10th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival set for October 23-26
From staff reports
The 10th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival to be held Thursday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Oct. 26, will celebrate Pat Conroy’s 80th birthday with a robust schedule of free and ticketed events, including author panels, book signings, workshops, readings, tours, exhibits, and gatherings. Popular with literary tourists and local readers and writers alike, the festival is hosted by the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center.
Internationally acclaimed writer Pat Conroy (1945-2016) is best remembered as the author of “The Water Is Wide,” “The Great Santini,” “The Lords of Discipline,” and “The Prince of Tides,” each also adapted for film. Conroy has become as synonymous with his adopted Lowcountry as pluff mud or Spanish Moss.
Honoring his 80th birthday, this year’s literary festival will include a special retrospective panel discussion among Conroy’s friends and fellow writers, representing Conroy’s experiences in Beaufort, Charleston, and Atlanta: Valerie Sayers, John Warley, Cliff Graubart, Bernie Schein, Stephanie Austin Edwards, and Ellen Malphrus. New to the festival experience this year, Conroy’s friends and local travel writers Lynn and Cele Seldon will also lead a Conroy-inspired Taste of the Lowcountry Crawl.
The festival will also feature appearances by many bestselling authors — including Conroy’s widow Cassandra King (“Tell Me a Story”) in conversation with Patti Callahan Henry (“The Story She Left Behind”) moderated by Lowcountry Weekly editor and publisher Margaret Evans, who was once Conroy’s research assistant.
Conroy Center board chair Sean A. Scapellato, who was also once Conroy’s research assistant, will moderate a discussion among internationally acclaimed thriller writers Chris Pavone (“The Doorman”), Chris Whitaker (“All the Colors of the Dark”), and John Hart (“The Unwilling”).
Larger-than-life storyteller and bestselling writer Adriana Trigiani (“The View from Lake Como”) will headline the festival’s Sunday brunch, also featuring a special appearance by the Beaufort Mass Choir.
As an unprecedented highlight of this year’s event, National Book Award winner Jason Mott (“People Like Us”) will be the festival’s opening night speaker, appearing at the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce in conversation with Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and Beaufort High School student Brea Parker (representing the DAYLO book club and Students Demand Action). Mott will also appear in a free poetry reading in Witness Tree Park, with poets Tim Conroy, Susan Madison, and Jacquelyn Markham.
Academy Award-nominated actor Michael O’Keefe, who portrayed Ben Meecham in the film version of The Great Santini, is also scheduled to appear as a special guest of the festival.
Of keen interest to writers, several festival presenters will also be leading writing workshops, and the festival will include a publishing panel featuring bestselling author Chris Pavone, editor Sarah Nelson, and agent Marly Rusoff.
The 10th annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival is made possible by the generous support of the Robert S. Handler Charitable Trust and numerous local supporters. Most festival events will be held at the University of South Carolina Beaufort’s Center for the Arts and at the Conroy Center. For all details on the Pat Conroy Literary Festival’s schedule of events, presenter and instructor lineup, sponsors, locations, and how to register in advance, visit www.patconroyliteraryfestival.org.
