Author Event with Marybeth Whalen
2026-05-07 17:00 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with author Marybeth Whalen in conversation with Cassandra King, at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort) on May 7 from 5-6:30. 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 AUTHOR:
Marybeth Mayhew Whalen is the author of Every Moment Since and 9 previous novels. Marybeth received a BA in English with a concentration in Writing and Editing from NC State University a long time ago and has been writing ever since. She is the co-founder of The Book Tide, an online community of readers where “a rising tide raises all books.” Marybeth and her husband Curt are the parents of six kids who are now all in various stages of adulting. A native of Charlotte, NC, Marybeth now calls Sunset Beach, NC home.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
A story about finding hope in the face of hardship and connection in the face of crisis, Handle with Care is a novel for our time.
“Rich with complex characters, a tightly woven plot and natural suspense.” –Belle Burden, author of Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage
Three women walk into a post office. This is no joke–it’s the spark that ignites a life-altering crisis.
On a quiet spring afternoon, an ordinary small-town post office becomes ground zero for a domestic dispute. A husband draws a weapon and seals the doors, holding four women captive: his frightened wife, a young woman searching for meaning amid uncertainty, a mother on the brink of letting go as her only daughter graduates, and an elderly woman concealing a secret that could shatter everything she knows.
Outside, the negotiator works to keep a fragile peace, forced to confront her own issues as every word becomes a lifeline.
Each of the three women who walked into the post office is carrying something that, if mailed, would profoundly change her life. As minutes become hours in this daylong siege, these strangers forge lasting bonds. Handle with Care shines a light on hope found even in the darkest moments, and illuminates how even strangers, thrown together by chance and hardship, have the power to change each other’s lives.
This heartwarming women’s fiction novel is laced with depth and humor–it’s perfect for book clubs. Discussion questions are included to prompt lively conversations.

Virtual Open Mic Night -- Featuring William Walsh, Author of Haircuts for the Dead
2026-05-14 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, May 14, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured presenter is novelist William Walsh, author of Haircuts for the Dead. 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:
William Walsh is the author of ten books and is the editor of the James Dickey Review. He teaches at Reinhardt University and directs the undergraduate creative writing program, as well as the low-residency MFA program. Walsh lives in Sandy Springs, Georgia. Haircuts for the Dead is his second novel.
“Those fortunate enough to have read William Walsh’s first novel, LAKEWOOD, know he is a vital voice in contemporary fiction. Now with HAIRCUTS FOR THE DEAD we can welcome a story addressing the most important concerns of our time: race, choice in sexual identity, the burdens of the past, and challenges to faith. Walsh portrays the elusive dynamics within families in this era of rapid change, as a story-within-a-story illuminates each. You will be moved by this novel of the search for a home and love, to be found in unexpected places.” –Robert Morgan, author of GAP CREEK
“In Hannah Gardner’s search for both a place and a love that feel like home, William Walsh has given us a rollicking tale of a charming heroine healing an injured heart and conquering a small part of a great big world.” –Jessica Handler, author of THE MAGNETIC GIRL

An Evening with Sallie Ann Robinson
2026-05-22 17:00 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Friday May 22 – 5:30-6:30 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
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sallie Ann Robinson was born on Daufuskie Island before natives began selling their ancestral land to private corporations and individuals in the 1960s and began moving inland While she is an author in her own right, Robinson’s literary debut actually came as the character named Ethel in Pat Conroy’s classic memoir, The Water Is Wide.
She is the author of Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way: Smokin’ Joe Butter Beans, Ol’ ’Fuskie Fried Crab Rice, Sticky-Bush Blackberry Dumpling, and Other Sea Island Favorites and Cooking the Gullah Way, Morning, Noon, and Night and coauthor of Daufuskie Island.
ABOUT THE EVENING:
Sallie Ann will regale attendees with stories of her time on Daufuskie and her time with Pat Conroy. In addition, her latest project is to help her and her family save their historical Gullah house on Daufuskie Island. The building was built around the 1930’s and is in need of restoration. This house and others are a part of the island history. Sallie, her grandmother, mother and many other were born in this house.

