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<p>The Pat Conroy Literary Center will host two free public events featuring visiting southern writers George Singleton and Roberts Hicks on Tuesday, May 28, and Thursday, May 30, respectively. The author events will begin at 5:30 p.m. and be held in the Conroy Center at 905 Port Republic Street, Beaufort.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Books will be available for sale and signing.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Singleton has published seven collections of stories (most recently Staff Picks), two novels, and a book of writing advice. More than 200 of his stories have appeared in magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Playboy, the Georgia Review, the Southern Review, the Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>A 2010 Inductee to the S.C. Academy of Authors, he is also the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, the Hillsdale Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and the Corrington Award for Literary Excellence. Singleton lives in Spartanburg, where he holds the John C. Cobb Chair in Humanities at Wofford College.</p>
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<p>Staff Picks provides a loosely linked baker’s dozen of stories set in small, often-floundering towns.In turns both comic and tragic, Singleton shows characters trying to make sense out of the Old South, the New South, and the New New South in all their ragged glory.</p>
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<p>Hicks is the New York Times best-selling author of the historical novels The Widow of the South, The Orphan Mother, and A Separate Country. Blues legend B.B. King gave Hicks his favorite title: “Curator of Vibe.”&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Named No. 2 in the most recent listing of the top 100 Reasons to Love Nashville by Nashville Lifestyles magazine, Hicks was described as Nashville’s “Master of Ceremonies.” A lifelong collector, Hicks was the first Tennessean to be listed among Arts &amp; Antiques’ Top 100 Collectors in America—his collection focuses on outsider art and southern material culture.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>He served as curator on the exhibition, Art of Tennessee, at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville. Hicks is founding chairman of Franklin’s Charge: A Vision and Campaign for the Preservation of Historic Open Space in the fight to secure and preserve the historic battlefield in Williamson County. <br> <br>In December 2005, the Nashville Tennessean named him Tennessean of the Year for the impact his best-selling novel The Widow of the South has had on Tennessee heritage tourism and preservation. </p>
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<p>In the October 2014, he introduced his Battlefield Bourbon, a very small batch, Tennessee-made, aged and hand-bottled bourbon whiskey. With this, the Tennessean gave Hicks his other favorite title: “Whiskey Preservationist.” He is also the host of the annual Seriously Seersucker, the largest seersucker party in the world.<br>
Singleton and Hicks will each appear on Season 2 of SCETV’s By The River author interview program, which films in Beaufort.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>The Conroy Center is located at 905 Port Republic Street in Beaufort and is open to the public from noon to 4 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. To learn more about the educational programs offered through the Conroy Center, please visit www.patconroyliterarycenter.org.<br></p>
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