“Well, if I’m Athena, you’re my Apollo—the god of poetry, truth, and music. Your natural language is poetry. You write sentences that are like an incantation. You observe every nuance of human behavior and dig deep down to the truth, presenting it in all its glorious and stubborn complexity.”—Barbra Streisand, letter to Pat Conroy (2015) According to Pat Conroy, “the most powerful words in English are ‘Tell me a story.’” But to tell a story most powerfully, most memorably, he well understood that we need [...]

Have you ever thought about writing a children’s book? Or illustrating one? How hard can it be to create a successful 32-page picture book? Let’s find out. Join children’s book author and artist (and Pat Conroy’s daughter) Melissa Conroy as she shares instructive stories from her own paths to publication and discusses the children’s book market as she was experienced as both the author and artist of Poppy’s Pants and also the author of Grandma Is an Author. Open to interested creators at any level [...]

Finding time for writing is a challenge for many, so let’s learn to make the most of limited time through being better organized for creativity. This class offers productivity advice and tools on how to get started and keep going for maximum creative flow and minimum technical frustration. Novelist and writing teacher and consultant Stephanie Austin Edwards will guide participants through making and maintaining a writing schedule; organizing documents and files for consistent easy access; formatting work for submission to editors, agents, and publishers; discussing [...]

You’ve written a book! Now what? Rockelle Henderson, a New York publishing insider and founder of the Bluffton Book Festival will outline the steps toward publishing successfully among today’s many options. This workshop will teach writers how to position their books for the appropriate target audience by first understanding and committing to that audience. The class offers insight into what it really means to be published in a market in which publication can take an increasing number of forms, and how marketing and distribution play [...]

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a globetrotting travel journalist—or what it takes to become one? Travel journalists Lynn and Cele Seldon (www.seldonink.com) have the answers. With more than 45 years of experience between them, the Seldons travel the globe and average more than 100 feature articles annually for a wide variety of publications

You already have all the answers to the questions that arise on your life’s path. Does hearing this make your eyes roll…especially when you’re trying to answer one of those seemingly unsolvable questions on the road to emotional, mental and spiritual growth?

Finding time for writing is a challenge for many, so let’s learn to make the most of limited time through being better organized for creativity. This class offers productivity advice and tools on how to get started and keep going for maximum creative flow and minimum technical frustration.

Innovative changes in publishing options available to authors and would-be authors make this an exciting time to be a writer and a reader. The self-publishing industry offers independent writers the opportunity to retain creative control and rights to their work.

Join caterer and cookbook author Debbi Covington for a gourmet boxed luncheon and cooking demonstration featuring some of her favorite lowcountry recipes. You’ll get to sample some southern oldies-but-goodies with new twists, be privy to easy shortcut secrets...

"The strands are all there: to the memory nothing is ever really lost," Eudora Welty says, and memoir writing is a great way to discover and explore some of the strands in the rich tapestry of memory we all carry. These two sessions will introduce you to the process of writing memoir by focusing on an important person or moment in your life.

Chris Offutt has written screenplays for the award-winning cable TV series True Blood, Treme, and Weeds. Offutt’s Screenwriting Basics workshop offers participants an overview of the skills necessary to write a successful screenplay for TV or film. Topics will include (but are not limited to): software and formatting, techniques for using...

Here’s the deal: Any one thing contains its opposite. It’s true of characters, too. No one is all good or all bad. All weak or all strong. I got this expression from Pulitzer-Prize winning author Rick Bragg, who used it in an interview about his biography of rock n’ roller...