Charleston Literary Festival 2023

NOV. 3-12, 2023 charlestonliteraryfestival.com

SCH E DU L E Friday, Nov. 3 2 P.M. CLAIRE KEEGAN with Fintan O’Toole SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE

$25 / Circular Congregational Church 4 P.M. RICHARD FORD with Regina Marler AMERICAN ODYSSEY

$25 / Circular Congregational Church 6 P.M. ADAM GOPNIK with Richard Brodhead THE REAL WORK

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

12 P.M. LUCY WORSLEY with Peter Crane STORIED SITES

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

Saturday, Nov. 4 12 P.M. REBECCA MAKKAI with Anne Blessing I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU $25 / Circular Congregational Church

4 P.M. JONATHAN EIG with Brandon Reid KING $25 / Dock Street Theatre

2 P.M. A.O. SCOTT with Wenda Harris Millard ARE WE IN A READING CRISIS?

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

6 P.M. JAMES KIRCHICK and HARLAN GREENE with Bill Goldstein HIDDEN HISTORIES

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

6 P.M. SIMON SCHAMA with Elizabeth Meyer-Bernstein PANDEMICS AND PREJUDICE

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

Tuesday, Nov. 7 2 P.M. PETER CRANE with Laura Gates PERSPECTIVES ON NATURE

$25 / Dock Street Theatre 4 P.M. LUCY WORSLEY with Belinda Gergel AGATHA CHRISTIE: AN ELUSIVE WOMAN $25 / Dock Street Theatre 6 P.M. VIRTUAL: MARGARET ATWOOD

OLD BABES IN THE WOOD WITH REGINA MARLER

$10 / Charleston County Public Library Main Branch

Friday, Nov. 10 9:30 A.M. FILM: STRAIGHT LINE CRAZY $15 / Dock Street Theatre 12 P.M. DAVID HARE and ROBERTA BRANDES GRATZ with Anthony Wood LEGENDS AND LEGACIES

$25 / Dock Street Theatre 2 P.M. PAUL HARDING and EDOARDO BALLERINI with Geoffrey Harpham THIS OTHER EDEN $25 / Dock Street Theatre 4 P.M. PAUL MULDOON WAYS WITH WORDS

$25 / Dock Street Theatre 6 P.M. PANEL: JEFF GOODELL, SUSAN CRAWFORD,

and FAITH RIVERS JAMES with Henry Smythe IS CHARLESTON IN PERIL?

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

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QUEEN ST

BROAD ST

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CHURCH ST

6 P.M. SPECIAL EVENT: THE AEOLIANS AN EVENING OF SONG

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

6 P.M. PANEL: ANDRÉ ACIMAN, KARL BAKEMAN and JAMES BARRAT with Maria Pallante ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: FRIEND OR FOE?

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

EVENT LOCATIONS

MEETING ST

4 P.M. ELIZABETH D. TAYLOR CHARLESTON READS! THE ORIGINAL BLACK ELITE

FREE / Circular Congregational Church

4 P.M. MARTIN PUCHNER with Geoffrey Harpham CULTURE: THE STORY OF US

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

2 P.M. GARY YOUNGE with Kerri Forrest DISPATCHES FROM THE DIASPORA

$25 / International African American Museum (IAAM) 4 P.M. PANEL: MAYA WOLFE-ROBINSON, LAUREN N. WILLIAMS and GARY YOUNGE with Bernard Powers COTTON CAPITAL: THE LEGACIES OF THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE $25 / International African American Museum (IAAM)

T GS KIN

2 P.M. TRACY KIDDER and JIM O’CONNELL ROUGH SLEEPERS

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

2 P.M. SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE with Kate Bennett THE WORLD

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

Sunday, Nov. 12

T GS MIN CO

12 P.M. JOHN WOOD SWEET with Jennet Robinson Alterman THE SEWING GIRL’S TALE

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

12 P.M. P. GABRIELLE FOREMAN,

GLENIS REDMOND AND JONATHAN GREEN with Malika Pryor-Martin POTTED POEMS $25 / Dock Street Theatre

