The Prince of Tides Book Club Discussion -- Presented by Jonathan Haupt & Ellen Malphrus
2025-09-09 15:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | 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/

Ninth Annual Lowcountry Book Club Convention | Beaufort & Bluffton
2025-09-26 17:00 - 2025-09-27 15:00 | Beaufort County
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host our 9th annual Lowcountry Book Club Convention on Friday, September 26, at the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce in Beaufort, and Saturday, September 27, 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 presented in partnership with NeverMore Books and the student book club DAYLO.
The Lowcountry Book Club Convention will begin on Friday evening with a panel discussion among local authors: biographer Nancy Thode (Ahead of Her Time: The Trailblazing Life and Literary Legacy of Ann Head), novelist Karin Gillespie (The Pitch Queen), and travel writers Lynn and Cele Seldon (100 Things to Do in the South Carolina Lowcountry Before You Die). This opening session will be followed by a book signing, with refreshments. This is a ticketed event, held at the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce (711 Bladen St., Beaufort).
The Convention continues Saturday at the Culinary Institute of the South (1 Venture Dr., Bluffton), with three author keynote conversations and gourmet box lunches catered by Debbi Covington. The program will feature a morning discussion with USA Today bestselling novelist Renée Rosen, author of Let’s Call Her Barbie, an afternoon discussion with New York Times bestselling novelist Marie Bostwick, author of The Book Club for Troublesome Women, and a midday conversation between Food Network star Kardea Brown, author of The Way Home, and local favorite Mary Martha Greene, author of The Cheese Biscuit Queen: Kiss My Aspic! Each author conversation will be followed by a book signing. This is a ticketed event.
Advance registration is required by September 20 for this year’s Lowcountry Book Club Convention. Learn more and register at https://lowcountrybookclubconvention2025.eventbrite.com.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Friday, September 26
Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce (711 Bladen St., Beaufort)
5:00-6:00 p.m. Local author panel discussion with Nancy Thode (Ahead of Her Time: The Trailblazing Life and Literary Legacy of Ann Head), Karin Gillespie (The Pitch Queen), and Lynn and Cele Seldon (100 Things to Do in the South Carolina Lowcountry Before You Die).
6:00-7:00 p.m. Book signing with refreshments
Saturday, September 27
Culinary Institute of the South (1 Venture Dr., Bluffton)
9:30-10:00 a.m. Check-in begins
10:00-11:00 a.m. Keynote conversation with USA Today bestselling novelist Renée Rosen, author of Let’s Call Her Barbie
11:00-11:30 a.m. Book signing break
11:30-12:30 p.m. Keynote conversation between New York Times bestselling cookbook writer and Food Network star Kardea Brown, author of The Way Home, and local favorite Mary Martha Greene, author of The Cheese Biscuit Queen: Kiss My Aspic!
12:30-1:30 p.m. Book signing break and lunch: gourmet box lunches, catering by Debbi Covington. (Register by September 22 for lunch)
1:30-2:30 p.m. Keynote conversation with New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist Marie Bostwick, author of The Book Club for Troublesome Women
2:30-3:00 p.m. Final book signing break
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Featured Local Authors
Karin Gillespie is the author of nine novels, most recently The Pitch Queen. She’s a former book columnist for the Augusta Chronicle, a former humor columnist for Augusta Magazine, and a recipient of a 2016 Georgia Author of the Year Award. Her non-fiction work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post and Writer Magazine, and she also has a popular Substack called “Pitch Your Novel.” Gillespie earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Converse College; she now lives and writes in Savannah.
Lynn and Cele Seldon are veteran travel journalists and published authors of many travel guidebooks, including 100 Things to Do in Charleston Before You Die, 100 Things to Do in Savannah Before You Die, and the forthcoming 100 Things to Do in the South Carolina Lowcountry Before You Die. The duo has spent more than 35 years covering all aspects of travel, with their work appearing in Southern Living, Garden & Gun, The Local Palate, South Carolina Living, USA Today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, FoodNetwork.com, USA Today, and many others. The Seldons are based in Beaufort.
A native of Beaufort, Nancy Head Thode is a graduate of Ashley Hall School, Towson State University, and the University of Maryland School of Social Work. An early advocate for family mediation, she was a founding board member of the Academy of Family Mediators and continues her work today as a practicing family psychotherapist. Ahead of Her Time, the biography of her mother Ann Head, is her first book.
Keynote Authors
Marie Bostwick is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than twenty works of uplifting contemporary and historical fiction—most recently The Book Club for Troublesome Women, USA Today and Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance bestseller. It was a monthly pick for large national book clubs including the AARP Girlfriends Book Club, Gloss Book Club, and Brenda Novak’s Book Club, and has been includes on numerous “most anticipated” lists, including BookBub’s Best Historical Fiction of 2025. Translated into a dozen languages, Marie’s novels are beloved by readers across the globe. Her 2009 book, A Thread of Truth, was an Indie Next Notable pick. Three of her books were published as Reader’s Digest Select Editions. In addition to books, Marie writes a popular lifestyle blog, Fiercely Marie, that encourages readers to “live every minute and love every moment”. Marie lives in Washington state with her husband and a beautiful but moderately spoiled Cavalier King Charles spaniel.
Kardea Brown is a contemporary Southern Chef, author of the New York Times bestseller The Way Home and the forthcoming Make Do with What You Have (November 2025). She and the creator of the New Gullah Supper Club pop-up, where her menu pays homage to dishes her grandmother and mother passed down to her. She is the host of the hit show Delicious Miss Brown and Kids Baking Championship. She is also a resident judge on Spring Baking Championship and co-hosted seasonal specials, including Kids Baking Championship Thanksgiving in 2023. Kardea lives in Charleston with her husband Bryon and their fur baby Rhubarb.
Mary Martha Greene is a South Carolina native and government relations consultant who perfected her entertaining skills for making friends and engaging clients during her forty-year career. The author of The Cheese Biscuit Queen Tells All: Southern Recipes, Sweet Remembrances, and a Little Rambunctious Behavior, and its sequel, The Cheese Biscuit Queen: Kiss My Aspic, Greene divides her time between Beaufort and Columbia.
Renée Rosen is a USA Today bestselling author. Her novels include Fifth Avenue Glamour Girl, The Social Graces, Park Avenue Summer, Windy City Blues, White Collar Girl, What the Lady Wants and Dollface as well as the young adult novel, Every Crooked Pot. Her newest novel, Let’s Call Her Barbie, about the origin story of the popular doll, is a USA Today bestseller featured in the New York Post, RuPaul’s Book Club, Book Riot, the Nerd Daily, and the Chicago Review of Books. She is a native of Akron, Ohio, and a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C. Rosen now lives and writes in Chicago.
Learn more about the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center at www.patconroyliterarycenter.org.

