Silent Book Club Beaufort
2025-06-21 16:30 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will hold its next meetup on Saturday, June 21, from 4:30 to 6:30PM at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). A relaxed and pressure-free space for readers of all types, this community gathering invites book lovers to enjoy their current reads in a welcoming and peaceful atmosphere.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is co-sponsored by the Conroy Center and the student book club DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization), 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 via the SBCB Instagram page at www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort.

Camp Conroy: 2025 Summer Camp for Young Writers & Artists ages 13 to 16
2025-06-23 - 2025-06-25 | Robert Smalls Leadership Academy, 43 W. K. Alston Drive, Beaufort, 29906, United States
REGISTRATION: Eventbrite
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.
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 10, 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.
Facebook Page

Camp Conroy 2025 (Camp #2)
2025-06-23 08:30 - 2025-06-27 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

Monthly Teddy Bear Picnic Read-Aloud with DAYLO
2025-07-05 09:30 - 12:00, 2025-08-02 09:30 - 12:00, 2025-09-06 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.

Teddy Bear Picnic Read Aloud with Daylo July 2025
2025-07-05 09:30 - 12:00 | Port Royal Farmers Market, 1615 Ribault Rd, Port Royal, SC, 29935, United States
Saturday July 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.

July 2025 Virtual Open Mic Night
2025-07-10 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, July 10, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured presenter is novelist Abagail Summers, author of After the Storm. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
When: Thursday, July 10, 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:
Abagail Summers is a Lowcountry author of short stories, poetry, and novels—including Life with a Bird Out the Window (2014), Forgiving the Past (2020), The Untold Legacy (2021), and her newest release, After the Storm (2025).
Two of her short stories, Shining Light and Claire De Lune, were published in the anthology An Iron Fist in A Velvet Glove, and both were awarded honorable mention in the Globe Soup 7-Day Writing Contest. Summers earned her BA in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is a member of several writing groups, including Write Like You Mean It, Kingsbridge Writers Circle, Writers Beyond Borders, Charlotte Lit, and Main Street Writes, She has been regular participant in the Pat Conroy Literary Center’s Open Mic Nights.

About After the Storm
June Waters walks away from the country music business at the height of her popularity, leaving people wondering why. But only she knows why. Not even the people closest to her know what’s happening inside her head or her heart. To make matters worse, her dad is dying from lung cancer and can no longer run the farm on his own, which has put her family in jeopardy of losing it all. Against their will, June moves her absent husband and resentful daughter to her hometown of Franklin, Tennessee. But when she’s there, her past weaves its way back into her life, leaving her with many questions about who she is. Not only that, but the hourglass has been turned, the bank starts the foreclosure process. As she balances on the high wire of life, she must make an agonizing choice: Fight for the land she loves by heading back to Nashville with her pride tucked back into her pocket, or become the mother her daughter needs her to be.

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 Abagail Summers, Author of After the Storm
2025-07-10 18:00 - 19:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be presented as a virtual event, live-streamed to our Facebook page, on Thursday, July 10, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured presenter is novelist Abagail Summers, author of After the Storm. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
Interested in reading as part of virtual Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org.
About Our Featured Author:
Abagail Summers is a Lowcountry author of short stories, poetry, and novels—including Life with a Bird Out the Window (2014), Forgiving the Past (2020), The Untold Legacy (2021), and her newest release, After the Storm (2025). Two of her short stories, Shining Light and Claire De Lune, were published in the anthology An Iron Fist in A Velvet Glove, and both were awarded honorable mention in the Globe Soup 7-Day Writing Contest. Summers earned her BA in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is a member of several writing groups, including Write Like You Mean It, Kingsbridge Writers Circle, Writers Beyond Borders, Charlotte Lit, and Main Street Writes, She has been regular participant in the Pat Conroy Literary Center’s Open Mic Nights.
About After the Storm
June Waters walks away from the country music business at the height of her popularity, leaving people wondering why. But only she knows why. Not even the people closest to her know what’s happening inside her head or her heart. To make matters worse, her dad is dying from lung cancer and can no longer run the farm on his own, which has put her family in jeopardy of losing it all. Against their will, June moves her absent husband and resentful daughter to her hometown of Franklin, Tennessee. But when she’s there, her past weaves its way back into her life, leaving her with many questions about who she is. Not only that, but the hourglass has been turned, the bank starts the foreclosure process. As she balances on the high wire of life, she must make an agonizing choice: Fight for the land she loves by heading back to Nashville with her pride tucked back into her pocket, or become the mother her daughter needs her to be.

