From staff reports
The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center is hosting a launch event for “Ahead of Her Time: The Trailblazing Life and Literary Legacy of Ann Head,” a new biography written by Nancy Thode and published by Evening Post Books.
This special event will be held in partnership with DAYLO: the Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization and the Beaufort County Historical Society from 5 to 7 p.m., Saturday, May 17, at the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce at 711 Bladen Street.
At 5:30 p.m., author Nancy Thode will be in conversation with Conroy Center Executive Director Jonathan Haupt and youth artivist Millie Bennett. The newest winner of the Ann Head Literary Prize for Short Story Fiction will also be recognized.
A wine reception with catering by Magnolia Café will accompany the evening’s book signing, with copies of “Ahead of Her Time” available for sale and signing.
The event is free and open to the public; advance registration is required by May 16 at https://bit.ly/3GTdprG.
A blue blood and a bohemian, Beaufort-born author Ann Head was an essential voice of mid-century fiction, known for challenging societal norms and amplifying women’s struggles in an era that often silenced them. Now, for the first time, her mysterious personal life is unveiled through the lens of her eldest daughter, Nancy Thode.
Through meticulous archival work and transcriptions of Head’s journals, Thode offers an intimate portrait of a writer whose life and fiction were deeply intertwined. Featuring a selection of Head’s published stories, it invites readers to experience her boundary-pushing prose firsthand. It also includes never-before-seen letters from her most famous student, a young Pat Conroy, whose admiration for Head reveals her lasting impact on one of the South’s most celebrated literary voices.
“‘Ahead of Her Time,’ a highly readable biography of prolific and successful writer Ann Head, offers up a rich chronicle of experiences … This is a rare book you’ll want to share,” said Cassandra King, Conroy’s widow and bestselling author of “Tell Me A Story: My Life with Pat Conroy.”
A native of Beaufort, Thode is a graduate of Ashley Hall School, Towson State University, and the University of Maryland School of Social Work. An early advocate for family mediation, she was a founding board member of the Academy of Family Mediators and continues her work today as a practicing family psychotherapist. “Ahead of Her Time” is her first book.
Haupt is the Executive Director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center and co-editor of the anthology “Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy,” winner of 17 book awards.
Bennett is a past Conroy Center intern and a past president of the Beaufort High School chapter of DAYLO. A rising junior in the College of Charleston, Bennett is majoring in studio arts and minoring in creative writing and Women’s & Gender Studies.
