with Fintan O’Toole
Small Things Like These
2-3pm $25
Circular Congregational Church

Irish writer, Claire Keegan, joins us to discuss her novel Small Things Like These, which won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and was shortlisted for both the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Booker Prize in 2022. An exploration of community, secrecy, and abuses of power, the book is currently being adapted into a film, produced by and starring Cillian Murphy. Brought up on a farm in Ireland, Keegan’s first volume of short stories, Antarctica, was published in 1999 and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Her story Foster won the Davy Byrnes Award and was chosen by The Times of London as one of the top 50 works of fiction to be published in the 21st century. Her new story collection So Late in the Day is published this November. She will be in conversation with Fintan O’Toole, visiting lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton.

with Regina Marler
American Odyssey
4-5pm $25
Circular Congregational Church

Indelibly shaped by his Mississippi childhood, when William Faulkner and Eudora Welty (who lived across the road) were still publishing, Richard Ford was destined to become a writer. His Frank Bascombe series, beginning with The Sportswriter and concluding with his latest novel, Be Mine, is known for its insightful exploration of American life. Bidding farewell to Frank Bascombe, Ford’s near contemporary, Be Mine is suffused with a mixture of sorrow, resilience, and a search for happiness in the face of impending mortality. Ford reflects on his Pulitzer-Prize winning career in conversation with literary critic Regina Marler.

with Richard Brodhead
The Real Work
6-7pm $25
Circular Congregational Church

“Wise, companionable, and often extremely funny” (Atlantic), Adam Gopnik’s The Real Work examines what is involved in learning a new skill—from life drawing to baking, boxing to dancing, performing magic tricks to driving. Along the way he discovers that virtuosity is sterile without vulnerability, and the best is the enemy of the good. He discusses the human need to achieve in relation to our limited span on earth with Richard Brodhead, Emeritus President of Duke University and scholar of 19th century literature. Adam Gopnik is a New Yorker staff writer.

with Anne Blessing
I Have Some Questions For You
12-1pm $25
Circular Congregational Church

Rebecca Makkai’s New York Times bestseller, I Have Some Questions For You, is an engrossing suspense novel she describes as a “literary feminist boarding school murder mystery.” Brimming with mordant wit, it is a page-turner and interrogation of our cultural obsessions. Her last novel, The Great Believers, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, and winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the LA Times Book Prize. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, she is on the MFA faculties of the University of Nevada and Northwestern University, and is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago. In conversation with Festival Board member Anne Blessing, she discusses the moral complications in her new novel.

with Wenda Harris Millard
From Book Bans to Chatbots: Are We In a Reading Crisis?
2-3pm $25
Circular Congregational Church

Everyone loves reading, right? So, why does it increasingly feel like people are afraid of it? This is the question that former New York Times film critic A.O. Scott asks in his recently published essay on the importance of reading, its impending crisis, and the multifarious forces at play. After 23 years as a film critic, A.O. Scott joined The New York Times Book Review in 2023 as a Critic at Large, contributing essays and reviews on literature, culture and society. He is the author of Better Living Through Criticism: How To Think About Art, Pleasure Beauty, and Truth. He will be joined in conversation by Wenda Harris Millard, Festival Board member.

with Summer Anderson
Grief and Ghosts
4-5pm $25
Circular Congregational Church

Celebrated for her originality and distinctive voice, Lorrie Moore describes her new novel, I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home, as “a political and a personal ghost story.” Told with her trademark wry humor, this tragicomic story of a road trip through a troubled America explores questions of life and death, past and present, grief and devotion. “Moore shows that grief and ghosts can be written about persuasively, and wittily, without turning the novel into a horror story” (The Guardian). Professor of English at Vanderbilt University, Moore is in conversation with Summer Anderson, Board member and reviewer for Books-A-Million.

with Elizabeth Meyer-Bernstein
Pandemics and Prejudice
6-7pm $25
Circular Congregational Church

Simon Schama’s Foreign Bodies, a dramatic account of heroes, heroines and villains instrumental in the development of vaccines that saved millions from smallpox, cholera and plague in the 18th to early 20th centuries, also sheds light on political and scientific conflicts during the Covid pandemic. His colorful cast of characters includes unsung microbiologist Waldemar Haffkine (1860-1930), originator of the first mass production cholera vaccine, and familiar figures such as Pasteur. University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University, best selling author of award-winning books, as well as prolific presenter of documentaries for the BBC, Schama discusses his passionate belief in the interconnectedness of humanity and nature with biologist Elizabeth Meyer-Bernstein, Dean of the College of Charleston Honors College.

