Poetry of Place: Eight Poets on the Eighth

In partnership with historic Grace Chapel AME Church, the Pat Conroy Conroy Literary Center presents a community poetry reading featuring eight talented writers from South Carolina, representing Palmetto State natives and newcomers alike. “Poetry of Place” will explore (among other subjects) our inherent connectivity to a sense of place, be that home or elsewhere, real or imagined. Headlining the “Poetry of Place” reading is DéLana R.A. Dameron, the 2008 winner of the South Carolina Poetry Book Prize now touring for her second collection, Weary Kingdom. Joining Dameron are poets Tim Conroy, Elijah Heyward Jr., Miho Kinnas, Susan Madison, Quitman Marshall, Elizabeth Robin, and Olivia Stiffler. FREE and open the public, the poetry reading will be held on Thursday, June 8, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at Grace Chapel (502 Charles St.) with a reception and book signing to follow at the Pat Conroy Literary Center (308 Charles St.). About our Poets TIM CONROY is a former special education teacher, school administrator, and vice president of the South Carolina Autism Society. His poetry and short fiction have been published in literary journals, including Fall Lines, and he is completing his first chapbook. A founding board member of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, established in his brother’s honor, Conroy lives and writes in Columbia. DéLANA R.A. DAMERON’s second collection of poems Weary Kingdom is part of the USC Press Palmetto Poetry Series edited by Nikky Finney. Dameron’s debut collection How God Ends Us was selected by Elizabeth Alexander as winner of the 2008 South Carolina Poetry Book Prize. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from New York University where she was a Goldwater Hospital Writer’s workshop fellow. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, ARTS.BLACK, Storyscape Journal, The Rumpus, Epiphany Magazine, Tidal Basin Review, and New Sound Journal. A South Carolina native, Dameron lives in New York. ELIJAH HEYWARD JR. was born and raised in Beaufort. A graduate of South Carolina State University and veteran of the U.S. Air Force, he is an ordained minister who taught in Beaufort County schools for more than thirty years. His books include Stories and Poems of a Gullah Native and Shade: An Awakening. MIHO KINNAS is the author of the chapbook Today, Fish Only. Born and raised in Japan, Kinnas lives on Hilton Head Island where she is a member of the Island Writers Network. She holds an M.F.A. in poetry from the City University of Hong Kong. SUSAN MADISON is a resident of St. Helena Island and a native of Chicago, where she studied fiction and poetry at Columbia College. Her work has appeared in Chicken Soup for the African American Woman’s Soul, her chapbook i can’t sing the blues, and Gullah Paths: Voices from the Past. Madison is a member of the Gullah Africa Diaspora Artists Guild and the Low Country Spirit Writers. QUITMAN MARSHALL was born in Columbia, South Carolina, and grew up there and in Barcelona, Spain. He was the founding coordinator of the Literary Series at Spoleto Festival USA. Marshall is the 1996 winner of the Writers Exchange Award sponsored by Poets & Writers, and his book of poems You Were Born One Time won the 2013 South Carolina Poetry Archives Book Prize. He lives in Beaufort. ELIZABETH ROBIN retired to Hilton Head Island after a 33-year teaching career to devote herself to writing. Her work appears in The Fourth River, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, I am not a silent poet, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Curly Mind, The Skinny Journal, The Breeze, and the Island Writers’ Network’s Time and Tide. She is the author of the newly published chapbook Silk Purses & Lemonade. OLIVIA STIFFLER is the author of the poetry collections Otherwise We Are Safe (selected by Writers Almanac for its Best of 2014 list) and Hiding in Plain Sight. After spending her working life in the hills of Missouri, Stiffler retired to Bluffton where she has embraced her love of writing in her new home in the lowcountry.

