Pat Conroy Literary Center

June 2025 Open Mic Night
2025-06-12 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on Thursday, June 12, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. For National Poetry Month, Open Mic Night will feature local novelist Doris E. Wright, author of Cabbagehead. Open Mic will also include short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
When: Thursday, June 12, 2025 at 6 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Price: Free · Duration: 1 hr 30 min
Where: Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.)
Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org
We want to build our community of writers and an appreciation for the art and talent of new, emerging, and long-time writers. Thank you for supporting this partnership!
Event Facebook Page
About our featured author:
Doris E. Wright is an award-winning author whose fiction and nonfiction stories have been published in several anthologies. She is a mother, grandmother, wife, artist and writer. Always curious about what’s beyond the next bend, she has ridden camels in Timbuktu, done tai chi in Xi’an, and walked the veld in Kwazulu-Natal. To facilitate her and her husband’s love of travel, especially on the cheap, they have pet sat dogs, cats, tarantulas, rats, a tortoise, and both normal and unusual plants in the U.S., France, Ireland, and the U.K.
“Cabbagehead by Doris E. Wright will have you wondering if plants have a life, and if they can intervene in our lives in ways we’ve not yet fathomed. Readers will love Wright’s deft skill with words, her ability to move the story along, and her ability to keep us in suspense. Dry wit, the suspense over the next revelation in the vegetable dilemma, and Wright’s other writerly gifts will keep you reading. It’s a story for anyone who’s experienced family estrangement or lost themselves in nature anywhere.”–Estelle Ford-Williamson, author of Rising Fawn

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

Camp Conroy 2025 (Camp #1)
2025-06-09 20:30 - 2025-06-13 15:30 | Robert Smalls Leadership Academy
Camp Conroy is now TWO one-week day camps for young writers and artists. Camp#1 for campers ages 9 to 12 will be held on June 9 to 13 (Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.). Camp#2 for campers ages 13 to 16 will be held on June 23 to 27 (Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.) Hosted by the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, both camps will be held at Robert Smalls Leadership Academy in Beaufort, SC.
Registration: https://campconroy2025.eventbrite.com
This year’s camp theme, Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors, honors the work of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, who developed her metaphor as a way of describing how books can help readers to see themselves, see others, and enter into new experiences and understanding.
During each of the two camps, we will be building a book together by creating–individually and collaboratively–the writing and art that we will publish together in our anthology, then critiquing, editing, and designing our work in preparation for publication. Although our two age groups are divided into separate weeks, they will be contributing to a special collaborative project together as well.
Campers can explore a range of writing genres, from poetry to short stories to micro-memoirs; as well as multiple forms of self-expression in the visual arts, including drawing, painting, and photography. They will be guided through their creative endeavors by Camp Conroy’s talented counselors, full-time adult instructors, and special guest presenters and instructors. A final reading and presentation of camper creations will conclude the experience, and campers will each receive a copy of the camp anthology on publication later this summer.
Camp Conroy invites diversity and inclusivity among our campers with respect to race, religion, ability, and all other 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 for Camp Conroy includes one week of instruction, camp activities, and healthy daily snacks. Students must bring their own lunches and drinks each day. (This is a day camp; overnight lodging and meals are not included.) After the camp, participants will each receive a copy of their published anthology. Registration closes on May 20.
In the 2004 Pat Conroy Cookbook, Pat describes his “Bill Dufford Summer” spent between his junior and senior years on the campus of Beaufort High School (what is now Beaufort Middle School, the site of last year’s Camp Conroy). It was a transformative summer for Pat and for his principal, mentor, and surrogate father figure, Bill Dufford. As Pat writes at the end of his recollection, “I had everything—the best summer of my life.” That has been and remains the goal of our Camp Conroy, to give our campers the best summers of their lives. We hope you will join us this year.
Scholarships: 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 by May 22, to the Pat Conroy Literary Center, Attention: Camp Conroy, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC 29902. Please specify the age of the camper so we know which of the two weeks you are applying for. Scholarship 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, a Camp Counselor, a Camp Instructor, or a Guest Presenter. Scholarships for Campers make it possible for young writers and artists to participate in this experience who might not otherwise have the opportunity. Sponsorships of Camp Counselors, Camp Instructors, and Guest Presenters benefit all of our Campers. For details: https://campconroy2025.eventbrite.com

Camp Conroy: 2025 Summer Camp for Young Writers & Artists ages 9 to 12
2025-06-09 08:00 - 17:00 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Robert Smalls Leadership Academy 43 W. K. Alston Drive, Beaufort, SC, United States

Camp Conroy is now TWO one-week day camps for young writers and artists. Camp#1 for campers ages 9 to 12 will be held on June 9 to 13 (Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.). Camp#2 for campers ages 13 to 16 will be held on June 23 to 27 (Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.) Hosted by the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, both camps will be held at Robert Smalls Leadership Academy in Beaufort, SC.

$250

Teddy Bear Picnic Read Aloud with Daylo June 2025
2025-06-07 09:30 - 12:00 | Port Royal Farmers Market, 1615 Ribault Rd, Port Royal, SC, 29935, United States
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.).

Free

Monthly Teddy Bear Picnic Read-Aloud with DAYLO
2025-06-07 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 Julia Elliott, Author of Hellions
2025-06-05 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, in partnership with NeverMore Books, will host an evening with acclaimed fiction writer Julia Elliott, author of the newly published story collection Hellions—named a TIME Best Book of the Month and a Lit Hub Most Anticipated Book of the Year—on Thursday, June 5, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Elliott 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 through NeverMore Books. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE BOOK
From the acclaimed author of The Wilds comes an electric story collection that blends folklore, fairy tales, Southern Gothic, and horror, reveling in the collision of the familiar with the wildly surreal.
In a plague-stricken medieval convent, a nun works on a forbidden mystic manuscript, pining for Christ’s love. During a long, muggy July in rural South Carolina, an adolescent girl finds unexpected power as her family obsesses over the horror film The Exorcist. On the outskirts of a Southern college town, a young woman resists the tyranny of a shape-shifting older professor as she develops her own sorceress skills. And at a feminist art colony in the North Carolina mountains, a group of mothers contends with the supernatural talents their children have picked up from a pair of mysterious orphans who live in the woods.
With exuberance, ferocity, and astounding imagination, Julia Elliott’s Hellions jumps from the occult to the comic, from the horrific to the wondrous, presenting earthbound characters who long for the otherworldly.
“Intoxicating, fantasy-tinged. . . . Elliott’s rich and magical landscape will pull readers in.”―Publishers Weekly
“Bewitching. . . . Gothic, atmospheric, and filled with the lavish symbolism contained in the natural world.”―Booklist
“A genius at the short-story form, Julia Elliott achieves new highs with the astonishing Hellions. Beautiful, visceral, surprising stories, both wild and dangerous, with a Southern twang but universal appeal…. One of my favorite collections of the past few years.”―Jeff VanderMeer, author of Absolution
“Julia Elliott’s fiction is its own country. Every sentence drips and unsettles, every character lusts and schemes, every landscape is alien and forbidding. But there is something eerily familiar pulsing underneath the wildness―the way your waking life snakes through the logic of your dreams. I am obsessed with these lush, feral stories.”―Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Julia Elliott is the author of the story collection The Wilds, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and the novel The New and Improved Romie Futch (both from Tin House). Her work has appeared in The Georgia Review, Tin House, Conjunctions, and the New York Times. She has won a Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award, and her stories have been anthologized in Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses. She teaches English and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina and lives in Columbia with her husband, daughter, and five hens.
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 sophomore 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 creative writing program.