with Jennet Robinson Alterman
The Sewing Girl’s Tale
12-1pm $25
The Mills House

“An excellent and absorbing work of social and cultural history” (The New York Times), The Sewing Girl’s Tale, a vividly described, page-turning story, set in Revolutionary America, revolves around the rape of a 17 year-old seamstress, the trial of the perpetrator (a courtroom drama in an era when few such cases were reported, let alone brought to justice), the riots that followed and the consequences for all the individuals involved, including Alexander Hamilton. John Wood Sweet, Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, discusses his prize-winning book and its contemporary relevance with Jennet Robinson Alterman, long-standing South Carolina women’s rights advocate.

with David Adams
Rough Sleepers
2-3pm $25
Circular Congregational Church

Tracy Kidder’s Rough Sleepers is an eye-opening and inspiring narrative chronicling the dedicated efforts of Dr. Jim O’Connell working over several decades as President of Boston Healthcare for the Homeless to provide medical attention for the unhoused. In conversation with Dr. David Adams, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina, Tracy Kidder and Dr. Jim O’Connell consider whether satisfaction can be gained from small victories in a world of big problems. James J. O’Connell, MD is Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. Tracy Kidder is a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award recipient.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MUSC

with Kim Long
Charleston READS! The Original Black Elite
4-5pm FREE
Circular Congregational Church

As part of Charleston READS!, a collaboration between the Mayor’s Book Club, Oakwood University and Charleston Literary Festival, the Mayor invites the City of Charleston to read Elizabeth Dowling Taylor's remarkable book, The Original Black Elite: Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era. Documenting the life of Daniel Murray, a successful black civic leader and assistant librarian at the Library of Congress, the book demonstrates the opportunities offered by Reconstruction for Murray to establish a resilient, influential black community in Washington and the subsequent decline of this community as a result of systemic racism. Dowling Taylor joins Dr. Kim Long, Executive Director of the Lowcountry Rice Project and Board member of the Festival, in conversation.

An Evening of Song
6-7pm $25
Circular Congregational Church

Since its inception in 1946, Oakwood University's multi-award-winning choir—The Aeolians—has traveled the world thrilling audiences with their powerful song. The Aeolians' performances present a repertoire of choral music which ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Wide-ranging in its abilities, the choir has collaborated with a number of prestigious and acclaimed musicians including the Altino Brothers, the Beyond Boundaries Symphony Orchestra, and the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. The Aeolians will close out the first weekend of Charleston Literary Festival with a rousing performance.

with Laura Gates
Perspectives on Nature
2-3pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

Peter Crane is President of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia which includes a renowned garden and unique library founded by Rachel Lambert Mellon. He takes us on a behind the scenes tour of the estate and shares treasures from the library, which contains the exquisite botanical art of Scottish painter and musician Rory McEwen, the subject of his new book and forthcoming exhibition at the Gibbes Museum of Art. Peter Crane, Senior Research Scientist at the Yale School of the Environment and former Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London, will be in conversation with Charleston Literary Festival Board member Laura Gates.

with Belinda Gergel
An Elusive Woman
4-5pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

With access to personal letters and papers, Lucy Worsley’s biography of Agatha Christie is authoritative and entertaining, making a convincing case that the creator of two of the most indelible characters to appear in detective fiction, Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, was a true pioneer. Lucy Worsley’s investigations bring into the open mysterious episodes in Christie’s life, with the result that the biography “is as unputdownable as any of the novels of the Queen of Crime herself” (The New York Times). She discusses Christie’s enduring allure with historian and Festival Board member Belinda Gergel. Lucy Worsley has presented many history documentaries for the BBC.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to health reasons, Lucy Worsley has been unable to travel to Charleston and will participate via a live video link. Belinda Gergel will appear in person.

with Regina Marler
Old Babes In The Wood
6-7pm $10
VIRTUAL

Margaret Atwood joins us to discuss her latest book, Old Babes In The Wood. Dedicated to her late partner, this is her first short story collection in almost a decade. This dazzling collection of 15 stories contain reflections on marriage, mortality, and human foibles. In all of these intimate tales, Atwood’s wild imagination and sense of humor shine through. Regarded as one of the world’s greatest living writers, Margaret Atwood is best known for her phenomenal novel The Handmaid’s Tale and its sequel, The Testaments. Atwood has received numerous literary awards, including the Booker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Governor General’s Award, twice. Margaret Atwood will be in conversation with author and literary critic, Regina Marler.