An Author Event with Brynn Barineau
2026-05-30 14:00 - 15:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Set against Henry Ford’s audacious—and ultimately disastrous—attempt to industrialize the Amazon, Jungle of Ashes is a sweeping novel of ambition, exploitation, and hope. Centered on Joanna Rogge, the daughter of an American manager, and Rafael Caetano, a Brazilian mechanic, the story unfolds within Fordlandia, the real-life rubber plantation where cultural imposition, dangerous labor conditions, and political upheaval collide.
Through the eyes of two star-crossed lovers, the novel reveals the human cost of unchecked power and the resilience found in connection across languages, cultures, and continents. Vividly researched and deeply empathetic, Jungle of Ashes will resonate with readers of immersive historical fiction, cross-cultural narratives, and character-driven epics.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
From Atlanta to Washington DC to Rio de Janeiro to Vitoria, Brazil and finally back to Atlanta in June 2020. (Yes. 2020.) In high school, I studied French. In college, Arabic. In grad school, I studied political campaigns in India. I considered a lot of life possibilities but living in Brazil, anywhere in South America, was never one of them. Then I met and married the smartest man I’ve ever known, who happened to be from Rio de Janeiro.
After four years in Rio, we moved to Vitoria. After my daughter was born in 2011, I tried to find picture books in English about Brazil for my little Brazilian-American and came up with almost nothing. I expanded my search to chapter books, young adult and with growing disbelief I looked for any fiction book with a connection to Brazil.
My research made one thing clear. In the United States, it’s easier to find a book set in outer space than in Brazil.
Eventually I had a radical idea. Maybe I could write the books I wanted to find.
After nine years of writing, three shelved novels, around 200 query letters, two years out on submission to editors, my first novel, Jaguars and Other Game, debuted in November, 2022. My second novel, Jungle of Ashes will launch with History Through Fiction on May 19, 2026 along with the re-release of Jaguars and Other Game.

Mary Kay Andrews in conversation with Cassandra King
2026-06-04 11:00 - 13:30 | Rotary Community Center at Oscar Frazier Park, Bluffton
Mary Kay Andrews shares her new book, Road Trip, in conversation with Cassandra King.
MARY KAY ANDREWS is the New York Times bestselling author of 30 novels (including Road Trip; Holiday Hideaway; Summers at the Saint; Bright Lights, Big Christmas; The Homewreckers; The Santa Suit; The Newcomer; Hello, Summer; Sunset Beach; The High Tide Club; The Weekenders; Beach Town; Save the Date; Ladies’ Night; Christmas Bliss; Spring Fever; Summer Rental; The Fixer Upper; Deep Dish; Blue Christmas; Savannah Breeze; Hissy Fit; Little Bitty Lies; and Savannah Blues), and one cookbook, The Beach House Cookbook.
CASSANDRA KING is an award-winning author of five books of fiction and two nonfiction works.

An Afternoon with Tommy Hays in conversation with Mindy Friddle
2026-06-07 14:00 - 15:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Sunday June 7, 2-3:30 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
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Tommy Hays is an acclaimed Southern writer, whose fiction grows out of his emotional connections to places he’s lived and known—Greenville, South Carolina; Asheville, North Carolina; and Atlanta. His novels are The Pleasure Was Mine (St. Martin’s Press 2005), In the Family Way (Random House, 1999), Sam’s Crossing (Atheneum 1992), and YA novel What I Came to Tell You (Egmont, USA 2013). He has published stories, profiles and book reviews in magazines, newspapers and literary journals such as Redbook, Our State, The Atlanta Constitution, The Charlotte Observer, Smoky Mountain Living, Still: The Journal, The Chattahoochee Review, and storySouth.
The winner of many literary awards, he is founder and formerExecutive Director of the Great Smokies Writing Program, UNC Asheville’s community writing program as well as Lecturer Emeritus in the Master of Liberal Arts program.
ABOUT THE BOOK-The Marriage Bed:
A freak accident comes on the heels of a startling revelation—laying bare the foundation of a marriage, and a husband is left to grapple with the aftermath.
A poetry professor at a small college in Asheville, NC, Asa Flowers, comes home one stormy evening to find his wife Betsy inexplicably distraught. As the evening goes on, the couple end up in a heated argument that sends Asa to sleep out in their garage apartment for the first time intwenty-five years of marriage. The next morning, he wakes to blue sky and an altered world.
Unfolding over a few tense weeks and told from multiple points of view, this novel explores how a tragedy can assume as many shapes as the people it touches. Asa finds himself reckoning with torn feelings about his marriage and confusion about how to proceed in his complicated relationships with his adult children. As he gradually absorbs revelations—so much he didn’t know or understand during his long marriage—he finds himself drawn uneasily toward a new world, one in which he must shed much of his old identity if he is to survive and, more important, rededicate himself to being a father.
ABOUT MINDY FRIDDLE:
Mindy Friddle’s first novel, The Garden Angel, was selected for Barnes and Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program. Secret Keepers, her second novel, won the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. Regal House published Mindy’s third novel, Her Best Self, in 2024. Mindy’s short fiction has appeared in Hard to Find: An Anthology of New Southern Gothic, storySouth, Orca, LitMag, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Southern Humanities Review, and many other journals. Mindy holds an MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson. She lives on Edisto Island, South Carolina.