12 P.M. PATRICK BRINGLEY ALL THE BEAUTY IN THE WORLD

$25 / Dock Street Theatre 2 P.M. JAMES B. STEWART with Autumn Phillips DYNASTIES

$25 / Dock Street Theatre 4 P.M. KATHERINE RUNDELL with Edoardo Ballerini SUPER-INFINITE

$25 / Dock Street Theatre 6 P.M. DOMINIC DROMGOOLE with Bill Goldstein FIRST FOLIO FELICITATIONS

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

ST ILIP PH ST

Sunday, Nov. 5

Thursday, Nov. 9

Saturday, Nov. 11

ST CONCORD

8 P.M. OPENING NIGHT PARTY BOOKS WITH A BANG

$100 / Circular Congregational Church

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Wednesday, Nov. 8 2 P.M. SAFIYA SINCLAIR with Tamara Butler

HOW TO SAY BABYLON: A JAMAICAN MEMOIR $25 / Dock Street Theatre

4 P.M. LORRIE MOORE with Summer Anderson GRIEF AND GHOSTS

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

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7:30 P.M. JOSEPH McGILL and HERB FRAZIER with Felice Knight SLEEPING WITH THE ANCESTORS

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

1. DOCK STREET THEATRE 135 Church St. 2. CIRCULAR CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 150 Meeting St. 3. CHARLESTON LIBRARY SOCIETY 164 King St. 4. BUXTON BOOKS 160 King St. 5. RIVERS GREEN 71 Coming St. 6. INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM (IAAM) 14 Wharfside St.

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Festival to embrace conversations with authors, audiences I

“

As a festival of books and ideas, we are in a unique position to bring people with divergent viewpoints together and encourage and celebrate lively debate.” —Sarah Moriarty

the cultural landscape we’re living in, and increase understanding and empathy as a community.”

Organizers are seeking to steer attendees to ask probing, provocative questions and have conversations about issues of public importance with smart people who write books

Is Charleston in peril?

C O V E R S AT I O N S

With the coming Charleston Literary Festival (CLF), however, don’t make that kind of assumption. A better bet is you will have your mind blown by what you hear in any of the 34 conversations from Nov. 3 to Nov. 12 at downtown venues.

This year’s theme for the 10-day festival is “embrace the conversation.” It’s an intentional effort by the festival’s organizers to provide authors and panel discussions who will engage with audiences, answer questions and get beyond normal literary fare. “‘Embrace the conversation’ is at the heart of the festival,” said new director Sarah Moriarty. “We increasingly see people with differing points of view turning away from each other and avoiding difficult conversations.

“As a festival of books and ideas, we are in a unique position to bring people with divergent viewpoints together and encourage and celebrate lively debate. This commitment to conversation allows us to come together and make sense of

Austin-based author Jeff Goodell is part of a Nov. 10 panel discussion that probes how Charleston is especially vulnerable to rising global temperatures and seas.

“The longer we burn fossil fuels, the hotter it will be, and what we’ve seen this last summer will get worse,” said Goodell, who explored the impact of rising air temperatures in The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet.

Summer — particularly the hot, humid experience in Charleston — will last longer and become more severe, he said. “Heat changes how we think Goodell about what summer means,” he said.

“Summer becomes this time where we all live more like a CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

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IDEAS

f you think about an event during which an author gives a talk about a book, you may think it will be an interesting but dry one-way explanation of words that fill 250 or 300 pages.

about everything from power, secrecy, morality, politics and grief to the perils of climate change, race, a crisis in reading and the impact of artificial intelligence.

BOOKS

By Andy Brack

Conversations CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

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vampire — you’re indoors in the day” in the air-conditioning.

Summer heat is already changing behaviors — from roads being built at nights to people exercising before sunrise or after sunset. Goodell emphasized that heat is an immediate risk to people’s lives, and it can kill quickly. Rising seas are a longer-term issue that cause more impact to infrastructure, he said.

Dale Morris, chief resilience officer for the city of Charleston, said that too often, people don’t consider the crippling impact of water in a low area like Charleston. There’s a “recency bias” in that people often forget about flooded streets when there’s a new Chamber of Commerce day of good weather.

“People think storm surge isn’t a problem in Charleston,” he said. “It is, in fact, the highest risk we face.”

