Join Jennifer Daniels and Jeff Neal for ninety minutes of fast-paced, interactive tips and tricks for songwriting. We'll run exercises that will empower you to pursue your own unique voice with confidence.
Presented by the Pat Conroy Literary Festival as a First Friday special event at NeverMore Books, meet singer/songwriter/novelist Jennifer Daniels Neal, author of The Locke Box, and local novelist Estelle Ford-Williamson, author of Rising Fawn. This is an in-person book signing at NeverMore Books in downtown Beaufort.
Presented as part of the 6th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, we will host a reading by some of the young writers and artists who participated in our 4th annual Camp Conroy summer camp, reading their work from To Be Free, the 2021 Camp Conroy anthology. They will be joined by the winner of the 2nd annual Ann Head Literary Prize for Short Story at Beaufort High School, Holland Perryman.
Singer/songwriter Jennifer Daniels Neal is the author of the debut novel The Locke Box AND the inspiration for a character in Estelle Ford-Williamson's novel Rising Fawn. Join Jennifer and Estelle for a conversation about their books and the intersections of their writing lives.
Learn how poets slow down time, travel back into the past, reflect the world, and illuminate stories previously invisible. In this workshop, we explore the benefits of poetry for readers, writers, and communities.
Presented as part of the 6th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, join Robert Olen Butler for a discussion of his new novel, Late City, in conversation with Bren McClain, author of One Good Mama Bone.
In this workshop, we will navigate multi-sensory poems, play with poetic synesthesia, and explore a writer's sensorium to activate your creative writing.
Presented as part of the 6th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, join photographer and author Andrew Feiler for an in-person presentation on his newest book, A Better Life for Their Children: Julius Rosenwald, Booker T. Washington, and the 4,978 Schools That Changed America.
So you want to be a professional writer? Join us as we share the tools we use to win the battle we all love so much—getting the stories and poems out of our heads, onto the page, and into publication.
As part of the 6th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, Beaufort High School's DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization) will host a conversation with Hub City Press authors Cinelle Barnes (A Measure of Belonging), Anjali Enjeti (The Parted Earth), and Ashley M. Jones (Reparations, Now!). This session will be moderated by DAYLO members Holland Perryman, Alisha Arora, and Millie Bennett.
As part of the 6th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, we will host the Carrie McCray Nickens Poetry Fellowship Reading featuring fellowship winner Elizabeth Robin and finalists Miho Kinnas, Derek Berry, Danielle Verwers, Ann-Chadwell Humphries, and Yvette R. Murray, moderated by Ellen Malphrus, USCB writer in residence.
The Pat Conroy Literary Festival's Open Mic Night will be a hybrid event with both in-person and virtual readings, headlined by Alabama Poet Laureate Ashley M. Jones, author of Reparations, Now!, and featuring fellow festival presenting authors.
Presented as part of the 6th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, USC Beaufort writer in residence Ellen Malphrus will host a virtual conversation with award-winning poets and memoirists Rosemary Daniell (Fatal Flowers and Sleeping with Soldiers) and Judy Goldman (Together and Child).
As part of the 6th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, bestselling author Patti Callahan will discuss her newest book, Once Upon a Wardrobe, in conversation with Lowcountry Weekly publisher Margaret Evans at and in partnership with Lowcountry Presbyterian Church of Bluffton.
What do we invite into our life? Let's frolic in the creation of a fruitful, customized practice to observe and write in ways that welcome and celebrate opportunities for peace, passion and joy!
Scenes are the building blocks of stories and novels. Mastering scene-writing is a powerful way to develop characters and to increase tension and suspense. In this workshop, you will gain a deeper understanding of how you can use scenes, alongside summary, to build stories and novels that have dramatic power and emotional impact.
Panel discussion with four winners of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction: Nathan Harris (The Sweetness of Water), De’Shawn Charles Winslow (In West Mills), Bren McClain (One Good Mama Bone), and Mindy Friddle (Secret Keepers).
Honoring the 50th anniversary of Pat Conroy’s 1972 teaching memoir The Water Is Wide, the panel discussion will include Conroy’s Daufuskie Island student turned celebrity chef and cultural historian Sallie Ann Robinson, historian Larry Rowland, and two of Conroy’s teaching colleagues, George Westerfield and Peter Walter, moderated by Ellen Malphrus
FILM SCREENING OF CONRACK, also featuring live vocal performances by Marlena Smalls, teacher recognitions, and a new scholarship announcement, at the USC Beaufort Center for the Arts
This is a generative workshop, so bring your "what really happened" and let's apply some real pressure. Let's put your characters in the driver's seat and see what they're capable of. I'm telling you -- that's the sweet, sweet glory.
Judy Goldman, author of the memoir Child, live-streamed on the Conroy Center’s Facebook page and also accessible on Zoom with advance registration.
Thrity Umrigar, author of the novel Honor, in conversation with Margaret Evans. Book signing to follow, at the USC Beaufort Center for the Arts
George Dawes Green, author of the novel The Kingdoms of Savannah, in conversation with Scott Graber. Book signing to follow, at the USC Beaufort Center for the Arts.
Thinking of writing a book? Whether you’re contemplating a novel, a memoir, or a collection of stories, embarking on a book-length manuscript of prose can be daunting.
STORYTELLING EVENT: With Moth founder George Dawes Green, featuring MC Jon Goode, Scott Gibbs and the Beaufort Mass Choir, Steve Faulkner of Alibis, Peter Zamuka, and several local storytellers.