An Evening with Katherine Scott Crawford author of The Miniaturist's Assistant
2025-07-17 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Thursday, July 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, in partnership with Beaufort Bookstore, will host an evening with novelist Katherine Scott Crawford, author of The Miniaturist’s Assistant, on Thursday, July 17, 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 call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Miniaturist’s Assistant explores the mystery of time, how our choices ripple throughout history, and what it means to be a fully-realized woman— in any century.
2004: In historic Charleston, recently divorced art conservator Gamble Vance throws herself into her career restoring centuries-old miniature portraits. But one portrait haunts her: a woman in a fox stole, with familiar hazel eyes. When Gamble meets a girl in an alley, she’s convinced it’s the same woman— and it’s not the first time they’ve met. For help, Gamble turns to African American Studies scholar Tolliver Jackson— a former foster kid with secrets of his own. But as Gamble’ s memories resurface, the pair discover a connection which may endanger more than one life… in more than one lifetime.
1804: Miniature portraitist and fallen-away Quaker Daniel Petigru paints for Charleston’ s high society. Daniel and his sister live with a free Black family, their connection long and complicated. When Gamble arrives from the future and her presence puts them all at risk, Daniel must decide if he loves her enough to let her go.
“What a lush, bold novel is The Miniaturist’s Assistant by Katherine Scott Crawford, blending love, intrigue, and the role of portrait art in history for a story that is as suspenseful as it is wildly romantic. I’m not a fan of time travel tales in general, but the astounding journey of art restorer Gamble Vance through the Charleston of the present and the very long past transcends genre and takes the reader places that are entirely new.”—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and The Birdwatcher
“The Miniaturist’s Assistant is a multifaceted love story wrapped in a mystery that unfurls on the changing winds of history. A rollicking, page-turning tale, this unforgettable novel explores time travel, art, passion, the complexity of past sins, and the abundant promises embedded in the here and now. Katherine Scott Crawford has written a beautiful book steeped in humanity, truth, and wonder.”—Connie May Fowler, author of Before Women had Wings
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Katherine Scott Crawford is the award-winning author of The Miniaturist’s Assistant and Keowee Valley. A former backpacking guide, adjunct professor, and recovering academic, her newspaper column appeared weekly across the country and abroad, including in USA Today, The Detroit Free Press, the Herald Scotland, and more. Winner of a North Carolina Arts Award in fiction, she holds an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.
She’d rather be in the woods with her dog than anywhere else, enjoys curious people, adventure, and snow—and believes historical fiction the best way to time travel. An eleventh-generation Southerner, she directs writing retreats at a remote mountain lodge in Western North Carolina, where she lives with her family.

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 Katherine Scott Crawford, Author of The Miniaturist's Assistant
2025-07-17 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, in partnership with Beaufort Bookstore, will host an evening with novelist Katherine Scott Crawford, author of The Miniaturist’s Assistant, on July 17 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 call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Miniaturist’s Assistant explores the mystery of time, how our choices ripple throughout history, and what it means to be a fully-realized woman— in any century.
2004: In historic Charleston, recently divorced art conservator Gamble Vance throws herself into her career restoring centuries-old miniature portraits. But one portrait haunts her: a woman in a fox stole, with familiar hazel eyes. When Gamble meets a girl in an alley, she’ s convinced it’ s the same woman— and it’ s not the first time they’ ve met. For help, Gamble turns to African American Studies scholar Tolliver Jackson— a former foster kid with secrets of his own. But as Gamble’ s memories resurface, the pair discover a connection which may endanger more than one life… in more than one lifetime.
1804: Miniature portraitist and fallen-away Quaker Daniel Petigru paints for Charleston’ s high society. Daniel and his sister live with a free Black family, their connection long and complicated. When Gamble arrives from the future and her presence puts them all at risk, Daniel must decide if he loves her enough to let her go.
“What a lush, bold novel is The Miniaturist’s Assistant by Katherine Scott Crawford, blending love, intrigue, and the role of portrait art in history for a story that is as suspenseful as it is wildly romantic. I’m not a fan of time travel tales in general, but the astounding journey of art restorer Gamble Vance through the Charleston of the present and the very long past transcends genre and takes the reader places that are entirely new.”—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and The Birdwatcher
“The Miniaturist’s Assistant is a multifaceted love story wrapped in a mystery that unfurls on the changing winds of history. A rollicking, page-turning tale, this unforgettable novel explores time travel, art, passion, the complexity of past sins, and the abundant promises embedded in the here and now. Katherine Scott Crawford has written a beautiful book steeped in humanity, truth, and wonder.”—Connie May Fowler, author of Before Women had Wings
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Katherine Scott Crawford is the award-winning author of The Miniaturist’s Assistant and Keowee Valley. A former backpacking guide, adjunct professor, and recovering academic, her newspaper column appeared weekly across the country and abroad, including in USA Today, The Detroit Free Press, the Herald Scotland, and more. Winner of a North Carolina Arts Award in fiction, she holds an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She’d rather be in the woods with her dog than anywhere else, enjoys curious people, adventure, and snow—and believes historical fiction the best way to time travel. An eleventh-generation Southerner, she directs writing retreats at a remote mountain lodge in Western North Carolina, where she lives with her family.

Silent Book Club Beaufort
2025-07-19 16:30 - 18:30, 2025-08-23 16:30 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will hold its next meetup on Saturday, July 19, from 4:30 to 6:30PM at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). A relaxed and pressure-free space for readers of all types, this community gathering invites book lovers to enjoy their current reads in a welcoming and peaceful atmosphere.

Silent Book Club Beaufort is co-sponsored by the Conroy Center and the student book club DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization).
Unlike traditional book clubs, Silent Book Club Beaufort has no assigned reading, no deadlines, and no discussions required. Whether you prefer ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, textbooks, or paperbacks, readers are invited to bring their book of choice, settle in, and savor the joy of uninterrupted reading among like-minded individuals.

Silent Book Club Beaufort also features a book swap: Leave a book, take a book.

