- Pat Conroy Literary Center - https://patconroyliterarycenter.org -

Silent Book Club Beaufort

Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will hold its next meetup on Saturday, September 13, from 4:30 to 6:30PM at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). A relaxed and pressure-free space for readers of all types, this community gathering invites book lovers to enjoy their current reads in a welcoming and peaceful atmosphere.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is co-sponsored by the Conroy Center and the student book club DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization).
Unlike traditional book clubs, Silent Book Club Beaufort has no assigned reading, no deadlines, and no discussions required. Whether you prefer ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, textbooks, or paperbacks, readers are invited to bring their book of choice, settle in, and savor the joy of uninterrupted reading among like-minded individuals.
Silent Book Club Beaufort also features a book swap: Leave a book, take a book.
The casual meetups provide an excellent opportunity to discover new book recommendations, make friends, and reconnect with the love of reading. Whether you’re a lifelong bookworm or just getting back into reading, everyone is welcome.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is free to attend and proudly supports local businesses and organizations. Additional dates and locations will be announced via the SBCB Instagram page at www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort.

Teddy Bear Picnic Read Aloud with Daylo – September

Posted By Literary Center On In | Comments Disabled
On the first Saturday of every month, you can join the student volunteers of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization for a Teddy Bear Picnic read-aloud at the Port Royal Farmers Market (1615 Ribaut Rd.). In collaboration with the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, high school and college student volunteers from the Beaufort-based chapters of DAYLO gather at the gazebo in Naval Heritage Park from 9:30 a.m. to noon to read diverse, inclusive picture books to children and their families, inspiring a love of stories, books, reading, and peer-to-peer mentoring.
Cozy blankets, a plethora of stuffed animals, and some snacks help the students make a welcoming environment in this free community literacy program. Several times a year, National Park Service Ranger Katherine Freeman also joins in for Read with a Ranger, a literacy and art project thematically connected to the missions of DAYLO, the Conroy Center, and the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park.
DAYLO is a student-led diversity themed book club and community service group founded at Beaufort High School and now with chapters across South Carolina. Learn more at: https://linktr.ee/DAYLOBFT.
The Pat Conroy Literary Center is a nonprofit interpretive and learning center advancing the legacy of beloved, bestselling writer, educator, and mentor Pat Conroy (1945-2016), author of The Water Is Wide, The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides, and more. Learn more at: www.patconroyliterarycenter.org.

Silent Book Club Beaufort

Posted By Literary Center On In | Comments Disabled
Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will hold its next meetup on Saturday, July 19, from 4:30 to 6:30PM at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). A relaxed and pressure-free space for readers of all types, this community gathering invites book lovers to enjoy their current reads in a welcoming and peaceful atmosphere.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is co-sponsored by the Conroy Center and the student book club DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization).
Unlike traditional book clubs, Silent Book Club Beaufort has no assigned reading, no deadlines, and no discussions required. Whether you prefer ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, textbooks, or paperbacks, readers are invited to bring their book of choice, settle in, and savor the joy of uninterrupted reading among like-minded individuals.
Silent Book Club Beaufort also features a book swap: Leave a book, take a book.
The casual meetups provide an excellent opportunity to discover new book recommendations, make friends, and reconnect with the love of reading. Whether you’re a lifelong bookworm or just getting back into reading, everyone is welcome.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is free to attend and proudly supports local businesses and organizations. Additional dates and locations will be announced via the SBCB Instagram page at www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort.