National Teacher Day May 9, 2017

The Pat Conroy Literary Center honors and advances Pat Conroy's legacy as a teacher and mentor--and we celebrate the transformative power of education made possible by all of the teachers in our lives. Pat wrote, "the great teachers of the world fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life." Happy National Teacher Day and happy National Teacher Appreciation Week! www.patconroyliterarycenter.org

Pat Conroy Literary Center Donation Box Sculpture

Out and About with Kim Sullivan

Our thanks to Kim Sullivan for this Out and About video segment on our Pat Conroy Literary Center!

Pat Conroy's Great Love of Libraries

“I Was Born to Be in a Library”: Pat Conroy’s Great Love of Libraries Spartanburg Co Public Libraries, Boiling Spring Branch 871 Double Bridge Rd, Boiling Springs, SC 29316 www.spartanburglibraries.org/Locations/Boiling-Springs Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt will discuss best-selling author Pat Conroy’s lifelong love of books and libraries—focusing on the roles public libraries, school libraries, and Pat's own personal library played in his writing life. Through video and audio clips, photographs, and published and unpublished writings by and about Conroy, this presentation welcomes attendees into the book-filled world of one of America's most beloved writers. FREE and open to the public, this program also includes an overview of the Pat Conroy Literary Center and its annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival which honor and continue Conroy’s legacy as writer and educator in his adopted hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina. About our presenter: Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, the founding director of the Pat Conroy Literary Festival, and the former director of the University of South Carolina Press, where he created the Story River Books fiction imprint in partnership with Pat Conroy. Haupt serves on the boards of the South Carolina Academy of Authors, the Deckle Edge Literary Festival, and the Friends of South Carolina Libraries.

Lowcountry Weekly

Our thanks to Lowcountry Weekly for sharing our Porch Talk interviews in excerpt in their print and online editions. Here then is a chance to revisit Mindy Lucas's conversation with William A Balk Jr on the porch of the Pat Conroy Literary Center.

Pat Conroy's Great Love of Libraries

“I Was Born to Be in a Library”: Pat Conroy’s Great Love of Libraries Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt will discuss best-selling author Pat Conroy’s lifelong love of books and libraries—focusing on the roles public libraries, school libraries, and Pat's own personal library played in his writing life. Through video and audio clips, photographs, and published and unpublished writings by and about Conroy, this presentation welcomes attendees into the book-filled world of one of America's most beloved writers. FREE and open to the public, this program also includes an overview of the Pat Conroy Literary Center and its annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival which honor and continue Conroy’s legacy as writer and educator in his adopted hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina. Thanks to the Beaufort County Library System, this program will be presented at the following branch libraries: Beaufort Main Branch, May 25, 2:00-3:00 pm Bluffton Branch Library, July 10, 2:00-3:00 pm Hilton Head Branch Library, July 20, 2:00-3:00 pm Saint Helena Branch Library, September 12, 2:00-3:00 pm About our presenter: Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, the founding director of the Pat Conroy Literary Festival, and the former director of the University of South Carolina Press, where he created the Story River Books fiction imprint in partnership with Pat Conroy. Haupt serves on the boards of the South Carolina Academy of Authors, the Deckle Edge Literary Festival, and the Friends of South Carolina Libraries.

Pat Conroy's Great Love of Libraries

“I Was Born to Be in a Library”: Pat Conroy’s Great Love of Libraries Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt will discuss best-selling author Pat Conroy’s lifelong love of books and libraries—focusing on the roles public libraries, school libraries, and Pat's own personal library played in his writing life. Through video and audio clips, photographs, and published and unpublished writings by and about Conroy, this presentation welcomes attendees into the book-filled world of one of America's most beloved writers. FREE and open to the public, this program also includes an overview of the Pat Conroy Literary Center and its annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival which honor and continue Conroy’s legacy as writer and educator in his adopted hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina. Thanks to the Beaufort County Library System, this program will be presented at the following branch libraries: Beaufort Main Branch, May 25, 2:00-3:00 pm Bluffton Branch Library, July 10, 2:00-3:00 pm Hilton Head Branch Library, July 20, 2:00-3:00 pm Saint Helena Branch Library, September 12, 2:00-3:00 pm About our presenter: Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, the founding director of the Pat Conroy Literary Festival, and the former director of the University of South Carolina Press, where he created the Story River Books fiction imprint in partnership with Pat Conroy. Haupt serves on the boards of the South Carolina Academy of Authors, the Deckle Edge Literary Festival, and the Friends of South Carolina Libraries.