The casual meetups provide an excellent opportunity to discover new book recommendations, make friends, and reconnect with the love of reading. Whether you’re a lifelong bookworm or just getting back into reading, everyone is welcome.

Silent Book Club Beaufort is free to attend and proudly supports local businesses and organizations. Additional dates and locations will be announced via the SBCB Instagram page at www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort.

Silent Book Club Beaufort
2025-07-19 16:30 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902

An Evening with New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Novelist Karen White, Author of That Last Carolina Summer
2025-07-23 17:00 - 19:00 | Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce, 711 Bladen St, Beaufort, SC, 29902, United States
Register: Register at EventBrite
Wednesday, July 23, 2025 · 5 – 7pm EDT
Cost: $40 (no refunds)
Venue: Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce | 711 Bladen Street Beaufort, SC 29902
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center and the Storybook Shoppe bookstore are honored to host an evening with New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist Karen White, author of newly published That Last Carolina Summer. Join us on Wednesday, June 23, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at 711 Bladen Street (BCBCC, ground floor). This event will also feature a special welcome by Conroy Center honorary chair and bestselling author Cassandra King.
Advance registration required; $40 fee includes an autographed copy of That Last Carolina Summer, the author’s presentation, and refreshments. This is a book-with-ticket event; no refunds will be possible. Additional copies of Karen White’s books will also be available for sale and signing through the Storybook Shoppe.
Learn more and register at EventBrite
Website: Facebook Event Page
ABOUT THE BOOK
Beloved bestselling author Karen White returns with a captivating Southern drama about sisterhood, secrets and one woman’s reckoning with the past.
As a child, Phoebe Manigault developed the gift of premonition after she was struck by lightning in the creek near her Charleston home. Plagued throughout her life by mysterious dreams, and always living in the shadow of her beautiful sister, Addie, Phoebe eventually moves to the West Coast, as far from her family as possible. Now, years later, she is summoned back to South Carolina, to help Addie care for their ailing mother.
As Phoebe’s return lures her back into deep-rooted tensions and conflicts, she is drawn to Celeste, whose granddaughter went missing years ago. Their connection brings comfort to Phoebe, while Celeste’s adult grandson Liam resurrects complicated emotions tied to Phoebe’s past.
But the longer Phoebe spends in her childhood home, the more her recurring nightmares intensify—bringing her closer to the shocking truth that will irrevocably change everything. Unfolding against the lush backdrop of the South Carolina Lowcountry, That Last Carolina Summer is an unforgettable story about the unbreakable bonds of family and the gift of second chances.
“This multi-generational story is layered with juicy family secrets while exploring sisterhood, the power of memory, and the pull of home. The perfect summer read.”—Jamie Brenner, bestselling author of A Novel Summer
“Karen White brings all her magnificent storytelling gifts to this stunner of a novel. As much as you want to race along and discover all the secrets, you find yourself stopping to savor the truths she weaves into every twist and turn. If That Last Carolina Summer has a flaw, it is this: you won’t ever want to wake up from its spell.”—Beatriz Williams, bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen White is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author with millions of copies of her books in print in fifteen different languages. When not writing, Karen spends her time reading and bird-watching. She and her husband have two grown children and a spoiled Havanese dog, Sophie, and she divides her time between Atlanta, Georgia, and the northwest Florida coast.

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 NYT Bestselling Novelist Karen White, Author of That Last Carolina Summer
2025-07-23 17:00 - 18:30 | Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center and the Storybook Shoppe bookstore are honored to host an evening with New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist Karen White, author of newly published That Last Carolina Summer. Join us on Wednesday, July 23, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at 711 Bladen Street (BCBCC, ground floor). This event will also feature a special welcome by Conroy Center honorary chair and bestselling author Cassandra King.
Advance registration required; $40 fee includes an autographed copy of That Last Carolina Summer, the author’s presentation, and refreshments. This is a book-with-ticket event; no refunds will be possible. Additional copies of Karen White’s books will also be available for sale and signing through the Storybook Shoppe.
Register at: https://karenwhite-beaufort.eventbrite.com
ABOUT THE BOOK
Beloved bestselling author Karen White returns with a captivating Southern drama about sisterhood, secrets and one woman’s reckoning with the past.
As a child, Phoebe Manigault developed the gift of premonition after she was struck by lightning in the creek near her Charleston home. Plagued throughout her life by mysterious dreams, and always living in the shadow of her beautiful sister, Addie, Phoebe eventually moves to the West Coast, as far from her family as possible. Now, years later, she is summoned back to South Carolina, to help Addie care for their ailing mother.
As Phoebe’s return lures her back into deep-rooted tensions and conflicts, she is drawn to Celeste, whose granddaughter went missing years ago. Their connection brings comfort to Phoebe, while Celeste’s adult grandson Liam resurrects complicated emotions tied to Phoebe’s past.
But the longer Phoebe spends in her childhood home, the more her recurring nightmares intensify—bringing her closer to the shocking truth that will irrevocably change everything. Unfolding against the lush backdrop of the South Carolina Lowcountry, That Last Carolina Summer is an unforgettable story about the unbreakable bonds of family and the gift of second chances.
“This multi-generational story is layered with juicy family secrets while exploring sisterhood, the power of memory, and the pull of home. The perfect summer read.”—Jamie Brenner, bestselling author of A Novel Summer
“Karen White brings all her magnificent storytelling gifts to this stunner of a novel. As much as you want to race along and discover all the secrets, you find yourself stopping to savor the truths she weaves into every twist and turn. If That Last Carolina Summer has a flaw, it is this: you won’t ever want to wake up from its spell.”—Beatriz Williams, bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen White is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author with millions of copies of her books in print in fifteen different languages. When not writing, Karen spends her time reading and bird-watching. She and her husband have two grown children and a spoiled Havanese dog, Sophie, and she divides her time between Atlanta, Georgia, and the northwest Florida coast.

