West Ashley, SC – Barnes & Noble bookstore

New York Times 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 50-year writing life. In sharing their stories of Conroy, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on 20th- and 21st-century literary life in and well beyond the American South.

Featured writers for this conversation and signing are Nathalie Dupree, Jonathan Haupt, Josephine Humphreys, and Sean Scapellato. Book sales from this event benefit the Cynthia Graham Hurd Foundation for Literacy and Civic Engagement.

Website: Facebook Event Page

Praise for “OUR PRINCE OF SCRIBES”

“Our Prince of Scribes isn’t just a collection of homages but also a delightful introduction to Conroy’s vast and talented circle of talented friends.”—Washington Post

“More than 60 writers–from Pulitzer Prize winners to Conroy relatives to Barbra Streisand–fill Our Prince of Scribes with personal stories about [Pat Conroy’s] impact. Some address his complex personality, while others, like Nathalie Dupree, offer corrections to his ‘tall tales.’ The result is a moving, entertaining read as genuine as the icon himself.”—Charleston Magazine

About our Presenters:

Nathalie Dupree is the best-selling author of more than a dozen cookbooks and she has appeared in more than 300 television shows for the Food Network, PBS, and the Learning Channel. She has been prominently featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune as well as Bon Appétit, Food and Wine, Southern Living, Coastal Living, Better Homes and Garden, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, and Good Housekeeping. Dupree has won James Beard Awards four times, for Southern Memories, Comfortable Entertaining, and Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking, and when recognized as “Who’s Who in American Cuisine.” The founding chair of the Charleston Food and Wine Festival, she also was a founder of Southern Foodways, the Atlanta and Charleston Chapters of Les Dames d’ Escoffier, the American Institute of Wine and Food, and the International Association of Culinary Professionals, of which she was twice president. In 2018, Dupree was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors, the Palmetto State’s Literary Hall of Fame.

Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, the founding director of the annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, and the former director of the University of South Carolina Press, where he created the Story River Books fiction imprint with Pat Conroy. With novelist and artist Nicole Seitz, he is co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, awarded a Silver Medal for Best Regional Nonfiction by the Independent Publisher Book Awards. Haupt’s articles, book reviews, and author interviews have appeared in the Charleston Post & Courier, Beaufort Lowcountry Weekly, Beaufort Lifestyle magazine, Pink magazine, Shrimp, Collards & Grits magazine, Fall Lines literary journal, and the Conroy Center’s Porch Talk blog. He serves as an associate producer and consultant to the SCETV author interview program By the River, on the board of directors of the South Carolina Academy of Authors and the Friends of South Carolina Libraries, on the American Writers Museum affiliates steering committee, and on the South Carolina Humanities advisory committee.

Josephine Humphreys is the Charleston-born author of four novels: Dreams of Sleep, winner of the Pen/Hemingway award for best first novel of 1984; Rich in Love, a New York Times notable Book of the Year, with a movie version starring Albert Finney and Jill Clayburgh; The Fireman’s Fair, also a New York Times notable Book, and Nowhere Else on Earth, winner of the Southern Book award. A graduate of Duke University, Humphreys studied fiction-writing with Reynolds Price and William Blackburn, and has won a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lyndhurst Prize, and a Literature award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is a member of the South Carolina Academy of Authors and the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

Sean A. Scapellato is a writer of fiction and essays, a former creative writing teacher at Charleston County School of the Arts, and now a lawyer in Charleston, South Carolina. He is a contributing writer to Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy.

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.