An Evening with McCracken King Poston Jr., Author of Zenith Man
2024-06-27 17:00 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with McCracken King Poston Jr., author of Zenith Man: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom, on Thursday, June 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 through the Beaufort Bookstore. Please call to reserve your seat in advance: 843-379-7025.
About the book and author
Like a nonfiction John Grisham thriller with echoes of Rainman, Just Mercy, and a captivating smalltown Southern setting, this is the fascinating true story—sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking—of an idealistic young lawyer determined to free an innocent neurodivergent man accused of murdering the wife no one knew he had.
In October 1997, the town of Ringgold in northwest Georgia was shaken by reports of a murder in its midst. A dead woman was found in Alvin Ridley’s house—and even more shockingly, she was the wife no one knew he had. Was this small-town TV repair man “a harmless eccentric or a bizarre killer” (Atlanta Journal Constitution). For the first time, Alvin Ridley’s own defense attorney reveals the inside story of his case and trial in an extraordinary tale of friendship and an idealistic young attorney’s quest to clear his client’s name—and, in the process, rebuild his own life.
McCracken Poston Jr. had been a state representative before he lost his bid for U.S. Congress and returned to his law career. Alvin Ridley was a local character who once sold and serviced Zenith televisions. Though reclusive and an outsider, the “Zenith Man,” as Poston knew him, hardly seemed capable of murder.
Alvin was a difficult client, storing evidence in a cockroach-infested suitcase, unwilling to reveal key facts to his defender. Gradually, Poston pieced together the full story behind Virginia and Alvin’s curious marriage and her cause of death—which was completely overlooked by law enforcement. Calling on medical experts, testimony from Alvin himself, and a wealth of surprising evidence gleaned from Alvin’sjunk-strewn house, Poston presented a groundbreaking defense that allowed Alvin to return to his peculiar lifestyle, a free man.
Years after his trial, Alvin was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, a revelation that sheds light on much of his lifelong personal battle—and shows how easily those who don’t fit societal norms can be castigated and misunderstood. Part true crime, part courtroom drama, and full of local color, Zenith Man is also the moving story of an unexpected friendship between two very different men that changed—and perhaps saved—the lives of both.
“A wild ride of love, death, and justice in small-town Georgia . . . McCracken Poston, Jr shares intimate knowledge of a sensational case. This highly engaging read combines the best parts of hard-boiled true crime with a host of colorful characters, a small-town Southern setting, and Poston’s natural gift for gab. The results beg for an eight-part Netflix series.” —Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Wildly entertaining…Zenith Man is a true crime book, but the events described seems more like a John Grisham novel.” —Mystery Tribune
“Poston is a good storyteller and has a good story to tell, with the kinds of twists and turns that will make readers think it’s great fiction—except it all happened.” —Jon Meacham, New York Times bestselling author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
McCracken King Poston, Jr., is a criminal defense attorney and former state legislator in the Georgia House of Representatives. He gained national attention for his handling of several notable cases that were featured on CNN Presents, Dateline NBC, A&E’s American Justice, and Forensic Files. He lives in Ringgold, Georgia. www.mccrackenpostonjr.com

July 2024 Open Mic Night
2024-07-11 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, July 11, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured writer is novelist Rebecca Thompson, winner of the Ann Head Literary Prize and author of the duology The Girl of the Tree and Seeking the Truth. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
When: Thursday, July 11, 2024 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 writer:
Rebecca Thompson started writing during the coronavirus pandemic, determined to complete her first book. Not only has she successfully self-published one novel as a teen author, but now two!
Thompson is the author of the novels The Girl of the Tree and its sequel Seeking the Truth. She is the 2024 winner of the Ann Head Literary Prize at Beaufort High School. She lives in the lowcountry of South Carolina with her mom, dad, brother, two cats, and fish.

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.

Open Mic Night, Featuring Novelist Rebecca Thompson
2024-07-11 18:00 - 19:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on Thursday, July 11, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured writer is novelist Rebecca Thompson, winner of the Ann Head Literary Prize and author of the duology The Girl of the Tree and Seeking the Truth. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org.
About Our Featured Writer
Rebecca Thompson started writing during the coronavirus pandemic, determined to complete her first book. Not only has she successfully self-published one novel as a teen author, but now two! Thompson is the author of the novels The Girl of the Tree and its sequel Seeking the Truth. She is the 2024 winner of the Ann Head Literary Prize at Beaufort High School. She lives in the lowcountry of South Carolina with her mom, dad, brother, two cats, and fish.

Workshop: Mystifying the Familiar Led by Jo Angela Edwins
2024-07-13 14:00 - 16:00 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Register: patconroyliterarycenter.eventbrite.com
Saturday, July 13, 2024 · 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm EST
Cost: $40
Limited to 15 participants (A minimum of five participants is needed for this workshop.)
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St Beaufort, SC 29902
In this workshop, we’ll discuss how imaginative unions in poems can lead to insight. We’ll look at poems like Billy Collins’ “Hippos on Holiday” or Heid E. Erdrich’s “Indigenous Elvis at the Airport” to see the effect of the juxtaposition of the ordinary and the unexpected. As a generative exercise, we’ll also do a writing activity to inspire the beginnings of such a poem.
Saturday, July 13, 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Pat Conroy Literary Center. Limited to 15 participants. (A minimum of five participants is needed for this workshop.) $40/person.
Learn more and register at https://patconroyliterarycenter.eventbrite.com
Website: Facebook Event Page
About our instructor:
Jo Angela Edwins has published poems in over 100 journals and anthologies, including Calyx, descant, The Hollins Critic, and New South. She is the author of the collection A Dangerous Heaven (Gnashing Teeth Publishing, 2023) and the chapbooks Bitten (forthcoming from dancing girl press, 2024) and Play (Finishing Line Press, 2016).
She has received awards from Winning Writers, Poetry Super Highway, and the SC Academy of Authors and is a Pushcart Prize, Forward Prize, Best of the Net, and Bettering American Poetry nominee. A native of North Augusta, she now lives in Florence, where she teaches at Francis Marion University and serves as the first poet laureate of the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.

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.

Mystifying the Familiar: Writers Workshop Led by Jo Angela Edwins
2024-07-13 14:00 - 16:00 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
In this workshop, we’ll discuss how imaginative unions in poems can lead to insight. We’ll look at poems like Billy Collins’ “Hippos on Holiday” or Heid E. Erdrich’s “Indigenous Elvis at the Airport” to see the effect of the juxtaposition of the ordinary and the unexpected. As a generative exercise, we’ll also do a writing activity to inspire the beginnings of such a poem.
Saturday, July 13, 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Pat Conroy Literary Center. Limited to 15 participants. (A minimum of five participants is needed for this workshop.) $40/person. Advance registration required to attend: https://mystifyingthefamiliar.eventbrite.com
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Jo Angela Edwins has published poems in over 100 journals and anthologies, including Calyx, descant, The Hollins Critic, and New South. She is the author of the collection A Dangerous Heaven (Gnashing Teeth Publishing, 2023) and the chapbooks Bitten (forthcoming from dancing girl press, 2024) and Play (Finishing Line Press, 2016). She has received awards from Winning Writers, Poetry Super Highway, and the SC Academy of Authors and is a Pushcart Prize, Forward Prize, Best of the Net, and Bettering American Poetry nominee. A native of North Augusta, she now lives in Florence, where she teaches at Francis Marion University and serves as the first poet laureate of the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.

An Evening with Jo Angela Edwins, Poet Laureate of the Pee Dee
2024-07-13 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Saturday, July 13, 2024 – 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 Jo Angela Edwins, Poet Laureate of the Pee Dee and author of A Dangerous Heaven, on Saturday, July 13, 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. Please call to reserve your seat in advance: 843-379-7025.
Edwins will also lead a poetry writing workshop earlier that afternoon, from 2:00-4:00 p.m.
About A Dangerous Heaven
A Dangerous Heaven creates personal and political conversations that resound through both the sacred and the secular worlds. Jo Angela Edwins has spent the past many years excavating those personal relationships which shape and haunt us. She turns the same observant eye on events happening around the word. From “The Last Wild Elephant Alive” to “Death, A Rock Icon, and Sewage Pipes” Edwins is able to draw the reader into seeing events from her own unique perspective.
“In A Dangerous Heaven, Jo Angela Edwins walks us through a multi-layered grief process for accumulated wrongs and losses: historical, biblical, global, national, and personal. “It is your responsibility to grieve,” one poem says, and this is not a command, but an acknowledgement. These poems don’t look away from wounds, especially those of women, and they don’t turn elsewhere for comfort, yet they leave me feeling seen and comforted. Everyone needs to read this book.”–Katie Manning, author of Tasty Other
“An intimate volume with cosmic reach, witty and compassionate, A Dangerous Heaven transports us through a wide range of emotions, carries us to lofty and surprising places which might be dangerous if we didn’t have Jo Angela Edwins’s sure hand to catch us, to place our feet firmly on home soil. Crafted to honor insight and emotion, these daring poems will keep us company over time, like trusted friends.”–Marilyn Kallet, author of Even When We Sleep
About the Author
Jo Angela Edwins has published poems in over 100 journals and anthologies, including Calyx, descant, The Hollins Critic, and New South. She is the author of the collection A Dangerous Heaven (Gnashing Teeth Publishing, 2023) and the chapbooks Bitten (forthcoming from dancing girl press, 2024) and Play (Finishing Line Press, 2016).
She has received awards from Winning Writers, Poetry Super Highway, and the SC Academy of Authors and is a Pushcart Prize, Forward Prize, Best of the Net, and Bettering American Poetry nominee. A native of North Augusta, she now lives in Florence, where she teaches at Francis Marion University and serves as the first poet laureate of the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.