An Evening With Best Selling Author Kiese Laymon – City Summer, Country Summer

Posted By Literary Center On In | Comments Disabled

MacArthur Genius Grant Honoree and Children’s Book Author Kiese Laymon Visits Beaufort on July 24

The Storybook Shoppe children’s bookstore will host award-winning author Kiese Laymon for an evening of stories on Thursday, July 24, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., at Robert Smalls Leadership Academy (43 W. Alston Dr., Beaufort). This free program for families will include a writing opportunity inspired by our lowcountry summers as well as discussion of Laymon’s debut picture book City Summer, Country Summer in conversation with local students E Achurch and Emily Alaia from DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization). Books will be available for sale and signing. This special event is a community collaboration between the Storybook Shoppe, Robert Smalls Leadership Academy, DAYLO, and the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center.
ABOUT THE BOOK
City Summer, Country Summer is a lyrical and evocative picture book that captures the transformative power of friendship. The story of three Black boys as they embark on a lifechanging summer. The boys spend one special summer exploring the Mississippi woods—and the woulds and coulds of sharing the kind of freeing friendship that is love. Watched over and given space to discover by Grandmama and Mama Lara, New York, Country, and little C find camaraderie in their contrasts and all the unspoken things between them while playing games of Marco Polo in the thick garden and sledding on cardboard by the underpass. With text brimming with love City Summer, Country Summer illustrates the tenuous bonds of friendship Black boys forge with one another.
“A heartfelt, elegantly wrought, and triumphant tribute to Black boy kinship. On the sunny porches of their grandmothers’ neighboring houses and in the cool shadows of the surrounding woods, hesitation becomes tenderness, anxiety becomes laughter, and difference becomes safeness.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Laymon’s text is lyrical and specific…Franklin’s digital illustrations…clearly centers each emotion the boys experience…deeply moving…reveling as it does in the tender bonds of Black boy friendship.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kiese Laymon is a Black Southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi. Laymon is also the author of the genre-bending novel Long Division and the bestselling memoir Heavy: An American Memoir, winner of the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the 2018 Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. He was also the recipient of the 2020-2021 Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard and a MacArthur Genius grant. He currently teaches English and creative writing at Rice University.
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWERS
E Achurch is founding president of the DAYLO chapter at The Complete Student and Emily Alaia is president of the Battery Creek High School chapter of DAYLO. Both are rising juniors.

Silent Book Club Beaufort

Posted By Literary Center On In | Comments Disabled
Silent Book Club Beaufort, a unique take on the traditional book club, will hold its next meetup on Saturday, July 19, from 4:30 to 6:30PM at the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center (601 Bladen St.). A relaxed and pressure-free space for readers of all types, this community gathering invites book lovers to enjoy their current reads in a welcoming and peaceful atmosphere.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is co-sponsored by the Conroy Center and the student book club DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization).
Unlike traditional book clubs, Silent Book Club Beaufort has no assigned reading, no deadlines, and no discussions required. Whether you prefer ebooks, audiobooks, comic books, textbooks, or paperbacks, readers are invited to bring their book of choice, settle in, and savor the joy of uninterrupted reading among like-minded individuals.
Silent Book Club Beaufort also features a book swap: Leave a book, take a book.
The casual meetups provide an excellent opportunity to discover new book recommendations, make friends, and reconnect with the love of reading. Whether you’re a lifelong bookworm or just getting back into reading, everyone is welcome.
Silent Book Club Beaufort is free to attend and proudly supports local businesses and organizations. Additional dates and locations will be announced via the SBCB Instagram page at www.instagram.com/silentbookclubbeaufort.

Lowcountry Children’s Book Fair

Posted By Literary Center On In | Comments Disabled

The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center’s annual Lowcountry Children’s Book Fair will be held on Saturday, July 26, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Port Royal Sound Foundation Weezie Educational Pavilion (310 Okatie Hwy).

A dozen local and visiting writers will be on hand with books for sales and signing, along with art activities and readings throughout the day.
 
Presented in partnership between the Conroy Center, the Port Royal Sound Foundation, the Storybook Shoppe children’s bookstore, and DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization), this free community event is made possible by the generous support of Oyster Cay Collection of Beaufort.
 