An Evening With Best Selling Author Kiese Laymon - City Summer, Country Summer
2025-07-24 18:00 - 19:30 | Robert Smalls Leadership Academy, 43 W. K. Alston Drive, Beaufort, 29906, United States
MacArthur Genius Grant Honoree and Children’s Book Author Kiese Laymon Visits Beaufort on July 24
The Storybook Shoppe children’s bookstore will host award-winning author Kiese Laymon for an evening of stories on Thursday, July 24, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., at Robert Smalls Leadership Academy (43 W. Alston Dr., Beaufort). This free program for families will include a writing opportunity inspired by our lowcountry summers as well as discussion of Laymon’s debut picture book City Summer, Country Summer in conversation with local students E Achurch and Emily Alaia from DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization). Books will be available for sale and signing. This special event is a community collaboration between the Storybook Shoppe, Robert Smalls Leadership Academy, DAYLO, and the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center.

ABOUT THE BOOKCity Summer, Country Summer is a lyrical and evocative picture book that captures the transformative power of friendship. The story of three Black boys as they embark on a lifechanging summer. The boys spend one special summer exploring the Mississippi woods—and the woulds and coulds of sharing the kind of freeing friendship that is love. Watched over and given space to discover by Grandmama and Mama Lara, New York, Country, and little C find camaraderie in their contrasts and all the unspoken things between them while playing games of Marco Polo in the thick garden and sledding on cardboard by the underpass. With text brimming with love City Summer, Country Summer illustrates the tenuous bonds of friendship Black boys forge with one another.
“A heartfelt, elegantly wrought, and triumphant tribute to Black boy kinship. On the sunny porches of their grandmothers’ neighboring houses and in the cool shadows of the surrounding woods, hesitation becomes tenderness, anxiety becomes laughter, and difference becomes safeness.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Laymon’s text is lyrical and specific…Franklin’s digital illustrations…clearly centers each emotion the boys experience…deeply moving…reveling as it does in the tender bonds of Black boy friendship.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

ABOUT THE AUTHORKiese Laymon is a Black Southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is also the author of the genre-bending novel Long Division and the bestselling memoir Heavy: An American Memoir, winner of the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the 2018 Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. He was also the recipient of the 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard and a MacArthur Genius grant. He currently teaches English and creative writing at Rice University.

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWERSE Achurch is founding president of the DAYLO chapter at The Complete Student and Emily Alaia is president of the Battery Creek High School chapter of DAYLO. Both are rising juniors.

POSTPONED - An Evening with Bestselling Author Kiese Laymon - City Summer, Country Summer
2025-07-24 18:00 - 19:30 | Robert Smalls Leadership Academy
POSTPONED – Due to a travel delay beyond his control, author Kiese Laymon is unable to join us as planned this Thursday evening at Robert Smalls Leadership Academy. His author visit—hosted by the Storybook Shoppe in collaboration with DAYLO and the Conroy Center—will be rescheduled.
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MacArthur Genius Grant Honoree and Children’s Book Author Kiese Laymon Visits Beaufort on July 24
The Storybook Shoppe children’s bookstore will host award-winning author Kiese Laymon for an evening of stories on Thursday, July 24, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., at Robert Smalls Leadership Academy (43 W. Alston Dr., Beaufort). This free program for families will include a writing opportunity inspired by our lowcountry summers as well as discussion of Laymon’s debut picture book City Summer, Country Summer in conversation with local students E Achurch and Emily Alaia from DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization). Books will be available for sale and signing.
This special event is a community collaboration between the Storybook Shoppe, Robert Smalls Leadership Academy, DAYLO, and the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center.
ABOUT THE BOOK
City Summer, Country Summer is a lyrical and evocative picture book that captures the transformative power of friendship. The story of three Black boys as they embark on a lifechanging summer. The boys spend one special summer exploring the Mississippi woods—and the woulds and coulds of sharing the kind of freeing friendship that is love. Watched over and given space to discover by Grandmama and Mama Lara, New York, Country, and little C find camaraderie in their contrasts and all the unspoken things between them while playing games of Marco Polo in the thick garden and sledding on cardboard by the underpass. With text brimming with love City Summer, Country Summer illustrates the tenuous bonds of friendship Black boys forge with one another.
“A heartfelt, elegantly wrought, and triumphant tribute to Black boy kinship. On the sunny porches of their grandmothers’ neighboring houses and in the cool shadows of the surrounding woods, hesitation becomes tenderness, anxiety becomes laughter, and difference becomes safeness.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Laymon’s text is lyrical and specific…Franklin’s digital illustrations…clearly centers each emotion the boys experience…deeply moving…reveling as it does in the tender bonds of Black boy friendship.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kiese Laymon is a Black Southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is also the author of the genre-bending novel Long Division and the bestselling memoir Heavy: An American Memoir, winner of the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the 2018 Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. He was also the recipient of the 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard and a MacArthur Genius grant. He currently teaches English and creative writing at Rice University.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWERS
E Achurch is founding president of the DAYLO chapter at The Complete Student and Emily Alaia is president of the Battery Creek High School chapter of DAYLO. Both are rising juniors.