Pat Conroy's Great Love of Libraries

“I Was Born to Be in a Library”: Pat Conroy’s Great Love of Libraries Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt will discuss best-selling author Pat Conroy’s lifelong love of books and libraries—focusing on the roles public libraries, school libraries, and Pat's own personal library played in his writing life. Through video and audio clips, photographs, and published and unpublished writings by and about Conroy, this presentation welcomes attendees into the book-filled world of one of America's most beloved writers. FREE and open to the public, this program also includes an overview of the Pat Conroy Literary Center and its annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival which honor and continue Conroy’s legacy as writer and educator in his adopted hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina. Thanks to the Beaufort County Library System, this program will be presented at the following branch libraries: Beaufort Main Branch, May 25, 2:00-3:00 pm Bluffton Branch Library, July 10, 2:00-3:00 pm Hilton Head Branch Library, July 20, 2:00-3:00 pm Saint Helena Branch Library, September 12, 2:00-3:00 pm About our presenter: Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, the founding director of the Pat Conroy Literary Festival, and the former director of the University of South Carolina Press, where he created the Story River Books fiction imprint in partnership with Pat Conroy. Haupt serves on the boards of the South Carolina Academy of Authors, the Deckle Edge Literary Festival, and the Friends of South Carolina Libraries.

Pat Conroy's Great Love of Libraries

“I Was Born to Be in a Library”: Pat Conroy’s Great Love of Libraries Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt will discuss best-selling author Pat Conroy’s lifelong love of books and libraries—focusing on the roles public libraries, school libraries, and Pat's own personal library played in his writing life. Through video and audio clips, photographs, and published and unpublished writings by and about Conroy, this presentation welcomes attendees into the book-filled world of one of America's most beloved writers. FREE and open to the public, this program also includes an overview of the Pat Conroy Literary Center and its annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival which honor and continue Conroy’s legacy as writer and educator in his adopted hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina. Thanks to the Beaufort County Library System, this program will be presented at the following branch libraries: Beaufort Main Branch, May 25, 2:00-3:00 pm Bluffton Branch Library, July 10, 2:00-3:00 pm Hilton Head Branch Library, July 20, 2:00-3:00 pm Saint Helena Branch Library, September 12, 2:00-3:00 pm About our presenter: Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, the founding director of the Pat Conroy Literary Festival, and the former director of the University of South Carolina Press, where he created the Story River Books fiction imprint in partnership with Pat Conroy. Haupt serves on the boards of the South Carolina Academy of Authors, the Deckle Edge Literary Festival, and the Friends of South Carolina Libraries.