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 Jo Angela Edwins, Poet Laureate of the Pee Dee and Author of A Dangerous Heaven
2024-07-13 17:00 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with Jo Angela Edwins, Poet Laureate of the Pee Dee and author of A Dangerous Heaven, on Saturday, July 13, 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. Please call to reserve your seat in advance: 843-379-7025.
Edwins will also lead a poetry writing workshop earlier that afternoon, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. Details and registration: https://mystifyingthefamiliar.eventbrite.com
About the book and author
A Dangerous Heaven creates personal and political conversations that resound through both the sacred and the secular worlds. Jo Angela Edwins has spent the past many years excavating those personal relationships which shape and haunt us. She turns the same observant eye on events happening around the word. From “The Last Wild Elephant Alive” to “Death, A Rock Icon, and Sewage Pipes” Edwins is able to draw the reader into seeing events from her own unique perspective.
“In A Dangerous Heaven, Jo Angela Edwins walks us through a multi-layered grief process for accumulated wrongs and losses: historical, biblical, global, national, and personal. “It is your responsibility to grieve,” one poem says, and this is not a command, but an acknowledgement. These poems don’t look away from wounds, especially those of women, and they don’t turn elsewhere for comfort, yet they leave me feeling seen and comforted. Everyone needs to read this book.”–Katie Manning, author of Tasty Other
“An intimate volume with cosmic reach, witty and compassionate, A Dangerous Heaven transports us through a wide range of emotions, carries us to lofty and surprising places which might be dangerous if we didn’t have Jo Angela Edwins’s sure hand to catch us, to place our feet firmly on home soil. Crafted to honor insight and emotion, these daring poems will keep us company over time, like trusted friends.”–Marilyn Kallet, author of Even When We Sleep
Jo Angela Edwins has published poems in over 100 journals and anthologies, including Calyx, descant, The Hollins Critic, and New South. She is the author of the collection A Dangerous Heaven (Gnashing Teeth Publishing, 2023) and the chapbooks Bitten (forthcoming from dancing girl press, 2024) and Play (Finishing Line Press, 2016). She has received awards from Winning Writers, Poetry Super Highway, and the SC Academy of Authors and is a Pushcart Prize, Forward Prize, Best of the Net, and Bettering American Poetry nominee. A native of North Augusta, she now lives in Florence, where she teaches at Francis Marion University and serves as the first poet laureate of the Pee Dee region of South Carolina.

An Evening with novelist Martha B. Boone, author of Mother Charity
2024-07-25 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Thursday, July 25, 2024 – 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 retired surgeon turned novelist Martha B. Boone, author of Mother Charity, in conversation with retired FBI Special Agent turned novelist Dana Ridenour, author of the Lexie Montgomery Series, on Thursday, July 25, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort).
Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited: please reserve in advance to attend this free author event: 843-379-7025.
About Mother Charity
Evolving from a naive girl to a competent female surgeon, Elizabeth has survived the first round of surgery training. What happens next will change her or the hospital forever. After barely surviving her first six months as a trauma intern at Charity Hospital, Dr. Elizabeth Roberts is exhausted from the long hours, senseless violence, and breakneck pace. Despite the tough experience, she has grown to love New Orleans-its food, culture, music, and people. But now she must endure the hardest rotation in the hospital, led by her nemesis… who doesn’t think Elizabeth even belongs in the world of surgery.
Navigating the brutal and exhilarating world of trauma surgery, she wants to do her duty, but has bitten off more than she can chew. It’s great training for a surgeon, but the emotional toll on a previously sweet, young southern lady may be too much to bear. Once the young doctor discovers what she has to give up to overcome her challenges, the question arises: will she continue to pursue her dream? If so, at what cost?
This sequel to Martha Boone’s novel The Big Free continues the gripping story of an intern in surgery and all the trials and tribulations that come with it, from devastating horror to ribald dark humor.
About the Author
Martha B. Boone, M.D. was a surgery resident and urology resident at Tulane and trained at Charity Hospital in New Orleans from 1985- 1991. She is one of the first one hundred women board certified in Urology in the United States. Boone retired from the practice of urology after 35 years to travel and write.
She was challenged by her mentor Dr. Norman McSwain to memorialize the great Charity Hospital in her novels. Mother Charity is her third book and the sequel to The Big Free. She is also the author of the nonfiction book, The Unfettered Urologist.

About the Interviewer
Dana Ridenour is the award-winning author of the Lexie Montgomery FBI Series: Behind the Mask, Beyond the Cabin, and Below the Radar. Ridenour is a retired FBI special agent who spent most of her career as an undercover operative. She now lives and writes in the South Carolina lowcountry.

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 Martha B. Boone, Author of Mother Charity
2024-07-25 17:00 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with retired surgeon turned novelist Martha B. Boone, author of Mother Charity, in conversation with retired FBI Special Agent turned novelist Dana Ridenour, author of the Lexie Montgomery Series, on Thursday, July 25, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited: please reserve in advance to attend this free author event: 843-379-7025.
About Mother Charity
Evolving from a naive girl to a competent female surgeon, Elizabeth has survived the first round of surgery training. What happens next will change her or the hospital forever. After barely surviving her first six months as a trauma intern at Charity Hospital, Dr. Elizabeth Roberts is exhausted from the long hours, senseless violence, and breakneck pace. Despite the tough experience, she has grown to love New Orleans-its food, culture, music, and people. But now she must endure the hardest rotation in the hospital, led by her nemesis… who doesn’t think Elizabeth even belongs in the world of surgery. Navigating the brutal and exhilarating world of trauma surgery, she wants to do her duty, but has bitten off more than she can chew. It’s great training for a surgeon, but the emotional toll on a previously sweet, young southern lady may be too much to bear. Once the young doctor discovers what she has to give up to overcome her challenges, the question arises: will she continue to pursue her dream? If so, at what cost?
This sequel to Martha Boone’s novel The Big Free continues the gripping story of an intern in surgery and all the trials and tribulations that come with it, from devastating horror to ribald dark humor.
About the Author
Martha B. Boone, M.D. was a surgery resident and urology resident at Tulane and trained at Charity Hospital in New Orleans from 1985- 1991. She is one of the first one hundred women board certified in Urology in the United States. Boone retired from the practice of urology after 35 years to travel and write. She was challenged by her mentor Dr. Norman McSwain to memorialize the great Charity Hospital in her novels. Mother Charity is her third book and the sequel to The Big Free. She is also the author of the nonfiction book, The Unfettered Urologist.
About the Interviewer
Dana Ridenour is the award-winning author of the Lexie Montgomery FBI Series: Behind the Mask, Beyond the Cabin, and Below the Radar. Ridenour is a retired FBI special agent who spent most of her career as an undercover operative. She now lives and writes in the South Carolina lowcountry.

