2024 Festival Presenters
The Pat Conroy Literary Festival’s list of scheduled presenters (in order of their presentation) is subject to change without notice, but every effort will be made to announce changes through the this festival’s website and Facebook feed.
Author of the collections Theologies of Terrain and No True Route, Tim Conroy is a poet and former educator. His work has appeared in Fall Lines, Jasper Magazine, Marked by the Water, Sheltered, Twelve Mile Review, Poetry on the Comet, The Post and Courier, Ukweli: Searching for Healing Truth, and Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy. In 2022, he received the Broad River Prize for prose from Fall Lines, Volume IX. A founding board member of the Pat Conroy Literary Center established in his brother’s honor, Tim, and his wife Terrye, live in Dunedin, Florida.
Susan River Madison is an essayist and poetic advocate whose themes explore the pilgrimage of the people of the African Diaspora and the collective feminine soul, and whose work promotes a free and just standard of living for all. Susan’s work has been published in Chicken Soup for the African American Soul, the anthology UKWELI Searching for Healing Truths, Low Country Weekly and various other publications. The author of two chapbooks, she holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Antioch University. Originally from Chicago, Madison lives on St. Helena Island. She is currently working on a collection of poetry.
DéLana R.A. Dameron is an artist whose primary medium is storytelling. Dameron’s debut novel Redwood Court was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a Reese’s Book Club Pick. Her debut poetry collection, How God Ends Us, was selected by Elizabeth Alexander for the South Carolina Poetry Book Prize, and her second collection, Weary Kingdom, was chosen by Nikky Finney for the Palmetto Poetry Series. She is a graduate of New York University’s MFA program in poetry and holds a BA degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dameron is also the founder of Saloma Acres, an equestrian and cultural space in her hometown in South Carolina, where she resides.
She is currently working on her second novel Fairfield County.
Ellen Malphrus is a professor of English and the Writer in Residence at USC Beaufort, where she was honored as Professor of the Year in 2022. She is the author of the novel Untying the Moon and numerous poetry and prose pieces appearing in literary journals, scholarly journals, anthologies, and books including Poetry South, Haight Ashbury Review, James Dickey Review, Southern Literary Journal, William & Mary Review, Review of Contemporary Fiction, Weber—the Contemporary West, and Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy.
Valerie Sayers, author of six novels and a collection of stories, has also published more than one hundred fifty stories, essays, and reviews. Winner of a literature fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and two Pushcart Prizes for fiction, she is a member of the South Carolina Academy of Authors. She was the Kenan Professor of English at Notre Dame, where she founded and edited the Notre Dame Review.
Pat Scales is a retired middle and high school librarian whose program Communicate Through Literature was featured on the Today Show and in various professional journals. She received the ALA/Grolier Award in 1997, and was featured in Library Journal’s first issue of Movers and Shakers in Libraries: People Who Are Shaping the Future of Libraries. Ms. Scales has served as chair of the prestigious Newbery, Caldecott, and Wilder Award Committees. She is a past President of the Association of Library Service for Children, a division of the American Library Association. Scales has been actively involved with ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Committee for a number of years, is a member of the Freedom to Read Foundation, serves as on the Council of Advisers of the National Coalition Against Censorship, and acts as a spokesperson for first amendment issues as they relate to children and young adults.
She is the author of Teaching Banned Books: Twelve Guides for Young Readers, Protecting Intellectual Freedom in Your School Library and Books Under Fire: A Hit List of Banned and Challenged Children’s Books. She writes a bi-monthly column, Scales on Censorship, for School Library Journal, a monthly column for the Random House website, curriculum guides on children’s and young adult books for a number of publishers, and is a regular contributor to Book Links magazine.
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Conroy Center and the former director of the University of South Carolina Press, where he created the Story River Books fiction imprint with Pat Conroy, named by Garden & Gun magazine as one of “the top ten things to love about the South.”
Haupt’s book reviews and author interviews have appeared in the Charleston Post and Courier, Lowcountry Weekly, Beaufort Lifestyle, Savannah Morning News’ Beacon magazine, Southern Review of Books, and Southern Writers Magazine’s Suite T blog. He is co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, the recipient of seventeen book awards. He serves on the boards of the Friends of South Carolina Libraries and the South Carolina Academy of Authors. In 2020, Haupt was recognized with the Doug Marlette Literacy Leadership Award presented by the Pulpwood Queens, the largest book club in the U.S.
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.
Cassandra King is an award winning and bestselling novelist whose fiction has won the hearts of readers everywhere, especially in the American south. Often told in first person, her novels portray strong and memorable characters who struggle with the same timely issues and dilemmas that readers face in their own lives. Before becoming an author, she has taught creative writing on the college level, conducted corporate writing seminars, and worked as a human interest reporter. The widow of acclaimed author Pat Conroy, Cassandra resides in Beaufort, South Carolina, where she is honorary chair of the Pat Conroy Literary Center.
Susan M. Boyer is the author of the USA TODAY bestselling Liz Talbot mystery series. Her debut novel, Lowcountry Boil, won the 2012 Agatha Award for Best First Novel, the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, and garnered several other award nominations. The third book in the series, Lowcountry Boneyard, was a Spring 2015 Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Okra Pick, and was short-listed for the 2016 Pat Conroy Beach Music Mystery Prize. Lowcountry Book Club was a Summer 2016 SIBA Okra Pick and was short-listed for the 2017 Southern Book Prize in Mystery & Detective Fiction. There are eleven full-length novels and one novella in the Liz Talbot Series.
