Let Freedom Read Day at Witness Tree Park
2025-10-11 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
“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 Week, this special event will feature brief readings by local writers and students from frequently challenged and banned books as well as works about pro-literacy advocacy, and original works responding to censorship and erasures. Scheduled to appear: novelist Rebecca Dwight Bruff, poet Tim Conroy, essayist Jonathan Haupt, poet Miho Kinnas, memoirist Carol Lucas, poet Susan Madison, poet Jacquelyn Markham, novelist Valerie Sayers, and DAYLO.
Witness Tree Park is located across King Street from the Conroy Center’s location at 601 Bladen Street in Beaufort. The Center and DAYLO will also host the monthly Silent Book Club Beaufort meet-up that same afternoon, afterwards from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Silent Book Club Beaufort
2025-10-11 16:30 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
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 Book Club Beaufort has no assigned reading, no deadlines, and no discussions required. Whether you prefer ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, textbooks, or paperbacks, readers are invited to bring their book of choice, settle in, and savor the joy of uninterrupted reading among like-minded individuals.
Silent Book Club Beaufort also features a book swap: Leave a book, take a book.
The casual meetups provide an excellent opportunity to discover new book recommendations, make friends, and reconnect with the love of reading. Whether you’re a lifelong bookworm or just getting back into reading, everyone is welcome.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is free to attend and proudly supports local businesses and organizations. Additional dates and locations will be announced via the SBCB Instagram page at www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort.

Lowcountry Writers' Symposium: Fundraiser Supporting P.E.O.
2025-10-15 16:30 - 18:30 | 2 Habersham Park, Beaufort, SC 29906-9130, United States
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, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Park House at Habersham (2 Habersham Park, Beaufort). Advance registration required: $50/person, includes complimentary wine and charcuterie. For tickets, please contact P.E.O. directly at ChapterAMpeoSC@gmail.com.
About the Authors
Tim Conroy, the author of the collections Theologies of Terrain and No True Route, is a former special educator. His poems have been included in numerous journals, compilations, and anthologies. His poems often explore themes of family and nature, incorporating philosophical elements. In 2022, he received the Broad River Prize for prose from Fall Lines, Volume IX. A founding board member of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, established in his brother’s honor, Tim recently moved with his wife Terrye to the beautiful town of Beaufort, South Carolina.
Travel journalists Lynn and Cele Seldon have spent more than 30 years capturing the world through words and photography for hundreds of magazine, newspaper, and online features, specializing in culinary, cruise, and adventure travel. They have co-authored several guidebooks, including 100 Things to Do in Charleson Before You Die, 100 Things to Do in Savannah Before You Die, and their new book, 100 Things to Do in the South Carolina Lowcountry Before You Die. Lynn is also a published novelist and was mentored by Pat Conroy.
Nancy Thode is the author of Ahead of Her Time, a biography honoring her mother Ann Head’s enduring literacy legacy as author and as a mentor to Pat Conroy. A Beaufort native and longtime psychotherapist, Nancy is passionate about community theater and fellowship, dividing her time between Connecticut and Fripp Island. Ahead of Her Time is her debut book.
About the Interviewer
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. Under Jonathan’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as an American Library Association Literary Landmark, an affiliate of the American Writers Museum, and winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership.

Pat Conroy as Nature Writer -- Presented by Jonathan Haupt & Tim Conroy
2025-10-21 17:30 - 19:00 | Port Royal Sound Foundation, 310 Okatie Hwy, Okatie, SC, 29909, US
“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 lowcountry not only as a setting but as the central character of his many books. This presentation will highlight representative examples of Conroy’s nature writing from across the span of his writing life, drawing attention to how Conroy’s relationship with nature is also ultimately a relationship with his deeply felt spiritual and humanistic faith.
The presenters will be assisted by students from DAYLO (the Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization), who will be reading from Pat Conroy’s work and sharing some original creative pieces in response.
This event will be held at the Port Royal Sound Foundation Maritime Center (310 Okatie Hwy) on Tuesday, October 21, at 5:30 p.m. $10/person. To register, visit portroyalsoundfoundation.org and click the orange “Book A Program” button.
About Our Presenters
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. Under Jonathan’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as an American Library Association Literary Landmark, an affiliate of the American Writers Museum, and winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership.
Tim Conroy, the author of the collections Theologies of Terrain and No True Route, is a poet and retired educator. His work has appeared in Fall Lines, Blue Mountain Review, Jasper Magazine, Marked by the Water, Sheltered, Twelve Mile Review, Poetry on the Comet, The Post and Courier, Ukweli: Searching for Healing Truth, DWG Anthology, and Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy. In 2022, he received the Broad River Prize for prose from Fall Lines, Volume IX. A founding board member of the Pat Conroy Literary Center established in his brother’s honor.