Children's Book Fair 2024
2024-07-27 10:00 | Port Royal Sound Foundation Weezie Educational Pavilion, 310 Okatie Hwy, Okatie, 29909
Saturday, July 27, 2024 – 10 am – 2 pm EDT
Price: Free · Duration: 4 hrs
Location: Port Royal Sound Foundation Weezie Educational Pavilion | 130 Okatie Hwy, Okatie, SC 29909
Website: Facebook Event Page
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s annual Lowcountry Children’s Book Fair will be held on Saturday, July 27, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Port Royal Sound Foundation Weezie Educational Pavilion (310 Okatie Hwy, Okatie). The Maritime Center will also be open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and admission is free.
Presented in partnership between the nonprofit Conroy Center, the Port Royal Sound Foundation, the Storybook Shoppe children’s bookstore, and DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization, this special event is free and open to the public.
Student volunteers from DAYLO will be hosting picture book read-alouds and bookmark art projects throughout the day. Featured middle-grade mysteries author Susan Diamond Riley will read from her newest Delta & Jax Mystery, The Sea Devil’s Demise, at 11:00 a.m. Featured bestselling children’s picture book author Antwan Eady will read from his newest book, The Last Stand, at 1:00 p.m.
Other participating authors and artists include Patricia Bee, author of Try’umsee’s Wings; Rebecca Chamberlain, author and artist of Maralee & the Turtles of the Sea; Mary T. Jacobs, author of the Big Daddy Series; Kellie Langan author of the Tinkie and Bobo series; Susan Montanari, author of My Dog’s a Chicken; Katherine Robinson, author of The Crabs on Calhoun; and Laurie Suber, author of Hunting Island Adventures: A South Carolina State Park Adventure with Levi and Skylin.
The Storybook Shoppe will have additional local books available for sale. All participating authors will be available to sign copies of their books. And a food truck will be available for lunch purchases.
About the Featured Authors:
Author of the Delta & Jax Mysteries, award-winning writer and editor Susan Diamond Riley has worked in the fields of publishing, journalism, and education for more than thirty years and has taught and tutored writing at the middle school, high school, and college levels.
She holds a master of arts degree in children’s literature and is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, the South Carolina Writers Association, and the Island Writers Network. She currently lives on Hilton Head Island.
Antwan Eady is the author of the award-winning picture book Nigel and the Moon (illustrated by Gracey Zhang) and the recently released The Last Stand (illustrated by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey).
Down the dirt roads of South Carolina’s lowcountry is where Antwan’s understanding of—and appreciation for—family, community, and land unfolded. Now he shares those stories with the world. When he isn’t writing, he’s visiting schools, libraries, and colleges throughout the country. A graduate of Clemson University, Antwan lives in Savannah, Georgia.

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.

Lowcountry Children's Book Fair
2024-07-27 10:00 - 14:00 | Port Royal Sound Foundation Maritime Center
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s annual Lowcountry Children’s Book Fair will be held on Saturday, July 27, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Port Royal Sound Foundation Weezie Educational Pavilion (310 Okatie Hwy, Okatie). The Maritime Center will also be open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and admission is free.
Presented in partnership between the nonprofit Conroy Center, the Port Royal Sound Foundation, the Storybook Shoppe children’s bookstore, and DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization, this special event is free and open to the public.
Student volunteers from DAYLO will be hosting picture book read-alouds and bookmark art projects throughout the day. Featured middle-grade mysteries author Susan Diamond Riley will read from her newest Delta & Jax Mystery, The Sea Devil’s Demise, at 11:00 a.m. Featured bestselling children’s picture book author Antwan Eady will read from his newest book, The Last Stand, at 1:00 p.m. The National Park Service will also host a special Read with a Ranger program at noon as well.
Other participating authors and artists include Patricia Bee, author of Try’umsee’s Wings; Rebecca Chamberlain, author and artist of Maralee & the Turtles of the Sea; Mary T. Jacobs, author of the Big Daddy Series; Kellie Langan author of the Tinkie and Bobo series; Emma McClure, author/artist of Beaufort Beaufort: A Coloring Book; Susan Montanari, author of My Dog’s a Chicken; Katherine Robinson, author of The Crabs on Calhoun; and Laurie Suber, author of Hunting Island Adventures: A South Carolina State Park Adventure with Levi and Skylin.
The Storybook Shoppe will have additional local books available for sale. All participating authors will be available to sign copies of their books. And a food truck will be available for lunch purchases.
About the Featured Authors:
Author of the Delta & Jax Mysteries, award-winning writer and editor Susan Diamond Riley has worked in the fields of publishing, journalism, and education for more than thirty years and has taught and tutored writing at the middle school, high school, and college levels. She holds a master of arts degree in children’s literature and is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, the South Carolina Writers Association, and the Island Writers Network. She currently lives on Hilton Head Island.
Antwan Eady is the author of the award-winning picture book Nigel and the Moon (illustrated by Gracey Zhang) and the recently released The Last Stand (illustrated by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey). Down the dirt roads of South Carolina’s lowcountry is where Antwan’s understanding of—and appreciation for—family, community, and land unfolded. Now he shares those stories with the world. When he isn’t writing, he’s visiting schools, libraries, and colleges throughout the country. A graduate of Clemson University, Antwan lives in Savannah, Georgia.

August 2024 Open Mic Night
2024-08-08 18:00 - 19:30 | Online – Facebook Live
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be held virtually on Thursday, August 8, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured writer is poet Jessica Goody, author of Phoenix: Transformation Poems. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
When: Thursday, August 8, 2024 at 6 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Price: Free · Duration: 1 hr 30 min
Where: Facebook Live
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 writer:
Jessica Goody is the award-winning author of Defense Mechanisms (Phosphene Publishing, 2016) and Phoenix: Transformation Poems (CW Books, 2019). Her writing has appeared in over one hundred publications, including The Wallace Stevens Journal, Reader’s Digest, Phantom Drift, The High Window, Bird’s Thumb, The Centrifugal Eye, Really System, Along Southern Roads, Event Horizon, The Dime Show Review, Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Seventh Wave, Third Wednesday, The MacGuffin, Harbinger Asylum, and The Maine Review.
Defense Mechanisms was chosen as a “Power Read” by Hilton Head Monthly, a Book of the Month by The Creativity Webzine, and received an Honorable Mention for the 2020 North Street Book Prize. Jessica facilitated poetry slams and taught writing courses for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at USCB. She contributed poetry to the stage productions Womanhood and A Voyage of Poetic Discovery for the Sun City Community Theatre and CoronaVox: Stories from the Front for the Phamaly Theatre Company.
A freelance journalist, she has been a contributing writer for Hilton Head Monthly, The Bluffton Sun, SunSations, Local Life and Bluffton Today. Jessica is the winner of the 2016 Magnets and Ladders Poetry Prize. Her poem “Beachcombing” was recently added to the Hilton Head Poetry Trail.
“Phoenix: Transformation Poems is a rich triumph and marks its author, once again, as an artist whose work should be followed closely by those interested in the forces shaping the future of American poetry.”–Harvey Trabb, author of September 19
“This is strong poetic work.”—Bill Newby, author of Passing Through
“Jessica Goody excels in description, pulling in readers with her use of words to capture the senses.”–Harvee Lau, Book Dilettante

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.

Virtual Open Mic Night, Featuring Jessica Goody, Author of Phoenix: Transformation Poems
2024-08-08 18:00 - 19:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be held virtually on Thursday, August 8, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured writer is poet Jessica Goody, author of Phoenix: Transformation Poems. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org.
About Our Featured Writer
Jessica Goody is the award-winning author of Defense Mechanisms (Phosphene Publishing, 2016) and Phoenix: Transformation Poems (CW Books, 2019). Her writing has appeared in over one hundred publications, including The Wallace Stevens Journal, Reader’s Digest, Phantom Drift, The High Window, Bird’s Thumb, The Centrifugal Eye, Really System, Along Southern Roads, Event Horizon, The Dime Show Review, Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Seventh Wave, Third Wednesday, The MacGuffin, Harbinger Asylum, and The Maine Review. Defense Mechanisms was chosen as a “Power Read” by Hilton Head Monthly, a Book of the Month by The Creativity Webzine, and received an Honorable Mention for the 2020 North Street Book Prize. Jessica facilitated poetry slams and taught writing courses for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at USCB. She contributed poetry to the stage productions Womanhood and A Voyage of Poetic Discovery for the Sun City Community Theatre and CoronaVox: Stories from the Front for the Phamaly Theatre Company. A freelance journalist, she has been a contributing writer for Hilton Head Monthly, The Bluffton Sun, SunSations, Local Life and Bluffton Today. Jessica is the winner of the 2016 Magnets and Ladders Poetry Prize. Her poem “Beachcombing” was recently added to the Hilton Head Poetry Trail.
“Phoenix: Transformation Poems is a rich triumph and marks its author, once again, as an artist whose work should be followed closely by those interested in the forces shaping the future of American poetry.”–Harvey Trabb, author of September 19
“This is strong poetic work.”—Bill Newby, author of Passing Through
“Jessica Goody excels in description, pulling in readers with her use of words to capture the senses.”–Harvee Lau, Book Dilettante