Whether it’s your first time in the forest, or you’re an avid nature-lover, learn techniques to deepen your personal ease and heighten your connection with the intuitive guidance within nature.
Award-winning writer and veteran workshop instructor, Judy Goldman, will tell you everything you need to know to begin writing memoir — or, if you’re already engaged in writing memoir, how to take your work to a deeper level.
Children’s Authors Rebecca Dwight Bruff (Stars of Wonder) and Susan Montanari (The Halloween Tree) in conversation with Sally Sue Lavigne of the Storybook Shoppe.
We’ll take a good look at dialogue that takes off with examples from the masters, including Raymond Chandler, Flannery O’Connor, Toni Morrison and, of course, Pat Conroy. We’ll question how realistic dialogue can and should be, and we’ll explore how many ways there are to weave speech and action and description together.
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center and the award-winning Rhett House Inn will host a monthly book club discussion of Pat Conroy's dozen books in order of publication, moderated by Charlene Spearen and Jonathan Haupt.
This workshop will explore that process of taking a story from bad to good to great. We’ll analyze the toughest problems in backstory, dialogue, and description (by “leaving out the parts most readers skip” says Elmore Leonard), the vexing issues of character and plot, and challenges to quality writing time.
New York Times best-selling author Ron Rash will discuss his new Korean War-era novel The Caretaker in conversation with USC Beaufort writer in residence Ellen Malphrus.
I'll explain that talking about "process" is antithetical to how I think and work, or play. My "process" involves remembering as much of what I see and hear as I can and trying to describe it; for me the process of writing means getting lost in watching something or someone, rarely knowing what will happen next, and then writing about it.
A Conversation with Bestselling Authors Mary Kay Andrews, Victoria Frank, and Mary Alice Monroe, moderated by Cassandra King, with special guest, fiction editor Carrie Feron.
Panel discussion of The Lords of Discipline with screenwriter Thomas Pope, Citadel English professor Sean Hueston, and Pat Conroy's classmate and fellow author John Warley.
FILM SCREENING: The Lords of Discipline
The Lords of Discipline screenwriter Thomas Pope in conversation with Ron Tucker, executive director of the Beaufort International Film Festival, on the making of the film.
In this workshop, we will excavate memory to build poems that stitch together a new quilt of experience. We will examine ways in which we can structure a memory poem around time and space.
The Secret Gate: A True Story of Courage and Sacrifice During the Collapse of Afghanistan by New York Times bestselling author Mitchell Zuckoff, with former U.S. State Department Special Agent and diplomat Sam Aronson, in conversation with Landon K. Thorne
Writer and human rights advocate Homeira Qaderi, author of Dancing in the Mosque: An Afghan Mother's Letter to Her Son, in conversation with author Valerie Sayers.
Why Poetry Matters, panel discussion with poets Ron Rash (Poems: New and Selected), Jennifer Bartell Boykin (Traveling Mercy), Freya Manfred (When I Was Young and Old), and Tim Conroy (No True Route), moderated by Ellen Malphrus.
Learn from one of the top editors in New York on how to structure a persuasive introduction to you and your work. What in your biography or experience is likely to get an agent or editor’s attention? How much plot description is enough or too much?
Wrap Party at the Pat Conroy Literary Center and preview of the Witness Tree Park, with guest MCs Jeanne Meserve and Jeffrey Blount, with a musical performance by the Beaufort Mass Choir.
Pat Conroy Literary Center open to the public for guided tours. Free. (601 Bladen St., Beaufort)
Featuring public remarks and a musical performance. Free. (across King Street from the Pat Conroy Literary Center, 601 Bladen St., Beaufort)
Led by poets Tim Conroy and Susan Madison, this workshop will explore the poetry of practice, unpredictability, surprise, and image. Through daily practice, we suspend judgment and expectation and discover how the poem rises from what we observe—touch, taste, smell, hear, and see.
DéLana R.A. Dameron, author of the debut novel Redwood Court (a Reese’s Book Club Pick) in conversation with Ellen Malphrus, USC Beaufort writer in residence. $10/person. Followed by a book signing. (USC Beaufort Center for the Arts, 805 Carteret St., Beaufort)
Join other writers to identify the literary magazines and journals most receptive to your writing. This workshop, for fiction writers, poets, essayists, and reviewers at all levels from beginner to professional, will help you submit a manuscript that gets noticed.
FREEDOM TO READ PANEL: Moderated by Pat R. Scales (award-winning retired librarian and author of Banned Books for Kids) in conversation with high school librarian Karen Gareis (featured on 60 Minutes), Julia Garnett (American Library Association Banned Books Week Honorary Youth Chair), and current and past student leaders of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization (featured on Nick News and in Banned Together).
Honoring our festival’s theme of “I Was Born to Be in a Library,” Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt will present a brief tribute to the essential roles of librarians in the context of Pat Conroy’s legacy. Following that, the festival will present a private pre-screening (freely open to all festival attendees with advance registration) of the feature-length documentary film Banned Together.
2024 Festival
The ninth annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival will be held November 1-2, 2024, in beautiful Beaufort, South Carolina. Join us as we honor Pat Conroy’s legacy as student, teacher, and mentor through our 2024 festival.
Presented by the Pat Conroy Literary Center the annual festival will be held as a series of author presentations and panel discussions, writing workshops, exhibits, and virtual tours.
Pat Conroy Literary Center
601 Bladen Street
Beaufort, SC 29902 (Map & Directions)
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