Tenth Annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival
2025-10-23 12:00 - 2025-10-26 16:00 | Beaufort, South Carolina, Beaufort, SC, US
“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 Winner Jason Mott (People Like Us), Chris Pavone (The Doorman), Chris Whitaker (All the Colors of the Dark), John Hart (The Unwilling) and more
CELEBRATE PAT CONROY AT 80 with Conroy’s family, friends, and fellow lowcountry authors: Cassandra King, Tim Conroy, Valerie Sayers, John Warley, Cliff Graubart, Bernie Schein, Stephanie Austin Edwards, Ellen Malphrus, and Lynn & Cele Seldon — plus special festival guest, Academy Award-nominated actor Michael O’Keefe (scheduled to appear)
The Pat Conroy Literary Festival is made possible by the generous support and collaboration of the Robert S. Handler Charitable Trust; the South Carolina Arts Commission; Apollon Wealth Management; Publix Super Markets Charities; Bank of America Private Bank; Oyster Cay Collection; Rebecca Dwight Bruff, Author; Gilbert Law Firm; Bay Street Jewelers; Lynn & Wheeler, CPAs, PA; Carolina Air, Inc.; Lowcountry Real Estate; Eugene A. Rugala & Associates; Palmetto State Bank; Alice and Gene Howard; Alphagraphics; Lowcountry Weekly; the Rhett Gallery; the Beaufort Bookstore; and NeverMore Books.
~ FESTIVAL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS ~
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23
Noon to 4:00 p.m. TOURS: Pat Conroy Literary Center open to the public for guided tours. Free. (601 Bladen St., Beaufort)
5:30-8:00 p.m. Fundraiser event with special guest Academy Award-nominated actor Michael O’Keefe at Tidalholm, benefiting the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center — with catering by Debbi Covington and appearances by festival authors and friends. $500+/person https://conroyfest2025previewparty.eventbrite.com
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24
10:00 to 11:30 a.m. WORKSHOP: Firing the Clay poetry workshop with Tim Conroy, Susan Madison, and special guest Michael O’Keefe. $60/person (Conroy Center, 601 Bladen St., Beaufort) Register: https://firingtheclayworkshop2.eventbrite.com
11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. TOUR & TASTINGS: Taste of the Lowcountry Crawl walking tour led by Lynn and Cele Seldon. $75/person (Meet at McIntosh Book Shoppe, Beaufort) Register: https://tasteofthelowcountrycrawl.eventbrite.com
Noon to 4:00 p.m. TOURS: Pat Conroy Literary Center open to the public for guided tours. Free. (601 Bladen St., Beaufort)
12:30 to 2:00 p.m. WORKSHOP: Thriller Writers Playbook led by John Hart with Sean A. Scapellato. $75/person (Conroy Center, 601 Bladen St., Beaufort) Register: https://thethrillerwritersplaybook.eventbrite.com
2:00 to 3:00 p.m. POETRY IN THE PARK: Tim Conroy, Susan Madison, Jacquelyn Markham, Jason Mott, Brea Parker, and more. Free. (Witness Tree Park, across King Street from the Conroy Center, 601 Bladen St.) Followed by a book signing. Register: https://patconroyliteraryfestival2025.eventbrite.com
5:00 to 6:30 p.m. AUTHOR EVENT: National Book Award winner Jason Mott (People Like Us) in conversation with DAYLO on the Air podcast hosts Emily Alaia and Hernando Rizo, with Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt. $10/person. (Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce, 711 Bladen St., Beaufort) Followed by a book signing. Register: https://patconroyliteraryfestival2025.eventbrite.com
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25
10:00 to 11:00 a.m. AUTHOR EVENT: Pat Conroy at 80 panel, moderated by USC Beaufort Writer in Residence Ellen Malphrus, in conversation with authors Stephanie Austin Edwards, Cliff Graubart, Valerie Sayers, Bernie Schein, and John Warley. $25/person. (USC Beaufort Center for the Arts, 805 Carteret St., Beaufort) Followed by a book signing. Register: https://patconroyliteraryfestival2025.eventbrite.com
11:30 to 12:30 p.m. AUTHOR EVENT: Writing for the Thrill of It All panel, moderated by Conroy Center board chair Sean A. Scapellato, in conversation with bestselling writers John Hart (The Unwilling), Chris Whitaker (All the Colors of the Dark), and Chris Pavone (The Doorman). $25/person. (USC Beaufort Center for the Arts, 805 Carteret St., Beaufort) Followed by a book signing. Register: https://patconroyliteraryfestival2025.eventbrite.com
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. FOOD TRUCK: Grub by Jay’s. (USC Beaufort Center for the Arts, 805 Carteret St., Beaufort)
Noon to 4:00 p.m. TOURS: Pat Conroy Literary Center open to the public for guided tours. Free. (601 Bladen St., Beaufort)
12:30 to 2:00 p.m. WORKSHOP: Walking and Writing, led by Valerie Sayers $50/person (Conroy Center, 601 Bladen St., Beaufort) Register: https://walkingandwriting.eventbrite.com
2:00 to 3:00 p.m. AUTHOR EVENT: Lowcountry Literary Ladies panel with bestselling authors Patti Callahan Henry (The Story She Left Behind) and Conroy Center honorary chair Cassandra King (Tell Me a Story), moderated by Lowcountry Weekly editor Margaret Evans. $25/person (USC Beaufort Center for the Arts, 805 Carteret St., Beaufort) Followed by a book signing. Register: https://patconroyliteraryfestival2025.eventbrite.com
3:30 to 4:30 p.m. PUBLISHING EVENT: Join New York Times bestselling author Chris Pavone (The Doorman) in conversation with literary agent Marly Rusoff and publishing executive Sara Nelson, (senior VP and executive editor of Harper Collins) as they engage in a wide-ranging discussion of the art, the craft, and the business of writing and publishing today. $25/person. (USC Beaufort Center for the Arts, 805 Carteret St., Beaufort) Followed by a book signing. Register: https://patconroyliteraryfestival2025.eventbrite.com
5:00 to 7:00 p.m. RECEPTION: Join us at the Pat Conroy Literary Center after hours to meet and mingle with festival authors and friends. Wine and refreshments. $40/person. (601 Bladen St., Beaufort) Register: https://patconroyliteraryfestival2025.eventbrite.com
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26
Noon to 2:00 p.m. AUTHOR BRUNCH featuring Adriana Trigiani and the Beaufort Mass Choir. Join us for a gospel brunch featuring a performance by the Beaufort Mass Choir and a discussion with bestselling author Adriana Trigiani (The View from Lake Como), with catering by Her Table — and an 80th birthday cake for Pat Conroy. Registration fee also includes a copy of The View from Lake Como and a donation in support of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center’s annual Camp Conroy and annual Storybuilders program at Lady’s Island Elementary School. $125/person. (Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce, 711 Bladen St., Beaufort) Followed by a book signing. Register: https://patconroyliteraryfestival2025.eventbrite.com
Noon to 4:00 p.m. TOURS: Pat Conroy Literary Center open to the public for guided tours. Free. (601 Bladen St., Beaufort)
~ FRIDAY & SATURDAY FESTIVAL PASS: $125 (a $25 savings), includes all author presentation events on Friday (Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce) & Saturday (USC Beaufort Center for the Arts) + Saturday evening reception (Pat Conroy Literary Center). Does not include any Thursday or Sunday events, any writers workshops, or the Taste of the Lowcountry Crawl, all of which can be reserved separately. Register: https://patconroyliteraryfestival2025.eventbrite.com
~STUDENTS: All author events at the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce on Friday, 10/24, at the USC Beaufort Center for the Arts on Saturday, 10/25, are free to high school and college students with student IDs.
www.patconroyliterarycenter.org