Workshop: Photographic Prompts Led by Amber Wheeler Bacon
2024-08-14 18:00 - 20:00 | Online – ZOOM
Register: patconroyliterarycenter.eventbrite.com
Wednesday August 14, 2024 · 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm EDT
Cost: $45
Limited to 15 participants (A minimum of five participants is needed for this workshop.)
Venue: Zoom
Author Donna Baier Stein said that writers can use photography to “expand… meaning—not in terms of enlarging [an] original work, but in terms of offering more possibilities.”
In this workshop, Expose & Compose: Photographic Prompts led by Amber Wheeler Bacon, we use a combination of professional and amateur photography, including our own family photos, in conversation with poems and short prose to generate creative new work. We’ll use the unconscious subtexts of these photos, the befores and afters, and the memories they evoke. We’ll also take a look at the objective properties of the photographs, including composition and the objects within them to inspire us.
The workshop will include 4 prompts, so come to this class ready to write. What creative possibilities are lying in wait in these photographs? Sign up and find out! All genres welcome!
This virtual workshop will be held via Zoom on August 14, 6:00-8:00 p.m., limited to 15 participants. (A minimum of 5 needed to hold the class.) $45/person.
Learn more and register at https://patconroyliterarycenter.eventbrite.com
Website: Facebook Event Page
About our instructor:
Amber Wheeler Bacon is a writer and teacher whose work has appeared in Crazyhorse, Ecotone, Epiphany, Five Points, Prairie Schooner and Witness. You can find her writing online at Ploughshares and CRAFT. She’s the recipient of the 2018 Breakout Writers Prize sponsored by The Author’s Guild and a 2021 Bread Loaf scholarship. She received the 2022 Lit/South Award for flash fiction, a 2023 Prairie Schooner Award and was a finalist for the 2023 Chautauqua Janus Prize, nominated by Ecotone Magazine.
Amber has an MFA from Bennington College and teaches English at Coastal Carolina University. She’s been a fiction editor at Four Way Review, Managing Editor for South Carolina Writers Association publications and a daily editor at the Southern Review of Books. She lives by the beach in South Carolina and is represented by Amy Bishop-Wycisk at Trellis Literary 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.

Expose & Compose: Photographic Prompts, Workshop Led by Amber Wheeler Bacon
2024-08-14 18:00 - 20:00 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Author Donna Baier Stein said that writers can use photography to “expand… meaning—not in terms of enlarging [an] original work, but in terms of offering more possibilities.” In this workshop, we use a combination of professional and amateur photography, including our own family photos, in conversation with poems and short prose to generate creative new work. We’ll use the unconscious subtexts of these photos, the befores and afters, and the memories they evoke. We’ll also take a look at the objective properties of the photographs, including composition and the objects within them to inspire us. The workshop will include 4 prompts, so come to this class ready to write. What creative possibilities are lying in wait in these photographs? Sign up and find out! All genres welcome!
This virtual workshop will be held via Zoom on August 14, 6:00-8:00 p.m., limited to 15 participants. (A minimum of 5 needed to hold the class.) $45/person.
Register in advance at https://patconroyliterarycenter.eventbrite.com
ABOUT OUR INSTRUCTOR:
Amber Wheeler Bacon is a writer and teacher whose work has appeared in Crazyhorse, Ecotone, Epiphany, Five Points, Prairie Schooner and Witness. You can find her writing online at Ploughshares and CRAFT. She’s the recipient of the 2018 Breakout Writers Prize sponsored by The Author’s Guild and a 2021 Bread Loaf scholarship. She received the 2022 Lit/South Award for flash fiction, a 2023 Prairie Schooner Award and was a finalist for the 2023 Chautauqua Janus Prize, nominated by Ecotone Magazine. Amber has an MFA from Bennington College and teaches English at Coastal Carolina University. She’s been a fiction editor at Four Way Review, Managing Editor for South Carolina Writers Association publications and a daily editor at the Southern Review of Books. She lives by the beach in South Carolina and is represented by Amy Bishop-Wycisk at Trellis Literary Management.

An Evening with Novelist Zackary Vernon, Author of Our Bodies Electric
2024-08-23 17:00 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with novelist Zackary Vernon, author of Our Bodies Electric, on Friday, August 23, 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:
Tormented by his religious family and the broader conservative community of Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, fourteen-year-old Josh struggles with the pressure to conform to their puritanical standards. As he embarks upon his high school years, Josh meets a supportive cast of eccentric small-town characters, falls in love with his classmate, becomes obsessed with David Bowie, and fumbles in his attempts to make his own thongs. But it’s when his elderly neighbor gives him a copy of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” that he begins to understand his own sexuality. Our Bodies Electric is a coming-of-age story that celebrates the exuberance of youth, the individual quest for sexual identity, and the joy of finding connections in the most unexpected of places.
“In this spirited coming-of-age novel, Zack Vernon vividly renders Josh and his fellow middle-school misfits as they seek understanding and acceptance in a world that wishes only to trap them into a stifling conformity. Our Bodies Electric is poignant and comic, and Vernon’s linking Walt Whitman’s celebration of indi-viduality to the characters adds to the novel’s pleasures.”—Ron Rash, author of The Caretaker, Serena, and In the Valley
“I haven’t heard music so sweet and heartfelt since I first read Lewis Nordan. Imagine a novel that sings like a love-drunk cross between The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Breakfast Club. Now imagine it set in the sweltering heat of lowcountry South Carolina. Now imagine it told in the spirit of Walt Whitman. Now imagine that book in your hands.”—Mark Powell, Hurricane Season and The Late Rebellion
Zackary Vernon is a writer and scholar based in Boone, North Carolina. His work has appeared in a range of magazines and journals, including The Bitter Southerner, Carolina Quarterly, and Southern Cultures, and he received the Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize from the North Carolina Literary Review. He is currently an Associate Professor of English at Appalachian State University.

An Evening with novelist Zackary Vernon, author of Our Bodies Electric
2024-08-23 17:30 - 19:00 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Friday, August 23, 2024 – 5:30-7:00 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 Zackary Vernon, author of Our Bodies Electric, on Friday, August 23, 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 Our Bodies Electric
Tormented by his religious family and the broader conservative community of Pawley’s Island, South Carolina, fourteen-year-old Josh struggles with the pressure to conform to their puritanical standards. As he embarks upon his high school years, Josh meets a supportive cast of eccentric small-town characters, falls in love with his classmate, becomes obsessed with David Bowie, and fumbles in his attempts to make his own thongs. But it’s when his elderly neighbor gives him a copy of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” that he begins to understand his own sexuality. Our Bodies Electric is a coming-of-age story that celebrates the exuberance of youth, the individual quest for sexual identity, and the joy of finding connections in the most unexpected of places.
“In this spirited coming-of-age novel, Zack Vernon vividly renders Josh and his fellow middle-school misfits as they seek understanding and acceptance in a world that wishes only to trap them into a stifling conformity. Our Bodies Electric is poignant and comic, and Vernon’s linking Walt Whitman’s celebration of indi-viduality to the characters adds to the novel’s pleasures.”—Ron Rash, author of The Caretaker, Serena, and In the Valley
“I haven’t heard music so sweet and heartfelt since I first read Lewis Nordan. Imagine a novel that sings like a love-drunk cross between The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Breakfast Club. Now imagine it set in the sweltering heat of lowcountry South Carolina. Now imagine it told in the spirit of Walt Whitman. Now imagine that book in your hands.”—Mark Powell, Hurricane Season and The Late Rebellion
About the Author
Zackary Vernon is a writer and scholar based in Boone, North Carolina. His work has appeared in a range of magazines and journals, including The Bitter Southerner, Carolina Quarterly, and Southern Cultures, and he received the Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize from the North Carolina Literary Review.
He is currently an Associate Professor of English at Appalachian State University.