An Afternoon with Annelore Harrell, Author of Et Cetera Y'All, Volume 1
2025-05-31 14:00 - 15:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an afternoon with Annelore Harrell, author of Et Cetera Y’all, Volume 1, on Saturday, May 31, 2025, at 2:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
About the Book And Author
“Step into the enchanting world of Annelore Harrell and the coastal Lowcountry I love so dearly. With twenty-four years of remarkable newspaper columns, this collection is a treasure chest of insight, immersive experiences, and wisdom. From past to present, Annelore Harrell brings us on a journey to meet the forgotten heroes, see the locales of her experience, and encounter the allure of southern hospitality. A captivating storyteller with a keen and wise eye, Annelore Harrell’s prose transports us to the soul of the south.”–Patti Callahan Henry, bestselling author
Get inspired by the extraordinary Annelore Harrell, who brings her unique voice and vibrant storytelling to life in Et Cetera Y’all, Volume 1. This delightful collection, released in October 2024, showcases her charming and insightful newspaper columns from her inaugural year.
Annelore Harrell’s journey is a tapestry woven with fascinating experiences and extraordinary accomplishments. Born in 1932 in Savannah, Georgia, Annelore began visiting Myrtle Island in Bluffton with her family in 1942, joining the ranks of the “summer people” who traveled from Savannah. Despite bullying at school in 1937, which led her to stop speaking her first language, German, Annelore’s resilience shone through.
By age 12, Annelore was confidently driving a car, a skill she still retains with a careful eye on the rearview mirror. Her remarkable journey continued with her presidency of the world’s largest Officer’s Wives Club at Ft. Bragg, NC, in 1970. In 1974, she captivated audiences with her portrayal of Eleanor of Aquitaine in “Lion in Winter” in Stuttgart.
Transitioning into real estate in the mid-to-late ’70s, Annelore founded Annelore Harrell Realty, further cementing her legacy. In 1981, she moved to her retirement home on Myrtle Island, but retirement was merely a new chapter for her.
In the early ’80s, she taught her daughter, Tamela Pinckney, and other young mothers the art of bridge. From 1995 to 1998, Annelore hosted a weekly, live, one-hour show on the Bluffton Broadcasting Channel, “BBC.” Her voice resonated with the community for nearly 25 years as a weekly columnist for the Bluffton newspaper, Carolina Morning News, later known as The Bluffton Today. Her outstanding work earned 1st Place in her category for Best Column from the SC Press Association.
In 2017, Mayor Lisa Sulka celebrated Annelore’s contributions by recognizing her 1,000th newspaper column and declaring June 23rd as “Lala Day,” a nickname her grandchildren gave her. She was further honored in 2021 when she served as the Grand Marshal of the Bluffton Christmas Parade.
Annelore’s eclectic tastes in reading and music reflect her adventurous spirit. She enjoys various genres, from rock and classical to blues, bluegrass, indie, alternative, R&B, and Gregorian chants. Known for her unforgettable parties and fashion-forward style, she was rocking men’s ties long before it became a trend.
Even at 92 in 2025, Annelore’s energy and zest for life continue to inspire. Kathy L. Murphy of Big Book Love (formerly Pulpwood Queens Book Club) honored her work by naming Et Cetera Y’all, Volume 1, the Bonus Book of the Month for December 2025.
Annelore Harrell’s story is a testament to living with passion, resilience, and an unquenchable thirst for adventure.

An Afternoon with Annelore Harrell, author of Et Cetera Y’all
2025-05-31 14:00 - 15:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Saturday, May 31, 2025 – 2:00-3:30 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
Website: Facebook Event Page
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an afternoon with Annelore Harrell, author of Et Cetera Y’all, Volume 1, on Saturday, May 31, 2025, at 2:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort).
Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
About the Book and Author
“Step into the enchanting world of Annelore Harrell and the coastal Lowcountry I love so dearly. With twenty-four years of remarkable newspaper columns, this collection is a treasure chest of insight, immersive experiences, and wisdom. From past to present, Annelore Harrell brings us on a journey to meet the forgotten heroes, see the locales of her experience, and encounter the allure of southern hospitality. A captivating storyteller with a keen and wise eye, Annelore Harrell’s prose transports us to the soul of the south.”–Patti Callahan Henry, bestselling author
Get inspired by the extraordinary Annelore Harrell, who brings her unique voice and vibrant storytelling to life in Et Cetera Y’all, Volume 1. This delightful collection, released in October 2024, showcases her charming and insightful newspaper columns from her inaugural year.
Annelore Harrell’s journey is a tapestry woven with fascinating experiences and extraordinary accomplishments. Born in 1932 in Savannah, Georgia, Annelore began visiting Myrtle Island in Bluffton with her family in 1942, joining the ranks of the “summer people” who traveled from Savannah. Despite bullying at school in 1937, which led her to stop speaking her first language, German, Annelore’s resilience shone through.
By age 12, Annelore was confidently driving a car, a skill she still retains with a careful eye on the rearview mirror. Her remarkable journey continued with her presidency of the world’s largest Officer’s Wives Club at Ft. Bragg, NC, in 1970. In 1974, she captivated audiences with her portrayal of Eleanor of Aquitaine in “Lion in Winter” in Stuttgart.
Transitioning into real estate in the mid-to-late ’70s, Annelore founded Annelore Harrell Realty, further cementing her legacy. In 1981, she moved to her retirement home on Myrtle Island, but retirement was merely a new chapter for her.
In the early ’80s, she taught her daughter, Tamela Pinckney, and other young mothers the art of bridge. From 1995 to 1998, Annelore hosted a weekly, live, one-hour show on the Bluffton Broadcasting Channel, “BBC.” Her voice resonated with the community for nearly 25 years as a weekly columnist for the Bluffton newspaper, Carolina Morning News, later known as The Bluffton Today. Her outstanding work earned 1st Place in her category for Best Column from the SC Press Association.
In 2017, Mayor Lisa Sulka celebrated Annelore’s contributions by recognizing her 1,000th newspaper column and declaring June 23rd as “Lala Day,” a nickname her grandchildren gave her. She was further honored in 2021 when she served as the Grand Marshal of the Bluffton Christmas Parade.
Annelore’s eclectic tastes in reading and music reflect her adventurous spirit. She enjoys various genres, from rock and classical to blues, bluegrass, indie, alternative, R&B, and Gregorian chants. Known for her unforgettable parties and fashion-forward style, she was rocking men’s ties long before it became a trend.
Even at 92 in 2025, Annelore’s energy and zest for life continue to inspire. Kathy L. Murphy of Big Book Love (formerly Pulpwood Queens Book Club) honored her work by naming Et Cetera Y’all, Volume 1, the Bonus Book of the Month for December 2025.
Annelore Harrell’s story is a testament to living with passion, resilience, and an unquenchable thirst for adventure.

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

May 2025 Virtual Open Mic Night
2025-05-08 18:00 - 19:30 | Online – Facebook Live
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 8, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured presenter is fiction writer James Alan Gill, author of the story collection Not Dark Yet. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
When: Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 6 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Price: Free · Duration: 1 hr 30 min
Where: Virtual – Facebook
Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org
We want to build our community of writers and an appreciation for the art and talent of new, emerging, and long-time writers. Thank you for supporting this partnership!
Event Facebook Page
About our author:
James Alan Gill was raised in a town with no stoplights by a family of coal miners, then attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale where he earned degrees in History and Creative Writing.
His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Colorado Review, Crab Orchard Review, The Common, Sou’wester, The Laurel Review, Midwestern Gothic, Fried Chicken and Coffee, Atticus Review, Book of Matches, and Prime Number Magazine. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and is a seven-time winner of the JD Supra Reader’s Choice Award for his writing in the legal technology industry. He currently lives with his wife, Brittany, in Minneapolis.
“Not Dark Yet unfurls like a fantastic roll of film capturing the hidden pockets of wonder in the lives of the denizens of James Alan Gill’s Illinois town of Matin. People fall in and out of love, race cars, make friends, make tracks, as ordinary lives reveal the extraordinary, all the while wrestling with the fundamental question, Can you really live the life you want and still please the people who love you?”—Whitney Otto, New York Times Bestselling Author of How to Make an American Quilt and Eight Girls Taking Pictures.
“Gill writes, with grace and humor and pain, about small-town life. This evocative chronicle of plain lives in crisis belongs on the same shelf as the stories of Bobbie Ann Mason and Raymond Carver. Poignant and powerful.”—Benjamin Percy, author of The Ninth Metal, Red Moon, and Thrill Me.

