The expression “The Bard” does Shakespeare and playgoers a huge disservice. The guy with the ruff and the beard is “too highbrow,” “out of touch,” and “stuffy.” Sometimes, however, Shakespeare is raunchy, extraordinarily violent, and witty, as reflected in numerous phrases and concepts in our language. This session will explore some of the lesser produced … Read more
Many of our contemporary notions of Heaven, Hell, and Eden come not just from the Bible, but from John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Milton did not contradict anything in Genesis, but built from centuries of interpretation and synthesis to create the most powerful images in English literature. He is also not, contrary to popular opinion, misogynistic or … Read more
The 1920s and 30s were the highlight decades of the British “cozy”: the relatively bloodless type of murder mystery that one can read curled by up by the fireplace with a strong cup of tea. This talk will trace the development of the genre of British detective fiction from its antecedents such as Wilke Collins … Read more
Elizabeth I was regarded with awe by her people in her own lifetime, but she frequently communicated with her subjects as well as her fellow monarchs and counselors. Her avenues of communication were much more limited than those used by most politicians nowadays; Elizabeth only had at her disposal official written communications and public appearances. … Read more
Henry Timrod’s stint as a war correspondent for South Carolina’s Charleston Mercury was brief, but the Civil War and his experiences at the battlefront were the inspiration for poems that created his legacy as an important 19th century Southern poet. His poetry, which is usually included in Southern studies and most anthologies of American poetry, was “borrowed” … Read more
Edgar Allan Poe was stationed at Fort Moultrie in 1827 and 1828 under the assumed name of Edgar Perry. While there, Poe was gathering material for the first detective stories in the English language, including The Goldbug, which was set on Sullivan’s Island. He also created the first American detective—C. Auguste Dupin, who was the … Read more
In modern fictionalized narratives on slavery by black authors, black women are given a supernatural ability to transcend time and space in order to alter their genealogies and family trauma. This lecture details such abilities given to black female characters and its implications on race relations in the 21st century.
From an early age, we are taught that reading is good. But what happens when the stories that we read reinforce dangerous ideas? This talk will explore the similarities between novels of courtship and marriage and the horrific dynamics of domestic violence. With reference to popular texts, such as Disney animations, the speaker identifies how … Read more
One of the most interesting dynamics of eighteenth-century literature is the emergence of women writers. This talk will examine how early women novelists took the stories they inherited from male authors and retold them in ways that were quietly subversive. This process of appropriation and redirection continues today and provides important insight on how art … Read more
As we are bombarded daily by ever-coarsening political discourse, it is tempting to long for a gentler, perhaps more civil, age. Imagining a past similar to the worlds of Jane Austen novels, we sometimes project our wishes onto the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This talk will suggest that what we are experiencing in America today … Read more
Today we think of novels as little more than entertainment. When the genre emerged in the eighteenth century, novels also had an almost medicinal function: they were texts that helped readers regulate their passions. Drawing on recent scholarship, this talk will explain how reading fiction was thought to improve health. Equally important, it will explore … Read more
Julia Peterkin was a white woman who wrote about Gullah people living on her family’s plantation out of a desire to honor and preserve their culture. She was shunned by white Southerners for “betraying her race” but became accepted by Harlem Renaissance writers, such as Langston Hughes and W.E.B. DuBois. Regardless of criticism, she continued … 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
“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
“Open yourself up to all experience. Let life pour through you the way light pours through leaves.”—Pat Conroy The author of The Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, and The Water Is Wide, author and educator Pat Conroy (1945–2016) is synonymous with the lowcountry. Explore Conroy’s lifelong commitment to education and self-improvement through stories of three of … Read more
“The poets of the world occupy a place of high honor in my city of books.”—Pat Conroy Best known as a beloved novelist and memoirist, internationally acclaimed author Pat Conroy (1945-2016) began his writing life wanting to be a poet. Over time, Conroy transitioned successfully to prose, incorporating the lyrical and descriptive elements he most … Read more
“A library could show you everything if you knew where to look.”—Pat Conroy This one-hour presentation on best-selling author Pat Conroy’s lifelong love of books and libraries focuses on the roles public libraries, school libraries, and Pat’s own personal library played in his writing life. Through video and audio clips, photographs, and published and unpublished … Read more
“The great teachers of the world fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life.”—Pat Conroy This presentation explores best-selling author Pat Conroy’s transformational years as a student at Beaufort High School and later as a teacher at BHS and on Daufuskie Island. Included are audio … Read more
Did you know that forty materials from twenty-eight countries go into the making of a #2 pencil? That a letter’s author owns the copyright, but the recipient owns the letter? Or that an experienced journalist is expected to produce about a thousand words per day? These questions, their answers, and a half-dozen pertinent cartoons are … Read more
Did you know that Andrew Carnegie underwrote the construction of 2509 libraries? That in 2014, a library in San Antonio became the first library without newspapers, magazine, or books? Or that a library in Portugal supports a colony of bats to eat the moths and beetles that feed on the books? These questions, their answers, … Read more
What would you call several unicorns if you were so lucky to see them? What does “avantular” mean? And why will your children and grandchildren smile when you tell them what the potentater is? If you love word play, you’ll love the other 47 questions and answers that go with the above.
This audience-participation program works best with a group that enjoys language, as they will be intimately involved and asked to volunteer further contributions to the lecturer’s list of Southern dialect, contemporary slang, folk etymologies, Spoonerisms, and more.
Yes, this topic makes for an active open discussion, with more audience participation than most. Not only learn how authors utilize setting almost as character, but also learn from others what stories, especially SC stories, might be worth adding to your nightstand for future reading.
People love stories set in the South, and many adore the South Carolina setting. Pat Conroy, Dorothea Benton Frank, and Mary Alice Monroe have capitalized on our state in their fictional stories. What is it about South Carolina that makes for a good backdrop? What part of South Carolina isn’t clearly depicted, and what is … Read more
So many people want to write their life’s story. But where does one start, and how much is intriguing enough to engage readers? Learn how not to start when you were born, and how to identify the aspects of your history that merit the storytelling, and how to spin it like a novel and garner … Read more
Setting matters, and Hope Clark’s Edisto Mystery Series clears the shelves of the Edisto Bookstore as fast as they appear. There’s something about the jungle setting, about crossing the McKinley Washington Bridge to that island, that makes for an intriguing, suspenseful setting for mystery. Learn how choosing a strategic setting for stories can make as … Read more
How a bribe led to a book deal. Hope Clark always wrote but never thought that writing could be a career. But after being offered a bribe, and finding herself in the midst of a federal investigation, she quickly realized that life made for great fiction. In a journey of starts, stops, and ample rejection, … Read more
Most writers are introverts, meaning they not only find it difficult to take their ideas from thought to paper, but they fear submitting, publishing, and speaking. Using tricks and tools from her book The Shy Writer Reborn, C. Hope Clark walks potential writers through the landmines of writing and publishing so that their dreams of being … Read more
Readers adore investing in characters over a series of books, and the mystery genre is ripe with such series. But what makes for an intriguing series? How does a writer keep the momentum going book after book so readers beg for more? As a reader or writer, understand how a series grows and builds a … Read more
Using examples from well-known books, movies and television shows, and whatever example the audience wants to dissect, learn the art of taking a character from basic hair and eye color into a quirky, charismatic, loveable, respectable, enticing, intense, or demonic contributor to a tale. Whether you read or write, the discussion and Q&A shed new … Read more