That’s why it’s important to “embrace the conversation” about the Lowcountry’s changing weather with a continuing focus on educating, warning, talking and reminding people that we’re facing some real issues, Morris said.

He pointed to recent flooding of city streets during Tropical Storm Idalia, which hit Charleston during a king tide.

“That type of disruption happens four or five times a year — it used to happen once every five years,” he said, adding that by

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2050 it could happen 16 to 25 times a year if nothing changes.

Also joining the Nov. 10 discussion will be Harvard professor Susan Crawford, author of Charleston: Race, Water and the Coming Storm and the Coastal Conservation League Executive Director Faith Rivers Crawford James. Charleston attorney Henry Smythe will moderate the discussion at the Dock Street Theatre.

“Reading is one of these things in human life that always causes a certain amount of unease and panic and anxiety,” Scott said in a telephone interview. “It’s hard to control.” And it can scare you, disturb you and change you. “That’s part of the power of this activity.”

And while rightwing groups recently have been amping up their action to keep some books away from readers, Scott says he believes the books and ideas will win.

Scott “Censorship is not something I take lightly,” he said. “But the impulse to read and the power of reading ends up being stronger in the long run than ever in the shorter run.”

Scott says he is worried more about a loss of a culture of reading in a society that seeks maximum efficiency — because reading for

liberated by it, that doesn’t go away. I think that’s a very durable and powerful part of where we are.”

More ways to embrace conversations

Artificial Intelligence: Friend of Foe? Three people with concerns about how artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting our culture will explore how authors publish, and whether AI will put writers out of work or cause a new era of creativity. The Nov. 9 forum by noted authors André Aciman and James Barrat and publishing executive Karl Bakeman will take on the impact of this new technology. The session will be Are we in a reading crisis? moderated by Maria Pallante, president If there’s one thing that writers want, it’s and C.E.O. of the Association of American readers. So any rise in talk about book bans Publishers. or censorship automatically gets the attenForum on race and racism. British protion of writers. fessor and former journalist Gary Younge According to a recent study by PEN, will talk with local nonprofit fellow Kerri book bans in the United States rose 28% Forrest about his latest book, Dispatches in the second half of 2022 from the Diaspora. In a compared to the first six Nov. 12 event held at the months of the year. And this International African year, it hasn’t slowed down American Museum (IAAM) Censorship is not something I take lightly. in coordination with either. In nearby Berkeley County, for example, the The Guardian newspaper, But the impulse to read and the power of school district is considering Younge’s former employer, reading ends up being stronger in the long participants will learn about the fate of 93 titles challenged by one parent. and discuss defining moments run than ever in the shorter run.”—A.O. Scott In the face of these trends, involving leaders like Nelson New York Times critic A.O. Mandela and Barack Obama Scott has been thinking a lot about reading. pleasure or knowledge isn’t necessarily an to events such as Hurricane Katrina and the In a Nov. 4 discussion with CLF board efficient activity. “It’s not going to leave room Black Lives Matter movement. member Wenda Harris Millard, Scott for the imagination — room and freedom Forum on slave trade. Also on Nov. 12, will share his concluand the inventiveness that reading makes the festival will offer an IAAM panel dissions and ask for possible and gives to everyone.” cussion on The Guardian’s historic links input from the Scott observes that critics often worry to the transatlantic slave trade as reported audience. about some kind of cultural extinction on in its Cotton Capital series. The conversathe horizon. But he has more optimism that tion will include the legacy and continuing people will continue to read — although it impact of slavery and how to make reparamay take shape in new ways, such as on tions. College of Charleston Center for the phones, tablets or other devices.

Study of Slavery director Bernard Powers, “I have a pretty a member of the IAAM board, will lead strong faith in the discussion. human creativity and human imagination. We need to tell stories.

We need to hear stories. We need to have some kind of way to think about and understand and represent to ourselves our own experiences of being human.

And that’s something that doesn’t go away and is never satisfied.”

There will always be a need for new forms of escape, pleasure and beauty, despite whatever comes from governments or corporations “trying to Andy Brack colonize our imagination.