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

Teddy Bear Picnic Read Aloud with Daylo May 2025
2025-05-03 09:30 - 12:00 | Port Royal Farmers Market, 1615 Ribault Rd, Port Royal, SC, 29935, United States
Saturday May 3, 2025 – 9:30 a.m. to noon EDT
Price: Free
Venue: Port Royal Farmers Market | Ribaut Rd & Pinckney Blvd, Port Royal, SC 29935
Website: Facebook Event Page
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.

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

Workshop: Write Living Newspapers Led by Marjory Wentworth
2025-04-26 10:00 - 12:00 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Register: Register at EventBrite
Saturday, April 26 , 2025 · 10:00 am – 12:00 noon EST
Cost: $45
Limited to 12 participants
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St Beaufort, SC 29902
Write Living Newspapers
Laurence Ferlinghetti wrote, “If you would be a poet, write living newspapers.” In this workshop we will consider the ways the occasion poem is often written to document or provide commentary on an event. Sometimes it is intended to be read or performed publicly, but not necessarily. There are no specific guidelines for occasion poems, except that they mark a specific occasion or situation. The poems can be long or short, serious or humorous, formal or experimental. We will look at several occasion poems together and consider ways we too can “write living newspapers.”
This is an in-person writers workshop, held at the Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). Limited to 12 participants with advance registration required; $45/person.
Learn more and register at EventBrite
Website: Facebook Event Page
About our instructor:
Marjory Wentworth is the New York Times bestselling co-author of Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets, and the author of the prizewinning children’s story Shackles.
Celebrated for her significant contributions to literature and social justice, she served as the poet laureate of South Carolina from 2003–2020. During her tenure as poet laureate, she published 4 collections of poems and received seven Pushcart Prize nominations. She is also the co-writer with Juan Mendez of Taking a Stand: The Evolution of Human Rights and We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel, with Herb Frazier and Dr. Bernard Powers, and co-editor with Kwame Dawes of Seeking: Poetry and Prose inspired by the Art of Jonathan Green.
After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Holyoke College and a Master of Art in Writing from New York University, she moved to South Carolina in 1989, where she taught courses in writing, social justice, and banned books at The College of Charleston. For further information about the author visit her website, marjorywentworth.com.

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

An Evening with Marjory Wentworth, author of One River, One Boat
2025-04-25 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Friday, April 25, 2025 – 5:00-6:30 PM EDT
Price: Free
Registration: Seating is limited; please call to reserve your spot: 843-379-7025.
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St., Beaufort
Website: Facebook Event Page
In honor of National Poetry Month, the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with Marjory Wentworth, past Poet Laureate of South Carolina, and author of One River, One Boat, on Friday, April 25, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort).
Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE BOOK AND AUTHOR
Famously cut from Governor Nikki Haley’s inauguration in 2015, former South Carolina poet laureate Marjory Wentworth’s poem “One River, One Boat” serves as the titular piece for her newest book. This collection of occasional poems and essays includes those written about heartbreaking and joyous times in South Carolina’s history and Wentworth’s own life including the deaths of relatives, gubernatorial inaugurations, the Mother Emmanuel AME massacre, Hurricane Hugo, and more.
Congressman James Clyburn read Wentworth’s poem “One River, One Boat” into the Congressional record in 2015 after it was pulled from Haley’s inauguration, saying he “hope[s] the people of South Carolina, across the country, and peoples around the world are as touched by her words as I have been.”
“A poet is a historian. If they are tuned in to the community around them, their words can be important documents of an era. South Carolina is a complicated and beautiful place. If you want to know the nuance of the Palmetto State, read Marjory’s poems.”—Marcus Amaker, Inaugural Poet Laureate of Charleston
Marjory Wentworth is the New York Times bestselling co-author of Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets, and the author of the prizewinning children’s story Shackles.
Celebrated for her significant contributions to literature and social justice, she served as the poet laureate of South Carolina from 2003–2020. During her tenure as poet laureate, she published 4 collections of poems and received seven Pushcart Prize nominations. She is also the co-writer with Juan Mendez of Taking a Stand: The Evolution of Human Rights and We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel, with Herb Frazier and Dr. Bernard Powers, and co-editor with Kwame Dawes of Seeking: Poetry and Prose inspired by the Art of Jonathan Green.
After receiving a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Holyoke College and a Master of Art in Writing from New York University, she moved to South Carolina in 1989, where she taught courses in writing, social justice, and banned books at The College of Charleston. For further information about the author visit her website, marjorywentworth.com

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

An Evening with novelist Emily Carpenter, author of Gothictown
2025-04-17 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Thursday, April 17, 2025 – 5:00-6:30 PM EDT
Price: Free
Registration: Seating is limited; please call to reserve your spot: 843-379-7025.
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St., Beaufort
Website: Facebook Event Page
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with novelist Emily Carpenter, author of the newly published novel Gothictown, on Thursday, April 17, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort).
Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE BOOK AND AUTHOR
“A high-energy read that effortlessly reinvents the modern Gothic while delivering all the elements that make the genre so captivating: a haunting atmosphere, a dark legacy, a determined heroine and a whisper of horror. I love the Gothic and I love Gothictown.” —Jayne Ann Krentz, New York Times bestselling author
“Just the right amount of creepiness to add a scary but not terrifying element to the promised gothic tale, and the post-pandemic what-do-I-do-now feeling is spot on.” —firstCLUE
*A Publishers Marketplace BUZZ BOOKS Selection*
In an immersive Southern Gothic with echoes of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, a restauranteur lured by pandemic-era incentives moves her family to a seemingly idyllic small town in Georgia, only to discover a darkness lurking beneath the Southern hospitality and sun-dappled streets.
The email that lands in Billie Hope’s inbox seems like a gift from the universe. For $100, she can purchase a spacious Victorian home in Juliana, Georgia, a small town eager to boost its economy in the wake of the pandemic. She can leave behind her cramped New York City rental and the painful memories of shuttering her once thriving restaurant and start over with her husband and her daughter. Plus, she’ll get a business grant to open a new restaurant in a charming riverside community laden with opportunity. It seems like a dream come true…or a devil’s bargain.
A few phone calls and one hurried visit later, and Billie, Peter, and six-year-old Meredith are officially part of the Juliana Initiative. The town is everything promised—two hours northwest of Atlanta but a world away from city living, a “gentle jewel” with weather as warm as its people. Between settling into their lavish home and starting her new restaurant, Billie is busy enough to dismiss any troubling signS.
But Billie’s sleep is marred by haunting dreams, and her marriage with Peter is growing increasingly strained. Meanwhile the town elders, all descended from Juliana’s founding families, exert a level of influence that feels less benevolent and more stifling day by day.
There’s something about “Gentle Juliana”—something off-kilter and menacing beneath that famous Southern hospitality. And no matter how much Billie longed for her family to come here, she’s starting to wonder how, and if, they’ll ever leave.
Emily Carpenter is a bestselling author of suspense novels including Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, The Weight of Lies and Gothictown.
Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she graduated from Auburn University and worked in New York City as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and behind-the-scenes soap opera assistant for the CBS shows As the World Turns and Guiding Light. She now lives with her family outside Atlanta, Georgia, and can be found online at EmilyCarpenterAuthor.com.