Lowcountry Children's Book Fair
2025-07-26 10:00 - 14:00 | Port Royal Sound Foundation, 310 Okatie Hwy, Okatie, SC, 29909, US
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center’s annual Lowcountry Children’s Book Fair will be held on Saturday, July 26, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Port Royal Sound Foundation Weezie Educational Pavilion (310 Okatie Hwy). A dozen local and visiting writers will be on hand with books for sales and signing, along with art activities and readings throughout the day.
Presented in partnership between the Conroy Center, the Port Royal Sound Foundation, the Storybook Shoppe children’s bookstore, and DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization), this free community event is made possible by the generous support of Oyster Cay Collection of Beaufort.
Angela May, the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Islanders middle-grade novels, will be reading at 11:00 a.m. National Park Service Ranger Katherine Freeman will host a special Read with a Ranger program at noon. Michael B. Moore will read from his debut children’s book, Freedom on the Sea, inspired by the life of Beaufort’s iconic historical figure (and Moore’s ancestor) Robert Smalls at 1:00 p.m.
DAYLO student volunteers will be hosting read-alouds and bookmark art projects throughout the day, and local artist Hank Herring will also be teaching free art projects and Lowcountry Wind Symphony will be offering music projects as well. A food truck will be available midday. The Maritime Center will also be freely open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Other participating authors and artists include Joy Corley, author of Percy Goes Camping…Maybe; Margie Cowles Hamner, Magic Ball of Light, Mary T. Jacobs, author of the Big Daddy Series; Martha Jaworowski, author of Sports at First Sight; Carole Marsh, author of the Real Kids, Real Places series; Emma McClure, author/artist of Beautiful Beaufort: A Coloring Book; Nancy Merrill, author of Elf Dust; Ryan Q. Milling, author of Bob’s Truck; Robin Prince Monroe, author of The Glades; Susan Montanari, author of My Dog’s a Chicken; Susan Diamond Riley author of the Delta & Jax Mysteries; Katherine Robinson, author of The Crabs on Calhoun; and Beryl Title, author of Adventures of Roxy the Unicorn. The Storybook Shoppe will have additional local books available for sale.
About the Featured Authors
Angela May is the co-author of The Islanders, a New York Times bestselling middle-grade novel series created with Mary Alice Monroe. The first book in the series, The Islanders, earned several honors, including the South Carolina Children’s Book Award nominee and the Triple Crown Award. Angela is a lowcountry native who now lives in Mount Pleasant with her husband and their two children.
Michael Boulware Moore is the great-great grandson of Robert Smalls, whose heroic journey from slavery to the U.S. Congress is the inspiration for Moore’s first children’s picture book, Freedom on the Sea. He served as the founding president of the International African American Museum in Charleston, and he is a frequent keynote speaker for universities, conferences, museums, and other organizations across the country. He lives in Charleston with his family.
Learn more about the Pat Conroy Literary Center at www.patconroyliterarycenter.org. Learn more about the Port Royal Sound Foundation at www.portroyalsoundfoundation.org.

Lowcountry Children's Book Fair
2025-07-26 10:00 - 14:00

Open Mic Night--Featuring Novelist Michael Spake, Author of Life Close to the Bone
2025-08-14 18:00 - 19:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on Thursday, August 14, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured novelist will be Michael Spake, author of Life Close to the Bone. Open Mic will also include short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org.
About Our Featured Authors
Michael Spake is the author of Life Close to the Bone, his debut novel exploring the intricate layers of the past and the challenge of connecting them to the present. Inspired by his experience playing junior tennis in South Carolina and his career as a healthcare attorney, the novel delves into themes of memory, heritage, and personal transformation. In addition to Life Close to the Bone, Michael has published short stories in Well Read Magazine’s Best of 2023 and 2024, capturing the culture and history of his hometown, Anderson, SC in Well Read Magazine’s Best of 2023 and 2024. Michael graduated from The Citadel in 1994 where he received the Granville T. Prior Award for his exploration of Christian Mysticism in the works of T.S. Eliot. Michael lives in Lakeland, Florida with his wife Mary Lucia Spake. Together they have four children: Henry, Mary Clare, Kathryn, and Vivian.
“In Life Close to the Bone, debut novelist Michael Spake skillfully explores the complexity of the past and the impossibility of ever escaping its impact on the present. As protagonist John Greenburn, a former tennis star turned pharmaceutical ethics attorney, struggles to uncover the potential danger of a new drug, he is drawn back into a past that threatens to undermine all he’s worked to achieve. Despite his reluctance to revisit old traumas, John’s only hope for redemption is to face headlong the long-buried demons he has yet to acknowledge. Ultimately, John’s journey in connecting the past to the present belongs to all of us.”–Cassandra King, author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy

