Myra Davis-Branic discusses the steps she took in writing a book that traced her family back to the 1700s to a South Carolina Plantation and finding a connection to Sierra Leone through the name of an ancestor, Teneba, which is a name from Sierra Leone’s Mende or Temne tribe. The writing of the book was … Read more
The beauty and magic of fiction is writers can use their imagination, which means they don’t have to accept “the journalism” of events – that is, exactly what happened. Writers can transform what “really happened” to fix things, to create a loved version of someone’s life. Or a just version. Or a forgiven version. I’ve … Read more
On November 28, 1950, the federal government chose South Carolina No. 5, a 310-square mile area of rural farmland south of Augusta, GA and west of Aiken, SC, to build a nuclear facility, the Savannah River Plant. The plant’s mission was to manufacture the materials, plutonium and tritium, for the hydrogen bomb to go up … Read more
In March of 2025, USC Press will release the third edition of South Carolina Reflections-A Photographic Journey. The book contains 185 photographs of SouthCarolina’s culture, nature, history, and people. Robert Clark will discuss the unique aspects of photographing the state of South Carolina.
Immigration has been a controversial topic for many years, some would say forever, here and abroad. Having studied the Greek immigrants in his own family for his memoir, Because Memory Isn’t Eternal, and having talked to readers about their families, Deno Trakas will share his fascination with and understanding of the triumphs and travails of immigration … Read more
Novelist Sterling Watson calls my book “a taut page-turner about love and death on the dark side of international education” featuring a “forbidden affair of an American professor and his sultry Iranian student, the Hitchcockian suspense of men and women on the run for their lives in the world’s most dangerous places, and a cast … Read more
Marguerite A. LeHand worked for President Roosevelt for more than 20 years as his private secretary, counselor, confidante and friend. In this presentation, Smith wears period costume and speaks with Missy’s Boston accent about her time with FDR. Mid-talk, she removes Missy’s hat, tells “the rest of the story,” and takes questions from the audience … Read more
(All Ages)This poetry reading and performance will present a variety of original poems that will appeal to a broad audience on themes related to South Carolina. These poems are family friendly and entertaining to all ages. Audiences will enjoy crowd favorites such as Simms’ Turner Speaks My South poem “My South’s Boys” and her inspirational … Read more
(Grades 4 -12 OR Adults.)This reading, led by poet Kimberly Simms, connects audiences to the excitement of contemporary poetry. Kimberly Simms will share a variety of original and well-known engaging poems that explore the life and history of South Carolina. Kimberly Simms has garnered recognition for her poetry not only from esteemed literary journals, but … Read more
When writer/editor Aïda Rogers asked other writers in South Carolina to write about the one place in the state that means the most to them, what she got was … complicated. And what love isn’t? South Carolina’s many conflicting characteristics have marked its many writers, whether their genres are poetry or fiction, journalism or history. … Read more
An illustrated, candid talk takes the audience back to 1950’s rural Georgia where Tom recalls momentous times hanging out at the local Confederate monument, days playing football, and summers on his granddad’s farm. It was there he spent days with his childhood best friend, Jesse Lee “sweetie Boy” Elam, a black boy. Neither had any … Read more
(An illustrated talk) Tom brings back the Sunday drive with memories and sights to be seen today. Times were mom, dad and the kids would head out to see the countryside. Back in the Burma-Shave days, mom-and-pop drive-ins and gas station biscuits fed folks. Cheap gas filled cars, and people made Sunday drives through a … Read more
An illustrated talk based on Tom’s book, Carolina Bays: Wild, Mysterious, and Majestic Landforms, published by the USC Press … From Woods Bay State Park to Carolina bays in the coastal plain, Savannah River Site, Georgia, and North Carolina, Tom takes the audience on a journey to unique landforms some once believed a meteorite bombardment … Read more
Hear how a mule kick killed eight people, how to murder with voodoo, why we used to sit up with the dead, and learn of a haunted French Huguenot Cemetery.