Pat Conroy's Great Love of Poetry
2025-10-26 15:00 - 17:00 | 21A-1 Market Street. Beaufort, SC 29906
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 life, this presentation fosters a new appreciation for Conroy’s admiration of poetry, his dedication to the writing craft, and the myriad ways in which poetry shines through his storied prose.
– – –
By popular demand, this program is now being offered twice: October 26 AND 27.
– – –
The $25 registration fee includes the presentation, refreshments, and a donation in support of the year-round educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. Register in advance for this event and others in this series at
https://www.villagesocialhabersham.net/upcoming-events
About Our Presenter:
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. He has been honored with the Doug Marlette Literacy Leadership Award, and the South Carolina Association of School Librarians President’s Award. Under Jonathan’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as an American Library Association Literary Landmark, an affiliate of the American Writers Museum, and winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership. With Claire Bennett, Jonathan also serves as co-mentor to the student leaders of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization, who in turn have been recognized with a national commendation from the American Association of School Librarians, the South Carolina Education Association’s Richard W. Riley Award for Human and Civil Rights, and an honorable mention for the South Carolina Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award.

Pat Conroy's Great Love of Poetry
2025-10-27 18:00 - 20:00 | 21A-1 Market Street. Beaufort, SC 29906
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 a new appreciation for Conroy’s admiration of poetry, his dedication to the writing craft, and the myriad ways in which poetry shines through his storied prose.
– – –
By popular demand, this program is now being offered twice: October 26 AND 27.
– – –
The $25 registration fee includes the presentation, refreshments, and a donation in support of the year-round educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. Register in advance for this event and others in this series at
https://www.villagesocialhabersham.net/upcoming-events
About Our Presenter:
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. He has been honored with the Doug Marlette Literacy Leadership Award, and the South Carolina Association of School Librarians President’s Award. Under Jonathan’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as an American Library Association Literary Landmark, an affiliate of the American Writers Museum, and winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership. With Claire Bennett, Jonathan also serves as co-mentor to the student leaders of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization, who in turn have been recognized with a national commendation from the American Association of School Librarians, the South Carolina Education Association’s Richard W. Riley Award for Human and Civil Rights, and an honorable mention for the South Carolina Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award.

An Evening with Novelist Carla Damron, Author of The Weird Girl
2025-10-28 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center
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 will fill you with outrage and hope.”—Catherine Matthews, author of Releasing the Reins
Award-winning social worker turned award-winning novelist Carla Damron writes crime fiction to make a difference—humanistic cautionary tales populated by believably engaging characters confronting real-world dilemmas.
The Weird Girl heralds the return of Georgia Thayer, the social worker protagonist of Damron’s 2022 novel The Orchid Tattoo, winner of the PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence. Georgia has spent her career fighting for the vulnerable, but nothing could prepare her for being a foster mom to Tessa—a teenager haunted by her traumatic past. Determined to give her a normal life, Georgia’s hopes are crushed when a neighborhood party spirals into disaster, leaving one girl fighting for her life and another who vanishes without a trace.
As Georgia undertakes a frantic search for the missing girl, she uncovers a dangerous fentanyl trade that snakes from hospital emergency rooms to high school hallways to the darkest corners of her city. She is up against a charismatic candidate for attorney general and a ruthless drug kingpin, two powerful men willing to use lethal means to bury their secrets.
With her chosen family threatened, her faith in herself shaken, and an unexpected ally emerging from the shadow, Georgia’s efforts to save one girl puts her own in danger. The clock is ticking. The truth is deadly. And every second lost could mean another life destroyed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carla Damron is a fiction writer and social worker. Her first Georgia Thayer novel, The Orchid Tattoo, won a 2023 PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence. Damron is also the author of The Stone Necklace, which winner of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association’s Star Award for best novel, and of the Caleb Knowles mystery novels: Keeping Silent, Spider Blue, and Death in Zooville. Her novels explore social issues like addiction, homelessness, mental illness, and human trafficking.Her short stories have appeared in Fall Lines, Six Minute Magazine, Melusine, In Posse Review, and other journals. In 2014, Damron was recognized as the South Carolina Social Worker of the Year, and in 2017, she was honored with the Pioneer Award by the University of South Carolina College of Social Work for her advocacy on the state and national levels. She holds a Master in Social Work (USC) and an MFA in creative writing from Queens University. She lives and writes in Columbia, South Carolina.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWERS
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Charleston Post and Courier and a mentor to the student leaders of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization.
E Achurch is junior at the Complete Student, where she is founding president of her school’s chapter of DAYLO: The Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization. She is a counselor for the Conroy Center’s Camp Conroy summer writing and art program and a past participant in the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities summer program.

Monthly Teddy Bear Picnic Read-Aloud with DAYLO
2025-11-01 09:30 - 12:00, 2025-12-06 09:30 - 12:00, 2026-01-03 09:30 - 12:00, 2026-02-07 09:30 - 12:00 | Port Royal Farmers Market
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, books, reading, and peer-to-peer mentoring.
Cozy blankets, a plethora of stuffed animals, and some snacks help the students make a welcoming environment in this free community literacy program. Several times a year, National Park Service Ranger Katherine Freeman also joins in for Read with a Ranger, a literacy and art project thematically connected to the missions of DAYLO, the Conroy Center, and the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park.
DAYLO is a student-led diversity themed book club and community service group founded at Beaufort High School and now with chapters across South Carolina. Learn more at: https://linktr.ee/DAYLOBFT.
The Pat Conroy Literary Center is a nonprofit interpretive and learning center advancing the legacy of beloved, bestselling writer, educator, and mentor Pat Conroy (1945-2016), author of The Water Is Wide, The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides, and more. Learn more at: www.patconroyliterarycenter.org.