“That impulse that gets a young Two of the sessions will be held at the person to pick up a book and start newly opened International African reading it and feel opened up and American Museum

“

W E LC OM E

NOV. 3-12 , 2023

charlestonliterar yfestival .com/tickets-2023

Embrace the conversation

C

onversation is at the heart of what we do at Charleston Literary Festival — from lively onstage exchanges to insightful audience participation. We’re on a mission to bring diverse authors and audiences together thanks to excellent books, big ideas, and in-depth dialogue.

With 34 events, this year’s program time travels from Elizabethan England to a future dominated by Artificial Intelligence; it examines our relationship with the natural world — from the preservation of historic gardens to the threats of climate change; it highlights our shifting sense of social justice — from revealing some of the UK’s links to slavery, to the implications of the current wave of book-banning; it focuses on the influence of dynasties, from the age

of antiquity to media moguls; it honors other art forms, from painting, to pottery, to drama, to music — choral and The Beatles.

Our events cast a fresh light on contemporary experiences in original and exciting ways. Above all they celebrate the creativity of writers and the curiosity of readers.

We invite you to engage with your favorite authors, make discoveries, form new connections, and join us to embrace the conversation.

Sarah Moriarty Executive Director Diana Reich Artistic Director

EV ENTS FRIDAY, NOV. 3

FRIDAY, NOV. 3

CLAIRE KEEGAN with Fintan O’Toole

RICHARD FORD with Regina Marler

SMALL THINGS LIKE THESE

AMERICAN ODYSSEY

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.

C O V E R S AT I O N S

Irish writer, Claire Keegan, joins us to discuss her novel Small Things Like These, winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and 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.

In association with Culture Ireland

4 p.m.–5 p.m.

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

IDEAS

2 p.m.

BOOKS

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

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EV ENTS FRIDAY, NOV. 3

SATURDAY, NOV. 4

ADAM GOPNIK with Richard Brodhead

REBECCA MAKKAI with Anne Blessing

THE REAL WORK

I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU

6 p.m.–7 p.m.

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

$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, this page-turner interrogates 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 Anne Blessing, Festival Board member, she discusses the moral complications in her new novel.

“Wise, companionable, and often extremely funny” (The 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 best is the enemy of 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.

SATURDAY, NOV. 4

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SATURDAY, NOV. 4

A.O. SCOTT with Wenda Harris Millard

LORRIE MOORE with Summer Anderson

FROM BOOK BANS TO CHATBOTS: ARE WE IN A READING CRISIS? 2 p.m.–3 p.m.

GRIEF AND GHOSTS

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

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12 p.m.–1 p.m.

Everyone loves reading, right? So why does it increasingly feel like people are afraid of it due to book bans, chatbots, fears of indoctrination and more. These are the topics 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.

Getty

4 p.m.–5 p.m.

$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, Festival Board member and reviewer for Books-a-Million.

NOV. 3-12 , 2023

charlestonliterar yfestival .com/tickets-2023

SATURDAY, NOV. 4

SUNDAY, NOV. 5

SIMON SCHAMA with Elizabeth Meyer-Bernstein

JOHN WOOD SWEET with Jennet Robinson Alterman

PANDEMICS AND PREJUDICE

THE SEWING GIRL’S TALE

6 p.m.–7 p.m.

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 (18601930), 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.

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

12 p.m.–1 p.m.

“An excellent and absorbing work of social and cultural history” (The New York Times), The Sewing Girl’s Tale, vividly describes a suspenseful story set in Revolutionary America.

It revolves around the rape of a 17-year-old seamstress, the trial of the perpetrator (a courtroom drama in an era when extremely 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.

SUNDAY, NOV. 5

TRACY KIDDER and JIM O’CONNELL with David Adams

ELIZABETH DOWLING TAYLOR with Kim Long

ROUGH SLEEPERS

CHARLESTON READS! THE ORIGINAL BLACK ELITE

Tracy Kidder’s Rough Sleepers is an eyeopening 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 at Harvard Medical School. Tracy Kidder is a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award recipient.

FREE / Circular Congregational Church

As part of Charleston READS!, a collaboration between the Mayor’s Book Club, Oakwood University and Charleston Literary Festival, Mayor Tecklenberg 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 during 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.

4 p.m.–5 p.m.

C O V E R S AT I O N S

2 p.m.–3 p.m.