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 lowcountry legend Ron Daise
2024-09-10 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Tuesday, September 10, 2024 – 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 lowcountry legend Ron Daise, author of the newly published novel Raptors in the Ricelands, on Tuesday, September 10, 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 Raptors in the Ricelands
In the twenty-first century fictional community of Georgetown, South Carolina, a story unfolds revealing family secrets and conflicts that challenge cultural beliefs. With bighearted intention, newlyweds Florence and Chadwick Wineglass attempt to promote economic legacy, but their unconscious motives often ensnare those they assist. The Wineglasses become raptor-like in their generosity at a moment when other community members’ intentions also prove to be menacing.
Conveyed in four acts and with chapter names that follow the production stages of Carolina Gold Rice, Raptors in the Ricelands spans the future, the present, and the past, and fosters a message of connection with African diasporic communities around the globe.
Historical accounts include the Orangeburg Massacre; Black church life, particularly in Oconee County as begun during slavery; the launch of White supremacy in Fort Mill; the Reconstruction Era; and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
“Ron Daise is an American griot. In this novel, Daise welcomes us into his village and, with his words, feeds our imagination and spirit. His voice connects our past with the present and helps us to get a glimpse of what our future might look like. This modern-day Gullah tale reflects the experiences of many Americas; in fact, it creates a bridge from the Lowcountry of South Carolina to the world.”–Alison Mc Letchie, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences, South Carolina State University
“The many characters in this fictional story seem familiar and fully realized as Daise expertly shows the reader the connectivity between their lives, their Gullah culture, and the valuable “Carolina Gold” rice. Equally important in this book are the teachings of Marcus Garvey Jr., and the reminder that all that humanity can only move forward when we unselfishly commit to helping those most in need.’–Eric Crawford, author of Gullah Spirituals: The Sound of Freedom and Protest in the South Carolina Sea Islands
About the Author
Ron Daise, a son of St. Helena Island, SC, is an author, performer, educator, and cultural interpreter. His books, productions, and recordings have documented and shaped Gullah Geechee heritage since 1986.
Co-star of “Gullah Gullah Island,” Nick Jr. TV’s award-winning children’s program of the 1990s, Ron also is a former chairman of the federal Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission, and is featured in exhibits at the International African American Museum, Charleston, SC; the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC; and Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, SC.
When not writing and performing, Ron is a baker and owner of Mr. Ron’s Gullahlicious Pound Cakes. A graduate of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), Ron and his wife Natalie reside in Georgetown, SC, and are parents of two adult children.

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 Lowcountry Legend Ron Daise, Author of Raptors in the Ricelands
2024-09-10 17:00 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with lowcountry legend Ron Daise, author of the newly published novel Raptors in the Ricelands, on Tuesday, September 10, 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:
In the twenty-first century fictional community of Georgetown, South Carolina, a story unfolds revealing family secrets and conflicts that challenge cultural beliefs. With bighearted intention, newlyweds Florence and Chadwick Wineglass attempt to promote economic legacy, but their unconscious motives often ensnare those they assist. The Wineglasses become raptor-like in their generosity at a moment when other community members’ intentions also prove to be menacing.
Conveyed in four acts and with chapter names that follow the production stages of Carolina Gold Rice, Raptors in the Ricelands spans the future, the present, and the past, and fosters a message of connection with African diasporic communities around the globe. Historical accounts include the Orangeburg Massacre; Black church life, particularly in Oconee County as begun during slavery; the launch of White supremacy in Fort Mill; the Reconstruction Era; and the Universal Negro Improvement Association.
“Ron Daise is an American griot. In this novel, Daise welcomes us into his village and, with his words, feeds our imagination and spirit. His voice connects our past with the present and helps us to get a glimpse of what our future might look like. This modern-day Gullah tale reflects the experiences of many Americas; in fact, it creates a bridge from the Lowcountry of South Carolina to the world.”–Alison Mc Letchie, Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences, South Carolina State University
“The many characters in this fictional story seem familiar and fully realized as Daise expertly shows the reader the connectivity between their lives, their Gullah culture, and the valuable “Carolina Gold” rice. Equally important in this book are the teachings of Marcus Garvey Jr., and the reminder that all that humanity can only move forward when we unselfishly commit to helping those most in need.’–Eric Crawford, author of Gullah Spirituals: The Sound of Freedom and Protest in the South Carolina Sea Islands
Ron Daise, a son of St. Helena Island, SC, is an author, performer, educator, and cultural interpreter. His books, productions, and recordings have documented and shaped Gullah Geechee heritage since 1986. Co-star of “Gullah Gullah Island,” Nick Jr. TV’s award-winning children’s program of the 1990s, Ron also is a former chairman of the federal Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission, and is featured in exhibits at the International African American Museum, Charleston, SC; the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, DC; and Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, SC. When not writing and performing, Ron is a baker and owner of Mr. Ron’s Gullahlicious Pound Cakes. A graduate of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), Ron and his wife Natalie reside in Georgetown, SC, and are parents of two adult children.

September 2024 Open Mic Night
2024-09-12 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, September 12, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured writer is Deirdre Garr Johns, author of the forthcoming children’s picture book Weathering the Storm and the forthcoming poetry chapbook Fallen Love. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
When: Thursday, September 12, 2024 at 6 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Price: Free · Duration: 1 hr 30 min
Where: Conroy Center (601 Bladen St. Beaufort, SC)
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 writer:
Deirdre Garr Johns writes poetry, nonfiction, and children’s fiction. Her work is often inspired by the beauty of nature and the memories of people and places. Deirdre hopes to inspire others and create a sense of connectedness to the world around us. Deirdre’s poetry has appeared in Sylvia Magazine, South Carolina Bards Poetry Anthology, Eunoia Magazine, Nymeria Magazine, Silver Birch Press, Stone Poetry Quarterly, Pink Magazine, and more. Her nonfiction has appeared in Sasee Magazine.
Fallen Love (Finishing Line Press), her first chapbook collection, will be available for pre-sales this fall and published in January 2025. Her children’s book, Weathering the Storm, will be published later this fall. She currently resides in South Carolina with her family, but Pennsylvania will always be home. She enjoyed a teaching career for eighteen years. Learn more at www.amuseofonesown.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.

Open Mic Night -- Featuring Deirdre Garr Johns
2024-09-12 18:00 - 19:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on Thursday, September 12, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured writer is Deirdre Garr Johns, author of the forthcoming children’s picture book Weathering the Storm and the forthcoming poetry chapbook Fallen Love. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org.
About Our Featured Writer
Deirdre Garr Johns writes poetry, nonfiction, and children’s fiction. Her work is often inspired by the beauty of nature and the memories of people and places. Deirdre hopes to inspire others and create a sense of connectedness to the world around us. Deirdre’s poetry has appeared in Sylvia Magazine, South Carolina Bards Poetry Anthology, Eunoia Magazine, Nymeria Magazine, Silver Birch Press, Stone Poetry Quarterly, Pink Magazine, and more. Her nonfiction has appeared in Sasee Magazine.
Fallen Love (Finishing Line Press), her first chapbook collection, will be available for pre-sales this fall and published in January 2025. Her children’s book, Weathering the Storm, will be published later this fall. She currently resides in South Carolina with her family, but Pennsylvania will always be home. She enjoyed a teaching career for eighteen years. Learn more at www.amuseofonesown.com.

Hilton Head Poetry Trail presented by poet Elizabeth Robin
2024-09-14 14:00 - 16:00 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Saturday, September 14, 2024 – 2:00-4:00 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
Let’s talk about the Hilton Head Poetry Trail
Have you heard? Hilton Head Island has a poetry trail! Want to visit but can’t get there now? Know what’s in store before you go? Learn how to create a trail in your own town? Join us for a special presentation by award-winning poet Elizabeth Robin, all about the Hilton Head Poetry Trail.
A marriage of technology, creative writing, public art, and arts-minded businesses, the Hilton Head Poetry Trail offers a new way to see Hilton Head Island: through the eyes of the poets who live there. Grabbing extra copies of Local Life Magazine? Scan the sign placed inside the front door and read a Pop-up Poets collaboration. Contemplating the landscape as you rest on Toni Morrison’s bench at Mitchelville Freedom Park? Read James Mallory’s poem “The Beautiful Couple.” Confused, asking “What is it?” as you stare at Caracol in Shelter Cove Park? Scan the trail sign and Jacque Markham gives you one interpretation.
It’s the kind of collaboration that makes the arts an experience. A unique approach to a public arts project, this trail brings poetry into public spaces in a permanent-yet-flexible medium. Because it uses QR codes, the trail can track its visits and regularly switch out trail content to include more poets and poems at each site. Monthly visits have averaged over 300 readings from 20-plus states and 4 or more foreign countries in its first year. Some poems have been read over 1,000 times!
The project is a partnership between the town of Hilton Head Island’s Office of Cultural Affairs and the Island Writers Network. The technology guru and idea man on the project is Bill Schmitt, who developed the logo, the sign design and Facebook page. Natalie Harvey, the Director of Cultural Affairs, oversees the sculptures approved for the project and the affixing of signs near the public art and park installations. Poet Elizabeth Robin recruited the poets and the businesses that are participating, and pairs poems to locations.
About the Presenter
Elizabeth Robin, retired teacher and award-winning poet, is the author of three collections of poems published by Finishing Line Press: To My Dreamcatcher (2022), Where Green Meets Blue (2018) and Silk Purses and Lemonade (2017).
She partnered with the Office of Cultural Affairs to establish the Hilton Head Poetry Trail, a 25-station route of local poets. A Piccolo Spoleto Sundown Poet (2023), she won the 2021 Carrie McCray Nickens Fellowship, was an Island Writers Network open mic emcee for eight years, and creates literary programs on Hilton Head Island. Recent work appears in Tall Women, The Jasper Project: Poetry of the People, Poetry Society (SC) Yearbook, Catfish Stew, Ukweli, Drunk Monkeys and others.