An Evening with Andrew K. Clark, Author of Where Dark Things Rise, in Conversation w/ Dana Ridenour
2025-11-06 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with novelist Andrew K. Clark, author of Where Dark Things Rise, in conversation with Dana Ridenour, author of the Lexie Montgomery Series, on Thursday, November 6, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited: please reserve in advance to attend this free author event: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE NOVEL
Sixteen-year-old Mina is frustrated by Daddy’s drinking, her mom’s fanatical religious beliefs, and growing up poor in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Most of her teachers assume she won’t amount to much despite her 4.0 GPA, and the country club guys think she’s easy prey. But they don’t know Mina’s dark secret: She can control a magical force of supernatural creatures known as the Shadow Faces. Mina doesn’t want powers. All she wants to do is escape the trailer park for a leafy college campus far away. But when her crush, Gabe, is stalked by a shapeshifting preacher/wolf, Mina learns to use her powers to protect him. Mina soon discovers the same preacher is trafficking teens for a mystical brothel and has kidnapped her best friend, Erin, after a failed attempt at conversion therapy. Can Mina use the Shadow Faces to save Erin and the other kids without losing her chance at a normal life?
“Magical realism and small-town horror intertwine…[and] hums with a satisfying mix of humanity and creepiness. Where Dark Things Rise is ultimately about acceptance, family (both blood and found), and the power of choice. Fans who like some heart in their horror will find plenty of it beating here.”–Publisher’s Weekly
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew K. Clark is a writer from Alexander, North Carolina, outside of Asheville where he now resides. His debut novel, Where Dark Things Grow, was published in 2024. His first full-length collection of poetry, Jesus in the Trailer, was short-listed for the Able Muse Book Award. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in UCLA’s Out of Anonymity, Coffin Bell Journal, The Journal of American Poetry, Appalachian Review, Rappahannock Review, fall/lines, The Wrath Bearing Tree and many others. Clark earned his a B.A. in English and M.B.A. from Georgia Southern University, and an M.F.A. from Converse College.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Dana Ridenour is the award-winning author of the Lexie Montgomery FBI Series: Behind the Mask, Beyond the Cabin, and Below the Radar. Ridenour is a retired FBI special agent who spent most of her career as an undercover operative. She now lives and writes in the South Carolina lowcountry.

Children's Book Fair - Fall Edition
2025-11-09 11:00 - 15:00 | The Storybook Shoppe, Tanger 2 - A190 - 1414 Fording Island Rd, Bluffton, SC, 29910, US
Celebrate Children’s Book Week with a fall edition of our Children’s Book Fair! Free and open to the public, this event is hosted by the Storybook Shoppe in collaboration with Tanger, the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, and the DAYLO student book club.
Featured author Lynn Smith is a former anchor for NBC News, MSNBC, and CNN Headline News. She now has a media and communications consulting company, hosts the award winning parenting podcast StrolIlerCoaster by Munchkin, and writes for Parents.com, Women’s Health magazine, and cnn.com.She lives with her husband and two sons in Georgetown, South Carolina. Just Keep Going is her first children’s book, which she will be reading and signing at noon and 1:30 p.m.
Plus, Dog Man, star of Dav Pilkey’s popular series, will make special appearances at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
DAYLO student volunteers will be hosting read-alouds and bookmark art projects throughout the day, assisted by the Color Outside the Lines youth group.
Other participating authors and artists include:
Mary T. Jocobs ~ Big Daddy Series
Ann Lilly ~ Scoot’s New Home, Scoot’s Savannah Rescue
Mary Beth McMCarthy ~ Hilton’s Island
Nancy Merrill ~ Elf Dust
Ryan Milling ~ Rainy Day Kids, Bob’s Truck
Susan Montanari ~ Halloween Tree, My Dog Is a Chicken
Katherine Robinson ~ Crabs on Calhoun
Doug Snelson ~ Everybody Deserves a Hug, Who’s Got the Face?
Helen Wilbur ~ Tuba Christmas, F Is for Feather, M Is for Meow
Lucky Rabbit Publishing ~ Turner B Goes to NYC, The Little Lion with the Little Roar, Mavis the Purple Cow
Books by participating authors will be available for sale through Storybook Shoppe.

Nature Writing: Kayak on the Chechessee and Write about It, with Katherine Tandy Brown
2025-11-10 12:00 - 15:00 | 310 Okatie Hwy, Okatie, SC, United States, South Carolina 29909
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 River with guides from the Maritime Center for an afternoon immersion in Carolina’s nature at its finest.
Then – like Henry David Thoreau on Walden Pond – you’ll take pen to paper and write about any part of the adventure you choose. Anyone at any level of writing, from rank beginner to pretty darn good, can write using a method called writing practice, developed by writing workshop guru Natalie Goldberg and presented in her classic book, Writing Down the Bones. You’ll learn how to get rid of the self-critic so that your thoughts flow freely onto the page. And you’ll leave with a chunk of nature writing and a memory of time well spent.
Dress for a journey on the water, and be sure to bring sunscreen, a water bottle, notebook or journal, and several pens.
Katherine Tandy Brown has explored the world as a freelance travel writer for 20-plus years. She has taught memoir writing, travel writing, writing practice, et al, in the USCB’s OLLI Continuing Ed program, Tech College of the Lowcountry, Pat Conroy Literary Center, Palm Key and Thera Vista Retreat Centers, her downtown Beaufort cottage…and nature writing on a sandbar in the Beaufort River, her favorite classroom so far!

Virtual Open Mic Night -- Featuring Devreaux Baker, Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry Winner
2025-11-13 18:00 - 19:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
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, November 13, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured presenter is poet Devreaux Baker, winner of the 2025 Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry. 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 Author:
Devreaux Baker is a poet who lives on the Mendocino Coast in Northern California. Her awards include the 2025 Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry; 2024 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize, from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; 2022 Fischer International Poetry Prize; 2019 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize; 2017 Joe Gouveia Outermost National Poetry Prize; the 2014 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize; the 2012 Hawaii Council on Humanities International Poetry Prize; the 2011 PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Poetry Award; and the 2010 Women’s Global Leadership Poetry Prize. She is a Fellow at the Macdowell Colony, the Hawthornden Castle, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Her published books of poetry include Hungry Ghosts, out of the bones of earth, Red Willow People, Beyond the Circumstance of Sight, and LIGHT AT THE EDGE. She is the first Poet Laureate of Mendocino County.
“Devreaux Baker’s contemplation of the blues and its artists is beautifully achieved in her poem ‘Blue Requiem,’…Her readers are reminded of history and the many voices in its chorus.”–Susan Kinsolving, judge, Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry
“A deep wisdom runs throughout Devreaux Baker’s work–a reminder that we are not merely connected to nature, but that we are part of nature itself.”–Katherine Hastings, USA Today bestselling author