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

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

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

April 2025 Open Mic Night
2025-04-10 18:00 - 19:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on Thursday, April 10, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. For National Poetry Month, Open Mic Night will feature poet and memoirist Galen Warden, author of I Believe You: When Doctor’s Wont, A Mother Must. She will also be reading on behalf of her son, James Strazza, author of Unsung: Poems Written in the Dark. Open Mic will also include short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
When: Thursday, April 10, 2025 at 6 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Price: Free · Duration: 1 hr 30 min
Where: Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.)
Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org
We want to build our community of writers and an appreciation for the art and talent of new, emerging, and long-time writers. Thank you for supporting this partnership!
Event Facebook Page
About our featured author:
Galen Warden has enjoyed poetry since childhood, drawing from the joyful, transcendent, and most difficult moments of her life. From adolescence through motherhood, divorce, dating, and caregiving—and throughout her career as a designer and marketer for Bowker and LexisNexis—poetry has been a steady companion. Her work has appeared in Sensations Magazine, The Ever-Dancing Muse, Get Satisfied, and Lips, plus the anthologies Poets of the Palisades, The Paterson Literary Review, and The World Book of Healing.
Galen is a fourth-generation Beaufortonian who has cared for her adult son James in her home for the past five years. Her forthcoming memoir, I Believe You, captures the heartrending reality of very severe M.E.
“I have come to know Galen as an amazing mother, caregiver and advocate. Patients, families, caregivers and medical professionals will benefit from her lived experience and effectiveness… Her book is a highly effective clarion call to anyone with ME or long COVID to just rest, and to their loved ones to support them. I believe it’s what the world urgently needs right now.”—Janet L. Dafoe, PhD, psychologist
James Strazza was a prolific songwriter as well as a professional music producer when his young life was destroyed by a serious neurological disease. His only creative outlet became texting on his phone, so he leveraged his songwriting skills for a newfound passion: poetry. His second collection of poetry is Unsung, Poems Written in the Dark.
“This poet—and he is a poet in the fullest sense—gives utterance to a horrific reality that escapes all utterance. Transforming us into witnesses, he ignites our own soul: to read James Strazza is to burn with him. And to be forever transformed.”—David Patterson, Hillel A. Feinberg Distinguished Chair in Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas

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

Teddy Bear Picnic Read Aloud with Daylo April 2025
2025-04-05 09:30 - 12:00 | Port Royal Farmers Market, 1615 Ribault Rd, Port Royal, SC, 29935, United States
Saturday April 5, 2025 – 9:30 a.m. to noon EDT
Price: Free
Venue: Port Royal Farmers Market | Ribaut Rd & Pinckney Blvd, Port Royal, SC 29935
Website: Facebook Event Page
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.

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

An Evening with bestselling novelist Colleen Oakley, author of Jane and Dan at the End of the World
2025-04-04 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Friday, April 4, 2025 – 5:00-6:30 PM EDT
Price: Free
Registration: Seating is limited; please call to reserve your spot: 843-379-7025.
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St., Beaufort
Website: Facebook Event Page
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with USA Today bestselling novelist Colleen Oakley, author of Jane and Dan at the End of the World, on Friday, April 4, at 5:00 p.m., at Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Oakley will be joined in conversation by Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt.
Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and signing. Please call to reserve your seat in advance: 843-379-7025.
About Jane and Dan at the End of the World
Date night goes off the rails in this hilariously insightful take on midlife and marriage when one unhappy couple find themselves at the heart of a crime in progress, from the USA Today bestselling author of The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise.
Jane and Dan have been married for nineteen years, but Jane isn’t sure they’re going to make it to twenty. The mother of two feels unneeded by her teenagers, and her writing career has screeched to an unsuccessful halt. Her one published novel sold under five hundred copies. Worse? She’s pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When the couple goes to the renowned upscale restaurant La Fin du Monde to celebrate their anniversary, Jane thinks it’s as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce.
But before they even get to the second course, an underground climate activist group bursts into the dining room. Jane is shocked—and not just because she’s in a hostage situation the likes of which she’s only seen in the movies. Nearly everything the disorganized and bumbling activists say and do is right out of the pages of her failed book. Even Dan (who Jane wasn’t sure even read her book) admits it’s eerily familiar.
Which means Dan and Jane are the only ones who know what’s going to happen next. And they’re the only ones who can stop it. This wasn’t what Jane was thinking of when she said “’til death do us part” all those years ago, but if they can survive this, maybe they can survive anything—even marriage.
“Jane and Dan at the End of the World is a triumph! Poignant, darkly funny, and mind-bendingly twisty at every turn. With each new chapter, I felt more invested in Jane and Dan, the fate of their marriage, and the outcome of their shocking predicament. I cheered for them all the way to the story’s satisfying end.”—Elle Cosimano, New York Times bestselling author of Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice
“Only Colleen Oakley could turn a terrorist attack on a restaurant into a charming story full of humor, surprises, and familial love. A delightful, imaginative, laugh-out-loud joy ride of a novel.”—Nina Simon, New York Times bestselling author of Mother-Daughter Murder Night
About the Author
Colleen Oakley is the USA Today bestselling author of The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise, The Invisible Husband of Frick Island, You Were There Too, Close Enough to Touch, and Before I Go. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages around the world and have won multiple awards including Georgia Author of the Year and the French Reader’s Prize.
A former magazine editor for Women’s Health & Fitness and Marie Claire, Colleen lives in Atlanta with her husband, four children, three chickens, and a mutt named Baxter.

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 Charleston Post and Courier and a mentor to the student leaders of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization.

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

An Afternoon with novelists Jeffrey Blount and John Pruitt, in conversation with Rebecca Dwight Bruff
2025-03-28 14:00 - 15:30 | Penn Center, 16 Penn Center Circle West, St. Helena Island, SC, 29920, United States
Friday, March 28, 2025 – 2:00-3:30 PM EDT
Price: Free
Registration: Register at Eventbrite by March 27
Venue: Penn Center’s Frissell Hall, 16 Penn Center West, St. Helena Island
Website: Facebook Event Page
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an afternoon with novelists Jeffrey Blount (Mr. Jimmy from Around the Way) and John Pruitt (Tell It True), in conversation with Rebecca Dwight Bruff (Trouble the Water) on Friday, March 28, at 2:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public, this special event is presented in partnership with Luxe Lowcountry Travel and will be held at Penn Center’s Frissell Hall, 16 Penn Center West, St. Helena Island. Books by all three authors will be available for sale and signing.
Advance registration is required by March 27 at: https://blountandpruitt.eventbrite.com
About Jeffrey Blount and Mr. Jimmy from Around the Way
Jeffrey Blount is the award-winning author of three novels. He is also an Emmy award-winning television director and a 2016 inductee to the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame. During a 34-year career at NBC News, Jeffrey directed a decade of Meet the Press and was the first African-American to direct the Today show. He is an award-winning documentary scriptwriter for films and interactives that are now on display in the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture.
Mr. Jimmy from Around the Way is a story about failure, self-discovery, empowerment, and the possibility of redemption. James Henry Ferguson doesn’t belong here. After a highly publicized fall from grace, James attempts to flee from the chaos in his life. He ends up in a community he had never heard of before, one that has been neglected and ignored by everyone in rural Ham, Mississippi. A place of abject poverty, the neighborhood is commonly referred to as “Around the Way.” Within a place forgotten by the rest of the world, politics can be a dangerous game. When a troubling discovery is made, the entire neighborhood is rocked to its core and James is forced to confront his own past in order to help the community have a future. He will have to find the strength to fight for the neighbors he once disregarded and avert a heart-breaking disaster. A self-identified failure is forced to uncover the wisdom of his past in order to recognize that money can’t solve every problem. Full of never-ending twists and turns, no one can prepare themselves for the surprises in store. Winner of the 2024 National Indie Excellence Award for African American Fiction, 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for African American Fiction, 2024 NYC Big Book Award for General Fiction, and 2024 American Book Fest Best Book Award for African American Fiction.
“This tender story is for any of us who have fallen and found the only way up is by reaching out a hand to others.”—Cassandra King, author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy
About John Pruitt and Tell It True
John Pruitt began his journalism career in 1964 as a television reporter-cameraman and eventually rose to top anchor at WSB-TV in Atlanta, Georgia. For a half-century he covered the civil rights movement, Georgia politics, and the major news figures of the day. His reporting has been honored with multiple awards including induction into the Atlanta Press Club and Georgia Association of Broadcasters Halls of Fame.
In Tell It True, An African American serviceman is gunned down on a rural Georgia road in July 1964. This shocking murder ensnares a wide range of characters including the journalists who cover it, the lawmen who must solve it, the civil rights leaders who capitalize upon it, the politicians who exploit it, and the Atlanta magnate who fears its impact on the New South image he desperately wants to protect. TV news cameraman Gil Matthews and AP reporter Mindy Williams team up to follow the twists and turns of the murder investigation as rural, state, and federal lawmen clash, a civil rights leader fends off a black power challenger, and voters take sides in a governor’s race pitting virulent racist Roscoe Pike against moderate underdog Harrison Parker. Focusing on the challenges faced by journalists as they covered a societal revolution and brought the dramatic and sometimes violent scenes to TV screens around the world, Tell It True takes us to a time when the future of the South hung in the balance.
“Pruitt takes us back to a time where black lives truly didn’t matter in the South, but it was a time black votes began to matter. The characters in this novel tell the story of the media’s role in changing race relations in the South, and the behind-the-scenes political alliances that helped to bring change. Pruitt’s meticulous character development and scenery depiction put me right there in the story. Gripping from beginning to end and hard to put down.”—Monica Kaufman Pearson, journalist and former news anchor
About Rebecca Dwight Bruff
Rebecca Bruff is the author of the award-winning historical novel Trouble the Water and the children’s book Stars of Wonder. Bruff earned her bachelor’s degree in education at Texas A&M and a master’s and doctorate in theology at Southern Methodist University. In 2017, she was a scholarship recipient for the prestigious Key West Literary Seminar. A frequent presenter at literary events, she volunteers at the Pat Conroy Literary Center.

