Two published authors holding forth on the theme of this workshop, How to Not Get Published, is called irony, an important literary technique. For both Sean Scapellato and John Warley, as with most writers, the road has been bumpy and at times pockmarked with dashed expectations. But learning to cope with the statistically probable “no” from agents and editors can make the difference between a writer’s literary future and a return to their day job. Sean and John will share their journeys, from the high hopes that accompany submissions to the frustration of waiting for rejections that inevitably arrive (if at all) on the same day the car won’t start or the youngest child needs braces. Such is the writing life, with some laughs along the way.
This is an in-person writers workshop, held at the Pat Conroy Literary Center as part of the annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival. Limited to 20 participants; $45/person.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS
John Warley is the award-winning author of six novels and a history of his undergraduate alma mater, The Citadel, where he and his classmate Pat Conroy played on the baseball team and graduated in 1967. For John’s first novel, Bethesda’s Child, Pat wrote an eight-page preface, and for A Southern Girl concluded his blurb with “I wish I’d written this book.” John contributed an essay to Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy and remains a dedicated supporter of the Pat Conroy Literary Center. In 2024, The Citadel awarded John an honorary degree, Doctor of Letters, for his contributions to The Citadel War Memorial and his history of the college. He lives and writes in Beaufort.
Sean A. Scapellato is a former English teacher, and now-practicing attorney in the South Carolina Lowcountry. He taught literature and writing to kids and adults for decades and has been publishing fiction and essays in smaller and medium formats since high school. Several years ago, he was runner-up in the Novello Festival Press’s First Novel contest and was published in that press’s anthology Hungry for Home. He also was a winner/finalist in TBS’s My South Speaks (televised) and Listen to Your Mother where he performed original essay compositions about the South and his wonderful mom. Most recently, he was a contributor to Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, which was published in 2018. Currently, he continues to write novels and teach when he can and serves on several boards, including the Pat Conroy Literary Center and the South Carolina Writers Association.