Big Trouble on Sullivan’s Island, a Carolina Tales novel and the start of a new series, released on April 11, 2023, and won the 2024 Independent Publisher Book Award silver medal in Southeast Regional Fiction. Each of the Carolina Tales can be read as standalones.
Susan loves beaches, Southern food, and small Southern towns where everyone knows everyone, and everyone has crazy relatives. You’ll find all of the above in her novels. She and her husband call Greenville, SC home and visit the Carolina coast as often as possible.
Alicia Bessette is the bestselling author of the Outer Banks Bookshop mystery series. Book 1 in the series, Smile Beach Murder, was Edgar®-nominated for the inaugural Lilian Jackson Braun Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Before penning fiction, Bessette worked as a reporter in her home state of Massachusetts, where she won a first-place award from the New England Press Association. Her poetry has appeared in numerous literary magazines. A pianist and editor, she now loves living in Beaufort, South Carolina with her husband, novelist Matthew Quick.
Kristen Ness grew up in South Carolina and serves as a volunteer for the Island Turtle Team on Isle of Palms. A graduate of Duke University and the University of South Carolina School of Law, she is an immigration attorney obsessed with marine biology. She lives near the coast in Charleston, South Carolina, with her family. At Loggerheads is her first novel.
Carrie Feron is the newly named Executive Editor of Fiction at Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster . She previously worked at Morrow/Avon, where she published more than 30 New York Times bestselling authors. Her legions of loyal writers—many of whom she has worked with for more than 25 years—include Meg Cabot, Deborah Crombie, Christine Feehan, Dorothea Benton Frank, Sunny Hostin, Eloisa James, Faye Kellerman, Lisa Kleypas, Laura Lippman, Sarah MacLean, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Julie Quinn, and Nora Roberts. She has edited at least one winner of every major mystery and romance award (Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, Shamus, RITA), and she herself has won multiple industry awards.
Raj Haldar is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling picture book, P is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever . But, for close to a decade, he has been better known as Lushlife, the rapper, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. In that time, he’s amassed a fervent global fanbase and released award-winning viral music videos that highlight his erudite lyrics. The Sunday New York Times describes his work as “an intoxicating mix of captivating rhymes with audacious, gorgeous production.” So it should come as no surprise that Haldar has made the leap into the world of children’s literature. His latest book entitled, This Book is Banned gives young readers a lighthearted entry point to begin understanding the dangers of book banning and censorship. His work has been featured by The Washington Post, Interview Magazine, VICE, Pitchfork, Village Voice, Mental Floss, BBC, SPIN and more! Raj currently lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his wife and two young daughters.
Chad Rhoad is a writer, editor and musician living in South Carolina. During the day, he’s an acquisitions editor for The History Press, where he’s been for 12 years and acquired more than 400 titles. Additionally, he’s taught writing at the University of South Carolina and Charleston Southern University for 11 years. He spent 2 years as editor of the Hartsville Messenger. He has an MFA in creative writing from U of SC, and he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. After work, Chad operates Books, Rhymes & Life Editing Services where he works with clients of all skill levels. He has worked or works with the South Carolina Writers Association, Atlanta Writer’s Club, Red Clay Writers Conference, Black Writer’s Weekend, and the Broadleaf Writers Conference. Chad is an avid gym rat, huge 49ers fan, and loves chasing tennis balls for his dog.
Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, publisher, Emmy® Award-winning producer, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of 40 books, including This is the Honey, Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (co-authored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated, the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.
Kwame is also the Executive Producer, Showrunner, and Writer of the Emmy-award winning series The Crossover, based on his Newbery-Medal winning novel of the same name, which premiered on Disney+ in April 2023. The series was produced in partnership with LeBron James’ SpringHill Company and Big Sea Entertainment, Kwame’s production company that is dedicated to creating innovative, highly original children’s and family entertainment. Other current projects in development at Big Sea include America’s Next Great Author, the groundbreaking reality television series for writers, as well as an animated series in production with GBH based on his beloved children’s book Acoustic Rooster.
Kwame was recently appointed as the Michael I. Rudell Artistic Director of Literary Arts for Chautauqua Literary Arts, and also serves as their Inaugural Writer-in-Residence. A regular contributor to NPR’s Morning Edition, Kwame is the creator and host of the Why Fathers Cry podcast featuring conversations about love and parenting and loss, with fathers and sons. He regularly shares his passion for literacy, books and the craft of writing around the world at events like the Chautauqua Lecture Series, the Edinburgh Book Festival, Aspen Ideas, and the Global Literacy Symposium in Ghana, where he opened the Barbara E. Alexander Memorial Library and Health Clinic in Ghana.
His mission is to change the world, one word at a time.
Kirsten Miller is the author of The Change (a GMA Book Club pick), the New York Times bestselling YA novel The Eternal Ones, and the groundbreaking YA series starring Kiki Strike. Her most recent book are the adult novel Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books and the YA novel How to Lead a Life of Crime. Born and raised in a small town in North Carolina, she now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
The Beaufort Mass Choir was formed in 2008 and is made up of members from the Fellowship Concert Choir, which consists of various churches and religious affiliations in Beaufort and Islandton, South Carolina, the St. Paul Baptist Church Adult Choir, the Gullah Kinfolk, and members of the Unity Diversity Choir. The Beaufort Mass Choir has performed at many annual community and historical events. They are under the direction of Scott Allen Gibbs.