In partnership with American Ancestors' American Inspiration Author Series and Charleston County Public Library

with Felice Knight
Sleeping With The Ancestors
7:30-8:30pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

Joseph McGill Jr., founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, has spent countless nights in former slave quarters constructed and occupied by Black people in the antebellum period. His purpose was to draw attention to the frequently forgotten sites situated throughout America, to reconstruct their histories and re-imagine the stories of their enslaved inhabitants, often sharing the emotionally fraught experience with local groups. Together with Herb Frazier, journalist and co-author, they discuss the revealing light this unique project has shed on race in America with Dr. Felice Knight, Director of Education, International African American Museum.

with Peter Crane
Storied Sites
12-1pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

Lucy Worsley, architectural and social historian, as well as best-selling author, is Co-Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces in the UK, settings for some of the most momentous events in English history. The illustrious roll call of sites includes the Tower of London, Hampton Court and Kensington Palace. In conversation with Peter Crane, former Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, which contains a hidden Royal home, she shares some of the remarkable stories associated with the most significant historic buildings in Britain.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to health reasons, Lucy Worsley has been unable to travel to Charleston and will participate via a live video link. Peter Crane will appear in person.

with Dr. Tamara Butler
How To Say Babylon: A Jamaican Memoir
2-3pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

How To Say Babylon is the stunning story of Safiya Sinclair’s struggle to break free of a rigid Rastafarian upbringing to find her voice as a woman and poet. In the words of Marlon James, the book “is a narrative marvel, the testimony of an artist who literally writes her way out of a life of repression, isolation and abuse into one of art, freedom, love and wonder.” Born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Sinclair is the author of the poetry collection Cannibal, winner of several awards including the Whiting Writers’ Award and the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award in Literature. Sinclair will be joined in conversation by Dr. Tamara Butler, Executive Director of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture.

with Brandon Reid
King
4-5pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

The first extensive biography of Martin Luther King to be published in three decades, Jonathan Eig’s latest book draws on recently released White House transcripts, F.B.I. documents, letters, and other materials that shed a whole new light on the civil rights leader. It is being heralded as “the new definitive life of King” (The New York Times) and “essential reading” (The Guardian). Bestselling author of six books, Eig’s previous biography, Ali: A Life, won a 2018 PEN America Literary Award and was a finalist for the Mark Lynton History Prize. He will be in conversation with Brandon Reid, Public Historian at the International African American Museum.

with Bill Goldstein
Hidden Histories
6-7pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

Harlan Greene’s The Real Rainbow Row and Jamie Kirchick’s Secret City excavate hidden LGBTQ+ histories in Charleston and Washington respectively. Harlan Greene traces 350 years of suppression as well as unacknowledged contribution to the life of the city. “He unearthed Charleston’s queer history with a novelist’s eye for color and drama and a historian’s reverence for truth” (Armistead Maupin). Jamie Kirchick’s landmark book, a spellbinding journey from the New Deal to the end of the Cold War, opens the closet door on Gay Washington. They discuss why both books are not just LGBTQ+ history but American history with Bill Goldstein, author interviewer for NBC’s Weekend Today, currently writing the biography of Larry Kramer.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH AFFA

with Malika Pryor-Martin
Potted Poems: Praise Songs for Dave the Potter
12-1pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

David Drake, an enslaved man in South Carolina (born around 1801), is recognised as one of the United States’ most accomplished potters, with work displayed in museums and galleries across the nation. Uniquely, his jars contain eloquent inscriptions and poems, flaunting his literacy, prohibited among enslaved people. In conversation with Malika Pryor-Martin, International African American Museum Chief Learning & Engagement Officer, internationally celebrated visual artist Jonathan Green with Greenville’s first poet laureate Glenis Redmond reveal how their creativity has been inspired by David Drake.

with Kate Bennett
The World
2-3pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore’s monumental new book, The World: A Family History of Humanity, is a sweeping survey, chronicling powerful dynasties and their dysfunction across the globe, from the Mesopotamian City States to present times, and their impact on the rise and fall of nations. “Being told my books are boring is my greatest fear. I put violence and sex in to ensure it is a charge I’ll never face” (Simon Sebag Montefiore). He will be in conversation with Kate Bennett, CNN reporter and only journalist in the White House press corps solely to cover First Lady Melania Trump and the Trump family. Expect to be engrossed.

with Geoffrey Harpham
Culture: The Story of Us
4-5pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