“South Carolina Country Roads” takes readers on a journey down forgotten routes and lesser-traveled byways. Join Tom as he shares photos and discusses what he discovered along the 10,000 miles he drove deliberately avoiding the interstates. Discover the bones of the land, the DNA of real life—rural icons, old home places, oddities, vanquished communities, and relics … Read more
Tom wrote Save The Last Dance For Me (USC Press), the story of how the blues evolved into beach music and how the shag evolved to become the state dance of North and South Carolina. What surprised him most while writing the history of the shag and the Society of Stranders was a revealing glimpse into his … Read more
Tom shares experiences about the legendary Goat Man, a colonel who turned from war to camellias, a sweet man who ended up homeless, and an unforgettable teacher. Enduring places include adventures at a bus station as a ticket agent, filming a wildlife refuge’s lovely isolation, the smell of rain on dirt roads, a kudzu-covered land, … Read more
An illustrated talk takes the audience behind the scenes to a haunted cemetery, South Carolina’s oldest bridge, North America’s only tea plantation, a wild ride down the Chattooga, an old mill where a tractor killed one of the last men making stone-ground cornmeal, a colony of carnivorous pitcher plants, forest fire entrapment while photographing rocky … Read more
Before walking out as SC Wildlife‘s managing editor to freelance, Tom made a road trip with photographer Robert Clark in search of a story. They found it and “Tenant Homes, Testament To Hard Times,” landed them a book contract. That book led to four others. Their initial 100-mile journey in time would lead to more than … Read more
Tom often writes about the vanishing ways, places, and traditions that have blessed the South with a sense of place: small towns that close at noon Wednesdays, vanishing country stores, telephoning fish, wasp attacks in church, casting spells to remove warts, and more. He brings the Southland of yesteryear alive … despite change and newcomers … Read more
Tom travels many a road off the beaten path. Three legs across South Carolina on Highway 76 reveals the state’s rich and surprising character. Other journeys have taken him from the Chattooga River to the Glendale Ruins to the Lowcountry. A surviving drive-in theater, the Kings Highway, a covered bridge, nuclear weapons reactors, poke salad … Read more
In 1999, Warbranch Press published The Little Chairs, a story based on real life experience in Kate’s family. Kate’s father, a WWII veteran, was chronically depressed and would retreat to a dark corner when he didn’t feel like participating in family activities. The book shows in vivid colors and narrative how Kate’s mother eventually got her … Read more
Poetry puts thoughts into words into actions and has a unique ability to be converted into wealth, wealth amassed as confidence, influence, and quality of life. Though timeless, poetry has a distinct cultural relevance in 2021; new voices spring from everywhere—those of various races, genders, sexualities, religions, ethnicities—and appear everywhere—social media, presidential inaugurations, and even … Read more
Humphries wrote extensively during her career, but as her career progressed, so did retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disorder causing loss of peripheral vision. In 2012, she learned to write poetry in community classes, then graduate poetry classes at UofSC, studying under poets such as Nikky Finney and Ed Madden, who would later become the editor … Read more
Humphries sees with more than her eyes; she perceives with her entire being—signature of a stride, voices as distinct as thumbprints, memory as toned and sleek as an elite athlete, blended with sense of humor and common sense. Ann’s sensory inventory infuses her poetry, which in turn operates as a vehicle for sense to explore … Read more
Humphries authored a book using the letters her great grandfather wrote back home to his beloved wife during 1861-1865. Based on the book The Legacy of A Common Civil War Soldier, this program offers a rare glimpse of what life was really like for a Confederate soldier and his wife.
“Writers of the world, if you’ve got a story, I want to hear it. I promise it will follow me to my last breath.”—Pat Conroy Although beloved writer Pat Conroy (1945-2016) served as a classroom educator for little more than three years, he remained a teacher and mentor to his fellow writers throughout his lifetime. … Read more
This lecture is based on one of South Carolina’s premiere folk legends. John blends his powerful storytelling and traditional musical talents to share the interesting life-story of one of South Carolina’s famous and elusive turn-of-the-century African Americans. Through captivating performances, John weaves the history and folklore of the life of George Mullins. Fowler tells two … Read more
This presentation is a journey to Charleston after the Civil War and into the twentieth century, as portrayed by its visitors, including such luminaries as William Dean Howells, May Sarton, and Norman Rockwell. Just as the Civil War was ending, northern journalists descended on Charleston to write about the ruin of the city from the … Read more
Charleston has always held a fascination for its visitors. Today there remains a nacreous patina that overlays this old city, a pentimento suggestive not only of artifacts beneath the surface but also gradations of history. It suggests an excavation of its centuries-old layers. This presentation allows us to do just that, to venture back through … Read more