Angela May, the New York Times bestselling co-author of The Islanders middle-grade novels, will be reading at 11:00 a.m. National Park Service Ranger Katherine Freeman will host a special Read with a Ranger program at noon. Michael B. Moore will read from his debut children’s book, Freedom on the Sea, inspired by the life of Beaufort’s iconic historical figure (and Moore’s ancestor) Robert Smalls at 1:00 p.m.
 
DAYLO student volunteers will be hosting read-alouds and bookmark art projects throughout the day, and local artist Hank Herring will also be teaching free art projects and Lowcountry Wind Symphony will be offering music projects as well. A food truck will be available midday. The Maritime Center will also be freely open to the public from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
 
Other participating authors and artists include Joy Corley, author of Percy Goes Camping…Maybe; Margie Cowles Hamner, Magic Ball of Light, Mary T. Jacobs, author of the Big Daddy Series; Martha Jaworowski, author of Sports at First Sight; Carole Marsh, author of the Real Kids, Real Places series; Emma McClure, author/artist of Beautiful Beaufort: A Coloring Book; Nancy Merrill, author of Elf Dust; Ryan Q. Milling, author of Bob’s Truck; Robin Prince Monroe, author of The Glades; Susan Montanari, author of My Dog’s a Chicken; Susan Diamond Riley author of the Delta & Jax Mysteries; Katherine Robinson, author of The Crabs on Calhoun; and Beryl Title, author of Adventures of Roxy the Unicorn. The Storybook Shoppe will have additional local books available for sale.
 
About the Featured Authors

Angela May is the co-author of The Islanders, a New York Times bestselling middle-grade novel series created with Mary Alice Monroe. The first book in the series, The Islanders, earned several honors, including the South Carolina Children’s Book Award nominee and the Triple Crown Award. Angela is a lowcountry native who now lives in Mount Pleasant with her husband and their two children.
 
Michael Boulware Moore is the great-great grandson of Robert Smalls, whose heroic journey from slavery to the U.S. Congress is the inspiration for Moore’s first children’s picture book, Freedom on the Sea. He served as the founding president of the International African American Museum in Charleston, and he is a frequent keynote speaker for universities, conferences, museums, and other organizations across the country. He lives in Charleston with his family.
 
Learn more about the Pat Conroy Literary Center at www.patconroyliterarycenter.org.
Learn more about the Port Royal Sound Foundation at www.portroyalsoundfoundation.org.

August 2025 Open Mic Night

Posted By Literary Center On In | Comments Disabled

The Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on Thursday, August 14, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Our featured novelist will be Michael Spake, author of Life Close to the Bone.

Open Mic will also include short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by other writers in many genres.

When: Thursday, August 14, 2025 at 6 PM – 7:30 PM EDT
Price: Free · Duration: 1 hr 30 min
Where: Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.)

Interested in reading as part of Open Mic? Let us know at contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org

We want to build our community of writers and an appreciation for the art and talent of new, emerging, and long-time writers. Thank you for supporting this partnership!

Event Facebook Page

About our featured author:
Michael SpakeMichael Spake is the author of Life Close to the Bone, his debut novel exploring the intricate layers of the past and the challenge of connecting them to the present. Inspired by his experience playing junior tennis in South Carolina and his career as a healthcare attorney, the novel delves into themes of memory, heritage, and personal transformation.

In addition to Life Close to the Bone, Michael has published short stories in Well Read Magazine’s Best of 2023 and 2024, capturing the culture and history of his hometown, Anderson, SC in Well Read Magazine’s Best of 2023 and 2024. Michael graduated from The Citadel in 1994 where he received the Granville T. Prior Award for his exploration of Christian Mysticism in the works of T.S. Eliot. Michael lives in Lakeland, Florida with his wife Mary Lucia Spake. Together they have four children: Henry, Mary Clare, Kathryn, and Vivian.