2026 Camp Conroy Summer Camp-Registration Open!
2026-06-08 09:15 - 2026-06-12 14:45 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
9th Annual Camp Conroy for Young Writers and Artists!
Camp Conroy will continue to appreciate special human ability and the joy of creating art while examining how technology can help us. Campers will read, write, and create art independently and collaboratively under the guidance of experienced instructors and artists.
To register, use this Eventbrite link:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/camp-conroy-2026-day-camp-for-young-writers-artists-tickets-1986852598607?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Choose the right camp for your child:
June 8-12 is for 8-11 year olds
June 22-26 for 12-14 year olds
Space is limited to 20 campers (10 each week)
Hosted by the non-profit Pat Conroy Literary Center and held at the Center’s campus at 601 Bladen Street in Beaufort.
This years’ camp theme is AI-Artful Intelligence, Creativity and Technology. We will discover how AI can sometimes enhance (not replace!) human creativity by building a book together-creating both individually and collaboratively. The campers will write, design, critique, edit all in preparation for publication of a book.
Campers will be guided through their creative endeavors by Camp Conroy’s talented counselors, 3 full-time adult instructors, and special guests presenters and instructors. Campers will each receive a copy of the camp anthology on publication after the camp concludes.
Adult instructors include:
Miho Kinnas, a Japanese poet/writer residing on Hilton Head. She is the author of three poetry collections and one book (about to be two books). This is her 9thyear as an instructor at Camp Conroy.
Deidre Garr Johns, a writer and 20-year veteran teacher also residing on Hilton Head, and is a published author of poetry and children’s fiction This is her second year as an instructor at Camp Conroy.
Thomas ‘TJ’ Belasco, taught English literature and composition for 34 years and lives in Beaufort. TJ, a newly-appointed board member of the Conroy Literary Center, is also a published author
Camp Conroy invites diversity and inclusivity among our campers with respect to race, religion, ability and all others aspects of identity. Scholarships are available to assist campers who might not otherwise be able to take part in this experience.
The $250 registration fee includes one week of instruction, camp activities and healthy daily snacks. (This is a day camp; overnight lodging and meals are not included.
Applying for a Scholarship: A limited number of full and partial scholarships are available. To apply, interested students should submit a sample of their work (story, essay, poem, artwork or photography) with a brief letter about their interest in the Camp Conroy experience, to the Pat Conroy Literary Center, Attention: Camp Conroy, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort SC 29902. Please specify the age of the camper. Recipients will be contacted in early June.
Sponsorships: WE welcome your tax-deductible donations to the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center to sponsor a camper, camp counselor, instructor or guest presenters.
Questions: Email us at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org