At a time when the study of the arts and humanities is under threat, Martin Puchner, Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University, makes a forceful case for creativity. His work explores how artistic expressions from Cave Art to K-Pop, are at the center of what makes us human as they help to illuminate the meaning of life. In his “breakneck, utterly captivating survey of the cultural transmission of ideas, stories and songs” (Anthony Doer), Martin Puchner discusses his belief that the saga of civilizations is one of global mixing, sharing and borrowing, with Geoffrey Harpham, author of Scholarship and Freedom.

with Maria Pallante
Artificial Intelligence: Friend or Foe?
6-7pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

The artificial intelligence revolution is progressing at lightning speed, with significant implications for authors, translators and the publishing industry. Could AI result in the next recipient of the Nobel Prize turning out to be a robot, or will it usher in a new era of creativity? Our panel of humans discuss the threats and opportunities: André Aciman, author of Call Me By Your Name, typifies writers who are vulnerable to piracy and parody from ChatGPT; Karl Bakeman leads the AI advisory group at publisher W.W. Norton; James Barrat’s Our Final Invention highlighted concerns about AI as far back as 2013. This session will be moderated by Maria Pallante, President and C.E.O. Association of American Publishers.

Screening
9am-11:30am $15
Dock Street Theatre

Introduced by David Hare, a Festival screening of the British playwright’s drama Straight Line Crazy, starring Ralph Fiennes, explores the impact of urban planner Robert Moses, one of the most powerful and influential figures in New York. Initially motivated by a determination to improve the lives of the city’s workers, Moses was ultimately challenged by a group of campaigners who felt he had lost touch with the needs of ordinary citizens.

PRESENTED BY BY EXPERIENCE

with Anthony Wood
Legends and Legacies
12-1pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

Eminent British playwright David Hare, dramatist of Straight Line Crazy, engages in conversation with Roberta Brandes Gratz, urbanist and friend of Jane Jacobs, who was a symbol of opposition to Robert Moses after the publication of her classic book The Death and Life of American Cities in 1961. In discussion with preservationist Anthony Wood, they consider the legends and legacies of these two figures and their current implications. David Hare, playwright and screenwriter, won a Tony award for Skylight and received nominations for Plenty and Racing Demon, as well as Academy Award nominations for The Hours and The Reader. Roberta Brandes Gratz is the author of The Battle for Gotham: New York in the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs.

with Geoffrey Harpham
This Other Eden
2-3pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

Paul Harding’s This Other Eden, shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, is based on a relatively unknown true story about a tiny community descended from trafficked Africans, immigrant Irish and indigenous Penobscot, scrabbling a living on an Island off the coast of Maine, and what happens when it is targeted for ‘cleansing’ by eugenics-minded authorities in the Summer of 1912. Edoardo Ballerini, who reads the audio version of the book, narrates some passages. Paul Harding discusses the tyranny of purity and the indomitable struggle for survival with Geoffrey Harpham, author of Citizenship on Catfish Row.

Ways With Words
4-5pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

A leading member of the great generation of Northern Irish poets that includes Séamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon has been Oxford Professor of Poetry, won the Pulitzer Prize, and is now Professor in the Humanities at Princeton. He collaborated with Paul McCartney to produce two volumes of the ex-Beatle’s lyrics (2021), which shed light on McCartney’s ways with words. Paul Muldoon, the most beguiling of contemporary poets, also writes and plays rock music in Princeton bands. He reads from his work and discusses the relationship between poetry and song, including the impact of one genre on the other in his and other writers’ creativity.

with Henry Smythe
Is Charleston In Peril?
6-7pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

In common with vast areas of global coastlines, could Charleston be especially vulnerable to the consequences of climate change? In an era of increasing weather extremes, our panel discusses how we can devise a thriving future for humankind and the natural world. Jeff Goodell, The New York Times best-selling writer, is the author of The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet; Susan Crawford, author of Charleston: Race, Water and the Coming Storm, is Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School; Faith Rivers James is Executive Director, SC Coastal Conservation League. Dale Morris, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Charleston, has a distinguished track record in water management, including as co-founder of the Dutch Dialogues. This session will be moderated by distinguished lawyer Henry Smythe, who has served on the Charleston City Council and several local non-profit organizations.

with Maura Hogan
All the Beauty in the World
12-1pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