Silent Book Club Beaufort
2025-08-23 16:30 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will hold its next meetup on Saturday, August 23, from 4:30 to 6:30PM at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). A relaxed and pressure-free space for readers of all types, this community gathering invites book lovers to enjoy their current reads in a welcoming and peaceful atmosphere.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is co-sponsored by the Conroy Center and the student book club DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization).
Unlike traditional book clubs, Silent Book Club Beaufort has no assigned reading, no deadlines, and no discussions required. Whether you prefer ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, textbooks, or paperbacks, readers are invited to bring their book of choice, settle in, and savor the joy of uninterrupted reading among like-minded individuals.
Silent Book Club Beaufort also features a book swap: Leave a book, take a book.
The casual meetups provide an excellent opportunity to discover new book recommendations, make friends, and reconnect with the love of reading. Whether you’re a lifelong bookworm or just getting back into reading, everyone is welcome.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is free to attend and proudly supports local businesses and organizations. Additional dates and locations will be announced via the SBCB Instagram page at www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort.

Pat Conroy: An Introduction to a Lowcountry Legend
2025-08-25 18:00 - 20:00 | 21A-1 Market Street. Beaufort, SC 29906
On Monday, August 25, at 6:00-8:00 p.m., Village Social of Habersham will host Pat Conroy: An Introduction to a Lowcountry Legend, presented by Jonathan Haupt, executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. This special event is the first in a series of collaborative lectures and author discussions to be held in partnership between Village Social of Habersham and the Conroy Center from August through February.
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 origin story, the beginnings of his writing and teaching life and exploring some of the major themes of his work, and how the nonprofit literary center established in his memory continues his legacy.
The $25 registration fee includes the presentation, refreshments, and a donation in support of the year-round educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. Register in advance for this event and others in this series at
https://www.villagesocialhabersham.net/upcoming-events
About Our Presenter:
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. He has been honored with the Doug Marlette Literacy Leadership Award, and the South Carolina Association of School Librarians President’s Award. Under Jonathan’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as an American Library Association Literary Landmark, an affiliate of the American Writers Museum, and winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership. With Claire Bennett, Jonathan also serves as co-mentor to the student leaders of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization, who in turn have been recognized with a national commendation from the American Association of School Librarians, the South Carolina Education Association’s Richard W. Riley Award for Human and Civil Rights, and an honorable mention for the South Carolina Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award.

The Prince of Tides Book Club Discussion -- Presented by Jonathan Haupt & Ellen Malphrus
2025-09-09 15:00 - 16:30 | Port Royal Sound Foundation, 310 Okatie Hwy, Okatie, SC, 29909, US
“Wholeness. It all comes back. It’s all a circle.”–Pat Conroy, The Prince of Tides
Pat Conroy’s 1986 masterwork The Prince of Tides is the quintessential lowcountry novel, beloved by millions as their point of entrance into the lush southern geography, lyrical voice, and complex interweaving of fact and fiction which define the author’s literary legacy.
Join Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and USC Beaufort English professor and Writer in Residence Ellen Malphrus for a book club discussion of the novel, its major themes, its 1991 Academy Award-nominated film adaptation, its place in the Conroy literary canon, and its lasting impact on lowcountry literature and lore.
This event will be held at the Port Royal Sound Foundation Maritime Center (310 Okatie Hwy) on Tuesday, September 9, at 3:00-4:30 p.m. Attendees are encourage to read or re-read the novel prior to the event to better facilitate the book club discussion. $10/person. To register, visit portroyalsoundfoundation.org and click the orange “Book A Program” button.
About Our Presenters
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. Under Jonathan’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as an American Library Association Literary Landmark, an affiliate of the American Writers Museum, and winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership.
Dr. Ellen Malphrus is a professor of English and the Writer in Residence at the University of South Carolina Beaufort, where she was honored as the 2022 Professor of the Year. Malphrus is the author of the novel Untying the Moon, a contributing writer to Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, and the author of poetry, creative prose, and scholarly work published in Poetry South, Haight Ashbury Review, Natural Bridge, James Dickey Review, Southern Literary Journal, William & Mary Review, Blue Mountain Review, Fall Lines, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Weber—the Contemporary West, and Literature: Reading and Writing with Critical Strategies.
About The Prince of Tides (from the publisher):
Set in New York City and the low country of South Carolina, The Prince of Tides opens when Tom, a high school football coach whose marriage and career are crumbling, flies from South Carolina to New York after learning of his twin sister’s suicide attempt. Savannah is one of the most gifted poets of her generation, and both the cadenced beauty of her art and the jumbled cries of her illness are clues to the too-long-hidden story of her wounded family. In the paneled offices and luxurious restaurants of New York City, Tom and Susan Lowenstein, Savannah’s psychiatrist, unravel a history of violence, abandonment, commitment, and love. And Tom realizes that trying to save his sister is perhaps his last chance to save himself.
With passion and a rare gift of language, Pat Conroy moves from present to past, tracing the amazing history of the Wingos from World War II through the final days of the war in Vietnam and into the 1980s, drawing a rich range of characters: the lovable, crazy Mr. Fruit, who for decades has wordlessly directed traffic at the same intersection in the southern town of Colleton; Reese Newbury, the ruthless, patrician land speculator who threatens the Wingos’ only secure worldly possession, Melrose Island; Herbert Woodruff, Susan Lowenstein’s husband, a world-famous violinist; Tolitha Wingo, Savannah’s mentor and eccentric grandmother, the first real feminist in the Wingo family.
Pat Conroy reveals the lives of his characters with surpassing depth and power, capturing the vanishing beauty of the South Carolina low country and a lost way of life.