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

IDEAS

SUNDAY, NOV. 5

BOOKS

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

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EV ENTS SUNDAY, NOV. 5

TUESDAY, NOV. 7

THE AEOLIANS

PETER CRANE with Laura Gates

AN EVENING OF SONG

PERSPECTIVES ON NATURE

6 p.m.–7 p.m.

$25 / Circular Congregational Church

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

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.

2 p.m.–3 p.m.

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.

TUESDAY, NOV. 7

LUCY WORSLEY with Belinda Gergel AN ELUSIVE WOMAN

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$25 / Dock Street Theatre

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4 p.m.–5 p.m.

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). Lucy Worsley, who has presented many history documentaries for the BBC, discusses Christie’s enduring allure with historian and Festival Board member Belinda Gergel.

TUESDAY, NOV. 7

MARGARET ATWOOD with Regina Marler OLD BABES IN THE WOOD $10 / Virtual

6 p.m.–7 p.m.

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, 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. Atwood will be in conversation with author and literary critic, Regina Marler.

NOV. 3-12 , 2023

charlestonliterar yfestival .com/tickets-2023

TUESDAY, NOV. 7

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8

JOSEPH MCGILL and HERB FRAZIER with Felice Knight

LUCY WORSLEY with Peter Crane

SLEEPING WITH THE ANCESTORS

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

STORIED SITES

12 p.m.–1 p.m.

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 residence, she shares some of the remarkable stories associated with the most significant historic buildings in Britain.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8

Bob Collowan

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8

SAFIYA SINCLAIR with Tamara Butler

JONATHAN EIG with Brandon Reid

HOW TO SAY BABYLON: A JAMAICAN MEMOIR

KING

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.

Safiya Sinclair will be joined in conversation

by Dr. Tamara Butler, Executive Director of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture.

2 p.m.–3 p.m.

4 p.m.–5 p.m.

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

The first extensive biography of Martin Luther King Jr. 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.

C O V E R S AT I O N S

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

IDEAS

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. The purpose of the project is to draw attention to 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.

BOOKS

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

7.30 p.m.–8.30 p.m.

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EV ENTS WEDNESDAY, NOV. 8

JAMIE KIRCHICK and HARLAN GREENE with Bill Goldstein HIDDEN HISTORIES $25 / Dock Street Theatre

6 p.m.–7 p.m.

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

THURSDAY, NOV. 9

P. GABRIELLE FOREMAN, GLENIS REDMOND and JONATHAN GREEN with Malika Pryor-Martin POTTED POEMS: PRAISE SONGS FOR DAVE THE POTTER 12 p.m.–1 p.m. $25 / Dock Street Theatre

David Drake, an enslaved man in South Carolina (born around 1801), is recognized 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, P. Gabrielle Foreman focuses on David Drake’s legacy as a writer, and internationally celebrated visual artist Jonathan Green with Greenville’s first poet laureate Glenis Redmond reveal how their creativity has been inspired by David Drake. P. Gabrielle Foreman is Professor of English, African and American Studies at Penn State University.

THURSDAY, NOV. 9

SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE with Kate Bennett

MARTIN PUCHNER with Geoffrey Harpham

THE WORLD

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

2 p.m.–3 p.m.

2 0 2 3 C H A R L E S T O N L I T E R A R Y F E S T I VA L

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

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THURSDAY, NOV. 9

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.

CULTURE: THE STORY OF US

4 p.m.–5 p.m.

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.

NOV. 3-12 , 2023

charlestonliterar yfestival .com/tickets-2023

THURSDAY, NOV. 9

FRIDAY, NOV. 10

ANDRÉ ACIMAN, KARL BAKEMAN and JAMES BARRAT with Maria Pallante

FILM: Straight Line Crazy

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: FRIEND OR FOE?

$ 15 / Dock Street Theatre

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

9.30 a.m.–11.30 a.m.

6 p.m.–7 p.m.

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

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.

National Theater Live Getty

FRIDAY, NOV. 10

FRIDAY, NOV. 10

DAVID HARE and ROBERTA BRANDES GRATZ with Anthony Wood

PAUL HARDING and EDOARDO BALLERINI with Geoffrey Harpham

LEGENDS AND LEGACIES

THIS OTHER EDEN

2 p.m.–3 p.m.

