The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center’s monthly Open Mic Night will be held at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.) on Thursday, August 14, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. The featured novelist will be Michael Spake, author of Life Close to the Bone. Open Mic will also feature short readings of 3 to 5 minutes each by local writers in many genres.
The program is free to attend and will be live-streamed on the Conroy Center’s Facebook page. Writers interested in reading from their work during Open Mic should contact the Conroy Center in advance to sign up: contact@patconroyliterarycenter.org.
About the Featured Writer
Michael Spake is the author of Life Close to the Bone, his debut
Michael Spake
novel exploring the intricate layers of the past and the challenge of connecting them to the present. Inspired by his experience playing junior tennis in South Carolina and his career as a healthcare attorney, the novel delves into themes of memory, heritage, and personal transformation. Michael has published short stories in Well Read Magazine’s Best of 2023 and 2024, capturing the culture and history of his hometown, Anderson, SC. Michael graduated from The Citadel in 1994 where he received theGranville T. Prior Award for his exploration of Christian Mysticism in the works of T.S. Eliot. Michael lives in Lakeland, Florida with his wife Mary Lucia Spake. Together they have four children: Henry, Mary Clare, Kathryn, and Vivian.
“In Life Close to the Bone, debut novelist Michael Spake skillfully explores the complexity of the past and the impossibility of ever escaping its impact on the present. As protagonist John Greenburn, a former tennis star turned pharmaceutical ethics attorney, struggles to uncover the potential danger of a new drug, he is drawn back into a past that threatens to undermine all he’s worked to achieve. Despite his reluctance to revisit old traumas, John’s only hope for redemption is to face headlong the long-buried demons he has yet to acknowledge. Ultimately, John’s journey in connecting the past to the present belongs to all of us.”–Cassandra King, author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy
To learn more about the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, please visit www.patconroyliterarycenter.org.
