to select List or Summary Views.
Pat Conroy Literary Center – Beaufort, SC
The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s third annual Camp Conroy will be held on June 15-26, Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. The program will provide campers, age 8-14, with a hands-on program of book-building from start to finish. This year’s theme will focus on trees as an opportunity to tell stories of ourselves, our families, and our environment. Participants will engage in writing, illustrating, photographing, editing and storyboarding, and publishing a book.
In the interest of everyone’s safety, we’ve decided to offer the camp online this summer, still with an emphasis on experiential, collaborative, and creative learning that has been such a welcome and defining feature of our camp experience.
Virtual Camp Conroy will include a mix of daily live interactive video instruction with our lead instructors and a rotating cast of special guest instructors and performers as well as on-your-own art and writing projects, augmented with pre-recorded video guides and backyard and neighborhood field trip assignments. Packets of instructional materials and art project supplies will be provided by mail before the camp. And we’ll hold an in-person culminating event in July when this year’s Camp Conroy book will be unveiled with readings by our campers and a display of their assembled collaborative art projects.
An entirely new aspect of Camp Conroy, made possible our online outreach, will be an opportunity for our registered campers and scholarship recipients to help us edit and publish submissions we’ll be receiving from around the country through a subset of camp activities made freely available to any child anywhere. This is our chance to share a little bit of Camp Conroy’s Great Love with all of those sheltering and educating at home this summer.
In the 2004 Pat Conroy Cookbook, Pat describes his “Bill Dufford Summer” spent on the campus of Beaufort High School (what is now Beaufort Middle School, the site of last year’s Camp Conroy) between his junior and senior years. It was a transformative summer for Pat and for his principal, mentor, and surrogate father figure, Bill Dufford. As Pat writes at the end of his recollection, “I had everything—the best summer of my life.” That has been and remains the goal of our Camp Conroy, to give our campers the best summers of their lives. Regrettably, doing so in person is not possible this summer—but we’ve developed a virtual camp model that we believe will bring the best of what is possible this summer into our campers’ homes and lives. And we hope you’ll join us.
Throughout Virtual Camp Conroy, participants will work with our expert instructors and camp counselors to create, revise, and compile their creative writing and art for publication: stories, essays, poems, artwork, and photographs. The campers will also constructively critique one another’s work, a key and engaging part of the collaborative process.
Website: Facebook Event Page
Link for registrations: campconroy2020.bpt.me
Email us at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org for any details.
Scholarships
A limited number of full and partial scholarships are available. To apply, students should submit a sample of their work (essay, poem, artwork, or photography) by Friday, May 8, to the Pat Conroy Literary Center, 905 Port Republic Street, Beaufort, SC 29902, Attention: Camp Conroy. Scholarship recipients will be contacted by May 29.
Meet our Instructors:
Lisa Anne Cullen is the author or editor of eight children’s books and a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She holds an M.F.A degree in writing for children and pairs this passion with her love of illustration, art, photography, and screenwriting. Lisa has won awards for her artistic and written works and finds pure joy in connecting with the natural world. Her author-illustrated folktales Little Orange Honey Hood and Three Wild Pigs are being released through USC Press’s Young Palmetto Books in the spring and fall of 2018.
Miho Kinnas is a Japanese-born writer and translator, and the author of the poetry collection Today, Fish Only (Math Paper Press 2015). Her work has appeared in various journals and anthologies. Miho conducts haiku workshops at many locations including Shanghai International Literary Festival, Pat Conroy Literary Center, local libraries, and schools. She holds an M.F.A. from City University of Hong Kong. She and her husband live on Hilton Head Island.
Robin Prince Monroe is a children’s book author, teacher, artist, and public speaker. She previously led a book-building summer camp in the South Carolina upstate before moving to the lowcountry. Robin’s children’s books include three volumes in the Comforting Little Hearts series. Robin now lives and writes on Fripp Island.
