Porch Talk

“I do think writing letters to literature is a great way to connect more with the work and to delve deeper into your own feelings about literature—or even about what kind of reader you are. I discovered so much about my own tastes in books and the gaps in my reading.”

“Perfect for any bibliophile and terrifically funny.” That’s how the esteemed Library Journal, in a starred review, praised Dear Fahrenheit 451, the debut book from librarian Annie […]

The South Carolina Academy of Authors will induct four new writers into the Palmetto State’s literary hall of fame in a weekend featuring an awards dinner, free public conversations, exhibitions, and tours in Beaufort, April 27–29. The SCAA’s 32nd annual induction weekend will honor the literary contributions of James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Nathalie Dupree, New York Times best-selling novelist Mary Alice Monroe, Pushcart Prize-winning fiction writer Valerie Sayers, and dramatist and first director of the SC […]

“A genuine dialogue has to happen across cultural boundaries—not just preaching to the choir—and it has to be done quietly where each gets to speak and everyone listens…. [W]e must seek out each other for quiet, likely uncomfortable, but hopefully genuine dialogue.”

Anthony Grooms is a celebrated poet, short story […]

“My fiction illuminates the everyday conditions of characters who, at first glance, may live lives very different than my readers, but with whom, ultimately, my readers will empathize. I look for the connectedness among human beings.”

It’s a good sign when book reviewers favorably compare your debut novel to the work of John Steinbeck. Lowcountry native Michel Stone was on the receiving end of such high praise for her 2012 novel The Iguana Tree. In it, Stone introduced readers […]

“My reputation is the kind you can’t ruin.”—Marshall Chapman

Marshall Chapman grew up in Spartanburg, South Carolina. As a debutante and the daughter of a textile mill owner she started life “firmly part of proper society” but was determined to make a very different life doing something else – somewhere else.

At the tender age of 7, Chapman saw Elvis perform and knew immediately what that something else was. Her memoir Goodbye, Little Rock & Roller details much of […]

“Reading helps me know what to do in my life and in the world. It also increases my capacity for empathy, which is a muscle that needs constant exercise or it atrophies. Reading widely is the best way I know to become more empathetic—when you walk miles in someone else’s shoes you can walk farther and with more purpose in your own.”—Will Schwalbe

Author of the New York Times best sellers The End of Your Life Book Club and Books […]

“Growing up in a small southern town, you get to know who the storytellers are…. It took me a long time to come to the conclusion that, yes, I wanted to be a writer. But I was always a story chaser.”

Novelist J.C. Sasser, author of Gradle Bird, made a return appearance on Porch Talk–following her earlier print interview with Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt–in this Porch Talk Live appearance at the Beaufort County Library’s main branch […]

“Living in the lowcountry has given me a renewed purpose in life, and the festival grew out of that sense of direction…. I’m blessed to be able to offer a platform to help many more writers get to know readers and one another. It’s also a chance for us to give back locally to the Literacy Center and nationally to the publishing industry via the Book Industry Charitable Foundation.”

Rockelle Henderson is the president of Rock Inked, Inc., an […]

“It’s like you find this true light, which for me was writing, and then you lose that light, and then you have to go find that true light again. And in many ways, that was what happened to me.”

Ann Kidd Taylor grew up watching her mother, best-selling author Sue Monk Kidd, write from a room in their home–an experience she describes as “the most normal thing in the world” when you’re a child.

And yet for Taylor, it […]

 

“My impulse as a writer is to have readers enter a novel the same way you enter a dream.”–Wiley Cash

Porch Talk went to the 29th annual Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, TN, for a lively conversation with novelist Wiley Cash (The Last Ballad) and musical guest, singer, songwriter, and author Radney Foster (For You to See the Stars), hosted by Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt. This Porch Talk Live session […]