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

An Evening with Penelope Coker Hall and Eliza Wilson Ingle, Authors of A Curious Heart
2025-03-25 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Tuesday, March 25, 2025 – 5:00-6:30 PM EDT
Price: Free
Registration: Seating is limited; please call to reserve your spot: 843-379-7025.
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St., Beaufort
Website: Facebook Event Page
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with Penelope Coker Hall and Eliza Wilson Ingle, Authors of A Curious Heart: The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Boatwright Coker, on Tuesday, March 25, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort).
Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
About the Book and Authors
Written by Elizabeth Boatwright Coker’s daughter, Penelope Coker Hall, and granddaughter, Eliza Wilson Ingle, A Curious Heart chronicles the life and work of the award-winning author.
In this poignant literary biography, Hall and Ingle give readers a front row seat to the remarkable life and career of award-winning author Elizabeth Boatwright Coker (1909-1993). Drawing liberally from Elizabeth’s own letters, journal entries, book passages and interviews, A Curious Heart reveals for the first time the inner life of this complex, Southern woman who dreamed of becoming a published writer.
Born in Darlington, South Carolina in an era when women could not vote and the legacy of the Civil War suffused nearly everything, Elizabeth was blessed with movie star beauty, a keen intellect and sense of humor, and extraordinary determination. At an early age, she was mentored by inspired teachers and some of the great writers of the 20th century. She would go on to challenge the status quo, in her life and her books.
Elizabeth’s journey juggling the demands of corporate wife and mother with that of working writer is a story of trial and triumph, heartbreak and joy. Her life spanned nearly the entire century, the second half of which yielded nine historical novels. With sensitivity and insight, the authors chronicle the passion, the powers of observation, the gift of storytelling, and the fierce independence that propelled their mother and grandmother to The New York Times bestseller list and the South Carolina Hall of Fame.
Born in Hartsville, South Carolina, Penelope Coker Hall matriculated to Sarah Lawrence College and eventually settled in New York, becoming a writer and host for Metromedia’s Channel Five TV show “The New Yorkers.” Later at NBC, Hall worked as a co-producer of several TV specials, including “Vanishing 400” and “Debutante.” During this time, she met and married film producer William Wilson and in 1968 their daughter, Eliza, was born. In 1972, Hall left the performing arts and embarked on a new marriage with widower Mortimer Hall of Millbrook, N.Y. Ensconced in Millbrook for 50 years, Hall served as editor of Dutchess Magazine while raising daughter Eliza as well as Morti’s five young children, along with a bevy of horses and dogs. Hall is author of several children’s books and the novel Riding High (under the pseudonym of Emily Brooks), written with former E.P. Dutton editor Ann LaFarge. Today, she divides her time between Charleston, S.C. and Millbrook.
Eliza Wilson Ingle is a New York native with Southern roots. She earned her BA in Dance from Middlebury College, and after a brief stint in New York City, moved to Charleston S.C. where she became a Professor of Dance at the College of Charleston. In addition to teaching, Ingle has been a performer and choreographer with Anonymity Dance Company. A dance reviewer for The Post and Courier covering Spoleto Festival USA, as well as a contributor to Charleston Magazine and Charleston City Paper, and creator and co-host of “Just Imagine” – a radio program covering local cultural events and people – she stays tapped into the arts and believes, as her grandmother did, in the power of story.

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

An Evening with Dawn Major and Kim Poovey
2025-03-20 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Thursday, March 20, 2025 – 5:00-6:30 PM EDT
Price: Free
Registration: Seating is limited; please call to reserve your spot: 843-379-7025.
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St., Beaufort
Website: Facebook Event Page
The Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with authors Dawn Major and Kim Poovey portraying characters from their respective novels, introduced by host Mary Ellen Thompson.
Free and open to the public, this special event will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on March 20 at 5:00 p.m. Books will be available for sale and signing. Please call in advance to reserve a seat: 843-379-7025.
Dawn Major is an associate editor for the Southern Literary Review. Her debut novel, The Bystanders, was named finalist for 2024 Georgia Author of the Year for Best First Novel. Set in the 1980s, The Bystanders is the story of a family who moves from California to a small town in Missouri, where, to put it mildly, they didn’t fit in. Dawn will converse from the point of view of her teenaged character, Shannon Lamb, who is the source of much gossip from the townspeople.
Kim Poovey is a storyteller, Victorian reenactress, and has written nine novels. The first of her Dreamist Series, The Haunting of Monroe Manse, centers on Sarah Holden, a smalltown antiques dealer who is “plagued by haunted dreams and gruesome visions.” As Sarah’s visions increase in intensity, the reader is taken on a chilling page turning journey of the otherworldly. Kim will portray Sarah in the conversation.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dawn Major’s debut novel, The Bystanders, was named finalist for 2024 Georgia Author of the Year for Best First Novel. Major has a graduate degree in Creative Writing, is associate editor at Southern Literary Review, and a co-editor at WELL READ Magazine where she writes a column called “TripLit with D. Major.”
She enjoys advocating for Southern writers and artists on her blog, SouthernRead. Major’s literary awards include the following: the Dr. Robert Driscoll Award for Excellence in Writing Award and a James Dickey Fellowship. She is a member of the William Gay Archive and helps edit and publish the late author’s works. She serves on the board at Broadleaf Writers Association, is a member of multiple writing association, as well as a member of M’ville, an Atlanta-based artist salon. She has been published in multiple journals, reviews, and anthologies. Major lives in Atlanta, GA with her family and is currently working on her novelette, The Dandy Chronicles.
Kim Poovey is a bestselling author of cozy horror and historical fiction. She has traveled the Southeast for more than 20 years presenting on 19th century fashion, Victorian era mourning practices, Ornamental Hairwork, and the history of ghost stories.
In 2011 she portrayed Mrs. Stanton, wife of Secretary of War Stanton (Kevin Kline), in the Robert Redford film, The Conspirator. Additional film projects include portraying the wife of a villainous husband in the Vook version of Jude Devereaux’ novella Promises and the documentary Beyond the Oaks, Lowcountry Plantations.
Kim has published nine books to include four in the Dreamist series and two in the Shadows trilogy. In addition, Kim has written for several magazines to include Beaufort Lifestyles, Bluffton Breeze, Citizen’s Companion, and the Civil War Times. When not writing or performing, Kim works as a school psychologist. She lives in a haunted 1890s Victorian cottage in the South Carolina Lowcountry with her husband, Darryl, and their furry children.
Mary Ellen Thompson is an associate editor for the Southern Literary Review. Her interview with the legendary Pat Conroy was published in A Lowcountry Heart. A lead features writer for Beaufort Lifestyle Magazine for eight years, and columnist for Lowcountry Weekly for ten years, she has also written for Pooler Magazine, Effingham Magazine, Carolina Arts Magazine, St. Mary’s Magazine and Eat, Sleep, Play Beaufort. Mary Ellen has very happy feet and loves to travel.
Raised on the Main Line of Philadelphia and the Eastern Shore of MD, she has a B.S. From Skidmore College in Business. Currently living on Saint Helena Island, SC, she hosts a Writer’s Residency for the Pat Conroy Literary Center, and is writing a retrospective narrative.