Virtual Open Mic Night -- Featuring Novelist Laura Leigh Morris, Author of The Stone Catchers
2025-09-11 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 presented as a virtual event, live-streamed to our Facebook page, on Thursday, September 11, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured presenter is novelist Laura Leigh Morris, author of The Stone Catchers. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres, with host Melissa Whiteford St. Clair.
Interested in reading as part of virtual Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org.
About Our Featured Author:
Laura Leigh Morris is the author of The Stone Catchers: A Novel (2024), a finalist for the 2024 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, and Jaws of Life: Stories (2018). She’s previously published short fiction and essays in STORY Magazine, North American Review, The Florida Review, and other journals. She teaches creative writing and literature at Furman University in Greenville, SC. To learn more, visitwww.lauraleighmorris.com.
“Laura Leigh Morris pulls her readers deep into a community experiencing generational tragedy and with eagle-eyed attention to the fine grain of human foible and capacity, charts the path through the tempest. In a world where on a daily basis we see our humanity reduced and our storytelling pinched, The Stone Catchers is a precious gift. Morris has given us a compelling, addictive narrative, shot through with a compassion validated by her unflinching gaze and measured, magisterial prose. The Stone Catchers is a marvel. Morris takes one of the toughest subjects to contemplate—a mass shooting—and in lucid prose limns how all of us are beset by pressure that results in questionable decisions. Morris unpacks what it is to be human, her deadly accuracy matched by her consummate delicacy.”–Robert Gipe, author of Pop: An Illustrated Novel
“In The Stone Catchers, Laura Leigh Morris does the thing most Americans refuse to do: She stays with the victims of gun violence long after the twenty-four-hour news cycle has ended. She shows us how the trauma of a school shooting reverberates through a community—not just for the victims themselves, but for all those who feel the effects of their trauma. She does not let us do the thing we most want to do, what we do again and again, which is look away. She demands that we look. That we reckon. That we implicate ourselves in the violence that plays out far too often in our country.”–Neema Avashia, author of Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place

Silent Book Club Beaufort
2025-09-13 16:30 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will meet on Saturday, September 13, from 4:30 to 6:30PM at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). A relaxed and pressure-free space for readers of all types, this community gathering invites book lovers to enjoy their current reads in a welcoming and peaceful atmosphere.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is co-sponsored by the Conroy Center and the student book club DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization).
Unlike traditional book clubs, Silent Book Club Beaufort has no assigned reading, no deadlines, and no discussions required. Whether you prefer ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, textbooks, or paperbacks, readers are invited to bring their book of choice, settle in, and savor the joy of uninterrupted reading among like-minded individuals.
Silent Book Club Beaufort also features a book swap: Leave a book, take a book.
The casual meetups provide an excellent opportunity to discover new book recommendations, make friends, and reconnect with the love of reading. Whether you’re a lifelong bookworm or just getting back into reading, everyone is welcome.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is free to attend and proudly supports local businesses and organizations. Additional dates and locations will be announced via the SBCB Instagram page at www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort.

Firing the Clay: A Poetry Workshop Led by Tim Conroy
2025-09-15 10:00 - 12:00 | Port Royal Sound Foundation, 310 Okatie Hwy, Okatie, SC, 29909, US
In this two-hour writing workshop led by Tim Conroy, poets will explore approaches to revision, considering the content and sound of each word, line, and stanza of each poem. Do you need to lower expectations to generate your first draft? Do you allow the poem to discover its true beginning? Do the prepositional phrases stall the poem into a nosedive? Do your verbs disappoint your poems? Are the adverbs really necessary? Does the poem need its current chronology? Have you played Jenga with the poem to discover its own vision? Does the reader glide across the poem’s dance floor? The workshop challenges the poet to break habits and let revision bring tomorrow’s light and lens to the poem.
The workshop aims to clarify and challenge our identity as poets, to elevate poems through improving habits and engaging in playful revision, to risk failure from disassembling and reassembling for the chance to discover what the clay can reveal, and to forget expectations for an opportunity to find the soul, form, and sound of a better poem. This workshop seeks the poem that’s revealed only through the act of revision, while gladly admitting that some poems fall from the sky from pencils of light. We take solace in rigorous revision, knowing if we break it, we can return to its best version or shove the poem in the sock drawer for a month.
Location and Cost: This is an in-person writers workshop, held at the Port Royal Sound Foundation Martime Center (310 Okatie Hwy). Limited to 15 participants with advance registration required; $45/person. https://Firingtheclayworkshop.eventbrite.com
Tools for the Workshop: Bring your lucky pen or pencil, highlighter, and a notebook for brainstorming and revising activities. Please print copies of 3 poems that need revising. Let’s maneuver, choose, experiment, distill, rejoice, and operate.
Recommended Readings:
Writing in the Lineage of Poetry by Miriam Sagan
Art and Fear: Observations on the Perils of Art Making by David Bayles and Ted Orland
The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction by Dean Young
The Art of Writing by Lu Chi’s Wen Fu, translated by Sam Hamill
Disclosure: This workshop wouldn’t have been possible without the insights and poems of the poet Georgia Popoff who inspires countless poets to examine their revision practices. Georgia Popoff’s books include Psalter: The Agnostic’s Book of Common Curiosities (Tiger Bark Press, 2015), The Doom Weaver (Main Street Rag Publications, 2008), and Coaxing Nectar From Longing (Hale Mary Press, 1997).
About Our Instructor: Tim Conroy, the author of the collections Theologies of Terrain and No True Route, is a former special educator. His poems have been included in numerous journals, compilations, and anthologies. His poems often explore themes of family and nature, incorporating philosophical elements. In 2022, he received the Broad River Prize for prose from Fall Lines, Volume IX. A founding board member of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, established in his brother’s honor, Tim recently moved with his wife Terrye to the beautiful town of Beaufort, South Carolina.