Book Launch for Donna Keel Armer, Author of One Note Murders
2025-11-15 17:00 - 19:00 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center is honored to host the book launch event for Donna Keel Armer’s One Note Murders ~ Book #3 in the Cat Gabbiano Mystery Series. Join us on Saturday, November 15, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at 601 Bladen St., in downtown Beaufort. Free and open to the public; no advance registration required. Books will be available for sale and signing. Refreshments will be provided. The author will be in conversation with Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. Books will be available for sale and signing before and after the brief program.
ABOUT THE BOOK
“One Note Murders, Donna Keel Armer’s latest in the highly addictive Cat Gabbiano series, delivers a sumptuous blend of mystery, music, and memory. Armer spins a story that moves with operatic grace—from the sun-drenched hills of Tuscany to the dark chambers of the human heart—familiar territory Armer readers will recognize and relish. Her heroine, Cat Gabbiano, brave, flawed, and unforgettable, moves through a landscape as stunning as it is perilous, where loyalty and fear share the same breath. The twists are breathtaking, the writing luminous, and the final note—like Bocelli’s own—lingers in the imagination of the reader long after the curtain falls.”—Karen Warner Schueler, author of The Sudden Caregiver: A Roadmap to Resilient Caregiving.
“In the third installment of Donna Keel Armer’s Cat Gabbiano Mystery Series, Cat returns to Italy, hoping for a chance to honor her murdered best friend—but trouble finds her first. Familiar faces resurface, new ones emerge with hidden motives, and Cat is pulled deeper into a mystery where every clue plays a part in a deadly symphony. Suspenseful and evocative, One Note Murders is Armer’s most gripping adventure yet.”—Dana Ridenour, author of the award-winning Lexie Montgomery Undercover FBI Series
In Book #3 of the Cat Gabbiano Mystery Series, One Note Murders, Cat leaves the South Carolina Lowcountry for her beloved Italy—all because of a promise she made to her best friend Stella. What should have been the trip of a lifetime to a Bocelli concert becomes a funeral dirge when Cat discovers that danger still lurks in every shadow.
As she crosses the Atlantic, Cat is unaware of the obstacles awaiting her. Will her fragile relationship with Commissario Lorenzo be rekindled—or shattered forever? Is Riccardo still locked away, or has he found a way back into her life? Can she unravel the mystery of Maria and Gino’s kidnapped grandson before it’s too late—or will she lose her own life trying?
From the elegance of a posh Tuscan resort to the soaring notes of an unforgettable concert, Cat follows a twisting trail that leads only one way: toward blood, betrayal, and the chilling mark of a single, deadly musical note.
Once again, Donna Keel Armer delivers a labyrinth of mystery, murder, and intrigue that will keep readers turning the page long after the music fades.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Donna Keel Armer resides in the beautiful Lowcountry of Beaufort, South Carolina, with her husband of forty-two years. Ray sees to it that she is fed and clothed, as she sometimes forgets the necessities when she’s writing. She graduated with honors from Mississippi University for Women with a double major in psychology and social sciences and graduate studies in theology. Her first job during high school was a gofer for a furniture company and her last position was president of the hospitality business owned by Donna and Ray. While she volunteers at numerous organizations, she is most often found at The Pat Conroy Literary Center where she will welcome you to Beaufort and give you the grand tour. Her writing inspiration comes from her world travels, her personal experiences in Italy and from living in the Lowcountry. She has written numerous magazine articles on travel and food and is the author of Solo in Salento: A Memoir and the Italian translation Un’Americana in Salento and celebrated her Italian book launch in Otranto, Italy in 2022. Her essays have appeared in the following anthologies: London – Smokes, Blokes and Jokes of Foggy Town; Paris – Love, Loss and Longing in the City of Lights; and Rome – Centuries of Stories of the Eternal City.
In October of 2023 her first mystery novel in the Cat Gabbiano Mystery Series debuted. Book #1 The Red Starfish was released in October 2023 followed by Book #2 Moringa~Tree of Life released June 2024. Book #3 in the series – One Note Murders – will be released on November 15, 2025. And there will be a Book #4 ~ The Voyage Never Ends. Donna and Ray split their time between the South Carolina Lowcountry and Otranto, Italy.

Our Prince of Scribes: Featuring Margaret Shinn Evans, Bren McClain, and Sean A. Scapellato
2025-11-17 18:00 - 20:00 | 21A-1 Market Street. Beaufort, SC 29906
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 of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy is a collection of remembrances from 67 writers befriended, beloved, taught, mentored, and championed by Conroy—and no two stories are the same. Neither are any two panel discussions among the contributors.
Join us at Village Social of Habersham on Monday, November 17, 6:00-8:00 p.m., for a lively conversation, moderated by Our Prince of Scribes co-editor and Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and featuring a trio of contributing writers: Lowcountry Weekly columnist and publisher and Conroy’s past research assistant Margaret Shinn Evans; Willie Morris Award-winning author of One Good Mama Bone, Bren McClain; and writer, former educator, and Pat Conroy Literary Center board chair Sean A. Scapellato.
The $25 registration fee includes the presentation, refreshments, and a donation in support of the year-round educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. Register in advance for this event and others in this series at
https://www.villagesocialhabersham.net/upcoming-events

Silent Book Club Beaufort
2025-11-22 16:30 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will meet on Saturday, November 22, 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 Book Club Beaufort has no assigned reading, no deadlines, and no discussions required. Whether you prefer ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, textbooks, or paperbacks, readers are invited to bring their book of choice, settle in, and savor the joy of uninterrupted reading among like-minded individuals.
Silent Book Club Beaufort also features a book swap: Leave a book, take a book.
The casual meetups provide an excellent opportunity to discover new book recommendations, make friends, and reconnect with the love of reading. Whether you’re a lifelong bookworm or just getting back into reading, everyone is welcome.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is free to attend and proudly supports local businesses and organizations. Additional dates and locations will be announced via the SBCB Instagram page at www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort.