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.

The Hilton Head Poetry Trail -- A Presentation by Poet Elizabeth Robin
2024-09-14 14:00 - 16:00 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Let’s talk about the Hilton Head Poetry Trail
Have you heard? Hilton Head Island has a poetry trail! Want to visit but can’t get there now? Know what’s in store before you go? Learn how to create a trail in your own town? Join us for a special presentation by award-winning poet Elizabeth Robin, all about the Hilton Head Poetry Trail.
A marriage of technology, creative writing, public art, and arts-minded businesses, the Hilton Head Poetry Trail offers a new way to see Hilton Head Island: through the eyes of the poets who live there. Grabbing extra copies of Local Life Magazine? Scan the sign placed inside the front door and read a Pop-up Poets collaboration. Contemplating the landscape as you rest on Toni Morrison’s bench at Mitchelville Freedom Park? Read James Mallory’s poem “The Beautiful Couple.” Confused, asking “What is it?” as you stare at Caracol in Shelter Cove Park? Scan the trail sign and Jacque Markham gives you one interpretation.
It’s the kind of collaboration that makes the arts an experience. A unique approach to a public arts project, this trail brings poetry into public spaces in a permanent-yet-flexible medium. Because it uses QR codes, the trail can track its visits and regularly switch out trail content to include more poets and poems at each site. Monthly visits have averaged over 300 readings from 20-plus states and 4 or more foreign countries in its first year. Some poems have been read over 1,000 times!
The project is a partnership between the town of Hilton Head Island’s Office of Cultural Affairs and the Island Writers Network. The technology guru and idea man on the project is Bill Schmitt, who developed the logo, the sign design and Facebook page. Natalie Harvey, the Director of Cultural Affairs, oversees the sculptures approved for the project and the affixing of signs near the public art and park installations. Poet Elizabeth Robin recruited the poets and the businesses that are participating, and pairs poems to locations.
Elizabeth Robin, retired teacher and award-winning poet, is the author of three collections of poems published by Finishing Line Press: To My Dreamcatcher (2022), Where Green Meets Blue (2018) and Silk Purses and Lemonade (2017). She partnered with the Office of Cultural Affairs to establish the Hilton Head Poetry Trail, a 25-station route of local poets. A Piccolo Spoleto Sundown Poet (2023), she won the 2021 Carrie McCray Nickens Fellowship, was an Island Writers Network open mic emcee for eight years, and creates literary programs on Hilton Head Island. Recent work appears in Tall Women, The Jasper Project: Poetry of the People, Poetry Society (SC) Yearbook, Catfish Stew, Ukweli, Drunk Monkeys and others.

An Evening with novelist Roger Jones, author of The Final Victory
2024-09-19 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Thursday, September 19, 2024 – 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 Roger Jones, author of The Final Victory, on Thursday, September 19, 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 Final Victory
In a novel that fuses the riveting action of The Boys in the Boat with the emotional heft of The Fault in Our Stars, twenty men and women with cancer-ridden bodies compete in a grueling race only to discover that real victory is achieved within.
After he is diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer, Tripp Avery feels like all is lost. He finds himself coaching a team of twelve men and eight women with cancer diagnoses of their own, hoping to qualify for the Mixed Masters Dragon Boat national championship and defy their prognoses. If they win, they will represent the United States at the International Dragon Boat races in Hong Kong.
But things soon get complicated, as four of his teammates struggle against their physical limitations and the psychological weight of their conditions. In the summer heat of Chattanooga, their resolve grows thin—along with Tripp’s patience. After a devastating loss to the defending national champions, Tripp can only see the finish line, and he pushes the team even harder. Soon, the team starts to fall apart.
As members of the team collapse under the pressure and one is hospitalized, he must confront his own failings and find a way to move forward. He begins to question his motives, wondering if the win is worth the trauma and what that says about him. Despite the odds, he resolves to rally the team toward a comeback that seems impossible, if only for one final victory.
“What is courage? In this notable debut, Roger Jones explores the strength, resilience, compassion, and willpower of a band of athletes who define courage and triumph over unspeakable odds. These twenty men and women overcome cancer to not merely win a national championship but to survive. I laughed. I cried. I was inspired. The Final Victory is an uplifting novel we all need to read.”—Mary Alice Monroe, New York Times bestselling author
“An inspiring and stirring tale of courage, The Final Victory is inspired by the true story of a group of athletes who face life-threatening illnesses and are bonded together by their indomitable will to win. Jones gives us a novel that is equal parts laugh out loud funny, moving, and uplifting. You will love it!”—Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author
“The Final Victory brilliantly demonstrates that women recovering from breast cancer can lead full and active lives — paddle for sure, but also pick up and hug their grandchildren. Dragon boating challenges the limits of human performance, especially for those with more than their share of hurdles to clear. That’s the magic that Roger Jones captures, and that’s why The Final Victory is a great book.”—Dr. Don McKenzie, Founder of the original Breast Cancer Dragon Boat team
About the Author
Roger Jones, businessman, philanthropist, humanitarian and avid athlete has founded numerous business and community organizations. In 1996, he started Companion Associates, Inc., one of South Carolina’s largest privately held real estate development firms. Companion Associates was distinguished as one of South Carolina’s fastest growing companies by The South Carolina State Chamber of Commerce in 2006. Jones has helped establish and launch a number of non-profit organizations including Reading Partners of South Carolina, Charleston Social Venture Partners, and The Charleston Paddle Club.
During a 2012 trip to East Germany to receive a newly developed intensive radiation treatment for Neuroendocrine Cancer, Jones decided to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a writer. The Final Victory is his first novel. He has had articles and short stories published in several local publications as well as The Writers Digest. Married for forty-seven years, he is the proud father of three children and grandfather of three grandchildren. His life’s greatest lesson is quoted by The Final Victory’s protagonist Tripp Avery, “Forgiveness is the foundation of every miracle.”

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 Roger Jones, Author of The Final Victory
2024-09-19 17:00 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with novelist Roger Jones, author of The Final Victory, on Thursday, September 19, 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:
In a novel that fuses the riveting action of The Boys in the Boat with the emotional heft of The Fault in Our Stars, twenty men and women with cancer-ridden bodies compete in a grueling race only to discover that real victory is achieved within.
After he is diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer, Tripp Avery feels like all is lost. He finds himself coaching a team of twelve men and eight women with cancer diagnoses of their own, hoping to qualify for the Mixed Masters Dragon Boat national championship and defy their prognoses. If they win, they will represent the United States at the International Dragon Boat races in Hong Kong.
But things soon get complicated, as four of his teammates struggle against their physical limitations and the psychological weight of their conditions. In the summer heat of Chattanooga, their resolve grows thin—along with Tripp’s patience. After a devastating loss to the defending national champions, Tripp can only see the finish line, and he pushes the team even harder. Soon, the team starts to fall apart.
As members of the team collapse under the pressure and one is hospitalized, he must confront his own failings and find a way to move forward. He begins to question his motives, wondering if the win is worth the trauma and what that says about him. Despite the odds, he resolves to rally the team toward a comeback that seems impossible, if only for one final victory.
“What is courage? In this notable debut, Roger Jones explores the strength, resilience, compassion, and willpower of a band of athletes who define courage and triumph over unspeakable odds.These twenty men and women overcome cancer to not merely win a national championship but to survive. I laughed. I cried.I was inspired. The Final Victory is an uplifting novel we all need to read.”—Mary Alice Monroe, New York Times bestselling author
“An inspiring and stirring tale of courage, The Final Victory is inspired by the true story of a group of athletes who face life-threatening illnesses and are bonded together by their indomitable will to win. Jones gives us a novel that is equal parts laugh out loud funny, moving, and uplifting. You will love it!”—Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author
“The Final Victory brilliantly demonstrates that women recovering from breast cancer can lead full and active lives — paddle for sure, but also pick up and hug their grandchildren. Dragon boating challenges the limits of human performance, especially for those with more than their share of hurdles to clear. That’s the magic that Roger Jones captures, and that’s why The Final Victory is a great book.”—Dr. Don McKenzie, Founder of the original Breast Cancer Dragon Boat team
About the Author
Roger Jones, businessman, philanthropist, humanitarian and avid athlete has founded numerous business and community organizations. In 1996, he started Companion Associates, Inc., one of South Carolina’s largest privately held real estate development firms. Companion Associates was distinguished as one of South Carolina’s fastest growing companies by The South Carolina State Chamber of Commerce in 2006. Jones has helped establish and launch a number of non-profit organizations including Reading Partners of South Carolina, Charleston Social Venture Partners, and The Charleston Paddle Club.
During a 2012 trip to East Germany to receive a newly developed intensive radiation treatment for Neuroendocrine Cancer, Jones decided to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a writer. The Final Victory is his first novel. He has had articles and short stories published in several local publications as well as The Writers Digest. Married for forty-seven years, he is the proud father of three children and grandfather of three grandchildren. His life’s greatest lesson is quoted by The Final Victory’s protagonist Tripp Avery, “Forgiveness is the foundation of every miracle.”