“In Life Close to the Bone, debut novelist Michael Spake skillfully explores the complexity of the past and the impossibility of ever escaping its impact on the present. As protagonist John Greenburn, a former tennis star turned pharmaceutical ethics attorney, struggles to uncover the potential danger of a new drug, he is drawn back into a past that threatens to undermine all he’s worked to achieve. Despite his reluctance to revisit old traumas, John’s only hope for redemption is to face headlong the long-buried demons he has yet to acknowledge. Ultimately, John’s journey in connecting the past to the present belongs to all of us.”–Cassandra King, author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with 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.

Teddy Bear Picnic Read Aloud with Daylo August 2025

Posted By Literary Center On In | Comments Disabled

Saturday August 2, 2025 – 9:30 a.m. to noon EDT
Price: Free
Venue: Port Royal Farmers Market | Ribaut Rd & Pinckney Blvd, Port Royal, SC 29935

Website: Facebook Event Page

On the first Saturday of every month, you can join the student volunteers of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization for a Teddy Bear Picnic read-aloud at the Port Royal Farmers Market (1615 Ribaut Rd.). In collaboration with the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, high school and college student volunteers from the Beaufort-based chapters of DAYLO gather at the gazebo in Naval Heritage Park from 9:30 a.m. to noon to read diverse, inclusive picture books to children and their families, inspiring a love of stories, books, reading, and peer-to-peer mentoring.

Cozy blankets, a plethora of stuffed animals, and some snacks help the students make a welcoming environment in this free community literacy program. Several times a year, National Park Service Ranger Katherine Freeman also joins in for Read with a Ranger, a literacy and art project thematically connected to the missions of DAYLO, the Conroy Center, and the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park.

DAYLO is a student-led diversity themed book club and community service group founded at Beaufort High School and now with chapters across South Carolina. Learn more at: https://linktr.ee/DAYLOBFT.

 

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.

An Evening with New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Novelist Karen White, Author of That Last Carolina Summer

Posted By Literary Center On In | Comments Disabled

Register: Register at EventBrite

Wednesday, July 23, 2025 · 5 – 7pm EDT
Cost: $40 (no refunds)
Venue: Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce | 711 Bladen Street Beaufort, SC 29902

The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center and the Storybook Shoppe bookstore are honored to host an evening with New York Times and USA Today bestselling novelist Karen White, author of newly published That Last Carolina Summer. Join us on Wednesday, June 23, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at 711 Bladen Street (BCBCC, ground floor). This event will also feature a special welcome by Conroy Center honorary chair and bestselling author Cassandra King.

Advance registration required; $40 fee includes an autographed copy of That Last Carolina Summer, the author’s presentation, and refreshments. This is a book-with-ticket event; no refunds will be possible. Additional copies of Karen White’s books will also be available for sale and signing through the Storybook Shoppe.

Learn more and register at EventBrite

Website: Facebook Event Page

ABOUT THE BOOK
Beloved bestselling author Karen White returns with a captivating Southern drama about sisterhood, secrets and one woman’s reckoning with the past.

As a child, Phoebe Manigault developed the gift of premonition after she was struck by lightning in the creek near her Charleston home. Plagued throughout her life by mysterious dreams, and always living in the shadow of her beautiful sister, Addie, Phoebe eventually moves to the West Coast, as far from her family as possible. Now, years later, she is summoned back to South Carolina, to help Addie care for their ailing mother.

As Phoebe’s return lures her back into deep-rooted tensions and conflicts, she is drawn to Celeste, whose granddaughter went missing years ago. Their connection brings comfort to Phoebe, while Celeste’s adult grandson Liam resurrects complicated emotions tied to Phoebe’s past.
But the longer Phoebe spends in her childhood home, the more her recurring nightmares intensify—bringing her closer to the shocking truth that will irrevocably change everything. Unfolding against the lush backdrop of the South Carolina Lowcountry, That Last Carolina Summer is an unforgettable story about the unbreakable bonds of family and the gift of second chances.