Nature Writing: Kayak on the Chechessee and Write about It, with Katherine Tandy Brown
2025-09-29 14:00 - 17:00, 2025-11-10 12:00 - 15:00 | 310 Okatie Hwy, Okatie, SC, United States, South Carolina 29909
RSVP Required. Click the orange “Book a Program” button on our website to sign up!
portroyalsoundfoundation.org
We who live in the South Carolina Lowcountry are fortunate to be surrounded by its extraordinary nature – the marsh and its seasons, live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, 180 degrees of ever-changing sky, marsh and shore birds, crabs and dolphins and fish, the bright sunshine that lights this southern world, and of course, water…the ocean and rivers and their tides. In this workshop you’ll kayak on the Chechessee River with guides from the Maritime Center for an afternoon immersion in Carolina’s nature at its finest.
Then – like Henry David Thoreau on Walden Pond – you’ll take pen to paper and write about any part of the adventure you choose. Anyone at any level of writing, from rank beginner to pretty darn good, can write using a method called writing practice, developed by writing workshop guru Natalie Goldberg and presented in her classic book, Writing Down the Bones. You’ll learn how to get rid of the self-critic so that your thoughts flow freely onto the page. And you’ll leave with a chunk of nature writing and a memory of time well spent.
Dress for a journey on the water, and be sure to bring sunscreen, a water bottle, notebook or journal, and several pens.
Katherine Tandy Brown has explored the world as a freelance travel writer for 20-plus years. She has taught memoir writing, travel writing, writing practice, et al, in the USCB’s OLLI Continuing Ed program, Tech College of the Lowcountry, Pat Conroy Literary Center, Palm Key and Thera Vista Retreat Centers, her downtown Beaufort cottage…and nature writing on a sandbar in the Beaufort River, her favorite classroom so far!

Monthly Teddy Bear Picnic Read-Aloud with DAYLO
2025-10-04 09:30 - 12:00, 2025-11-01 09:30 - 12:00, 2025-12-06 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.

