Andrew K. Clark

The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an evening with debut novelist Andrew K. Clark, author of Where Dark Things Grow, in conversation with retired FBI Special Agent Dana Ridenour, author of the Lexie Montgomery Series, on Friday, December 13, at 5:00 p.m., at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St., Beaufort). Books will be available for sale and signing. Seating is limited: please reserve in advance to attend this free author event: 843-379-7025.

About the Book and the Author:

“As haunting as all fireside stories should be. Where Dark Things Grow will make you sleep with the lights on.”—Jason Mott, National Book Award-winning  author of Hell of a Book

Fifteen-year-old Leo is watching the world crumble. His father is missing, and his mother is slipping into madness as she cares for Leo, his sick sister Goldfish, and two useless brothers. Relatives are no help, and the church folk have turned their backs in the middle of the Great Depression.

When he discovers an enchanted wulver from ancient folklore that will do his bidding, he decides to settle old scores. Revenge is sweet, but Leo soon learns he can’t control what he’s unleashed. It takes his spitfire best friend Lilyfax to help Leo overcome his anger and try to escape the wulver’s evil. As they search for his father, Leo, Lilyfax, and friends are pursued by dark forces and pulled into a rescue effort to find and save trafficked girls rumored to have been taken by the mysterious Blue Man.

Featuring elements of horror, folklore, and magical realism, Where Dark Things Grow is a dark bildungsroman set squarely in the place and culture of the 1930s Southern Appalachian Mountains.

Andrew K. Clark is a writer from Alexander, North Carolina, outside of Asheville where he now resides. His first full-length collection of poetry, Jesus in the Trailer, was short-listed for the Able Muse Book Award. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in UCLA’s Out of Anonymity, Coffin Bell Journal, The Journal of American Poetry, Appalachian Review, Rappahannock Review, fall/lines, The Wrath Bearing Tree and many others. Clark earned his B.A. in English and M.B.A. from Georgia Southern University, and an M.F.A. from Converse College.

Learn more about the Pat Conroy Literary Center at www.patconroyliterarycenter.org.