The Pat Conroy Literary Center will host the first Lowcountry Book Club Convention on Friday, December 15, in MacLean Hall (bldg. 12) on the Technical College of the Lowcountry's Ribaut Road campus. An all-day event, 10:00 am 4:30 pm, this will be an opportunity for book club members - €”or anyone interested in joining or forming a book club - €”to meet, mingle, and exchange ideas about fostering, inspiring, and sustaining a community of fellow book lovers.

Lowcountry Weekly is pleased to announce the winners of the 3rd Annual Sea Island Spirit Writers Short Story Contest. Participation was even better this year than last! The writers were asked to respond to the prompt '€œSeven Times'€ in 750 words or less. There were so many great stories, we'€™re glad the Sea Island Spirit Writers served as judges, not us. Those judges were: Donna Armer, Katherine Tandy Brown, Emily Davis-Fletcher, Virginia Hall-Apicella, and Jacqueline Markham.

The Pat Conroy Literary Center opened its doors to the public in October 2016 during the first annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival. Following a year of robust educational programming in and beyond the Center'€™s home in Beaufort, SC, the American Library Association (ALA) has honored the literary center with a national recognition. At an October 20th reception held during the second annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, executive director Jonathan Haupt announced that the literary center was newly designated as an ALA United for Libraries Literary Landmark, only the second in the state of South Carolina.