Workshop: Grammar for Writers, Led by Katherine Tandy Brown & Carol Lucas
2024-09-24 18:00 - 20:00 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Register: patconroyliterarycenter.eventbrite.com
Tuesday, September 24, 2024 · 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm EST
Cost: $45
Limited to 15 participants
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St Beaufort, SC 29902
Now that you’re writing a lot, have you been wondering where that grammar you learned in school has gone? Have daily slang and colloquialisms wrecked your stories and articles? This practical workshop will take you back to Conjunction Junction and fill in all those “memory gaps.” You’ll be writing the king’s English in no time, and your editors will be grateful!
This interactive writers workshop will be held at the Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort) on Tuesday, September 24, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Limited to 15 participants. $45/person. Advance registration required.
Learn more and register at https://patconroyliterarycenter.eventbrite.com
Website: Facebook Event Page
About our instructors:
Katherine Tandy Brown – Freelance travel writer, workshop leader and writing coach for 30+ years; writing a memoir, Anne, Queen of the Wingchair, and a novel, Karma: An Equine Thriller; columnist for Lowcountry Weekly and The Lane Report.

Carol Lucas – High school English teacher for 32 years; coordinator of Service Learning Program for 10 years; author of A Breath Away: One Woman’s Journey through Widowhood; weekly columnist for The Island News.

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.

A Lost Art: Grammar for Writers, Led by Katherine Tandy Brown and Carol Lucas
2024-09-24 18:00 - 20:00 | Pat Conroy Literary Center
Now that you’re writing a lot, have you been wondering where that grammar you learned in school has gone? Have daily slang and colloquialisms wrecked your stories and articles? This practical workshop will take you back to Conjunction Junction and fill in all those “memory gaps.” You’ll be writing the king’s English in no time, and your editors will be grateful!
This interactive writers workshop will be held at the Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort) on Tuesday, September 24, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Limited to 15 participants. $45/person. Advance registration required.
Learn more and register at https://patconroyliterarycenter.eventbrite.com
ABOUT OUR INSTRUCTORS
Katherine Tandy Brown – Freelance travel writer, workshop leader and writing coach for 30+ years; writing a memoir, Anne, Queen of the Wingchair, and a novel, Karma: An Equine Thriller; columnist for Lowcountry Weekly and The Lane Report.
Carol Lucas – High school English teacher for 32 years; coordinator of Service Learning Program for 10 years; author of A Breath Away: One Woman’s Journey through Widowhood; weekly columnist for The Island News.

The Eighth Annual Lowcountry Book Club Convention
2024-09-27 17:00 - 19:00 | Technical College of the Lowcountry – Building 12 Auditorium, 104 Reynolds Street, Bldg 12, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
When: Friday September 27, 2024 5:00-7:00 pm EDT and Saturday, September 28, 2024 10:00 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Where:Friday: Technical College of the Lowcountry, Bldg 12, 104 Reynolds St., Beaufort | Saturday: Culinary Institute of the South | 1 Venture Dr, Bluffton, SC 29910
Registration: Eventbrite
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host the 8th annual Lowcountry Book Club Convention on Friday, September 27, at the Technical College of the Lowcountry in Beaufort, and Saturday, September 28, at the Culinary Institute of the South at the Technical College of the Lowcountry in Bluffton. Ideal for book club members, those interested in joining a book club, or anyone who simply loves the joy of reading, the Lowcountry Book Club Convention is made possible in part the support of the Pulpwood Queens Books Club.
The Lowcountry Book Club Convention will begin on Friday evening with a panel discussion among four authors: novelist Virginia Hall-Apicella (Even a Sparrow), journalist Michael DeWitt (The Fall of the House of Murdaugh), novelist Pete Masalin (Military Brat), and novelist Kim Poovey (Shadows of the War). Moderated by Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt, this opening session will be followed by a book signing and reception, catered by Debbi Covington. This is a ticketed event, held in bldg 12 of Beaufort’s TCL campus (104 Reynolds St., Beaufort).
The Convention continues on Saturday at the Culinary Institute of the South in Bluffton (1 Venture Dr.), with three author keynote conversations and gourmet box lunches catered by Debbi Covington. This year’s keynote authors are award-winning novelist Kimberly Brock (The Fabled Earth), award-winning public school librarian Amanda Jones (That Librarian), and award-winning novelist Rhonda McKnight (The Thing About Home). Each author discussion will be followed by a book signing. This is a ticketed event.
Registration: Eventbrite
Website: Facebook Event Page
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Friday, September 27 — TCL bldg 12, Beaufort
5:00-6:00 p.m. Local author panel discussion, featuring novelist Virginia Hall-Apicella (Even a Sparrow), journalist Michael DeWitt (The Fall of the House of Murdaugh), novelist Pete Masalin (Military Brat), and novelist Kim Poovey (Shadows of the War)
6:00-7:00 p.m. Book signing and reception, catered by Debbi Covington
Saturday, September 28 — Culinary Institute of the South, Bluffton
9:30-10:00 a.m. Check-in Begins
10:00-11:00 a.m. Keynote conversation with award-winning novelist Kimberly Brock, author of The Fabled Earth
11:00-11:30 a.m. Book signing break
11:30-12:30 p.m. Keynote conversation with award-winning public school librarian Amanda Jones, author of That Librarian
12:30-1:30 p.m. Book signing break & lunch: gourmet box lunches, catering by Debbi Covington. (Register by September 22 for lunch)
1:30-2:30 p.m. Keynote conversation with award-winning novelist Rhonda McKnight, author of The Thing About Home
2:30-3:00 p.m. Final book signing break
About the Featured Authors
Kimberly Brock is the bestselling author of The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare, which was shortlisted for the prestigious Townsend Prize for Fiction, and The River Witch, recipient of the Georgia Author of the Year Award. Brock is the founder of Tinderbox Writers Workshop and has served as a guest lecturer for many regional and national writing workshops including at the Pat Conroy Literary Center. A native of North Georgia, she now lives near Atlanta. Her latest novel, The Fabled Earth, will be published on October 1:
“The Fabled Earth is a brilliantly layered, unforgettable story of memory, myth, and found family. Off the coast of Georgia, on Cumberland Island, three separate women search for belonging in the wake of incomprehensible loss. Weaving a stunning Southern landscape, Gilded Age glamour, and the societal turmoil of the late 1950s, Brock takes readers on an epic journey that conjures the longing of forgotten youth while simultaneously reminding us of its dangers. I have never read a novel where the author’s love of storytelling shines more brightly than this one.”–Lynda Cohen Loigman, author of The Matchmaker’s Gift
Amanda Jones has been an educator for 23 years, at the same middle school she attended as a child. She has served as president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians and won numerous awards for her work in school libraries, including School Library Journal Librarian of the Year. A sought-after keynote speaker, Amanda is a frequent volunteer for state and national library associations, as well as a co-founder of the Livingston Parish Library Alliance and founding member of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship. She lives in Livingston Parish, Louisiana.
That Librarian is her first book: “[Jones] is frank, open, emotionally raw, and unwavering. What she endured is every librarian’s worst nightmare, yet she perseveres, offering tips and playbooks for how readers can defend books about LGBTQIA+ topics of interest, sexual health, and more in their own public libraries. A must-read in order to understand the deep and lasting impact of online smear campaigns and enduring need to stand up for books. Jones is an inspiration to everyone combating book bans and her memoir/guidebook should be available to all to help us defend our right to read.” –Booklist (Starred Review)
Rhonda McKnight is the author of several bestselling novels, including An Inconvenient Friend and What Kind of Fool. She is the winner of the 2015 Emma Award for Inspirational Romance of the Year. She loves reading and writing books that touch the heart of women through complex plots and interesting characters in crisis. Themes of faith, forgiveness, and hope are central to her stories. Originally from a small coastal town in New Jersey, Rhonda writes from the comfort of her South Carolina home.
The Thing About Home is her most recent novel: “In this zippy outing from McKnight, a humiliated social media influencer rediscovers her roots . . . McKnight lays out some vivid lowcountry history, and her fully realized characters ring true.”–Publishers Weekly
FEATURED LOCAL AUTHORS
Virginia Hall-Apicella
Michael Dewitt
Pete Masalin
Kim Poovey

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.

