Presented by the Pat Conroy Literary Center, this first-ever Lowcountry Book Club Convention is an opportunity for book club members–or anyone interested in joining a book club–to meet, mingle, and exchange ideas about fostering and sustaining a community of readers. Free and open to the public, the Lowcountry Book Club Convention is sponsored by South Carolina Humanities and the Pulpwood Queens book club, and presented in partnership with the Technical College of the Lowcountry and the Friends of Beaufort County Library.

Free registration: https://lowcountrybookclubconvention2017.bpt.me/

Website: Facebook Event Page

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

10:00-11:00 am: Read Like a Critic: Current and former book review professionals will discuss how they approach engaging with books and critiquing them to the benefit of fellow readers. Panelists: Adam Parker (current books editor for the Charleston Post & Courier), and Teresa Weaver (former books editor for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Atlanta magazine), moderated by Margaret Evans (the Lowcountry Weekly).

11:00 am-Noon: Will Schwalbe, author of Books for Living and The End of Your Life Book Club, in conversation with Cassandra King Conroy, author of Moonrise. A Pat Conroy Literary Center Visiting Writers Series program, sponsored by the Pulpwood Queens book club. Join this keynote event for the Lowcountry Book Club Convention! Click anywhere… 

Noon-1:30 PM: Meet & mingle lunch break with the It’s Only Fair food truck and the Beaufort Counrty Library Bookmobile. Book signing with Will Schwalbe and Cassandra King Conroy.

1:30-2:45 PM: Keeping Your Book Club from Becoming a Wine Club: Hear successful models for book discussion, title selection, and membership recruitment and retention from representative members of lowcountry book clubs. Panelists: Jackie Cordray (the Bookmarkers, Hilton Head), Tamela Maxim (Second Thursday Book Club, Bluffton), Calvin Lamar (Chapter 5, Sun City), Kathy Kilgore (Ex Libris Book Club, Beaufort), Pattie Welek Hall (Pulpwood Queens, Charleston), and Lawton O’Cain (Estill Book Club), moderated by Marilyn Harcharik (Friends of the Beaufort Library).

3:00-4:30 PM: Book Club Recommended Lowcountry Writers: Meet local writers whose books have been read,discussed, and recommended by lowcountry book clubs. Panelists: Pattie Welek Hall (A Mother’s Dance), J.C. Sasser (Gradle Bird), Kathryn Wall (the Bay Tanner mysteries), John Warley (A Southern Girl), and others to be announced, moderated by Ellen Malphrus (Untying the Moon).

This program is sponsored by South Carolina Humanities, a not-for-profit organization inspiring, engaging, and enriching South Carolinians with programs on literature, history, culture, and heritage. www.schumanities.org