My literary bucket list: the pat conroy literary center

I’ve known I wanted to be a writer since I was seven years old, and I read Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides when I was 10. Standing at a podium in the Pat Conroy Literary Center in Beaufort, South Carolina, talking about story and history—and sitting at his desk to sign copies of my own novel? I’m not sure I can adequately describe how it made me feel, and I’m supposed to have the words.

The best I can do is “thank you.” Thank you to the Pat Conroy Literary Center—a place whose heart and intention makes it feel to any visitor like you’ve stepped into your best, oldest, favorite friend’s house—to the board, especially Ginger Olszewski, who gave me such a lovely welcome. To Bruce Page of the Beaufort Bookstore for selling The Miniaturist’s Assistant at the event (and for the fun conversation).

To Executive Director Jonathan Haupt for so much: inviting me into Pat’s world, showing me around, and talking to me of books and writing and the coolest high school kids on earth.

And, of course, my eternal thanks to the crowd who came and welcomed The Miniaturist’s Assistant and me with funny, insightful questions—and who took my family (especially my precocious daughters) as their own for the night. You’re why I get to do this.

The Pat Conroy Literary Center is an infinitely special place in an uncommon town. Do not visit historic Beaufort, South Carolina without stopping in to say, “Tell me a story.”