Mark Powell in Conversation with John Warley

The Pat Conroy Literary Center's Visiting Writers Series welcomes Mark Powell, author of Small Treasons, an astonishing and powerful new novel about the search for meaning in an increasingly violent and divided world. Mark will appear in conversation with his fellow Citadel alumnus John Warley, author of A Southern Girl, Bethesda's Child, and The Moralist. Sponsored in part by the Pulpwood Queens book club and presented in partnership with the Technical College of the Lowcountry, this event is free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and autographing thanks to NeverMore Books. “Impossible to put down, Small Treasons is the best work of Mark Powell’s young career, and brings all of his prodigious talents to bear on his most compelling story yet. An up-to-the-minute exploration of our political climate and the violence, both physical and emotional, that results from it.”—James Scott author of The Kept “A brilliant novelist at the top of his game. Small Treasons achieves that rare balance between complexity and pacing, a story rich and intricate, propulsive and satisfying. Mark Powell has been the South’s best-kept secret for far too long.”—David Joy, author of Where All Light Tends To Go "Both richly regional and ambitiously international in scope, Small Treasons probes the murky depths of a troubled marriage, moving between the personal and political with lyrical ease. Powell’s characters—flawed, contemplative, and viscerally alive—pine for meaningful communication as they struggle to ground their identities in a complex world. As intimate perspectives converge into a masterful plot, Small Treasons delivers brutal truths about contemporary global politics—but not without a note of cautious hope.”—Julia Elliott, author of The Wilds About our author: Mark Powell has been called the "best Appalachian novelist of his generation" by Ron Rash, and a writer "on the verge of greatness" by Pat Conroy. He is the author of five novels, including The Sheltering, published in Pat Conroy's Story River Books imprint. Powell has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Breadloaf and Sewanee Writers' Conferences, and was a Fulbright Fellow to Slovakia. He has also received the Chaffin Award for contributions to Appalachian literature. He holds degrees from Yale Divinity School, the University of South Carolina, and the Citadel. He lives in the mountains of North Carolina where he teaches at Appalachian State University. About our interviewer: John Warley is the author of A Southern Girl, the first novel published by Pat Conroy's Story River Books. A native South Carolinian, Warley is a graduate of the Citadel and the University of the Virginia School of Law. He practiced law in Virginia until 1993, when he moved to Mexico to write and teach. Now a full-time writer, Warley divides his time between Beaufort, South Carolina, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. His previous books include Bethesda's Child and The Moralist, and he is currently writing a modern history of the Citadel.

Patti Callahan Henry in Conversation with Ellen Malphrus

The Pat Conroy Literary Center's Visiting Writers Series welcomes Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times best-selling author of The Bookshop at Water's End, a new novel about women who spent their childhood summers in a small southern town that harbors secrets as lush as the marshes surrounding it. Patti will appear in conversation with Ellen Malphrus, novelist, poet, and USCB professor of English. Sponsored in part by the Pulpwood Queens book club and presented in partnership with the Technical College of the Lowcountry, this event is free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale and autographing thanks to Litchfield Books--with all book sales to benefit the educational programming of the Pat Conroy Literary Center. “Patti Callahan Henry has written the best novel of her career with The Bookshop at Water’s End. I absolutely adored it and predict it will be one of the most-loved books of the year. In fact, it’s so good I wish I’d written it myself!”—Dorothea Benton Frank “The Bookshop at Water’s End carries us along the graceful curves and outwardly serene story line of two childhood friends returning to their summer riverside home. But like the river she writes about, Patti’s plot roils with strong undercurrents of murky secrets, tragedy and the pulsing tides of self-discovery. No one writes about the power of family and friends like Patti Callahan Henry. The Bookshop at Water’s End is a must-read!”—Mary Alice Monroe “Patti Callahan Henry’s stories are always woven with magic and mystery, and The Bookshop at Water’s End knots these elements into a deeply satisfying and heartfelt tale of loss and betrayal, friendship and forgiveness.”—Mary Kay Andrews About the author: Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times bestselling author whose novels include The Idea of Love, The Stories We Tell, And Then I Found You, Coming Up for Air, The Perfect Love Song, Driftwood Summer, The Art of Keeping Secrets, Between the Tides, When Light Breaks, Where the River Runs and Losing the Moon. She has been short-listed for the Townsend Prize for Fiction and nominated multiple times for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Book Award for Fiction. About the interviewer: A student of James Dickey, Ellen Malphrus teaches creative writing and Southern literature at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in Southern Literary Journal, Review of Contemporary Fiction, William and Mary Review, Georgia Poetry Review, and elsewhere. Malphrus's first novel Untying the Moon was published by Pat Conroy’s Story River Books. She serves as deputy director of the Pat Conroy Literary Festival.