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

March 2025 Virtual Open Mic Night
2025-03-13 18:00 - 19:30 | Online – Facebook Live
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, March 13, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured presenter is multi-genre author Susan Tekulve, whose newest book is Bodies of Light, her first full-length poetry collection. Hosted by poet Melissa Whiteford St. Clair, Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
When: Thursday, March 13, 2025 at 6 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Price: Free · Duration: 1 hr 30 min
Where: Virtual – Facebook
Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org
We want to build our community of writers and an appreciation for the art and talent of new, emerging, and long-time writers. Thank you for supporting this partnership!
Event Facebook Page
About our author:
Susan Tekulve’s newest book Bodies of Light is her first full-length poetry collection. She is the author of Second Shift: Essays (Del Sol Press) and In the Garden of Stone (Hub City Press), winner of the South Carolina Novel Prize and a Gold IPPY Award. She’s also published two short story collections: Savage Pilgrims (Serving House Books) and My Mother’s War Stories (Winnow Press).
Her photo essay, “White Blossoms,” appeared in Issue 12 of the KYSO Flash Anthology. Her nonfiction, fiction, and poetry has appeared in journals such as Denver Quarterly, The Georgia Review, The Louisville Review, Puerto del Sol, New Letters, and Shenandoah. Her web chapbook, Wash Day, appears in the Web Del Sol International Chapbook Series, and her story collection, My Mother’s War Stories, received the 2004 Winnow Press fiction prize. She has received scholarships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She teaches in the BFA and MFA writing programs at Converse University.
“Susan Tekulve’s Bodies of Light both illuminates and enchants. In odes to body parts—teeth and thumbs, feet and hair—as well as bodies inside bodies (pregnancies), this poet delights in the corporal and spiritual. In elegies, Tekulve honors the bodies of her beloved dead and the magic of her garden. Hummingbirds, tarantulas, stinkbugs, spiders, and bees wearing ‘tiny yellow combat boots’ populate these terrific poems of wonder and dazzle.”–Denise Duhamel, author of Pink Lady, Scald, and Blowout
“It’s a kind of magic, the way Susan Tekulve’s forthright monosyllabic titles (Bonnet, Grief, Kimono, Son—the list goes on) blossom into poems so lush in vision, so voluptuous in vocabulary and song, they feel as bountiful as the planet we live on. Tekulve’s poems have their specific concerns of course (parenting, for example, and world travel) but ultimately she’s in love with existence itself, whether elegiac or celebratory, and her one-word titles (Relics, Geodes, Feathers: the list goes on) are keys to a lavish proof of that love’s great depth.”–Albert Goldbarth, author of History (and Pre-), Saving Lives, and Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology

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

Workshop: Writing Believable Law Enforcement Characters
2025-03-08 10:00 - 12:00 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Register: Register at EventBrite
Saturday, March 8, 2025 · 10:00 am – 12:00 noon EST
Cost: $60
Limited to 20 participants
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St Beaufort, SC 29902
Writing Believable Law Enforcement CharactersA Workshop for Writers Led by Dana Ridenour and Eugene A. Rugala
Law enforcement personnel are an integral part of crime fiction. Their roles range from those enforcing the law at street level up to the upper echelons of command. In this workshop retired FBI undercover special agent Dana Ridenour and a retired FBI agent and profiler Eugene A. Rugala will discuss the psychological toll of being a law enforcement officer, how to write realistic law enforcement characters and crime scenes, writing about firearms, understanding jurisdiction, writing realistic fight scenes, and turning your real-life experiences into fiction. The instructors will also delve into opportunities for research and their own experiences with research—one as a novelist and the other as a consultant for books, film, and television.
Time permitting, some participants may also be able to read brief excerpts from drafts for feedback from the instructors.
This is an in-person writers workshop, held at the Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). Limited to 20 participants with advance registration required: $60/person.
Learn more and register at EventBrite
Website: Facebook Event Page
About our instructors:
Dana Ridenour is the award-winning author of the Lexie Montgomery FBI Series: Behind the Mask, Beyond the Cabin, and Below the Radar. She is a retired FBI special agent who spent most of her career as an undercover operative. Dana entered on duty with the FBI in November of 1995 and retired in April of 2016 after over twenty years of service. She was assigned to four different FBI Field Divisions and had the opportunity to work a wide variety of cases, to include multi-faceted narcotics investigations, domestic sex trafficking of minors, and violent crime. Over the years, Dana was a proud member of the FBI’s Evidence Response Team where she and her team traveled to New York City in response to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack.
The highlight of her career came in 2003 when she attended and passed the FBI’s prestigious undercover school, thus allowing her to work as an undercover FBI agent. This undercover certification opened the door for her to work a series of long term, deep cover cases focusing on domestic terrorism. Dana had the rare experience of working a long-term undercover investigation with her husband who was also an FBI agent. She now lives, writes, and teaches in the South Carolina lowcountry, where she also volunteers at the Pat Conroy Literary Center.
Eugene A. Rugala is principal of Eugene A. Rugala and Associates LLC, a behavioral science, consultation, training, and research firm based in Beaufort. One of the FBI’s “Profilers” in the unit made famous by the book and movie “The Silence of the Lambs” and the series “Criminal Minds” and “Mindhunter,” Gene specializes in the detailed behavioral analysis of violent crimes, including homicide, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, stalking, and workplace and school violence. He consults with many corporations and universities in developing and implementing procedures and protocols for the prevention of violence in the workplace and in schools to include threat assessment and management services.
He is also a national advisory board member of the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, a group of Fortune 500 companies who raise awareness and suggest strategies for companies to deal with intimate partner violence and its impact. Gene has contributed to the content and participated in the video production of Shots Fired: Guidance for Surviving an Active Shooter Situation, Flashpoint: Recognizing and Preventing Violence in the Workplace, and Silent Storm: Intimate Partner Violence and Stalking and Its Impact on the Workplace. A version of these programs has been developed for university settings as well. Gene is a coauthor of the book Workplace Violence: Issues in Threat Management.