“This multi-generational story is layered with juicy family secrets while exploring sisterhood, the power of memory, and the pull of home. The perfect summer read.”—Jamie Brenner, bestselling author of A Novel Summer

“Karen White brings all her magnificent storytelling gifts to this stunner of a novel. As much as you want to race along and discover all the secrets, you find yourself stopping to savor the truths she weaves into every twist and turn. If That Last Carolina Summer has a flaw, it is this: you won’t ever want to wake up from its spell.”—Beatriz Williams, bestselling author of Husbands & Lovers

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen WhiteKaren White is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author with millions of copies of her books in print in fifteen different languages. When not writing, Karen spends her time reading and bird-watching. She and her husband have two grown children and a spoiled Havanese dog, Sophie, and she divides her time between Atlanta, Georgia, and the northwest Florida coast.

 

 

 


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.

An Evening with Katherine Scott Crawford author of The Miniaturist’s Assistant

Posted By Literary Center On In | Comments Disabled

Thursday, July 17, 2025 – 5:00-6:30 PM EDT
Price: Free
Registration: Seating is limited; please call to reserve your spot: 843-379-7025.
Venue: Pat Conroy Literary Center | 601 Bladen St., Beaufort

Website: Facebook Event Page

The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, in partnership with Beaufort Bookstore, will host an evening with novelist Katherine Scott Crawford, author of The Miniaturist’s Assistant, on Thursday, July 17, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort).

Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited; please call in advance to reserve: 843-379-7025.

ABOUT THE BOOK
The Miniaturist’s Assistant explores the mystery of time, how our choices ripple throughout history, and what it means to be a fully-realized woman— in any century.

2004: In historic Charleston, recently divorced art conservator Gamble Vance throws herself into her career restoring centuries-old miniature portraits. But one portrait haunts her: a woman in a fox stole, with familiar hazel eyes. When Gamble meets a girl in an alley, she’s convinced it’s the same woman— and it’s not the first time they’ve met. For help, Gamble turns to African American Studies scholar Tolliver Jackson— a former foster kid with secrets of his own. But as Gamble’ s memories resurface, the pair discover a connection which may endanger more than one life… in more than one lifetime.

1804: Miniature portraitist and fallen-away Quaker Daniel Petigru paints for Charleston’ s high society. Daniel and his sister live with a free Black family, their connection long and complicated. When Gamble arrives from the future and her presence puts them all at risk, Daniel must decide if he loves her enough to let her go.

“What a lush, bold novel is The Miniaturist’s Assistant by Katherine Scott Crawford, blending love, intrigue, and the role of portrait art in history for a story that is as suspenseful as it is wildly romantic. I’m not a fan of time travel tales in general, but the astounding journey of art restorer Gamble Vance through the Charleston of the present and the very long past transcends genre and takes the reader places that are entirely new.”—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and The Birdwatcher

The Miniaturist’s Assistant is a multifaceted love story wrapped in a mystery that unfurls on the changing winds of history. A rollicking, page-turning tale, this unforgettable novel explores time travel, art, passion, the complexity of past sins, and the abundant promises embedded in the here and now. Katherine Scott Crawford has written a beautiful book steeped in humanity, truth, and wonder.”—Connie May Fowler, author of Before Women had Wings

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Katherine Scott CrawfordKatherine Scott Crawford is the award-winning author of The Miniaturist’s Assistant and Keowee Valley. A former backpacking guide, adjunct professor, and recovering academic, her newspaper column appeared weekly across the country and abroad, including in USA Today, The Detroit Free Press, the Herald Scotland, and more. Winner of a North Carolina Arts Award in fiction, she holds an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

She’d rather be in the woods with her dog than anywhere else, enjoys curious people, adventure, and snow—and believes historical fiction the best way to time travel. An eleventh-generation Southerner, she directs writing retreats at a remote mountain lodge in Western North Carolina, where she lives with her family.

 

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.