Pat Conroy's The Water Is Wide ... for the Holidays
2025-12-04 18:00 - 19:30 | Charleston County Public Library (Main Library)
“Life was good, but it was hard; we would prepare to meet it head on, but we would enjoy the preparation.”―Pat Conroy, The Water Is Wide
First published in 1972 and twice adapted for film, Pat Conroy’s The Water Is Wide recounts his inspiring year of teaching on remote Daufuskie Island in Beaufort County. Join Jonathan Haupt, the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, to revisit Conroy’s storied year in the context of the events that shaped his arrival and departure from the island, and the empowering impact on his most famous student. This program will also highlight excerpts about Conroy’s time on Daufuskie from other books—including a special Christmas-themed story. While (re)reading The Water Is Wide in advance is not required, it is highly recommended.
About Our Presenter
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. He has been honored with the Doug Marlette Literacy Leadership Award, and the South Carolina Association of School Librarians President’s Award. Under Jonathan’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as an American Library Association Literary Landmark, an affiliate of the American Writers Museum, and winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership.

Open Mic Night--Featuring Poet Emily Rosko, Author of Weather Inventions
2025-12-11 18:00 - 19:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on Thursday, December 11, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured poet will be Emily Rosko, author of Weather Inventions. 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
Emily Rosko’s books include: Weather Inventions; Prop Rockery, winner of the 2011 Akron Poetry Prize; and Raw Goods Inventory, winner of the 2005 Iowa Poetry Prize. She is the editor of A Broken Thing: Poets on the Line and is poetry editor for swamp pink. She is a past recipient of the Stegner and Ruth Lilly fellowships. New poems have appeared recently in Bennington Review, Epoch, Laurel Review, New American Writing, Seneca Review, South Carolina Review, and Third Coast. She is professor of English at the College of Charleston.
“In Emily Rosko’s third poetry collection, Weather Inventions, she demonstrates how “beauty is thought into being.” These poems are exquisitely crafted, honing the act of attention to a keen edge. Science, the pastoral tradition, meteorology, and the personal all interact and ultimately ask us to contend with the uncertainty of the world around us, its “unsolved riddle.” Weather Inventions promises that “right at the edge of space’s midnight, we lose ourselves past seeing.” Rosko’s piercing gaze, her faith in this struggling life, is what moors us. This a book I plan to read and re-read, as the poems yield more with each new encounter.”—Rebecca Dunham, author of Cold Pastoral

Book Signing with Susan Stone and Ifetayo J. White
2025-12-13 14:00 - 16:00 | Pat Conroy Literary Center
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an afternoon book signing with two local writers, Susan Stone (The Magical Nature of Humans) and Ifetayo J. White (Reiki Heart and Soul) on Saturday, December 13, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Conroy Center, 601 Bladen St. Free and open to the public, the afternoon will include a brief discussion between the authors, with books available for sale and signing. No advance registration required; drop-in guests welcome.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Susan Stone is a Reiki 3/ Master, Level 3 Reconnection practitioner, and Certified Crystal Healer. After being struck by lightning, she developed the ability to connect and communicate with people beyond the veil of this world. In 2008 she was adopted by the Cherokee Nation and named Great Bear Medicine Woman and is now recognized as a Clan Grandmother. In 2009 she was initiated as a shaman and ordained as a non-denominational minister. During the course of her practice, she has met hundreds of people awakening to their potential, all of whom had amazing stories to share. She compiled their stories and combined them with some of her own in The Magical Nature of Humans. Currently, Susan operates a school of arts in Port Royal, leading others to discover the artist, poet, musician and mystic that exists within us all.
Ifetayo J. White, an influential figure in the realm of Reiki and wellness, hails from Washington, DC, but now calls St. Helena Island her home. She established the Lowcountry School of Reiki and CHOICES Birthing and Wellness Support, contributing significantly to healing practices in the area since 2000. A Howard University graduate, she pursued diverse paths before dedicating herself to healing modalities such as reflexology, Jin Shin Do Acupressure, and massage therapy. As a Usui Reiki Master Teacher since 1999, Ifetayo continues to share her expertise through sessions, workshops, and her own Reiki certification program. Her heart is also filled with love for her family, crafting, cooking, and beach walks.

Virtual Open Mic Night -- Featuring Bo Hee Moon, Author of Birthstones in the Province of Mercy
2026-01-08 18:00 - 19:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
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, January 8, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured presenter is poet Bo Hee Moon, author of Birthstones in the Province of Mercy, winner of the Jake Adam York Prize. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
Interested in reading as part of virtual Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org.
About Our Featured Author:
A South Korean adoptee, Bo Hee Moon is the author of one previous book of poems, Omma, Sea of Joy and Other Astrological Signs, which she published under another name with Tinderbox Editions in 2021. Her poems have appeared in AGNI, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, swamp pink, The Margins, and other journals. She is a PhD student in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston, where she has received the Inprint Brown Foundation Fellowship. Moon currently lives in Houston. www.boheemoon.com
“Bo Hee Moon’s Birthstones in the Province of Mercy salvages a language for the unheard and unseen experiences of Korean American adoptees, whom neither America nor Korea have ever envisioned to be as vital, dynamic, and wide-ranging across poetics, literature, and advocacy around the globe. Moon exhumes a sense of mothering across the threshold of life, revealing our human lineage, perpetually renewed and destroyed by our own hands. In the bloody fight for belonging, Moon confronts linguistic, geographical, and cultural borders. With these poems, Moon joins the long and rich tradition of Korean and Korean American women’s poetry.”—E. J. Koh, author of The Liberators
“Some people’s families are conjured by biology. Some seek the families they need. But what if the fact and myth from which we first fashion a self leaves us carrying the weight of a hole, the wound left when one is manufactured to fill another’s emptiness? Bo Hee Moon’s Birthstones in the Province of Mercy is a beautiful, harrowing, resolutely honest, and moving examination of this question. Precise, eloquent, vividly lyric, this collection is spun from grief and a self-preservational steel. This is poetry with a tensile strength of mind and heart at its core that I admire deeply. It’s a book for anyone who’s had to will themselves free.”—Erin Belieu, author of Come-Hither Honeycomb