An Evening with Elaine Neil Orr, Author of Dancing Woman, in Conversation with Bren McClain
2025-10-07 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center
NeverMore Books and the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with visiting novelist Elaine Neil Orr, author of Dancing Woman, in conversation with fellow novelist Bren McClain, award-winning author of One Good Mama Bone. Free and open to public, this in-person event will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort) on Tuesday, October 7, from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., with books available for sale and signing through NeverMore Books. Seating is limited; please call the store to reserve your spot: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Elaine Neil Orr, born in Nigeria to expat parents, brings us an indelible portrait of a young female artist, torn between two men and two cultures, struggling to find her passion and her purpose. It’s 1963 and Isabel Hammond is an expat who has accompanied her agriculture aid worker husband to Nigeria, where she is hoping to find inspiration for her art and for her life. Then she meets charismatic local singer Bobby Tunde, and they share a night of passion that could upend everything. Seeking solace and distraction, she returns to her painting and her home in a rural town where she plants a lemon tree and unearths an ancient statue buried in her garden. She knows that the dancing female figure is not hers to keep, yet she is reluctant to give it up, and soon, she notices other changes that make her wonder what the dancing woman might portend.
Against the backdrop of political unrest in Nigeria, Isabel’s personal situation also becomes precarious. She finds herself in the center of a tide of suspicion, leaving her torn between the confines of her domestic life and the desire to immerse herself in her art and in the culture that surrounds her. The expat society, the ancient Nigerian culture, her beautiful family, and even the statue hidden in a back room—each trouble and beguile Isabel. Amid all of this, can she finally become who she wants to be?
“Sure to become a popular book club pick.”—Southern Review of Books
“Brimming with vivid description, deeply rooted in time and place, and with a fascinating cast of complicated, enigmatic characters, Dancing Woman is ultimately a story of longing—for a sense of self, community, redemption, and healing—and a profound exploration of the transformative power of art in its many forms.”—Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain and The Trackers
“The urgency of protagonist Isabell Hammond’s voice and her desires mixed with the dreaminess and other-worldliness of the setting creates a singularly spellbinding and original read. I literally could not put this book down!”—Lee Smith, Silver Alert and The Last Girls
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author of six books, Elaine Neil Orr was born and grew up among the forests and rivers of Southwestern Nigeria. Her explorations of home and exile and spiritual connection are rooted in those rich formative years. She comes to the American South by way of that other South in West Africa. After devoting herself to literary scholarship in the early part of her career, Elaine could no longer resist the call of creative writing. She first published a memoir, Gods of Noonday: A White Girl’s African Life, followed by two novels, A Different Sun and Swimming Between Worlds, finalist for the 2019 Phillip H. McMath Post-Publication Book Award in fiction. Dancing Woman is her third novel.
Elaine has received numerous prizes and awards, including most recently the 2023 John Ehle Prize, North Carolina Literary Review, and the 2021 Denny C. Plattner Award in Creative Writing, Appalachian Review. She has won grants from the NEH, the North Carolina Arts Council, and North Carolina Humanities. Elaine received her Ph.D. from Emory University and is Professor of English at North Carolina State University. She also serves on the faculty of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, Andy, and their beloved pup, Sam.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWER
Bren McClain’s critically acclaimed debut novel One Good Mama Bone won the 2017 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction and the 2018 Patricia Winn Award for Southern Literature. It was also named Pulpwood Queen 2017 Book of the Year, a 2017 Great Group Reads by the Women’s National Book Association, a Southeastern Independent Booksellers Association (SIBA) Okra pick, longlisted for SIBA’s Southern Book Prize and a finalist for the 2018 Crook’s Corner Prize. Most recently, the French translation (retitled Mama Red) was selected for the 2021 Prix Maya, an award given for France’s best animal novel. Bren is now working on her next novel, which has already received the gold medal for the William Faulkner Novel-in-Progress. Bren hails from upstate South Carolina, Anderson, where her novel is set.