"I Was Born to Be in a Library": Pat Conroy's Great Love of Libraries
2025-09-18 18:00 - 19:00 | Charleston County Public Library, 68 Calhoun St, Charleston, SC, 29401, US
“A library could show you everything, if you knew where to look.”—Pat Conroy, My Reading Life
The author of “The Prince of Tides,” “The Great Santini” and “The Water Is Wide,” Pat Conroy (1945–2016) is synonymous with the literature of the Lowcountry. Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt will discuss Conroy’s lifelong love of books and libraries—focusing on the roles public libraries, school libraries, and Pat’s own personal library played in his writing life.
Through video and audio clips, photographs, and published and unpublished writings by and about Conroy, this presentation welcomes attendees into the book-filled world of one of America’s most beloved writers. Also included will be an overview of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center which honors and continues Conroy’s legacy as writer and educator in his adopted hometown of Beaufort.
This free literary program will be held at the Charleston County Main Library at 68 Calhoun St. in historic downtown Charleston on Thursday, September 18, at 6:00-7:00 p.m.
About Our Presenter
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. 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.

SOLD OUT! Our Prince of Scribes: Featuring Stephanie Austin Edwards, Lynn Seldon, and John Warley
2025-09-22 18:00 - 20:00 | 21A-1 Market Street. Beaufort, SC 29906
SOLD OUT!
Best-selling writer Pat Conroy (1945–2016) inspired a worldwide legion of devoted fans numbering in the millions, but none are more loyal to him and more committed to sustaining his literary legacy than the many writers he nurtured over the course of his fifty-year writing life. In sharing their stories, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on literary life in and well beyond the American South. Winner of 17 book awards, the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy is a collection of remembrances from 67 writers befriended, beloved, taught, mentored, and championed by Conroy—and no two stories are the same. Neither are any two panel discussions among the contributors.
Join us at Village Social of Habersham on Monday, September 22, 6:00-8:00 p.m., for a lively conversation, moderated by Our Prince of Scribes co-editor and Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and featuring a trio of contributing writers: Conroy’s Beaufort High School classmate Stephanie Austin Edwards (author of the novel What We Set in Motion), his Citadel classmate John Warley (author of seven works of fiction and nonfiction, most recently A Jury of One), and Conroy’s friend and mentee, Lynn Seldon (novelist and travel writer, co-author of 100 Things to Do in the Lowcountry Before You Die).
The $25 registration fee includes the presentation, refreshments, and a donation in support of the year-round educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. Register in advance for this event and others in this series at
https://www.villagesocialhabersham.net/upcoming-events

How to Create Suspense: Writers Workshop Led by Melinda Farris
2025-09-25 14:00 - 16:00 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
How to Create Suspense: 5 Unforgettable Cliffhanger-Ending Techniques
How do you keep the reader reading when the average adult’s attention span is 8.25 seconds? Cliffhangers are a technique used by genre writers (who sometimes get a bad rap) to keep their readers reading. And isn’t that what we all aspire to, above everything? Because cliffhangers are sometimes associated with schlocky writing, that doesn’t mean we should ignore their usefulness as a craft tool in all sorts of writing. We’ll look at five chapter-ending cliffhanger techniques with examples you can use in your own writing.
Endorsement: “Melinda prepared an absolutely top-notch seminar about the craft of chapter-ending cliffhangers—a topic I’ve never encountered anyone else teaching about, and for which she devised an entirely original taxonomy of cliffhanger types that is worthy of publication. I can’t think of a more precise, better organized, better supported craft seminar I’ve overseen in my twenty years at Lesley University.”–Michael Lowenthal, author of Charity Girl
Location and Cost: This is an in-person writers workshop, held at the Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St, Beaufort). Limited to 15 participants with advance registration required; $45/person. https://howtocreatesuspense.eventbrite.com
About Our Instructor:
Melinda Farris‘ first career was as a Washington, DC, political operative and international democracy consultant. She worked on Capitol Hill, advised Cabinet nominees on a Presidential transition team, and coached democratic forces in Russia, Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan. Excerpts from her unpublished first novel, The Fourth Degree, have been described as The Da Vinci Code meets National Treasure and received awards from the Southeastern Writers Association, Writer’s Digest, and The Seven Hills Literary Review. Melinda started the St Simons Island Writers Group two years ago, which includes critique groups and networking opportunities for local writers. In two years, the membership has doubled. She graduated in 2023 with an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University. https://www.melindafarrisauthor.com/
