authors Against Book Bans, and the DAYLO student book club will host a reading at Witness Tree Park from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Honoring the final day of Banned Books [...]

Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will meet on Saturday, October 11, from 4:30 to 6:30PM at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). A relaxed and pressure-free space for readers of all types, this community gathering invites book lovers to enjoy their current reads in a welcoming and peaceful atmosphere. Silent Book Club Beaufort is co-sponsored by the Conroy Center and the student book club DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization). Unlike traditional book clubs, Silent [...]

The Lowcountry Writers’ Symposium is now an annual event—supporting P.E.O., an organization with a mission to motivate, educate, and celebrate women through scholarships, grants, loans, and stewardship. This year’s event will feature a conversation between poet Tim Conroy, travel writers Lynn and Cele Seldon, and biographer Nancy Thode, in conversation with Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt. Books by all of the writers will be available for sale and signing through NeverMore Books. This special event will be held on Wednesday, October 15, [...]

“My soul grazes like a lamb on the beauty of an indrawn tide.”—Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides An encore presentation! Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and poet Tim Conroy will discuss the nature writing of Pat Conroy, the bestselling author of The Water Is Wide, The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides, and more. From his obscure boyhood poetry to his beloved lyrical adult prose, Conroy wrote about the beauty of our natural world as both wondrous and perilous, using the [...]

“I’ve come home to the place I was always writing about. I’ve tried to make Beaufort, South Carolina my own.”—Pat Conroy, The Death of Santini Hosted by the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, this year’s Tenth Annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival will celebrate Pat Conroy's 80th birthday with a weekend of special events featuring author panels, book signings, workshops, readings, tours, exhibits, and gatherings. FEATURING BESTSELLING AUTHORS: Adriana Trigiani (The View from Lake Como), Patti Callahan Henry (The Story She Left Behind), National Book Award [...]

On Pat Conroy's 80th birthday, Sunday, October 26, at 3:00-5:00 p.m., join Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt at Village Social of Habersham for an engaging exploration of Pat Conroy’s lifelong relationship with poetry as a reader, as a self-described “failed poet,” and as a writer who found a creative outlet for his Great Love of poetry in his lyrical and descriptive prose. Through discussion of Pat’s teachers, mentors, and favorite poets, and through published and unpublished writings spanning the breadth of his [...]

On Monday, October 27, at 6:00-8:00 p.m., join Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt at Village Social of Habersham for an engaging exploration of Pat Conroy’s lifelong relationship with poetry as a reader, as a self-described “failed poet,” and as a writer who found a creative outlet for his Great Love of poetry in his lyrical and descriptive prose. Through discussion of Pat’s teachers, mentors, and favorite poets, and through published and unpublished writings spanning the breadth of his life, this presentation fosters [...]

The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with award-winning novelist Carla Damron, author of The Weird Girl, on Tuesday, October 28, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Damron will be in conversation with Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and DAYLO student leader E Achurch. Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025. ABOUT THE WEIRD GIRL “A riveting read that [...]

On the first Saturday of every month, you can join the student volunteers of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization for a Teddy Bear Picnic read-aloud at the Port Royal Farmers Market (1615 Ribaut Rd.). In collaboration with the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, high school and college student volunteers from the Beaufort-based chapters of DAYLO gather at the gazebo in Naval Heritage Park from 9:30 a.m. to noon to read diverse, inclusive picture books to children and their families, inspiring a love of stories, [...]