Paul Harding’s This Other Eden, nominated 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.

C O V E R S AT I O N S

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.

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

IDEAS

12 p.m.–1 p.m.

BOOKS

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

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EV ENTS FRIDAY, NOV. 10

PAUL MULDOON WAYS WITH WORDS $25 / Dock Street Theatre

FRIDAY, NOV. 10

JEFF GOODELL, SUSAN CRAWFORD, FAITH RIVERS JAMES and DALE MORRIS with Henry Smythe

4 p.m.–5 p.m.

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 exBeatle’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.

IS CHARLESTON IN PERIL? $25 / Dock Street Theatre

6 p.m.–7 p.m.

How vulnerable is Charleston to the consequences of climate change? Our panel discusses the 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 stellar track record in water management, including as cofounder 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.

SATURDAY, NOV. 11

PATRICK BRINGLEY ALL THE BEAUTY IN THE WORLD

2 0 2 3 C H A R L E S T O N L I T E R A R Y F E S T I VA L

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

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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 10 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.

SATURDAY, NOV. 11

JAMES B. STEWART with Autumn Phillips 12 p.m.–1 p.m.

DYNASTIES

2 p.m.–3 p.m.

$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.

NOV. 3-12 , 2023

charlestonliterar yfestival .com/tickets-2023

SATURDAY, NOV. 11

SATURDAY, NOV. 11

KATHERINE RUNDELL with Edoardo Ballerini

DOMINIC DROMGOOLE with Bill Goldstein

SUPER-INFINITE

FIRST FOLIO FELICITATIONS

4 p.m.–5 p.m.

$25 / DOCK STREET THEATRE

November 8, 2023 is the 400th anniversary of the registration of Shakespeare’s First Folio—the first printed edition of Shakespeare’s collected plays—at the Stationer’s Hall in London and thus the birthday of one of history’s most important books. Thanks to the First Folio, the plays have been internationally performed and reinterpreted for the past 400 years.

Hot on the heels of celebrations in the UK, Dominic Dromgoole, former Artistic Director of the Globe Theater in London, 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 First Folio and how it has fared in the world.

SUNDAY, NOV. 12

DISPATCHES FROM THE DIASPORA $25 / International African American Museum

2 p.m.–3 p.m.

Gary Younge’s Orwell Award-winning book, Dispatches from the Diaspora, records worldshaking events: from following Nelson Mandela during his first election campaign; reporting from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, to the Black Lives Matter movement starting to make waves; plus capturing revealing interviews with major Black figures including Maya Angelou, Angela Davis and Desmond Tutu. He discusses being a witness to history with Kerri Forrest, Senior Program Director for Equity Centered Leadership and Philanthropy for MDC. British journalist Gary Younge was The Guardian newspaper’s correspondent in America 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.

In association with the International African American Museum and The Guardian newspaper

MAYA WOLFE-ROBINSON, LAUREN N. WILLIAMS and GARY YOUNGE with Bernard Powers COTTON CAPITAL: THE LEGACIES OF THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE 4 p.m.–5 p.m. $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 founding editor, John Edward Taylor, and at least nine of his 11 backers had links to slavery, principally through the cotton and textile industry. Dr. Bernard Powers, Director of the College of Charleston’s Center for the Study of Slavery (CSSC), leads a discussion with Maya Wolfe-Robinson, editor of Cotton Capital, Lauren N. Williams, deputy editor for race and equity at The Guardian US, and award-winning journalist and professor Gary Younge, as they describe their work on Cotton Capital that spans from Manchester to Jamaica, the US, Nigeria and Brazil, and back to the UK. Taking place on the sacred ground of the International African American Museum, the panel will explore the legacy and continued impact of transatlantic slavery.

In association with the International African American Museum and The Guardian newspaper

C O V E R S AT I O N S

GARY YOUNGE with Kerri Forrest

SUNDAY, NOV. 12

IDEAS

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, Rundell, scholar, nature writer and roof-walker, brings John Donne alive.

6 p.m.–7 p.m.

