New York Times 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 50-year writing life. In sharing their stories of Conroy, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on 20th- and 21st-century literary life in and well beyond the American South.

Featured presenters for this panel discussion are co-editor Jonathan Haupt and contributing writers Stephanie Austin Edwards, David Lauderdale, Bren McClain, and Kathy L. Murphy. Each author in this collection shares a slightly different view of Conroy. Through their voices, a vibrant, multifaceted portrait of him comes to life and sheds new light on the writer and the man.

Free and open to the public, this special event is presented by the Pat Conroy Literary Center in partnership with First Presbyterian Church of Hilton Head Island. Books will be available for sale and signing following the presentation. Sales of Our Prince of Scribes help support the educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center.

PRAISE FOR OUR PRINCE OF SCRIBES
“His wound may have been geography, but his legacy was generosity. That’s the takeaway from this new collection of essays honoring the late Pat Conroy. Novelist Nicole Seitz and Jonathan Haupt, the executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, pull together a who’s-who of writers from the Lowcountry and beyond for an ode to the real Prince of Tides… A fitting tribute to a unique, significant writer and man.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A moving tribute to the legacy of one of the South’s brightest lights.”–Garden & Gun’s Talk of the South

“Pat Conroy’s death in 2016 left a colossal void in the literary landscape, but his spirit survives not only in the legacy of his work but in new books like this collection of funny, bittersweet recollections by those who knew him.”–Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS
Before Stephanie Austin Edwards returned to the Lowcountry of South Carolina, and to her love of writing, she had a twenty-two-year career in New York Theater. She now writes fiction and non-fiction, facilitates writers groups, teaches writing workshops, and consults with authors. She is the author of the award-winning novel What We Set in Motion and a contributing writer to Our Prince of Scribes, an anthology about her high school friend, Pat Conroy, and Short Story America VI. Edwards is honored to be part of forwarding the mission of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, where she volunteers and leads writing workshops.

Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, the founding director of the annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, and the former director of the University of South Carolina Press. With novelist and artist Nicole Seitz, he is co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy, Haupt’s articles, book reviews, and author interviews have appeared in the Charleston Post & Courier, Beaufort Lowcountry Weekly, Beaufort Lifestyle magazine, Pink magazine, Shrimp, Collards & Grits magazine, Fall Lines, and the Conroy Center’s Porch Talk blog. He serves as an associate producer and consultant to the SCETV author interview program By the River, on the board of directors of the South Carolina Academy of Authors and the Friends of South Carolina Libraries, on the American Writers Museum affiliates steering committee, and on the South Carolina Humanities advisory committee.

David Lauderdale is an award-winning columnist and senior editor for The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette. He is also a contributing writer to the anthologies State of the Heart: South Carolina Writers on the Places They Love and Our Prince of Scribes.

Bren McClain’s debut novel One Good Mama Bone was published by Pat Conroy’s Story River Books and honored with the 2018 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction. The novel was also long-listed for the 2018 Crook’s Corner Book Prize, received a starred review in Booklist, was named a 2017 winter Okra pick by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA), and selected as the 2018 Pulpwood Queens Book of the Year. A contributing writer to Our Prince of Scribes, McClain is a two-time winner of the South Carolina Fiction Project and the recipient of the 2005 Fiction Fellowship from the South Carolina Arts Commission. She is at work on her next novel, which received the gold medal for the 2016 William Faulkner–William Wisdom Novel-in-Progress.

Kathy L. Murphy is the author of The Pulpwood Queen’s Tiara-Wearing, Book-Sharing Guide to Life, a licensed cosmetologist, an accomplished visual artist, and the founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Club, the largest book club in the U.S., celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2019. Kathy and her Pulpwood Queens have been featured on ABC TV’s Good Morning America, and in Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, and LA Times. She is at work on her second book, The Pulpwood Queen Goes Back to School.