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Technical College of the Lowcountry (Partial) – Beaufort, SC

The Pat Conroy Literary Center Book Club will read and discuss all twelve of Pat Conroy’s memoirs and novels in order of publication, Led by a guest discussion leader, these monthly gatherings are free and open to the public. Participants are asked to read the books before the meetings and to come prepared for discussion.

The eleventh Conroy Center Book Club meeting will be held at the Technical College of the Lowcountry’s MacLean Hall auditorium (bldg 12) and will feature a screening of the video recording of the Conroy Family Panel Discussion from the Pat Conroy at 70 Festival (October 2015) with Pat Conroy; Pat’s siblings Mike, Kathy, Jim, and Tim; Pat’s daughter Melissa; Pat’s wife Cassandra King Conroy; and moderator Walter Edgar. Following the video presentation, our book club discussion of The Death of Santini will be facilitated by Stephanie Austin Edwards, a Beaufort High School classmate of Pat’s, now an award-winning novelist and a frequent workshop instructor for the Conroy Center. No registration is required for this special event.

Website: Facebook Event Page

About THE DEATH OF SANTINI

Pat Conroy’s great success as a writer has always been intimately linked with his family life. While the publication of The Great Santini brought Pat much attention, the public rift it caused with his father generated more attention still. Their long-simmering conflict burst into the open, fracturing an already battered family even further. But as Pat tenderly chronicles here, even the oldest of wounds can heal. In the final years of his life, Don Conroy and his son reached a rapprochement of sorts. Quite unexpectedly, the Santini who had freely doled out backhanded slaps targeted his ire on those who had turned on Pat over the years. He defended his son’s honor.

The Death of Santini is a heart-wrenching account of personal and family struggle, and a poignant lesson in how ties of blood can both strangle and offer succor. It is an act of reckoning, an exorcism of demons, but one whose ultimate conclusion is that love can soften even the meanest of men, giving meaning to one of the most often quoted lines from his bestselling novel. The Prince of Tides: “In families there are no crimes that cannot be forgiven.”

About Stephanie Edwards

Before Stephanie Austin Edwards returned to the Lowcountry of South Carolina, and to her love of writing, she had a twenty-two-year career in New York theater, film, and television
with such talents as Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson, Lauren Bacall, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Hal Prince, Stephen Sondheim, Bill Cosby, and Michael Bennett. Stephanie now writes fiction and non-fiction, facilitates writers groups, teaches writing workshops, and consults with authors. Her debut novel, What We Set in Motion, won a Best Submission Award at the Atlanta Writer’s Club Conference. She is also a contributing writer to Our Prince of Scribes, an award-winning anthology about her high school friend and classmate, Pat Conroy, and a contributing writer to Short Story America VI. At the Pat Conroy Literary Center, Stephanie volunteers, leads writing workshops, and co-chairs the twice-monthly meetings of the Lowcountry Writers Group, a chapter of the South Carolina Writers Association. She lives and writes in nearby Port Royal.


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.

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