BOOKS

$25 / Dock Street Theatre

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2023 I N DI V I DUA L A N D FA M I LY C ON T R I BU T OR S PRINCIPAL SPONSORS

PREMIER SPONSORS

FESTIVAL SPONSORS

Judy and Bernard Cornwell Geraldine and Walter Fiederowicz

Almeida Foundation Kamal Ayyildiz Butter and Balint Birkas Margie and Dick Bondy June Bradham Kathleen Brady and Bruce Lydiard Margi and Bill Brenizer Christina and Ernst Bruderer Jennifer Chestnut Comer Tanny Crane and John Wolff Kathleen Cudahy Anne Dibble Sheila and Paul Galvani Belinda Gergel Ruthann Granito Barbara and Richard Hagerty Elizabeth Hall Dr. Elizabeth Harden and Dr. Richard Hoefer Elizabeth Hazard and Ted Dintersmith Beth and Bill Hobbs Michael Johnson Anne and Dick Keigher Ellis Keim and Matt Sisto Donald E. King Cindy and Tim Mabry Martha Rhodes McLendon Ann and Jerrold Mitchell Nan and Tom Morrison Ronda Muir Nancy Noyes Kathleen Parramore Dr. and Mrs. Samuel Peretsman Dr. Jeannelle Perkins-Muhammad, LMFTS Ann and Scott Perper Dr. Linda Plunkett and Mr. Ron Plunkett Susu Ravenel and Robert Kirby Debbie and Jay Robison Nedenia Rumbough Monica M. and Kenneth T. Seeger Sally Self Susan Simons and John Hagerty Alison Spear and Alex Reese Anne and Ken Tidwell Anne Tinker and John Henderson Jacqueline and Richard Trezza Cindy and Richard Urquhart Ellen and Chris White Ann and Fred Willis

Dr. Renee D. and Mr. Ivan V. Anderson Lyn and Paul Attaway Charlotte Beers Joan Robinson Berry and Chris Berry Drs. Anne and Bo Blessing Mrs. Patricia Bliss Leilani Brown, LLC Cynthia Chace Frederick and Patricia Supper Foundation Katherine Ford Caroline Forgason Elizabeth Hancock Deb Isaacs Lucinda and Benjamin Lenhardt, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Brian V. S. McKenna Laura and Bruce Monrad Emily Morrison Dee Myers Elizabeth and George Peper Tyler Rollins Tara Shannon Cleary Simpson Teri Siskind Darlene Shaw Susu and Henry Smythe Suzanne Togna and David Haythe Asha and Ravi Veeraswamy Barbara Wind Victor C. Young

SUSTAINING SPONSORS Summer and Clyde Anderson Ala and Ralph Isham Leigh and John McNairy Pallotta Family Foundation Thomas F. Taft Sr. and Kathleen Parramore

EXECUTIVE SPONSORS 20 South Battery and Dr. Jack Schaeffer Kay Bachmann Martha and Orton Jackson Deborah Kennedy Kennard and William Kennard Mrs. Peter Manigault Pat and James Marino Dr. Ann Maners and Dr. Alex Pappas The McCausland Foundation, Bonnie and Peter McCausland Wenda Harris Millard and Jay Millard Richard Wilson and David Trachtenberg

SENIOR SPONSORS

2 0 2 3 C H A R L E S T O N L I T E R A R Y F E S T I VA L

William Lee Bell and Fotios Pantazis Sam Easley and Jason Owen Carol and Roch Hillenbrand Russell Holliday Vickie and Pete Neighbour Peter R. and Cynthia K. Kellogg Foundation

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PARTNER SPONSORS Martie and David Adams Bessent-Freeman Family Foundation Marion and Wayland H. Cato, Jr. E. Vernon Glenn The Hubbell Difference Foundation Mrs. James C. Kellogg Sigrid and Mike Laughlin Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Levy Dr. Kim Cliett Long and Dr. Jonathan Green Caroline and Jerry Millbank Mills Bee Lane Memorial Foundation Laura and Klaus Said Peggy and Brian White

FRIENDS OF CLF Jasmine Burns Deborah Gage

SP ONSOR S & PA RT N E R S

BOOKS

IDEAS

C O V E R S AT I O N S

Thank you to our sponsors and supporters.

Without you, the festival would not be possible.

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Extraordinary Happens Here

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