Open Mic Night-Featuring Melissa Whiteford St. Clair
2026-06-11 18:00 - 19:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Share your writing at Open Mic Night! Whether you are published or not, whether you’ve written a novel, poem, short story or something else of interest we want to hear YOU! It’s easy, and great exposure and practice.
If you’re interested in reading as part of Open Mic night? Just email ginger@patconroyliterarycenter.org and you’ll be added to the list
Open Mic this month will feature Melissa Whiteford St. Clair, and her books will be available for sale and signing.
We will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres..
About Our Featured Writer
Founder of White Girl Advocacy, Melissa Whiteford St. Clair is a poet and social justice advocate. Melissa has published three books of poetry “Home Work A Collection of Poems Sparked by One White Woman’s Journey on the Matter of Race,” “Heart Work A Heart-Centered Collection of Poems,” and “Origins + Crossroads Poems Traversing Time with the Intrepid Harriet Tubman,” and “White Girl Homework,” a self-guided workbook. She is also a contributing poet to the “South Carolina Bards Poetry Anthology” 2023-25, and “Finding Common Ground Leaning In To Listen.” She was named the “Rise and Shine: What America Means To Me” State Winner by the South Carolina Society of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) with the entry of a photo and accompanying poem. Her poem, “Harriet’s Feat to Freedom” was included in the Hilton Head Island Poetry Trail (Mitchelville, November 2024 to May 2025). She was part of the Piccolo Spoleto Sundown Poetry Series (2025). Melissa’s poem, “There’s No Bull in Back Issues of Bon Appetit” was selected for The Petrigru Review Fall 2025.

Author Event with Kerry Peresta
2026-06-18 17:00 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Thursday June 18 – 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
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kerry Peresta is a former advertising account executive and copywriter turned thriller whisperer, whose sharp wit and Southern roots fuel gripping tales of suspense. After decades of crafting punchy headlines and captivating campaigns, she traded the corporate world for full time writing and the salty air of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. She is the author of the Olivia Callahan Suspense series, a five-book collection, and standalone thriller Back Before Dawn, all published by Level Best Books. Creator of the weekly humor column “The Lighter Side,” 2009-2011, Capital Journal, Pierre, SD; she’s also written articles for Local Life Magazine, Lady Lowcountry Magazine, Bluffton Breeze, and Island Events Magazine; contributed a short story for the anthology Rock, Roll & Ruin, published by Down & Out Books; and co-created the mystery podcast “Guns, Knives & Lipstick.” She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Island Writers Network, South Carolina Writers Association, and Int’l Thriller Writers. Discover more at kerryperesta.com.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
In The Shaking, book five of Kerry Peresta’s suspense series, Olivia Callahan faces her most perilous case yet. Years after surviving a traumatic brain injury that reshaped her identity, Olivia is now a seasoned P.I. navigating the shadows of her past and the dangers of her present. When a seemingly routine investigation spirals into a web of deceit, betrayal, and a chilling conspiracy tied to her own history, Olivia must confront forces that threaten to unravel everything she’s fought to rebuild. As secrets surface and the stakes escalate, Olivia’s courage and cunning are pushed to the limit in a race against time to uncover the truth before it destroys her.

Author Event with Paul Attaway
2026-07-30 17:00 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with author Paul Attaway at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort) on July 30 from 5-6:30. 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 AUTHOR:
Paul was born and raised in the Atlanta, Georgia area, met his wife, Lyn, in college at Georgetown University and they now live in Charleston, South Carolina. After college graduation in 1985, Paul received his law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1988. Paul and Lyn then married and settled in Phoenix, AZ where they raised three children.
Paul was a lawyer for two years before moving into the business world, and over the next thirty years, Paul started several successful businesses before retiring from this life and moving to Charleston, South Carolina.
When Paul and Lyn aren’t spending time together or being grandparents, Paul is working on his next book, Substack post, or guiding walking history tours around Charleston. Learn more about Paul, upcoming appearances, and his next novel at www.paulattaway.com.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Blood Rivalry, an Atkins Family Low Country Saga, is Paul
Attaway’s third book in a series of interlocking stories surrounding
the lives of two brothers, Eli and Walker Atkins, living in
Charleston, South Carolina.
In Blood Rivalry, the year is 1994 and Eli and Walker, married,
pursuing careers and raising families, find themselves entangled
with the ruthless and powerful Dunsmore family, a family that will
stop at nothing to put their son, the governor of South Carolina, in the White House. Either Walker and Eli stop them, or they’ll be
crushed by the Dunsmore’s quest.
