Pat Conroy as Nature Writer at Village Social of Habersham, January 25 & 26
photos courtesy of PAT CONROY LITERARY CENTER
Village Social of Habersham and the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will present the popular lecture “Pat Conroy as Nature Writer” on Sunday, January 25, at 3:00-5:00 p.m., and again on Monday, January 26, at 6:00-8:00 p.m. — both at Village Social (21A-1 Market Street, Beaufort).
Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and poet Tim Conroy, assisted by students from the DAYLO book club, will discuss the nature writing of Pat Conroy, the bestselling author of The Water Is Wide, The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides, and more. From his obscure boyhood poetry to his beloved lyrical adult prose, Conroy wrote about the beauty of our natural world as both wondrous and perilous, using the Lowcountry not only as the setting but also as the central character of his many books. This presentation will highlight representative examples of Conroy’s nature writing from across the span of his writing life, drawing attention to how Conroy’s relationship with nature is also ultimately a relationship with his deeply felt spiritual and humanistic faith.
The $25 registration fee includes the presentation, refreshments, and a donation in support of the year-round educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. Advance registration for this event and others in this series is available online at www.villagesocialhabersham.net/upcoming-events.
ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the past 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. He is a frequent guest book reviewer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier. Under Jonathan’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as an American Library Association Literary Landmark, an affiliate of the American Writers Museum, and winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership.
A founding board member of the Pat Conroy Literary Center established in his brother’s honor, Tim Conroy is a retired educator and the author of the poetry collections Theologies of Terrain and No True Route. His work has also appeared in Fall Lines, Blue Mountain Review, Jasper Magazine, Marked by the Water, Sheltered, Twelve Mile Review, Poetry on the Comet, The Post and Courier, Ukweli: Searching for Healing Truth, DWG Anthology, and Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy. In 2022, he received the Broad River Prize for prose from Fall Lines, Volume IX.
The Village Social series will continue on Monday, February 23, 6:00-8:00 p.m., with a panel discussion of Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, also featuring Jonathan Haupt and Tim Conroy, joined by USC Beaufort writer in residence Ellen Malphrus and Pat Conroy’s widow and fellow bestselling southern author Cassandra King.
Learn more about the Pat Conroy Literary Center at www.patconroyliterarycenter.org. Learn more about Village Social of Habersham at www.villagesocialhabersham.net.