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

Workshop: Demythologizing the FBI: What Writers Get Wrong
2025-03-01 10:00 - 12:00 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Register: Register at EventBrite
Saturday, March 1, 2025 · 10:00 am – 12:00 noon EST
Cost: $60
Limited to 20 participants
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St Beaufort, SC 29902
Demythologizing the FBI: What Writers Get Wrong
Led by Dana Ridenour and Eugene A. Rugala
Join retired FBI undercover special agent Dana Ridenour and a retired FBI profiler Eugene A. Rugala in this workshop for writers (and interested readers) as they dispel the myths and clichés perpetrated by television and movies regarding the FBI. Writers will learn how to avoid the common pitfalls of writing FBI characters. The discussion will give writers a peak into the daily life of an FBI agent focusing on the FBI undercover program, and the role of the FBI plays in terrorism and human trafficking investigations.
The presentation will also explore the myths and realities of what the Behavioral Analysis Unit does and doesn’t do, what is and what is not behavioral “profiling,” what types of cases utilize this technique, and what members of the BAU do on a daily basis. Participants will gain a better understanding of how to accurately portray FBI characters and investigations.
Time permitting, some participants may also be able to read brief excerpts from drafts for feedback from the instructors.
This is an in-person writers workshop, held at the Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). Limited to 20 participants with advance registration required: $60/person.
Learn more and register at EventBrite
Website: Facebook Event Page
About our instructors:
Dana Ridenour is the award-winning author of the Lexie Montgomery FBI Series: Behind the Mask, Beyond the Cabin, and Below the Radar. She is a retired FBI special agent who spent most of her career as an undercover operative. Dana entered on duty with the FBI in November of 1995 and retired in April of 2016 after over twenty years of service. She was assigned to four different FBI Field Divisions and had the opportunity to work a wide variety of cases, to include multi-faceted narcotics investigations, domestic sex trafficking of minors, and violent crime. Over the years, Dana was a proud member of the FBI’s Evidence Response Team where she and her team traveled to New York City in response to the 9/11 World Trade Center attack.
The highlight of her career came in 2003 when she attended and passed the FBI’s prestigious undercover school, thus allowing her to work as an undercover FBI agent. This undercover certification opened the door for her to work a series of long term, deep cover cases focusing on domestic terrorism. Dana had the rare experience of working a long-term undercover investigation with her husband who was also an FBI agent. She now lives, writes, and teaches in the South Carolina lowcountry, where she also volunteers at the Pat Conroy Literary Center.
Eugene A. Rugala is principal of Eugene A. Rugala and Associates LLC, a behavioral science, consultation, training, and research firm based in Beaufort. One of the FBI’s “Profilers” in the unit made famous by the book and movie “The Silence of the Lambs” and the series “Criminal Minds” and “Mindhunter,” Gene specializes in the detailed behavioral analysis of violent crimes, including homicide, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, stalking, and workplace and school violence. He consults with many corporations and universities in developing and implementing procedures and protocols for the prevention of violence in the workplace and in schools to include threat assessment and management services.
He is also a national advisory board member of the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, a group of Fortune 500 companies who raise awareness and suggest strategies for companies to deal with intimate partner violence and its impact. Gene has contributed to the content and participated in the video production of Shots Fired: Guidance for Surviving an Active Shooter Situation, Flashpoint: Recognizing and Preventing Violence in the Workplace, and Silent Storm: Intimate Partner Violence and Stalking and Its Impact on the Workplace. A version of these programs has been developed for university settings as well. Gene is a coauthor of the book Workplace Violence: Issues in Threat Management.

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

Teddy Bear Picnic Read Aloud with Daylo March 2025
2025-03-01 09:30 - 12:00 | Port Royal Farmers Market, 1615 Ribault Rd, Port Royal, SC, 29935, United States
Saturday March 1, 2025 – 9:30 a.m. to noon EDT
Price: Free
Venue: Port Royal Farmers Market | Ribaut Rd & Pinckney Blvd, Port Royal, SC 29935
Website: Facebook Event Page
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.

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

9th Annual March Forth
2025-03-01 - 2025-03-02
Ninth Annual March Forth to Be Held on March 1 & 2 in Port Royal, Beaufort, and St. Helena Island
Our Conroy Center’s ninth annual March Forth will be held on Saturday, March 1, and Sunday, March 2, with educational programs in Beaufort, Port Royal, St. Helena Island, and online. This special event commemorates the anniversary of Pat Conroy’s passing on March 4, 2016, by engaging with major themes of his writing and teaching life, including social justice, inclusivity, conservation, education, truth-telling, and storytelling.
Learn more and register in advance at Eventbrite
March Forth will include appearances by:

Ashley Hope Pérez: YA novelist, educator, advocate, and editor of Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers’ Rights
Kimberly Brock: novelist, past Georgia Author of the Year, and author of The Fabled Earth, a finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction
Edda L. Fields-Black: professor of history and director of the Dietrich College Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University, author of Combee: Harriet Tubman, The Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War
Katherine Freeman: National Park Service Ranger with the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park
Jake Zadik: Brays Island naturalist, nature photographer, and cofounder of South Carolina Partners of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (SCPARC)
Juliana Zadik: naturalist, educator, and Beaufort County Long-Range Environmental Planner
Dana Ridenour: retired FBI undercover special agent, author of the Lexie Montgomery series
Eugene A. Rugala: retired FBI “profiler,” behavioral science consultant and author
DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization

This year, March Forth is hosted by Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and nationally recognized youth advocate Julia Garnett.
March Forth is presented in collaboration between the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, Penn Center, NeverMore Books, the Port Royal Farmers Market, the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park, and DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization.
~EVENTS FOR SATURDAY MARCH 1~
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.: Reconstruction Era National Historic Park ToursExplore the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park locations in Beaufort, Port Royal, and St. Helena. Free. See Details Here.
9:30 a.m. to Noon: Read with a Ranger and Teddy Bear Picnic at the Port Royal Farmers MarketStudent volunteers from DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization) will be reading children’s picture books to young readers and their families, with light snacks provided. DAYLO students will be joined by National Park Service Ranger Katherine Freeman from the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park for a special read-aloud, Read with a Ranger. This free event will be held near the gazebo at the Port Royal Farmers Market (1615 Ribaut Rd, Port Royal). No registration needed.
10:00 a.m. to Noon: Demythologizing the FBI: What Writers Get Wrong, Workshop Led by Dana Ridenour and Eugene A. RugalaJoin retired FBI undercover special agent turned novelist Dana Ridenour and retired FBI “profiler” turned consultant Eugene A. Rugala for a workshop for writers (and interested readers) about what FBI work is really like–and what novels and films get wrong. $60/person, limited to 20 attendees. Held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Register in advance at Eventbrite.
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Penn Center’s York W. Bailey Museum ToursExplore Penn Center and the York W. Bailey Museum (16 Penn Center Circle West, St. Helena Island). Docent-led tours available. $15-$20/person.
Noon to 4:00 p.m.: Pat Conroy Literary Center ToursThe nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort) is open for free public tours, guided by volunteer docents.
5:00 to 6:00 p.m.: Facebook Live Interview with Ashley Hope Pérez, Editor of Banned Together, in Conversation with Jonathan Haupt and Julia Garnett
Ashley Hope Pérez’s 2015 YA novel Out of Darkness won a Printz Honor and the Tomás Rivera Book Award—and it as one of the top ten most banned books of 2021. Pérez will discuss her new anthology Banned Together: The Fight for Reader’s Rights (to be published on March 4) in conversation with Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and Banned Books Week Honorary Youth Chair Julia Garnett. This free virtual event will be live-streamed to the Conroy Center’s Facebook page and available to watch through Monday, March 3, at 6:00 p.m. No registration required.
~EVENTS FOR SUNDAY MARCH 2~
All Sunday events are ticketed (Eventbrite)and held at Penn Center’s Frissell Hall, 16 Penn Center Circle West, St. Helena Island. Nature walk: $10/person. Catered lunch + two author presentations: $30.

