Amaker
The South Carolina Academy of Authors (SCAA), in partnership with the Pat Conroy Literary Center, will hold its biennial induction weekend in Beaufort County this May 3-5.
The SCAA selects new inductees whose works have been judged culturally important. Each inductee, whether living or deceased, has added to South Carolina’s literary legacy by earning notable scholarly attention or achieving historical prominence. Including this year’s induction, the SCAA, founded in 1986, will have officially inducted more than 100 authors into its literary hall of fame. This year’s honorees are Marcus Amaker, William P. Baldwin, Harlan Greene, and the late Ann Head.
The induction weekend features a robust schedule of free and ticketed events in Beaufort County, the highlight of which is the South Carolina Literary Hall of Fame ceremony and dinner on Saturday, May 4, from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Beaufort Holiday Inn & Suites Conference Center. Dinner registration is $55/person. Additionally, author presentations will be held at the Beaufort County Main Branch Library and Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort. A reading by the winners of the SCAA’s fellowships in poetry and prose will be held at the Rhett House Inn, also in Beaufort.
For a complete schedule of events, May 3-5, and to register in advance, visit: https://scaa2024inductionweekend.eventbrite.com.
Greene
ABOUT THE HONOREES
Marcus Amaker served as the first Poet Laureate of Charleston from 2016 to 2022. In 2019, he was honored with a Governor’s Arts award in South Carolina and was named the artist-in-residence of the Gaillard Center, a world-renowned performance and education venue. His tenth book is Hold What Makes You Whole, from Free Verse Press.
Lowcountry native William P. Baldwin is being recognized for his work in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. His best-known novel, The Hard to Catch Mercy, was awarded the Lillian Smith Book Award. Most recently, he has published The Unpainted South: Carolina’s Vanishing World, a collection of songs, photographs, and poems, as well as the novel Charles Town.
Harlan Greene has written both fiction and nonfiction, with a focus on Charleston. As an archivist and historian, he has worked to save and interpret the literary heritage of the state. His most recent work, The Real Rainbow Row: Explorations in Charleston’s LGBTQ History was published in 2022. He won the Lambda Literary Award for his 1991 novel What the Dead Remember.
The SCAA recognizes authors both living and deceased, and, this year, will be posthumously celebrating fiction writer Ann Head (1915-1968). She published several novels as well as over 50 short stories and novelettes in major magazines both here and abroad. Her most famous, Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones, was made into a TV movie and stayed in print for four decades. Head was also the first creative writing mentor to Pat Conroy (1945-2016), who was himself inducted into the literary hall of fame in 1988.
To learn more about the SC Academy of Authors, please visit www.scacademyofauthors.com.