An Afternoon with USA Today Bestselling Novelist Jennifer Moorman, Author of The Charmed Library
2026-01-10 16:00 - 17:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an afternoon with USA Today bestselling novelist Jennifer Moorman, author of The Charmed Library, on Saturday, January 10, at 4:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Moorman will be in conversation with Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt. This free event is presented in partnership with the Storybook Shoppe. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE CHARMED LIBRARY
Like many other public libraries, the one in Blue Sky Valley, North Carolina, is a haven for readers. But it’s also unlike any other. In this library, fictional characters step off the page into real life. Assistant librarian Stella Parker has no idea. Still reeling from her father’s death and–more recently–a breakup, she hasn’t noticed. All she knows is she’s stuck in a job she’s overqualified for and stumped about what to do with her life.
Everything changes when she burns her beloved journal. Words matter to Stella. For as long as she can remember, she’s seen them. Words appear–in varying colors and fonts–rising from surfaces, bouncing over objects, and even wiggling out of people. Words give her insight into emotions and untold stories. But the words change for Stella after she burns her journal. Suddenly they’re demanding, urgent–and painful.
Then Stella stumbles upon strange characters in the library after hours. One is an oddly familiar World War II soldier who introduces himself as Jack—Jack Mathis, the main character from her favorite book. A fictional hero and Stella’s first crush. Standing in front of her in the flesh.
Jack tells Stella about the magic hidden in the library. Skeptical, Stella rashly invites a villain to visit, and chaos ensues. As she discovers the importance of protecting the library’s secret and gets to know the real Jack, words continue to appear. What are they trying to tell her? Much too quickly, Stella is faced with the reality that all stories must end, and magic comes at a price. The characters who visit the library can only stay for fourteen days. And Jack’s time is almost up.
“Moorman delivers the perfect blend of magical realism and romance in this sweet tale about the power of books . . . With enough surprises to keep it from being predictable, Moorman’s delightful story will charm readers.”—Library Journal
“Moorman examines the consequences of losing oneself to grief and the magical, healing power of books. This enchanting and delightful read is a must for book and library lovers.”—Booklist
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Moorman writes enchanting novels inspired by the everyday magic and whimsy in the world around her. She is the bestselling author of the magical realism Mystic Water series, The Baker’s Man, and The Magic All Around. Born and raised in Southern Georgia, Jennifer has a deep love for nature, a fondness for honeysuckle, and childhood memories of whippoorwills singing her to sleep. When she’s not writing, you can find her testing a new recipe, chasing rainbows, or stargazing. She lives in a magic house in Nashville, Tennessee.

Pains Tapestry: A Writing Workshop Led by Will Davis
2026-01-17 10:00 - 12:00 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Chaplain and poet Will Davis (Tethered Wrds) will lead a community workshop on reflection and restorative writing as opportunityto breathe again, speak truth, and let go of what has weighed you down. This workshop is an invitation to speak life back into those places, to honor the parts of you that were stretched or wounded in the process. Words can be used as swords by hurt, but they can also become a shield, a balm, and a path toward healing. Come ready to write, release, and rebuild.
This is an in-person writers workshop, held at the Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St, Beaufort) on Saturday, January 17, from 10:00 to noon. Limited to 15 participants with advance registration; free to attend. Please call 843-379-7025 to reserve your spot.
About the Instructor
Will Davis, known as Tethered Wrds, is a self-proclaimed steward of stories and the creator of a writing style he calls liminara. Rooted in the sacred tension, of what is and what could be, his work seeks to speak life, inspire dignity, and do good. He is the author of the debut poetry collection, Threads of Resilience: Weaving the Human Spirit Through Poetry, a firsthand account of the lived experiences of migrants and immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. His second collection, Upon the Jet Stream, takes flight across Cuba, Africa, and Ukraine, exploring themes of war, hope, and the healing power of beauty. Beyond the page, he is an educator, immigration and human rights advocate, and a passionate believer in the power of storytelling to bridge divides and honor our shared humanity.

Silent Book Club Beaufort
2026-01-17 16:30 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center
Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, meets at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.) on third Saturdays from 4:30 to 6:30PM. Co-sponsored by the Conroy Center and the student book club DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization), .this community gathering invites book lovers to enjoy their current reads in a welcoming and peaceful atmosphere.
Unlike traditional book clubs, Silent Book Club Beaufort has no assigned reading, no deadlines, and no discussions required. Whether you prefer ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, textbooks, or paperbacks, readers are invited to bring their book of choice, settle in, and savor the joy of uninterrupted reading among like-minded individuals.
Silent Book Club Beaufort also features a book swap: Leave a book, take a book.
The casual meetups provide an excellent opportunity to discover new book recommendations, make friends, and reconnect with the love of reading. Whether you’re a lifelong bookworm or just getting back into reading, everyone is welcome. Additional dates and locations will be announced via www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort.

Grassroots Marketing for Authors: Workshop Led by Helen P. Bradley
2026-01-24 10:00 - 11:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center
GRASSROOTS MARKETING FOR AUTHORS
A Writers Workshop Led by Helen P. Bradley, Author of Breach of Trust
Today’s social media landscape is more saturated than ever, making it hard for new writers to stand out, connect with their target readers, and sell more books. In this writers workshop, instructor Helen P. Bradley will share how she promoted her debut novel Breach of Trust on a tight budget by using tried-and-true old school marketing.
You’ll learn how to: create community, find book clubs and events, write an elevator pitch, organize a book launch, create a mailing list, and more. Even if you’re an introvert and marketing sounds more painful than a sunburn, you can promote your book to your ideal audience with these authentic, ethical marketing tools.
This workshop is for published authors as well as those still on the writing journey. It’s never too early to think about marketing. Come hang out with other writers and bring something to write with like old school pen and paper or your favorite device.
Location and Cost
This is an in-person writers workshop, held at the Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St, Beaufort). Limited to 15 participants with advance registration required; $50/person.
About Our Instructor
Helen P. Bradley’s debut novel, Breach of Trust, was released in April 2023. It draws from her experiences during twenty-seven years heading a nationally-recognized crime victim advocacy program. It’s about one woman’s fight to protect crime victims and expose corruption within the district attorney’s office that leads her on a harrowing and life-changing journey.
Helen was nominated for 2024 Georgia Author of the Year for a debut novel. She recently was voted Best Local Author and Breach of Trust Best New Local Book in Connect Savannah’s Best Of contest. More than 100 people attended her book launch and broke all sales records for the bookstore selling her books. In August 2022, she won first place in NextTribe’s essay contest. The essay about raising her grandson was selected out of a field of 55 entries from across the country.
For a decade (pre-Covid) she mentored middle school student writers through the Deep program which was recognized by First Lady Michelle Obama (www.deepcenter.org). She helped young people write their powerful stories and they, in turn, inspired her to write hers.
She’s written curricula, essays, and articles for The National Organization for Victim Assistance, The National Victim Center, and the Georgia Victim Assistance Academy. She was a journalist at two daily South Carolina newspapers and has had essays published in The Savannah Anthology, Savannah Magazine, The Savannah Morning News, and Law Enforcement Magazine.After her victim advocacy career, she started a wedding officiant business, Savannah Simple Weddings.
Helen has a degree in English from Clemson University and earned a master’s in public administration from Georgia Southern University. She served as a trainer for the National Organization for Victim Assistance, The National Victim Center, and numerous other organizations. She lives in Savannah, Georgia, with her husband, teen grandson, and an antisocial rescue cat. She enjoys practicing yoga, gobbling chocolate, and reading obituaries.