Open Mic Night--Featuring Debut Novelist Mary J. Nestor, Author of Bus No. 7
2025-10-09 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, October 9, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured novelist will be Mary J. Nestor, author of Bus No. 7. Open Mic will also include short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.
Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org.
About Our Featured Author
Mary J. Nestor attended Marquette University in Wisconsin, and has a bachelor of Business Administration from Washington Adventist University. She has previously published a children’s book, Emily’s Best Birthday Party Ever! Her career as a manager, consultant, and human resources director inspired her second book, Say It Now! Say It Right! How to Handle Tough and Tender Conversations. Nestor enrolled in a writer’s conference in 2016, resulting in Bus No. 7, a finalist in the Novel-In-Progress category of the 2022 William Faulkner Literary Competition.
Nestor lives on Hilton Head Island, where she also sings with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the Hilton Head Choral Society.
“Mary Nestor’s debut novel introduces a collection of unsavory and dangerous characters that sweep the reader into a dark landscape of crime and addiction where even the savvy detective has to play catch-up. Bus No. 7 has readers wondering—what awaits when they turn the next page?”—Karen Dove Barr, author of Burnt Pot Island
“Bus No. 7 is an action-packed ride filled with high-voltage suspense and characters who aren’t always what they seem. The twists and turns in this edgy thriller had me riveted past my bedtime. Mary J. Nestor is a masterful storyteller, and I hope she’s writing a sequel.”—Helen P. Bradley, author of Breach of Trust

Let Freedom Read Day at Witness Tree Park
2025-10-11 14:00 - 16:00 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
“Here is all I ask of a book- give me everything. Everything, and don’t leave out a single word.”—Pat Conroy, My Reading Life
Update: Due to weather, this event will be held inside the Conroy Center.
On Let Freedom Read Day, Saturday, October 11, the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the South Carolina chapter of Authors Against Book Bans, and the DAYLO student book club will host a reading at Witness Tree Park from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Honoring the final day of Banned Books Week, this special event will feature brief readings by local writers and students from frequently challenged and banned books as well as works about pro-literacy advocacy, and original works responding to censorship and erasures. Scheduled to appear: novelist Rebecca Dwight Bruff, poet Tim Conroy, essayist Jonathan Haupt, poet Miho Kinnas, memoirist Carol Lucas, poet Susan Madison, poet Jacquelyn Markham, novelist Valerie Sayers, and DAYLO.
Witness Tree Park is located across King Street from the Conroy Center’s location at 601 Bladen Street in Beaufort. The Center and DAYLO will also host the monthly Silent Book Club Beaufort meet-up that same afternoon, afterwards from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Silent Book Club Beaufort
2025-10-11 16:30 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will meet on Saturday, October 11, from 4:30 to 6:30PM at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). A relaxed and pressure-free space for readers of all types, this community gathering invites book lovers to enjoy their current reads in a welcoming and peaceful atmosphere.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is co-sponsored by the Conroy Center and the student book club DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization).
Unlike traditional book clubs, Silent Book Club Beaufort has no assigned reading, no deadlines, and no discussions required. Whether you prefer ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, textbooks, or paperbacks, readers are invited to bring their book of choice, settle in, and savor the joy of uninterrupted reading among like-minded individuals.
Silent Book Club Beaufort also features a book swap: Leave a book, take a book.
The casual meetups provide an excellent opportunity to discover new book recommendations, make friends, and reconnect with the love of reading. Whether you’re a lifelong bookworm or just getting back into reading, everyone is welcome.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is free to attend and proudly supports local businesses and organizations. Additional dates and locations will be announced via the SBCB Instagram page at www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort.

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

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

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

Pat Conroy's Great Love of Poetry
2025-10-26 15:00 - 17:00 | 21A-1 Market Street. Beaufort, SC 29906
On Pat Conroy’s 80th birthday, Sunday, October 26, at 3:00-5:00 p.m., join Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt at Village Social of Habersham for an engaging exploration of Pat Conroy’s lifelong relationship with poetry as a reader, as a self-described “failed poet,” and as a writer who found a creative outlet for his Great Love of poetry in his lyrical and descriptive prose. Through discussion of Pat’s teachers, mentors, and favorite poets, and through published and unpublished writings spanning the breadth of his life, this presentation fosters a new appreciation for Conroy’s admiration of poetry, his dedication to the writing craft, and the myriad ways in which poetry shines through his storied prose.
– – –
By popular demand, this program is now being offered twice: October 26 AND 27.
– – –
The $25 registration fee includes the presentation, refreshments, and a donation in support of the year-round educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. Register in advance for this event and others in this series at
https://www.villagesocialhabersham.net/upcoming-events
About Our Presenter:
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. He has been honored with the Doug Marlette Literacy Leadership Award, and the South Carolina Association of School Librarians President’s Award. Under Jonathan’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as an American Library Association Literary Landmark, an affiliate of the American Writers Museum, and winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership. With Claire Bennett, Jonathan also serves as co-mentor to the student leaders of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization, who in turn have been recognized with a national commendation from the American Association of School Librarians, the South Carolina Education Association’s Richard W. Riley Award for Human and Civil Rights, and an honorable mention for the South Carolina Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award.

Pat Conroy's Great Love of Poetry
2025-10-27 18:00 - 20:00 | 21A-1 Market Street. Beaufort, SC 29906
On Monday, October 27, at 6:00-8:00 p.m., join Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt at Village Social of Habersham for an engaging exploration of Pat Conroy’s lifelong relationship with poetry as a reader, as a self-described “failed poet,” and as a writer who found a creative outlet for his Great Love of poetry in his lyrical and descriptive prose. Through discussion of Pat’s teachers, mentors, and favorite poets, and through published and unpublished writings spanning the breadth of his life, this presentation fosters a new appreciation for Conroy’s admiration of poetry, his dedication to the writing craft, and the myriad ways in which poetry shines through his storied prose.
– – –
By popular demand, this program is now being offered twice: October 26 AND 27.
– – –
The $25 registration fee includes the presentation, refreshments, and a donation in support of the year-round educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. Register in advance for this event and others in this series at
https://www.villagesocialhabersham.net/upcoming-events
About Our Presenter:
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. He has been honored with the Doug Marlette Literacy Leadership Award, and the South Carolina Association of School Librarians President’s Award. Under Jonathan’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as an American Library Association Literary Landmark, an affiliate of the American Writers Museum, and winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership. With Claire Bennett, Jonathan also serves as co-mentor to the student leaders of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization, who in turn have been recognized with a national commendation from the American Association of School Librarians, the South Carolina Education Association’s Richard W. Riley Award for Human and Civil Rights, and an honorable mention for the South Carolina Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Award.

An Evening with Novelist Carla Damron, Author of The Weird Girl
2025-10-28 17:00 - 18:30 | Pat Conroy Literary Center
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with award-winning novelist Carla Damron, author of The Weird Girl, on Tuesday, October 28, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Damron will be in conversation with Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and DAYLO student leader E Achurch. Free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.
ABOUT THE WEIRD GIRL
“A riveting read that will fill you with outrage and hope.”—Catherine Matthews, author of Releasing the Reins
Award-winning social worker turned award-winning novelist Carla Damron writes crime fiction to make a difference—humanistic cautionary tales populated by believably engaging characters confronting real-world dilemmas.
The Weird Girl heralds the return of Georgia Thayer, the social worker protagonist of Damron’s 2022 novel The Orchid Tattoo, winner of the PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence. Georgia has spent her career fighting for the vulnerable, but nothing could prepare her for being a foster mom to Tessa—a teenager haunted by her traumatic past. Determined to give her a normal life, Georgia’s hopes are crushed when a neighborhood party spirals into disaster, leaving one girl fighting for her life and another who vanishes without a trace.
As Georgia undertakes a frantic search for the missing girl, she uncovers a dangerous fentanyl trade that snakes from hospital emergency rooms to high school hallways to the darkest corners of her city. She is up against a charismatic candidate for attorney general and a ruthless drug kingpin, two powerful men willing to use lethal means to bury their secrets.
With her chosen family threatened, her faith in herself shaken, and an unexpected ally emerging from the shadow, Georgia’s efforts to save one girl puts her own in danger. The clock is ticking. The truth is deadly. And every second lost could mean another life destroyed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carla Damron is a fiction writer and social worker. Her first Georgia Thayer novel, The Orchid Tattoo, won a 2023 PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence. Damron is also the author of The Stone Necklace, which winner of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association’s Star Award for best novel, and of the Caleb Knowles mystery novels: Keeping Silent, Spider Blue, and Death in Zooville. Her novels explore social issues like addiction, homelessness, mental illness, and human trafficking.Her short stories have appeared in Fall Lines, Six Minute Magazine, Melusine, In Posse Review, and other journals. In 2014, Damron was recognized as the South Carolina Social Worker of the Year, and in 2017, she was honored with the Pioneer Award by the University of South Carolina College of Social Work for her advocacy on the state and national levels. She holds a Master in Social Work (USC) and an MFA in creative writing from Queens University. She lives and writes in Columbia, South Carolina.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWERS
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Charleston Post and Courier and a mentor to the student leaders of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization.
E Achurch is junior at the Complete Student, where she is founding president of her school’s chapter of DAYLO: The Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization. She is a counselor for the Conroy Center’s Camp Conroy summer writing and art program and a past participant in the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities summer program.

