Upcoming Events

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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: [...]

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 [...]

“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 [...]

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, [...]

The Pat Conroy Literary Center's monthly Open Mic Night will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on Thursday, December 11, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured poet will be Emily Rosko, author of Weather Inventions. 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 Emily Rosko’s books include: Weather Inventions; Prop Rockery, winner of [...]

On Sunday, January 25, at 3:00-5:00 p.m., at Village Social of Habersham, 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 [...]

On Monday, January 26, at 6:00-8:00 p.m., at Village Social of Habersham, 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 [...]

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: [...]