Stephanie Edwards Coffman

After pursuing the bright lights of New York City and Hollywood, Stephanie Edwards Coffman returned to the land of live oaks and Spanish moss. She’d worked among such stars as Michael Jackson and Liza Minnelli, first as a dancer and later as a costumer. Back in Beaufort, she traded sequin and satin for paper and pens and set her sights on conquering a new occupation: that of published writer.

A social creature by nature, and realizing this adventure would be more fun (and perhaps more productive) if others joined her, she ran an ad in the local paper announcing the formation of a writers’ group. She interviewed prospects by phone, determined to select only those who were serious about becoming writers. Had they begun writing? Did they have any work to share? A handful of paragraphs was enough to qualify for admission.

The group convened in her living room on Elliot Street. At first, they drew slips of paper with random topics on which they would free write for a few minutes before reading aloud what they’d written. Their paragraphs grew to be pages, and their pages became chapters.

Stephanie had attended the same high school as Beaufort’s most celebrated writer, Pat Conroy. Though she never invited Conroy to a writers’ group meeting (it was for early writers, she stressed, not famous ones) she did consult with him. “Writers’ groups have some of the meanest people I’ve ever met,” he told her. “You gotta keep an edge on that.”  

Consequently, Stephanie ran a tight ship, making it a requirement that everyone read—there was no sitting on the sidelines and critiquing without taking a turn at bat. She insisted on RSVPs prior to each meeting, kept readings to ten minutes or less, and limited subsequent critiques to two minutes each.

Her group of nascent writers outgrew the cozy cottage on Elliot Street. For a while they met at the Beaufort County Airport on Sea Island Parkway and the fellowship hall at the Lutheran Church on Lady’s Island. Regardless the location, they cheered each other on—nurturing talent, stiffening resolve, and building confidence.

When the greater Beaufort community celebrated Pat Conroy’s 70th birthday in 2015 with a literary festival, Stephanie was invited to sit on one of the panels—at a time when her debut novel, What We Set in Motion, was about to go to press. Sadly, the festive mood soon changed when Conroy was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the following January; he passed away in March 2016.

Conroy’s passing promptly led to the formation of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, of which Stephanie was one of the very first volunteers. Like Stephanie’s writers’ group, the Pat Conroy Literary Center cast about for a while looking for the ideal home—from a snug (i.e., tiny) space on Charles Street to a sun-filled space on Port Republic—until a capital campaign made it possible for the Center to establish a permanent home at 601 Bladen Street in 2021. Executive Director Jonathan Haupt, citing the Center’s mission to provide a welcoming space for literary engagement, invited Stephanie to house her writers’ group there.

Today, twenty-three years later, more than three dozen writers have participated in Lowcountry WritersWorkshop, which now also serves as the Beaufort chapter of the statewide South Carolina Writers Association. Writers at various stages in their careers have seen their work—articles, essays, memoirs, and novels—published via local media and in book form, some through self-publishing, others throughtraditional publishing contracts.

On November 12, many members of the writers’ group, past and present, celebrated Stephanie with a reception at the Pat Conroy Literary Center. Members raised $1,500 in her honor, as a donation to the nonprofit Conroy Center, with funds to be used in support the Camp Conroy summer camp for young writers and artists, a program in which Stephanie has been a guest instructor for many years.

To learn more about the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, please visit www.patconroyliterarycenter.org.