Described by Alex Ross as “an astounding book about an astounding place,” All the Beauty in the World documents former New Yorker staffer Patrick Bringley's ten years working as a guard at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bringley offers an insider take on one of the most remarkable art collections in the world in a book that NPR calls “art appreciation at a profound level.” It is, in part, a story about overcoming grief and, in its entirety, a story about what art does for us. Patrick Bringley previously worked in the editorial events office at the New Yorker. He will be in conversation with Maura Hogan, Arts Critic at The Post and Courier.

with Autumn Phillips
Dynasties
2-3pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

Unscripted, co-authored by James B. Stewart, an account of the media titan Sumner Redstone’s final years (he died aged 97 during Covid), “-is a chronicle of corporate greed, manipulation, misogyny and sexual impropriety on a spectacular scale” (The New York Times). At the peak of his power, Redstone controlled Viacom, Paramount Pictures, CBS, publisher Simon and Schuster and many other companies. It is no surprise that Redstone was one of the models for Succession’s Logan Roy. James B. Stewart and Autumn Phillips, Editor-In-Chief of the Post and Courier, discuss what media moguls have in common. James B. Stewart is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of 10 books.

with Edoardo Ballerini
Super-Infinite
4-5pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

Katherine Rundell’s biography of the English Elizabethan poet and preacher John Donne has been a literary sensation in the US and UK, “a wonderful, joyous piece of work” (Maggie O’Farrell). Who knew that it would be possible to introduce Donne to a new generation of readers in such a spectacular way? The secret lies in Rundell’s dazzling writing, wit and passion for her subject – perhaps the greatest and most daring love poet in the English language as well as celebrity Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Together with Edoardo Ballerini, actor and celebrated reader, Katherine Rundell, scholar, nature writer and roof-walker, brings John Donne alive.

with Bill Goldstein
First Folio Felicitations
6-7pm $25
Dock Street Theatre

November 8th 2023 is the 400th Anniversary of the registration of Shakespeare’s First Folio at the Stationer’s Hall in London (print-run 750 copies) and thus the birthday of one of history’s most important books, which rescued the Bard’s plays from oblivion. Thanks to the publication of the First Folio, the plays have been internationally performed and reinterpreted ever since, and are an enduring spur to the imagination for all the arts. Hot on the heels of leading the celebrations in the UK, Dominic Dromgoole, former Artistic Director of the Globe Theater in London (a reconstruction built close to the site of Shakespeare’s original Globe), joins the Festival to share his insights into the sometimes comical and often inspiring efforts which went into the creation of one of the great wonders of the literary world, the first printed edition of Shakespeare’s collected plays. He talks to Bill Goldstein, former lecturer in Shakespeare studies, about what might have been lost without the publication of the First Folio and how it has fared in the world.

with Kerri Forrest
Dispatches From The Diaspora
2-3pm $25
International African American Museum

No one chronicles the most important events in Black life across the globe more incisively and vibrantly than Gary Younge. His current Orwell Award-winning book, Dispatches from the Diaspora, records world-shaking events: from following Nelson Mandela during his first election campaign in South Africa, reporting from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, to the Black Lives Matter movement starting to make waves; plus capturing intimate and revealing interviews with major Black figures including Maya Angelou, Angela Davis and Desmond Tutu. Gary Younge discusses being a witness to history with Kerri Forrest, Senior Program Director for Equity Centered Leadership and Philanthropy for MDC, a legacy nonprofit committed to equitable systems change in the South.

British journalist Gary Younge was The Guardian newspaper’s correspondent in America for many years and is now Professor of Sociology at Manchester University in the UK, the city at the center of the journal’s research into its historic links with slavery. His contribution to the paper’s game-changing publication this Spring, Cotton Capital, is titled ‘Lest We Remember: How Britain Hides Its Past’. Kerri Forrest’s career encompasses 16 years of journalism with national broadcast outlets MSNBC, NBC NEWS, and CBS NEWS.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM AND THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER

with Bernard Powers
Cotton Capital: The Legacies of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
4-5PM $25
International African American Museum

Cotton Capital is an investigative journalism series, published by The Guardian newspaper in the UK, that explores the revelation that the paper’s founders had links to slavery through the cotton and textile industry. Dr. Bernard Powers, Director of the College of Charleston’s Center for the Study of Slavery, leads a discussion with Maya Wolfe-Robinson, editor of Cotton Capital, Lauren N. Williams, deputy editor for race and equity at The Guardian US, Michael Allen, co-creator of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Commission and Gary Younge. Taking place on the hallowed ground of the International African American Museum, the panel will explore the legacy, the continued impact of transatlantic slavery and questions of restorative justice.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM AND THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER