<strong>From staff reports</strong>

[caption id="attachment_49081" align="alignright" width="1020"]<a href="https://staging.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Holland-Perryman-Jonathan-Haupt_photo-by-Susan-DeLoach.jpg"><img class="wp-image-49081 size-large" src="https://staging.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Holland-Perryman-Jonathan-Haupt_photo-by-Susan-DeLoach-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1020" height="680" /></a> Holland Perryman &amp; Jonathan Haupt[/caption]

For National Poetry Month in April, join the Pat Conroy Literary Center's Jonathan Haupt and Holland Perryman as they explore Pat Conroy’s lifelong relationship with poetry as a reader, as a self-described “failed poet,” and as a writer who found a creative outlet for his Great Love of poetry in his iconic lyrical and descriptive prose.

Through discussion of Pat’s teachers, mentors, favorite poets, and fellow advocates of poetry, and through published and unpublished writings spanning the breadth of his life, this free virtual program fosters a new appreciation for his admiration of poetry, his dedication to the writing craft, and the myriad ways in which poetry shines through Conroy’s storied prose.

This presentation was originally created in collaboration with poet and retired educator Tim Conroy, author of Theologies of Terrain.

Haupt and Perryman will give two presentations of Pat Conroy’s Great Love of Poetry, both virtual and free to attend: 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 6, hosted by Richland Library in Columbia; and 6 p.m. Monday, April 19, 6 p.m., hosted by the Charleston County Public Library.

To learn more and register, visit www.patconroyliterarycenter.org or www.facebook.com/patconroyliterarycenter.

Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the former director of the University of South Carolina Press, and co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, winner of 17 book awards.

The first poet to be twice featured on the “Lowcountry Poets Corner” segment of the ETV author interview series By the River, Beaufort High School student Perryman is an award-winning writer and the first student intern of the Pat Conroy Literary Center.

[caption id="attachment_49082" align="alignright" width="648"]<a href="https://staging.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Otram-Slabess.jpg"><img class="size-large wp-image-49082" src="https://staging.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Otram-Slabess-648x1024.jpg" alt="" width="648" height="1024" /></a> Otram Slabess poets[/caption]

During National Poetry Month, the Conroy Center will also offer two online poetry writing workshops and an Open Mic reading featuring local poets:

6 p.m. Wednesday, April 7, Hands-on Linked Haiku, workshop led by Miho Kinnas ($45/person, limited to 15) Learn more and register at https://patconroyliterarycenter.eventbrite.com.

6 p.m. Thursday, April 8, Open Mic Night, featuring Beaufort's Otram Slabess poets: Emily Davis-Fletcher, Jacquelyn Markham, Quitman Marshall, Warren Slesinger, and Olivia Stiffler — presented in partnership with the S.C. Writers Association. Live-streamed on the Conroy Center’s Facebook at www.facebook.com/patconroyliterarycenter.

6 p.m. Wednesday, April 14, Writing as Healing, workshop led by Elizabeth Robin ($45/person, limited to 15). Learn more and register at https://patconroyliterarycenter.eventbrite.com.