Eighth Annual Lowcountry Book Club Convention
2024-09-27 17:00 - 2024-09-28 15:00
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host the 8th annual Lowcountry Book Club Convention on Friday, September 27, at the Technical College of the Lowcountry in Beaufort, and Saturday, September 28, at the Culinary Institute of the South at the Technical College of the Lowcountry in Bluffton. Ideal for book club members, those interested in joining a book club, or anyone who simply loves the joy of reading, the Lowcountry Book Club Convention is made possible in part by the support of the Pulpwood Queens Books Club, with book sales through NeverMore Books.
The Lowcountry Book Club Convention will begin on Friday evening with a panel discussion among four authors: novelist Virginia Hall-Apicella (Even a Sparrow), journalist Michael DeWitt Jr. (The Fall of the House of Murdaugh), novelist Pete Masalin (Military Brat), and novelist Kim Poovey (Shadows of the War). Moderated by Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt, this opening session will be followed by a book signing and reception, catered by Debbi Covington. This is a ticketed event, held in bldg 12 of Beaufort’s TCL campus (104 Reynolds St., Beaufort).
The Convention continues on Saturday at the Culinary Institute of the South in Bluffton (1 Venture Dr.), with three author keynote conversations and gourmet box lunches catered by Debbi Covington. This year’s keynote authors are award-winning novelist Kimberly Brock (The Fabled Earth), award-winning public school librarian Amanda Jones (That Librarian), and award-winning novelist Rhonda McKnight (The Thing About Home). Each author discussion will be followed by a book signing. This is a ticketed event.
Learn more and register in advance at https://lowcountrybookclubconvention2024.eventbrite.com
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Friday, September 27 — TCL bldg 12, Beaufort
5:00-6:00 p.m. Local author panel discussion, featuring novelist Virginia Hall-Apicella (Even a Sparrow), journalist Michael DeWitt Jr. (The Fall of the House of Murdaugh), novelist Pete Masalin (Military Brat), and novelist Kim Poovey (Shadows of the War)
6:00-7:00 p.m. Book signing and reception, catered by Debbi Covington
Saturday, September 28 — Culinary Institute of the South, Bluffton
9:30-10:00 a.m. Check-in Begins
10:00-11:00 a.m. Keynote conversation with award-winning novelist Kimberly Brock, author of The Fabled Earth
1 1:00-11:30 a.m. Book signing break
11:30-12:30 p.m. Keynote conversation with award-winning public school librarian Amanda Jones, author of That Librarian
1 2:30-1:30 p.m. Book signing break & lunch: gourmet box lunches, catering by Debbi Covington. (Register by September 22 for lunch)
1:30-2:30 p.m. Keynote conversation with award-winning novelist Rhonda McKnight, author of The Thing About Home
2:30-3:00 p.m. Final book signing break
FEATURED KEYNOTE AUTHORS
Kimberly Brock is the bestselling author of The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare, which was shortlisted for the prestigious Townsend Prize for Fiction, and The River Witch, recipient of the Georgia Author of the Year Award. Brock is the founder of Tinderbox Writers Workshop and has served as a guest lecturer for many regional and national writing workshops including at the Pat Conroy Literary Center. A native of North Georgia, she now lives near Atlanta. Her latest novel, The Fabled Earth, will be published on October 1: “The Fabled Earth is a brilliantly layered, unforgettable story of memory, myth, and found family. Off the coast of Georgia, on Cumberland Island, three separate women search for belonging in the wake of incomprehensible loss. Weaving a stunning Southern landscape, Gilded Age glamour, and the societal turmoil of the late 1950s, Brock takes readers on an epic journey that conjures the longing of forgotten youth while simultaneously reminding us of its dangers. I have never read a novel where the author’s love of storytelling shines more brightly than this one.”–Lynda Cohen Loigman, author of The Matchmaker’s Gift
Amanda Jones has been an educator for 23 years, at the same middle school she attended as a child. She has served as president of the Louisiana Association of School Librarians and won numerous awards for her work in school libraries, including School Library Journal Librarian of the Year. A sought-after keynote speaker, Amanda is a frequent volunteer for state and national library associations, as well as a co-founder of the Livingston Parish Library Alliance and founding member of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship. She lives in Livingston Parish, Louisiana. That Librarian is her first book: “[Jones] is frank, open, emotionally raw, and unwavering. What she endured is every librarian’s worst nightmare, yet she perseveres, offering tips and playbooks for how readers can defend books about LGBTQIA+ topics of interest, sexual health, and more in their own public libraries. A must-read in order to understand the deep and lasting impact of online smear campaigns and enduring need to stand up for books. Jones is an inspiration to everyone combating book bans and her memoir/guidebook should be available to all to help us defend our right to read.” –Booklist (Starred Review)
Rhonda McKnight is the author of several bestselling novels, including An Inconvenient Friend and What Kind of Fool. She is the winner of the 2015 Emma Award for Inspirational Romance of the Year. She loves reading and writing books that touch the heart of women through complex plots and interesting characters in crisis. Themes of faith, forgiveness, and hope are central to her stories. Originally from a small coastal town in New Jersey, Rhonda writes from the comfort of her South Carolina home. The Thing About Home is her most recent novel: “In this zippy outing from McKnight, a humiliated social media influencer rediscovers her roots . . . McKnight lays out some vivid lowcountry history, and her fully realized characters ring true.”–Publishers Weekly
FEATURED LOCAL AUTHORS
Hampton County native Michael M. DeWitt Jr. is a multiple-award-winning journalist, longtime editor of the 143-year-old The Hampton County Guardian, and author of Wicked Hampton County and Fall of the House of Murdaugh. DeWitt’s boots-on-the-ground coverage of the Murdaugh crime saga has been published in print and online around Gannett’s nationwide USA TODAY Network, and he has appeared on ABC’s 20/20, CBS’s 48 Hours, Dateline NBC, and Netflix documentaries to discuss the case. As a humorist, DeWitt’s award-winning Southern humor newspaper column, “Southern Voices, Southern Stories,” was published in newspapers from Cape Cod to northern California, and he has been a regular contributor for South Carolina Wildlife magazine, Sporting Classics magazine, and its online counterpart, Sporting Classics Daily. DeWitt is also the author ofthe Images of America volume on Hampton County, a photo history of the place his family has called home for close to three hundred years.
Dr. Virginia (Ginny) Hall-Apicella, a native of Rochester, New York, spent 30 years as a psychologist in the New York City court system, as a consultant in mental health agencies, and in private practice. She specialized in the concerns of women and children. Her debut novel, Even A Sparrow, is a fictional account of her ancestors’ journey from Europe to America in 1815. In addition to psychology-based articles, she has published several short stories and edited a historical newsletter. A self-acknowledged “history nerd, ” she is a docent at a local historic church. When not writing, she enjoys gardening, reading, poker, and croquet. Ginny and her husband have three children and four grandchildren.
Pete Masalin writes what he knows. Born into a Navy family, he experienced all the turns and trials associated with that of a career Navy man. Drawing upon his youthful exploits and adventure, Military Brat is Masalin’s second published offering. It follows his 2016 book The Sorrow of Loss, The Wisdom of Recovery: A Narrative of an Unwanted Journey. He and his wife, Katie reside in historic Beaufort, not far from their six children and three grandchildren, all living in nearby Charleston.
Kim Poovey is an author, storyteller, and Victorian reenactress. Her published works include The Haunting of Monroe Manse, The Haunting of Edgefield Manor, The Haunting of Borden House, Shadows of the Moss, Shadows of the War, Truer Words, Dickens’ Mice: The Tails Behind the Tale, and Through Button Eyes: Memoirs of an Edwardian Teddy Bear. She has also written for several publications including Beaufort Lifestyle magazine, Bluffton Breeze magazine, Citizen’s Companion, and the Civil War Times. She lives in a haunted 1890s Victorian cottage in the South Carolina Lowcountry with her husband and their furry children.

The Eighth Annual Lowcountry Book Club Convention
2024-09-28 10:00 - 15:00 | Culinary Institute of the South, 1 Venture Dr, Bluffton, SC, 29910, United States