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

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

Virtual Open Mic Night -- Featuring Devreaux Baker, Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry Winner
2025-11-13 18:00 - 19:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be presented as a virtual event, live-streamed to our Facebook page, on Thursday, November 13, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured presenter is poet Devreaux Baker, winner of the 2025 Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres, with host Melissa Whiteford St. Clair.
Interested in reading as part of virtual Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org.
About Our Featured Author:
Devreaux Baker is a poet who lives on the Mendocino Coast in Northern California. Her awards include the 2025 Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry; 2024 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize, from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; 2022 Fischer International Poetry Prize; 2019 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize; 2017 Joe Gouveia Outermost National Poetry Prize; the 2014 Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Prize; the 2012 Hawaii Council on Humanities International Poetry Prize; the 2011 PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Poetry Award; and the 2010 Women’s Global Leadership Poetry Prize. She is a Fellow at the Macdowell Colony, the Hawthornden Castle, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Her published books of poetry include Hungry Ghosts, out of the bones of earth, Red Willow People, Beyond the Circumstance of Sight, and LIGHT AT THE EDGE. She is the first Poet Laureate of Mendocino County.
“Devreaux Baker’s contemplation of the blues and its artists is beautifully achieved in her poem ‘Blue Requiem,’…Her readers are reminded of history and the many voices in its chorus.”–Susan Kinsolving, judge, Willie Morris Award for Southern Poetry
“A deep wisdom runs throughout Devreaux Baker’s work–a reminder that we are not merely connected to nature, but that we are part of nature itself.”–Katherine Hastings, USA Today bestselling author

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

Our Prince of Scribes: Featuring Margaret Shinn Evans, Bren McClain, and Sean A. Scapellato
2025-11-17 18:00 - 20:00 | 21A-1 Market Street. Beaufort, SC 29906
Best-selling writer Pat Conroy (1945–2016) inspired a worldwide legion of devoted fans numbering in the millions, but none are more loyal to him and more committed to sustaining his literary legacy than the many writers he nurtured over the course of his fifty-year writing life. In sharing their stories, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on literary life in and well beyond the American South. Winner of 17 book awards, the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy is a collection of remembrances from 67 writers befriended, beloved, taught, mentored, and championed by Conroy—and no two stories are the same. Neither are any two panel discussions among the contributors.
Join us at Village Social of Habersham on Monday, November 17, 6:00-8:00 p.m., for a lively conversation, moderated by Our Prince of Scribes co-editor and Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and featuring a trio of contributing writers: Lowcountry Weekly columnist and publisher and Conroy’s past research assistant Margaret Shinn Evans; Willie Morris Award-winning author of One Good Mama Bone, Bren McClain; and writer, former educator, and Pat Conroy Literary Center board chair Sean A. Scapellato.
The $25 registration fee includes the presentation, refreshments, and a donation in support of the year-round educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. Register in advance for this event and others in this series at
https://www.villagesocialhabersham.net/upcoming-events

Silent Book Club Beaufort
2025-11-22 16:30 - 18:30 | 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort, SC, United States, South Carolina 29902
Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will meet on Saturday, November 22, from 4:30 to 6:30PM at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). A relaxed and pressure-free space for readers of all types, this community gathering invites book lovers to enjoy their current reads in a welcoming and peaceful atmosphere.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is co-sponsored by the Conroy Center and the student book club DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization).
Unlike traditional book clubs, Silent Book Club Beaufort has no assigned reading, no deadlines, and no discussions required. Whether you prefer ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, textbooks, or paperbacks, readers are invited to bring their book of choice, settle in, and savor the joy of uninterrupted reading among like-minded individuals.
Silent Book Club Beaufort also features a book swap: Leave a book, take a book.
The casual meetups provide an excellent opportunity to discover new book recommendations, make friends, and reconnect with the love of reading. Whether you’re a lifelong bookworm or just getting back into reading, everyone is welcome.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is free to attend and proudly supports local businesses and organizations. Additional dates and locations will be announced via the SBCB Instagram page at www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort.

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