9:30-10:00 a.m.: Attendee check-in.
10:00-11:30 a.m.: Birding and nature walk of Penn Center led by husband and wife naturalists Jake and Juliana Zadik. Approximately 1 mile. $10/person; limited to 40 participants.
11:30 to Noon. Catered lunch by Magnolia’s Cafe. Included in $30/person registration.
Noon to 1:00 p.m.: Presentation by Dr. Edda L. Fields-Black, professor of history and director of the Dietrich College Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University, author of Combee: Harriet Tubman, The Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War. Included in $30/person registration.
1:00 to 1:30 p.m.: Book signing break with NeverMore Books.
1:30 to 2:30 p.m.: Conversation with Kimberly Brock: novelist, past Georgia Author of the Year, and author of The Fabled Earth, a finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction–interviewed by Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and Banned Books Week Honorary Youth Chair Julia Garnett. Included in $30/person registration.
2:30-3:00 p.m.: Book signing break with NeverMore Books.
3:00 p.m.: Closing remarks

Pat Conroy: An Introduction to a Lowcountry Legend
2025-02-27 18:00 - 19:00 | Charleston County Public Library, 68 Calhoun Street, Charleston, SC, 29401, United States
Thursday, February 27, 2025 – 6:00-7:00 PM EDT
Price: Free
Venue: Charleston County Public Library (68 Calhoun St. Charleston, SC)
Website: Facebook Event Page
On Thursday, February 27, at 6:00-7:00 p.m. the Charleston County Public Library will host Pat Conroy: An Introduction to a Lowcountry Legend. Presented by Jonathan Haupt, executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, this free literary program will be held at the Main Library at 68 Calhoun St. in historic downtown Charleston.
Internationally acclaimed writer Pat Conroy (1945-2016) is best remembered as the author of The Water Is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, and The Prince of Tides, each also adapted for film. Conroy has become as synonymous with his adopted lowcountry as pluff mud or Spanish Moss.
Join the Conroy Center executive director—and one of Pat’s many protégés—for an engaging hour of stories, photos, and videos introducing Conroy’s writing and teaching life and exploring some of the major themes of his work, as well as how the nonprofit literary center established in his memory now continues his legacy.
About the 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. In 2020, he was honored with the Doug Marlette Literacy Leadership Award, a lifetime achievement recognition presented by the Pulpwood Queens, the largest read-and-meet book club in the U.S. 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.

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

An Evening with novelist Jen Marie Wiggins, author of The Good Bride
2025-02-27 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Thursday, February 27, 2025 – 5:00-6:30 PM EDT (Rescheduled from December)
Price: Free
Registration: Seating is limited; please call to reserve your spot: 843-379-7025.
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St., Beaufort
Website: Facebook Event Page
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with novelist Jen Marie Wiggins, author of The Good Bride, on Thursday, February 27, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort).
Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
About The Good Bride
The Wedding of the Year turns disastrous in this twisty family drama full of lies and betrayals, perfect for fans of Laura Dave, Lucy Foley, and Ruth Ware.
One year after a devastating hurricane, bride-to-be Ruth Bancroft is marrying her perfect groom in a quaint fishing village on the Gulf Coast. The weekend is carefully curated, with the displays of pomp and social media magic meant to promote an area still struggling to rebuild as well as bring Ruth’s estranged family back together.
Yet as good intentions often go, this road to wed is hell and paved in complications. With tensions rising between the family and the bridal party, long-buried secrets come to light, and accusations start flying. Things officially spiral out of control when the oceanfront rehearsal dinner is rocked by a series of gunshots, and a high-profile guest goes missing. As the investigation gets underway, it turns out that everyone has something to hide.
Big Little Lies meets The Guest List in this gripping page turner that asks the big questions about messy family liaisons, modern media, and the lies we tell the world.
About the Author
Jen Marie Wiggins’s first book, the gifty nonfiction title Married AF: A Funny Guide for the Newlywed or Bride, was published with Sourcebooks in 2022.
She has a background in advertising and public relations, and her writing has appeared in Southern Coastal Weddings, Savannah Magazine, Savannah Homes, and elsewhere. The Good Bride draws much of its inspiration from the devastation and rebuilding struggles of Mexico Beach, Florida, a place near and dear to Jen’s heart.

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

Silent Book Club Feb 22 2025
2025-02-22 16:30 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
When: Saturday, February 22, 2025 at 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM EDT
Price: Free · Duration: 2 hrs
Where: Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen St., Beaufort, SC
Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will hold its second meetup on Saturday, February 22, from 4:30pm-6:30pm at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen St. Designed to offer 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), bringing together two organizations dedicated to fostering community connections and celebrating the love of literature.
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 soon via the SBCB Instagram page at www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort. Come embrace the joy of reading at Silent Book Club Beaufort!
Event Facebook Page

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

An Evening with contributing writers to The Heartbeat of Quiet Streets
2025-02-21 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Friday, February 21, 2025 – 5:00-6:30 PM EDT
Price: Free
Registration: Seating is limited; please call to reserve your spot: 843-379-7025.
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St., Beaufort
Website: Facebook Event Page
The Pat Conroy Literary Center will host a discussion by a panel of contributing writers to the anthology The Heartbeat of Quiet Streets, all members of the Chapin/Irmo Chapter of the South Carolina Writers Association, on Friday, February 21, at 5:00 p.m. Panelists will discuss both the content of the book as well as its publication.
This event is free and open to the public. Copies of the anthology as well as other books by the contributing writers will be available for sale and signing. To reserve a seat in advance, please call 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE ANTHOLOGY AND CONTRIBUTORS
“The Heartbeat of Quiet Streets is an outstanding collection of polished work from authors who know their canvas. The South, small towns and mid-century summers collide in verse with quiet tension and churning drama.”–Kasie Whitener, PhD, University of South Carolina, Darla Moore School of Business
“The Heartbeat of Quiet Streets is an amazing title for a quality compilation of writing pieces. I chose one or two at a time to read, to best enjoy them, sinking into each, basking in the unique world each had to offer. Kudos not only to the writers, but to the editor who made the pieces an admirable whole.”–C. Hope Clark, award-winning author of The Carolina Slade Mysteries, the Edisto Island Mysteries, and the Craven County Mysteries
Glen Bramlitt, an artist and engineer in South Carolina, blends the boundless possibilities of ‘what-if’ with a vivid imagination. His current genre is dystopian fiction. Glen is an accomplished wood-working artist who carved charcuterie boards as a thank you to our guest testimonials.
Sue Cryer served on the South Carolina Writer’s Association Board of Directors and co-edited Catfish Stew, SCWA member’s anthology, The Quill newsletter, and The Petigru Review, now an international publication. She also served on The State Newspaper’s Community Advisory Board and runs a home business. She recently completed a fictional memoir, Surviving Riversedge.
By day, Laura Lanni teaches organic chemistry and oversees her undergraduate research laboratory. When not teaching or writing, she can be found working with writers in her critique group, running, hugging her grandchildren, riding a jet-ski, blogging, and baking.
Carolyn Hartley is a six times #1 best-selling author. She has been in publishing for more than thirty years as an author, publicist, speaker, and publisher for Fortune 500 companies. Her historical fiction trilogy, The Buried Sunshine series, won the International Book Impact Award in 2024 in the Historical Fiction category.
Terresa Cooper Haskew’s poetry and prose has appeared in more than fifty printed journal and anthology issues (Atlanta Review, American Journal of Nursing, The Main Street Rag). Her story, “Living the Dream,” was showcased in 2013 as a short film by Ron Hagell and Shirley Smith. Her first novel, Winston’s Book of Souls is forthcoming in Spring 2025.

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

February 2025 Open Mic Night
2025-02-13 18:00 - 19:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on Thursday, February 13, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured author is Tayler Simon, founder of Liberation Is Lit and author of Phases and Love and Other Forms of Heartbreak. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
When: Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 6 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Price: Free · Duration: 1 hr 30 min
Where: Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.)
Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org
We want to build our community of writers and an appreciation for the art and talent of new, emerging, and long-time writers. Thank you for supporting this partnership!
Event Facebook Page
About our featured author:
Tayler Simon (she/her) is a writer, social worker, and the owner of the bookstore Liberation is Lit. She has self-published three books: Phases: Poems, Writing Our Truths: A Guide to Self-Publishing for BIPOC Writers, and Love and Other Forms of Heartbreak. Tayler is passionate about promoting social liberation through the power of transformative stories.

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