Thursday, January 23, 2025 – 6:00-7:00 PM EDT
Price: Free
Venue: Charleston County Public Library (68 Calhoun St. Charleston, SC)
Website: Facebook Event Page
On Thursday, January 23, at 6:00-7:00 p.m. the Charleston County Public Library will host Pat Conroy: An Introduction to a Lowcountry Legend. Presented by Jonathan Haupt, executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, this free literary program will be held at the Main Library at 68 Calhoun St. in historic downtown Charleston.
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 writing and teaching life and exploring some of the major themes of his work, as well as how the nonprofit literary center established in his memory now continues his legacy.
About the 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. In 2020, he was honored with the Doug Marlette Literacy Leadership Award, a lifetime achievement recognition presented by the Pulpwood Queens, the largest read-and-meet book club in the U.S. 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.
