The Pat Conroy Literary Center Book Club has been reading and discussing all twelve of Pat Conroy’s memoirs and novels in order of publication. The twelfth Conroy Center Book Club meeting will be led by the Beaufort chapter of the Pulpwood Queens, the largest book club in the U.S., as they discuss the posthumously published A Lowcountry Heart (2016). To be held at the Pat Conroy Literary Center at 905 Port Republic St. on Tuesday, March 24, at 5:30 p.m., this special event is free and open to the public.
A keepsake volume of Pat Conroy’s nonfiction, A Lowcountry Heart brings together some of Conroy’s interviews, magazine articles, speeches, and letters from his long literary career, many of them addressed directly to his readers with his habitual greeting, “Hey, out there.” Ranging across diverse subjects, such as favorite recent reads, the challenge of staying motivated to exercise, and processing the loss of dear friends, Conroy’s eminently memorable pieces offer a unique window into the life of a true titan of Southern writing.
Since many of the pieces in the collection were written as blog posts—or as “letters to my readers,” as Conroy thought of them—it is all the more appropriate for a group of those readers to lead the twelfth discussion of the Conroy Center’s monthly book club. Formed by Conroy Center volunteer Char M. Lane, the Beaufort chapter of the Pulpwood Queens began in late 2019, inspired by Pulpwood Queens founder Kathy L. Murphy’s appearance at the Conroy Center’s annual Lowcountry Book Club Convention. The chapter meets monthly at the Conroy Center.
