On Monday, August 25, at 6:00-8:00 p.m., Village Social will host Pat Conroy: An Introduction to a Lowcountry Legend, presented by Jonathan Haupt, executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center. This special event is the first in a series of collaborative lectures and author discussions to be held in partnership between Village Social and the Conroy Center from August through February.

Internationally acclaimed writer Pat Conroy (1945-2016) is best remembered as the author of The Water Is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, and The Prince of Tides, each also adapted for film. Conroy has become as synonymous with his adopted lowcountry as pluff mud or Spanish Moss. Join the Conroy Center executive director—and one of Pat’s many protégés—for an engaging hour of stories, photos, and videos introducing Conroy’s origin story, the beginnings of his writing and teaching life and exploring some of the major themes of his work, and how the nonprofit literary center established in his memory continues his legacy.

 Best-selling writer Pat Conroy (1945–2016) inspired a worldwide legion of devoted fans numbering in the millions, but none are more loyal to him and more committed to sustaining his literary legacy than the many writers he nurtured over the course of his fifty-year writing life. In sharing their stories, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on literary life in and well beyond the American South. Winner of 17 book awards, the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy is a collection of remembrances from 67 writers befriended, beloved, taught, mentored, and championed by Conroy—and no two stories are the same. Neither are any two panel discussions among the contributors.

Join us at Village Social on Monday, February 23, 5:00-6:00 p.m., for a lively conversation, moderated by Our Prince of Scribes co-editor and Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and featuring a trio of contributing writers: Conroy’s brother Tim (author of two poetry collections, most recently No True Route), Conroy’s widow Cassandra King (New York Times bestselling author of fiction and nonfiction, most recently Tell Me a Story), and USC Beaufort writer in residence Ellen Malphrus (author of Untying the Moon).

 Best-selling writer Pat Conroy (1945–2016) inspired a worldwide legion of devoted fans numbering in the millions, but none are more loyal to him and more committed to sustaining his literary legacy than the many writers he nurtured over the course of his fifty-year writing life. In sharing their stories, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on literary life in and well beyond the American South. Winner of 17 book awards, the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy is a collection of remembrances from 67 writers befriended, beloved, taught, mentored, and championed by Conroy—and no two stories are the same. Neither are any two panel discussions among the contributors.

Join us at Village Social on Monday, February 23, 5:00-6:00 p.m., for a lively conversation, moderated by Our Prince of Scribes co-editor and Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and featuring a trio of contributing writers: Conroy’s brother Tim (author of two poetry collections, most recently No True Route), Conroy’s widow Cassandra King (New York Times bestselling author of fiction and nonfiction, most recently Tell Me a Story), and USC Beaufort writer in residence Ellen Malphrus (author of Untying the Moon).

Join Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt for an engaging exploration of 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 lyrical and descriptive prose. Through discussion of Pat’s teachers, mentors, and favorite poets, and through published and unpublished writings spanning the breadth of his life, this presentation fosters a new appreciation for Conroy’s admiration of poetry, his dedication to the writing craft, and the myriad ways in which poetry shines through his storied prose.

Best-selling writer Pat Conroy (1945–2016) inspired a worldwide legion of devoted fans numbering in the millions, but none are more loyal to him and more committed to sustaining his literary legacy than the many writers he nurtured over the course of his fifty-year writing life. In sharing their stories, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on literary life in and well beyond the American South. Winner of 17 book awards, the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy is a collection of remembrances from 67 writers befriended, beloved, taught, mentored, and championed by Conroy—and no two stories are the same. Neither are any two panel discussions among the contributors.

Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and poet Tim Conroy 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 a setting but 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.

 Best-selling writer Pat Conroy (1945–2016) inspired a worldwide legion of devoted fans numbering in the millions, but none are more loyal to him and more committed to sustaining his literary legacy than the many writers he nurtured over the course of his fifty-year writing life. In sharing their stories, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on literary life in and well beyond the American South. Winner of 17 book awards, the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy is a collection of remembrances from 67 writers befriended, beloved, taught, mentored, and championed by Conroy—and no two stories are the same. Neither are any two panel discussions among the contributors.

Join us at Village Social on Monday, February 23, 5:00-6:00 p.m., for a lively conversation, moderated by Our Prince of Scribes co-editor and Pat Conroy Literary Center executive director Jonathan Haupt and featuring a trio of contributing writers: Conroy’s brother Tim (author of two poetry collections, most recently No True Route), Conroy’s widow Cassandra King (New York Times bestselling author of fiction and nonfiction, most recently Tell Me a Story), and USC Beaufort writer in residence Ellen Malphrus (author of Untying the Moon).