Pat Conroy as Nature Writer
2026-01-25 15:00 - 17:00 | 21A-1 Market Street. Beaufort, SC 29906
On Sunday, January 25, at 3:00-5:00 p.m., at Village Social of Habersham, 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 lowcountry not only as a setting but as the central character of his many books. This presentation will highlight representative examples of Conroy’s nature writing from across the span of his writing life, drawing attention to how Conroy’s relationship with nature is also ultimately a relationship with his deeply felt spiritual and humanistic faith.
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By popular demand, this program is now being offered twice: January 25 AND 26.
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The $25 registration fee includes the presentation, refreshments, and a donation in support of the year-round educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. Register in advance for this event and others in this series at
https://www.villagesocialhabersham.net/upcoming-events
About Our Presenters
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. Under Jonathan’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as an American Library Association Literary Landmark, an affiliate of the American Writers Museum, and winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership.
Tim Conroy, the author of the collections Theologies of Terrain and No True Route, is a poet and retired educator. His work has appeared in Fall Lines, Blue Mountain Review, Jasper Magazine, Marked by the Water, Sheltered, Twelve Mile Review, Poetry on the Comet, The Post and Courier, Ukweli: Searching for Healing Truth, DWG Anthology, and Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy. In 2022, he received the Broad River Prize for prose from Fall Lines, Volume IX. A founding board member of the Pat Conroy Literary Center established in his brother’s honor.

Pat Conroy as Nature Writer
2026-01-26 18:00 - 20:00 | 21A-1 Market Street. Beaufort, SC 29906
On Monday, January 26, at 6:00-8:00 p.m., at Village Social of Habersham, 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 lowcountry not only as a setting but as the central character of his many books. This presentation will highlight representative examples of Conroy’s nature writing from across the span of his writing life, drawing attention to how Conroy’s relationship with nature is also ultimately a relationship with his deeply felt spiritual and humanistic faith.
– – –
By popular demand, this program is now being offered twice: January 25 AND 26.
– – –
The $25 registration fee includes the presentation, refreshments, and a donation in support of the year-round educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. Register in advance for this event and others in this series at
https://www.villagesocialhabersham.net/upcoming-events
About Our Presenters
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. Under Jonathan’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as an American Library Association Literary Landmark, an affiliate of the American Writers Museum, and winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership.
Tim Conroy, the author of the collections Theologies of Terrain and No True Route, is a poet and retired educator. His work has appeared in Fall Lines, Blue Mountain Review, Jasper Magazine, Marked by the Water, Sheltered, Twelve Mile Review, Poetry on the Comet, The Post and Courier, Ukweli: Searching for Healing Truth, DWG Anthology, and Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy. In 2022, he received the Broad River Prize for prose from Fall Lines, Volume IX. A founding board member of the Pat Conroy Literary Center established in his brother’s honor.

An Evening with Award-Winning Journalist Steve Oney, Author of On Air
2026-02-05 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with award-winning journalist, author, and longtime Pat Conroy friend Steve Oney, author of On Air: The Triumph and Tumult of NPR, on Thursday, February 5, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Oney will be in conversation with Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited for this free event; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE BOOK
“A lively and engaging new history of the organization . . . Oney’s account of how all this developed has plenty of color and sweep.”—Washington Post
“Engrossing and entertaining . . . A major work of media history.”—New York Times Book Review
“A raucous history . . . Oney’s fleet-footed storytelling and immersive prose bring to life the network’s colorful personalities. The result is an entertaining window into the creative but rancorous scene at one of journalism’s most hallowed institutions.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Founded in 1970, NPR is America’s most powerful broadcast news network. Despite being overshadowed by the larger and more glamorous PBS, public radio has long been home to shows such as All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and This American Life that captivate millions of listeners in homes, cars, and workplaces across the nation. NPR and its hosts are a cultural powerhouse and a trusted voice, and they have created a mode of journalism and storytelling that helps Americans understand the world in which we live.
In On Air, a book fourteen years in the making, journalist Steve Oney tells the dramatic history of this institution, tracing the comings and goings of legendary on-air talents (Bob Edwards, Susan Stamberg, Ira Glass, Cokie Roberts, and many others) and the rise and fall and occasional rise again of brilliant and sometimes venal executives. It depicts how NPR created a medium for extraordinary journalism—in which reporters and producers use microphones as paintbrushes and the voices of people around the world as the soundtrack of stories both global and local. Featuring details on the controversial firing of Juan Williams, the sloppy dismissal of Bob Edwards, and a $235 million bequest by Joan B. Kroc, widow of the founder of McDonald’s, On Air also chronicles NPR’s daring shift into the digital world and its early embrace of podcasting formats, establishing the network as a formidable media empire.
Fascinating, revelatory, and irresistibly dishy, this is a riveting account of NPR’s chaotic ascent, cultural triumph, and imperiled future.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Oney is a longtime journalist who worked for many years as a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Magazine and Los Angeles magazine. He has also contributed articles to many national publications, including Esquire, The Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, GQ, and The New York Times Magazine. His history of the lynching of Leo Frank, And the Dead Shall Rise, won the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award and the National Jewish Book Award. He is also a contributing writer to Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy and a featured presenter at the 2026 Savannah Book Festival. Oney was educated at the University of Georgia and at Harvard, where he was a Nieman Fellow. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Madeline Stuart.
